LCA Tejas delayed further, to miss Dec deadline
Ajay Banerjee
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, July 27
India’s indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), the Tejas, projected to replace the ageing Soviet-era MiG 21 fighter jets, has got delayed yet again – this time for six months or so.
The December 2014 deadline for the final operational clearance (FoC) has been put on hold as around 1,700 parametres still need to be validated before the plane is inducted into the Indian Air Force.
These 1,700 parametres — all vital for creating flight manuals and laying down specifics of the single engine plane — just cannot be completed within the next five months, top sources confirmed. The Ministry of Defence expects that the tests will be completed by the middle of 2015 and only then can clearance be given to fly these planes be given.
The tests are being conducted at the National Flight Test Centre (NFTC) of the Aeronautical Development Agency which has been supplied with half a dozen limited series production of the Tejas for carrying out the tests. These planes do some 30 sorties a month which are studied and analysed before moving onto the next step. The test for full integration of the warplanes weapons package and its electronic warfare suite besides the networking to enable pilots to log onto the IAF dedicated net.
In the meantime, the manufacturers of the Tejas — Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) — a Ministry of Defence-owned public sector undertaking, has sought more time to start supplying the jets. The first of the ‘production series’ planes was to be delivered to the IAF in July this year, however, this deadline has been pushed to September, sources confirmed, adding that at least two should be delivered by the year-end.
The IAF on its part has informed the MoD that it will raise a squadron of the planes once it has at least 5-6 of the jets and the remaining can be added in stages. A squadron is normally 18 planes. The HAL has a capacity to produce eight of the Tejas per year. The IAF ordered 40 of the first lot of Tejas Mark-I – that is two squadrons and some war reserves. With these numbers, the IAF wants the HAL to ramp up capacity and increase it to at least 14 planes per year.
Sources said the MoD has moved a proposal that will entail infrastructure cost sharing by the IAF, the HAL and the Navy – the HAL is also making a Naval variant and developed a prototype for operations on the sea-borne aircraft carriers.
The initial operational clearance (IOC) for LCA Mark-1 was received in December last year and India has spent nearly US $4 billion (about Rs 24,000 crore) – not much as these are niche technologies. The Mark-I of the plane is powered by the US company General Electric GE 404 engines.
The HAL is planning a Mark-2 with additional features such as upgraded avionics and active electronically scanned array radar and the ability to reach supersonic speed. This will be powered by a GE 414 engine – the same used by the Boeing Super Hornet F-18-A.
The reason
The final operational clearance has been put on hold as around 1,700 parametres still need to be validated before the Tejas is inducted into the Indian Air Force
These parametres are vital for creating flight manuals and laying down specifics of the single engine plane and cannot be completed within the next five months
The Ministry of Defence expects that the tests will be completed by the middle of 2015
