HAL Tejas | Updates, News & Discussions

[RPK]

 

[russellpeters]

great pictures!

 

[sudhir007]

Tarmak007 -- A bold blog on Indian defence: Tech leap to future naval aircraft projects with LCA Navy on 'countdown' mode

India's self-reliance capabilities in taking up naval aircraft projects in future is sure to get a fillip with the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) beginning the 'countdown of sort' for the first flight of Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Naval Prototype (NP-1). The inspiring bit of this project is probably the maturing of a military industrial complex and the technological leap of Indian defence units – both government-owned and private sector.
The unique requirement of naval aircraft is the complex amalgamation of saline and humid environment of operation, restricted availability of deck run for launch or recovery and high operating load conditions. Such intricate needs call for basic design change to suit the carrier operations leading to strengthening of aircraft structure and landing gear, inclusion of leading edge vortex control (LEVCON) and arrester hook, improved engine, enhanced aerodynamic performance and incorporation of special material.
The LEVCON surface is fitted at the front tip of the aircraft wing to ensure low landing speed, good controllability and better vision for the pilot. Such a surface is used on state-of-the-art US marine aircraft F-18. Usually, in leading and trailing edges linear actuators are used, however, the LEVCON was a biggest challenge to the designer as it has to be operated by a concealed rotary actuator with aerodynamic profiling of the connecting surface. The rotary actuator was designed in collaboration with foreign vendor.
“It threw related challenging requirement of testing and certification at a safety factor of 150 percent of maximum working load. The LEVCON test rig was designed in-house along with a dummy test specimen rotary actuator with similar specifications to avoid loss of usable item, thus saving few crores of rupees to the exchequer,” sources told Express.
The feature of launch and recovery onboard carrier was another herculean assignment to be managed. The flare-less landing with high sink rate of 7.1 m/sec and heavy thumping with engine to full throttle till arrested by deck cable, is akin to a controlled crash of the aircraft on the ship every time it operates. This yields five times of loading on main landing gear as compared to Tejas. Sources say that in horizontal direction, the arrested shock recovery produces axial loads on aircraft structure of the tune of 4.5 g, calling for re-certification of all line replacement units (LRUs), components and associated systems of naval version to ensure fail safe operation repeatedly.
“The ramp takeoff switch ensures that the aircraft is prepared with pre-defined functionality of each system in ship-borne operational mode. This ensures safe launch at max capable all-up weight with full fuel and weapon stores from a ship ski jump of 14 deg ramp profile, when released from deck hydraulic stopper. Such a dramatic launch imposes harsh loading of nose-landing gear during take-off ski-jump run amounting to five times of the IAF Tejas values. All of a sudden the landing gear is un-loaded at the point of exit of the ramp and allowed to extend to its fullest stroke in a wink of a second,” say sources.
The take-off and landing logics are integrated in its quadruplex digital redundant flight control system and open architecture computer for efficient interface between the pilot and the aircraft with the aim of easing work-load during launch and recovery phase and fail safe operation.
The LCA Navy is designed for strict operating conditions and emergency recovery, in that it can bring back weight to landing limits, quickly by jettisoning 1000 kg fuel in three minutes with the help of specially-designed fuel dump system. The testing and certification of unique design features for LCA Navy called for systematic plan of action to create new test facilities and deep study of certification philosophy.
The ADA has designed and fabricated various types of simulators, including engineer-in-loop, real-time software development and maintenance. The shore-based test facility (SBTF) at Goa with ski-jump launch and arrested recovery similar to aircraft carrier is ready. The arrester hook test facility, LEVCON test rig and landing gear drop test rig are also developed in-house.
There are more than 100 agencies involved with the LCA-Navy project. They include DRDO, HAL, CSIR, PSUs, private sector and academia, spread all over India, ranging from NAL, CARE, DARE, CVRDE, , DEBEL, LRDE, Midhani, CSIO, TCS, IITs, IISc and Naval Aviation at NHQ.

