HAL Tejas | Updates, News & Discussions
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ganimi kawa
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ganimi kawa
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Interview from Dr. P.S. SUBRAMANYAM, also from the week,
Antony tilted the balance in favour of the LCA
Interview from Group Captain Suneet Krishna
Tejas is a pilot's aircraft
P.S. I've posted the matter in a seperate thread.
Antony tilted the balance in favour of the LCA
Interview from Group Captain Suneet Krishna
Tejas is a pilot's aircraft
P.S. I've posted the matter in a seperate thread.
Last edited:
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i hope lca mk II will look better than mk I. LCA look like trainer aircraft.
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Tejas, India’s first fighter aircraft, is combat ready. Here
is the story of how it beat
sceptics and sanctions By Ramu Patil Please do not allow the first
flight of the Light Combat
Aircraft to take place. The
aircraft has not been
developed with adequate
rigour, and safety aspects have not been fully looked into. It
would be a catastrophe if you
allow it to fly. This was the gist of a cable
which landed on then defence
minister George Fernandes’s table in 2001. It came from a
major US military aircraft
manufacturer on January 3, a
day before the maiden flight of
the indigenously designed and
developed Tejas. Even in India, many people
were sceptical about the
success of the fighter project,
which started way back in
1983. In the subsequent 27
years, countless work-hours and ?14,000 crore were spent
on developing it. Justifiably,
people wondered why India
should invest so much on
developing it when fighter
aircraft were available off the shelf in the international
market. Fernandes, with supreme
confidence in Team LCA,
ignored the cable. The
following morning the
homegrown fighter, flown by
Wing Commander Rajiv Kothiyal, soared into the clear
Bangalore sky. “He [Fernandes] told us about the letter from
the US only after the first flight
was over, ” recalls Air Marshal (retired) Philip Rajkumar, head
of the LCA flight test
operations at that time and
author of The Tejas Story: The
Light Combat Aircraft Project. But doubting Thomases
sniggered. They said Tejas
“flew somehow ” and the real test for it would be to fly
frequently and be part of the
Indian Air Force. And exactly a
decade after that historic first
flight, the aircraft is now
combat ready. The scientists at the Aeronautical Development
Agency (ADA), the nodal
agency for developing the
fighter, and the test crew at
the National Flight Test Centre
(NFTC) are confident. “Missiles, practice bombs and drop tanks
have all been integrated and
tested successfully. It is a very
potent weapon now, ’’ says P.S. Subramanyam, project director
(combat aircraft) and director,
ADA. According to K. Tamilmani,
chief executive, Centre for
Military Airworthiness and
Certification (CEMILAC), the
LCA is ready for Initial
Operational Clearance (IOC). CEMILAC, which is part of the
Defence Research
Development Organisation, is
the certifying agency for all
military aircraft and airborne
systems in India. It goes only by the demonstrated
performance of the aircraft
and systems to certify it. All
major envelope requirements
for the IOC have been
completed and safety aspects proved, says Tamilmani. “Some small things that still need to
be completed would be done
soon,” he says. A few parameters like firing
missiles through radar
targeting will be done before
getting the IOC and handing
over the aircraft to the IAF,
which has ordered 40 LCAs. Bangalore-based state-owned
aircraft maker Hindustan
Aeronautics Limited (HAL) will
start rolling out Tejas in the
next few months.
Flying with the IAF would be a major milestone for this multi-
mission tactical fighter capable
of air combat, offensive air
support and other combat
missions. At the flight test
stage, on an average, each aircraft does eight sorties per
month, but in the operational
squadrons, they will be flown
almost every day. “It is a fully combat-ready aircraft that
encompasses all features that
the IAF wants, ’’ says Group Captain Suneet Krishna of the
NFTC, who has been test flying
the LCA and has been
associated with the project for
10 years (see box). The NFTC
pilots, from the IAF and the Navy, have so far completed
1,500 sorties, testing a number
of parameters or test points. “Tejas is so agile and so good that it sometimes surprises
you, ” says NFTC Project Director Air Commodore Rohit
Verma. The veteran pilot, who
has flown the Russian MiGs and
French Mirages, is in love with
Tejas.
