This latest iteration of the TEJAS fighter jet is a priority project, leading the way for indigenous production of fighter jets in India

India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), a branch within the Ministry of Defence (MOD), has handed over indigenously built components to an industrial supplier, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), to be fitted onto the next TEJAS fighter iteration, the MK-1A, reported Air Force Technology.

Building on the Indian Air Force’s original TEJAS fighter jet, which entered service in 2016, the MK-1A will cost $4.5bn over the next ten years, according to GlobalData. The DRDO has widened the indigenous supply chain, having sourced various components across India’s fledgling defence industry.

As part of these efforts, the DRDO has handed over the first batch of cutting-edge actuators and an airbrake control module to HAL for the TEJAS MK-1A.

TEJAS is a single-seat, single-engine, lightweight, high-agility supersonic fighter aircraft. It has a delta design with shoulder-mounted delta wings. It has a fin but no horizontal tail. Lightweight materials, including aluminium, lithium and titanium alloys, and carbon composites, have been used in the construction.

There is also a naval variant, which completed a flight test aboard the Indian Navy’s aircraft carrier, INS Vikramaditya in 2020.

Driven by the need to address critical deficiencies in the TEJAS Mk1 aircraft variant, India was compelled to develop a new upgrade specification for the baseline light combat aircraft (LCA). MK-1A is said to incorporate more than 40 improvements over the original Mk1 version, which entered service in 2016.

(With AFT Inputs)