Modi first PM to fly in an indigenously developed fighter aircraft

Bengaluru: Prime Minister Narendra Modi completed a sortie in the supersonic multirole fighter jet Tejas here on Saturday, becoming the first head of government to achieve the feat, officials said.

Modi described the experience as "incredibly enriching and significantly bolstering my confidence in our country's indigenous capabilities".

The sortie was carried out from the Aircraft Systems Testing Establishment, Bengaluru, and lasted 30 minutes, according to the Defence Ministry.

The twin-seat fighter aircraft is the first to be fully designed, developed and manufactured in India. It is capable of undertaking offensive air support roles as well as ground attack roles, and is "quite superior" to its contemporaries, the ministry said.

The LCA trainer can undertake all roles of a single-seat Tejas fighter and can also be used as a fighter trainer, the ministry stated.

The first version of the aircraft was inducted into the Indian Air Force (IAF) in 2016.

HAL, the Bengaluru-based Defence PSU, will start delivering the LCA Mk 1A aircraft to the IAF in February 2024 to fulfil a Rs 36,468-crore order for 83 jets.

HAL said it had established two production lines of LCA Tejas at Bengaluru to produce up to 16 aircraft per year. It is also establishing a second production line at Nashik so as to produce 24 or more aircraft, starting 2024-25.

According to the ministry, more than Rs 9,000 crore has been sanctioned for the development of LCA Mk 2, an updated and more lethal version of LCA Tejas. In the coming years, Tejas will become the largest fleet of fighter aircraft to be operated by the IAF.

Currently, two squadrons of IAF — 45 Squadron and 18 Squadron — are fully operational with LCA Tejas.

In Bengaluru, Modi also visited the Tejas production facilities and was shown various indigenous helicopters such as the Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) Prachand, the Advanced Light Helicopter-WSI Rudra and Light Utility Helicopters, according to HAL.

Prachand, which can fly up to 6 km altitude, has already been deployed with the Army and IAF, and there is an additional requirement from the defence forces for 156 such helicopters, HAL said.