Tejas variants.

The Mk1 is the version the Indian Air Force flies today. It was ordered in two batches of 20 — an Initial Operational Clearance (IOC) standard batch and a Final Operational Clearance (FOC) standard batch, the latter adding air-to-air refuelling and beyond-visual-range missiles.

HAL handed over the last two twin-seat trainers on 18 September 2026, completing the order: 40 aircraft — 32 fighters and 8 trainers.¹ The fleet flies with No. 45 Squadron "Flying Daggers" and No. 18 Squadron "Flying Bullets".

The Mk1A keeps the Mk1's airframe and GE F404-IN20 engine but upgrades what matters in combat: an AESA radar, a new electronic-warfare self-protection suite, and easier maintenance.

• First order — 83 aircraft (73 fighters, 10 trainers), signed in February 2021.
• Second order — 97 aircraft (68 fighters, 29 twin-seaters), signed on 25 September 2025 for ₹62,370 crore. This batch gets the indigenous UTTAM AESA radar and the Swayam Raksha Kavach EW suite, with over 64% indigenous content; deliveries run from 2027-28 over six years.²

Where production stands (September 2026): HAL has 27 Mk1A airframes built and is completing radar and weapons integration as GE engine deliveries ramp up. The first handovers to the IAF are targeted for around the end of 2026.³

To speed up production, HAL opened a third Tejas line at Nashik on 17 October 2025, raising capacity to 24 aircraft a year.⁴ No. 3 Squadron "Cobras", a former MiG-21 unit, is widely reported to be the first Mk1A squadron.

Despite the name, the Mk2 is effectively a new, larger medium-weight fighter: longer, heavier, with close-coupled canards and the more powerful GE F414-INS6 engine. Design targets include a maximum take-off weight of about 17.5 tonnes, 11–13 hardpoints (reports vary) and a 6.5-tonne weapons load.⁵

HAL targets engine ground runs in March 2027 and a first flight by mid-2027.⁵

The twin-seater adds a second cockpit for conversion training while keeping the fighter's systems. Eight Mk1 trainers are in service. Twin-seat trainers are part of both orders — 10 in the 2021 contract and 29 Mk1A twin-seaters in the 2025 contract.^1,2

The naval Tejas (LCA Navy) was built with a strengthened undercarriage, an arrester hook and leading-edge vortex controllers for slow carrier approaches. It made the first ski-jump launch from the shore-based test facility in Goa in December 2014, the first arrested landing on INS Vikramaditya on 11 January 2020, and a landing on India's home-built carrier INS Vikrant on 6 February 2023.⁶

The naval prototypes served as technology demonstrators, and their carrier experience feeds directly into India's next naval fighter, the Twin Engine Deck-Based Fighter (TEDBF).⁷ India has also ordered 26 Rafale-M carrier fighters, signed in April 2025.⁸