Like pilots, flight test engineers, too, played an
important role. Sitting at the
hi-tech Telemetry Centre at the
end of the HAL airport ’s runway, they monitor the test
flights. In fact, the test director
always has a better situational
awareness of the aircraft than
its pilot. All through the flight,
the director is in touch with the pilot, while a specialist
monitors the crucial
parameters in the aircraft. Says retired wing commander
P.K. Raveendran, group
director (flight testing), NFTC:
“Each test flight requires a lot of preparation and analysis.
Soon after the flight there will
be a ‘hot debrief’, the first impression of the flight by the
pilot and test engineers. That
will be followed by ‘data debrief’, where each aspect is discussed in detail so that
corrective action can be taken
in time.” He has been associated with the project
from 1995 and is heading the
team of “back room boys and girls” assisting the project. “Young boys and girls worked late in the night and would
report to work again by 7 a.m.
That also included a woman,
who had a kid to take care of
at home,” says former ADA director Dr Kota Harinarayana.
“When I asked her, she said: ‘Sir, my mother-in-law has told me she will take care of the
baby so that I can focus on the
national project.’” “Like any true patriot, I feel happy to be part of this
project,” says Devadatta Maharana, who integrated the
complex Airborne Separation
Video System that captures the
trajectory of bombs and drop
tanks dropped from the
aircraft. The special cameras mounted on Tejas capture
1,000 frames per second.
Though it sounds simple,
analysing separation of
missiles, bombs or drop tank is
crucial as any slight deviation in separation, at a very high
speed, can prove disastrous for
the aircraft. State-of-the-art technologies
like fly-by-wire, digital flight
control and all composite
structures have made Tejas
technologically superior to
many IAF fighters. “The LCA is far superior to the upgraded
MiG 21s. It will be as good as
any fourth generation fighter, ’’ says Rajkumar, who has 5,200
flying hours on 75 different
aircraft. It was Rajkumar who
set up the NFTC in 1994.
Says Verma, “The LCA is a good bedrock for any future
projects. The platform-neutral
technology can be used for
other platforms. After IOC, final
operations clearance (FOC)
would be a bit of challenge for us as we would be going in for
a high angle of attack, more
sensors, more weapons and
big envelope. We will do FOC
by the end of 2012. ” Experts say Tejas is best suited
for short duration missions,
while heavier aircraft like the
Sukhois can fly longer
missions. But Sukhoi costs
around ?240 crore, and an upgraded Jaguar around ?300
crore. Su-30MKI is one of the
most capable flying machines
in the IAF. However, the IAF
cannot afford to have only
those as they are very expensive and the operational
costs are too heavy. The LCA,
which is relatively less
expensive —it costs around ? 150 crore and, with the
upgrades, can go up to ?200
crore—will fit into the light class of fighters. The IAF is
acquiring 126 medium multi-
role aircraft for $11 billion to
strengthen its medium class
fleet. So far, a total of ?25,000 crore
has been invested on the LCA
project. “Of that, around ? 14,000 was for development
and rest of the money for
making 40 aircraft, ” says Subramanyam. “If we look at 200 aircraft [for the IAF and
the Navy], we will be getting
business worth ?50,000 crore. ’’ Though the project is now on
the right flight path, the going
was tough a few years ago.
“When we started, 999 out of 1,000 people did not believe
us,” says Kota, known as the Father of the LCA. Long before
the LCA project was even born,
he had done his Ph.D thesis on
the 'Design of an air superior
fighter for India', at IIT
Bombay. It was to honour Kota's contribution to the
project that his initials 'KH'
were inscribed on the aircraft
that made the maiden flight. Kota and his team were very
cautious in their approach. “We were willing to accept
criticism on account of delays
rather than putting the project
in danger,” says Kota. “We conducted many tests, more
than what are normally done.
The aircraft was ready to fly in
1999, but we took one full year
to test and re-test before
deciding to fly it in 2001. ” An unassuming person, Kota is
now working on the Regional
Transport Aircraft (RTA)
project. Bridging the technology gap,
too, was a huge challenge.
HAL, the only aircraft-maker in
the country, had not done
much after its Marut
programme in the early 60s, and India was two decades
behind developments in
aviation. In aviation, they say,
one needs to keep running to
stay where you are. And India
was not even walking! Next was the difference of
opinion between the IAF and
DRDO. “The IAF was looking for an aircraft which would be
on the frontline in 15 years or
so,” says Rajkumar, “while the aeronautical community felt
that the technological gap had
to be bridged by developing
technologies like fly-by-wire,
composite structures, and
digital avionics. The IAF knew that it would take a long time
to do this.’’ After sitting on the fence all
through the 80s, the IAF
started supporting the project
in the 90s. The project got a
meaningful funding of ?2,188
crore in 1993. Then came the US sanctions after Pokhran
nuclear tests in 1998. Many
thought it to be the end of the
fighter project as the US firms
GE and Lockheed Martin, which
were helping with engines and avionics, respectively, pulled
out overnight. Says Shyam
Chetty, head of flight
mechanics and control division:
“When sanctions were imposed, we were in the US
working with Lockheed Martin.
