Tejas(LCA)- Setting the record straight
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The Indian government's "self-reliance" goals for the LCA include indigenous development of the three most sophisticated and hence most challenging systems: the fly-by-wire (FBW) flight control system (FCS), multi-mode pulse-doppler radar, and afterburning turbofan engine.[16] Although India has had a policy of strictly limiting foreign participation in the LCA programme, these are the only major LCA systems on which the ADA has had to invite significant foreign technological assistance and consultancy. Moreover, the engine and radar are also the only major systems for which the ADA has seriously considered substituting foreign equipment.
The ambitiousness of the LCA programme in terms of pursuing self-reliance in aviation technologies is illustrated by the fact that out of a total of 35 major avionics components and line-replaceable units (LRUs), only three involve foreign systems. These are the multi-function displays (MFDs) by Sextant (France) and Elbit (Israel), the helmet-mounted display and sight (HMDS) cueing system by Elbit, and the laser pod supplied by Rafael (Israel). However, even among these three, when the LCA reaches the production stage, the MFDs are expected to be supplied by Indian companies. A few other important items of equipment (such as the Martin-Baker ejection seat) have been imported. As a consequence of the embargo imposed on India after its nuclear weapons tests in May 1998, many items originally planned to be imported were instead developed indigenously .
Of the five critical technologies the ADA identified at the beginning of the LCA programme as needing to be mastered for India to be able to design and build a "completely indigenous" fighter, two have been entirely successful: the development and manufacture of advanced carbon-fibre composite (CFC) structures and skins and a modern "glass cockpit." In fact, ADA has had a profitable commercial spin-off in its Autolay integrated automated software system for the design and development of 3-D laminated composite elements (which has been licensed to both Airbus and Infosys).[16] These successes have gone mostly unnoticed in the shadow of the problems encountered with the other three key technology initiatives. Nonetheless, as a result of the accomplishments of India's domestic industries, presently about 70% of the components in LCA are manufactured in India and the dependence on imported components used would be progressively reduced in the coming years.[17]
HAL serves as the prime contractor and has leading responsibility for LCA design, systems integration, airframe manufacturing, aircraft final assembly, flight testing, and service support.[15] The ADA itself has primary responsibility for the design and development of the LCA's avionics suite and its integration with the flight controls, environmental controls, aircraft utilities systems management, stores management system, etc.
Of particular importance are the initiatives to develop an indigenous flight control system, radar, and engine for the LCA. The National Aeronautics Laboratory (NAL)now called the National Aerospace Laboratorieswas selected to lead the development of the flight control laws, supported by the Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE). HAL and the Electronics and Radar Development Establishment (LRDE)[18] are jointly developing the Tejas' Multi-Mode Radar (MMR). The GTRE is responsible for the design and parallel development of the GTX-35VS Kaveri afterburning turbofan engine for the Tejas.
The IAF's Air Staff Requirement for the LCA were not finalised until October 1985. This delay rendered moot the original schedule which called for first flight in April 1990 and service entry in 1995; however, it also proved a boon as it it gave the ADA time to better marshal national R&D and industrial resources, recruit personnel, create infrastructure, and to gain a clearer perspective of which advanced technologies could be developed indigenously and which would need to be imported.
Project definition commenced in October 1987 and was completed in September 1988. Dassault Aviation of France was hired as a consultant to review the PD and provide advice based on its extensive aviation expertise. The PD phase is a critical early element in the aircraft design and development process because from this flow key elements of the detailed design, manufacturing approach, and maintenance requirements.
[edit]Development history
HAL Tejas parked next to F-16 and Eurofighter at Aero India.
The LCA design was finalised in 1990 as a small delta-winged machine with relaxed static stability (RSS) to enhance maneuverability performance. The sophisticated avionics and advanced composite structure specified caused some concern almost immediately, and the IAF expressed doubt that India possessed sufficient technological infrastructure to support such an ambitious project. A governmental review committee was formed in May 1989 which reported out a general view that Indian infrastructure, facilities and technology had advanced sufficiently in most areas to undertake the project. As a measure of prudence, though, it was decided that the full-scale engineering development (FSED) stage of the programme would proceed in two stages.
