Tejas plan on, Sitharaman rubbishes shelving rumours
The Tejas is a supersonic, lightweight, all-weather, multi-role fighter designed for air-to-air, air-to-ground and air-to-sea combat roles.
New Delhi: Scotching recent media reports that the government has ‘shelved’ the plan to acquire the homemade Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) fighter, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said during an informal interaction on Saturday that the Tejas plan is ‘on’ and the government has not ‘ditched’ it.
“We are not ditching it, not shutting it down…on the contrary we are looking at an upgraded and strengthened version of the Tejas…IAF will have a combination of single engine fighters and India’s Tejas will hold importance. I reject the idea that Tejas has been ignored by us…We want Tejas’s Mk-II version,” the minister said adding that the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), which makes the Tejas, has been asked to produce more aircraft at a faster rate. “We want them to produce much more. We have to increase production from the 6-8 that we make a year.”
The Tejas is a supersonic, lightweight, all-weather, multi-role fighter designed for air-to-air, air-to-ground and air-to-sea combat roles. It is expected to plug a vital gap in IAF’s might that is suffering from a critical shortage of fighter squadrons. The government had already ordered for 83 HAL-made Tejas fighters.