Although the Indian Navy has dropped a plan to field a naval variant of the Tejas, one of the prototypes was present at Aeroindia 2025, be it in an awkward position for photography.

Cdr Ankur Jain flies in INS Hansa's drab monsoon skies with tailhook extended in the run-up to the President's Color to Naval Aviation ceremony. The checkerboard fiducials are visible all over NP-1, which looks better than the single-seat NP-2. LCA (Navy) achieved an important milestone for India's indigenously built fighter when Cmde Jaideep Maolankar "Mao" trapped NP-2 successfully aboard R33 INS Vikramaditya on 11 Jan 2020. The program is headed towards the Twin Engine Deck Based Fighter (TEDBF).