LCA TEJAS MK1 & MK1A: News and Discussion

[Blank]

BrahMos Industrial Eco-System

It has taken India 37 years to put in place a military-technical base for conducting R & D on various types of guided missiles and precision...

trishul-trident.blogspot.com

Tejas Mk.1A L-MRCA Updates
At least two Tejas Mk.1A LSPs will be required to undergo 24 months of flight-testing (starting this June) for loggong in the mandated 250 flight-hours, following which the L-MRCA will receive its certificate of airworthiness from CEMILAC. The first three SP-series Mk.1A L-MRCAs are due for delivery by late 2024, with the deliveries of all 83 Mk.1As (73 single-seaters and 10 tandem-seaters) being delivered by 2029 as per current projections.

 

[MonaLazy]

first three SP-series Mk.1A L-MRCAs are due for delivery by late 2024

Tejas done, focus on three other fighter jets: two for IAF, one Navy

Three new fighter jets will be flying by 2026, of which two will be for the Air Force and one for the Navy, Girish S Deodhare, chief of Aeronautical Development Agency of the Defence Ministry, which has designed the LCA, told The Indian Express.

indianexpress.com

Are we on a slippery slope yet again?? If they can't deliver the relatively simple Mk1A upgrade on time then what will become of Mk2 (Rollout 2022, FF 2023, production 2026), AMCA (prototype 2024, FF immediately after), TEDBF (FF 2026, Induction 2031)

3 Feb 2021 - 83 Mk1A contract signature
3 Feb 2024 - first Mk1A delivery
3 Feb 2030 - last Mk1A due by/before this date

'We'll monitor HAL's delivery' — IAF appoints team to ensure mega Tejas order is on schedule

Defence officials also said the contract for 15 indigenous Light Combat Helicopter is set to be awarded by March this year.

theprint.in

2024 - first 3 Mk1A
2029- balance 80 should be delivered in 5 years @16/yr from 2025 onwards

‘Light Combat Aircraft MK-1A to take flight in June’

A larger aircraft LCA MK-2 to roll out by year end or early 2023, says HAL MD

www.thehindu.com

 

[Aniruddha Mulay]

Can anyone here tell me the range and number of air to air missiles tejas can carry comparing it with much bigger aircraft like su30 mki
If tejas can carry same number of air to air missiles as su30 then tejas is much better than su30

Typical A2A loadout of LCA Tejas will involve 6 missiles, 4 BVR and 2 CCM.
Whereas Su30 MKI can field 12 missiles in total in A2A loadout, 2 loadouts that have been spotted are:
1) 6 R-77 + 6 R-73
2) 4 R-77 + 4 R-27 + 4 R-73

 

[Tang]

BVR will be tested? I can't believe that after all these years Tejas was lacking BVR Capabilities, Look at Pakistan, they already have SD-10/PL-12 BVR Missiles Integrated on their JF 17 Aircrafts and we are not having confirmed BVR on our Tejas. Sad

All Tejas are BVR capable, can fire derby & Derby-ER(100Km)
Astra integration is also in process.
SD-10/PL12 range is around 80km

 

[SARTHAK]

All Tejas are BVR capable, can fire derby & Derby-ER(100Km)
Astra integration is also in process.
SD-10/PL12 range is around 80km

derby er is actually a very good missile ,i read that israeli official claimed derby er nez to be 2/3 of meteor
so if meteor nez is 80-90km ,then nez for derby er should be 50-60km

 

[Photon]

ITO coating on Tejas canopy

Abhishek Singh on Instagram: "TEJAS 🔥💪🏽#indianairforce . . #airforce #tejas #tejasfighterjet #fighterjet #fighterjets #militaryjet #militaryjets #military #militaryaircraft #militaryaviation #aviation #aviationlovers #aviationdaily #aviationgeeks #airplanes #airplanesdaily #indianarmedforces #indiandefence #indiandefenceforces #defence #defenceforces #airpower #aviationwall #madeindindia #makeinindia #atmanirbharbharat"

Abhishek Singh shared a post on Instagram: "TEJAS 🔥💪🏽#indianairforce . . #airforce #tejas #tejasfighterjet #fighterjet #fighterjets #militaryjet #militaryjets #military #militaryaircraft #militaryaviation #aviation #aviationlovers #aviationdaily #aviationgeeks #airplanes #airplanesdaily...

www.instagram.com

 

[IndianHawk]

derby er is actually a very good missile ,i read that israeli official claimed derby er nez to be 2/3 of meteor
so if meteor nez is 80-90km ,then nez for derby er should be 50-60km

Meteor nez is more than 100 km and Derby ER nez is greater than 60km.

 

[SARTHAK]

Meteor nez is more than 100 km and Derby ER nez is greater than 60km.

meteor 's nez of over 100km is exaggeration, btw any sources?

 

[johnj]

I still believe we should order atleast 25-30 AIM 120 C-7s as trial basis to be integrated on Tejas. This is mostly because not every customer country might want an Astra or iDerby ER as BVR.
Also, the seeker tech on them could be studied and similar ECCM capabilities could be ported over to Ku band AESA seekera on future Astra MK1s making them further leathal.

Aim 120 c 8, c7 no longer in production. Aesa seeker on aim ??
Bigger or smaller, i dont

 

[IndianHawk]

meteor 's nez of over 100km is exaggeration, btw any sources?

