REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- India’s Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) will conduct a flight demonstration during this year’s Bahrain International Air Show held from January 21-23, The Business Standard reports based on information obtained from India’s Ministry of Defense.
“The show will witness flying demonstration of the ‘Tejas’, the latest and state of the art Light Combat Aircraft, the ‘Four-plus’ generation and highly cost effective fighter aircraft,” a defense ministry spokesperson said on January 1.
The display and flight demonstration of the Tejas fighter jet can be interpreted as a direct response to Pakistan’s attempt to sell its jointly-developed Pakistan Aeronautical Complex/Chengdu Aircraft Industry Corporation (PAC/CAC) JF-17 Thunder combat aircraft on the international arms market.
The two fighter jet will compete to win Asian market especially for Srilankan Air Force. New Delhi has recently offered its Tejas supersonic jet fighter to the Sri Lanka Air Force.
‘Janes Defence Weekly’ had reported that following the first export deal for its JF-17 multirole fighter to Myanmar, Pakistan was expected to be pushing hard for a follow-up agreement with Sri Lanka that would mark an important step in further extending its defence co-operation footprint in the Indian Ocean region.
In 2010, Pakistan has offered to cooperate with Indonesia in manufacturing JF-17 war planes. But, Indonesia had preferred to cooperate with South Korean to jointly produce KFX/IFX jet fighter.
So far, Azerbaijan and Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, Egypt, Iran, Lebanon and Malaysia had shown interest in the Pakistani jet fighters. Who will win competition? time will tell the answer.