Thirty two long years after it was conceived, India on Saturday finally got its first indigenously-built Tejas light Combat Aircraft (lCA) that will replace the ageing frontline MiG-21s of the Indian Air Force (IAF). Away from any media glare, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar handed over the documents of the India-made aircraft to IAF chief Arup Raha, thus initiating the process of inductions of the domestically-made fighter aircrafts that is expected to cost Rs30,000 crore.
Describing the handover as one of the major milestones in the history of the company, HAl chairman RK Tyagi said 60 per cent indigenisation in this lCA project has been achieved so far. He said HAl will produce six aircraft next year (2015-16) and subsequently, scale it up to eight and 16 aircrafts per year. As per plans, 20 aircrafts will be built by 2017-2018, to make the first squadron of the aircraft. Tejas is a 4.5th generation aircraft that is lighter in weight with greater agility and manoeuvrability and would increase IAF’s air power.
Initiated way back in 1983 envisaging a cost of Rs560 crore to replace the ageing MiG-21s, the lCA project of DRDO and Hindustan Aeronautics limited (HAl) has so far cost Rs8,000 crore to the exchequer and has been marred by repeated missing of deadlines. The aircraft that has been handed over has got Initial Operational Clearance-II, which signifies that Tejas is airworthy in different conditions.
The Final Operational Clearance (FOC) is expected by the year-end. This version of the aircraft lacks the latest electronic warfare suite, which was integrated into one of the lCAs two weeks ago, mid-air refuelling and long-range missiles capabilities, among other things that the FOC-configuration aircraft will have. The IOC-I was granted to the aircraft, being built by HAl, in January 2011. The second IOC was granted after the aircraft successfully completed its maiden flight on September 30 last year.
Sources quoted Parrikar as saying that thrust should be given on research and technology by exploiting the existing knowledge base which companies like HAl have. “One does not achieve everything overnight. However, by modifying our work culture and by adopting better technology and tools, we can achieve better results,” sources quoted him.
Raha said lCA is the need of the hour, given the operational needs of IAF. “We are happy to receive the documents of the first series production of lCA.” HAl’s lCA Project Group has been upgraded to a full-fledged division to look after production in a systematic way with more investments. HAl has carried out thousands of sorties of the lCA and outstation flight trials at leh, Jamnagar, Jaisalmer, Uttarlai, Gwalior, Pathankot and Goa for cold weather, armament and weapon deliveries, Multi Mode Radar (MMR), Radar Warning Receiver (RWR), hot weather and missile firing flight trials.
Tejas has also successfully demonstrated weapon delivery capability during trials at Jamnagar and Jaisalmer, HAl officials said. The naval variant of lCA is also under development and last month it did its first flight from the Shore Based Test Facility (SBTF) at Goa.