HAL Tejas

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited · India · first flew 2001 · fighter

India's home-grown lightweight multirole fighter — a small, single-engine tailless delta, the smallest supersonic fighter of its generation.

Recognition (WEFT)

W — Wings	Low-mounted, delta
E — Engines	1 × turbofan, fuselage-mounted
F — Fuselage	13.2 m fuselage
T — Tail	No tailplane

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Spot it by:

Compact tailless delta with no horizontal stabilisers
Single fin and a single engine
Very small, light airframe with rounded delta wing roots

Spot the very small tailless delta with a single fin and no tailplane — its diminutive size and rounded compound-delta wing distinguish it from larger deltas like the Mirage 2000.

Specifications

The HAL Tejas has a length of 13.2 m (43 ft).
It has a wingspan of 8.2 m (27 ft).
Its maximum speed is 1975 km/h (1227 mph).
Typical crew: 1.

Figures are for the representative variant described above; marks differ. See how AircraftIQ sources figures.

History

Developed by the Aeronautical Development Agency and built by HAL, the Tejas first flew in 2001 after a long gestation and entered Indian Air Force service in 2015. It uses an unstable tailless delta layout with fly-by-wire controls.

Variants

Versions include the initial Mk1, the improved Mk1A, a naval prototype and the larger Mk2 under development.

Where you'll see it

An Indian front-line type not based in Britain, so it has not been seen in UK skies; encounters are limited to Indian bases and overseas exhibitions.

In depth

The Tejas programme cannot be understood without the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) project that preceded it — and 'preceded' is generous, since the LCA and Tejas are the same programme under different names at different stages of its long journey through Indian bureaucracy, funding cycles, and engineering milestones. The Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) was formed in 1984 specifically to manage the project, with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) designated as the production agency. The design intent from the beginning was a small, agile, fly-by-wire delta to replace the MiG-21, which had equipped the Indian Air Force in large numbers since the 1960s and was ageing into an attrition problem. The first technology demonstrator flew in January 2001, seventeen years after the programme began — a span that reflects the difficulty of developing a complex combat aircraft from a standing start rather than any particular mismanagement.

The MiG-21 fleet it was meant to replace is worth understanding. At peak, the IAF operated well over 800 MiG-21s in multiple variants. By the 2000s the fleet had shrunk through attrition — the type earned an unwelcome reputation for accident losses — and the urgency of finding a successor had grown proportionally. The Tejas Mk1 achieved initial operational clearance in 2015 and full operational clearance in 2019, at which point No. 45 Squadron 'Flying Daggers' at Sulur and No. 18 Squadron 'Flying Bullets' at Sulur became the first operational units. The timeline from first flight to FOC took eighteen years.

The Mk1A is the variant carrying the programme's current production weight. It differs from the Mk1 in ways that matter operationally: an active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar replaces the EL/M-2032 mechanically scanned set of the Mk1, self-protection is improved with a new electronic warfare suite, and the fleet has been cleared for in-flight refuelling. The Indian Air Force placed an order for 83 Mk1A aircraft in February 2021, at a contract value of approximately Rs 48,000 crore — at the time the largest indigenous defence contract in Indian history. Deliveries were scheduled to begin in 2024 but have experienced delays linked to the GE F404 engine supply chain and production ramp-up at HAL's Nasik facility. As of mid-2026, initial Mk1A deliveries have commenced but the full delivery schedule remains compressed.

The Mk2 is a substantially different aircraft despite sharing the Tejas name. It is larger, heavier, and designed around the GE F414 engine producing roughly 98 kN with afterburner — significantly more thrust than the F404 in the Mk1 series. The Mk2 is intended to be a true medium-weight multirole fighter rather than a lightweight point-defence platform, with internal volume for more fuel, a larger radar aperture, and compatibility with a heavier weapons load. ADA completed the preliminary design review for the Mk2 in 2022. A first flight before the end of the decade is the working target.

The naval Tejas variants — NP1 and NP2 demonstrators — have flown shore-based arrested landings and ski-jump launches at INS Hansa. The naval programme has moved more slowly than the land-based stream, partly because carrier aviation imposes structural demands that required significant airframe rework, and partly because INS Vikrant's air wing requirements have been partly addressed through MiG-29K procurement. The naval LCA programme continues but has not yet received a production order.

For identification against other small deltas, the key tells are size and planform detail. The Tejas is genuinely small — 13.2 m long with an 8.2 m wingspan — which makes it the smallest supersonic fighter in the contemporary world. Against the Dassault Mirage 2000 (14.4 m, 9.1 m wingspan), the Tejas is noticeably more compact and carries a more sculpted compound delta with pronounced leading-edge root extensions (LERX) that blend into the fuselage. The Gripen is superficially similar in size but is a canard-delta configuration with a distinct foreplane ahead of the wing, while the Tejas is a true tailless delta with no canard. The single GE F404 exhaust is clean and relatively small in diameter compared to the twin exhausts of the MiG-29 or the Su-30MKI that forms the IAF's high-end backbone.

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