Phase 1 would focus on "proof of concept" and would comprise the design, development and testing (DDT) of two technology demonstrator aircraft (TD-1 and TD-2) and fabrication of a structural test specimen (STS) airframe; only after successful testing of the TD aircraft would the Indian government give its full support to the LCA design. This would be followed by the production of two prototype vehicles (PV-1 and PV-2), and creation of the necessary basic infrastructure and test facilities for the aircraft would begin.
Phase 2 would consist of the manufacturing of three more prototype vehicles (PV-3 as the production variant, PV-4 as the naval variant, and PV-5 as the trainer variant) and a fatigue test specimen, and the construction of further development and test facilities at various work centres.
Phase 1 commenced in 1990 and HAL started work on the technology demonstrators in mid-1991; however, a financial crunch resulted in full-scale funding not being authorized until April 1993, with significant work on FSED Phase 1 commencing in June. The first technology demonstrator, TD-1, was rolled out on 17 November 1995 and was followed by TD-2 in 1998, but they were kept grounded for several years due to structural concerns and trouble with the development of the flight control system.[19]
One of the most ambitious requirements for the LCA was the specification that it would have "relaxed static stability" (RSS). Although Dassault had offered an analogue FCS system in 1988, the ADA recognised that digital flight control technology would soon supplant it.[16] RSS technology was introduced in 1974 on the General Dynamics (now Lockheed Martin) YF-16, which was the world's first production aircraft to be slightly aerodynamically unstable by design. Most aircraft are designed with "positive" static stability, which means they have a natural tendency to return to level and controlled flight in the absence of control inputs; however, this quality tends to oppose the pilot's efforts to manoeuvre. An aircraft with "negative" static stability (i.e., RSS), on the other hand, will quickly depart from level and controlled flight unless the pilot constantly works to keep it in trim; while this enhances manoeuvrability, it is very wearing on a pilot relying on a mechanical flight control system.
Development of a FBW flight control system requires extensive knowledge of flight control laws and the expensive writing of a considerable amount of software code for the flight control computers, as well as its integration with the avionics and other electronic systems. When the LCA programme was launched, FBW was a state-of-the-art technology and such a sensitive one that India could find no nation willing to export it. Therefore, in 1992 the LCA National Control Law (CLAW) team was set up by the National Aeronautics Laboratory to develop India's own version. The CLAW team's scientists and mathematicians were successful in developing their control laws, but could not test them since India did not possess advanced real-time ground simulators at that time. Accordingly, British Aerospace (BAe) and Lockheed Martin were brought in to help in 1993, but the effort required for the Aeronautical Development Establishment to code the control laws into the FCS software proved a much larger job than originally anticipated.
Specific control law problems were tested on BAE's simulators (and on HAL's, once theirs became available). As it was being developed, progressive elements of the coding were checked out on the "Minibird" and "Ironbird" test rigs at the ADE and HAL, respectively. A second series of inflight simulation tests of the integrated flight control software were conducted on the F-16 VISTA (Variable In-flight Stability Test Aircraft) simulator in the U.S. in July 1996, with 33 test flights being carried out. However, Lockheed Martin's involvement was terminated in 1998 as part of an embargo enacted by the U.S. in response to India's second nuclear tests in May of that year.
