Tejas MkII R&D Phase to Conclude by Dec 2027, with First Flight Next Year and Initial Unit Induction by 2028: IAF Chief Reaffirms

India's indigenous fighter jet program received a significant boost as Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh, the newly appointed Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), announced a firm timeline for the Tejas MkII.

During a press briefing on Friday, the CAS confirmed that the Tejas MkII is scheduled for its inaugural flight next year, with the research and development phase concluding by December 2027. The Indian Air Force (IAF) anticipates inducting the first units of this advanced fighter jet by 2028.

This announcement comes as welcome news for the IAF, which has committed to procuring at least 120 Tejas MkII aircraft. The MkII is expected to play a crucial role in modernizing the IAF's combat fleet, replacing aging aircraft and providing a significant boost to India's air power capabilities.

"The MkII is supposed to make its first flight sometime next year, and it is expected to be inducted by 2028. We have planned for at least 120 LCA Mark-2 planes," stated Air Chief Marshal Singh.

Designed as a more potent successor to the Tejas Mk1, the MkII boasts enhanced range, increased payload capacity, and advanced avionics. The CAS emphasized the advantage of indigenous development, highlighting the ease and speed of integrating new weapon systems onto the Tejas MkII compared to imported platforms. This agility is vital for the IAF's ongoing modernization efforts.

Reflecting on past delays in the Tejas Mk1 program, Air Chief Marshal Singh stressed the importance of learning from those experiences. He identified technology transfer from design to production, even within India, as a key challenge that needs to be addressed to ensure timely delivery of the MkII.

"As far as Tejas MkII and AMCA are concerned, we all need to learn our lessons about what happened over Mk1 and what caused the delays. We should make sure that such things are ironed out," he asserted.

In a significant departure from tradition, the CAS advocated for greater private sector involvement in defence production. "I don’t think we can continue relying on one agency. HAL will have its own limitations in terms of what it can do within a time frame, we need to have private industry chipping in and coming in a big way," he stated.

This call for increased collaboration aligns with the Aeronautical Development Agency's (ADA) recent Expression of Interest (EOI) to private companies for the production of structural components for the Tejas MkII.

The ADA's EOI seeks private sector participation in manufacturing critical components like fuselage sections, wings, tails, and canards. This initiative aims to accelerate production and ensure the timely delivery of the Tejas MkII.

Air Chief Marshal Singh's clear vision for the Tejas MkII program and his emphasis on collaboration between HAL and the private sector signal a new era in Indian defence production.

With a defined timeline and a commitment to learning from past challenges, the IAF is poised to realize its goal of a modernized, indigenously produced combat fleet, contributing significantly to India's "Atmanirbhar Bharat" (self-reliant India) vision.

 

[R. Singh]

Theek theek lagaa lo ! Tejas-MK- must start rolling out from 1.4.2026 !

 

[Anant]

You know, he said the first flight would be in October next year. For that to happen, the aircraft would have to be rolled out by December or January. As far as I know, the Tejas Mk 2 exists as a set of frames, some components, a detailed set of drawings, plans, and in hopes.

Yeah... it isn't flying in October next year. That is just a statement that will be pushed back by ADA and HAL again.

 

[sanket]

IAF full confidence in Indigenous Development & production & supporting Now Time for Army to full back up & stop dreaming about stryker javelin ATHOS .

 

[PARTHAJIT JANA]

You know, he said the first flight would be in October next year. For that to happen, the aircraft would have to be rolled out by December or January. As far as I know, the Tejas Mk 2 exists as a set of frames, some components, a detailed set of drawings, plans, and in hopes.

Yeah... it isn't flying in October next year. That is just a statement that will be pushed back by ADA and HAL again.

As far i know you are a nobody, you have no inside information whereas he is chief of iaf. I think he will have far more information than you. In my opinion, you should stfu.

 

[obiwankenubi jedi]

Have we learnt nothing from Tejas mk1, mk1a yet ?

It made it's first prototype flight in 2003, and mk1 was operational in 2018 with IOC and 2019 with FOC and today in 2024 we are still waiting for the mk1a !

A good 15 years later, and we ignore MMRCA 1/2 in the last 2 decades, got nothing and restarted it as MRFA.

Don't we get it that the Tejas mk2 will not be operational in this decade, but hopefully in the next?

It will surely miss all rollout, first flight, IOC, FOC, induction and operationalisation milestones and won't join the airforce at squadron level until 2034, even in mk2a form.

That is why each chief of air staff talks of MRCA/MRFA as we need those 100+ aircraft unfortunately, not yesterday but a decade or 2 ago was also not too early.

And that's why none of the other countries want to risk going for Tejas mk1a or mk2, as it's just not ready for India yet.

It's the most important project for the airforce, the MRFA and will be a big strain on our finances but is inevitable, unfortunately.

In 20+ years, the inflation and technical advancements have made it prohibitive expensive and nearly as expensive as the now prevalent 5+gen aircraft, with 6gen in development globally.

And with the 4.5+ being yesterday's aircraft, the government too feels the strain and doesn't see the feasibility of buying these relics at these prices.

