Home-grown LCA MK1A Approved by the CCS

The Cabinet Committee for Security (CCS) has sanctioned the procurement of 83 LCA Tejas Mk 1A for the Indian Air Force. These aircraft will be produced by the state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).

The deal, known to be the largest indigenous deal is worth Rs 48,000 crore. This deal comes as a major boost to the Make in India deal as HAL will only act as an umbrella organisation and most of the work will be outsourced to private Indian firms. The first LCA Tejas MK1A is expected to roll out in 2023-2024.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh posted a tweet saying, “The CCS chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi today approved the largest indigenous defence procurement deal worth about Rs 48,000 crore to strengthen IFA’s fleet of homegrown fighter jet LCA-Tejas.” He added that the indigenous content of LCA-Tejas is 50 percent in MK 1A, which will be enhanced to 60 percent.

The MK1A will be modified to have advanced features from its MK1 variant such as Electronic Warfare system, Advanced Electronically Scanning Array (AESA) radar, Beyond Visual Range (BVR) missiles and Software Defined Radio (SDR).

Fourty of LCA Mk1 aircraft are already on order, sixteen of which stand deliverd in the IOC configuration. The Mk1 variant was given FOC in 2019 at the Aero India event. The delivery for the aircraft with FOC configuration has commenced.