COMING OF AGE

Though it has a chequered past and critics talk of an uncertain future, the Tejas programme is moving forward slowly and steadily, write ARITRA BANERJEE and SHREYA MUNDHRA

- ARITRA BANERJEE and SHREYA MUNDHRA

India's Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas is in news. Reportedly, the government is planning to export Tejas with a package deal that I would include maintenance and spares for the nation's Russian-origin Su30 fighter jets.

The Tejas is an indigenously developed, single-engine, generation, high-agility, supersonic light combat aircraft. Tejas, meaning "radiance", is the first modern, indigenous Indian fighter aircraft. The state-owned defence and aerospace Hindustan Aeronautics fourth-multirole, company, Limited (HAL), made the jet for the Indian Air Force (IAF) and the Indian Navy (IN). Initially designed as a technology demonstrator, the LCA has sparked the development of multiple variants ranging from the LCA Tejas MK1, MK1A, MK2 (Medium Weight Fighter- MWF), and the Tejas naval variant.

Reportedly, HAL is also developing a variant of Tejas for use as a trainer aircraft for the pilots graduated from advance training. The project is called LIFT- an acronym for Lead-in-Fighter Trainer.

From tech demonstrator to modern fighter

Although the idea of the LCA Tejas MK1 was conceived in the mid-1980s, the aircraft entered the production line several years later. The MK1, introduced in the IAF in 2015, is a multi-role fighter jet. India has produced 37 of these aircraft as of 2020.