Tejas attains another milestone, flies 500th sortie this year

India's indigenously designed fighter aircraft, Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas, attained another significant milestone on Saturday by flying the 500th sortie this year, the highest achieved in a calendar year thus far.

The achievement is significant, given that the highest number of sorties attained earlier in a calendar year was less than 300 sorties. This feat follows close on the heels of attaining Initial Operational Clearance on December 20.

Avinash Chander, Secretary, Department of Defence RandD congratulated the Tejas team and said, "The single most important factor behind the achievements is the synergy of teamed efforts of ADA, DRDO, CEMILAC, HAL and IAF."

Year 2013 has been exceptionally successful year for Tejas in achieving key milestones while participating in seven detachments all over country, an excellent achievement in itself.

Tejas is a light weight, single engine, single seat, supersonic and multirole, combat aircraft. It has been in the making for almost three decades and has seen several delays and huge cost over-runs. It has quadruplex digital fly-by-wire Flight Control System (FCS) with associated advanced flight control laws. Extensive use of advanced composites in the airframe gives a high strength to weight ratio, long fatigue life and low radar signatures.