ADA Tejas (LCA) News and Discussions

[Abhi9]

New Video from Team Tejas

 

[Kshatriya87]

Tejas Isn't Among World's Best Fighter Jets. But It's A Big, Big Bonus.

Written by Vishnu Som | Updated: Jun 30, 2016 21:59 IST



Story Highlights

Light Combat Aircraft made by Hindustan Aeronautics in BengaluruAir force had said it would prefer off-the-shelf jet from abroadInordinate delays, but end result is a world-class fighter jet

New Delhi: It's been almost every Air Chief's favourite whipping boy - an Indian-built fighter jet delayed so inordinately that it came to be seen as a promise that would never be kept.

But three decades after the Tejas Light Combat Aircraft went into development, there is a grudging acceptance that the fighter which will be officially inducted into the Air Force tomorrow in Bengaluru is, in many ways, world-class.


While the delay in delivery cannot be justified, there have been fierce debates on why that happened. State-run Hindustan Aeronautics or HAL, which is the lead player in the Tejas project, says the air force kept shifting the goal post on what exactly it wanted from the jet. The manufacturer also says it was hit by sanctions imposed by the US after the Pokhran nuclear test in 1998, which placed crucial technology out of reach.

The Air Force, for its part, has insisted there are better options available in the world market, jets built by manufacturers who have been in the business of military aviation for decades. The Tejas, they have argued in the past, will be obsolete by the time it enters Air Force squadron service.

Except it isn't. Not in the least.

Equipped with a modern Israeli multi-mode radar, the Elta 2032, state-of-the-art Derby air-to-air missiles to attack enemy jets, and modern laser designator and targeting pods to hit ground targets, the Tejas is, in many ways, as capable as the French-built Mirage 2000, the aircraft used by HAL as its benchmark. Every pilot that has tested the jet has sworn by the Tejas's flight control system and the ease with which it manoeuvres. Not a single Tejas fighter has been lost to an accident during flight tests during 3,000 sorties.




More than 3000 sorties of the Tejas fighter have been flown to date

Confronted by these facts, critics of the jet say the Tejas is not indigenous at all. They point out that the engine is American, its radar and weapons Israeli, its ejection seat British -all that in addition to several other imported systems and subsystems. HAL counters that leading Western designs like the French Rafale and the Swedish Gripen also have imported systems because it's simply too expensive and too time-consuming to develop components that have been perfected and are available for purchase.

So has the Tejas programme added to India's engineering and scientific knowledge? It has. The fly-by-wire system gives computer-controlled inputs to charter the flight of the aircraft - and it's completely Indian. To deal with enemy jets, the Mission Computer which processes data provided by sensors like the radar is Indian. In fact, the hardware and the software of the Mission Computer has been designed around an open architecture framework which means that it can be upgraded in the future. The jet itself is constructed using Indian-made carbon fibre composites which are light-weight and ultra-strong alternatives to metal. A host of general systems dealing with everything from fuel management to steering of the nose-wheel are all made in India. A key sensor, the Tarang Radar Warning Radar, which lets the pilot know of enemy aircraft or surface-to-air missiles in the vicinity of the Tejas, is also Indian.




The Tejas fighter has state of the art Derby air-to-air missiles

Modern fighter aircraft, including the air force's top gun, the Sukhoi - 30, are notoriously unreliable and maintenance-heavy. Less than 60 per cent of Sukhoi fleet is available at any one time to conduct missions, a huge concern for the air force. HAL says the Tejas will be available more than 70 per cent of the time when called in for missions and are targeting a minimum of 80 per cent, far in excess of what the IAF is presently able to achieve with most of its other jets.

Tomorrow, when the Indian Air Force's 45 squadron, the "Flying Daggers", take ownership of their first fighters, the Tejas programme will have turned over to an all-new page. As a light fighter based on requirements that were last updated more than a decade ago , the Tejas will never be among the best fighters in the world. It will, however, provide the Indian Air Force far more than what they had initially wanted - a MiG-21 replacement.




The cockpit of the Tejas fighter

In the Tejas, the air force has a modern fighter which will only get better through modifications and additions to its capabilities.



Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

 

[R.parida]

Can't wait to see the pics of 1st squadron of Tejas. Lots of respect to DM, bringing everybody together and making this happen.. Salute u sir..

 

[Abhi9]

Tejas firing the Derby BVRAAM
Livefist

 

[tejas warrior]

#TejasSquadron Sarva Dharma Prarthana being held at ASTE tarmac. https://t.co/Ash8I5OPzp

 

[tejas warrior]

#TejasSquadron Here's the first man who flew #Tejas. Rajiv Kothiyal was a Wing Commander then. https://t.co/U55lqCTfvY

 

[tejas warrior]

#TejasSquadron Some of the airmen part of the new Sqn during the pooja https://t.co/tUxo2BN7FO

 

[tejas warrior]

First 2 Tejas jets jets formally handed over to the IAF just now. https://t.co/6ZS66B6bx1

#TejasSquadron The CO with his crew https://t.co/45sXtj4FA9

 

[tejas warrior]

The HAL Tejas is 65 percent indigenous by value. Its contemporary avionics system is indigenous.

 

[tejas warrior]

#BreakingNews Here's #Tejas first flight as No 45 Sqn member.