The NAL's CLAW team eventually managed to successfully complete integration of the flight control laws indigenously, with the FCS software performing flawlessly for over 50 hours of pilot testing on TD-1, resulting in the aircraft being cleared for flight in early 2001. The LCA's maiden flight was made by TD-1 from National Flight Test Centre (NFTC), near Bangalore, on 4 January 2001, and its first successful supersonic flight followed on 1 August 2003. TD-2 made its first flight on 6 June 2002. The automatic flight control system (AFCS)of the Tejas has been highly praised by all of its test pilots, one of whom said that he found it easier to take off with the LCA than in a Mirage 2000.[20]
Another critical technology area tackled for indigenous development by the ADA team is the Multi-Mode Radar (MMR). It was initially planned for the LCA to use the Ericsson Microwave Systems PS-05/A I/J-band multi-function radar,[21] which was developed by Ericsson and Ferranti Defence Systems Integration for the Saab JAS-39 Gripen.[22] However, after examining other radars in the early 1990s,[23] the DRDO became confident that indigenous development was possible. HAL's Hyderabad division and the LRDE were selected to jointly lead the MMR program and the radar development effort began in 1997.[24]
The DRDO's Centre for Airborne Studies (CABS) is responsible for running the test programme for the MMR. Between 1996 and 1997, CABS converted the surviving HAL/HS-748M Airborne Surveillance Post (ASP) testbed into a testbed for the avionics and radar of the LCA. Known as the 'Hack', the only major structural modification besides the removal of the rotodome assembly was the addition of the LCA's nose cone in order to accommodate the MMR.
By mid-2002, development of the MMR was reported to be experiencing major delays and cost escalations. By early 2005 only the air-to-air look-up and look-down modes two very basic modes were confirmed to have been successfully tested. In May 2006 it was revealed that the performance of several modes being tested still "fell short of expectations."[25] As a result, the ADA was reduced to running weaponisation tests with a weapon delivery pod, which is not a primary sensor, leaving critical tests on hold. According to test reports, the crux of the problem is a serious compatibility issue between the radar and the advanced signal processor module (SPM) built by the LRDE. Acquisition of an "off-the-shelf" foreign radar is an interim option being seriously considered.[24][26][27] The LSP-3 which flew on April 23, 2010 was flying with a hybrid version of Elta's EL/M-2032 pulse-doppler radar.[28]
[edit]Engine and propulsion
Initially, it was decided to equip the prototype aircraft with the General Electric F404-GE-F2J3 afterburning turbofan engine. Simultaneously, in 1986, a parallel programme to develop an indigenous powerplant was also launched. Led by the Gas Turbine Research Establishment, the GTRE GTX-35VS, named "Kaveri", was expected to replace the F404 on all production aircraft. However, progress in the Kaveri development programme was slowed by technical difficulties.
In mid-2004, the Kaveri failed its high-altitude tests in Russia, ending the last hopes of introducing it with the first production Tejas aircraft.[29] Continued development snags with the Kaveri resulted in the 2003 decision to procure the uprated F404-GE-IN20 engine for the eight pre-production LSP aircraft and two naval prototypes. The ADA awarded General Electric a US$105 million contract in 2004 for development engineering and production of 17 -IN20 engines, delivery of which began in 2006.
An RFP inviting companies for further development of Kaveri was issued. In February 2006, the ADA awarded a contract to the French aircraft engine company Snecma for technical assistance in working out the Kaveri's problems.[9] The Kaveri engine based on Snecmas new core, an uprated derivative of the M88-2 engine that powers the French Rafale fighter, providing 83-85 Kilonewtons (KN) of maximum thrust is being considered a third option by DRDO leading the IAF to object that since Snecma has already developed the core of the engine it is offering the DRDO will not participate in any joint development but merely provide Snecma with an indigenous stamp.[30]
In 2007, HAL ordered an additional 24 F404-IN20 afterburning engines to power the first operational squadron of Tejas fighter aircraft for the Indian Air Force.[31] Before the subsequent order, F404-GE-IN20 was trial-installed in the Tejas as part of final evaluations toward flight-testing, scheduled for mid-2007. The F404-GE-IN20 engine generated more than 19,000 pounds (85 kN) uninstalled thrust and completed 330 hours of Accelerated Mission testing, equivalent of 1,000 hours of flight operation.
