On Wednesday, The Indian Air Force (IAF) issued the Request for Information (RFI) for 83 Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) with specific enhancements.
An Official from IAF said, “The RFI was issued for 83 aircrafts which includes 73 in Mk 1A configuration and 10 trainers in Final Operation Configuration (FOC.) With this, the IAF will eventually have 123 Tejas aircrafts.” He further added the total cost of the contract for the LCA is expected to be around Rs. 50,000 crore.
The IAF placed an order for 20 Tejas fighters in the Initial Operation Configuration (IOC) on Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd., (HAL.) HAL delivered five out of the 20 fighters. These fighters are inducted into the 45th Squadron of the IAF.
The IAF placed another order for 20 fighters under the Final Operation Configuration (FOC.) The IAF has placed an order for 40 fighters so far. HAL is in the process of setting up another assembly line at a cost of Rs. 130 crore. The assembly line is set up to increase the production rate from 8 to 16. The second assembly line will be ready by 2019.
The deadline for HAL to deliver the aircrafts is the 14th of March, 2018. The Mk 1A has 43 additional improvements compared to the basic Tejas fighter.
