Can home-made fighter jet fill the gap?

A more potent version of Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) matching current generation of fighters is not expected to be available to the Indian Air Force before 2025. Tejas, the home-built jet, was meant to be a replacement for the ageing MiG-21s but even after four decades in the making, the aircraft is still undergoing the process of induction.

The LCA got Final Operational Clearance (FOC) from the Centre for Military Airworthiness and Certification (CEMILAC) only earlier this year. The certification confirmed Tejas as a multi-role fighter with capabilities like beyond visual range air-toair and air-to-ground attack capabilities and longer endurance through mid-air refuelling. Despite these advanced features, Tejas in its current form is only an improved version of MiG-21 but it falls short when compared to other modern day fighters.

Even the production of these variant is slow with Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) delivering only about a dozen of them so far. The IAF is looking for more numbers as Tejas is meant to strengthen the air defence capabilities.

The IAF had 42 squadrons of fighter jets in the year 1985 which had been authorised for a single-front war against Pakistan. The number of aircraft began dwindling after 2001-02 because induction was not commensurate with the rate at which ageing aircraft were retiring. As of 2019, India has 30 squadrons of fighter jets .

“Since the Tejas was in the offing, there was no procurement of other aircraft. You should not focus on developmental aircraft alone. Delay is inherent in the process of developmental aircraft with its own share of uncertainties. We should have three lines of production. The indigenous line of production and procuring single-engine and twin-engine fighter jets from western countries. For procurements, we should not get into multi-vendor competition because we are not looking at price alone but at results too. The government and the IAF should decide on which jets to procure. The procurement should be a mix of singleengine and twin-engine jets by computing a cost-benefit analysis and keeping in mind the operational risks involved,” retired Air Marshal S.B.P. Sinha, former C-in-C of Central Air Command, told IANS.