Tejas Mk-1A carries out maiden flight but delivery to IAF delayed. Here’s why

Tejas Mk-1A carries out maiden flight but delivery to IAF delayed. Here’s why

New Delhi: The first aircraft of the Tejas Mk-1A series, LA 5033, took to the skies from the Hindustan Aeronautics limited (HAL) facility in Bengaluru Thursday, marking an important milestone for the fighter that the Indian Air Force (IAF) isdesperately waiting for.

The jet, a superior variant of the light combat aircraft (LCA) Tejas, was flown by chief test pilot, Group Capt K.K. Venugopal (Retd). “It was a successful sortie with a flying time of 18 minutes,” HAL said in a statement.

Contrary to expectations, the delivery of 83 Mk-1A aircraft to the IAF has been delayed by at least four months from now, if not more, ThePrint has learnt.

Sources in the defence and security establishment told ThePrint that while the delivery of the first aircraft itself has been delayed, the overall schedule will also be impacted due to “unavoidable reasons”.

According the contract for 73 Tejas Mk-1A and 10 trainer aircraft, inked on 1 February 2021, the first jet was to be delivered within three years of signing the deal.

This meant the delivery was to commence from 3 February this year and the entire process was to be completed in nine years. The timeline for the first delivery was then shifted to March.

“But the first flight happened today. The aircraft will undergo more trials and a feedback mechanism (is in place) before it is formally handed over to the IAF,” a source said.

Another source said the IAF had asked for certain software iterations (changes) along with smaller design shifts, besides a “few other changes”.

“All of this will take some more time as even minor changes take time,” the second source said, adding that certain certifications were pending. Asked when the IAF asked for those changes, the source said “recently”.

Sources told ThePrint that the delivery of a small but critical part of the aircraft that was bought from a European company had been delayed because of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, which they said was “unavoidable”.

“It is hoped the overall delivery will not be impacted beyond the initial few months,” another source added.

By next year, the remaining MiG-21 Bison squadrons will be phased out to make way for the new Tejas aircraft, particularly in locations that have decreased strength.

In 2021, ThePrnt reported that the focus was more on timely delivery.

The scepticism at that time was around how the Tejas programme had progressed over nearly four decades.

When the LCA programme was first initiated in 1983, the plan was to release the first aircraft by 1994. But the prototype of the LCA flew only in 2001 — 18 years after the project started.

In December 2013, Tejas got initial operational clearance and in 2019, the IAF was given the first aircraft with final clearance.

Initially, there were no plans to have an Mk-1A version but the variant was born through a compromise reached with the IAF in 2015 when Manohar Parrikar was the defence minister.

The original plan was to go straight for a Tejas Mk-2, but this meant structural changes to the fighter, which would take more time. Instead, the IAF decided to go in for Mk-1A with four major improvements.

The Tejas Mk-1A will have an advanced electronic radar, warfare communication systems, additional combat capability with Beyond Visual Range Missiles and improved maintenance features.

The IAF is looking at 97 more LCA Mk-1A aircraft.

(Edited by Tikli Basu)