In 2008, it was announced that the Kaveri would not be ready in time for the Tejas, and that an in-production powerplant would have to be selected[32] in the 95 to 100 kilonewton (kN) (21,00023,000 lbf) range to allow the aircraft to perform combat maneuvers with optimal weapons load. The contenders were the Eurojet EJ200 and the General Electric F414. The single crystal turbine blade technology, originally denied to Indian scientists, has also been offered to India by Eurojet via the EJ200 engine.[33] It has also been said by IAF sources that the airframe will have to be redesigned in order to accommodate the heavier engine which is expected to take up to three-four years. The initial batch of Tejas aircraft were powered by the F404 engine.[34]
It was reported that Eurojet offered two variants of the EJ200, which through a software change would also be able to meet the requirements of the Naval variant of the LCA. Eurojet also offered to help India in the development of the Kaveri engine.[35]
After evaluation and acceptance of the technical offer provided by both Eurojet and GE Aviation, the commercial quotes were compared in detail and GE Aviation was declared as the lowest bidder. "Further price negotiations and contract finalisation will follow, the Defence R&D Organisation (DRDO) announced on 30 September 2010. The deal will cover purchase of 99 GE F414 engines. The initial batch will be supplied by GE and the rest will be manufactured in India under a transfer of technology arrangement.[36][37]
[edit]Status
Tejas trainer under construction.
In March 2005, the IAF placed a 2,000 crore (US$454 million) order for 20 aircraft, with a similar purchase of another 20 aircraft to follow. All 40 will be equipped with the F404-GE-IN20 engine.[38] The Tejas is presently undergoing flight testing. It will be inducted into the IAF when it has received Initial Operating Clearance (IOC) which is expected to be in December 2010.[1][2] Consequently, the IAF has created a 14 member "LCA Induction Team" stationed in Bangalore that is composed of IAF pilots and officers and headed by an Air Vice Marshal. The team's objectives are to reportedly oversee the induction of the LCA, help solve any challenges that may arise, assist HAL in customizing the Tejas for operational use, and to create doctrines, training and maintenance programs and finally to assist the IAF in ensuring a smooth introduction of 'Tejas' into operational service.[39][40]
The first production variant of the 'Tejas' (LSP-1) flew on June 2008. Tejas completed 1000 Test Flights by January, 2009 with more than 530 hours of in-flight testing.[41] By February 2009 officials of the Aeronautical Development Agency stated that the Tejas had started flying with weapons and integration of radars would be completed by March 2009. In addition, they stated that nearly all system development activity would be completed by that time.[42] On April 2010, the third production aircraft (LSP-3) flew with a hybrid version of the Elta EL/M-2032 multi-mode radar and [28][43] by June 2010, the fourth production aircraft took flight in the configuration it would be delivered to the Indian Air Force in.[44] By June 2010, Tejas had also completed the second phase of hot weather trials. The objective of the hot weather trials was to prove that the aircraft was in an IOC configuration with the weapon system and sensors integrated.[45] The sea trials of the aircraft is being carried out.[46]
The trainer variant prototype took to the skies in November 2009.[47] In December 2009, the Indian government sanctioned 8,000 crore (US$1.82 billion) to begin production of the fighter jet for the Indian Air Force and Indian Navy.[48] The Indian Navy has a requirement of 50 Tejas and the first protoype, NP-1 was rolled out in July 2010.[49] IAF had ordered 20 additional Tejas fighter jets and the defence acquisition council had cleared the plan.[50]
[edit]Design
PV-3 in Indian Air Force grey camouflage pattern.
The Tejas is single-engined multirole fighter which features a tailless, compound delta-wing planform and is designed with "relaxed static stability" for enhanced maneuverability. Originally intended to serve as an air superiority aircraft with a secondary "dumb bomb" ground-attack role, the flexibility of this design approach has permitted a variety of guided air-to-surface and anti-shipping weapons to be integrated for more well-rounded multirole and multimission capabilities.
The tailless, compound-delta planform is designed to keep the Tejas small and lightweight.[51] The use of this planform also minimises the control surfaces needed (no tailplanes or foreplanes, just a single vertical tailfin), permits carriage of a wider range of external stores, and confers better close-combat, high-speed, and high-alpha performance characteristics than comparable cruciform-wing designs. Extensive wind tunnel testing on scale models and complex computational fluid dynamics analyses have optimised the aerodynamic configuration of the LCA, giving it minimum supersonic drag, a low wing-loading, and high rates of roll and pitch.
