Among the countries that have evinced interest in Tejas, the
light combat aircraft (LCA), are the US, Australia, Malaysia,
Egypt, Indonesia, Argentina and the Philippines, the Ministry of
Defence informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply.
The single engine plane is manufactured by the Hindustan
Aeronautics Limited (HAL), a defence PSU under the Ministry of
Defence.
In case of Malaysia, the HAL has responded to a Request For
Information received from Royal Malaysian Air Force, Malaysia, in
February 2019. Subsequently, in October 2021 a Request For Proposal
was issued against tender by Malaysia 18 jets, the HAL had offered
the twin-seater variant, said Ajay Bhatt, Minister of State in the
MoD. Malaysia is procuring the aircraft to replace its ageing fleet
of Russian MiG-29 fighter planes. The number of aircraft that
Malaysia is looking at procuring is not immediately clear.
To a separate question on whether the government proposes to
manufacture a stealth fighter jet, Minister of State for Defence
Ajay Bhatt said “yes” and added the “autonomous flying wing
technology demonstrator” has been successfully tested by the
DRDO.
