HAL Tejas | Updates, News & Discussions-[Thread 2]

[Local_Legend]

ADA chief counters sceptics, says aircraft is combat-ready



BENGALURU: Even after the induction of Tejas into the IAF, some defence observers are in private questioning its combat readiness.

That is not fair, according to Commodore C D Balaji, Director, Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA).

“It is combat-ready, but it is not correct to expect it to match up to the Sukhoi-30MKI. The shortfall that people are talking about is a perceived one, and you have to look at the larger picture,’’ he said.

Excerpts from an interview:

It Tejas fully combat-ready?

Yes, it is. We have tested many missiles and bombs, including those required to be tested at the FOC stage. We will be doing accuracy improvement soon. It involves tuning the software and testing it by dropping bombs.



Improvement in Mark1A?

In Mark1A we will be changing the radar, and bring about maintainability improvements that help in the aircraft’s turnaround. We will build electronic warfare capabilities. Those are available in the Air Force and Naval inventory.


Issues with landing gear and angle of attack?

Those issues have been sorted out. We went through the process and have taken corrective measures. It’s good we noticed a landing gear issue early and made our design robust. On the angle of attack, it was 20 degrees for IOC, but in FOC we are clearing 24 degrees. That’s been sorted out.



Tell us about the naval variant of Tejas.

Two naval variants have done 115 sorties and the performance is better than our expectation. In May, we did night ski jump and landing tests. We were conservative in performance estimation, but the aircraft is doing very well.



What’s the timeline?

There is nothing like a timeline for the naval variants. We need to do a carrier-compatibility demo and limited IOC demo that involves ski-jump launch, arrested recovery. We plan to complete that by middle of next year. After that we’ve to wait for a carrier demonstration.


What about hot refuelling?

It is the only aircraft in India to have hot-refuelling capability, in which the pilot is in the cockpit and engine is running when aircraft is refuelled. We did that three times. It is a capability enhancer and not a replacement to air-to-air refueling.


http://www.newindianexpress.com/sta...is-combat-ready/2016/07/02/article3509736.ece

 

[desimorty]

There are about 400 "bad trainer aircrafts".

No the PLA don't see the J-10 as apt trainer for flight time hence the strong RnD and success in ground trainers and high end simulators to get the recommended flight time. The PLAAF are careful when it comes to booking J-10 flights because of engines. Peace time its an issue.

 

[W@rwolf]

France offers EUR 1 billion to revive India's combat jet engine project

France has offered to invest EUR 1 billion to revive India's combat jet engine project, proposing a joint development plan that could see the stalled 'Kaveri' gas turbine powering indigenousTejas fighters by 2020.

The proposal is to use offset credits that would come from the planned Rafale fighter jet deal to revive the indigenous jet engine project, people involved in talks between the Indian defence ministry, the Defence Research & Development Organisation andFrench companies told ET.

Foreign arms companies that sell equipment to India are mandated to invest a portion of the contract cost in the country's defence and aerospace industry. In the case of the Rafale deal, which India and France are negotiating, the offset obligation is 50% of the cost, which would translate to over EUR 3 billion.

Sources said that since January, several rounds of discussions have taken place between Indian authorities and French company Safran, which developed the M88 engine that powers the Rafale as well as the Shakti engine for Indian advanced light helicopters.

French experts who assessed the Kaveri engine — which was more or less abandoned for aviation use in 2014 due to shortcomings on power —indicated that 25-30% more work would be needed to make it flight-worthy.

According to the deal being offered, India would not need to spend any more developmental money on the project and Safran would take on the investment, committing to make the Kaveri flight-worthy within 18 months. The proposal is to integrate the upgraded Kaveri with the Mk 1 A version of the Light Combat Aircraft by 2020.

The air force is committed to buying at least 80 of the LCA Mk 1 A fighters that will meet higher technical requirements than the version inducted this year. It is currently powered by GE 404 engines.


"The proposal is to have the Kaveri ready for the next version of the LCA that would then boast of an indigenous engine as well. The French are confident that this can be done and are willing to put in money into the project," a person involved in the discussion said.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com...t-jet-engine-project/articleshow/53036894.cms

 

[Levina]

@Dash
I guess this is where you wanted me to post it.

 

[fsayed]

@Dash
I guess this is where you wanted me to post it.

Awesome video summary of all previous videos collated in one

 

[Agent_47]

 

[GuardianRED]

@Dash
I guess this is where you wanted me to post it.

