India is approaching some Asian countries for exporting its indigenously developed Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas.
According to a report in Sputnik, India is trying to make the low cost and simple design of Tejas its unique selling proposition to cost-conscious countries in Asia.
“Indian government proposes to export the LCA Tejas to other countries and in this connection preliminary discussions have been held with a few friendly countries,” India’s Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar was quoted as saying by Sputnik.
According to the report, the Indian Ministry of Defense claims to have received a positive response from a few Asian nations as they found the LCA attractive due to its low cost and simple design.
India had symbolically formed the first squadron of Tejas in July this year with two initial operational configuration (IOC) aircraft.
The remaining 18 jets in the same configuration will be inducted over the next two years.
This will be followed by the induction of 20 Tejas in the Final Operation Configuration (FOC).
The indigenous content is 59.7 per cent by value and attempts are on to localize the production of some more imported components.
The state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited can currently assemble eight Tejas per annum. It has plans to double the output to 16 Aircraft per annum.
