Bolstering The IAF: Deal For 83 LCA Tejas Mark-1A Jets, 56 Medium Transport Aircraft To Be Signed Soon

The much awaited deal to buy 83 Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas Mark-1A jets for the Indian Air Force (IAF) is all set to be signed in the next few months along with a deal to buy 56 C-295 medium-transport aircraft built by TATA-Airbus, Times of India has reported.

The LCA Tejas deal will be the biggest indigenous deal in Indian military aviation history.

The deal for the advanced version of the LCA Tejas jets is expected to cost Rs 37,000 crore and the 56 transporter jets will cost around Rs 13,000 crore. The LCA Tejas jets will be manufactured by state run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).

The delivery of the 83 LCA Tejas jets are expected to start 3 years after the deal is signed. These jets will be over and above the 40 LCA Tejas Mark-1 jets which have already been ordered by the IAF.

LCA Mark 1A will be a more capable fighter than the original Mark 1 variant.

Mark 1A variant of the LCA will come with around 40 major and minor improvements over Mark 1. These improvements include the introduction of an active electronically scanned array radar for detection of enemy aircraft at greater ranges and resistance to jamming, and a faster turnaround of each aircraft after each sortie.

In the C-295 TATA-Airbus deal it is expected that the first 16 aircraft will be delivered by Airbus while the next 40 would be Made-In-India over eight years.

The deal which has been pending for over 10 years is designed to replace the 40 year old Aero aircraft and reduce the load from AN-32 aircraft fleet.