A naval version of the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited-built Tejas light fighter (LCA) made history on September 13 as it performed the program’s first-ever arrested landing.
The event took place at the Hansa Goa shore-based test facility and paves the way for an aircraft carrier landing demonstration on board the Indian Navy aircraft carrier Vikramaditya.
The navy and the defense ministry did not provide additional information on when the carrier landing of the domestically-developed fighter could take place.
It was noted that the milestone was achieved after several years of flight testing and four campaigns of dedicated testing at the Goa facility.
“This arrested landing heralds the arrival of true indigenous capability and displays the professional prowess of our scientific community Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) embedded with design and build capability of HAL(ARDC), DRDO and CSIR Labs involved in executing this land mark event,” a defense ministry statement said.
The naval LCA achieved its first flight in April 2012. Once the naval version of the LCA enters service, it will replace Sea Harriers which were retired in March 2016.
A milestone event towards development of an indigenous Deck Based Fighter aircraft was achieved today with the first ever arrested landing on the Shore Based Testing Facility at the Naval Air Station at Goa, by LCA (Navy) aircraft flown by Cmde JA Maolankar. @SpokespersonMoD pic.twitter.com/iPdObV2tXD
— SpokespersonNavy (@indiannavy) September 13, 2019