The New Indian Express ·
Second batch of 97 Tejas Mk1As to start arriving next year: MoD report
NEW DELHI: The defence ministry’s annual report has set out the induction timeline for the Indian Air Force's second tranche of indigenous Tejas fighters, with deliveries of 97 LCA Mk1A aircraft scheduled between September 2027 and September 2033, even as not a single jet from the first order placed five years ago has been handed over.
The Rs 62,370-crore contract with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), signed in September last year, covers 68 single-seat fighters and 29 twin-seaters.
That schedule rests on a programme that has slipped repeatedly. HAL is yet to deliver any of the 83 Tejas Mk1A fighters ordered under a Rs 48,000-crore contract signed in February 2021, deliveries of which were to have begun in March 2024. Supply disruptions at General Electric held up the F404 IN20 engines, and software validation and radar trial problems caused a further slip. Completion of the 83-jet order has since been pushed to 2031.
