The Indian Air Force on Wednesday received the first LCA Tejas trainer aircraft from Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). The LCA Tejas twin seater is a lightweight, all-weather multi-role 4.5 generation aircraft. Calling the day historic, HAL, said that this adds India to the list of "very few" elite countries who have created such capabilities and have them operational in their Defence Forces.
HAL has an order of 18 twin seaters from IAF and is planning to deliver eight of them during 2023-24. The remaining 10 would be delivered progressively by 2026-27. "This historic event today will mark the achievement of a key milestone of producing an LCA twin seater which is designed with a strategic intent of graduating the budding pilots from the twin seater variants to fighter pilots", HAL said.
Elaborating about the LCA Tejas trainer aircraft, the IAF said that it is an amalgamation of contemporary concepts and technologies, such as relaxed static-stability, quadraplex fly-by-wire flight control, carefree maneuvering, advanced glass cockpit, integrated digital avionics systems and advanced composite materials for the airframe.
Union Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt was the chief guest during the function wherein the unveiling of the LCA twin seater, handing over of Release to Service (RSD), Signalling out Certificate (SOC) were conducted in the presence of Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal V R Chaudhari, among others.
