It’s not without a sense of pride that we welcome the first “made-in-India” light combat aircraft, despite typical delays: it took 32 years after conception, and 14 years after the prototype’s first flight. Scientists claim India has showed the world we can handle complex technologies of such a fighter, though the engine and critical components were imported and costs crossed Rs 6,000 crore. But there is satisfaction that Indian engineering developed the fly-by-wire system of this modern LCA. While it may take the IAF two years more to deploy a Tejas squadron, in the long run indigenisation may grow beyond two-thirds and the scale of production bring down costs. Most important, Tejas shows the way to a “Make-in-India” future, not only for costs, but also for national security reasons.
The Tejas will replace the ageing MIG-21s, whose safety record leaves a lot to be desired. When air-to-air refuelling is mastered and weapons upgraded to the “Astra” missile class, the Tejas will be a shining beacon. Time and cost overruns are known enemies in India, but in the complex world of avionics, delays are not unusual. The spirit behind Indira Gandhi asking us to stop our dependence on foreign suppliers even for the smallest systems on aircraft led to Dr Arunachalam proposing the LCA in 1983. If the IAF has 20 Tejas by 2018, and the Navy too has a few, the trials and tribulations that Tejas faced would have been well worth it.
