New Delhi, Sep 22 (PTI) In the backdrop of slippage in the delivery schedule for the LCA Mk-1A variant of fighter jet, Vice Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Ashutosh Dixit, on Tuesday said that engines have been installed on the aircraft and proper and thorough testing is being done before the aircraft gets inducted.
In response to a query at a briefing on the upcoming multilateral air exercise Tarang Shakti, he said the Indian Air Force (IAF) too is “eagerly awaiting the induction of LCA Mk-1A”.
The vice chief was asked the status of Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Mk-1A.
“The HAL has clarified that in the beginning, the delay was from the engine side… We could not get enough engines. Now we have got the engines, and installed them on the aircraft. We are doing proper and thorough testing before the aircraft is inducted,” the air marshal said.
“Two or three parts are left to be proven and I think in a month or two, we should be able to overcome that technical issue. Thereafter, the road is clear for the aircraft to be inducted,” he said.
However, he did not specify the number of aircraft on which engines have been installed, or the expected timeline of delivery.
The slippage in the delivery schedule of the LCA Mk-1A variant had become a major issue with Chief of Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal A P Singh, earlier raising the matter publicly.
At an event hosted recently by the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) in Bengaluru, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh flagged delays in defence technology projects, saying they need to be taken seriously as they can create gaps in crucial defence requirements and lead to cost escalation.
“There are some issues on which we need to work. One very important issue is that of delays. For various reasons, including technological, many of our technical projects that are underway also face delays. We will have to take these delays seriously,” Singh had said.
The Cabinet Committee on Security under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi had approved the procurement of 73 LCA Tejas Mk-1A fighter aircraft and 10 LCA Tejas Mk-1 trainer aircraft at a cost of Rs 45,696 crore along with design and development and infrastructure sanctions worth Rs 1,202 crore on January 13, 2021. The contract is valued at close to Rs 48,000 crore.
The LCA Mk-1A variant is an indigenously designed, developed and manufactured state-of-the-art modern 4+ generation fighter aircraft.
It is equipped with critical operational capabilities, including active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar, beyond visual range (BVR) missile, electronic warfare (EW) suite and air-to-air refuelling (AAR), making it a potent platform to meet the operational requirements of the IAF, the defence ministry said earlier. PTI KND ARI
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