Indian Air Force Light Combat Aircraft Tejas India's Second Supersonic Fighter

cannonfodder

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Seem to be lot of confusion here.. I hear at BRF that most activities are done and new Lungi and bottle are ready for opening.Only thing remaining is celimac official announcement.:biggrin2:

This is great victory for ADA/developers after all the negativity spread around this project over years. The 3 legged chetah has 4 legs and one extra for you know what:pound:. Happy new year

I know Rajat Pandit is not a very popular source to quote but see what Sourav Jha have to say about this.


As far as FOC for the Tejas Mk-1 is concerned, 90% of radar & EW functionality had been achieved according to people in the know. The full functionality software upgrade could even be done after induction. Gun vibration tests had shown that the mounting needed some stiffening.

The final Drawing Applicability Lists #DAL of #Tejas released to HAL yesterday. This means, technically #FOC is in for the project
 

bose

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Tejas getting FOC at last ... Congratulations to ADA and all engineers for hard work !!

This will be turning point for Indian Aerospace and defense industry ...
 

WolfPack86

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Finally Tejas fighter aircraft going to achive FOC. I am very much happy.
 

Advaidhya Tiwari

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LCA Tejas Set For Final Induction : Defence Research Body

The indigenously developed and built Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas is on final induction after going all the tests, said a top official on Monday.

"LCA Tejas and Airborne Early Warning and Control System (AEW&CS) are on final induction after going through all the tests," said DRDO Chairman G Satheesh Reddy in a radio interview.

Celebrating the "DRDO Day", Mr Reddy told state-run All India Radio (AIR) that the state-run Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) was set up 60 years ago in 1958 with 10 labs to enhance research work in the defence sector.

"Though the country is self-reliant in missiles, radars, Sonars, torpedoes and other systems, the DRDO has been working over the years to develop state-of-the-art weapon system for the armed forces," said Reddy.

Designed and developed by DRDO's Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) and built by the state-run defence aerospace major Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), Tejas is a supersonic fourth generation fighter for induction in the Indian Air Force (IAF) fleet and its variant in the Indian Navy.

Pending Final Operational Clearance (FOC) for its weaponised version, the IAF formed the first Tejas unit - No. 45 Squadron IAF "Flying Daggers" -- on July 1, 2016 with two aircraft.

The DRDO is building six next generation AEW&CS on the Airbus platform to enhance surveillance and detection with longer range and complete view for the IAF.

The platform will have 300-km-long range and 360-degree angle of coverage as against 200-km range and 240-degree angle of the AEW&CS the DRDO built on the Brazilian Embraer-145 modified jet for the IAF in the past.

Over the years, the state-run organisation grew multi-directionally in terms of subject disciplines, number of laboratories, achievements and stature.

"Presently, over 50 labs are engaged in developing defence technologies covering aeronautics, armaments, electronics, combat vehicles, engineering systems, instrumentation, missiles, advanced computing and simulation," said DRDO in its web site.

With about 5,000 scientists and 25,000 supporting staff, the behemoth has executed major projects to develop missiles, armaments, LCAs, radars and electronic warfare systems.
 

HariPrasad-1

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Learnings from IOC and FOC-configured LCA Tejas Mk-I is being used in the development of Mk-IA which will incorporate advanced, state-of-the-art systems like BVRAAM , Unified Electronic Warfare System, AShRAAM and upgraded avionics.
What about weight reduction, Aerodynamic Improvement and improving AOA etc. I am more interested in that. Electronics will come and go. Platform is going to stay. If we reduce the weight by few hundred KG and improve plane aerodynamically, this plane can really be a winner. There is certainly some scope of adding fuel and improving the range. There was some news that g limit is increased to 8.5 and AOA certification may go up by couple of more degrees. In his simulation study by Vivek Ahuja in Beta coefficient, he had compared Tejas with F 16. He told that any weight reduction from present level will give Tejas a Decisive edge in dog fight because of improvement in T/W ratio. I want Tejas to be 6100 K G Wight, 6% dragged reduced as per the plan which will give it a great boost trans sonic acceleration, "g" Limit increased to 8.5+ and couple of hundred Kg fuel added to internal tank. There is a lot of space behind the pilot seat. It can be used to put fuel in it. We should keep evolving this plane.
 

cannonfodder

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Sirji weight reduction will happen for mk1a. Mk1A will be nothing but upgraded MK1 with gun firing, weight reduction and better radar/EW suite. This milestone is good enough to start production of next 20-40 FOC variant. We will most likely keep updating LCA even after MK1A variants same as other AC fighters life cycle.

