Bangalore, Jan 10: In a step closer to its induction into the Indian Air Force, the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) ‘Tejas’, India’s homegrown supersonic fighter jet, will get its Initial Operational Clearance on Monday.Replace MiG 21s and MiG 23s, was handed to the Air Force on Monday after initial operational clearanceThe Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), considered to be the world’s smallest military aircraft with a single seat, is among top eight aircraft in the world in technological design and performance terms.
Tejas, which was under development for nearly 28 years and beat US sanctions, achieved the significant milestone today when Defence Minister A K Antony gave the release to service certificate to Air Force chief Air Chief Marshal P V Naik.
Congratulating the Tejas team, Antony said: “A state of the art indigenous combat aircraft could go a long way in enhancing national security and pride of the nation towards building our own combat aircraft.”
Antony also said that the government has cleared the next lot of 20 series production aircrafts.
He also said that there is more scope of supplying more MK2 variants of Tejas to the Navy and the Air Force.
Meanwhile, Air Chief Marshal Naik said: “Tejas taking wing is a dream come true for all of us. It marks successful fusion of our R and D and scientific capabilities.”
He added that full operational clearance to the Tejas will be given in couple of years.
The handing over of the service certificate enables Indian Air Force fighter pilots to fly the LCA for final operational clearance by 2012.The LCA has been developed by the state-run Aeronautical Defence Agency (ADA) and manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) in Bangalore. The project was started in 1983 with a budget of Rs. 560 crore and was named ‘Tejas’ in 2004.
Source:www.indiatalkies.com.
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