Indian Air Force to buy 324 Tejas fighter jets to boost power

Indian Air Force to buy 324 Tejas fighter jets to boost power

The Indian Air Force  will induct 324 indigenously-built Tejas jets in the long-term. While the IAF has agreed to buy 123 present-day Tejas fighter jets at a cost of over Rs 75,000 crore, it has stated that the next 201 Tejas Mark-II jets should be “entirely new fighters” having upgraded avionics and radars, greater fuel and weapons carrying capacity, and more powerful engines,Reports said.

“The Tejas Mark-II is still on the drawing board. But if DRDO, Aeronautical Development Agency and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd deliver the required Mark-II fighter, IAF has agreed to have a total of 18 Tejas squadrons,” a highly-placed source was quoted.

According to report, the IAF has already issued the request for proposal (RFP) to the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for the acquisition of 83 fighters which are scheduled to join the IAF from 2019-20 after completion of Final Operational Clearance (FOC) contract for 20 Tejas jests.

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IAF’s readiness to buy more LCA jets is based on its assessment that buying and inducting expensive foreign fighters “in large numbers” is simply not an option.

This comes after a series of recent top-level meetings in South Block during which Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that government is “not ditching” the home-grown Tejas and “putting all its energies” into ensuring the fighter is delivered at a much faster pace.

Being critical of the fighter jets, the IAF had said, “Tejas, which has just about 50% of the capabilities of an F-16 or Gripen in terms of endurance, payload etc, will have to fly under the protection of other fighters during conflicts.”

The IAF has earlier reportedly informed the Centre that Tejas – India’s first domestically designed and produced light fighter aircraft – has several deficiencies and lags behind its foreign competitors like the JAS-39 Gripen.

In July 2017, the IAF inducted the first squadron of home-grown Tejas with two fighter planes joining the force. The squadron named – Flying Daggers 45 – is expected to have its full strength by 2018-2020. However, the IAF was not eager to expand its Tejas unit.