India’s Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh has issued a public and pointed warning about delays in major defence projects. Speaking at the CII Annual Business Summit, he revealed that the Indian Air Force is still waiting for delivery of the Tejas Mk1A fighter jets—three years after signing a ₹48,000 crore contract with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).
Delivery of the first aircraft was scheduled for March 2024. Not a single jet has arrived. “Many times, we know while signing contracts that those systems will never come,” the Air Chief said. “Not one project has been on time. Why do we promise what we cannot deliver?”
India’s defence readiness is your national safety net. When fighter jets don’t arrive on time, it’s not just a bureaucratic hiccup—it’s a gap in India’s air defence. And it’s a setback in the goal of building a self-reliant defence industry under Atmanirbhar Bharat.
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Tejas Mk1A Still Grounded
The Tejas Mk1A project, intended to strengthen India’s air combat capability, has become a prime example of what’s going wrong. The Air Chief said there’s been “zero delivery” from HAL, even though the Air Force was promised 11 jets by now.
It’s not just Tejas. “The prototype of Tejas Mk2 hasn’t rolled out. There’s no prototype yet of the stealth AMCA fighter either,” Singh added.
This isn’t the first time the Air Chief has raised red flags. In October last year, he pointed out that India had once outpaced China in defence tech but has since fallen behind. In February, a hot mic moment caught him saying, “HAL is just not in mission mode.”
He was promised visible progress on the Tejas Mk1A by February. “Not a single one is ready,” he said.
The comments come right after Operation Sindoor, India’s swift military response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack. Over 100 terrorists were neutralized. The Air Chief used the moment to underscore how fast wars evolve. “The character of war is changing daily. New technologies are needed now, not 10 years later,” he said.
There’s hope. The government has cleared private players to participate in the AMCA project—a rare move. The Air Chief sees this as a “very big step” toward fixing the broken system. “We cannot only talk about producing in India. We must start designing in India,” he said.
The message is clear: India cannot afford to confuse paperwork with progress. Signing a defence contract without delivery is like buying an umbrella that arrives after the storm. War doesn’t wait.
If Atmanirbhar Bharat is to be more than a slogan, India’s defence ecosystem must be ready now, not in some distant future.
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