Article Posted on : - Dec 29, 2010

Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) 'Tejas'

NEW DELHI (PTI): Set for induction clearance next month despite "some issues", the indigenously-built Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) 'Tejas' would be deployed at the Sulur air force base in Tamil Nadu by the end of next year.

The IAF, which is "reasonably happy" with the fighter for grant of Initial Operational Clearance (IOC), has placed an order for 40 aircraft with the manufacturer Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), its Vice Chief Air Marshal P K Barbora said Tuesday.

The fighter will get IOC in January, setting in motion the process of its induction.

"Hopefully the first squadron of the LCA would be formed by the end of next year at Sulur," Barbora told reporters about the aircraft whose induction is expected to start in the middle of 2011.

He noted that the fighter, which is being built for last over two-and-a-half decades, had been readied a "little late" but it would help India achieve the goal of designing and developing a fighter aircraft indigenously.