After the crash of Tejas fighter plane at the Dubai Air Show, Armenia has stopped talks to buy the aircraft from India. This $1.2 billion deal could have been India’s first Tejas export order.
tel aviv: After the crash of Tejas fighter plane at Dubai Air Show, Armenia has stopped talks to buy the aircraft from India. This news has been reported by Israeli media ‘The Jerusalem Post’. Tejas pilot, Indian Air Force Wing Commander Namash Sial was martyred in the accident. Israel has also been shocked by Armenia stopping talks. Israel was expected to get millions of dollars from this deal, because some equipment of Tejas fighter planes is imported from Israel itself.
Armenia was in talks with the Indian government and Tejas manufacturing company HAL to buy 12 aircraft for 1.2 billion dollars (ten thousand crore rupees). If this deal was finalized, it would have been Tejas’s first export order. Tejas was designed to replace the MiG-21 aircraft of the Indian Air Force. Till now only 40 Tejas aircraft have been handed over to the Indian Air Force. The Tejas Mk1A uses AESA radar technology and an electronic warfare system developed by Israel Aerospace Industries’ Elta. Pilots will also get a new generation view equipped with Israeli Elbit helmets. The aircraft will also be fitted with Derby radar-guided missiles developed by Rafale.