Tejas flies closer to induction in IAF

The first indigenous fighter aircraft developed in India in five decades — the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas — moved closer to induction into the Air Force with the clearance of its Initial Operational Configuration by the Centre for Military Airworthiness and Certification (CEMILAC).

A certificate deeming the LCA to be safe for further tests by the IAF, leading to the final operational clearance, was handed over to Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal P V Naik by the chief executive of CEMILAC Tamilmani in the presence of Defence Minister A K Antony here on Monday.

The LCA, conceived and designed by the Aeronautical Development Agency of the DRDO and manufactured at the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, has been nearly 27 years in the making.

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