Bengaluru. Indian aerospace major Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) has produced 16th Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) as per the target till March 31, 2019, a company press statement said on March 25.

The customer flights are expected to be completed by the end of this month.

It may be noted here that HAL has order for 40 LCAs (16 fighters each in Initial Operational Clearance and Final Operational Clearance and 8 trainers) from Indian Air Force (IAF). The aircraft was inducted into IAF squadron ‘Flying Daggers’ on July 1, 2016.

The production of LCA commenced in 2014 with a current production capacity of eight aircraft per annum. A second production line has been established at Aircraft Division (Bangalore Complex) of HAL, which is carrying out structural assembly, final assembly and equipping of the aircraft.

Recently HAL had received drawings and documents related to FOC with limited clearance for LCA (Tejas) from CEMILAC and ADA.

With this HAL can start working towards production of FOC standard fighter aircraft. The first aircraft in FOC configuration may roll-out by the end of this calendar year.

LCA demonstrated its combat capability in the IAF’s ‘Gagan Shakti’ exercise by firing the Air-to-Air BVR Derby missile.

Two LCAs would be flying at the Langkawi International Maritime Aerospace Expo (Lima- 2019) in Malaysia beginning on March 26.
HAL team will be providing the technical support at the show.