‘Definitely no’: Ex-Air Force vice chief questions relevance of Tejas Mk-2 fighter jets in mid 2030s, slams HAL delay

Air marshal (retd) Nagesh Kapoor questioned HAL's “sense of urgency”, saying it did not match up to that of the air force.

Less than two months after retirement as the Indian Air Force's vice chief, Air Marshal Nagesh Kapoor has spoken about the indigenous Tejas fighter jet project, questioning the relevance of its Mk-2 prototype in a frontline role when it starts entering service in significant numbers in the 2030s.

In an interview with NDTV, Kapoor gave a brief response on whether it would be reasonable to have a fourth generation aircraft in 2035, with countries like China having moved up sixth generation protoypes of fighter jets. “No, operationally, definitely no,” the Air Marshal said.

Kapoor further slammed the delay by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) in building the Tejas fighters, according to the same report, while also raising concerns on the current lack of availability of the Tejas Mk1A variant of the fighter jet in significant numbers. He questioned HAL's “sense of urgency”, saying it did not match up to that of the air force.

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“Why must it be that a machine that was promised to us so many years back with a certain set of capabilities continues to be denied to us on one pretext or the other?” he asked. “Why must we be hamstrung because someone somewhere has not been able to keep their promises?” Kapoor further added.

‘Indigenous is the way to go, gaps could be filled by fourth generation fighters’

However, the Air Marshal asserted that the fourth generation of the homegrown prototypes could still fill the gaps, given the higher generations could not be deployed everywhere.

“You can have a certain number of those 5th generation & 6th generation fighters, but given the size of the country, you won't be able to deploy them everywhere. So those gaps which continue to remain to be filled will have to be filled by this class of aircraft,” he told NDTV.

Kapoor backed the need to switch to made in India fighter jets, saying, “Indigenous is the way to go without a doubt but how long do we keep waiting?”

Kapoor's remarks on the delay in deliveries of defence procurements are similar to statements made by Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh last year, wherein he had said that most contracts could not be completed due to delays in the production of weapon systems.

The top officer had, while speaking at the CII Annual Business Summit in May, 2025, lamented the delay in deliveries of the Tejas Mk1A, a 4.5 generation Light Combat Aircraft (LCA). “Deliveries of Tejas Mk1 are delayed. The prototype of Tejas Mk2 is yet to roll out. There is no prototype yet of the stealth AMCA fighter,” Singh had said then.

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