According to the Indian side, deliveries of the Tejas MK1A to the troops will begin at the end of this month. According to India, the long-awaited Tejas modification ignited India's quest to "conceive, manufacture and use a homegrown fighter".
Not only that, the Indian side also claims that the "Brilliant" MK1A has a variety of advanced technologies, and its capabilities are enough to rival the "Thunder" Block3 and even the J-10C. So, where does the confidence of Indians come from?
According to the Bulgarian military network, citing India**, the "Brilliant" Mk1A developed by Hindustan Aeronautics will begin to be delivered at the end of February, and the first unit to be delivered is the third squadron of the Indian Air Force, codenamed "Cobra", which originally used retired MiG-21 "Bison" fighters. Allegedly, the pilots of the "Cobra" squadron undergo training at the Hindustan plant in Bangalore before receiving the aircraft.
Previously, India had already conducted the first test flight of the Tejas MK1A in April 2022. The main difference between the "Brilliant" MK1A and the "Tejour" basic model is that the former is equipped with a fixed oil receiving pipe, and only a few basic models are equipped with similar equipment.
From a technical point of view, the "Tejas MH1A" is an upgraded version of India's domestic LCA "Tejas MHK1 fighter", which will add more than 40 new functions on the basis of the "Tejas MH1 airframe", including in-flight refueling, active phased array radar, self-protection jammer, electronic warfare system, digital flight control computer, radar warning receiver, dual pylon, etc. In the future, India will also develop a more improved "Brilliant" MK2 fighter, and the shape of the fuselage will also undergo great changes.
The Indian Air Force is said to have ordered 83 MK1As,** and has also approved the purchase of another 97 MK1As, for a total of 180 aircraft. According to the Indian side, starting from this year, India will manufacture 8 Tejas MK1A per year, and by 2025 the annual production will increase to 16 aircraft, and by 2028 it will increase to 24 aircraft per year, which is already quite fast in the world. It is said that more than half of the 180 MK1A fighters will be equipped with Israeli-developed active phased array AESA radars, and the MK1A produced after 2026 will be equipped with a more advanced Indian domestic "Utam" active phased array radar, which will use gallium nitride technology more advanced than gallium arsenide.
According to the Indian side, the capabilities of the "Brilliant" MK1A are enough to match the "Thunder" Block3, and in the future, after the use of domestic gallium nitride radar, it will be able to match the J-10C. If you look at it from a radar point of view, the "Brilliant" MK1A does use the same active phased array radar as the "Thunder" Block3, but the radar of the "Thunder" Block3 is a gallium nitride radar, which means that the early "Brilliant" MK1A radar is still a generation behind the "Thunder" Block3.
Even if according to the beautiful ideals of the Indian plan, the "Brilliant" MK1A can be replaced with a gallium nitride radar after 2026, it is only barely reaching the radar technology level of the "Thunder" Block3, which is still a huge difference compared with the J-10C. It should be emphasized that the "Thunder" Block3 and J-10CP are already officially in service in Pakistan, while the "Brilliant" MK1A, which is one or two grades lower, has just made its first flight, and the time to replace the GaN radar will be a few years later.
Therefore, the propaganda of the Indian side about the "Brilliant" MK1A is grossly exaggerated. As for some India's claims that the greatly improved "Brilliant" Mk2 can challenge the J-20 in the future, there is no boundary boasting. Even the so-called "perfect version of the Brilliant" Mk2 was only replaced with American F414 engines, a pair of canards were added to improve maneuverability, and the IRST system was added. Judging from all indications, the "perfect version of the Brilliant" is only trying to catch up with the J-10C, and the lack of technology in the IRST system of Indian fighters alone means that the gap between the two sides is at least 20 years.
In addition, it should be pointed out that "how many years apart from the J-10C is still calculated according to India's own ideal schedule. The "Brilliant" MK1A, which had just made its first flight the year before last, boasted that it would officially equip the troops this year, and quickly increased its annual production to 16 aircraft next year, which has already exceeded the production rate of the "Typhoon" and "Rafale", which seems too optimistic.
You must know that the pace of development and production of the "Tejour" fighter has always been "several times slower than propaganda than actual action." The development program for this fighter was launched by Injella Gandhi in the early 80s of the last century, much earlier than the "Thunder". However, it was not until 2001 that the Tejas fighter began its first test flights, and in 2015 it was barely equipped with troops, known as the MK1 type.
Due to its backward performance and poor reliability, the Indian Air Force is equipped with only 50 Tejas Mk1 fighters, of which 17 are test aircraft for testing and 18 are training aircraft for training. Even with the addition of test aircraft, only two squadrons were formed that could be used in combat. The improved MK1A was proposed precisely as a compensatory measure for the "Tejal" MK1 in order to avoid the complete bankruptcy of the Indian domestic fighter program.
Despite the fact that the Tejas MK1A is only a fighter with patches sewn, India is confident that this fighter will be able to beat the Thunder in the international market. First of all, the engine, India** claims that since the US General Electric Company is negotiating the transfer of F414 engines with India, the "Tejal" MK1A and "Tejal" MK2 will outperform the "Thunder" in terms of engine production. At this point, the Indian side seems to have forgotten that the engine of the "Thunder" has already been localized, and the localization of India's F414 is still being negotiated.
On the other hand, India believes that the Tejas MK1A is also very competitive in terms of **. According to India's claims, the export cost of the "Brilliant" MK1A is 43 million US dollars, while the export unit price of the "Thunder" Block3 has reached 55 million US dollars, so the former has more advantages.
It is worth mentioning that the Indian side declared that both Egypt and Nigeria were interested in purchasing Tejas fighters, and even claimed that Egypt would replace the K-8 trainer imported from China with the Tejas two-seater. You must know that Egypt and Nigeria are both traditional markets for China's first-class aircraft, and India's intention to try to directly grab the market from the "Thunder" is very obvious. In addition, India has also tried to sell Tejas fighter jets in the Philippines, Argentina, Malaysia, Australia and other countries, but all of them have failed. (Author: Tao Mujian).