India’s first homegrown supersonic fighter jet Tejas handed over to Indian Air Force
Supersonic fighter Tejas handed over to Indian Air Force
A historic moment for the Indian aerospace industry: The much maligned, vilified and written off indigenous aircraft was finally inducted into the India Air Force in Bangalore on Monday.
Bangalore: Inching closer to modernisation with self sufficiency, India’s first homegrown supersonic fighter jet, the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) ‘Tejas’, was handed over to the IAF by Defence minister, A K Antony after the Initial Operational Clearance. The LCA, which has remained under development for nearly three decades and braved technology denial regimes, has achieved the significant milestone in the presence of Defence Minister A K Antony and Air Force chief Air Chief Marshal P V Naik.
Post clearance, the LCA will now take several flying missions and after that it will have to obtain its Final Operational Clearance (FOC) to be finally inducted into operational service, which is likely to happen by the end of 2012, Ministry officials said.