Senior defence sources said that while the first round of talks have been completed, a high-level team from Saab will arrive in India next week to carry forward the discussion.
"India needs about 300 aircraft of the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) type. Saab's Gripen is a good fighter jet and hence exploratory talks are on to see if they can be a technical collaborator for the upgraded Tejas," they said.
Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), manufacturer of Tejas, is likely to hand over the fourth aircraft to IAF by June end. The four aircraft will make up for the first squadron of IAF which will be used for training and familarisation.
Rather than waiting for LAC Mk II, IAF had decided to go in with an upgraded version of the existing Tejas with over 40 modifications.
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IAF currently plans to acquire 120 Tejas aircraft, with 100 of these having major modifications. The force wants Active Electrically Scanned Array (AESA) Radar, Unified Electronic Warfare (EW) Suite, mid-air refueling capacity and beyond the vision range missiles.
Saab had offered JAS39 Gripen-E light fighter to India when the Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) tender was announced. The bid was finally won by French firm Dassault Aviation.
Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) had a few years ago sought Saab's help in the Mark-II version of Tejas, which will eventually be inducted into the air force.
Saab is likely to insist on a government-to-government (G2G) deal if they step in to assist India in developing and manufacturing a light fighter plane.