U.S. Navy hops aboard India's Naval Light Combat Aircraft Project

[Singh]

The U.S. Navy has agreed to come on board India's much delayed Naval Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) program and will audit tests and provide feedbacks to the Indian team.

The U.S. will join the Russians and the Europeans who were earlier roped in to realize the LCA project which has been delayed by over 15 years.

The U.S Navy Carrier Suitability Test Team is the latest of three foreign consultants to join team LCA. Among the many problems the LCA program is faced with, one is the weight of the prototype which is heavier by 500 kgs over the requirement of a carrier-based fighter. The Test Team is expected to tackle this issue.

According to Indian media reports, the U.S Test Team will not be paid for its services.

In 2011, the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Group (EADS) was introduced to the program in order to help developers reduce the weight of the fighter.

Meanwhile, the Gromov Institute in Russia is currently testing the Kaveri engine on an Ilyushin-76 engine test bed aircraft and has completed 55 hours of testing at the Institute.

The Naval LCA-NP1, also known as Tejas, made its maiden flight a week ago at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) in Bangalore.

courtesy - defence world

 

[satish007]

everyone like India. :thumb:, China will be hard to counter so many counties.

 

[noob101]

everyone like India. :thumb:, China will be hard to counter so many counties.

yeah I don't think Unkil agreed to this because "everyone likes India"... more like good way to gather intelligence on India's aircraft development projects...

 

[Ray]

It is an interesting development.

I am sure it is in U*S interest to help India!

The US did not supply the engine required by HF 24 which was a very modern fighter designed by Kurt Tank who had designed the WWII world famous Focke Wulf FW 190 fighter aircraft for Germany.

I presume the strategic interest is converging!

 

[sayareakd]

noob is right uncle dont distribute free bees. Last time with pay with delay, hope this time we learn from our mistake and get the project succesfully compleated in time.

 

[natarajan]

yeah I don't think Unkil agreed to this because "everyone likes India"... more like good way to gather intelligence on India's aircraft development projects...

Just to check whether india will become indigenous on such thing will make their export to india dull

 

[Adux]

yeah I don't think Unkil agreed to this because "everyone likes India"... more like good way to gather intelligence on India's aircraft development projects...

lol, India is atleast 50 years away from what is US aeronautical capability, they have nothing to gain by learning about the LCA.

But they will not give anything for free, they might give free help here, and take something in return in terms India buying more US equipment or Iran issue, etc etc, This is the United States PR drive. We should take whatever we can off that gravy train.

 

[asianobserve]

I don't think any country will just give away their citizens' taxes for free...

 

[noob101]

lol, India is atleast 50 years away from what is US aeronautical capability, they have nothing to gain by learning about the LCA.

But they will not give anything for free, they might give free help here, and take something in return in terms India buying more US equipment or Iran issue, etc etc, This is the United States PR drive. We should take whatever we can off that gravy train.

lol im not suggesting Unkil is trying to learn how to build fighters from us.... im not crazy

of course there is a convergence of interests and in the near or far future I can see India and Unkil in a Moderate to Strong Alliance.... but consider the scenario below

some DoD staff member comes up with the Idea : lets offer India assistance on the LCA project, get some intelligence (of course the Indians are not stupid and are not going to give anything important away) but just enough so that we could get some information that the Pakis want and use that to make some deal in the future with Pak when they shut supply routes or when we need them to close down terror traning camps etc....

Thats what I would do!

 

[nrj]

lol im not suggesting Unkil is trying to learn how to build fighters from us.... im not crazy

of course there is a convergence of interests and in the near or far future I can see India and Unkil in a Moderate to Strong Alliance.... but consider the scenario below

some DoD staff member comes up with the Idea : lets offer India assistance on the LCA project, get some intelligence (of course the Indians are not stupid and are not going to give anything important away) but just enough so that we could get some information that the Pakis want and use that to make some deal in the future with Pak when they shut supply routes or when we need them to close down terror traning camps etc....

Thats what I would do!

What do you mean by intelligence?

Any data can be intelligence. Guess what they are putting engines in LCA alongside the EUMA, so next time they monitor the use they can extract some data & turn it into intelligence.

We are talking about EMALs, there is no better partner than US in developing the carrier specific technology or products.

 

[noob101]

What do you mean by intelligence?

Any data can be intelligence. Guess what they are putting engines in LCA alongside the EUMA, so next time they monitor the use they can extract some data & turn it into intelligence.

We are talking about EMALs, there is no better partner than US in developing the carrier specific technology or products.

Not disagreeing with you ... EMALS is excellent, would be great for IN to get it.... Im just saying .... Unkil doing this for free is not because they really like us, Unkil will never give up a chance to get intellegence on anything, am sure our people in MoD know this... actually now Im thinking the whole idea is kind of mute as we know what we might be giving up and Unkil knows that we know that they know....

 

[Adux]

lol im not suggesting Unkil is trying to learn how to build fighters from us.... im not crazy

of course there is a convergence of interests and in the near or far future I can see India and Unkil in a Moderate to Strong Alliance.... but consider the scenario below

some DoD staff member comes up with the Idea : lets offer India assistance on the LCA project, get some intelligence (of course the Indians are not stupid and are not going to give anything important away) but just enough so that we could get some information that the Pakis want and use that to make some deal in the future with Pak when they shut supply routes or when we need them to close down terror traning camps etc....

Thats what I would do!

What are you mouthing on about?
What do you think this is, Gossip Girl?
What intelligence? From where?
Who said it is US who has offered assistance? It was India who actually asked for it through the Indian Navy, especially since Indian Navy MiG pilots are trained in American training centers and American jets, and guess who is the partner of the Tejas Team for NLCA, the Indian Navy.

Like I said, if you dont know stuff, dont talk.

 

[nrj]

Not disagreeing with you ... EMALS is excellent, would be great for IN to get it.... Im just saying .... Unkil doing this for free is not because they really like us, Unkil will never give up a chance to get intellegence on anything, am sure our people in MoD know this... actually now Im thinking the whole idea is kind of mute as we know what we might be giving up and Unkil knows that we know that they know....

Its called commercial interest, nothing else.

 

[Tronic]

I don't think any country will just give away their citizens' taxes for free...

Like the billions of US tax dollars dropped into the coffers of Pakistan?

 

[ice berg]

Who said it was for free?

 

[noob101]

Who said it was for free?

read the article... well its free in the sense that there will be no money paid... but some concession like Iran or something else would be there im sure

 

[sayareakd]

in my experiance, free is always costly.

 

[Adux]

read the article... well its free in the sense that there will be no money paid... but some concession like Iran or something else would be there im sure

Do you have any evidence to what you are stating, 'I am sure' doesnt count. Thank god, you stopped about 'they are trying to get intelligence on LCA'

 

[hit&run]

read the article... well its free in the sense that there will be no money paid... but some concession like Iran or something else would be there im sure

Stop getting into people's head now.

Any of the reason even if you know is a face-value chit chat.

Americans are top dogs but India is not as far as Aeronautical technology is concerned. If an American agency review our product, it should be welcomed because otherwise HAL et al are just on their own as far as their accountability is concerned.

Indians agreeing to get their help for validation and testing the jet component/frame are not fool and know how to safe guard sensitive information, if there is any.

 

[Tronic]

Who said it was for free?

Considering they got zero returns for their money; it might aswell have been for free.