India's Light Combat Aircraft, Tejas, handed over to Indian Air Force by Defence Minister A K Antony after Initial Operational Clearance in Bangalore. This catapults India to a select club of nations that built a fighter plane from scratch.
After giving Clearance to the first squadron of Tejas, Mr. Antony said that this is a momentus occasion for India to build its own multi-role combat aircraft.
Thanking the entire Tejas team and other agencies for the success of the project, the Defence Minister said that 20 Tejas aircraft will be inducted into Air Force by the end of this year. He said, the military aviation project has been given a major thrust in the recent past as the country is gearing up to build the 5th generation fighter aircraft and modern transport planes.
Mr. Antony said, most modern equipment will be provided to the Defence forces at the earliest as our aim is to achieve self reliance in the field of cutting edge technology.
HAL will continue to upgrade the indigenous fighter as the Indian Air Force plans to induct close to 200 LCAs and 20 twin seater trainer versions in the long run. The historic first squadron will be stationed at Sulur near Coimbatore.
The second LCA squadron will be stationed at Kayathir near Tuticorin, where the IAF is developing a new fighter base. The mark II version of the LCA with a more powerful engine, better aerodynamics and advance avionics is also under development. The naval version of the LCA, to be used in aircraft carriers, is also under development.
What is HAL Tejas?
The HAL Tejas ("Radiant") is a smallest, lightweight and multirole jet fighter developed by India. It is a tailless, compound delta wing design powered by a single engine. Originally known as the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) - a designation which continues in popular usage - the aircraft was officially named "Tejas" by then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Tejas has delta wing configuration and with no tailplanes or foreplanes features a single vertical fin. It is constructed of aluminum-lithium alloys, carbon-fiber composites, and titanium. Tejas integrates modern design concepts and the state-of-art technologies such as relaxed static stability, flyby-wire Flight Control System, Advanced Digital Cockpit, Multi-Mode Radar, Integrated Digital Avionics System, Advanced Composite Material Structures and a Flat Rated Engine.
The Tejas design has been configured to match the demands of modern combat scenario such as speed, acceleration, maneuverability and agility. Short takeoff and landing, excellent flight performance, safety, reliability and maintainability, are salient features of Tejas design. The Tejas integrates modern design concepts like static instability, digital fly-by-wire flight control system, integrated avionics, glass cockpit, primary composite structure, multi-mode radar, microprocessor based utility and brake management systems.
The IAF is reported to have a requirement for 200 single-seat and 20 two-seat conversion trainers, while the Indian Navy may order up to 40 single-seaters to replace its Sea Harrier FRS.51 and Harrier T.60. During its sea level flight trials off Goa, Tejas notched a speed of over 1,350 km per hour, thus becoming the second supersonic fighter manufactured indigenously by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited after the HAL Marut.
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