They immediately asked us to
leave the country and did not
even allow us to enter their
campus to collect our equipment and papers. It took
many years to get them back.
Meanwhile, we had to start
from scratch to develop flight
control law (FCL), which was a
very important part of the project. That was a big
challenge.'' To tackle the crisis, then DRDO
head A.P.J. Abdul Kalam
formed national teams to
develop the crucial
technologies within India. “We took it as a challenge and
worked day and night, ” says Kota. “We developed all the required systems before the
sanctions were lifted. ” The teams conquered complex
technologies like composite
materials, digital fly-by-wire
system and glass cockpit and
established various testing
facilities. Says National Aerospace Laboratory Director
A.R. Upadhyay: “In my 18 years of association with the
LCA project, I have become a
better aerospace professional.
Technologies like FCL and
carbon fibre composites
developed at NAL are helping many programmes including
our Saras, a 14-seater aircraft,
and also the RTA project. ” A.K. Sood, RTA project adviser
and former chief designer at
HAL, has the same opinion.
“The technology and expertise we developed for the LCA
were used for conducting full
aircraft vibration tests on
Sukhoi and for vibration tests
on external stores on Mirage
2000. That reduced our dependency on the foreign
aircraft makers, ” he says. But the ambition to develop a
complex jet engine and equally
difficult Multi-Mode Radar
(MMR) led to delays. Even now,
Tejas flies with a US-made
engine and an Israeli radar. Says Rajkumar: “It was an absurd managerial decision to
give the task of developing a
jet engine to GTRE [Gas Turbine
Research Establishment] and
radar development to HAL
Hyderabad. They never had any experience of doing such
complex work. The only
organisation that could have
developed the radar was LRDE
[Electronics and Radar
Development Establishment] and the HAL Engine Division in
Bangalore, which had the
experience of developing
engines. Today, with the
benefit of hindsight, we can
say the decisions were wrong, though we cannot blame anyone. ”
The LCA Mark I that is now
ready for IOC will fly with GE
404 IN20 engines while Mark
II, the first flight of which is
likely to be in December 2014,
will fly with the more powerful GE 414 engines. Mark
II will have a retractable fuel
system and will improve on all
deficiencies noticed in the
former. Lack of adequately trained
workforce was also a problem.
Says Rajkumar: “When the IJT [Intermediate Jet Trainer]
project was taken up by HAL,
the manpower got split. That
had an adverse effect on the
progress of the LCA project. ’’ But a transparent working
system helped the project.
Everyone in the ADA, IAF and
airworthiness teams knew
what the challenges were.
“The system was so transparent that I used to joke
that the LCA project was like a
cabaret artiste without a G-
string. It was totally
transparent. There was
nothing hidden,’’ says Kota, with a hearty laugh. Looking back at the long
development period, Wing
Comander Ajey Lele of
Institute of Defence Studies
and Analyses (IDSA), New
Delhi, says: “It was possible to complete the project a little
earlier, but one must
understand that developing
aircraft is not a simple job. The
criticism was very harsh, as if
we were manufacturing something like a mobile
phone.’’ Fighter development projects
take a lot of time. The
development of European
fighters took 25 years and the
F22 Raptor of the US was a
Cold War era project. “If it took over two decades for the US to
develop the F22, India, too,
will take time, ’’ Lele says. The process of developing a
fighter helped private industry
as well. Says Ashok Saxena,
MD, Navvavia Technologies
Private Limited: “Small and medium enterprises played a
major role in the production of
test equipment and
components. Those companies
are now getting business from
many foreign firms looking for good quality, low-cost
outsourcing for their own
programmes.” Saxena was managing director of HAL
Bangalore Complex and was
closely associated with the LCA
project. HAL will find it a challenge to
meet production requirements.
