Mystery deepens over India’s rush to buy untested Tejas jets

The Indian security establishment’s casual approach to national security is breathtaking – bordering on criminal negligence.

Consider the following facts.

Fact 1: On September 25, 2025, the Indian Air Force (IAF) decommissioned two MiG squadrons, reducing its fighter squadron strength to 30 per cent or 29 squadrons – from the mandated or “authorised requirement” of 42 squadrons. When India began negotiating for 126 French Rafale fighter jets in 2012, its fighter squadron strength was sought to be raised from 35 to 42. (A squadron has 16-18 jets; 126 Rafale jets would have added 7 squadrons.)

Fact 2: The same day, on September 25, 2025, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) placed an order for 97 Tejas Mk1A single-engine fighter jets with the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). The delivery would start in 2027-28 and be completed “over the next six years” or by 2034. This was despite the HAL’s failure to deliver even a single Tejas Mk1A jet (the same jet) in four years, of the 83 jets for which the MoD had placed the order in February 2021. The MoD did not deem it fit to explain why, especially since Air Force chief AP Singh has repeatedly criticised the HAL for its failure from public platforms.

Fact 3: When the MoD placed the order for 83 Tejas Mk1A on February 3, 2021 (induction of which was to be “completed in 8 years” or by 2029), HAL had no engine to build the jets. Six months later, in August 2021, HAL placed the order for 99 GE Aerospace’s F404 engines (meant for the 83 jets). This was revealed by GE Aerospace on August 19, 2021.

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Critical lapse in planning

Fact 4: GE Aerospace had “shut down” its production line of F404 engines (needed for the 83 Tejas Mk1A jets) in 2016, five years before HAL’s order to it and the MoD’s order to HAL. This too was revealed by GE Aerospace in a statement on May 26, 2025. This statement said: “By 2016, GE Aerospace fulfilled its commitment to HAL and delivered 65 F404-IN20 engines for the Tejas LCA. With no additional engine orders on the horizon, the production line for F404-IN20 was shut down.”

It went on to add: “However, when HAL ordered an additional 99 engines in 2021 for the Tejas Mk1A LCA, our team began the complex task of restarting the F404-IN20 production line, which had been dormant for five years, and re-engaging the engine’s global supply chain. Restarting a jet engine production line is a challenging process. Restarting the F404-IN20 engine line during the COVID pandemic was even more challenging. With a high focus on safety and quality, and a remarkable commitment from our supply chain teams and our suppliers and partners, we have managed to restart the line.”

Fun fact 1: Both the MoD and HAL would have been aware of the shutdown and yet went ahead with the order, knowing fully well that there would be long delays. Why they did so remains unanswered.

Fun fact 2: Neither the MoD nor HAL probably expected that they would need GE Aerospace’s F404 engines. That is reflected in GE Aerospace’s reason (“with no additional engine orders on the horizon”) for shutting down its production line for F404 engines. The question is: What forced the MoD and HAL to wake up after five years? That remains unanswered, too. Now the HAL will be placing another order with the company for more F404 engines to be fitted in the additional 97 Tejas Mk1A.

Tejas' delivery timeline slips

Fact 5: The HAL was to deliver the 83 Tejas Mk1A by 2029, but now the first one is expected in 2026. This is despite GE Aerospace delivering its first F404 engine in March 2025. The reason for this gap will be cleared soon.

Fact 6: Assuming the HAL delivers 10-12 Tejas Mk1A in a year from 2026 onwards, it would take 15 years to deliver 180 jets (83 plus 97) – adding 10 fighter squadrons. So, the IAF’s fighter squadron strength will reach 39 (29 now plus 10) in 2040, still 3 short of the mandated strength of 42, assuming that all 29 squadrons keep their jets in running conditions for the next 15 years, a tall order.

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Fact 7: These 10 new squadrons of Tejas Mk1A will compromise national security because of their limited operational capabilities. The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) in its 2015 report and the Parliament’s Public Account Committee (PAC) in its December 2018 report had said, the Tejas Mk1 (the earlier version of Tejas Mk1A) was cleared for induction into the IAF after “53 concessions/permanent waivers” were given as it had failed to meet the specified operational requirements, called “Air Staff Requirement” (ASR).

These concessions/permanent waivers “reduced its operational employability considerably”. The IAF had thereafter inducted two squadrons of Tejas Mk1 in 2018 and 2020 – 35 years after the LCA (Tejas) project began in 1983. The Tejas Mk1A (Alpha) is an improvement of the Tejas Mk1, but operational gaps remain.

Indigenisation efforts

Fact 8: No official account spells out the exact operational gaps in the Tejas Mk1A. It will be known only after the HAL delivers its first jet next year. But telltale signs exist. First, the PAC report of 2018, mentioned earlier, had said the jet’s operational limitations could only be fully overcome by the next variant, Tejas Mk2.

