Image credits to their respective owners. Updated with better quality images

SP-16 on its first flight

SP-15 on its first flight

Images courtesy of Ananth Krishnan

SP-13

SP-14

2 Tejas Mk1 fighters of No.45 Squadron

Open the image in a new browser to see the full size image..the compound delta wing is clearly visible in this pic.

IAF MCC Twitter Link

Tejas Mk1 trainer from Aero India 2019

One with the newer radome

And the other still sporting the older radome.

And with SP-15 having flown yesterday, all 16 single seat fighters should be with No.45 Squadron by the end of this month.

Referring to bkacarcher’s post above, I note that the ADA Combat Aircraft Progtamme Director says “… we are confident the first FOC aircraft can be delivered by HAL before October 2019.” Why a half year delay between delivery of the last IOC Tejas and the first FOC?

While that interview with R. Madhavan may have been published recently, it was clearly taken sometime late last year. The FOC was accorded on Dec 31, 2018 and final FOC at Aero India 2019.

But, that interview of his gave the reason as to why there will be no deliveries between April 2019 till October 2019. That is because while there are assembly lines in place that should be able to deliver 16 LCA Mk1 in 2019-2020, the assembly itself was delayed by the 6 month delay in FOC being granted. HAL nevertheless, moved ahead and began putting assemblies and structures into place on jigs, hoping that FOC would be achieved and no changes would be required for those parts that were already fabricated or put onto the structure.

Anyway, HAL still maintains that by end March 2020, another 16 FOC LCA Mk1 fighters will be delivered to the IAF. That would mean the second squadron will be fully equipped with all single seat fighters by this time next year.

After that, twin seaters will begin to be delivered.

There is some delay on LCA as FOC is yet to come. Even though the order was placed with us in 2006, the IOC came in 2013 from Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) and that is why we could not start production. Even after IOC, there were a large number of drawing changes and amendments, and as a result we could hardly produce anything in the first two years. Now, as we try to stabilise it, FOC is going to come in December. If it doesn’t, there might be problems next year, as we have set up assembly lines for 16 aircraft. This was also understood by the Secretary for Defence Production. Assuming that FOC comes in December, we are also making the structure parallely — believing that there will be no more changes in the drawing. So next year, we will be able to meet the targets. In case of a delay in FOC or other complications, we may not be able to meet the target. In respect of all other platforms we are on time.

The missile on the right R/73,is missing quite a piece.Would be interesting where the warhead is located in R-73

See my post above. the warhead section is the one in the middle, which is completely missing on the 4th missile. Confirms that it was fired, warhead did blow up and the seeker found somewhere on the ground.

See how clearly intact these missiles that were still on the pylon looked, versus the 4th one, of which just the seeker was found.

And they first claimed to have found 2 of the missiles on the Bison’s wreckage. Now the number multiplied to 4. 😀