The Hindu : National : IAF to buy 40 Tejas aircraft

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Friday, Feb 11, 2005

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IAF to buy 40 Tejas aircraft

By Our Staff Reporter

Tejas on display at the Yelahanka Airforce station in Bangalore at the Aero India 2005 on Thursday. - Photo: K. Bhagya Prakash

BANGALORE, FEB. 10. The Indian Air Force will soon sign an agreement with the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) to buy 20 indigenously built Tejas (Light Combat Aircraft) with the option to buy 20 more in a Rs. 4,000-crore deal, the Air Chief Marshal, S.P. Tyagi, said today.

"We are buying them in two phases of 20 each," he told presspersons on the sidelines of the Aero India Show. Each aircraft will cost Rs. 100 crores.

The Air Chief Marshal said that the LCA was a good package. The IAF hoped to start receiving Tejas by the end of 2008 and form a squadron by 2010-2012.

The tail-less, single-engine supersonic fighter, being developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation's (DRDO) Aeronautical Development Agency, made its maiden flight on January 4, 2001 and is expected to replace IAF's MiG fleet from the next decade.

The first 40 aircraft will be powered by the American GE-404f engine, which is undergoing development flight trials. Three prototypes have flown 357 sorties for nearly 150 hours since the maiden flight, but it needs to reach over 1,500 hours of flying before the Tejas gets the initial clearance. "We will achieve the hours by using a number of aircraft, including a two-seater version," he said.

On the delay in procuring the Kaveri engine, which the DRDO's Gas Turbine and Research Establishment is developing, Air Chief Marshal Tyagi said the designers have assured him that the engines will be delivered soon. "I think we should fly our own aircraft with our own engine. I want to fly an aircraft with a Kaveri Engine." If the Kaveri engine is not delivered, Tejas will be using the American GE- 404f engine.

India recently signed an agreement to buy 40 numbers of 404-f engines from the American power plant maker, General Electric, in addition to the 11 contracted for the initial development programme of the LCA project.

The LCA project was delayed due to the U.S. sanctions following the Pokharan blasts in 1998 but relationships were renewed after America lifted the sanctions in 2001.

The IAF is also planning to buy 126 new jets over the next four to five years. A first information request has been sent to four countries.

The IAF chief said he could not give a "time frame" within which the decision will be made. "It does not depend only on the people in Vayu Bhavan. People from South Block and other government agencies are also involved."

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