New Delhi, The government told the Parliament on Friday that Malaysia is procuring 18 Tejas jets while the US, Argentina, Australia, Egypt, Indonesia and Philippines too have shown interest to procure the light combat aircraft (LCA).

The government said, "Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), a defence PSU under the Ministry of Defence, responded to a request for information received from Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) in February 2019 for LCA class aircraft.

In a written reply to the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt said: "Subsequently in October 2021, HAL responded to request for proposal issued against tender released by the Royal Malaysian Air Force for 18 Fighter Lead In Trainer - Light Combat Aircraft (FLIT-LCA) and offered the LCA Tejas twin seater variant."

The Government has taken several policy initiatives in the past few years and brought in reforms to encourage indigenous design, development and manufacturing of defence equipment in the country, thereby expanding production.

These initiatives, inter-alia, include:

* According priority to procurement of capital items from domestic sources under the Defence Acquisition Procedure 2020.

* The announcement of 18 major defence platforms for industry-led design development in March 2022

* Notification of three 'Positive Indigenisation Lists' of total 310 items of services and two 'Positive Indigenisation Lists' of 2,958 items of the Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs), for which there would be an embargo on the import beyond the timelines indicated against them