It will have to produce around
200 LCAs for the IAF and the
Navy in the coming years. As
of now, it is capable of making only eight aircraft a year and is
planning to increase the
capacity to 12. Which means, it
requires nearly 18 years to
make 200 fighters. Neither the
IAF nor the Navy can wait that long.
is the story of how it beat
sceptics and sanctions By Ramu Patil Please do not allow the first
flight of the Light Combat
Aircraft to take place. The
aircraft has not been
developed with adequate
rigour, and safety aspects have not been fully looked into. It
would be a catastrophe if you
allow it to fly. This was the gist of a cable
which landed on then defence
minister George Fernandes’s table in 2001. It came from a
major US military aircraft
manufacturer on January 3, a
day before the maiden flight of
the indigenously designed and
developed Tejas. Even in India, many people
were sceptical about the
success of the fighter project,
which started way back in
1983. In the subsequent 27
years, countless work-hours and ?14,000 crore were spent
on developing it. Justifiably,
people wondered why India
should invest so much on
developing it when fighter
aircraft were available off the shelf in the international
market. Fernandes, with supreme
confidence in Team LCA,
ignored the cable. The
following morning the
homegrown fighter, flown by
Wing Commander Rajiv Kothiyal, soared into the clear
Bangalore sky. “He [Fernandes] told us about the letter from
the US only after the first flight
was over, ” recalls Air Marshal (retired) Philip Rajkumar, head
of the LCA flight test
operations at that time and
author of The Tejas Story: The
Light Combat Aircraft Project. But doubting Thomases
sniggered. They said Tejas
“flew somehow ” and the real test for it would be to fly
frequently and be part of the
Indian Air Force. And exactly a
decade after that historic first
flight, the aircraft is now
combat ready. The scientists at the Aeronautical Development
Agency (ADA), the nodal
agency for developing the
fighter, and the test crew at
the National Flight Test Centre
(NFTC) are confident. “Missiles, practice bombs and drop tanks
have all been integrated and
tested successfully. It is a very
potent weapon now, ’’ says P.S. Subramanyam, project director
(combat aircraft) and director,
ADA. According to K. Tamilmani,
chief executive, Centre for
Military Airworthiness and
Certification (CEMILAC), the
LCA is ready for Initial
Operational Clearance (IOC). CEMILAC, which is part of the
Defence Research
Development Organisation, is
the certifying agency for all
military aircraft and airborne
systems in India. It goes only by the demonstrated
performance of the aircraft
and systems to certify it. All
major envelope requirements
for the IOC have been
completed and safety aspects proved, says Tamilmani. “Some small things that still need to
be completed would be done
soon,” he says. A few parameters like firing
missiles through radar
targeting will be done before
getting the IOC and handing
over the aircraft to the IAF,
which has ordered 40 LCAs. Bangalore-based state-owned
aircraft maker Hindustan
Aeronautics Limited (HAL) will
start rolling out Tejas in the
next few months.
Flying with the IAF would be a major milestone for this multi-
mission tactical fighter capable
of air combat, offensive air
support and other combat
missions. At the flight test
stage, on an average, each aircraft does eight sorties per
month, but in the operational
squadrons, they will be flown
almost every day. “It is a fully combat-ready aircraft that
encompasses all features that
the IAF wants, ’’ says Group Captain Suneet Krishna of the
NFTC, who has been test flying
the LCA and has been
associated with the project for
10 years (see box). The NFTC
pilots, from the IAF and the Navy, have so far completed
1,500 sorties, testing a number
of parameters or test points. “Tejas is so agile and so good that it sometimes surprises
you, ” says NFTC Project Director Air Commodore Rohit
Verma. The veteran pilot, who
has flown the Russian MiGs and
French Mirages, is in love with
Tejas.
Like pilots, flight test engineers, too, played an
important role. Sitting at the
hi-tech Telemetry Centre at the
end of the HAL airport ’s runway, they monitor the test
flights. In fact, the test director
always has a better situational
awareness of the aircraft than
its pilot. All through the flight,
the director is in touch with the pilot, while a specialist
monitors the crucial
parameters in the aircraft. Says retired wing commander
P.K. Raveendran, group
director (flight testing), NFTC:
“Each test flight requires a lot of preparation and analysis.
Soon after the flight there will
be a ‘hot debrief’, the first impression of the flight by the
pilot and test engineers. That
will be followed by ‘data debrief’, where each aspect is discussed in detail so that
corrective action can be taken
in time.” He has been associated with the project
from 1995 and is heading the
team of “back room boys and girls” assisting the project. “Young boys and girls worked late in the night and would
report to work again by 7 a.m.
