Jodhpur: In a first, General David L Goldfein, chief of staff of the US AirForce, flew a sortie in the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft ‘Tejas’ at theIAF station here in Rajasthan on Saturday.
According to reports, General Goldfein, who is on an official visit toIndia, was accompanied by Air Vice Marshal AP Singh as a co-pilot duringthe short flight.
The flight took off from Jodhpur Air Force station.
The Indian Air Force (IAF) also later tweeted a picture of Goldfeinpreparing to fly Tejas.
“General David L. Goldfein, Chief of Staff of the US Air Force, is on anofficial visit to India. He flew a sortie in ‘#MadeinIndia’ LCA Tejasaircraft at AF Stn Jodhpur today,” the Indian Air Force said in the tweet.
Gen Goldfein had reached the Air Force Station in Jodhpur on Friday andflew the aircraft today. He also met Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa today.
He was accompanied by US Pacific Air Forces Commander Gen TerrenceO’Shaughnessy.
They discussed ways to further enhance cooperation between the two airforces.
The US officials arrived on February 1 and a ‘Guard of Honour’ wasorganised on their arrival at Air Force Headquarters in New Delhi.
General Goldfein also thanked the Indian Air Force for the welcomereception.
”The IAF operates the second largest C-17 fleet in the world and continuesto mature their fleet operation to support regional mobility needs. Thereis already a strong relationship between our two air forces & I’m lookingforward to making it stronger,” he had said in a post on Facebook andTwitter.
Indigenously developed by the Aeronautical Development Agency, and producedby Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, Tejas, a fourth generation aircraft, canfly at 1,350 km per hour, with a payload capacity of 4,000 kg.
In November 2017, Singapore Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen flew in a Tejas jet.
The first squadron of Tejas was inducted into the IAF in July 2016.