Catching attention and being the cynosure of all eyes, and of course, being cheered to do an encore, the name of the game at the aero show, India's pride and joy - the Light Combat Aircraft Tejas, billed as the world's smallest fighter, is all set to shine sharp and bright.

Vyving for a coveted place in the sun will be five small, tail-less, delta winged machines that will set aflame with joy and pride over a lakh of visitors hearts as they seek to carve a part of the business pie from the stalwarts.

For five days from Wednesday, these future sentinels of Indian skies, will fly in formation in full throttle with smokewinders taking one to a new high. The Tejas platforms are expected to perform aerobatics that is sure to win the hearts hands down but whose first day, during inaugural fly-past event, the five Tejas formation will be a head turner.

Almost three decades after its conception, the Tejas, will, for the first time, be seen in its true role of a combat jet at the Aero India at the Yelahanka Air Force Station. The Tejas has been on view at two previous editions of the exposition but either on the ground or as part of a fly-past.

This, then, will be the first time when a fleet of Tejas, probably including a trainer variant and a naval variant, will be seen in a flying display at the Aero India 2011 to showcase its potent strike force.

Conceived in the mid-1980s as a replacement for ageing MiG-21 fleet of the IAF, the real funding for the ambitious LCA programme came in 1993. India has spent about Rs 25,000 crore on the project so far of which Rs 12,000 crore was spent only on development.

A billion eyes set on the skies to catch Tejas go by does not indicate the struggle the project had to go through before hitting the skies. Since the 1990s, when the LCA design was finalised till on the date of its initial operational clearance (IOC), the Indian Air Force has been critical of the aircraft. Well, given that IAF is the end-user, wanting the best is not something inconceivable.
Team LCA is confident of meeting all of IAF's requirements in the coming years.

In the early '90s, as former LCA Project Director Kota Harinarayan recollects, a high-level team had recommended winding-up of the project as the best option for the country.
LCA braced that too and continued the journey with the support of Ratan Tata, Bajaj and for Air Chief Idris.

On the positive side, Tejas, which received the IOC on January 10, will have its first squadron of about 20 aircraft raised soon after the final operational clearance (FOC) over the next two years.

With all the criticism, the IAF, has plans of inducting about 200 Tejas aircraft over the years and increase its squadron strength to 39-40 along with 126-194 medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA), the race for which is on, the fifth generation fighter aircraft being jointly developed with Russia and 220 of the Russian-made Sukhoi-30MKI.

Powered by the General Electric (GE) F404-GE-IN20 engine, with the homegrown Kaveri powerplant still undergoing (advanced) trials, the Tejas is the country's first attempt to make a fighter after it had dropped the idea in late '60s following the failure of 'Marut'.

Source: DHNS

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