 

[sudhir007]

Flight test update

LCA-Tejas has completed 1777 Test Flights successfully. (10-Feb-2012).
(TD1-233,TD2-305,PV1-242,PV2-212,PV3-330,LSP1-67,LSP2-198,PV5-36,LSP3-46,LSP4-44,LSP5-64)

from

LCA-Tejas has completed 1776 Test Flights successfully. (08-Feb-2012).
(TD1-233,TD2-305,PV1-242,PV2-212,PV3-330,LSP1-67,LSP2-198,PV5-36,LSP3-46,LSP4-44,LSP5-63)

 

[sudhir007]

 

[chairborne ranger]

the wiki page for lca says that it can carry gbu-16 paveway ii . Has this been talked about?

 

[sancho]

the wiki page for lca says that it can carry gbu-16 paveway ii . Has this been talked about?

Afaik, (from this point of view) the pic shows US Paveway LGB kit on the left wing and Israeli Griffin LGB kit on the right.

 

[sudhir007]

LCA-Tejas has completed 1779 Test Flights successfully. (16-Feb-2012).
(TD1-233,TD2-305,PV1-242,PV2-212,PV3-330,LSP1-67,LSP2-198,PV5-36,LSP3-46,LSP4-45,LSP5-65)


LCA-Tejas has completed 1777 Test Flights successfully. (10-Feb-2012).
(TD1-233,TD2-305,PV1-242,PV2-212,PV3-330,LSP1-67,LSP2-198,PV5-36,LSP3-46,LSP4-44,LSP5-64)

 

[PEACEMAKER2010]

Historically the IAF has a very poor record of supporting any indigenous efforts. It killed the HF-24, which was a very promising fighter for flimsy reasons. With the HF-24's demise, Indian aeronautical industry came to a grinding halt and remained so until the Tejas was taken up in the late 1980s. if we had gone ahead investing in R&D of HF-24 fighter today it would have been a different story

Its hoped the IAF does not do to the Tejas, what it did to the HF-24 a few decades ago. If it does, the Indian aeronautics industry will be crippled for much longer and the exchequer will continue to pay for highly expensive imports.

 

[sherindian]

Historically the IAF has a very poor record of supporting any indigenous efforts. It killed the HF-24, which was a very promising fighter for flimsy reasons. With the HF-24's demise, Indian aeronautical industry came to a grinding halt and remained so until the Tejas was taken up in the late 1980s. if we had gone ahead investing in R&D of HF-24 fighter today it would have been a different story

Its hoped the IAF does not do to the Tejas, what it did to the HF-24 a few decades ago. If it does, the Indian aeronautics industry will be crippled for much longer and the exchequer will continue to pay for highly expensive imports.

that surely wont happen dude. coz india along with tejas is also working on indegeneous trainers, rta 70, saras, amca and bunch of other aircrafts and since private industry is also involved now indian aerospace is set to take off.

 

[sathya]

Historically the IAF has a very poor record of supporting any indigenous efforts. It killed the HF-24, which was a very promising fighter for flimsy reasons. With the HF-24's demise, Indian aeronautical industry came to a grinding halt and remained so until the Tejas was taken up in the late 1980s. if we had gone ahead investing in R&D of HF-24 fighter today it would have been a different story

Its hoped the IAF does not do to the Tejas, what it did to the HF-24 a few decades ago. If it does, the Indian aeronautics industry will be crippled for much longer and the exchequer will continue to pay for highly expensive imports.

apart from other reasons, Indian press will barbique MOD & Airforce *****... if it kills tejas

 

[3Idiots]

apart from other reasons, Indian press will barbique MOD & Airforce *****... if it kills tejas

That said ..... ADA / HAL / DRDO must deliver on quality.

We have the luxury of having Su-30MKIs, Rafales etc to keep the IAF flying till a worthy LCA is developed.

Let them take the time and resources (off course, under the scrutiny of press and IAF) ..... but IAF must keep it's requirements stringent.

LCA must win against western fighters ... on capability and cost. Should have a USP (unique selling proposition).

It should have something which should make it winnable in aircraft competitions like those which we held for MMRCA.

