India Tejas Aircraft Emerges As Malaysia Top Choice For Its New Fighter Jet Program

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India’s light combat aircraft Tejas has emerged as Malaysia’s first choice. R Madhavan, Chairman and Managing Director of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited gave this information on Sunday. Actually, Malaysia is considering to replace its fleet of old fighter planes. R Madhavan said that talks are going on between the two sides regarding this purchase. R Madhavan, Chairman and Managing Director of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, said in an interview on Sunday that despite stiff competition from China’s JF-17 jets, South Korea’s FA-50 and Russia’s MiG-35 as well as the Yak-130, Malaysia Have liked Indian aircraft.

He said India has also offered to set up an MRO (Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul) facility in Malaysia for its Russian-origin Su-30 fighter fleet as part of the deal as the attack in Ukraine led to western sanctions against Moscow. Huh. Due to which difficulties are being faced in procuring parts for the aircraft from Russia. Expressing the possibility of the deal being finalized soon, he said that I am very sure about it, unless there is some political change.

A top official of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited said that if the deal is finalized and finalised, it will give a very good sign to other potential buyers of the aircraft. The deal will also boost the overall export potential of Tejas. Madhavan said that this dialogue between the two countries is almost in the final stages. We are the only country offering them support for their Su-30 aircraft other than Russia. We are the only ones who can support them to the extent they require for the Sukhoi fleet.

He said that a team of highly placed officials and experts is expected to visit India soon to take the procurement process forward. Malaysia is buying aircraft to replace its fleet of old Russian MiG-29 fighters. It was not immediately clear how many planes Malaysia is looking to buy. Madhavan said that Tejas is a much better aircraft than JF-17 and FA-50. Tejas is a multi-role supersonic fighter aircraft manufactured by HAL that is capable of flying in high-threat air environments.

In February last year, the Defense Ministry inked a Rs 48,000-crore deal with HAL for the purchase of 83 Tejas fighter jets for the Indian Air Force (IAF). India has started work on an ambitious USD 5 billion project to develop the fifth generation Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) along with the Mk 2 variant of Tejas.

Explaining the deal, Madhavan said that in fact India is the only country that covered everything they needed and we also met their budget requirements. He said no one would offer him an upgrade as fast as we would offer. They will have an option available in Tejas Mark 2 and can also look at AMCA.