India’s Tejas Fighters Leave For LIMA-2019

The Indian Air Force (IAF) announced Friday that two of its indigenously designed Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA)  had left for Malaysia to take part in the Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace Exhibition 2019 (LIMA-2019).

Participating team members along with two Tejas aircraft had been ferried out from the Kalaikunda base in West Bengal for Langkawi, the IAF announced on its Twitter account.

Russia’s Ilyushin Il-76 and America’s C-130J belonging to the IAF will provide logistics support for the induction of Tejas fighters at the exhibition.

Malaysia has shortlisted the Tejas jet among the roster for its Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) procurement programme. It is in competition against the Chinese-Pakistani JF-17 jet, South Korean F-50 and Russian YAK-130. With an initial purchase of 12 units, Malaysia is also looking to have an option for additional 24 units in the future.

The JF-17 will however, not be participating in the Malaysian exhibition. According to the official list of participating aircraft released by the organizers, the JF-17 will not be present in the static and flying displays.