The crash of a Tejas fighter jet during a demonstration flight at the Dubai airshow has triggered a wave of commentary ranging from dismay to outright scepticism. A single mishap, especially in front of international buyers and rival delegations, inevitably magnifies doubts that already lingered around India’s homegrown fighter programme. Images of smoke rising at a global airshow make for powerful optics ~ and not of the kind India hoped to project. Yet, to interpret this moment purely as a reputational catastrophe would be both short-sighted and strategically naïve.

Tejas is not merely a product on the shelves of the international arms bazaar. It is the culmination of India’s ambition to build and sustain a resilient aerospace ecosystem – one capable of designing, engineering, and supporting combat aircraft independently. That journey has been neither linear nor swift. From sanctions after nuclear tests to repeated setbacks in engine development,........

© The Statesman