Indigenous showpieces Tejas & Dhruv out of Republic Day fly-past | India News – Times of India


NEW DELHI: India’s two main indigenous aviation showpieces, the Tejas fighter jets and the Dhruv advanced light helicopter (ALHs), which it hopes to export to other countries in large numbers, will not be part of the Republic Day fly-past this year.
The IAF on Thursday said “a policy decision” has been taken to not allow single-engine fighters like the Tejas in the fly-past over the Kartavya Path on grounds of safety.

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Consequently, only twin-engine jets like the French-origin Rafales, Russian-origin Sukhoi-30MKIs and MiG-29s, and Anglo-French-origin Jaguars will participate in the annual celebrations.
All the 330 twin-engine ALHs in the armed forces, in turn, remain grounded after one of the choppers with the Coast Guard crashed at Porbandar in Gujarat on Jan 5, killing the two co-pilots and diver, once again underlining its troubled safety record over the years, as was first reported by TOI.
The fly-past will have 40 aircraft operating from 10 different bases this time, including 22 fighters and 11 transport aircraft like the US-origin C-130J `Super Hercules’ and C-17 Globemaster-III.
There will be seven helicopters, including four Russian-origin Mi-17 V5 and three US-origin Apache attack helicopters. The preponderance of foreign-origin aircraft in the fly-past is a grim reminder of the fledgling domestic military aviation sector.
The ALHs have been a regular of the Republic Day fly-past for well over a decade, but the decision to keep out Tejas is surprising. Four Tejas fighters had flown in a “diamond” formation in last year’s fly-past after the home-grown light combat aircraft had made its debut during the 2017 parade.
Tejas, however, had also not taken part in the fly-past in 2022 and 2023. A twin-engine jet, of course, provides an extra layer of safety to avert a crash if one of the engines fails.
ALH-manufacturer Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) has asked all operators to continue to suspend flying of the 5.5-tonne choppers till the “root cause” of the Jan 5 crash is established through the inquiries in progress.
The entire ALH fleet was also grounded two-three times in 2023 after four major crashes. The HAL had then undertaken safety technical upgrades after cases of design and metallurgical flaws, including “failure of the collective”, which controls the power to the rotors and back, were reported in the multi-mission choppers, as reported by TOI earlier.
On the Tejas front, Air Chief Marshal A P Singh just last week publicly expressed his frustration at the huge delays in the delivery of the fighters to IAF by HAL. While China displayed two new 6th-Generation fighters last month, India is struggling to even produce the 4th-generation Tejas Mark-1A fighters, primarily due to the continuing delay in supply of GE-F404 turbofan jet engines by US major General Electric.
IAF till now has got only 38 of the first 40 Tejas Mark-1 fighters ordered for Rs 8,802 crore under two contracts inked in 2006 and 2010. It is yet to also get the first “improved” Tejas Mark-1A jet of the 83 contracted from HAL under the Rs 46,898 crore deal in Feb 2021. Another 97 Tejas Mark-1A fighters for Rs 67,000 crore are also going to be ordered soon.
Down to just 30 fighter squadrons when it is authorized 42.5 to tackle the twin challenge from China and Pakistan, IAF wants to induct these 180 Tejas Mark-1A and another 108 Tejas Mark-2 jets — with more powerful engines — over the next 10-15 years to make up its rapidly depleting numbers.





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