PM Modi completes sortie in Tejas trainer aircraft, first PM to fly in LCA
BENGALURU: PM Narendra Modi on Saturday successfully completed a sortie on Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas’ trainer variant, at a time, the defence minister-led defence acquisition council is expected to consider giving preliminary nod for the procurement of 97 more Tejas fighters.
“…The experience was incredibly enriching, significantly bolstering my confidence in our country’s indigenous capabilities, and leaving me with a renewed sense of pride and optimism about our national potential,” said PM Modi, who became the first PM to fly in the Tejas.
The PM also visited the Tejas hangar at Defence PSU Hindustan Aeronautics Limited’s (HAL) Bangalore Complex and appreciated the efforts by the PSU and its team.
Tejas is a homegrown indigenous aircraft designed and developed by the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), a Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) lab in Bengaluru and manufactured by HAL, headquartered in Bengaluru.
So far, HAL has orders for 40 LCA-Mk1, of which seven were to be trainer aircraft. The PSU has delivered 33 single-seat fighters, while the first of the twin-seat trainer variants was handed over to the Indian Air Force (IAF) in October this year. It has to deliver six more trainers and 83 LCA-Mk1A variant aircraft, for which orders worth Rs 8,802 crore have been placed already.
The Tejas twin-seater is a light weight, all-weather multi-role 4.5 generation aircraft designed to support the training requirements of the IAF and augment itself to the role of a fighter in case of necessity.
“It is an amalgamation of contemporary concepts and technologies such as relaxed static-stability, quadraplex fly-by-wire flight control, carefree manoeuvring, advanced glass cockpit, integrated digital avionics systems and advanced composite materials for the airframe,” HAL said.
It added that the production of the LCA twin-seater variant adds India to the list of very few elite countries who have created such a capability and have them operational in their defence forces.
Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari had said that IAF would be going forward to procure 97 more LCAs and with this it will have 220 LCAs in its inventory and TOI had reported earlier this week, defence minister the Rajanath Singh-led defence acquisition council is likely to take up the ‘acceptance of necessity’ (AON) for 97 more LCA-Mk1A aircraft.
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