Indian Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh and Japan Air Self-Defence Force (JASDF) Chief of Staff General Takehiro Morita took off from Air Force Station Jodhpur in Tejas aircraft on Sunday during the ongoing Indo-Japan bilateral air exercise 'Veer Guardian-2026'.
India's first light combat aircraft is the effort of 40 laboratories, 25 academic institutions and 300 companies.
Air Chief Marshal AP Singh, Chief of Air Staff, has expressed significant concern over the inordinate delays in inducting new combat jets, including the indigenous Tejas aircraft, stating that these delays are severely impacting the Indian Air Force's depleting fighter squadron strength. He highlighted the need for 36-40 new fighter jets annually to address these gaps and voiced worry over Pakistan's collaboration with China on a fifth-generation fighter jet.
Air Chief Marshal AP Singh has voiced concerns over significant delays in inducting new combat jets, including the Tejas aircraft, which are impacting the Indian Air Force's depleting fighter squadron strength. He stressed the need for annual induction of 36-40 jets to address the gaps and discussed ongoing procurement plans like the MRFA deal and future strategies for combat aircraft and theatre commands.
Flown by Group Captain A P Singh, the aircraft covered an altitude upto 11 km and supersonic speed of Mach 1.1, DRDO said in its release.
HAL has handed over a new batch of indigenous aircraft, marking another step in India's domestic aerospace manufacturing programme. The company delivered two LCA Tejas FOC twin-seater trainers to the IAF, completing twin-seater deliveries under the FOC contract.
The Indian Air Force (IAF) is establishing a maintenance facility for GE Aerospace's F404-IN20 jet engines, which power the Tejas light combat aircraft, with technical support from GE Aerospace. This initiative aims to enhance India's indigenous defence capabilities and reduce reliance on overseas repair centres.
Thirty-two years after the project was sanctioned, the first indigenously-built Tejas Light Combat Aircraft was on Saturday handed over by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar to the Indian Air Force, a red letter day for Indian defence and aerospace sector.
The Indian Air Force's Tejas light combat jets are scheduled to return to the skies next week after being grounded for two months due to a software glitch. HAL expects to deliver over 20 Tejas Mark 1A variants by December, but delays persist due to engine supply issues.
Officially named Tejas, the aircraft has undergone over 1,000 hours of test flights.
The IAF's future operational concepts could involve indigenous Tejas combat aircraft coordinating in real time with multiple Ghatak RPSAs, each carrying a different mission payload ranging from electronic warfare systems and targeting sensors to precision munitions.
In a last-minute twist, General Electric of the US has bagged the hotly contested $800-million tender to supply 99 engines for India's Tejas light combat aircraft (LCA). After both engines in the contest -- GE's F-414 and Eurojet's EJ-200 -- were found technically suitable, the F-414 has been declared the cheaper option.
The delivery of the jets are facing delays primarily due to GE Aerospace missing several deadlines for supply of its aero engines to power the jets.
The political confidence required to place high-end Japanese aircraft and personnel on Indian soil is itself a data point.
It indicates a level of trust that would have been difficult to imagine when India-Japan defence ties were largely symbolic, explains Varun Arya.
HAL executives said deliveries of the Tejas Mk1A to the IAF would begin within this year, but only after the successful completion of the weapons-firing trials currently underway.
India's indigenous fighter jet programme reached a key milestone on Friday, October 17, 2025, as the Tejas Mk1A made its maiden flight at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited's Nashik facility.
This is the fourth peacetime crash of an IAF jet in 2025 so far.
According to an international media report, the jet crashed in the afternoon local time while flying a demonstration flight at the prestigious air show.
Aeron Systems, founded in 2008 by Ashvani Shukla and Abhijit Bokil, is looking to contribute to programmes such as the Tejas light combat aircraft
HAL has assured the IAF that 12 Mk1A aircraft will be delivered by the end of 2025-2026.
This was the first time two chiefs of the armed forces undertook a flight together.
Built as an expendable, short-duration turbojet engine for single-mission applications, it can power tactical cruise missiles, anti-ship missiles, and long-range loitering munitions.
Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) expressed deep sorrow over the death of an Indian Air Force pilot, Wing Commander Namansh Syal, in a Tejas aircraft crash during an aerial display at the Dubai Air Show. The incident involved the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas and marked the second crash involving a HAL-manufactured aircraft in 20 months.
India has accumulated experience organically and in public, through blood, sweat and toil -- one commissioning and one agreement at a time -- and is called a regional power. China has accumulated hulls, by misdirecting its industrial capacity, and is mistakenly called a superpower. The Indo-Japan defence agreement pushes this theory to its limits without ever naming the dragon in the room, points out Dr Abhishek Puri.
The participation of the three vice chiefs in the Tarang Shakti exercise demonstrated the growing focus on cross-domain cooperation, with land, sea, and air forces working together to face modern challenges, an official said.
The pilot ejected safely and a court of inquiry has been ordered to ascertain the cause of the accident, the IAF said in a brief statement.
Pakistan is reportedly pursuing Chinese J-35 stealth fighters while China already operates hundreds of J-20 stealth aircraft.
'The aircraft is expected to be ready for rollout between January and March 2026, and to fly by the end of the year.'
TARA is India's first indigenous modular glide weapon, capable of transforming conventional unguided warheads into long-range precision-guided weapons.
Despite a disappointing Q4 FY26 performance, many analysts remain bullish on Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) due to its substantial order book and pipeline. However, persistent supply chain issues, particularly for jet engines, and execution challenges are key factors that could impact its future stock performance and revenue growth.
The Indian Air Force (IAF) is set to retire its MiG-21 aircraft in September after over six decades of service. The last of the MiG-21 jets will be given a farewell at a ceremony in Chandigarh.
HAL aims to raise output from the current ceiling of 24 aircraft a year to 30 by the end of 2027
The slippage in the delivery schedule for the LCA Mk-1A variant of the jet had become a major issue with Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal A P Singh raising the matter publicly.
The wife and daughter of Wing Commander Namansh Syal, who died in the Tejas crash at the Dubai Air Show, bid him a tearful farewell as he was cremated in his native village.
Air Chief Marshal A P Singh and Chief of the Army Staff General Upendra Dwivedi on Sunday set the tone for the grand Aero India-2025 by flying in the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas in Bengaluru at Yelahanka based Air Force Station.
On Wednesday, August 23, 2023, Tejas, the Light Combat Aircraft LSP-7, successfully fired the ASTRA indigenous Beyond Visual Range (BVR) air-to-air missile off the coast of Goa.
On Saturday, July 1, 2023, the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft Tejas will complete seven years of service in the Indian Air Force.
On Saturday, the aircraft made its first landing on the deck of INS Vikramaditya which was also a major milestone. Both the landing and take off by the aircraft put India among a select group of nations having the capability to design such a jet which can operate from an aircraft carrier.
The indigenously designed and developed Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH-Dhruv) and the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas will not be part of the upcoming Republic Day flypast in India due to the grounding of the entire fleet of ALH-Dhruv helicopters following a crash earlier this month. The grounding of the helicopters is a result of a Coast Guard ALH crash in Porbandar, Gujarat on January 5, which claimed the lives of two pilots and an aircrew diver. The decision to exclude the ALH-Dhruv and Tejas from the flypast comes as a high-level probe panel investigates the cause of the crash.
The Indian Navy has ruled out deploying indigenously built light combat aircraft Tejas on its aircraft carriers, saying it is "not being able to meet the requirements".
