Biggest aviation deal: India to buy 83 Make-in-India Tejas aircrafts for its Air Force

Jan. 14: Ina significant development, the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Wednesday approved the purchase of 73 Tejas LCA (Light Combat Aircraft) fighter jets and 10 trainer aircraft for a cost of around ₹ 45,700 crore. The deal is considered to be the biggest ever in the indigenous military aviation sector.

The LCA-Tejas is going to be the backbone of the IAF fighter fleet in years to come. LCA-Tejas incorporates a large number of new technologies many of which were never attempted in India. The indigenous content of LCA-Tejas is 50% in Mk1A variant which will be enhanced to 60%.

— Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) January 13, 2021

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, in Twitter posts, described it as the “largest indigenous defence procurement deal” and said it “will be a game changer for self-reliance in the Indian defence manufacturing”. The decision, he said, will “considerably expand the current LCA ecosystem and help in creating new job opportunities”. “It is the first ‘BUY (Indian-Indigenously Designed, Developed and Manufactured)’ category procurement of combat aircraft (with an indigenous content of 50 per cent that will reach 60 per cent by the end of the programme),” the government statement said.

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) would be a potent platform to meet the operational requirements of Indian Air Force, IAF.