New Delhi: The Commanding officer of the Indian Air force, Syamantak Roy said “India’s fighter jet Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas, is very capable and equipped with world-class missiles.” Roy is group captain and Commanding Officer of 45 squadrons of the Indian Air Force also called Flying daggers.
Roy said, “Kind of weapon that the aircraft carries is phenomenal and that makes the combat capability of the aircraft tremendous and pretty lethal in its role,”
“The Sular Air Force base lies in the center of the southern peninsula, which ensures that we have reached not only overland towards the north and towards the east, but also over the seas to the east, west, and to the south. That makes us a very capable aircraft in terms of projecting our combat force all over the country,” Roy told the media.
“We also carry 1000 pound conventional bombs along with laser-guided Bombs precision targeting and overall air to air as well as air to ground weapons makes us a multirole aircraft,” he added.
Group captain M Surendran who is a pilot of LCA Tejas said the aircraft is presently with the Indian Air Force are fully operational and able to deploy itself operationally for taking on any task that is given by the Indian Air Force.
However, India is among a handful of nations in the world that is capable of making a fighter jet and has made 2 fighter jets till date. First was the HAL Marut and the second is the IAF Tejas LCA, the only active India-made fighter jet with the Indian Air Force.
Tejas is a single-engine multi-role supersonic fighter aircraft that will replace the ageing Soviet-era MiG-21 Bison jets.
Tejas LCA: Back in the 1980s, govt started its Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) program to replace the ageing Soviet jets, with HAL Tejas making its maiden flight in 2001. The indigenously built fighter aircraft was inducted into the Indian Air Force in 2016, with the first squadron being called the Flying Daggers. Till now, IAF has placed an order of 123 fighter jets, including 40 Tejas Mk 1 and 83 Tejas Mk 1A. 2 squadrons of the fighter jets are active.
(Vinayak)