Why Tejas is no small feat ??! (in layman's term)

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After almost 30 years in development at HAL, when compared to international biggies like Gripen from SAAB, the Tejas does falls short but its too quick to be discounted, and actually it represents more than a sub par army jet and I will tell you why...

After planning started in 1980, development didn't start until 1990 when the funds actually started to flow into the project. Built with a meagre budget of 1 billion USD, Tejas is the first indigenously built light weight fighter jet by India's HAL. After several delays due to Engine procurement, funds shortage and sanctions on India after 1998 underground atomic testings, the Tejas started flying by 2004 and so far it has hadn't had much of a glitch. That's not to say it doesn't has issues. The engine is imported from GE (cuz the proposed indigenous Kaveri couldn't be developed on time), which is not providing enough thrust, the payload is not huge and it weighs a little too much for the given category/engine. That's said theres a lot of engineering tricks up its sleeve to get it there. E.g. it has  largest amount of carbon composite of any other 'bird', no tail wings at all, various indigenously developed techs. Tejas is over 70% Indian. Also is true the Indian Army is not too happy with it and they have there reasons. Still they ordered 40 of those to continue/finance the development of Tejas MK1A(83 ordered) and Tejas MK 2(proposed 300 to be ordered in future).

The purpose of Tejas is to reduce India's reliance on importing of the jets(and save 10s of billions of USD) and end this trade absolutely in the coming decades. Once at par with other jets, Tejas could become a substantial source of income for the Indian government. Tejas would also be a sign of India's self reliance at extremely sophisticated of tech, where so far it has been 'the' largest buyer of military tech around the globe. Also built at far less cost, the closest competitor Gripen was built at the cost of 14 billion USD.

Over the years of development, India has learned invaluably about various tech that goes in, developing its own by trial and error. Further Tejas MK1 is only the very first iteration of the project. Tejas 1A, the superior version is supposed to improve on various weaknesses of the first iteration whereas Tejas MK2 will be a significant improvement over the previous versions, leaps and bounds ahead actually. In fact the Mk2 will go head to head with its international peers. The first delivery of MK2 will start by 2025 (fingers crossed) exactly in time when the last MK1A's will be delivered to the Army, exactly on time when indigenous & powerful Kaveri engines will finally be ready. Also Tejas MK2 would no longer be a light weight jet, it will be medium weight jet, much more hi-tech and much more indigenous than any of its previous iterations. In other words its the MK2 that the army wanted HAL to built at the first place. But better late then never. Also the current iterations carry French missiles, but very soon they will carry indigenously developed powerful missiles by DRDO. Missiles is where India excels. The legendary Brahmos is also being modified to fit on those new birds.

It takes decades of research to develop such a sophisticated piece of engineering marvel and although, not the finest currently, it is right on track to become so very soon. The very Congress which is crying foul over Dassault's Rafael deal being given to Reliance and not HAL, is the very regime that kept HAL underfunded and starved for decades. It was not until Atal Bihari Vajpayee's government that the project started accelerating and then under the current NDA regime.

Jets of the IAF are fast depleting, outdating, and maintenance is becoming more and more expensive. The government is buying the versatile multi purpose Rafael jets in the meantime so that the IAF is not left handicapped while the better Tejas is still under development. Continued funding, well paid staff of brilliant scientists and engineers, indigenous development of tech whether hardware or software, even healthier supply chain of sophisticated parts, more private players, faster delivery of jets will get us where the IAF and the Navy wants to be. The government has already shown interest in developing a second plant for Tejas production probably with the TATAs under a PPP. If all goes well its not that late when the Tejas will wow people at every international aviation show and other countries will line up to get some for themselves. Kaching! Kaching!!