ghostrider883

The journey from Tejas's first flying prototype KH-2001 to LA-5001 took three days short of 15 and half years. Proud day for us Indians!!! After the HF-24 Marut, the Tejas is the first Indian fighter to enter squadron service. The country witnessed today a fine aerobatic display of LA-5001 by the CO,Group Captain Madhav Rangachari,on the eve of the squadron formation ceremony.

No.300 Sqdn, the SHAR sqdn, will re-form on MiG-29K/KUBs, making it the second IN MiG-29 sqdn after 303 Sqdn (which already operates from INS VIkramaditya). The Navy will thus have two fighter squadrons for the first time in its history - "White Tigers"[300] & "Black Panthers"[303] The INS Viraat is not big enough to operate the MiG-29Ks nor is it capable of arrested recovery. The ship is on its farewell tour of major Indian ports(without its air wing) before decommissioning. The author probably meant the INS Vikramaditya and not Viraat. From what I recall, the negotiations were on back in 2005 or 2006 and the sales failure wasn't related to the nuclear tests. At the time, India was already planning to upgrade its existing FRS.51 SHARs with EL/M-2032 Radar, Derby BVR missiles and locally made EW gear. The UK made it clear, from the start, that under their contract with the US, they couldn't sell the AIM-120s, & Blue Vixen Radar was not for export. The aircraft were offered without radars, ready for refitting with EL/M-2032. I presume the British negotiators thought that India would be happy to have a fleet of SHARs all with the same radar & missiles. After months of negotiations, India decided not to buy them, citing as the reason that AIM-120 & Blue Vixen weren't included.

Battle Axes MiG-21MF