All weapons are carried on one or more of seven hardpoints with total capacity of greater than 4,000 kg: three stations under each wing and one on the under-fuselage centreline. There is also an eighth, offset station beneath the port-side intake trunk which can carry a variety of pods (FLIR, IRST, laser rangefinder/designator, or reconnaissance), as can the centreline under-fuselage station and inboard pairs of wing stations.
The Tejas has integral internal fuel tanks to carry 3,000 kg of fuel in the fuselage and wing, and a fixed inflight refuelling probe on the starboard side of the forward fuselage. Externally, there are "wet" hardpoint provisions for up to three 1,200- or five 800-litre (320- or 210-US gallon; 260- or 180-Imp gallon) fuel tanks on the inboard and mid-board wing stations and the centreline fuselage station.
[edit]Airframe
Composites in the LCA
The LCA is constructed of aluminium-lithium alloys, carbon-fibre composites (C-FC), and titanium-alloy steels. The Tejas employs C-FC materials for up to 45% of its airframe by weight, including in the fuselage (doors and skins), wings (skin, spars and ribs), elevons, tailfin, rudder, air brakes and landing gear doors. Composites are used to make an aircraft both lighter and stronger at the same time compared to an all-metal design, and the LCA's percentage employment of C-FCs is one of the highest among contemporary aircraft of its class.[52] Apart from making the plane much lighter, there are also fewer joints or rivets, which increases the aircraft's reliability and lowers its susceptibility to structural fatigue cracks.
The tailfin for the LCA is a monolithic honeycomb piece, an approach which reduced its manufacturing cost by 80% compared to the customary "subtractive" or "deductive" method, whereby the shaft is carved out of a block of titanium alloy by a computerized numerically controlled machine. No other manufacturer is known to have made fins out of a single piece.[53] A 'nose' for the rudder is added by 'squeeze' riveting.
The use of composites in the LCA resulted in a 40% reduction in the total number of parts compared to using a metallic frame. Furthermore, the number of fasteners has been reduced by half in the composite structure from the 10,000 that would have been required in a metallic frame design. The composite design also helped to avoid about 2,000 holes being drilled into the airframe. Overall, the aircraft's weight is lowered by 21%. While each of these factors can reduce production costs, an additional benefit and significant cost savings is realised in the shorter time required to assemble the aircraft seven months for the LCA as opposed to 11 months using an all-metal airframe.[54]
Tejas at Aero-India 09
The airframe of the naval variant of the Tejas will be modified with a nose droop to provide improved view during landing approach, and wing leading edge vortex controllers (LEVCON) to increase lift during approach. The LEVCONs are control surfaces that extend from the wing-root leading edge and thus afford better low-speed handling for the LCA, which would otherwise be slightly hampered due to the increased drag that results from its delta-wing design. As an added benefit, the LEVCONs will also increase controllability at high angles of attack (AoA).
The naval Tejas will also have a strengthened spine, a longer and stronger undercarriage, and powered nose wheel steering for deck manoeuvrability.[55][56] The Tejas trainer variant will have "aerodynamic commonality" with the two-seat naval aircraft design.[57]
[edit]Landing gear
Hydraulically retractable tricycle-type landing gear.
The Tejas has a hydraulically retractable tricycle-type landing gear with a pair of single inward-retracting mainwheels and a steerable, twin-wheel forward-retracting nose gear. The landing gear was originally to have been imported, but following the imposition of trade sanctions, HAL developed the entire system independently.
India's Nuclear Fuel Complex (NFC) led the team that developed the titanium half-alloy tubes that are used for hydraulic power transmission and they are critical components in the LCA.This technology also has space applications.[58]
[edit]Flight controls
The HAL Tejas conducting an inverted pass shown here is an example of Fly-by-wire control.
