Indian Air Force Chief Marshal A.P. Singh on Tuesday iterated his frustration over the slow-paced production of the indigenous homegrown light combat aircraft Tejas by the government-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.

“I can only tell you what our requirements and our worries are. You have to alleviate those worries and make us more confident. At the moment I am just not confident of HAL, which is a very wrong thing to happen,” the IAF chief told HAL officials at the ongoing Aero India 2025 in Bengaluru. “HAL is our company, we have all worked there. But I find that HAL is just not in mission mode.”

His remarks came at a time when the IAF is facing a severe shortage of fighter jets amid a delay in delivery of the Tejas light combat aircraft. Against an authorised strength of 42 fighter squadrons, the IAF currently has 31. A fighter squadron consists of 18 aircraft.

Around 65 to 70 per cent of the IAF’s fighter aircraft are Russian and most of them either need urgent upgrades or are on the verge of retirement. Having foreign aircraft also means staying dependenton other countries forparts and components.

Sources said the IAF chief’s concerns over the delay in the Tejas’s procurement comes amid China’s recent display of its 6th generation stealth fighter jet combat aircraft, which took the world and defence experts by surprise. In contrast, India’s fifth-generation fighter jet is in the design and development stage.

Tejas is being inducted to replace the ageing MiG-21 fighter jets, dubbed the “flying coffin” because of its high crash rate.