Bangalore, December 20
In a significant achievement, the indigenously developed supersonic light combat aircraft (LCA) Tejas today got an initial operational clearance (IOC) from the authorities paving the way for the multirole plane to join the fleet of the Indian Air Force (IAF).

An elated Defence Minister A K Antony, who was the chief guest at the IOC awarding function held at the tarmac of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) airport here, said, “It is a great day for the entire nation”.

Air Chief Marshal NAK Browne said, “This day marks a historic milestone and signifies India’s entry into a select group of nations capable of designing their own state-of-the art fighter aircraft”.

R K Tyagi, chief of HAL, the contractor, said, “It was a dream come true for India”.

The IOC came in the form of an oversized certificate containing the reference number of the “Release to Service Document” of the plane and giving the IAF the go-ahead for flying the jet. The certificate was handed over to Antony by CEMILAC (Centre for Military Airworthiness and Certification) chief K Tamilmani. Antony gave it to the IAF chief who accepted it.

LCAs in use right now are various kinds of prototypes which are being flown by test pilots of the National Flight Test Centre here.

While the test pilots are originally from the IAF, the methodology followed by them is different from pilots deployed with IAF’s regular squadrons.