Trusting HAL, DRDO, ADA and waiting for India private sector to be ready, has unfortunately taken us back to the mercy of the foreign OEMs.

it's now that we must accept facts and decide once and for all on MRFA and get the airforce what it needs, while the indigenous aircraft saga continues beyond the silver jubilee! And fast headed toward a golden jubilee!

Also, not sure why nobody saw the F404 engine delay/ issue coming up? and if we were going for 200+ of them and even 400+ during the operational life of Tejas mk1/mk1a, did we not consider it for the F414 kind of deal to build these in India, and it's associated supply chain, partners, etc to begin with ?!

Even if it was a sudden, desperate move to buy 97 more Tejas mk1a due to the perpetual delays with mk1a and mk2, it's still not being discussed or considered, atleast not in public domain to make F404 in India along with the more advanced F414 ?!

We are anyway throwing money on the enigma of aircraft engines made in India, be it RD33, AL-31, then why not F404 along with F414, is the biggest riddle of all.

the 4.5 gen TEDBF and 5.5 gen AMAC are atleast 2 decades away when the world will be ready with 6th gen and working probably on 7+ gen !

 

[Anant]

As far i know you are a nobody, you have no inside information whereas he is chief of iaf. I think he will have far more information than you. In my opinion, you should stfu.

He has far more information than I do. Of that, there can be no doubt.

However, we have also seen statements like this, both from HAL and other sources, multiple times, and none of them has ever materialised. Therefore, unless something truly massive has changed without it becoming public knowledge, this statement will again, very unfortunately, not materialise.

That said, if you want an analysis, here it is: GE has reported that they will be able to deliver 2 engines a month from late 2025 or early 2026 at the earliest. That's 24 engines a year. Therefore, even if one were to assume HAL had absolutely no inefficiencies, that is the earliest from when you could, hypothetically, get 24 aircraft a year, which is the rate being described to here. Following so far?

Now, you also need to maintain engines in reserve and the like, and that number will depend on the fleet size. Therefore, to get 24 aircraft a year, you will need 30-32 engines a year at the least. That comes to around 2.5 to 2.66 engines a month, for which we do not have any idea when that would happen.

Now, we come to the other assumption there. That assumption was that HAL can operate at peak efficiency and actually crank out 24 airframes a year. Let's look at historical performance for this:

1. Even when they did have F404s in stock, they had significant delays in Tejas Mk 1 deliveries, and the trainers that were supposed to be delivered a fair while back are still nowhere near delivery.

2. HAL promised, mind you, promised, to deliver the first Tejas Mk 1A by the end of FY24. Last I checked, we have already started Q3 FY25, and that aircraft is nowhere to be seen. They also promised to deliver 16 aircraft in FY25, of which not even one has been delivered with more than half the year gone. Oh, and if you do some basic math with Tejas production and F404 deliveries, you'd see that to deliver 16 Tejas Mk 1As in FY25, HAL would either need a bunch of engines delivered, or would have to essentially empty out the IAF's spare engine pool, which would impact Tejas operations very adversely.

3. Let's look at something other than the Tejas. The other major product they have undertaken recently is Su-30MKI license production. Of the 272 Su-30MKIs built to date, 50 were built in Russia, and the remaining 222 were ordered in tranches of 140 (in 2000), 40 (in 2007), and 42 (in 2010). These tranches were to be completed by 2012, 2015, and 2018 respectively. These tranches were actually completed in 2013, 2018, and 2021 respectively. Oh, and there was no major bottleneck or delay for supply of critical systems during Su-30MKI production.

4. The HJT-36 is quite possibly the greatest aircraft development failure of modern India. Do you know who designed and developed that aircraft? It was the Aircraft Research and Design Centre (ARDC), which comes under HAL. The result of this was a fundamentally unstable aircraft that had to be completely redesigned, and over 21.5 years after it first flew, it is now about to enter advanced testing.

5. We then look at the multitude of design and manufacturing defects that have come into the Dhruv. Are you seeing how frequently we have been losing those choppers in recent times? The IAF has the very dubious distinction of arguably having lost more aircraft in 2024 to accidents than it inducted. That is to say nothing of the absolutely poor showing which HAL gave to Ecuador over their Dhruv purchase.

See, the simple fact of the matter is that HAL is absolutely pants at project management. The even bigger problem is that HAL has this habit of "stepping" delays.

I have said this before, but if HAL was to issue a statement saying "We anticipate delays in the Tejas Mk 2 program. The first flight will be conducted in late 2026.", and then actually deliver on that timeline, then some of the criticism sent their way would be unwarranted. But, what they actually do is that they'll issue 4 different timelines before ending up in that late 2026 timeline. That just shows HAL is either being disingenuous, or are absolutely pants at managing projects. I suspect both to be the case.

If that isn't enough evidence for you, then I don't know what is. Oh, and if you are incapable of atleast acknowledging opinions or perspectives that you don't quite agree with, then atleast try to ask for reasons for such perspectives. If you are going to just write-off differing opinions, then this forum probably isn't the best place for you.

