Indigenously developed Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) “Tejas” will be inducted into the Indian Air Force this year. The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) Director General Dr. VK Saraswat was speaking after inaugurating the Aerospace Luminary Lecture Series organised by Hyderabad chamber of Aeronautical society of India.

He said Tejas was ready to enter into the final operational clearance phase since it has already completed 1855 flying hours besides successfully handling the operational clearance it encountered initially.

Referring to the recent successful maiden flight of the Naval Variant of LCA, he said the first trial of LCA achieved capability, particularly on take-off and landing from an aircraft carrier. He said the Naval variant would certainly be a force multiplier for Indian Navy.

Dr. Saraswat said April 2012 would go down in the histroy as a remarkable month owing to successful launches of 'Agni-V', 'RISAT-I' and the first flight trial of LCA Navy.