The Indian Air Force (IAF) will establish the second squadron of indigenous Light Combat Airplane (LCA) Tejas by month-end, said Air Chief Marshal (ACM) R.K.S. Bhadauria on Monday, while the “high top priority” deal for 83 LCA-MK1A jets was anticipated to be checked in three months.
Stressing on the effort to shift to indigenous production as much as possible, the IAF chief said the difficulty was for the domestic industry to capture up.
Also checked out: Battle-grade LCA makes first flight in Bengaluru
” We will get the very first LCA in Final Operations Clearance (FOC) basic most likely by next week. We are targeting formation of the second LCA squadron at Sulur next week, prior to the end of the month. We have currently done the resurrection of the squadron but induction of aircraft and inauguration got stalled due to COVID,” ACM Bhadauria said in an unique interaction with The Hindu
Tender for fighters
On the tender for 114 fighters to be built under Make in India, stating that it was a “various class” of fighter than the LCA which would be integrated in India and not imported, he said the international responses to the tender were being analysed after which they would go to the federal government for the grant of Acceptance of Need (AoN). “We will settle the way forward on the 114 tender.”
Chief of Defence Personnel, General Bipin Rawa