Know about Tejas: India's indigenously-developed Tejas fighter jet

Know about Tejas: India's indigenously-developed Tejas fighter jet

>> The Tejas is a light fighter aircraft developed by India.

>> It will replace the MiG-21 series of aircraft.

>> A single seater, single engine aircraft, Tejas boasts of many stealth features which prevent the aircraft from being tracked.

>> Lacking a horizontal tail plane, and with a single vertical tail fin, this fighter is designed for enhanced manoeuvrability.

>> Made of composite materials, which weigh less than a fifth of metal, it has a gross weight of just about nine tonnes.

>> All weapons are carried on one or more of seven slots, with total capacity of around 4,000 kg.

>> It is also most cost effective with price ranging between Rs.170 and Rs180 crore, almost a third of similar fourth generation aircraft.

>> Tejas seeks to mark India's entry into the 10-tonne aircraft category, and marks India's entry into a select group of nations that can build such flying machines from scratch.

>> The project has been developed at a cost of nearly Rs.10,000 crore.

>> It is likely to go into series production and be inducted into the Air Force in the first half of 2014.

>> Equipped with GE engines, efforts are on to use Indian Kaveri engines on it.

>> Tejas is the second supersonic fighter developed indigenously by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) after the HAL Marut.