Since the Tejas is a relaxed static stability design, it is equipped with a quadruplex digital fly-by-wire flight control system to ease handling by the pilot.[59] The Tejas' aerodynamic configuration is based on a pure delta-wing layout with shoulder-mounted wings. Its control surfaces are all hydraulically actuated. The wing's outer leading edge incorporates three-section slats, while the inboard sections have additional slats to generate vortex lift over the inner wing and high-energy air-flow along the tail fin to enhance high-AoA stability and prevent departure from controlled flight. The wing trailing edge is occupied by two-segment elevons to provide pitch and yaw control. The only empennage-mounted control surfaces are the single-piece rudder and two airbrakes located in the upper rear part of the fuselage, one each on either side of the fin.
The digital FBW system of the Tejas employs a powerful digital flight control computer (DFCC) comprising four computing channels, each with its own independent power supply and all housed in a single LRU. The DFCC receives signals from a variety of sensors and pilot control stick inputs, and processes these through the appropriate channels to excite and control the elevons, rudder and leading edge slat hydraulic actuators. The DFCC channels are built around 32-bit microprocessors and use a subset of the Ada language for software implementation. The computer interfaces with pilot display elements like the MFDs through MIL-STD-1553B multiplex avionics data buses and RS-422 serial links.
[edit]Propulsion
General Electric F404-IN20 engine for the eight pre-production LSP aircraft and two naval prototypes.
The wing-shielded, side-mounted bifurcated, fixed-geometry Y-duct air intakes have an optimised diverter configuration to ensure buzz-free air supply to the engine at acceptable distortion levels, even at high AoA.
The original plan was for the LCA prototype aircraft to be equipped with the General Electric F404-GE-F2J3 afterburning turbofan engine, while the production aircraft would be fitted with the indigenous GTRE GTX-35VS Kaveri turbofan being developed in a parallel. Continued development snags with the Kaveri resulted in a 2003 decision to procure the uprated GE F404-IN20 engine for the eight pre-production LSP aircraft and two naval prototypes and after accelerated trials an order was placed for 24 more IN20 engines for installation on the first 20 production aircraft. The Tejas Mark II will be equipped with the GE F414 engine.
[edit]Avionics
The Tejas has a night vision goggles (NVG)-compatible "glass cockpit" that is dominated by an indigenous head-up display (HUD), three 5 in x 5 in multi-function displays, two Smart Standby Display Units (SSDU), and a "get-you-home" panel (providing the pilot with essential flight information in case of an emergency[60]). The CSIO-developed HUD, Elbit-furnished DASH helmet-mounted display and sight (HMDS), and hands-on-throttle-and-stick (HOTAS) controls reduce pilot workload and increase situation awareness by allowing the pilot to access navigation and weapon-aiming information with minimal need to spend time "head down" in the cockpit.
The MFDs provide information on the engine, hydraulics, electrical, flight control, and environmental control systems on a need-to-know basis, along with basic flight and tactical information. Dual redundant display processors produce computer-generated imagery on these displays. The pilot interacts with the complex avionics systems through a simple multifunction keyboard and function and sensor selection panels.
Target acquisition is accomplished through a state-of-the-art radar potentially supplemented by a laser designator pod, forward-looking infra-red (FLIR) or other opto-electronic sensors to provide accurate target information to enhance kill probabilities. A ring laser gyro (RLG)-based inertial navigation system (INS) provides accurate navigation guidance to the pilot. The LCA also has secure and jam-resistant communication systems such as theIFF transponder/interrogator, VHF/UHF radios, and air-to-air/air-to-ground datalinks. The ADA Systems Directorate's Integrated Digital Avionics Suite (IDAS) integrates the flight controls, environmental controls, aircraft utilities systems management, stores management system (SMS), etc. on three 1553B buses by a centralised 32-bit, high-throughput mission computer.
