Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday took a sortie on Tejas aircraft at the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) site in Karnataka's Bengaluru.

 

“Successfully completed a sortie on the Tejas. The experience was incredibly enriching, significantly bolstering my confidence in our country's indigenous capabilities, and leaving me with a renewed sense of pride and optimism about our national potential,” Modi wrote on X while sharing some pictures.

He was also scheduled to review and visit HAL's manufacturing facility, including the facility for Tejas jets.

 

 

The prime minister has been pushing for indigenous production of defence products and has highlighted as to how his government has boosted their manufacturing in India and also their exports. Several countries have shown interest in buying Tejas, a light combat aircraft, and US defence giant GE Aerospace had inked a pact with HAL to jointly produce engines for the Mk-II-Tejas during Modi's state visit to the US.

 

 

Defence minister Rajnath Singh had noted in April that India’s defence exports have reached an all-time high of ₹15,920 crore in FY 2022-2023. It is a remarkable achievement for the country, he had said.

In October, Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari said the Indian Air Force was in the process of finalising a ₹1.15 lakh crore deal to procure an additional batch of 97 Tejas Mark-1A aircraft besides upgrading 84 Sukhoi-30MKI jets at a cost of ₹60,000 crore.