Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Mk-1A

Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Mk-1A

Part of: GS Prelims and GS- III –  Defence and Security

In news Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) on Tuesday signed a $716-mn deal with GE Aviation of the U.S. for 99 F404 aircraft engines and support services that will power the indigenous Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Mk-1A.

• In February, the Defence Ministry had signed a Rs. 48,000 crore deal with HAL to supply 83 LCA-Mk1A to the Indian Air Force.
• The Light Combat Aircraft Tejas is an indigenous supersonic fighter-jet used by the Indian military. 

About Light Combat Aircraft Tejas

• LCA Tejas is a single-engine multirole light combat aircraft.
• The Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) programme was started by the Government of India in 1984 when they established the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) to manage the LCA programme.
• LCA Tejas was designed and developed by India’s HAL (Hindustan Aeronautics Limited).
• It replaced the ageing Mig 21 fighter planes.
• It is the second supersonic fighter jet that was developed by HAL (the first one being HAL HF-24 Marut).
• It is the lightest and smallest multi-role supersonic fighter aircraft in its class.
• It is designed to carry a range of air-to-air, air-to-surface, precision-guided, and standoff weaponry.

About Tejas LCA Mk.1A 

• Light Combat Aircraft Mk-1A variant is an indigenously designed, developed and manufactured state-of-the-art modern 4+ generation fighter aircraft.
• Tejas LCA Mk-1A will be superior over previous variants of LCA Tejas, in terms of avionics, performance, and weapons capabilities.
• This aircraft is equipped with critical operational capabilities of Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) Radar, Beyond Visual Range (BVR) Missile, Electronic Warfare (EW) Suite and Air to Air Refuelling (AAR).
• LCA Tejas Mk-1A will be flexible enough for hardware and software integration that would be required to fire different types of Beyond Visual Range (BVR), which are available in the inventory of the Indian Air Force (IAF).
• It is the first “Buy (Indian-Indigenously Designed, Developed and Manufactured)” category procurement of combat aircrafts with an indigenous content of 50% which will progressively reach 60% by the end of the programme.

News Source: TH