PM Modi undertakes sortie on Tejas aircraft

BENGALURU: Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a sortie on a Tejas fighter aircraft in Bengaluru on Saturday during his visit to the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited site.

Prime Minister took to social media platform X to share his experience of taking a sortie of the Tejas fighter "Successfully completed a sortie on the Tejas. The experience was incredibly enriching, significantly bolstering my confidence in our country's indigenous capabilities, and leaving me with a renewed sense of pride and optimism about our national potential", Prime Minister said in a post on X.

Indian Air Force chief Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari was on the spot to supervise the preparations for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's maiden sortie in the indigenous Made in India fighter aircraft. The Chief was on ground for the Prime Minister's sortie in the LCA Tejas where the aircraft was flown by Indian Air Force test pilot Group Captain Debanjan Mandal, defence officials said. PM Modi is on a visit to Bengaluru to visit and review the manufacturing facility, including the facility for Tejas jets.

Indian Air Force recently issued a tender to the state-owned HAL for the purchase of 12 advanced Su-30MKI fighter jets."Recently, a tender has been issued to the HAL for buying the 12 Su-30MKI fighters, which will be manufactured in India by the HAL in partnership with the Russian original equipment manufacturers," defence sources had told ANI earlier.

The public sector company is expected to respond to the tender by next month with details of the project along with other details, they said.

The aircraft would include a high percentage of indigenous content as per the requirement of the Indian Air Force in line with the Aatmanirbhar policies of the government in the defence sector.