LCA Tejas to enthrall audience at Bahrain airshow

New Delhi, Jan 20: India's own Light Combat Aircraft Tejas will enthrall the audience at Bahrain International Airshow starting tomorrow as the country hopes to explore potential export opportunities.

The two Limited Series Production (LSP) planes will give a flying display through a series of aerobatic manoeuvres such as 8-g pull, vertical loop, slow fly past and barrel roll.

"It is important that indigenous aircraft fly outside India in international air shows. HAL is proud to be associated with the design, development and production of Tejas. We have set-up a state-of-the-art, environmentally controlled, dedicated division at Bengaluru for production of LCAs," T Suvarna Raju, CMD of HAL said.

Tejas is a single-engine, light-weight, highly agile, multi-role supersonic fighter plane.

It is a 4.5 generation aircraft with supersonic capability at all altitudes. Indian Air Force plans to acquire 120 Tejas aircraft, with 100 of them having major modifications to its strike, radar and mid-air refuelling capabilities.

Though DRDO has developed a naval version of Tejas, the navy is seeking a more powerful engine, besides other changes. Pakistan has already put its combat aircraft JF 17, built in collaboration with China, in the open market.

Sri Lanka had recently denied reports that it had evinced interest in the Pakistani plane.

PTI