When Defence Secretary Giridhar Aramane inaugurated the third production line of the Light Combat Aircraft Tejas yesterday, the onus to lead the country’s quest for self-reliance in the military aviation sector fell on Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).
The third production line having a capacity to make eight jets annually has been opened at Nashik. It follows two other similar production lines at Bengaluru and now, the collectively capacity is to produce 24 jets per annum.
The Indian Air Force (IAF) has placed an order with the HAL to produce 83 Tejas Mark-1A jets. The HAL has till now delivered 40 of the existing variant of Tejas to the IAF.
