Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal AP Singh is set to fly the Tejas light combat aircraft (LCA) fighter jet from Jodhpur airbase on Sunday, in what will be the Indian Air Force chief’s final flight before he hangs up his uniform on October 31, officials aware of the matter said on Sunday.
Seated beside Singh was General Kevin B Schneider, commander of US Pacific Air Forces (PACAF), accompanied by senior air force leaders from around the world. Singh was responding to a question about whether Washington had formally offered the aircraft to India. Last year, US President Donald Trump announced that the US was paving the way for India to acquire F-35 fighters.
It is among the 150 Indian and foreign aircraft participating in Tarang Shakti, which features eight air forces and 32 observer nations and concludes on Monday. The aircraft has completed more than 600 sorties, clocking around 800 hours in the air, officials said. “I was telling the PACAF commander that your people don’t let us come anywhere close to the F-35, and you talk about selling it to us. There is no offer from the US for us to buy the F-35,” Singh said.
His final salute to the skies during the multilateral combat exercise Tarang Shakti will also turn the spotlight on the LCA’s latest Mk-1A variant, which is delayed, the next chapter in India’s homegrown fighter story, the officials said.