That also included a woman,
who had a kid to take care of
at home,” says former ADA director Dr Kota Harinarayana.
“When I asked her, she said: ‘Sir, my mother-in-law has told me she will take care of the
baby so that I can focus on the
national project.’” “Like any true patriot, I feel happy to be part of this
project,” says Devadatta Maharana, who integrated the
complex Airborne Separation
Video System that captures the
trajectory of bombs and drop
tanks dropped from the
aircraft. The special cameras mounted on Tejas capture
1,000 frames per second.
Though it sounds simple,
analysing separation of
missiles, bombs or drop tank is
crucial as any slight deviation in separation, at a very high
speed, can prove disastrous for
the aircraft. State-of-the-art technologies
like fly-by-wire, digital flight
control and all composite
structures have made Tejas
technologically superior to
many IAF fighters. “The LCA is far superior to the upgraded
MiG 21s. It will be as good as
any fourth generation fighter, ’’ says Rajkumar, who has 5,200
flying hours on 75 different
aircraft. It was Rajkumar who
set up the NFTC in 1994.
Says Verma, “The LCA is a good bedrock for any future
projects. The platform-neutral
technology can be used for
other platforms. After IOC, final
operations clearance (FOC)
would be a bit of challenge for us as we would be going in for
a high angle of attack, more
sensors, more weapons and
big envelope. We will do FOC
by the end of 2012. ” Experts say Tejas is best suited
for short duration missions,
while heavier aircraft like the
Sukhois can fly longer
missions. But Sukhoi costs
around ?240 crore, and an upgraded Jaguar around ?300
crore. Su-30MKI is one of the
most capable flying machines
in the IAF. However, the IAF
cannot afford to have only
those as they are very expensive and the operational
costs are too heavy. The LCA,
which is relatively less
expensive —it costs around ? 150 crore and, with the
upgrades, can go up to ?200
crore—will fit into the light class of fighters. The IAF is
acquiring 126 medium multi-
role aircraft for $11 billion to
strengthen its medium class
fleet. So far, a total of ?25,000 crore
has been invested on the LCA
project. “Of that, around ? 14,000 was for development
and rest of the money for
making 40 aircraft, ” says Subramanyam. “If we look at 200 aircraft [for the IAF and
the Navy], we will be getting
business worth ?50,000 crore. ’’ Though the project is now on
the right flight path, the going
was tough a few years ago.
“When we started, 999 out of 1,000 people did not believe
us,” says Kota, known as the Father of the LCA. Long before
the LCA project was even born,
he had done his Ph.D thesis on
the 'Design of an air superior
fighter for India', at IIT
Bombay. It was to honour Kota's contribution to the
project that his initials 'KH'
were inscribed on the aircraft
that made the maiden flight. Kota and his team were very
cautious in their approach. “We were willing to accept
criticism on account of delays
rather than putting the project
in danger,” says Kota. “We conducted many tests, more
than what are normally done.
The aircraft was ready to fly in
1999, but we took one full year
to test and re-test before
deciding to fly it in 2001. ” An unassuming person, Kota is
now working on the Regional
Transport Aircraft (RTA)
project. Bridging the technology gap,
too, was a huge challenge.
HAL, the only aircraft-maker in
the country, had not done
much after its Marut
programme in the early 60s, and India was two decades
behind developments in
aviation. In aviation, they say,
one needs to keep running to
stay where you are. And India
was not even walking! Next was the difference of
opinion between the IAF and
DRDO. “The IAF was looking for an aircraft which would be
on the frontline in 15 years or
so,” says Rajkumar, “while the aeronautical community felt
that the technological gap had
to be bridged by developing
technologies like fly-by-wire,
composite structures, and
digital avionics. The IAF knew that it would take a long time
to do this.’’ After sitting on the fence all
through the 80s, the IAF
started supporting the project
in the 90s. The project got a
meaningful funding of ?2,188
crore in 1993. Then came the US sanctions after Pokhran
nuclear tests in 1998. Many
thought it to be the end of the
fighter project as the US firms
GE and Lockheed Martin, which
were helping with engines and avionics, respectively, pulled
out overnight. Says Shyam
Chetty, head of flight
mechanics and control division:
“When sanctions were imposed, we were in the US
working with Lockheed Martin.
