With the Tejas fighter jets, which were created as part of the LCA program, the Indian Air Force is gradually disbanding the Mig 21 squadron.
On Saturday, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) released images of Prime Minister Narendra Modi flying a Tejas fighter plane at the company’s Bengaluru, Karnataka, facility.
The Tejas light combat aircraft was built mainly to replace the Indian Air Force’s outdated squadron of MiG 21 fighter jets. A deal was signed by the Indian Air Force and the Ministry of Defence with HAL to build and acquire 324 Tejas aircraft, including all of its variants.
Five things to know about HAL Tejas aircraft
Tejas is a single-engine fighter jet manufactured in India that was created during the 1980s as part of the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) program. It is a light multirole fighter with delta wings.
The pride of the Indian Air Force, Tejas is a supersonic combat aircraft that is the lightest and smallest of its class. There is demand for it abroad as well. The US recently inked a pact with the HAL to manufacture Mark II Tejas aircraft jointly.
The Indian Air Force is gradually replacing its aging MiG 21 squadron—dubbed the “flying coffin” because of the high incidence of pilot fatalities—with locally produced Tejas.
Tejas is better than other fighters in its class since it can perform air-to-air refueling (AAR), has an Electronic Warfare (EW) suite, and an Active Electronically-Scanned Array (AESA) radar.
Tejas is a fully missile-capable fighter with the ability to launch Beyond Visual Range missiles and air-to-ground weapons with fast reload times.
