In among the hardest-hitting public feedback made on the indigenous Tejas jet-fighter challenge, Air Marshal Nagesh Kapoor, who retired because the Indian Air Power’s Vice Chief lower than two months in the past, has stated the made-in-India fighter Tejas Mk-2 will not be operationally related in a frontline function when it begins coming into service in important numbers within the mid 2030s.
Requested if it is sensible for India to have a fourth technology plane in 2035 when China has moved onto sixth technology platforms and Pakistan is contemplating fifth technology [jets], the Air Marshal was categorical – ”No, operationally, undoubtedly No.”
Fifth-generation fighters such because the US F-22 or the Chinese language J-20 mix stealth, which makes them tough to trace on radar with sensor fusion, and the interior carriage of weapons. Sixth-generation fighters, corresponding to China’s J-36 and J-50 construct on that stealth basis by including AI-driven autonomy with drone wingmen, and a “system of techniques” strategy the place the jet acts as a networked node moderately than a standalone platform.
India presently has neither Fifth nor Sixth technology platforms. Some estimates say China is on its technique to deploying 500 fifth-generation J-20 fighters by 2030.
On the identical time, the Air Marshal stated fourth technology fighters of the category of the Tejas Mk-2 might nonetheless play a non-cutting-edge function.
”You possibly can have a sure variety of these fifth technology & sixth technology fighters, however given the scale of the nation, you will not be capable of deploy them in every single place. So these gaps which proceed to stay to be stuffed must be stuffed by this class of plane.”
Considerably, the Air Marshal slammed the angle of Hindustan Aeronautics Restricted (HAL) which builds the Tejas fighters. He stated the current lack of availability of the Tejas Mk1A variant of the fighter in important numbers was a ”enormous” concern.
”Why should or not it’s {that a} machine that was promised to us so a few years again with a sure set of capabilities continues to be denied to us on one pretext or the opposite?”
He then added: ”Why should we be hamstrung as a result of somebody someplace has not been capable of preserve their guarantees?”
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Whereas strongly backing the necessity for made in India fighters, the Air Marshal Kapoor added, ”Indigenous is the best way to go indubitably however how lengthy can we preserve ready?”
The Tejas prototype first flew in 2001, and the Indian Air Power went on to order 40 Tejas Mk.1 jets. In 2021, it ordered 83 of the extra superior Tejas Mk-1A variant in a roughly Rs 46,000-crore deal. In the meanwhile, not a single Tejas Mk-1A has been delivered to the IAF, with engine deliveries of the US-built Basic Electrical F404-IN20 having didn’t sustain with the tempo of manufacture. Within the interim interval, HAL reportedly continues to deal with integration issues involving its radar, avionics and weapons techniques.
A secondary order for 97 extra Tejas Mk-1A jets was introduced on 25 September 2025, in a Rs 62,370-crore deal. HAL, in the meantime, has been creating a genuinely extra superior successor, the Tejas Mk-2, and initially promised to roll out its prototype in 2022 – a promise it has didn’t ship on, with the timeline having slipped repeatedly since by way of 2023, 2024, 2025 and into 2026. As of HAL’s most up-to-date replace, on the Farnborough Airshow in July 2026, the Mk-2’s first flight is now anticipated someday between March and July 2027.
”Their (HAL’s) sense of urgency just isn’t equal to the sense of urgency of the Indian Air Power,” stated Air Marshal Kapoor. ”The form of urgency that they present for the job that they do is manner far lesser than what we wish to have within the Indian Air Power.”
It is not simply the Tejas programme that the IAF is anxious about. India’s first home-grown stealth fighter, the AMCA (Superior Medium Fight Plane), which might take a decade in growth and trials, might also miss preliminary know-how benchmarks in its first variants when they’re accessible for induction.
India, the Air Marshal feels, should companion with a European consortium engaged on state-of-the-art sixth technology platforms. ”There are different issues which are taking place – why not FCAS? Why not GCAP? Why not take part on any a type of programmes?”
”You might be in all probability going with a consortium which has received a great file of supply, of growth. Why undergo this Gen 4, Gen 4.5 steps when you recognize the following smartest thing is already being considered and why not simply be part of up there?”
FCAS, or the Future Fight Air System, is a joint challenge between France, Germany, and Spain to develop a next-generation fighter jet together with supporting drones and a “fight cloud” community, focused for round 2040. GCAP, the International Fight Air Programme, is a joint challenge between the UK, Italy, and Japan. This goals for a next-generation fighter round 2035.
Hindustan Aeronautics Restricted was excluded from India’s AMCA stealth programme in early February 2026 after failing to qualify in an Expression of Curiosity (EoI) – an early screening step, earlier than any formal contract, the place the federal government checks which firms are financially and industrially able to taking over a challenge – that had been opened to personal trade in mid-2025. HAL’s order backlog was almost eight instances its turnover, far over the allowed restrict. Three private-led teams handed as a substitute and obtained the formal Request for Proposal: Tata Superior Techniques Restricted solo, an L&T-BEL consortium, and a Bharat Forge-BEML consortium.
