BENGALURU: The indigenous Light Combat Aircraft Tejas is finally battle ready. Tejas Mark 1 (Mk1) got the Final Operational Clearance (FOC) on the first day of Aero India 2019 at the Yelahanka Air Force base.

Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Birender Singh Dhanoa sang paeans in praise of home produced “Tejas” combat jets as he received the  “release to service” certificate.

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Dhanoa called the aircraft "battle ready"."It's a major milestone today. Tejas has taken part in Gaganshakti 2018 and Vayushakti recently. And it performed extremely well with a high sortie generation rate and the required weapons capabilities. We have got the Tejas Mk 1. Now we need Tejas Mk 2.”

He further added, “Because it’s a fighter plane, it has to behave like a fighter, and it did well in both air-to-air and air-to-ground mode,”

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Pointing out that the aircraft was "ready" and has "behaved like a true fighter" during the mega exercise Gaganshakti 2018 and the recently concluded Vayushakti in Rajasthan's Pokhran, ACM Dhanoa said this is the "proof of the pudding".

The FOC was given after Tejas successfully demonstrated its capabilities in firing the Derby Air-to-Air Beyond Visual Range missile, mid-air refuelling and air-to-ground bomb attack.