Source is Normal Derby missiles range itself which is 50-60 km only . Now dual pulse in Derby ER provides additional energy for end game within this range hence making this 50-60 km range as NEZ for Derby ER. Because now two motors will fire within this range. Extrapolate these figures for meteor should be easily over 100km .

 

[johnj]

Agreed, but you have to consider that Tejas was supposed to be tech demonstrator, later, much newer platform would've been built by learning from it. We can't just blame IAF here, when it comes to "reliability" (although reliability is tough nugget to eat if you stretch it for too much, example Mig 21Bs), LCA wasn't ready because the armaments weren't ready yet, its in year 21 when we saw FOC. Hate to brake it you, but radar and armaments is as crucial as an engine, we don't want our pilots to fire R73 duds, where our piolet has to go near an F16 and fire it to bring it down, and also almost loose there life.

A product can only be better, if the tech and product runway are both aligned. Tejas was plagued by funding from the start, not to mention sanctions. IAF for the better part is lollygagging still. They would accept the product like any other good or best product if they stand head to head with the best if not better. They don't want a jet which doesn't come equipped with an AESA + SAR, AIM120D level or much better, meteor level of NEZ, Spectra like SPJs and NATO's Link 16 like awareness.

However, IAF is now playing politics much better, because to this day, IA or Navy have much better part of defense budget, so they are like, alright... you asked us to spend wisely so we will buy wisely, not invest wisely because you didn't allowed us to save much.

In that case, imported aircraft is better for IAF or let IAF to do design and build jets. UK AF still using PESA, USA using F35 with lot of issue, Rafale unable to find foreign customer due to low power, etc and French AF brought them .If IAF need complect combat aircraft from day1 then better buy one from other countries with a sale over 100. No wounder why IAF giving more importance to MMRCA.

 

[Aditya Ballal]

ITO coating on Tejas canopy

Abhishek Singh on Instagram: "TEJAS 🔥💪🏽#indianairforce . . #airforce #tejas #tejasfighterjet #fighterjet #fighterjets #militaryjet #militaryjets #military #militaryaircraft #militaryaviation #aviation #aviationlovers #aviationdaily #aviationgeeks #airplanes #airplanesdaily #indianarmedforces #indiandefence #indiandefenceforces #defence #defenceforces #airpower #aviationwall #madeindindia #makeinindia #atmanirbharbharat"

Abhishek Singh shared a post on Instagram: "TEJAS 🔥💪🏽#indianairforce . . #airforce #tejas #tejasfighterjet #fighterjet #fighterjets #militaryjet #militaryjets #military #militaryaircraft #militaryaviation #aviation #aviationlovers #aviationdaily #aviationgeeks #airplanes #airplanesdaily...

www.instagram.com

That is not an ITO coating, it’s caused to due to the sunlight on the cockpit.

 

[Shekhar Singh]

I came to know that Tejas has 8 hardpoints and Su30 has 12 given that Tejas is much smaller in my opinion it beats su30 mki here as well

Aisa nahi hota bhai? What about range, endurance, radar, electrical power, mtow etc? You can't send tejas 3500 km away with brahmos to hit aircraft carrier.

 

[Photon]

That is not an ITO coating, it’s caused to due to the sunlight on the cockpit.

Are you sure? because ITO films have same interference pattern when exposed to sunlight (not arguing)

 

[Picard]

That is not an ITO coating, it’s caused to due to the sunlight on the cockpit.

To me, it looks like somebody smeared diesel or butter on the cockpit... there definitely is some kind of coating, I doubt just glass would create such light patterns.

 

[scatterStorm]

I came to know that Tejas has 8 hardpoints and Su30 has 12 given that Tejas is much smaller in my opinion it beats su30 mki here as well

Yar somosey ko pizza sai mat compare karo. They both have different strategic objective, and are different fighter class platforms. A good approach would be to search this thread, lot of folks have contributed dearly to this thread to why our Samosa is better in its own way, and why pizza is better in its own.

 

[SimplyIndian]

Tejas can carry 6 AAMs (4 of them BVR)

Su-30MKI can carry 14 AAMs (10 of them BVR)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You can't compare light fighters and heavy fighters like that. It is like saying Tesla beats a Humvee because it is faster.

Do we have any plans to develop su like heavy fighter. Why ADA, HAL obsessed with medium aircraft other than cost. Why there is no project about heavy combat aircraft

 

[Covfefe]

Do we have any plans to develop su like heavy fighter. Why ADA, HAL obsessed with medium aircraft other than cost. Why there is no project about heavy combat aircraft

There's no point developing a fourth gen heavy fighter- they'll be at huge disadvantage in A2A combat due to long range missiles coming in and their larger RCS. We may expect some heavy category jet in 5th gen program. For ground attack roles, it's cheaper to buy them off the shelf(like Flankers or F15s)

 

[scatterStorm]

Muricans have got enlightenment after there F15EX sales to Saudi's. They now realize there F35 is expensive and would rather use F15S stealth variant as missile trucks.

Reason: PLAF air weapon platform strength in numbers.

 

[MonaLazy]

Do we have any plans to develop su like heavy fighter

An AHCA may be on the cards after AMCA Mk2. But we'll have to see if manned fighters still make sense in the 2050s and beyond.