With the successful flight of India’s elderly Prime Minister Nadrendra Modi in the indigenous LCA (Light Combat Aircraft) Tejas, the Indian media is celebrating a moment of national pride and a sign of the growing expertise in domestic defense production. This flight not only emphasizes the progress of Indian aviation technology, but also the country’s growing strategic autonomy and the backing of the top leadership’s confidence, officials say.
In fact, however, the Indian program for development, construction and introduction by the state-owned company Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has been dragging on since the first drafts from 1983 and has recently reinforced criticism of “India’s Byzantine processes”. The first flight took place only in 2001, after a long pursuit of an unsuitable indigenous Kaveri engine, which is now a marine turbine.
The Tejas is a single-engine, delta-winged light fighter jet (around ten centimetres smaller than the Gripen), which was originally intended to replace the ageing MiG-21 jets in the Indian Air Force. If this had taken place as planned, these crash-plagued “Russian classics” would have been retired a long time ago and not only retired from IAF service in 2025. India flies a logistically suboptimal mix of 272 Russian Su-30MKIs and Mirage-2000s, Dassault Rafále, MiG-29UPG and Jaguars. Parliament constantly emphasizes that instead of around 40 squadrons (18 each), there are only 29 and calls for the fleet to be replenished.
This was also to happen with the help of the Tejas, and so – despite changing governments – it was maintained unwaveringly. And since the induction of the first Mk.1 model into the IAF in 2016, the Tejas has become a symbol of India’s drive for self-reliance in military technology. Equipped with advanced features such as air-to-air refueling capability, an AESA radar and a sophisticated EloKa system, the Tejas is said to outperform many of the competitors in its category. Its armament also includes Beyond Visual Range (BVR) capabilities and precision ground attack munitions.
There are currently three production models – the Mk.1 with limited capabilities, Mark 1A and a two-seater trainer version in which the Premier is now flying. 32 Mk.1s and 18 Mk.1 two-seaters are on order and 97 Mk.1As (costing around four billion euros, from 2024) are on order. In total, the IAF is planning to procure 324 models in all variants, including the Mk.2, which is currently under development at a cost of around another billion euros and – again, like many – should be ready for series production by 2026. However, the Indian Navy has rejected the naval version due to its insufficient payload for the “Ski Jump” ships. In the even more distant future, the Tejas will also be Indian 5th generation stealth design, the HAL Advanced Medium Combat stealth design, the HAL Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA). Its design has been finalized since 2016 and is awaiting the go-ahead from the Indian Security Council.
On the occasion of the Prime Minister’s flight, Indian colleagues referred to his visit to the USA in June 2023, where a “landmark agreement was reached that paved the way for Indian production of modern jet engines”. The technology transfer with US manufacturer General-Electric aims to enable local production of GE-414 engines – to be used in the Mk.2 – and reduce dependence on foreign imports for such critical technologies. As a reminder, modern high-performance turbofan engines have always been the “Achilles’ heel” of the eternal regional rival China and derived from Russian developments.
