Congrats, HAL!
Tejas, the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd-manufactured
Light Combat Aircraft
was inducted into the Indian Air Force last month. It was meant to replace the ageing fleet of
MiG21s and MiG27s.
In order to be certified as an operational fighter,
the LCA, developed by the Aeronautical Development Agency, must undergo
intensive trials of its weapons systems; the Air Force also wants it to be
fitted with air-to-air refuelling capability.
Defence Minister A.K. Antony has said that India
could eventually have 200 Tejas aircraft, mostly for the Air Force and some for
the Navy. At nine tons, it is said to be the lightest in its category of
fighter planes.
Some experts are of the opinion that
Tejas Mark 1 is better than its
contemporaries, such as the French Mirage 2000, the U.S. F-16 and the Swedish
Gripen.
Tejas is also a brave effort to break the monopoly
of a select few in making fighter jets. It
appears that we are at last achieving the
goal of indigenisation of military hardware.
As a nation, we designed and produced our first
indigenous motor vehicle in the late 90s - the Tata Indica. After such a short time after that an
Indian company has come up with our first fighter jet. That’s remarkable! This
should encourage big private
companies like Reliance, L&T, Tatas etc to also build such vehicles.
IAF test pilots have on record stated that take offs
in Tejas are sharper than Mirage-2000. HAL has indeed done a great job.
Indigenisation in the field of defence mechanism
would be a big achievement and a lot has to be done in this field. But as the
entire world is tending to move towards destruction because of environmental issues,
the world's intelligentsias are concentrating on spending money for protecting people
from the rage of nature rather than from people themselves.
Anyway, HAL has undoubtedly done a great job and
deserves to be applauded.
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