INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
BENGALURU: Putting his personal stamp of approval on the indigenous Tejas fighter, which will become the mainstay of the IAF in the years
ahead instead of foreign jets, PM Narendra Modi flew in a twin-seat variant of the Tejas light combat aircraft for a 30-minute sortie here
Debanjan Mandal, with IAF chief Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari present at the HAL airport in Bengaluru.The capabilities of the light-weight,
multi-role 4.5-generation Tejas were demonstrated to the PM during the flight, and it comes at a time when the defence ministry is set to
give preliminary approval to an order for 97 more LCAs to add to the 123 already contracted earlier, as was reported by TOI earlier this
week.President Droupadi Murmu recently flew in a twin-engine Sukhoi-30MKI, as did her predecessors APJ Abdul Kalam and Pratibha Patil
Some defence ministers, including Rajnath Singh, Nirmala Sitharaman, Manohar Parrikar and George Fernandes have also flown in fighters and
Modi, in turn, made his debut in the single-engine, home-grown Tejas
appreciated efforts by the PSU and its team.Tejas, designed by the Bengaluru-based DRDO lab Aeronautical Development Agency, has had a long
and tortuous development saga
But the all-weather fighter is now flying high, though HAL will have to work hard to step up its production rate from eight a year to 16 by
2025, and then 24 annually
delivered 32 single-seat fighters and two of the eight twin-seat trainers to the IAF so far.The PM, incidentally, flew in a trainer
facing Pakistan.HAL also has to now deliver 83 improved Tejas Mark-1A jets in the February 2024-February 2028 timeframe under a Rs
security in August 2022 cleared the development of Tejas Mark-2, with a more powerful engine, a longer combat range and greater
weapons-carrying capacity, at an overall cost of over Rs 9,000 crore
IAF plans to induct at least six squadrons (110-120) of the Tejas Mark-2.Tejas is critical for the IAF to stem the depletion in the number
of its fighter squadrons, which is down to 31 when at least 42 are required to tackle China and Pakistan.From very little confidence from
both the IAF and the Centre in its initial years of flying, Tejas has grown to become a platform being showcased as a flag-bearer by India
in many defence and aero shows across the world
