ST 671 days ago

The ADA couldn''t get an FOC compliant Tejas Mk-1 ready by June 2018 – the earlier deadline. Now it is certain that the December 2018 deadline will also be missed.

The Tejas LCA is the fighter jet designated to replace the obsolete MiG-21 in service with the IAF. A pilot risks his life flying every time he flies one of these MiG fighter jets bought from Russia in the 60s and 70s.

As a ‘band aid solution’, the IAF will phased out three squadrons (18 aircraft each) of ageing MiG-21 and MiG-27 fighter jets this year, and cannibalise these aircraft to keep the serviceability rate of its remaining aircraft at the highest possible level.

But… the ADA is taking its own sweet time going about the task assigned to it. The time is ripe to rope in a private player and assign to them one of HAL''s redundant production sites, where the Tejas can be can manufactured by them in parallel. Maybe… starting straightaway with the more superior Tejas Mk-2, with Sweden''s Saab (maker of the Gripen) as a collaborator or technical consultant.

At the rate the ADA/HAL combine is moving, if the IAF is to depend solely on them, the IAF will never have replacements for the MiG-21 and MiG-27 in sufficient numbers – even in the next 20 years.