WOW, this the best video till now !!! absolutely perfect, nice background score ! it just occurred to me now that @03:47 the missile hit its target!!! WoooHooo

 

[Kraitcorp]

F16 in background (right side). Are we testing that plane too....

LSP-5 (KH-2015) taking off for another routine test flight during the all important armament detachment at AFS, Jamnagar.

 

[nang2]

F16 in background (right side). Are we testing that plane too....

The first picture looks awesome! Like alien aircraft, such as the one in movie Independence Day.

 

[Abingdonboy]

F16 in background (right side). Are we testing that plane too....

Nope, that pic was taken at Aero India 2015:

 

[Agent_47]

Python-5

Credits : on pic

 

[Nilgiri]

http://ajaishukla.blogspot.ca/2016/07/taking-forward-tejas.html

By Ajai Shukla
Business Standard, 5th July 16

Over the preceding decade, under-informed defence writers and commentators have made careers out of bad-mouthing India’s Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA). The commentary focused primarily on development delays, criticized the fighter’s performance and sneered at the under-funded, under-staffed Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), a Defence R&D Organisation (DRDO) agency responsible for the Tejas programme. Regrettably, the Indian Air Force (IAF) colluded in undermining ADA, passing on tidbits to the media in order to show the Tejas in a poor light, apparently to clear the way for importing expensive aircraft. Thanks to this, most Indians came to regard the Tejas as a byword for delay, incompetence and the untrustworthiness of the DRDO. Most Indians concluded that the purchase of exorbitantly priced foreign aircraft like the French Rafale was unavoidable to keep India safe.

These critics have now done an about-turn after Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar inducted the first two production version Tejas Mark I fighters on Saturday into the IAF’s first operational Tejas squadron (45 Squadron). In January, the Tejas made its foreign debut, performing well-received aerobatics displays at the Bahrain international Air Show. Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha, a steady hand at the IAF’s tiller, has supported the Tejas and committed to ordering 100 Tejas Mark 1A fighters --- similar to the current version, except for four specified improvements. Test pilots involved in the Tejas’ flight-testing had always praised its performance and reliability, but now there is also praise from the IAF. Group Captain Madhav Rangachari, the 45 Squadron chief who flew the Tejas on Saturday, reportedly observed afterwards: "I felt like being on top of the world when flying the Tejas fighter. It’s an excellent aircraft and a generation ahead of other fighters in the world.”

That nobody has contradicted Rangachari is a measure of how effusive the media has suddenly become in reporting this story. It needs to be pointed out that the Tejas is not “a generation ahead of other fighters”; it is a contemporary fighter, with several features that match the “best-in-class”, while others still require improvement. Even so, the most astounding achievement of the Tejas project is the development of a fourth-generation fighter and a respectable aerospace development, production and testing eco-system in India for the pittance of Rs 14,047 crore, just over $2 billion. This was done in the face of intensified international technology sanctions since the 1998 nuclear tests and, as discussed above, amidst media and IAF hostility.

The operationalization of the Tejas has not taken “over three decades” as critics dishonestly maintain. They incorrectly cite August 22, 1983 as the start of the Tejas project, when the government allocated Rs 560 crore for “feasibility studies and project definition”. In fact, it took another decade, until April 1993, when the defence ministry sanctioned the “Full Scale Engineering Development” (FSED) of the Tejas, and provided funds to build two fighters as “technology demonstrators”.

Taking April 1993 as the start of the Tejas development programme, the timeline suddenly looks more respectable. It took just eight years for the Tejas’ first flight in 2001; 20 years for initial operational clearance in 2013, and 23 years for final operational clearance and induction into IAF service. The significantly more capable Tejas Mark IA is expected to be completed by 2018 to meet standards that four agencies --- the defence ministry, IAF, ADA, and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), which builds the fighter --- have hammered out between them, to make the Tejas clearly more capable than current enemy fighters. If that deadline is met, the Tejas will have taken exactly a quarter century in development. That is a creditable record for building a first fighter.

The improved Tejas Mark IA will have an AESA radar, which the DRDO-HAL combine proposes to build in partnership with Israeli company Elta. It will be capable of air-to-air refueling to increase range and combat endurance. It will also have a “self-protection jammer” (SPJ) mounted in an external pod to confuse enemy radar. Finally, it will have an improved layout of internal systems to ease maintenance and allow rapid “turnaround time”, i.e. the quickness with which the Tejas can leave on a fresh mission after returning from an earlier one.

