10 facts about Light Combat Aircraft Tejas

Home grown Light Combat Aircraft Tejas is all set to be put in a combat role by the Indian Air Force (IAF). State-run HAL will hand over the first two Tejas aircraft to IAF which will make up the ‘Flying Daggers’ 45, the name of the first squadron of the LCA. The squadron will be based in Bengaluru for the first two years before being moved to Sulur in Tamil Nadu.

 Let’s look at some facts about the LCA Tejas:

• Tejas is a single engined, light weight, highly agile, multi-role supersonic fighter.
• Tejas is equipped with a quadruplex digital fly-by-wire flight control system to ease handling by the pilot.
• It is perhaps the world’s smallest lightweight, multi-role single engine tactical fighter aircraft.
• Tejas will replace the IAF’s aging fleet of MiG-21 and MiG-23 aircraft. It was co-developed by Aeronautical Development Agency and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.
• Tejas comes with smart ammunitions and bombs which help it to hit targets in a precise manner
• Tejas has caught the attention of foreign buyers with Sri Lanka and Egypt evincing interest in the indigenously built fighter jet.
• The IAF plans to induct over 80 aircraft with better specifications known as Tejas 1A.
• First, 20 Tejas would be inducted under the Initial Operational Clearance, another 20 will be inducted later with Beyond Visual Range Missile (BVR) and some other features.
• In 1983, DRDO got approval to start program to design and develop light weight program