Defence Secretary RK Singh announced the coming delivery on Saturday during a summit in New Delhi, describing it as part of a broader effort to build indigenous defence capabilities. The aircraft are manufactured by state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).
“Tejas”, Singh said, “is going to replace the MiG-21 and become a workhorse for the Indian Air Force [IAF].”
Replacing the ageing MiG-21 fleet, long known as the “flying coffin”, with the Tejas Mark-1A is far more than a simple hardware upgrade, according to Gaurav Kumar, a researcher at the United Service Institution of India, a defence and security think tank.
“This isn’t just about adding planes to the fleet; it signals that India is serious about building operational credibility and producing indigenous platforms rather than relying on imports,” Kumar told This Week in Asia.
“For the IAF, it addresses critical capability gaps – modern avionics, better weapons integration, improved maintainability and the ability to execute real missions reliably.”
