Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a flight on the Tejas, a domestically built light combat fighter aircraft, in Bengaluru. During his visit to the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), a defense PSU based in Bengaluru, he also reviewed the ongoing work at its manufacturing facility. Prime Minister Modi expressed his confidence in India’s indigenous capabilities and his pride in the country’s potential after completing the sortie on the Tejas. The Tejas is a single-seater fighter aircraft, but the Prime Minister flew in the twin-seat trainer variant operated by the Air Force and Navy.
The Tejas is a 4.5-generation multi-role fighter aircraft designed for offensive air support and close combat operations. The Indian Air Force currently has 40 Tejas MK-1 aircraft in operation, and they have ordered 83 Tejas MK-1A fighters in a deal worth Rs 36,468 crore. The Tejas was developed by HAL and features a home-built fly-by-wire system, which is a significant achievement for the company.
The addition of the twin-seater variant to the Air Force’s fleet places India among the elite group of countries with such capabilities in their defense forces. HAL has an order for 18 twin-seaters from the Air Force, with eight expected to be delivered by 2023-24 and the remaining 10 to be delivered progressively by 2026-27.
During Prime Minister Modi’s visit to the US, an agreement was signed between India, HAL, and General Electric (GE) to manufacture the F414 fighter engines for the advanced Tejas Mark 2 variant. This agreement marks a significant step forward in the development of the Tejas program.
The Indian Air Force currently operates two squadrons of the Tejas – No. 45 Squadron, known as the “Flying Daggers,” and No. 18 Squadron, known as the “Flying Bullets.” The Air Force plans to replace its aging MiG-21 aircraft with the Tejas Mark 1A by 2025. The LCA program, which began in the late 1980s, aims to replace the MiG-21s that have been in service since 1963.
