In a significant development for our national security, the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) will deliver the first Light Combat Aircraft Tejas MK-1A in March 2024. under the Aatmanirbhar Bharat initiative.
HAL CMD R Madhavan said, “We have got an order last year during the Aero India show. After that we started working on that. We are supposed to deliver the first one in T0+36, inclusive of design.” The design activity is already going on and “by next year middle we plan to fly first prototype of this configuration. We are sure that we can finish the testing before the deadline,”.
The government had earlier placed an order to procure 83 LCA Tejas MK-1A aircraft for the Indian Air Force (IAF) worth Rs 47,000 crore to HAL. However, the aircraft that will be produced now will come with several enhancements from its previous variant.
As per reports, the new variant will be equipped with AESA radar, external self-protection jammer pods, advanced beyond-visual-range (BVR) missiles, and digital radar warning receivers missiles among others.
The IAF which was facing depleting squadrons with the prospect of facing a two-front war is in need of 42 squadrons to deal with the crisis. However, it only has around 32 squadrons with four squadrons set to retire in the next two years.
There is als0 a government tender that has floated for procurement of 114 Multirole Combat Aircraft as the new IAF chief, ACM VR Chaudhari had said that the project to induct 114 aircraft would be carried out under the Make in India project that will replace the fleets of Jaguars, Mirages and MiG-29s.
Expressing confidence, Madhavan said that “we are capable to deliver 15 helicopters within a year.” It is pertinent to mention here that the LCH was used in Ladakh last year amidst the ongoing border tension with the China’s PLA in the region. The chopper is fully tried and tested in extremely tough circumstances operating at over 16,000 feet with new weapon systems.
“This will be proven to be a very important successful product for us as well as to IAF and the Army. There is no helicopter as such of this kind with our armed forces. This is the first helicopter in the weight category and the capability we look at,” the HAL CMD said. He further added that since its a home-made system as and when IAF decides on any other weapon systems it can be easily and smoothly integrated on to the helicopter. “We are looking for an order of 150 plus,” he added.
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