Bengaluru: The first squadron of Tejas was inducted into IAF at Bengaluru on Friday, with two fighter planes joining the force, in a major milestone in the military aviation of the country.
State-run HAL handed over the first two Tejas aircraft to IAF, which makes up the first squadron named 'Flying Daggers', at a ceremony preceded by inter-faith prayers at the Aircraft System Testing Establishment.
The commissioning of the India-made fighter planes comes more than three decades after LCA went into development.
The aircraft was named "Tejas" (meaning radiance in Sanskrit) by Atal Bihari Vajpayee as Prime Minister.
The squadron will be based in Bengaluru for the first two years before it is moved to Sulur in Tamil Nadu.
Prime minister Narendra Modi hailed the induction of indigenously-built Light Combat Aircraft Tejas into the Air Force, terming it as a matter of "unparalleled pride and happiness" and a step which illustrates the skills and strengths of Indian scientists.
IAF has said the idea is to have a total of six aircraft this financial year and about eight in the next.
Tejas will feature in combat plan of the IAF next year and will be deployed in forward bases also, it has said.
Stating that LCA squadron should be formed by July, defense minister Manohar Parrikar had earlier this month said"next year I think two MiG-21 squadrons are being decommissioned; this will go into initially replacing them."
LCAs are better than the MiGs which are old and parts are difficult to get, he had said.
All squadrons of Tejas will be made up of 20 planes in total, including four in reserve.
As per the plan, while 20 would be inducted under the "Initial Operational Clearance", another 20 will be inducted later with Beyond Visual Range Missile (BVR) and some other features.
IAF plans to induct over 80 aircraft with better specifications known as Tejas 1A.
The upgraded version of Tejas, with Active Electrically Scanned Array Radar, Unified Electronic Warfare Suite, mid-air refuelling capacity and advanced beyond the vision range missiles, will cost between Rs 275 crore and Rs 300 crore.
While the idea to have an indigenous fighter aircraft was conceptualized in 1970s, actual work started on the aircraft only in the 1980s and the first flight took place in January 2001.
(With Agency inputs)