India finally gets the Light Combat Aircraft

,TNN | Jan 17, 2015


In a quiet ceremony on Saturday that kept the shutterbugs and journalists out, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) handed over the Tejas Series Production-1 (LCA-SP1) to defence minister Manohar Parrikar and Air chief marshal Anup Raha here.
The aircraft will now be finally used by the Indian Air Force (IAF) which has had a long frustrating wait to get the plane that was first conceived 32 years ago.
The LCA-SP1 flew for the first time on October 1, 2014 commanded by Air Commodore (retd) K A Muthanna and is in its initial operational clearance (IOC) configuration and not the FOC (final operational clearance), which is expected only early next year.

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