An IAF Tejas fighter. (File photo for representation)
New Delhi: In a bid to break the prolonged deadlock over the Tejas-Mk1A programme, the Indian Air Force and the Ministry of Defence have worked out a set of limited concessions for HAL, allowing the state-owned manufacturer to begin handing over aircraft without fulfilling every contractual obligation – provided the most critical ones are met first, ThePrint reported [archived link] on Saturday. Deliveries are now expected to commence in the next fiscal year.
The report said sources in the defence establishment, however, made it clear that the concessions have a firm boundary. Capabilities classified as “must-have” – defined through a tripartite agreement reached in 2016 among the IAF, HAL, and the Defence Research and Development Organisation’s Aeronautical Development Agency – are entirely off the table for any waiver.
The ADA, which designed the fighter, and HAL, its manufacturer, are both bound by that 2016 baseline, and the IAF has no intention of accepting aircraft that fall short of it.
What IAF will – and will not – accept
Under the revised understanding, the IAF will accept deliveries once ADA and HAL complete three specific tasks: missile firing trials, integration of the radar with the electronic warfare suite, and the weapons package. Sources describe these as “completely essential” and non-negotiable. Firing trials have been completed, and the certification process is currently underway.
The IAF has agreed to accept aircraft without completion of other pending work – systems that sources say will take at least another year to finalize. The report quoted a source as saying: “The IAF has already granted exemptions to HAL for faster delivery of the aircraft, 180 of which have been ordered for.”
HAL, for its part, has argued before the defence ministry and the IAF that much of the outstanding work falls under ADA’s purview and does not constitute a manufacturing delay. The company contends that major capabilities are in the certification pipeline and should receive clearance by April. Acceptance trials by the IAF would follow, likely lasting a few weeks.
HAL recently issued a statement saying that five aircraft are fully ready for delivery, incorporating major contracted capabilities in accordance with agreed specifications.
Background
The contract for 83 Tejas-Mk1A aircraft was signed on February 3, 2021, at a value of ₹48,000 crore. Deliveries were originally scheduled to begin in March 2024, but not a single aircraft has been handed over to date.
The Tejas-Mk1A itself was conceived as a stopgap measure. The original plan envisioned the IAF receiving 20 LCA Tejas aircraft in initial operational clearance (IOC) configuration and another 20 in final operational clearance (FOC) before transitioning to the Tejas-Mk2. A compromise was reached in 2016 under the then defence minister, the late Manohar Parrikar, to introduce the Mk1A as an interim variant ahead of the Mk2.
Separately, HAL is yet to deliver two of the remaining eight Tejas trainer aircraft ordered as far back as 2010 – a fact that adds to the IAF’s growing frustration with delivery timelines.
December review and April reckoning
A meeting between senior officials of the IAF, the defence ministry, and HAL was held in December last year to review the programme’s status. HAL presented timelines for completing various aircraft systems, most of which pointed to April as the key milestone.
A decision was accordingly taken to hold a follow-up review in April. The pending work has been internally categorized into three buckets: minor, major, and not acceptable – the last of which the IAF has made clear it will not waive.
Pattern of public admonishment
The partial concessions being worked out come against a backdrop of unusually direct public criticism from the IAF’s top brass. As India Sentinels had reported, at the Aero India 2025 exhibition in Bengaluru in February, the air chief marshal, Amar Preet Singh, seated in the cockpit of HAL’s HJT-36 Sitara trainer, told a HAL official bluntly: “At the moment, I am just not confident of HAL, which is a very wrong thing to happen.” ACM Singh recalled being promised 11 Tejas-Mk1A aircraft ready by February 2025, only to find not one delivered.
ACM Singh’s frustration did not end there. As India Sentinels had also reported, at a CII event in May 2025, the air chief went further, stating that “not a single project I can think of is completed on time” and questioning whether defence public sector undertakings were even making promises they intended to keep. He noted that deliveries of Tejas-Mk1 were delayed, the prototype of the Tejas-Mk2 was yet to roll out, and no prototype of the advanced medium combat aircraft (AMCA) stealth fighter existed yet.
Strategic cost of delay
The stakes for the IAF are not merely administrative. The service currently operates around 30 fighter squadrons against a sanctioned strength of 42 – a shortfall of roughly 200 aircraft at a time when the twin threats from China and Pakistan demand sustained operational readiness.
With ageing MiG-21s, Jaguars, and early Mirage 2000s set to retire by 2040, the IAF needs approximately 450 new fighters over the next 15 years. Against that backdrop, the Tejas-Mk1A’s delayed induction is not a programme management problem alone – it is a strategic vulnerability.
Complicating matters further, GE Aerospace’s delayed supply of F404 engines to HAL has been a contributing factor in the slippage, though the government has imposed financial penalties on GE for the delay.
The April review will be closely watched. Whether HAL can meet the milestones it has promised – and whether the IAF’s partial concessions prove sufficient to finally get deliveries moving – will signal how seriously India’s indigenous defence industry is able to perform under pressure.