 

[Anant]

IAF full confidence in Indigenous Development & production & supporting Now Time for Army to full back up & stop dreaming about stryker javelin ATHOS .

Right... sure. They are continuing their misplaced confidence. I replied in this regard to Sh. Parthajit Jana ji, so humbly request you to please read that. It's too long to replicate here. Thanks in advance.

 

[kurtwallis wallis]

WHY not just F18SH jets for IN+IAF MRFA tender?? 140 nos. of F18SH jets will costs around 35 Billions usd total deal. 140 Rafale F4.2 jets will costs 65 Billions usd!!

 

[kurtwallis wallis]

it's now that we must accept facts and decide once and for all on MRFA and get the airforce what it needs, while the indigenous aircraft saga continues beyond the silver jubilee! And fast headed toward a golden jubilee!

JUST play safe to be practical now, and settle MRFA for F21's at lower than 190 millions usd per unit jet of lifetime ops costs.....

 

[abhinav srivastava]

Ensure the pvt player assembles trainer jets and gains some expertise. By the time it assembles Tejas MK2 it would develop at least some expertise in assembling.

 

[Sandeep]

It seems that the air force listened to what I said, realised I was right and are now going to do what I told them to do 😂😂😂.

First, they need to resolve all of the problems in HAL that is causing the delays. They need to continue to manufacture the jets and expand the production lines so we can do it more quickly. If there are any delays by the suppliers providing any critical parts, components or technology then they should still carry on manufacturing whatever they can and then assemble them after receiving all of it.

Second, HAL needs to issue a license to the private sector companies to manufacture the jets by either supplying parts or components or manufacture the entire jet.

Third, we need to focus and quickly finish developing Tejas MK2 and AMCA. For both jets HAL should be manufacturing the prototypes as fast as they can. Once they do that they need to quickly finish its tests and certify the technology. Once that is achieved then we need to allow the private sector to manufacture most of the jets and HAL can continue to manufacture whatever they can.

Four, we also need to protect our technology to prevent our enemies from getting it and finding any weaknesses or ways to beat it in battle. So any critical and classified equipment, technology and information has to be strictly controlled, guarded and protected from our enemies. The only way to do that is by ensuring that it’s designed and manufactured by a government company with very limited access to the general staff and under the careful watch by our top security agencies and very senior personnel.

 

[sanket]

Right... sure. They are continuing their misplaced confidence. I replied in this regard to Sh. Parthajit Jana ji, so humbly request you to please read that. It's too long to replicate here. Thanks in advance.

u know nothing Production is dependent on orders ,earlier it was only 20 IOC order then followed by another 20 FOC so it was low production rate Now IAF placing 83 Tejas MK1A & expected 97 more Follow-on Tejas MK1A HAL will easily reach 24 per year production ,Nashik Facility likely to start by december 2024 or early jan 2025 & further in next couple of years it can b push if required to 28 to 30 per year Now Engine By Jan-Feb 2027 GE will start delivering more than 20 to 24 Engine year and may 30 expected by 2028 . Impact of GE failure of delivering engine is 18 months delay in production of Tejas MK1A

 

[Anant]

u know nothing Production is dependent on orders ,earlier it was only 20 IOC order then followed by another 20 FOC so it was low production rate Now IAF placing 83 Tejas MK1A & expected 97 more Follow-on Tejas MK1A HAL will easily reach 24 per year production ,Nashik Facility likely to start by december 2024 or early jan 2025 & further in next couple of years it can b push if required to 28 to 30 per year Now Engine By Jan-Feb 2027 GE will start delivering more than 20 to 24 Engine year and may 30 expected by 2028 . Impact of GE failure of delivering engine is 18 months delay in production of Tejas MK1A

Production is dependent on orders, sure. However, HAL has had two production lines operational for quite a while. Even so, they haven't managed to utilise those to deliver the Mk 1 jets on anything even remotely resembling a schedule.

With HAL, the problem is more of utilising existing infrastructure rather than infrastructure itself.

That said, to ensure I don't repeat another reply, please refer back to my reply to Sh. Parthajit Jana on this article. That'll show why the 24 aircraft per year claim is untenable.

 

[sanket]

Production is dependent on orders, sure. However, HAL has had two production lines operational for quite a while. Even so, they haven't managed to utilise those to deliver the Mk 1 jets on anything even remotely resembling a schedule.

With HAL, the problem is more of utilising existing infrastructure rather than infrastructure itself.

That said, to ensure I don't repeat another reply, please refer back to my reply to Sh. Parthajit Jana on this article. That'll show why the 24 aircraft per year claim is untenable.

oh it is My Line GE needs to Ramp up production to 30 per year , i am commenting from last few months but u people were busy in giving excuses to GE ha ha ha ha

 

[PKPRS]

JUST play safe to be practical now, and settle MRFA for F21's at lower than 190 millions usd per unit jet of lifetime ops costs.....

or Gripen E

 

[PKPRS]

Both failed jets at super high prices 😂😂

Yes your Rafale also failed after realtime tests, that’s why only 36 for 8 years.

 

[Akshat]

or Gripen E

Both failed jets at super high prices 😂😂