LCA TEJAS MK1 & MK1A: News and Discussion

[Maharaj samudragupt]

Brothers sorry but tejas indeed looks like a samosa , yet still it can rip that junk feytar satraah to shreads.
Samosa is spicy.

 

[Nationalist Manasvi Papa]

Brothers sorry but tejas indeed looks like a samosa , yet still it can rip that junk feytar satraah to shreads.
Samosa is spicy.

Raptor of Asia

 

[Spitfire9]

Regarding late transfer of completed FOC to IAF reportedly being due to IAF not being prepared for delivery, what needs to be done before the aircraft are delivered? Insufficient ground handling equipment? Lack of trained personnel for operation and maintenance? Lack of spares? Anyone got any idea what is lacking on the IAF side which prevents taking delivery of these aircraft?

It is now nearly two and a half years since the last IOC aircraft were delivered. Is this some kind of joke? It certainly seems laughable to someone unfamiliar with how things are organised in India.

 

[Aman kumar]

Brothers sorry but tejas indeed looks like a samosa , yet still it can rip that junk feytar satraah to shreads.
Samosa is spicy.

 

[Bleh]

LCA Tejas... lowest & highest payload configurations.

 

[Whitecollar]

Any news on whether HAL have started work on rest of the 10 jets that it had promised to deliver by 2021 fiscal year end??

 

[Rajaraja Chola]

Regarding late transfer of completed FOC to IAF reportedly being due to IAF not being prepared for delivery, what needs to be done before the aircraft are delivered? Insufficient ground handling equipment? Lack of trained personnel for operation and maintenance? Lack of spares? Anyone got any idea what is lacking on the IAF side which prevents taking delivery of these aircraft?

It is now nearly two and a half years since the last IOC aircraft were delivered. Is this some kind of joke? It certainly seems laughable to someone unfamiliar with how things are organised in India.

I would say budget crunches. 2020 Galwan issue is already eating up more budget than usual. Sulur base was being upgraded. Whether it is continuing or not is something IAF has to clarify. But having the first 40 ac at Sulur was the initial plan.
As far as transferring to another base, it can be done only for a short duration. Maintenance facility has to be made at that base. If IOC Tejas has to be moved to Srinagar airbase, then infra has to be built in that base as well. So far no steps has been taken in that regard. Mig 21 will stay in that base for atleast 2 more years. Moreover only FOC shall be moved. IOC Tejas shall be based in South till an upgrade plan is done to upgrade them to FOC. It's better that way.

HAL is utilising this opportunity to finish all weapons integration tests. The absence of cannon is disappointing especially if based near to the border, but it's also better for IAF to have all upgrades before being delivered. I would still take it if HAL delivers 12 ac as a bunch. But rather now it seems it's not HALs fault since IAF is silent.

 

[onlinpunit]

Any news on whether HAL have started work on rest of the 10 jets that it had promised to deliver by 2021 fiscal year end??

Don't ask these questions ! Fan Bois will abuse you and then u have to abuse them and their entire clan !

 

[MirageBlue]

Any news on whether HAL have started work on rest of the 10 jets that it had promised to deliver by 2021 fiscal year end??

You think they are sitting doing nothing? The process of assembling a Tejas is the culmination of a lot of other work done at HAL and their suppliers. HAL is under pressure to deliver, they know what is at stake.

 

[Spitfire9]

You think they are sitting doing nothing? The process of assembling a Tejas is the culmination of a lot of other work done at HAL and their suppliers. HAL is under pressure to deliver, they know what is at stake.

I know you are not the CEO of HAL, so are not armed with the same infomation as him, but is the schedule slipping further (it was announced that not all FOC will be delivered by end March due to COVID-19)?

And I forget what is happening with the trainers for Mk1 Tejas. Are they being built at the moment?

It is 10 years since production started. In those 10 years 16 IOC and 8? FOC have been assembled. About 2.5 aircraft a year while production capacity rose from 4 a year initially (IIRC) then to 8 a year and now to 16 a year.

 

[Gandaberunda]

I know you are not the CEO of HAL, so are not armed with the same infomation as him, but is the schedule slipping further (it was announced that not all FOC will be delivered by end March due to COVID-19)?

And I forget what is happening with the trainers for Mk1 Tejas. Are they being built at the moment?

It is 10 years since production started. In those 10 years 16 IOC and 8? FOC have been assembled. About 2.5 aircraft a year while production capacity rose from 4 a year initially (IIRC) then to 8 a year and now to 16 a year.

10 years since production started and orders came recently. IAF kept on changing requirements as per their will in all these 10 years and no one will produce aircrafts without booking orders and funds.
Fact is Tejas was considered firmly only when Parikkar shoved down IAF ass and then they zeroed on one configuration to produce paving way to MK1 IOC FOC MK1A MK2/ MWF

 

[Spitfire9]

10 years since production started and orders came recently. IAF kept on changing requirements as per their will in all these 10 years and no one will produce aircrafts without booking orders and funds.
Fact is Tejas was considered firmly only when Parikkar shoved down IAF ass and then they zeroed on one configuration to produce paving way to MK1 IOC FOC MK1A MK2/ MWF

Anything changed? Anyone sacked? Anyone demoted? Any dynamic people with drive and determination to get the job done been brought in?