 

[WolfPack86]

LCA now formally a part of the IAF family
Pic credits - LiveFist

 

[tejas warrior]

Water cannon salute for the IAF's first LCA Tejas fighters. #GoTejas

 

[tejas warrior]

#TejasSquadron Gp Capt Ranga says #Tejas generation ahead of Mirage, MiG. "You can't compare apples with oranges."

Tejas Generation ahead of Mirage !!

 

[Prashant12]

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[Rahul Singh]

Having followed Tejas from first flight it feels like i would feel watching my son graduate. Congrats everyone. A new chapter has started.

Alas i miss my teen days....so little worry so much time, now i can't even express my emotions full length. Inevitability of time.

 

[Prashant12]

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[tejas warrior]

Watch LCA Tejas take its first flight after IAF induction in Bengaluru


http://zeenews.india.com/news/india...after-iaf-induction-in-bengaluru_1902193.html

 

[Yumdoot]

Congratulations. And just to refresh memories as to what is possible for Tejas :

http://www.oneindia.com/india/onein...air-launched-vversion-of-nirbhay-1651065.html

The official said that the missile will have to undergo some sizing changes so as to be deployed from Sukhoi. "There are some dimensional constrains. But, the same pylons of BrahMos will be used by Nirbhay as well. In future if Nirbhay needs to be fitted on to Tejas, then the missile will have to get shorter in size," the official said.

https://in.rbth.com/news/2015/02/12...irbhay_subsonic_cruise_missile_for_the__41349

At DRDO, they noted that the Nirbhay missile can use the Su-30MKI’s existing pylons that now carry the Brahmos missile. In the future, they are also considering using the Nirbhay missile to arm the light Indian fighter jets – the Tejas, but for this, the rocket will need to be “shortened” by about 25%.

Tejas pylons carry a max. of 1200 kg so even Brahmos-Mini is out of contention.

But a redesigned airlaunched Nirbhay hopefully stealthy will be the best option for Tejas.

 

[Rahul Singh]

Congratulations. And just to refresh memories as to what is possible for Tejas :

http://www.oneindia.com/india/onein...air-launched-vversion-of-nirbhay-1651065.html



https://in.rbth.com/news/2015/02/12...irbhay_subsonic_cruise_missile_for_the__41349


Tejas pylons carry a max. of 1200 kg so even Brahmos-Mini is out of contention.

But a redesigned airlaunched Nirbhay hopefully stealthy will be the best option for Tejas.

In MK-2 there is a possibility. In-board pylons can be strengthen to carry one on each and two in total. A mix load of 2x Python on outer-board pylons, 2 x DERBY on mid board , 2 x Brahmos-mini on in-board and a 800 liters capacity drop tank on center-line. That's too tempting to lose. I am sure navy must be working towards realizing it.

 

[Yumdoot]

In MK-2 there is a possibility. In-board pylons can be strengthen to carry one on each and two in total. A mix load of 2x Python on outer-board pylons, 2 x DERBY on mid board , 2 x Brahmos-mini on in-board and a 800 liters capacity drop tank on center-line. That's too tempting to lose. I am sure navy must be working towards realizing it.

The OneIndia report above is by Ananth Krishnan who has by now developed a reputation for not colouring his own reportage by his personal prejudices and hopes. I had put an unattributed quote from him only because I have faith in his reportage.

Brahmos-Mini is going to be 6 meter 1.5 tons, same as Nirbhay currently is. That is why they are saying that Nirbhay as it is can be mated to Su-30MKI. But to mate a Nirbhay to LCA the DRDO is reported to have claimed a need to shorten the Nirbhay by 25% ie. to a length of 4.5 meters. To swap a Tejas+Nirbhay variant for this Brahmos+Tejas variant, you will obviously have to reduce the Brahmos size to 4.5 meters too. But we already know Brahmos Mini is 6 meter.

The NLCA even in the Mk-2 version will have to use its excess capacity for extra internal fuel and not for heavier pylon load. So my suspicion is that they will persist with 1200 kg pylons or even if they re-design they will take it only till around 1500 kg. But that still does not solve the volume problem even for NLCA Mk-2.

However if you still insist in mating a high supersonic missile to later Tejas variants then you must look at changing Brahmos into a XASM-3 type missile (which will be a major major re-design effort):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XASM-3
Weight 900 kg (2,000 lb)[1]
Length 5.25 m (17.2 ft)[1]
Engine Integral Rocket Ramjet[1]
Operational range 150 km (81 nmi; 93 mi)
Speed Mach 3

Your 2 Brahmos Minis on one NLCA (presumably Mk-2) seems too much of an outlier to me. That will cut down the range of NLCA very badly and make NLCA shine on the radar like Bappi Lahari. You are asking for major trouble.

In any case LCA has only enough range to make itself felt at the borders. To hit beyond that you must rely on longer ranged Sukhois. Think about loiter times, ingress and egress speeds and altitudes, self protection capabilities, survivability etc.

An LCA with a stealthy Nirbhay variant is something we should look at seriously. Both to give LCA penetration capabilities and in general to screw the opponent from multiple directions. Something that Su-30MKI with Brahmos Mini will not be able to do, because the combo is going to be quite expensive for a real war.