It said: “…the Empowered Committee headed by the Chief of Air Staff recommended in October 2007 for the building of LCA Mk II… to meet the ASR parameters.” Thus, the Tejas Mk1A was a temporary bridge until the Tejas Mk2 emerged. The latter is also being developed by HAL. It is also delayed and in the design stage. Its prototype is expected in 2027. Second, on July 1, 2025, a national daily reported that the HAL and DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation) – which is also involved in the Tejas project right from 1983, along with the IAF – are still fighting over the “indigenisation efforts”. While the HAL is for imported (Israel’s) radar and electronic warfare systems, the DRDO is insisting on its “Uttam” radar and “Swayam Raksha Kavach” electronic warfare suite. This war has been going on at least since 2023. The Tejas Mk2 will use GE Aerospace’s other engine (F414).

Fact 9: As for indigenisation, Indian policymakers are a confused lot. The PAC report of 2018 mentioned earlier has a troubling paragraph about the development of Tejas: “The committee observed that the prototype version of LCA (Light Combat Aircraft) was to be developed with a proven imported engine, while the production version of LCA was to use an indigenous engine. However, the committee found that Gas Turbine Research Establishment (GTRE) could not develop the Kaveri engine as per the LCA schedule and specifications.” Notice the absurd logic. So, the LAC (Tejas Mk1/Mk1A) was built and tested with GE Aerospace’s F404 engines. And then the project was forgotten for five years until 2021 (when the MoD placed orders for 83 Tejas Mk1A) – leading to GE Aerospace shutting down its F404 production line in 2016. The said Kaveri engine fell by the wayside. How much of the Tejas is indigenous? That is not certain (given the bickering between the HAL and DRDO mentioned earlier). In 2016, the government had told the Parliament that the Tejas’ indigenous content was 59.7 per cent by value and 75.5 per cent by numbers.

Fact 10: The Tejas is a light combat single-engine jet, rather than a full-fledged multi-role fighter jet like the Rafale or Su-35, which are double-engine jets and much safer in the sky, capable of carrying higher payloads and are better equipped for modern warfare. No wonder the IAF wants more Rafale jets. The ANI reported on September 12, 2025, that the MoD had started discussing the IAF’s Statement of Case (SoC) for 114 Rafale jets from the French firm Dassault Aviation.

There are other aspects to the Tejas project that need attention.

Also read: Defence Ministry signs $62,370-crore deal with HAL for 97 Tejas jets

IAF’s strategic silences

The IAF has behaved strangely in all these years.

It is part of the Tejas project from the beginning. It gave the “53 concessions/permanent waivers” in operational capabilities of the Tejas Mk1. It doesn’t know how the Tejas Mk1A will perform until it gets one to test in 2026. Yet, it has agreed to another 97 more of the same (Tejas Mk1A). It had wished for Tejas Mk2 way back in 2007, to replace the MiGs. Having kept quiet over the government’s decision to drastically cut the Rafale jets from 126 being negotiated since 2012 to just 36 in 2016, it is also seeking 114 of the same Rafale jets now.

There is more.

In February, the IAF chief AP Singh expressed his displeasure over the HAL’s failure to deliver in public. By May 2025, he was confessing to helplessness, again at a public function, by saying: “While signing the contract itself, sometimes we are sure that it is not going to come up, but we just sign the contract.” He must have agreed to let the MoD place the order for 97 more Tejas Mk1A and is now back to strategic silence.

HAL’s lack of capabilities

Air Force chief AP Singh had also spelt out, though indirectly, the HAL’s limitations in public in February 2025. He said the HAL needed to invest in advanced manufacturing processes, upskill manpower and take up the project in a mission mode.

That the HAL has low capacity (both in manufacturing and skilled manpower) to deliver is known. One good example is the fact that the Tejas project began in 1983 and remains a work-in-progress 42 years later. On several occasions this year, HAL chairman DK Sunil has acknowledged continuing technical challenges with the jet’s software, radar and missiles.

In its December 2024 report, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence expressed its anxiety: “The Committee at this stage would like to impress upon the Ministry to sensitize HAL to augment production of Tejas so that the operational role of the Air Force is not affected due to depletion in squadron strength.”

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Rafale deal raises questions

The MoD rushed to place the order for 83 Tejas Mk1A in 2021 because it was staring at fast-depleting fighter squadrons, which multiple parliamentary reports pointed out, after the original deal for 126 Rafale jets (with technology transfer) was cut down to 36.

India signed up for 36 ready-to-fly Rafales without technology transfers in 2016. The logic was never explained. But 90 jets less (126 minus 36) meant the IAF lost 5 fighter squadrons – further compromising its national security. Its then strength was 35, then – 7 less than required.

The IAF kept quiet all this time.

Now, all of a sudden, it has written a letter to the MoD seeking 114 of the same Rafale jets.

Investigating reports had earlier alleged that the 36 ready-to-fly jets cost India more than what the 126 jets with technology transfers would have cost. For the first time in its history, the CAG produced a redacted report, which it admitted in the document itself. While it withheld the comparative prices, it claimed the cost was 2.86 per cent lower.

On the whole, what emerges is a murky world of systemic incompetence, intrigue and ‘omerta’ or a code of silence – all compromising national security.