*New Delhi: *General David L Goldfein, Chief of Staff of US Air Force flewin India’s indigenous light combat aircraft, the Tejas, this morning, in aspecial flight that took off from the Jodhpur Air Force Station, signallingthe soaring ties between the two air forces.
The US Air Force chief was accompanied by Air Vice Marshal AP Singh asco-pilot during the 40-minute sortie. General Goldfein is the first foreignchief commander to fly in the multi-role light fighter, which is beingpitched as the replacement of the ageing MiG-21 aircraft.
“General David L Goldfein flew a sortie in ‘Made-in-India’ LCA Tejasaircraft at the Air Force Station in Jodhpur today,” the Air Force tweeted.
The top ranking US military officer had reached India on Thursday on anofficial visit to deepen relations. “There is already a strong relationshipbetween our two air forces and I’m looking forward to making it stronger,”he wrote in a Facebook post shortly after being welcomed at AirHeadquarters in the national capital.
He also referred to the IAF’s acquisition of the C-17 Globemaster transportaircraft that is capable of lifting tanks to the border with China andPakistan. “The IAF operates the second largest C-17 fleet in the world andcontinues to mature their fleet operation to support regional mobilityneeds,” the US Air Force Chief said.
For the Tejas that is being inducted in the Air Force, it is also seen asthe biggest endorsement of the fighter that has been in the making for morethan three decades.
Ng Eng Hen, the Defence Minister of the island nation of Singapore had goneon a sortie from the Kalaikunda airbase in West Bengal last November. “I amnot a pilot,” he had later said, “but I can say it felt… really smooth”.
General Goldfein would know better.
A command pilot with 4,200 flying hours, the Chief Of Staff of US Air Forcehas flown combat missions in operations during the Gulf War, Afghanistanand the erstwhile Yugoslavia. It was during one of these missions overSerbia back in 1999 when his fighter jet was hit by a surface-to airmissile. He successfully ejected and was rescued.
Under development for more than three decades, the indigenous Tejas,earlier known as the Light Combat Aircraft or LCA is the first fighter jetto be built in India since the HF-24 Marut designed several decades earlier.
Severely criticised for delays in its development, the Tejas fighter hasbelatedly shown promise as a jet far more capable than the MiG-27 and theMiG-21, legacy fighters which the Indian Air Force is in the process ofretiring.
In December last year, the government paved the way for the manufacture of83 indigenous Tejas Mk-1A Light Combat aircraft by Hindustan AeronauticsLimited. The deal is likely to be worth close to 60,000 crores and would beamong the largest ever deals the government has sanctioned for the domesticarms sector, a huge boost for the government’s ‘Make in India’ defencemanufacturing programme.