 

[Maharaj samudragupt]

Anything changed? Anyone sacked? Anyone demoted? Any dynamic people with drive and determination to get the job done been brought in?

Its a government public sector undertaking , no one will be sacked but they will get bonuses and good pensions even if they choose voluntary retirement

 

[Gandaberunda]

Anything changed? Anyone sacked? Anyone demoted? Any dynamic people with drive and determination to get the job done been brought in?

HAL is under pressure to deliver committment made after Govt released funds and IAF placed orders. Covid hit at right moment when HAL IAF and MoD came together and even in pandemic HAL opened new assembly line. Now Tejas is only assembled by HAL and many parts are outsourced to private partners and Govt knows pandemic has derailed the schedule (albiet few months). Even IAF is not fussed about taking delivery of the FOC jets lying with HAL for obvious reasons. Till IAF complaints or MoD sees any lag/ delay in production by HAL ( non covid reason) their will be no accountability held.

 

[onlinpunit]

10 years since production started and orders came recently. IAF kept on changing requirements as per their will in all these 10 years and no one will produce aircrafts without booking orders and funds.
Fact is Tejas was considered firmly only when Parikkar shoved down IAF ass and then they zeroed on one configuration to produce paving way to MK1 IOC FOC MK1A MK2/ MWF

Which requirements were added and changed by IAF ? Can we have a list ?

 

[onlinpunit]

Its a government public sector undertaking , no one will be sacked but they will get bonuses and good pensions even if they choose voluntary retirement

And then we expect HAL to perform ! Joke is on us !

 

[Spitfire9]

What surprises me is that the following seem to be the case, resulting in a multitude of delays in the Tejas programme:

GOI takes too long to make decisions and implement them
IAF is indecisive and takes too long to make decisions
HAL lacks accountability

... yet India is going to pursue MWF without fixing any of the above problems. Good luck with the MWF programme. Bucketfuls of luck will be needed, I think.

 

[MirageBlue]

I know you are not the CEO of HAL, so are not armed with the same infomation as him, but is the schedule slipping further (it was announced that not all FOC will be delivered by end March due to COVID-19)?

And I forget what is happening with the trainers for Mk1 Tejas. Are they being built at the moment?

It is 10 years since production started. In those 10 years 16 IOC and 8? FOC have been assembled. About 2.5 aircraft a year while production capacity rose from 4 a year initially (IIRC) then to 8 a year and now to 16 a year.

You know the lead time it takes for a fighter to be built and rolled out - 36 months from the time the longest lead items orders are placed with suppliers.

Parts for the trainers would have been in manufacturing so that they can be put on the jigs for final assembly by next year. One hiccup there was that the Trainer FOC had not yet been granted till sometime in early 2020 as far as I remember.

As of now, the FOC Tejas single seat fighters are all on jigs so that their deliveries can be completed by next year. A separate facility has been set up with capacity for 8 a/c per year, for increasing total capacity to 16 per year. That is the facility that will build the 18 FOC trainers (4 from IOC order, 4 from FOC order and 10 from Mk1A order).

For all the people who just want to constantly lay the blame on HAL, they need to remember that HAL doesn't produce all the parts of the Tejas. A whole lot of it comes from the private sector, which is also heavily impacted by Covid delays.

Going forward, the dependency on private sector companies is only going to increase as the forward, center, aft fuselages and wing sets are all going to be sourced entirely from them. It should help, as private sector companies don't have as many issues expanding capacity as a public sector enterprise that needs to get funds from the govt. with a hundred other processes and approvals in between.

I'm not defending HAL but rather saying that in the absence of any credible data on where they are, how many have been delivered and who is to blame for any delays, it is unfair to simply keep abusing them.

 

[MirageBlue]

Updates on the new facility being set up by HAL for Tejas assembly..Phase 1 of the new facility is ready and was to be operational from February 2021. We don't know what the status of that facility is simply because no one from the media has done a report on that.

The LCA project is going through a critical phase and HAL has to ramp up the pace of production to cater to needs of Indian Air Force. Could you share the latest updates of the project?

I would say the critical phase for the LCA production is already over and now HAL is concentrating on integrator role as we have developed strong vendor base of 500+ production partners towards supplying from detail component to major structure module like wing, front fuselage etc. LCA Tejas is the first aircraft wherein HAL has gone ahead for such level of outsourcing. The same model will be further amplified during execution of 83 order wherein HAL is targeting to enhance the production rate 16 aircraft in a year.

Apart from extensive outsourcing, HAL has created the civil facilities to house the additional production line of LCA to achieve the desired production rate. The additional facility would be spread across 35 acres and have a built up area of 34,893 square metre (sqmt). The phase -1 of the facility is ready and is spread across 24,077 sqmt and would be functional from February 2021.

Specialised facilities for Heat Treatment, special processes and hangars for structural assembly of aircraft are being created in this new Complex of LCA Tejas. Production tooling and productivity improvement initiatives have also been undertaken by adopting latest simulation software packages under capacity augmentation. I hope with these measures HAL would be able to give the desired production rate for LCA Tejas.

Article link

 

[Homi J Bhaba]

I seriously dont understand the logic behind why an aicraft like Tejas would be required to carry Brahmos when its area of action is strictly going to within the areal limits of its base. Tejas would but be the last option for a Balakot like venture.

There's a new Brahmos NG being made with half the weight and a better engine I think.