Tejas set for final air trials at Pokhran in February 2013

India's indigenously developed light combat aircraft Tejas will be put to final test at the forthcoming air exercise `Iron Feast', to be held at Pokhran, in Rajasthan, in February next year.

Tejas will be tested for its capabilities, its lethality, endurance and precision at the air exercises, ahead of inducting it in the Indian Air Force, Air Marshal Anjan Kumar Gogoi, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, South-Western Air command, said at a press conference in Jaisalmer.

Tejas had undergone successful performance trials, including weapons trials ahead of its operational clearance and is now planned to be finally cleared for service after this exercise.

If the LCA's performance is found to be on par with IAF's requirements on every parameter, the first Tejas squadron will be deployed in Bangalore, he said.

Tejas is a lightweight multirole fighter with a tailless, compound delta-wing design powered by a single engine. The LCA programme, which began in the 1980s, was meant for replacing India's aging MiG-21 fighters.

It integrates technologies such as relaxed static stability, fly-by-wire flight control system, advanced digital cockpit, multi-mode radar, integrated digital avionics system, advanced composite material structures and a flat rated engine.

The IAF is reported to have a requirement for 200 single-seat and 20 two-seat conversion trainers, while the Indian Navy may order up to 40 single-seaters to replace its Sea Harrier FRS.51 and Harrier T.60.

The Tejas achieved a speed of over 1,350 km per hour (840 mph) during its sea level flight trials, thus becoming the second supersonic fighter developed indigenously by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited after the HAL Marut. The Tejas was cleared in January 2011 for use by Indian Air Force pilots.