Indigenous Tejas moves into IAF

A water cannon salute is accorded to light combat aircraft Tejas at HAL (ASTE) in Bengaluru during a ceremony for its induction into the IAF. (Photo: Asian Age)

A traditional Indian welcome — complete with the blowing of a conch, a Sarva Dharma Samaroh and chanting of Maha Mrityunjaya mantra — marked the launch of IAF’s first squadron of made-in-India Tejas combat jets here on Friday.

Billed as the world’s smallest and lightest combat aircraft, it turned out as the smallest squadron of IAF, too, with just two jets constituting the No. 45 Flying Daggers, a little over a month after Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha flew one of them and remarked “it is a good aircraft for induction into IAF operations”. Seven officers, 42 air warriors and 20 non-commissioned officers have been appointed to the squadron headed by Group Captain Madhav Rangachari, who flew the aircraft with the IAF. He and two other ace pilots — Wing Commander C.S. Hiremath and Wing Commander S. Dhankar — received kits with documents on airworthiness certification and flight manual from Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) in the presence of deputy chief of air staff Air Marshal Rakesh Kumar Singh Bhadauria, Air Marshal Jasbir Walia, Air Officer Commanding-in Chief, Southern Air Command, and HAL chairman Suvarna Raju, on Friday.

Tejas has notched more 3,000 flawless sorties after its maiden flight on January 4, 2001, but the military jet’s design and development by the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) with critical contributions in terms of technology and systems from several R&D institutions was plagued by delays because of sanctions imposed by the United States, post Pokhran-II, and failure to develop the indigenous “Kaveri” engine. Originally called the light combat aircraft (LCA), it was christened Tejas (radiance) by Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee in 2003.

A naval variant and trainer variant have been designed and developed by ADA-HAL as part of the project which was formally launched in 1993.