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| Tejas Fighter |
The Light Combat Aircraft TEJAS, indigenously-designed by Aircraft Development Agency under the Defence Research and Development Organisation, is slowly entering squadron service.In the hype over Wednesday’s arrival of the primary lot of 5 French-built Rafale fighter , it had been easy to lose sight of the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) ‘TEJAS’ which, after years of development delays, is slowly entering squadron service.
What has become of the order for the 83 TEJAS Mark-1A variants that the air force was to put with the general public sector Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) officials told indiatoday.in that the order is probably going to be confirmed “before December 2020”. Earlier this year, after months of negotiations, HAL and therefore the IAF finally agreed on a tag of Rs 39,000 crore for the 83 aircraft (73 fighter jets and 10 two-seat trainer variants). HAL officials attributed the delay to many outstanding issues, particularly variety of queries associated with ‘additional requirements through contract’. “All queries have now been answered and therefore the case is under approval,” a HAL official said.
The next phase in the contract would be approval by the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), India’s topmost national security decision making body. This will be followed by a proper inking of the contract between HAL and therefore the IAF. Delivery of the Mark 1As will start within three years of the contract being signed and can conclude with all aircraft delivered in five years.
The IAF spent Rs 59,000 crore to shop for the 36 Rafale fighter jets. While it greatly enhances the IAF’s combat potential and also contributes offsets, sourced from the Indian industry, to the tune of nearly Rs 30,000 crore, the indigenous TEJAS will have a much bigger force multiplier effect on an Indian industry reeling under the impact of the lockdown and economic downturn. More importantly, it's an enormous step towards creating a multi-tiered defence industrial ecosystem.
Five major private sector players—Larsen & Toubro, VEM Technologies, Alpha Tocol, Tata Advanced Materials and Dynamatic Technologies--are manufacturing the fuselages, wings, tail fins and rudders of the TEJASs. These are being assembled by HAL at its twin production lines in Bangalore.
“A Rs 39,000 crore order will have a force multiplier effect of nearly seven or eight times on the economy--jobs are going to be created, work are going to be outsourced, there's going to be an incredible downstream effect on Tier 2 and Tier 3 manufacturing within the high-tech defence aviation sector,” an HAL official said.
The IAF currently operates one squadron of the 16 ‘Mark 1’ baseline TEJAS variants at its airbase in Sulur, Coimbatore. On May 27, the IAF operationalised the second squadron of the TEJAS. Number 18 squadron will get its entire 15 final operation configuration (FOC) aircraft by September 2021. These are part of an order for 40 TEJASs that were placed in two tranches in 2006 and 2010. All deliveries will be completed in 2022.
HAL is building a 3rd TEJAS assembly line , to be found out this November, and this may roll out the two-seat trainer variants of the jet. The line will build a complete of 18 TEJAS trainers which will commence deliveries from November 2021 onwards (8 are a part of the 40 jets order, and 10 part of the 83 jets order).
After a 2017 presentation by then IAF chief Air Chief Marshal B.S. Dhanoa, the govt had committed to purchasing 18 squadrons of the TEJAS and its variants—over 300 aircraft over subsequent 15 years. IAF officials say the TEJAS family fits into their plans to reduce existing diversity of fighter aircraft to just four types by 2035—the other three will be the Sukhois, Rafales and Mirage-2000s.
Source: India Today
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