What about weight reduction, Aerodynamic Improvement and improving AOA etc. I am more interested in that. Electronics will come and go. Platform is going to stay. If we reduce the weight by few hundred KG and improve plane aerodynamically, this plane can really be a winner. There is certainly some scope of adding fuel and improving the range. There was some news that g limit is increased to 8.5 and AOA certification may go up by couple of more degrees. In his simulation study by Vivek Ahuja in Beta coefficient, he had compared Tejas with F 16. He told that any weight reduction from present level will give Tejas a Decisive edge in dog fight because of improvement in T/W ratio. I want Tejas to be 6100 K G Wight, 6% dragged reduced as per the plan which will give it a great boost trans sonic acceleration, "g" Limit increased to 8.5+ and couple of hundred Kg fuel added to internal tank. There is a lot of space behind the pilot seat. It can be used to put fuel in it. We should keep evolving this plane.
 

patriots

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Mk1a will have doublle rack ....which will have an external spj.....and probably an CCM..........and some weight reduction........... aesa radar ...and re location of parts for easy and less maintenance time
 

HariPrasad-1

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Sirji weight reduction will happen for mk1a. Mk1A will be nothing but upgraded MK1 with gun firing, weight reduction and better radar/EW suite. This milestone is good enough to start production of next 20-40 FOC variant. We will most likely keep updating LCA even after MK1A variants same as other AC fighters life cycle.
And that is the area where I am more interested.
 

vishnugupt

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In order to accelerate Tejas's production, HAL was about to outsource all Tejas's sub-assemblies like; wings, fuselages and tail. any news, when will vendors start sending these assemblies to HAL??
I have heard SP-16 wings is out sourced by L&T but when will this mechanism become fully functioned ??
 

vishnugupt

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Sirji weight reduction will happen for mk1a. Mk1A will be nothing but upgraded MK1 with gun firing, weight reduction and better radar/EW suite. This milestone is good enough to start production of next 20-40 FOC variant. We will most likely keep updating LCA even after MK1A variants same as other AC fighters life cycle.
Can any expert tell us, How HAL is gonna reduce weight in Tejas MK-1A ?? had we made any metallurgical breakthrough?
Or by reducing dead weight, then how much is dead weight Tejas carrying now?
Previously, it was heard HAL is redesigning landing gear which looks a just futile attempt because I doubt HAL have such capability Moreover, Tejas is an ADA project So its ADA which can do not HAL.
 

Advaidhya Tiwari

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Can any expert tell us, How HAL is gonna reduce weight in Tejas MK-1A ?? had we made any metallurgical breakthrough?
Or by reducing dead weight, then how much is dead weight Tejas carrying now?
Previously, it was heard HAL is redesigning landing gear which looks a just futile attempt because I doubt HAL have such capability Moreover, Tejas is an ADA project So its ADA which can do not HAL.
Best method is to compare similar planes and check if there is anything that can be done to Tejas. Gripen C is the closest to Tejas Mk1 and it has empty weight of 7tons. This shows that empty weight of Tejas is actually optimal and nothing can be done about it.

Tejas does have dead weight for some equipment which is not yet installed but these are to be replaced by equipment, not to be removed for weight reduction. So, deadweight removal is not possible.

The metallurgy of Tejas is also optimal with about 60% of the airframe made of composites. There is no good metal which weighs less than carbon composites (Sodium, Lithium, Beryllium,Calcium etc can't be used for airframe as they are reactive).
 

vishnugupt

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Best method is to compare similar planes and check if there is anything that can be done to Tejas. Gripen C is the closest to Tejas Mk1 and it has empty weight of 7tons. This shows that empty weight of Tejas is actually optimal and nothing can be done about it.

Tejas does have dead weight for some equipment which is not yet installed but these are to be replaced by equipment, not to be removed for weight reduction. So, deadweight removal is not possible.

The metallurgy of Tejas is also optimal with about 60% of the airframe made of composites. There is no good metal which weighs less than carbon composites (Sodium, Lithium, Beryllium,Calcium etc can't be used for airframe as they are reactive).
But there was news that HAL is going to reduce MK-1A weight by 1000kg by redesigning landing gear so was it a false news??
 

Advaidhya Tiwari

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But there was news that HAL is going to reduce MK-1A weight by 1000kg by redesigning landing gear so was it a false news??
That was rumours, not news. HAL or ADA are not such noobs as to make landing gear heavier by 500+kg. India has manufactured lamding gears for MiG21 even in 1970s and it would not mess around with it in Tejas. Landing gear of Tejas had problems regarding centre line fuel tank fitting etc but not in excessive overweight.

Tejas has very limited scope to reduce weight. The best method is to go for Tejas Mk2 with 96-98kN Kaveri engine with larger size for better performance and range. Since the amount of avionics suite, mechanical parts and electronics will be limited, increasing size of the plane can give some extra space exclusively for fuel which can improve fuel to weight ratio and hence enhance range and simultaneously increase payload proportionally
 

G10

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1000kg landing gear weigt reduction is laughable. Total weight of landing gear may no be that much.
 

cannonfodder

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^^ Yes if we can reduce weight by 200-400 kg (totally) that will be great achievement.
 

patriots

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1000 kg wt reduction not from landing gear....its overall weight reduction.....
.....if they will be able to reduce 500 kg it will be an achivement
 

WolfPack86

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Approximate cost for items under technical evaluation stage (TES): LCA Mk1 A : $85 million LCH for Army/IAF : $25 million (excluding infra) Ka-228 for Army/IAF : $14 million (May include ToT/infra costs)
 

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