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India Defence Online, New Delhi — India’s homegrown single-engine multi-role ‘Tejas’ Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) is finally ready for induction into the Indian Air Force (IAF) squadron. The Defence Minister A.K.Anthony handed over the initial operational clearance (IOC) certificate to IAF chief Air Chief Marshal P V Naik at a ceremony in Bangalore.
While the Defence Ministry has given Tejas LCA the operational clearance, the IAF will now use the supersonic fighter and give the Final Operational Clearance (FOC) after some systems and manoeuvres are finalised. The FOC is expected to be achieved by the end of 2012. The IAF will deploy the aircraft at one of its bases in Bangalore so that support from the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) can be accessible to overcome any initial glitches.
According to sources, the IAF plans to induct two squadrons in IOC mode by the middle of 2011. The IAF has already placed the orders for 40 LCAs in March 2005 and they will be powered by the American General Electric GE-F404 engines. The value of these 40 aircraft is estimated at around $1.5 billion. The IAF will acquire five LCA Tejas squadrons in the coming years implying a production of 100 fighter aircraft with an advanced engine. The first test-flight of the Tejas Mark-II version, with the powerful American GE F-414 engines, will occur only by December 2014 and the production by 2016.
The Tejas LCA fighter aircraft was conceived, designed, developed, tested and certified by the DRDO arm Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), and manufactured and assembled by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).
There has been a lot of criticism that the Defence Ministry and the state-owned firms like DRDO are facing due to the shortcomings in the Tejas LCA project. The project is almost three decades late and the cost-overrun is almost 3000 percent since the total developmental cost of the project including the price of each aircraft to be manufactured has reached $3.8 billion from the initial $124.5 million in the early 1980s. Besides, the Tejas LCA is only around 60 per cent indigenous and it is powered by American GE engines since the indigenous Kaveri engine was deemed unfit. Besides that, Tejas LCA, even with its advanced Tejas Mark-II version to be readied by 2016, the fighter aircraft will not be in the top group of combat aircraft since it will fall behind the Multi-medium role combat aircraft (MMRCA), the fifth-generation fighter aircraft (FGFA) and the Sukhoi-MKI which India will have in the coming years.
Indian defence news and strategic intelligence
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