IAF's Squadron 'Flying Daggers' soars with HAL Tejas; Tejas Mk2 in the pipeline MoS Defence

New Delhi: Minister of State for Defence Shripad Naik said that the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) is the program and management agency for design & development of Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) – Tejas.

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) is the design partner and production agency and manufacturing facilities have been established by HAL. HAL (Hyderabad) is an Avionics Division and avionics related to HAL manufactured platforms including LCA are manufactured at this facility.

LCA – Tejas Mk1 aircraft had attained Initial Operational Clearance (IOC) on 20 December 2013, on completion of required performance trials and all 16 fighter aircraft against IOC order have been manufactured by HAL.

Subsequently, Final Operational Clearance (FOC) was attained by ADA on 20 February 2019, and production activities of FOC configuration have commenced at HAL.

Indian Air Force LCA Squadron ‘Flying Daggers’ is operational since 1 July 2016, with the induction of IOC aircraft.

The preliminary design of Tejas Mk-II aircraft has been finalised, but it is in the initial development stage. Induction & production can commence only after successful development and test flight.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Defence Shripad Naik in a written reply to Banda Prakash in Rajya Sabha yesterday.