By A Correspondent

Hyderabad (Telangana): The Indian Air Force’s (IAF) impatient two-year wait for Tejas Mk1A Light Combat Aircraft could end by March 2026.

India’s state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) is now ready to deliver five of the 83 Mk1A variant Light Combat Aircraft, according to HAL Chairman and Managing Director D. K Sunil.

IAF has been expectantly awaiting the induction of the first batch of the Mk1A variant aircraft since February 2024, the original delivery schedule for the first jet to join the air force fleet under the INR 45,696-crore contract signed in February 2021.

Sunil, in his media interaction at Wings India 2026 at the Begumpet airport in Hyderabad, said  the five Tejas aircraft are ready for delivery before the end of March 2026, when the financial year would end.

He said the newly built Tejas aircraft have completed the weapons trials recently and these could be handed over to the IAF at the earliest.

The delay in the deliveries was attributed to the supply chain interruptions in the GE Aerospace’s F404 engines, as the American company faltered on its supply schedules.

However, the HAL received the first lot of the engines for the Tejas Mk1A aircraft in 2025, to enable completion of the aircraft assembly at the HAL facility in Bengaluru. Sunil said HAL would now approach the IAF to accept deliveries of the first five of the 83 Tejas Mk1A jets soon.

IAF chief Air Chief Marshal A. P. Singh has on several occasions openly criticised the HAL for delay in LCA deliveries. In a candid conversation captured by media cameras at Aero India at Yelahanka air base in Bengaluru in February 2025, the IAF chief was heard hauling up the HAL officials for not readying the aircraft on time.

He also pointed out that even the original 40 Final Operational Clearance (FOC) variant Tejas Mk1 deliveries were incomplete, and the F404 engine delivery delay was not the only reason for HAL defaulting on the schedule.

Apart from the 83 Tejas Mk1A ordered in 2021, IAF has also signed another deal for 97 more of these aircraft from HAL in September 2025.

The Tejas aircraft is an important part of the IAF’s combat fleet and is key to shoring up the falling squadron numbers of India’s air force.

At present, the IAF operates two squadrons of the Tejas Light Combat Aircraft Mk1, again powered by the F404 engines.

The IAF’s combat strength has gone down to below 30 squadrons following the retirement of the Soviet-era MiG-21s in 2025.

The IAF is now speeding up a tender to buy 114 Rafale jets from Dassault Aviation in a bid to arrest the dwindling numbers of the fighter fleet.

Earlier this month, the key Defence Procurement Board, chaired by Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh, had given the go ahead for the additional Rafale procurement.

India had bought 36 Rafales for the IAF in an INR 59,000 crore deal in September 2016, and followed it up with another INR 63,000 crore deal for Rafale-M, the carrier-borne variant, for the Indian Navy in April 2025.

However, the additional Rafales procurement process is still far away from maturing into a contract. The defence procurement procedure entails several steps before the acquisition process becomes final and goes to Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Cabinet Committee on Security for final approval, before contract signing.

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