India’s Department of Defence Production has asked agencies developing the Mk.2 version of the indigenous Tejas light combat aircraft to plan ahead to position the aircraft for export. HAL is understood to have been asked to conduct a study assessing interest in the light fighter. A previous study, conducted by DRDO in 2005, made no specific observations except to say that the aircraft had “elicited international interest and could be positioned as an export item on the lines of the Advanced Light Helicopter”.
The export of defence equipment has been a highly sensitive subject in India. The country has never exported lethal defence equipment as part of a commercial contract (it has, as part of operational assistance pacts, for instance, to Sri Lanka) and the idea that India should exploit successful defence programmes in the international market and frequently looked at as unthinkable, in keeping with the country’s “peaceful” image. However, the DRDO has frequently held that there is a reasonably high level of interest in many of its weapon products, including guided missiles and ammunition.
bahut jaldi neend khuli…!!!!!!
hi hi india to export tejas lol
you must be kidding!!! Who will buy this crap, not even poor African brothers….
"Peaceful Image??" … My A**. Why do our officials make an A** of themselves??. Neither India has been soo peaceful as claimed and nor does LCA is no where near export.
Better late than Never…
and Anonymous @7:41PM
There is nothing to laugh at. This shows how serious our defense agencies and government is now about LCA.
Chattaak!!! Why did not you tell me earlier. Lol…
I don't understand what could "export in mind" mean? Best i can get is MOD's ask for a high capacity production line and aggressive publicity. Other than these, LCA MK-1 is every bit the most capable light weight, cost effective multi role fighter jet in the world and very much suitable for export.
Rolling on the floor laughing !!!!
Does buyers have Tejas on the mind ?
Right..bahut dino ke baad neend khuli…
and those who say it is a crap….
I have only two words for them
Fuck off
I a glad tat they are thinking outside the box. I hope enroll private partners and start shifting manufacturing to them. HAL and NAL should focus on product development and building prototypes. This will build an aerospace industry in India and will increase the rate of production to satisfy Indian demand as well as the demand of our future buyers.
Even if we do not find buyers, this will be good training experience not only in building a better product, but also in marketing a product.
Reason is simple, India can no longer afford to splurge billions of $s in defense. Like China,USA and rest of the world, India too needs to export arms in order to fund her expensive defense programs. Good move. We can partner with Pvt Cos. to mkt our products abroad.
Anon 7.41 n 8.01 PM
Poor Pakis! They are shit scared that now Tejas will give their Owlet Dragon a run for it's money. Abusing Tejas wont change the facts.
The prospects of export of Tejas MK2 can open up plethora of new vistas:
It can be exported lighter and cheaper than Gripen.
It can replace or reduce the total dependence on MMRCA.
It may be useful for smaller countries like East Europeans, Israel and Latinos.
It can be a replacement for the ageing out F-16s worldover.
It can open up more production lines at HAL and elsewhere.
Ek ke saath do free.
Even I want to buy one…where from, and how much?
Export? Sure, why not, but ain't happening with GE engines.
Uncle will wield really big danda and make his own sales pitch to the prospective client.
So, get cracking on Kaveri already!
I guess they are sick of the Indian procurement process too and want to sell to someone else.. 😉
Hope ADA delivers… a much better airintake design and mechanism… for mk2… and bring about aoa… at par with su-30…
Export? Tejas isn't a good option for India, so why would another want it? Many countries, including India, would be better buying old Mirage 2000 than waste money on Tejas.
Tejas is not as good as F-CK-1/Taiwan or JF-17/Pakistan. It is probably less than FA-50/Korea and far behind JAS-39/Sweden. It is not a good trainer so could only be sold for target practice, but there are cheaper planes for this like Mig-21.
With out prejudice to the jab comments above, I think MK2 will be a better aircraft and may be a good option for third world countries and Latin america to buy. It may be a poor mans MERC and agood worth for the money spent. Third world Defence market is huge in the mibble layer area – affordable price and good technology.
There is point in stressing on LCA's export by MK-2 stage. It was always expected that MK-2 will have far greater indigenous content than MK-1 which is 60% indigenous. And recently VK Saraswat said/claimed that LCA MK-2 will be indigenous by 95%(correct me!)and most certainly he is counting on JV kaveri. So in that sense ADA is better placed at MK-2 for export than at MK-1. Though i still believe MK-1 can also be exported to selected nations if we market aggressively.
go ahead.no one is born as a a/c manufacturer .discourage kar k kuch nahi milene wala ,let dm do their jobs.and to the guys who keep shouting on psu entities 'why dont u join them?' why opting for pvt sector!
@ 8:22 am : WTF moment of the year "JF-17 more advanced than Tejas"
Guys get on to the fact that MK2 will be moving only with US made engines. What makes you guys think that US is going to sell those engines to Latin American countries and African countries. Do you expect those countries to buy engine separately ?
