HAL Tejas Mk-1A fighter jets: The Indian Air Force had raised worries earlier because of the Tejas Mark 1A jets were not coming on time. At the NDTV Defence Summit, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said, “Hopefully, the first two of those will be delivered with weapons integration by the end of September,” PTI reported. Currently around 38 Tejas jets are already flying in service and almost 80 more are being built.
Back in February 2021, the Defence Ministry signed a big deal of ₹48,000 crore with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) to buy 83 Tejas Mk-1A jets. But HAL could not deliver the jets as per schedule because GE Aerospace from the United States missed many deadlines in supplying the aero engines that are needed to power the aircraft.
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New Order of more Jets
Last week, the government gave approval for buying 97 more Tejas fighters at a cost of about ₹67,000 crore. Singh made it very clear about this new contract and said, “I have made it clear to HAL that we will sign this contract only after HAL delivers two Tejas featuring a complete package.”
He also explained that once HAL delivers, “HAL will have an order book for four to five years.”
Singh also shared his hopes for the fighter and said, “Hopefully, they (HAL) will be able to perfect this platform, integrate the radar and Indian weapons, so that it becomes a workhorse for us along with the Sukhoi.” At the same time, he also admitted that India still has a shortage of fighters.
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He said, “There will still be a gap and for that gap we will have to look at some other options.” This gap is important because the Tejas Mk-1A is planned to replace the very old MiG-21 jets that the Air Force has been using for decades.
Importance of Tejas for Air Force
The Indian Air Force is facing a real challenge right now. It has only 31 fighter squadrons left, while the official sanctioned strength is 42. Because of this drop in squadron numbers, the Tejas jets are very important. The Tejas is a single-engine, multi-role fighter aircraft. It can take part in air defence, carry out strikes, and even perform maritime reconnaissance. It has been designed to work even in very high-threat battle situations.
