New Delhi: India’s indigenously made Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas will be participating in a multi-nation air exercise named ‘Ex Cobra Warrior 22’ at Waddington in the UK from March 6 to 27, for the first time.

The aircraft  will participate in the exercise along with fighter aircraft of the UK and other leading Air Forces. The exercise is aimed at providing operational exposure and sharing best practices amongst the participating Air Forces, thereby enhancing combat capability and forging bonds of friendship.

This will be a platform for LCA Tejas to demonstrate its manoeuvrability and operational capability, an official statement said. Five Tejas aircraft are scheduled to fly to the United Kingdom. IAF’s C-17 aircraft will provide the necessary transport support for induction and de-induction.

The indigenous aircraft recently participated in the ‘Singapore Air Show-2022’, held from February 15 to 18.

Earlier this year, a contract to manufacture 83 Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas fighters were handed over to the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) by the Defence Ministry at the Aero India international air show.

The Tejas is a single-engine multirole combat aircraft which has a tailless, compound delta wing design with “relaxed static stability” for enhanced manoeuvrability and agility.

The Tejas is a multi-role combat aircraft and its flexibility permits it to carry out interception, air-to-surface and anti-shipping roles in a single mission. The wind tunnel testing and computational fluid dynamics analysis have optimised the design of Tejas for minimum transonic and supersonic wave drag, as well low wing-loading.