They immediately asked us to
leave the country and did not
even allow us to enter their
campus to collect our equipment and papers. It took
many years to get them back.
Meanwhile, we had to start
from scratch to develop flight
control law (FCL), which was a
very important part of the project. That was a big
challenge.'' To tackle the crisis, then DRDO
head A.P.J. Abdul Kalam
formed national teams to
develop the crucial
technologies within India. “We took it as a challenge and
worked day and night, ” says Kota. “We developed all the required systems before the
sanctions were lifted. ” The teams conquered complex
technologies like composite
materials, digital fly-by-wire
system and glass cockpit and
established various testing
facilities. Says National Aerospace Laboratory Director
A.R. Upadhyay: “In my 18 years of association with the
LCA project, I have become a
better aerospace professional.
Technologies like FCL and
carbon fibre composites
developed at NAL are helping many programmes including
our Saras, a 14-seater aircraft,
and also the RTA project. ” A.K. Sood, RTA project adviser
and former chief designer at
HAL, has the same opinion.
“The technology and expertise we developed for the LCA
were used for conducting full
aircraft vibration tests on
Sukhoi and for vibration tests
on external stores on Mirage
2000. That reduced our dependency on the foreign
aircraft makers, ” he says. But the ambition to develop a
complex jet engine and equally
difficult Multi-Mode Radar
(MMR) led to delays. Even now,
Tejas flies with a US-made
engine and an Israeli radar. Says Rajkumar: “It was an absurd managerial decision to
give the task of developing a
jet engine to GTRE [Gas Turbine
Research Establishment] and
radar development to HAL
Hyderabad. They never had any experience of doing such
complex work. The only
organisation that could have
developed the radar was LRDE
[Electronics and Radar
Development Establishment] and the HAL Engine Division in
Bangalore, which had the
experience of developing
engines. Today, with the
benefit of hindsight, we can
say the decisions were wrong, though we cannot blame anyone. ”
The LCA Mark I that is now
ready for IOC will fly with GE
404 IN20 engines while Mark
II, the first flight of which is
likely to be in December 2014,
will fly with the more powerful GE 414 engines. Mark
II will have a retractable fuel
system and will improve on all
deficiencies noticed in the
former. Lack of adequately trained
workforce was also a problem.
Says Rajkumar: “When the IJT [Intermediate Jet Trainer]
project was taken up by HAL,
the manpower got split. That
had an adverse effect on the
progress of the LCA project. ’’ But a transparent working
system helped the project.
Everyone in the ADA, IAF and
airworthiness teams knew
what the challenges were.
“The system was so transparent that I used to joke
that the LCA project was like a
cabaret artiste without a G-
string. It was totally
transparent. There was
nothing hidden,’’ says Kota, with a hearty laugh. Looking back at the long
development period, Wing
Comander Ajey Lele of
Institute of Defence Studies
and Analyses (IDSA), New
Delhi, says: “It was possible to complete the project a little
earlier, but one must
understand that developing
aircraft is not a simple job. The
criticism was very harsh, as if
we were manufacturing something like a mobile
phone.’’ Fighter development projects
take a lot of time. The
development of European
fighters took 25 years and the
F22 Raptor of the US was a
Cold War era project. “If it took over two decades for the US to
develop the F22, India, too,
will take time, ’’ Lele says. The process of developing a
fighter helped private industry
as well. Says Ashok Saxena,
MD, Navvavia Technologies
Private Limited: “Small and medium enterprises played a
major role in the production of
test equipment and
components. Those companies
are now getting business from
many foreign firms looking for good quality, low-cost
outsourcing for their own
programmes.” Saxena was managing director of HAL
Bangalore Complex and was
closely associated with the LCA
project. HAL will find it a challenge to
meet production requirements.
It will have to produce around
200 LCAs for the IAF and the
Navy in the coming years. As
of now, it is capable of making only eight aircraft a year and is
planning to increase the
capacity to 12. Which means, it
requires nearly 18 years to
make 200 fighters. Neither the
IAF nor the Navy can wait that long.
sathya
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Cost To Develop Tejas Mk-2: $542-million
The Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), which oversees the development of India's Light Combat Aircraft Tejas programme will be sanctioned $542.44-million (Rs 2431.55-crore) to develop the Tejas Mk-2, making up Phase-III of the programme's full scale engineering development (FSED). Also, the deadline for final operational clearance for the Tejas Mk-1 is December 2012.