In short, it should emulate the successes of HAL Dhruv, Akash missile (including Rajendra radar), lately Arjun tank .... and coming up induction of NAG, pinaka etc.

We don't want flying junks in the air, such as J-10 etc. (chinese have no option but to fly them premature .. since they can't buy from pretty much anybody now, russians included).

 

[SamantK]

That said ..... ADA / HAL / DRDO must deliver on quality.

We have the luxury of having Su-30MKIs, Rafales etc to keep the IAF flying till a worthy LCA is developed.

Let them take the time and resources (off course, under the scrutiny of press and IAF) ..... but IAF must keep it's requirements stringent.

LCA must win against western fighters ... on capability and cost. Should have a USP (unique selling proposition).

It should have something which should make it winnable in aircraft competitions should those which we held for MMRCA.

In short, it should emulate the successes of HAL Dhruv, Akash missile (including Rajendra radar), lately Arjun tank .... and coming up induction of NAG, pinaka etc.

We don't was flying junks in the air, such as J-10 etc. (chinese have no option to fly them premature .. since they can't buy from pretty much anybody now, russians included).

You forgot to mention INS Arihant, Agni missiles...

 

[3Idiots]

You forgot to mention INS Arihant, Agni missiles...

Since you mention, these .... I definitely find elements of innovation, achievement in INS Arihant. (e.g. even china is still struggling with making nuclear submarines. Their nuclear subs are mostly in the port or in coastal waters, unlike ocean going nuclear subs of US, Russia, UK and France). If Arihant could actually hold out deep south in Indian ocean or pacific water for months at a time, then we do get to a stage significantly beyond chinese abilities in this area.

Agni is a relatively milder achievement as of yet. An MIRV version is yet to be tested.
Yes, some achievements are there.... making Agni missiles cannisterized (reduces maintenance costs), making them road mobile (hence the need to make it lighter and transportable; no need to maintain risky silos).

Long range missile technology will see true global standards when (i) we get MIRV versions, (ii) submarine lauched (Arihant launched), (iii) the range increases to atleast 10,000 kms.

Another thing for long range missile technology is CEP (Circular Error Probability) - but Agnis are thought to be quite well on that parameter (unlike chinese missiles).

So, to sum up, INS Arihant needs to prove on sea trials (and pray, no dirty accidents on the high seas and in the oceans).
And long term missile technology needs quite a bit of upgradation in terms of achievement.

 

[SamantK]

Since you mention, these .... I definitely find elements of innovation, achievement in INS Arihant. (e.g. even china is still struggling with making nuclear submarines. Their nuclear subs are mostly in the port or in coastal waters, unlike ocean going nuclear subs of US, Russia, UK and France). If Arihant could actually hold out deep south in Indian ocean or pacific water for months at a time, then we do get to a stage significantly beyond chinese abilities in this area.

Agni is a relatively milder achievement as of yet. An MIRV version is yet to be tested.
Yes, some achievements are there.... making Agni missiles cannisterized (reduces maintenance costs), making them road mobile (hence the need to make it lighter and transportable; no need to maintain risky silos).

Long range missile technology will see true global standards when (i) we get MIRV versions, (ii) submarine lauched (Arihant launched), (iii) the range increases to atleast 10,000 kms.

Another thing for long range missile technology is CEP (Circular Error Probability) - but Agnis are thought to be quite well on that parameter (unlike chinese missiles).

So, to sum up, INS Arihant needs to prove on sea trials (and pray, no dirty accidents on the high seas and in the oceans).
And long term missile technology needs quite a bit of upgradation in terms of achievement.

You have mentioned some fine points... However let me also remind you that they have been successful in their own right.. I would not call them successful products yet but undenyingly they have been very successful enablers.. For India which had to grow such sensitive technology is nothing but a success.. No single nation has been successful in its first attempt, you need to give them time to mature.. Each and every technology developed is a success... In the bigger scheme of things we forget to mention the small enablers.. The steel used for making our ships DS-40 was supposed to come from Russia, which did not come, the project was delayed but we developed the enabler which cannot be the reason ever again.. I hope you get my drift!