LCA Tejas

Why in news?

The Cabinet met under the Chairmanship of Prime Minister in New Delhi on 13 January and has approved procurement of 73 LCA Tejas Mk-1A fighter aircrafts and 10 LCA Tejas Mk-1 Trainer aircrafts at the cost of Rs. 45,696 Crore along with Design and Development of Infrastructure sanctions worth Rs.1,202 Crore. 

About:

• The Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) programme was started by the Government of India in 1984 when they established the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) to manage the LCA programme.

• LCA Tejas is a single-engine and tailless multi-role supersonic combat aircraft.
• It replaced the aging Mig 21 fighter planes.
• It is the second supersonic fighter jet that was developed by HAL (the first one being HAL HF-24 Marut).
• Bodies involved: Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), the autonomous society of DRDO is the design agency and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) as the manufacturer
• It is the lightest and smallest multirole supersonic fighter aircraft in its class.
• It can attend the maximum speed of Mach 1.8. 
• It is designed to carry a range of air-to-air, air-to-surface, precision-guided and standoff weaponry.
• Air to air refuelling capability.
• Maximum payload capacity of 4000 kg.
• It is a single pilot aircraft that has a maximum takeoff weight of 13,300 kg. 
• The range of the aircraft is 3,000km

Variants of Tejas:

• Tejas Trainer: 2-seater operational conversion trainer for training air force pilots.
• LCA Navy: Twin- and single-seat carrier-capable for the Indian Navy.
• LCA Tejas Navy MK2: This is phase 2 of the LCA Navy variant.
• LCA Tejas Mk-1A: This is an improvement over the LCA Tejas Mk1 with a higher thrust engine