In a first, indigenously-developed Tejas aircraft to make debut at foreign air exercise

An IAF contingent comprising of 110 air warriors has arrived at Al Dahfra air base of United Arab Emirates for participating in the exercise Desert Flag

Home grown combat jet Tejas Light Combat Aircraft is set to participate in its maiden war game outside India as five such IAF jets will take to the skies at an international air exercise in the UAE between February 27 and March 17.

“An Indian Air Force contingent of 110 air warriors has arrived at Al Dhafra air base to participate in Exercise Desert Flag VIII. The IAF would be participating with five LCA Tejas and two C-17 Globemaster III aircraft. This is the first occasion when LCA Tejas will fly in an international exercise outside India,” an IAF spokesperson said in New Delhi on Saturday.

The gulf drill comes a year after the cancellation of last year’s Exercise Cobra Warrior in the UK, which was to be the first outing of the indigenous fighter jets outside the home. But the Royal Air Force exercise at Waddington was cancelled due to the Russia-Ukraine war.

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Exercise Desert Flag is a multilateral air exercise in which air forces from UAE, France, Kuwait, Australia, UK, Bahrain, Morocco, Spain, South Korea, and USA would be taking part. Scheduled between Feb 27-March 17, the drill is meant for exercising in diverse fighter engagements and learning from the best practices of various air forces.

India now pitches LCA as an export item competing with the Chinese, which has moved beyond its traditional customer Pakistan and sold JF-17 multi-role fighters to Myanmar and Nigeria.

Despite the recent setback in Malaysia where Tejas was overtaken by a Korean fighter jet in the final selection, the state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited proposed its export to Argentina and Egypt. A few other countries evinced interest.

In a Rs 47,000 crore deal inked two years ago, the IAF would get 83 Tejas LCA Mk-1A from the HAL. This would be in addition to 40 such aircraft in IOC (initial operational clearance) and FOC (final operational clearance) configurations that the IAF is receiving from the HAL.

An advanced version of the aircraft (LCA Mk-2) is to be rolled out by February, 2024, said an HAL official. Last September, the Cabinet Committee on Security sanctioned Rs 9,000 crore to develop the 4.5 generation LCA Mk-2, which would be technologically much superior to LCA Mk-1.