BENGALURU: For almost 3,000 hours of flying, the made-in-India combat aircraft ‘Tejas’ was a pilot’s delight but within months of joining the Indian Air Force (IAF)’s fleet, these jets have been grounded because of nagging problems with their landing gear.
This major snag — the first since the military jet’s maiden flight in January 2001 — has showed up at a time when the country’s air strike wing is contemplating induction of 120 of them to make up for the depleting strength of its squadrons. With the Union government taking a decision to acquire only 36 Rafale fighters instead of 126 as originally planned under the multi-billion dollar, medium multi-role combat aircraft contract, IAF chief Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha has spoken of the need to add at least six squadrons (108 jets) to shore up the total strength to 42 squadrons, and indicated his preference for an advanced version of ‘Tejas’.
Defence ministry sources told Deccan Chronicle that IAF pilots encountered problems with the landing gear of ‘Tejas’ twice – first in Bengaluru and the second time in Jaisalmer after a round of weapon trials at the Pokhran range. The fighter was flown from Jaisalmer to Bengaluru with its landing gear deployed after the second incident. The upshot: the entire fleet consisting of fighters, the naval variant, trainers and prototypes have been grounded. “Occasionally, test pilots have attempted solo sorties, but the problem with the landing gear persists,” they said.
Sources in Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd, Bengaluru, confirmed that the snag has resulted in discontinuation of flights of these military jets but disclosed that the glitch would be fixed soon as the cause for malfunctioning of the landing gear has been identified.
The first ‘Tejas’ combat jet was handed over to the IAF in Bengaluru on January 17, 2015, by defence minister Manohar Parrikar with the first squadron set to be based at an air force station in Sulur, Tamil Nadu.
