Argentina interested to buy ‘TEJAS Fighter Aircraft’

Context

During the meeting, Argentina expressed interest in the Made in India TEJAS fighter aircraft for the Argentine Air Force. 

• Earlier, Malaysia also has expressed its interest in procuring the aircraft. 
  

About TEJAS Fighter Aircraft

• Tejas – meaning ‘radiant’.
• It is designed by Aeronautical Development Agency under the Department of Defence Research and Development.
• It is manufactured by state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).
• HAL developed its first supersonic fighter – HAL HF-24 Marut – in the 1960s and phased them out in 1990. After that, it developed its supersonic fighter — Tejas.

Features

• Tejas is a single engined, light weight, highly agile, multi-role supersonic fighter. 
• It has quadruplex digital fly-by-wire Flight Control System (FCS) with associated advanced flight control laws.
• The aircraft with delta wing is designed for ‘air combat’ and ‘offensive air support’ with ‘reconnaissance’ and ‘anti-ship’ as its secondary roles.
• It can refuel in the air and be ready for war again.
• These aircraft can fly as fast as the speed of sound, i.e., Mach 1.6 to 1.8, up at an altitude of 52,000 feet.
• Maximum payload capacity of 4000 kg.
• The range of the aircraft is 3,000km.

Objectives

• To develop LCA for the IAF and simultaneously reduce the gap in the field of aeronautical technology available in India and the advanced nations of the West. 

About India-Argentina Relations

• Political Relations
  • Argentina opened a Consulate General office in Mumbai in April 2009.
• India opened a Trade Commission in Buenos Aires in 1943 and later converted it into an embassy in 1949. 
• Argentina had established a consulate in Calcutta in the 1920s, which was transferred to Delhi as an embassy in 1950. 
• Bilateral Trade
• The India-Argentina bilateral trade registered a historic peak of USD 5.7 billion in the year 2021, with a growth rate of 72% over 2020, with USD 1.4 billion worth of exports from India to Argentina and USD 4.3 billion worth of imports by India from Argentina. 
• India became the 4th largest trading partner of Argentina in 2021. 
• A bilateral business chamber, ‘India-Argentina Business Council (IABC)’ was formally launched on 14 October 2020. 
• Defence
• The Framework Agreement in the Defence is very broad in nature and will be covering issues related to the exchange of officers, training of armed forces personnel and cooperation in joint ventures for military equipment and peacekeeping operations.”
• Cultural Relations and People-to-People Contact
  • He wrote a series of poems under the title “Purabi” containing memories of his stay in Argentina.
  • There will be a MoU inked in the field of joint film production.
• Rabindra Nath Tagore had visited Argentina in 1924 and stayed for two months as the guest of Victoria Ocampo, a well-known literary personality and writer.
• Argentina can be a good destination for Bollywood. 
• South-South Cooperation
• India participated in the second high-level conference of the United Nations on South-South Cooperation in Buenos Aires in 2019.