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Is LCA based UCAV possible option for India?

IND151

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Hello friends,

The news broke out weeks ago that US is developing UCAV version of F-16.

My question is can India develop such UCAV based on LCA?

Your opinions are welcome.
 
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thats a great idea take owt the pilot and all the support equipment , replace them with remote controls & extra feul man it will be a great UCAV and it will carry much more ordanence aswell ...great post man but i think IAF is already having a study in this direction already
 
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thats a great idea take owt the pilot and all the support equipment , replace them with remote controls & extra feul man it will be a great UCAV and it will carry much more ordanence aswell ...great post man but i think IAF is already having a study in this direction already

Any source for your claim?
 
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it is possible and very well within reach of India..India tried to convert Cheetak Helo to unmanned platform,though later abandoned due to the fact that to make this platform efficient,we've to redesign the entire platform.so,no way we'd do that to an older platform.LCA might be turned into an UCAV platform,but not before other UCAV platforms got completed and up and running,as it'll be a significant challenge as it will be a supersonic UCAV platform while we're currently building subsonic one.
 
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Any source for your claim?

no sir but its not new idea been in discussions in IAF & MOD circels for long time even before IOC of LCA as IAF was never comfortavble with LCA as it is deu to its very limited range and maintainence
 
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The UAV developments of India is going on in snail pace . No news about Rustom-H , AURA .

And here we are talking about UCAV variant of Tejas .... :disagree:

Let them first finish the manned variant and later we can think about the unmanned variant .
 
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The UAV developments of India is going on in snail pace . No news about Rustom-H , AURA .

And here we are talking about UCAV variant of Tejas .... :disagree:

Let them first finish the manned variant and later we can think about the unmanned variant .

What's wrong about discussing this possibility?
 
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What's wrong about discussing this possibility?

No problem with us discussing it .

The problem will be when some defence PSU putting forward this idea before Tejas entering service .
 
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lol it would be better if the LCA is inducted first as a successful fighter in large numbers
 
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Hello friends,

The news broke out weeks ago that US is developing UCAV version of F-16.

My question is can India develop such UCAV based on LCA?

Your opinions are welcome.

US is not developing a UCAV based on F-16, but a target drone. A UAV for fighter pilots to get target practice. It is a way for them to put all their retiring F-16s to good use - but converting a newly built 4th gen fighter into a target drone does not make economic sense.

If we could convert the mig-21s into target drones, that's a different issue. But I doubt the mig-21 can be fitted with enough electronic stuff to make it an unmanned system.
 
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US is not developing a UCAV based on F-16, but a target drone. A UAV for fighter pilots to get target practice. It is a way for them to put all their retiring F-16s to good use - but converting a newly built 4th gen fighter into a target drone does not make economic sense.

If we could convert the mig-21s into target drones, that's a different issue. But I doubt the mig-21 can be fitted with enough electronic stuff to make it an unmanned system.

I am talking about UCAV not target drone i.e something like predator, Neuron
 
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Great idea to save a failing project. With LCA heading for failure just like Kaveri, repurposing it would keep the project alive and keep the money flowing.
 
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I am talking about UCAV not target drone i.e something like predator, Neuron

I know, and you are wrong in claiming that the US is developing a UCAV version of F-16; they are not.

Coming to India, what is the rationale behind converting a manned aircraft into an unmanned one instead of developing an unmanned one from scratch? The latter would be easier in every way, since the aircraft in question was not developed keeping UAV in mind - it is developed as a manned platform. Instead of spending time and energy on converting it into something else, why not build an unmanned drone?

The rationale for what US is doing is that they have thousands of F-16s at the end of their service lives that they need to retire. So instead of burying the old airframes, they can put it to some use, as target drones.

Bottom line: Far easier to develop a UCAV than to convert an existing manned aircraft into a UCAV. If the latter is even possible.
 
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