Sanctioned in 1983 and first flown in 2001, the Tejas is often cited as one of the longest fighter-development timelines in modern aviation. Several factors are commonly blamed: an early decision to pursue difficult indigenous technologies — a relaxed-stability airframe, a home-grown digital fly-by-wire system and a high composite fraction — all at once; the loss of foreign assistance after the 1998 nuclear-test sanctions; and dependence on an imported engine, the General Electric F404, whose supply has continued to constrain deliveries into the 2020s.

Whether the programme is judged a success or a cautionary tale depends on what is measured. It has not produced a large fleet quickly, and orders have run well ahead of deliveries. But it did deliver a certified, in-service, largely Indian-built fighter and the design and testing base behind it — the explicit long-term aim from the start. These are contested framings, and this page presents both rather than adjudicating between them.

A relaxed-stability aircraft cannot be flown without a flight-control computer constantly adjusting the surfaces. Early in the programme the flight-control law development had US involvement, but access narrowed and India completed and cleared much of the digital fly-by-wire work domestically. It is frequently highlighted as the single hardest element of the Tejas effort — and, once proven, as a foundational capability for later Indian aircraft. Specific development-cost and schedule claims around it vary by source.

The Tejas Mk1 and Mk1A are powered by a single General Electric F404-GE-IN20 afterburning turbofan of roughly 84 kN thrust. An indigenous engine (the GTRE Kaveri) was intended to power the aircraft but did not mature in time, leaving the type dependent on the imported F404 — and F404 supply delays have been repeatedly cited as a brake on Mk1A deliveries. The larger Mk2 is designed around the more powerful GE F414. Thrust and timeline figures here are programme figures and remain subject to change.

Indian defence contracts are usually reported as bulk-order totals in rupees rather than as a clean per-aircraft flyaway price, so a single unit cost for the Tejas is hard to pin down. Widely reported figures place a Mk1A in the very rough range of US$40–50 million depending on how development, infrastructure and spares are apportioned — treat any precise number as an estimate, not an audited price. No reliable public cost-per-flight-hour figure exists for the type. Any exact dollar figure attached to a Tejas should be read as an approximation.