Important Details you should know about LCA Tejas Aircraft

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The Indian Air Force (IAF) today inducted the first squadron of indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) "Tejas" with two fighter planes joining the force in Bengaluru. State-run HAL handed over the first two Tejas aircraft to IAF, which makes up the first squadron named ‘Flying Daggers’. This is a major milestone in the military aviation in the country. Here are some important points you should know about Tejas.

Important Details you should know about TEJAS

• 1967 : IAF had formed the first operational squadron with the indigenous HF-24 Marut fighter.
  
• 1984 : The government of India first moved decisively to kick-start the process to build an indigenous aircraft. Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) was set up by the government to develop the programme.
• 1986 : Rs 575 crores were allocated by the then government towards funding the programme.
• 4th January 2001 : 
• The light combat aircraft made its first flight, a milestone in the Indian aviation industry. 
  
• Then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee named the aircraft ‘Tejas’ – which means ‘radiance’ in Sanskrit.
• The induction of Tejas comes at an important time when the IAF has wanted to desperately replace it with the ageing fleet of MiG-21, responsible for so many crashes.
• The aircraft is equipped to handle air-to-air missiles, air-to-surface missiles, anti-ship missiles, bombs and rockets.
• The aircraft’s structure is composed of 42% carbon fibre composites, 43% aluminium alloy and the remainder titanium alloy.
• The aircraft is being developed in single-seat fighter and twin-seat trainer variants for the IAF and the Navy.
• Earlier this year, the aircraft participated in its first foreign show at the Bahrain International Air Show 2016 where aircraft enthusiasts compared it to Pakistan’s JF-17 Thunder, that was produced with the help of China.
• It is considered to be the lightest multi-role supersonic aircraft of its class.
• The aircraft can travel at a maximum speed of 2,205 km/hr for FOC version and 2,000 km/hr for IOC version.

Bhawatarini Nagendran

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