Built in India, for India: India’s Tejas Mk2 shows the power of Make-in-India defence innovation

By R Anil Kumar

• The Tejas Mk2 stands as a step towards strategic autonomy under the policy of Atmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India). Over 75 per cent of the Mk2’s core avionics and electronic warfare suites are developed within India. It is a single-engine, lightweight multirole fighter built for cost-effectiveness and agility, a practical design shaped by resource constraints and the determination to avoid future foreign bottlenecks

• India’s Tejas Mk2 jet packs six major make-in-India innovations, from radars to stealth materials and smart weapons all made at home. These upgrades underline India’s leap as a defence and tech leader

• Tejas Mk2 comes equipped with a 100 per cent Indian-made electronic warfare suite, including sensors by BEL and software by DRDO. It jams enemy radars, fires smart countermeasures, and gathers vital battle intelligence, which boosts survivability in modern warfare

Bengaluru. Indian air power’s future is taking flight — and it’s flying high on the Make in India tag. The Indian Air Force is set to usher in a new generation of aerial supremacy driven by indigenous technology and fearless engineering with the Tejas MK-2.

This new-generation Medium Weight Fighter is being made under the platform of self-reliance with more than 82% of the components indigenous — a figure set to reach 90% as production ramps up.

Developed with the collective strength of HAL, DRDO, and the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), the Tejas MK-2 is going to unveil its prototype by late 2025, with operational induction by 2029. Designed to succeed older planes such as the Mirage 2000, Jaguar, and MiG-29, the MK-2 isn’t a replacement; it’s a revolution.

At its core are six state-of-the-art Indian-indigenous technologies, demonstrating that India isn’t merely catching up — it’s out to lead this sector as well.

Tejas Mk2 is a shining symbol of the Make-in-India mission. This fighter jet has been designed, tested, and built by Indian experts at DRDO and HAL.

Now, over 75 per cent of its technology and parts come from India, showing real progress on defence self-reliance.

Homegrown Uttam AESA Radar Reaches World Standards

The Uttam AESA radar in Tejas Mk2 is among the world’s most advanced. It can spot and track over 50 targets at once. Built with next-gen gallium nitride at HAL and DRDO labs, it is fully Indian one of the first such radars outside the US or Europe.

Composite Construction Light, Strong, and Stealthy

Nearly 90 per cent of Tejas Mk2’s airframe is made from advanced composites, created by DRDO and National Aerospace Labs. These materials lower the jet’s weight, make it up to 75 per cent less visible to radar, and are now produced in Indian factories for aircraft exports too.

Onboard Oxygen

Tejas Mk2 features India’s own onboard oxygen generation system (OBOGS), giving pilots fresh oxygen every flight. Once imported, this tech is now designed and patented by DRDO, making maintenance simpler and pilot safety stronger.

Indigenous Electronic Warfare Suite

Tejas Mk2 comes equipped with a 100 per cent Indian-made electronic warfare suite, including sensors by BEL and software by DRDO. It jams enemy radars, fires smart countermeasures, and gathers vital battle intelligence, which boosts survivability in modern warfare.

India’s Own Advanced Weapons

The jet will carry Indian smart bombs and Astra missiles, tested in public trials in 2025. Patent records show the guidance systems are designed in India, and field tests confirm these homegrown missiles now match global standards.

Around 200 patents filed just for Tejas Mk2.

Thousands of engineers in Bengaluru and Hyderabad are behind these advances, with over 200 patents filed just for Tejas Mk2.

How does India’s ‘unstable’ Tejas Mk rival F-22 and F-35 in air combat manoeuvres?

Developed by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, the lightweight, multirole Tejas shares this philosophy with some of the world’s most advanced fighters, including the F-22, F-35 and Rafale.

Designed to be unstable, on purpose

At first glance, calling a fighter jet ‘inherently unstable’ seems like a glaring design flaw. Yet for India’s HAL Tejas Mk series, this deliberate instability is precisely what makes it so agile. Engineered with what experts’ term ‘relaxed static stability’, the Tejas has its centre of gravity positioned behind its aerodynamic centre, making it naturally eager to pitch or change course.

Far from being unsafe, this design grants exceptional manoeuvrability, a trait harnessed by its sophisticated digital fly-by-wire system, which keeps the aircraft responsive and controllable.

Developed by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, the lightweight, multirole Tejas shares this philosophy with some of the world’s most advanced fighters, including the F-22, F-35 and Rafale. By turning aerodynamic instability into an advantage, the Tejas stands as a significant achievement for India’s aerospace ambitions and demonstrates how a small fighter can deliver cutting-edge agility in modern air combat.

The secret: digital fly-by-wire

What keeps the Tejas from literally tumbling out of the sky is its sophisticated digital fly-by-wire (FBW) flight control system. Instead of relying on direct mechanical linkages between pilot and control surfaces, fly-by-wire uses electronic signals to interpret and execute pilot commands. The system makes thousands of micro-adjustments per second to stabilise the jet. This means the pilot can command aggressive manoeuvres without the aircraft becoming uncontrollable.

Borrowing from the best

Fly-by-wire isn’t unique to the Tejas. Some of the world’s most advanced fighter aircraft, including the American F-22 Raptor, F-35 Lightning II, the French Dassault Rafale, and the Eurofighter Typhoon, also rely on it.

What these jets share is a design philosophy that trades passive aerodynamic stability for extreme agility, which is vital in modern air combat. The Tejas matches this approach, despite coming from a smaller domestic programme rather than a billion-dollar multinational consortium.

Compact design, exceptional agility

The Tejas was purpose-built as a lightweight, single-engine, multirole fighter. Its small size and blended delta wing design, when coupled with fly-by-wire, allow it to turn rapidly and recover quickly from high-angle manoeuvres. Pilots report that it can change direction and altitude with impressive responsiveness, an asset in close-range dogfights where seconds matter.

From prototype to combat readiness

When the Tejas project began in the 1980s, India’s aerospace industry faced steep challenges in mastering digital fly-by-wire technology. Decades of research, software development, and flight testing followed. The result is an indigenous system that has proven its reliability and safety over hundreds of test flights. Subsequent variants, including the Tejas Mk1A and the planned Mk2, continue to refine both software and flight performance.

Why instability is an advantage

In aeronautical terms, a ‘stable’ aircraft resists changes in its attitude, which is helpful for transport planes but a disadvantage for fighters that need to turn sharply or rapidly change pitch. By making the Tejas naturally unstable, designers ensured it can achieve high roll rates and quick nose-pointing ability, critical in air combat. The fly-by-wire system is what makes this theoretically dangerous trait completely manageable, allowing pilots to exploit the instability rather than fight it.

Standing among global peers

While the Tejas Mk series is smaller and lighter than the F-22 or F-35, its adoption of full authority digital fly-by-wire control places it in the same technological league as these and other top-tier fighters like the Rafale and Typhoon. For India, it is a significant step towards self-reliance in advanced combat aviation, proving that even a jet designed to be unstable can fly with remarkable precision and agility.