Livefist - Indian Defence & Aerospace: Cost To Develop Tejas Mk-2: $542-million
i wish LCA mk2 makes early flight test..
GareebNawaz
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hope there is a new design for this bird.
alam.saquiba
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452 mil USD is dammn cheap ............... I wonder how can India can develop such a world class fighter (MK II may include AESA , high TWR, Low frontal RCS and many more)
I heard somewhere that Isarel invested 7 billion Dollar and china further invested few more on the LAVI...
Good JOB Indian ...
I heard somewhere that Isarel invested 7 billion Dollar and china further invested few more on the LAVI...
Good JOB Indian ...
angeldemon_007
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@ kapoor
Very great story of an Indian success....
Only discouraging part in the article was the ending....
Very great story of an Indian success....
Only discouraging part in the article was the ending....
Lets hope we can solve this problem as it would increase the cost of production.
alam.saquiba
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After a long delay, the LCA is ready. How does it feel?
Everyone talks about the delays. It is not correct to say that the programme started in 1983, when the government first thought of working on a combat aircraft. They decided to put Rs:560 crore seed money for preparing the project definition, but there was no clarity. Even the air staff requirement (ASR) [standards for the engine] came only in 1985. In 1987-88, the project definition was prepared and the proposal to make prototypes was submitted. The government said they cannot take a risk with that kind of money and they split the programme into two parts; technology demonstration (TD) programme and proto-vehicle development project. In 1993, they gave Rs:2,199 crore for the TD. So, the actual programme started only in 1993.
In fact, clarity came only in 2004-05. In 2001, we flew the first aircraft and in 2004, we did the TD for the government, after which they released ?3,320 crore. The first proto vehicle (PV1) came out in December 2005. The IAF got confidence in the programme and gave the standard of preparation of fighter aircraft. So, the fillip came in 2005. From then on, the programme has been progressing rapidly, especially after Defence Minister A.K. Antony tilted the balance in favour of the LCA by publicly stating that the government would support the project, irrespective of any developments.
P.S. SUBRAMANYAM, PROJECT DIRECTOR (COMBAT AIRCRAFT) AND DIRECTOR, ADA
alam.saquiba
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---------- Post added at 08:16 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:16 AM ----------
What after the LCA project?
The IAF is saying ‘Let us make a fifth generation aircraft, the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft’. The seed money has been given, and the IAF is working very closely with us to evolve the specifications so that the programme can start. Also, the Unmanned Aerial Combat Aircraft programme is coming up and money has already been given. That is a little more advanced than the AMCA because of its stealth characteristics.
angeldemon_007
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I remember the similar kind of manegerial mistakes which we will commit in an upcoming project Project 17A.
In this we will be developing 7 stealth frigates. This requires modular construction technique in which our shipyards had no experience but still they insisted on developing ships on their own.
Earlier IN was insisting that 2 ships should be developed in the foreign shipyard of the Company who is selected for this project, so that our shipyard can learn this technique first.
But the shipyards were so overconfident that they told MOD that they can develop all the ships in their shipyards. MOD accepted the shipyards idea. These shipyards are GRSE of Kolkatta which has very less experience and MDL which has proved themselves in delaying every project they will undertake.
I can only see things like delays, cost escalation and then in the end the shipyards will tell every1 that the delays where actually because the technique was too difficult to master....
God help us...
There is nothing wrong in imagining.....but this looks more like over-confidence...
Announcing about AMCA in public, when govt. has only sanctioned the money for feasibility studies. They are claiming that govt. will sanction 2 billion $ once the project will be approved. But who will tell them that the first thing is the project should be approved.
That AURA on is much funny project. ADA has a heading of AURA on their website but when click there is nothing(there is nothing on AMCA also). These guys have done nothing but just named the project and they are announcing everywhere that we are building a UCAV. Its clear these idiots have become more prone to media attention rather than work.
I mean, in every country, the companies or organisation first develop the design and a prototype before and then it is decided by the govt. whether to go for the project or not. Let me assure you the same will happen here, but our ADA, DRDO and HAL are so confident that they are announcing everywhere about this... FOOLS.
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marcos98
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TEJAS FIRNG R-73
edit: watch it on
http://tarmak007.blogspot.com/2011/01/test.html
friggin awesome video.......
i luv tejas......
edit: watch it on
http://tarmak007.blogspot.com/2011/01/test.html
friggin awesome video.......
i luv tejas......
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