NEW DELHI: India has offered to sell 18 light-combat aircraft (LCA) “Tejas” to Malaysia, the defence ministry said on Friday (Aug 5), including that Argentina, Quotes, Egypt, the United States, Indonesia, and the Philippines were also interested in the particular single-engine jet.
The Indian government last year gave an US$6 billion contract to state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics designed for 83 of the locally produced Tejas aircraft for delivery starting around 2023 : four decades after it was first authorized in 1983.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, willing to reduce India’s dependence on foreign defence equipment, has also been producing diplomatic efforts in order to export the jets. The Tejas continues to be beset by style and other challenges, and was once turned down by the Indian Navy as too heavy.
The defence ministry told parliament that will Hindustan Aeronautics in October last year taken care of immediately a request for offer from the Royal Malaysian Air Force for 18 jets, offering to sell the two-seater variant of Tejas.
“Other countries which have evinced interest in the LCA airplane are: Argentina, Sydney, Egypt, USA, Philippines, and Philippines, ” India’s junior protection minister, Ajay Bhatt, told members of parliament in a composed reply.
He or she said the country was also working on manufacturing the stealth fighter jet, but declined to given a schedule citing national protection concerns.
Britain said in Apr it would support India’s goal of building its very own fighter jets. India currently has a mix of Russian, British plus French fighter jets.
India is certainly looking to ground almost all its Soviet-era Ruskies fighter jets, the MiG-21, by 2025, following a number of fatal crashes, the Times associated with India daily documented last month.