statesman news service New Delhi, 7 August The total cost for development of the light combat aircraft Tejas for the Indian…
statesman news service
New Delhi, 7 August
The total cost for development of the light combat aircraft Tejas for the Indian Air Force, which includes project definition phase, full scale engineering development programme Phase-I and FSEDP Phase-II, is Rs 7965.56 crore, the Rajya Sabha was told today.
In a written reply, Defence Minister A K Antony said initial operational clearance for the LCA was obtained in January 2011.
Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Aeronautical Development Agency and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) are working towards meeting planned schedules for conducting IOC-2 by the end of 2013 and final operational clearance (FOC) by the end of 2014 to make Tejas fully combat worthy, he said.
Compulsory military training: In reply to a question on compulsory military training, Mr Antony said the government is not in favour of making military training compulsory to all the youth of the country since India is a democratic republic and the Constitution does not provide for compulsory military training.
Military training to all the youth of the country may also lead to militarisation of an entire nation.
With the socio-political and economic conditions, it is highly undesirable, lest some unemployed youth trained in military skills join the ranks of undesirable elements, he said.
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