India approves additional Tejas fighter procurement
The Tejas Mk 1A LCA is an improved version of the baseline Tejas Mk 1. (Janes/Amit Kalra)
India's Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) has approved a proposal to procure an additional 97 Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) Tejas Mk 1A light combat aircraft (LCA) for the Indian Air Force (IAF).
The CCS approved the proposal, which was submitted by the Indian Ministry of Defence (MoD) and covers associated equipment for the air force, on 19 August, HAL said in a stock market filing on 21 August.
The approval for the acquisition of the 97 Tejas Mk 1A aircraft is in addition to the 73 Mk 1As and 10 trainers contracted by the IAF in 2021.
The approval for the new batch of single-engine Tejas Mk 1A comes more than a year after the Indian MoD issued a tender to HAL for the proposed procurement. In 2024 the proposed value of the acquisition was estimated at INR650 billion (USD7.42 billion). HAL had not responded to Janes questions at the time of publication.
Janes first reported the IAF's interest in acquiring additional Tejas Mk 1As in August 2023. The acquisition is part of a plan by the Indian MoD to rebuild IAF combat strength with a domestically developed fighter aircraft platform. The IAF's combat strength has declined in recent years and is expected to further decline in September 2025 when the IAF formally retires its Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 Bison fighter aircraft from service.
The retirement of the MiG-21 fleet will reduce the IAF's combat squadron strength from 31 to 29, according to Janes Military Intelligence.
For more information, please see India issues tender for 97 additional Tejas Mk 1Aand India approves AoNs for more LCAs, army-navy equipment .
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