India Has Long Wait Ahead for Home-Made Combat Fighters

Sputnik News

18:44 11.11.2016

The Indian Air Force plans to replace the venerable MiG-21 series of combat jets with the home-produced fighter named Tejas. But, capacity constraints at the factory means the replacements will take place at a very slow pace.

New Delhi (Sputnik) – India has to wait more than a decade to achieve the required strength of 42 squadrons to fight a simultaneous two-front war.

India's Defense Research and Development Organisation, the designers of Tejas, expects the current order of 83 combat jets to completed only after a decade or more. The first aircraft itself may take another two years if everything goes according to schedule. Currently about 250 MiG-21 series fighters are waiting to be replaced.

The high level Defense Acquisition Committee had last week cleared the procurement of 83 light combat aircraft (LCA) put together by the state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).

Currently, Indian Air Force has 34 squadrons but requires 42 active squadrons.

© Sputnik