Seven aircraft of the Indian Air Force have crashed in the last two years, Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt said in the upper house on Monday.
Ajay while answering a question raised in Rajya Sabha said, “A total of seven aircraft of the Air Force have crashed in the last two years, including Mirage 2000 which crashed recently in Madhya Pradesh.”
He also said that a Court of Inquiry (CoI) had been set for each crash to probe the accident. The minister while replying to another question told the house that Tejas which is indigenously developed is not replacing MiG-21 but is being inducted for modernisation purposes.
In his statement, Ajay Bhatt stated that 123 Tejas fighter aircraft would be produced and that further production would be determined by the need for services and exports. He said that Rs 6653 crore was spent on the manufacture of 24 Tejas aircraft till September 30.