The IAF has already detailed the Tejas’ performance parameters, announcing: “The LCA has a very competitive and cotemporary operational envelope. It is capable of operations up to an altitude of 50,000 feet and a maximum speed of 1.6 Mach at [high] altitudes or 730 knots… at low levels. The aircraft [can turn at] +8G to -2.5G (which allows it to U-turn in 350 metres) in operationally clean configuration… or +6G to -2.5G with other external stores.” This respectable performance envelope will be further enhanced when the Tejas IA enters service. It is, therefore, incorrect to suggest, as some commentators and editorial writers have done, that only the import of fighters like the Rafale would give the IAF an operational edge. Directing those billions into the Tejas programme instead would be a more sensible course.

Even as the Tejas Mark IA is being developed, ADA is working on the Tejas Mark II. The key enhancement in that will be the replacement of the current General Electric F-404 engine with the larger, more powerful GE F-414 engine. The technological challenge --- which is to re-engineer the Mark I fuselage to fit in the bulkier F-414 --- would be offset by the Mark II’s greater power. The re-engineering would also provide the opportunity to replace the current generation of avionics with enhanced, new-generation avionics. Realistically, the Mark II can be expected to enter service by 2023-24, until when HAL can build the 100 Mark IA fighters that the IAF has committed to buying.

Supporting ADA through this programme is essential. That agency is simultaneously working on an Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA), which will be a fifth-generation fighter with stealth features, and incorporating an advanced engine that will allow it to supercruise (fly at supersonic speed without lighting the fuel-guzzling afterburner). To enable and empower this project, it is essential to quickly conclude the contract with Russia to co-develop the Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) that has been mired in negotiations for a decade. The FGFA experience would provide Indian aeronautical engineers the knowhow and experience in working on fifth-generation technologies, which would be translated into the AMCA.


The area of concern, which the defence ministry needs to address on priority, is to ensure that HAL builds the Tejas Mark I and Mark IA at a rate of 12-16 fighters per year. That would allow the IAF to conduct operational planning, obtain buy-in from that service, and translate the Tejas from a debutante into a real combat asset.

@Sliver @fsayed @dadeechi @Abingdonboy @PARIKRAMA @anant_s @Water Car Engineer @Kraitcorp @Stephen Cohen

@kaykay @litefire @randomradio @C130 @Blue Marlin and others

 

[Kraitcorp]

Python-5

Credits : on pic

This a noob question. Does both Airforce and Navy have Dual Pilots versions?

 

[Manindra]

This a noob question. Does both Airforce and Navy have Dual Pilots versions?

Yes

 

[anant_s]

If that deadline is met, the Tejas will have taken exactly a quarter century in development. That is a creditable record for building a first fighter.

For an aircraft developed from scratch, 25 years is indeed a respectable time frame. my guess is if Kaveri program was not linked to original fighter program, who knows we could've had the bird in air, probably 4-5 years earlier.
Today there are talks of AMCA getting powered by an imported engine and that tells that lessons have been learnt from LCA program and now to deliver a product on time to customer, design agencies are now focusing on their core strengths and not letting things not directly under their control, affect the program.
Assistance from Israel in radar and avionics, help from US/France in Engine and applying learning from LCA will surely help us getting a desired next generation fighter in reasonable time. That i believe will be true legacy of LCA program.

PS: since i keep writing a lot about railways, i cannot hold myself to quote an example from mid 70s for IR, in context to above.
IR prior to start of 1970s, used to manufacture electric locomotives at CLW, based on French and Japanese designs of 4 axle configuration (WAG 1, 2, 3, 4 and WAM 1, 2, 3). these designs were suited to high speed but low load capacity prevailing in Europe and Japan on lines supporting High axle load. Since India didnot have choice that time, these designs had to be used, even though Indian tracks didnot support high axle loads. We had to reduce weight of motors, Transformers and other auxiliaries to bring the weight of a locomotive inside permissible track loading values, but s a result, we were contend to reduce horsepower of these locomotives.
hen in early 70s, designers at RDSO decided to marry bogie design of legendary ALCO 251 WDM 2 (a diesel loco) with electric loco features of European designs and came up with a 6 axle WAM 4 design and subsequently WAG 5.
From that point, here has been no looking back and today we have an amazing array of locomotives to cater all types of requirements.
The story just shows that learning curves can be steep at times, almost like scaling a high plateau, but once you reach on top of that, the view is sweet. I sincerely hope, it is the case with Indian military aviation designers too.