Great !!!!
And to make it export from the day it finishes. Get two more things in place.
1. AESA Radar
2. Kaveri-Snecma engine.
if we can get this, I think we will not need uncle's engine. And we can have a complete package to offer to other nations. I am sure we can get these two things in time.
And the Porkis and Chinkis above.
"Jali ?"
SAME THINGS WERE SAID ABOUT ARJUN NOW ITS TEJAS
OK LETS SAY NO BUYERS FOR TEJAS WILL EVER COME UP SO THEY ALL WILL END UP BUYING JAS GRIPEN OR BETTER YET FC-10 PRICED LESSER SO ALL END UP WITH SAME AIRCRAFT . BETTER AIRCRAFT? GOD KNOWS
THEY HAVE NOT BEEN ASKED TO MANUFACTUER IT FOR OTHER COUNTY BUT ASKED TO MAKE IT KEEPING EXPORT POTENTIAL IN MIND THE GOVERNMANT KNOWS THAT THE SOUL OF THE CRAFT WITHOUT IT, IT IS JUST JUNK BUT WHAT ABOUT THE AVIONICS SOME THING WAS SOLD TO A US COMPANY CORRECT ME IF IAM WRONG AND SOME COMPONENTS ARE ON THE SU-30MKI AND MKM.
GUIES STOP
JF-17 MAY BE A GOOD PLANE COMPETE AGAINST THE F-16 THOUGH REVERSED ENGINEREED FROM THE SAME THERE IS A VIDEO SOWING TURNING IS EQUAL TO F-16 THEN WHY DOES PAK ASK FOR MORE F-16?
Answer: AVIONICS, EWS GET THE PICTURE RIGHT
I GARUNTEE TEJAS MK2 WILL NOT BE SOLD TO ANY ONE MAY BE THE IAF WILL ALSO DECLINE IT BUT ONE THING THEY CANNOT IS THAT THE RESEARCH HAS PROVIDED SOME INFORMATION WHICH IS WORTH EXPORT.
Absolutely why not!
The pakis go gaga over the Jf-17 with a Russian engine and not yet with Quad FBW!
And the 'peaceful image' thing is something more foisted by the west upon us.They are free to wage war, build up defenses and maintain nuke arsenals many times more than their need.While India is supposed to be the 'thekedar' for the peaceful Gandhi image.Unfortunately,some in India too take to this belief.Of-course,the Pakis(and others) know only too well India knows how to dish out traetment sans Gandhigiri!Still its time to drop the coyness and almost self-deprecation on defense issues.A Nehruvian legacy.There is nothing wrong,in fact it is our duty to have strong defence forces and build them up.
It should be the top priority for DRDO / HAL to successfully roll out Mk 2 for the Indian services and parallely build capacity for the export market. There will be a ready market for a product that is acceptable to the Indian services. Not every nation is going to buy light fighters from China for obvious reasons. India should export to atleast a few of such customers. For that, the first priority is to make a top class product with the full involvement of the IAF and Indian Navy.
even if Tejas is behind Jas39 or F-CK-1 orJF-17,DRDO/HAL must strive to produce its Mark-1/Mark-2 versions in mass.we should not forget inferior SU-7's role in 1971 war.those who deride Tejas today may turn its supporter tomorrow.one indeginous system is far better than 5 advance imported weapon systems in the long run. Ashwini kumar.
shiv bhai u r doing a great work by providing us wd unbiased opinion.i m not very old reader of your blog but what i have find in your blog is quality of writing n sense of delivering the right content.dont publish it others will think i m buttering .have a good day n great carrier ahead
Like the Su-30 it may do wonders in a foreign air force. MoD should put its full weight behind the Tejas Mk-2 for exports. Similarly, if any friendly army wants the Arjun, while the IA is fooling around, we should establish separate assembly line for exports.
Fellas. We know the standards of IAF. We know how picky they are. An air force which likes to fly birds like pak fa, rafale, su30 mki wudnt accept a low end machine. AIF wants LCA in their fleet, this is the proof of quality of lca. Its a proud achievements of my countrymen. We did it against all odds. Pakis go cry to ur mum(china) u wont be able to make even an indegenous baloon in next 1000 yrs(even if u exist for that long)
Mk2 wil definately beat all other western fighter except 5 th gen
Jf17 is nthng in frnt f tejas mk2 even mk1.
Tejas mk1 is little unexperience indian fighter but mk2 wil far superior than mk1 like gripen saab!
Anyway dnt worry abt expo ely india wil export mk2.
why these pakistani beggars commenting so dumb on indian defence they have nothing in their hands they are blinded by their govt. shame paki