[edit]Radar
The coherent pulse-Doppler Multi-Mode Radar in development is designed to keep track of a maximum of 10 targets and allowing simultaneous multiple-target engagement. Jointly developed by the LRDE and HAL Hyderabad, the MMR is being designed to perform multi-target search, track-while-scan (TWS), and ground-mapping functions. It features look-up/look-down modes, low-/medium-/high-pulse repetition frequencies (PRF), platform motion compensation, doppler beam-sharpening, moving target indication (MTI), Doppler filtering, constant false-alarm rate (CFAR) detection, range-Doppler ambiguity resolution, scan conversion, and online diagnostics to identify faulty processor modules. While originally planned to be fitted on production aircraft, delays in the development of MMR prompted the DRDO to co-operate with Israel Aerospace Industries to integrate a Hybrid version of the EL/M-2032 radar for use with Tejas.[28][43] The EL/M-2032 radar used in LSP-3 has a detection and tracking range of up to 150 km in air-to-air mode, the air-to-ground mode generates high resolution radar imagery of locations at up to 150 km, and air-to-sea mode can detect and classify naval targets at ranges of up to 300 km.[61]
The development of an AESA radar for the Tejas is expected to begin pending the selection of an developmental partner.The contenders for the contract are the European Consortium EADS and the Israeli company Elta.The initial contract will see the co-development of 10 prototypes.[62]
[edit]Self-protection
The electronic warfare suite is designed to enhance the Tejas' survivability during deep penetration and combat. The LCA's EW suite is developed by the Defence Avionics Research Establishment (DARE) with support from the Defence Electronics Research Laboratory (DLRL).[18] This EW suite, known as "Mayavi"(Illusionist), includes a radar warning receiver (RWR), self-protection jammer, laser warning system, missile approach warning system, and chaff/flare dispenser. In the interim, the Indian Defence Ministry has revealed that an unspecified number of EW suites had been purchased from Israel's Elisra for the LCA prototypes.[63]
The ADA claims that a degree of "stealth" has been designed into the Tejas. Being very small, there is an inherent degree of "visual stealth", but the airframe's use of a high degree of composites (which do not themselves reflect radar waves), a Y-duct inlet which shields the engine compressor face from probing radar waves, and the application of radar-absorbent material (RAM) coatings are intended to minimise its susceptibility to detection and tracking by the radars of enemy fighters, airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft, active-radar air-to-air missiles (AAM), and surface-to-air missile (SAM) defence systems.
[edit]Escape systems
Although two-seat variants of the LCA are planned, the examples built to date are crewed by a single pilot on a Martin-Baker zero-zero ejection seat. The British Martin-Baker ejection seat is planned to be replaced with a locally-developed alternative.[64] To improve pilot safety during ejection, the Armament Research and Development Establishment (ARDE), Pune, India created a new line-charged canopy severance system, which has been certified by Martin-Baker.
[edit]Flight simulator
To support the aircraft a dome-based Mission Simulator has been developed by the Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), Bangalore. It was inaugurated by deputy chief of air staff of Indian Air Force. It has been used to provide design support during the initial phase of LCA development in particular handling quality evaluation and planning and practicing mission profiles.
[edit]Variants
[edit]Prototypes
Model of Tejas Naval version
Conceptual drawing of the Naval LCA
LCA Trainer
Aircraft already built and projected models to be built. Model designations, tail numbers and dates of first flight are shown.
Technology Demonstrators (TD)
TD-1 (KH2001) - 4 Jan 2001
TD-2 (KH2002) - 6 June 2002
Prototype Vehicles (PV)
PV-1 (KH2003) - 25 November 2003
PV-2 (KH2004) - 1 December 2005
PV-3 (KH2005) - 1 December 2006 - This is the production variant.
PV-4 - Originally planned to be a Naval variant for carrier operations, but now a second production variant.
PV-5 (KH-T2009) - 26 November 2009 - Fighter/Trainer Variant
Naval Prototypes (NP)
NP-1 - Two-seat Naval variant for carrier operations.Rolled out on July, 2010.[65]
NP-2 - Single-seat Naval variant for carrier operations.
Limited Series Production (LSP) aircraft
Currently, 28 LSP series aircraft plus 20 aircraft are on order.
LSP-1 (KH2011) - 25 April 2007
LSP-2 (KH2012) - 16 June 2008 This is the first LCA fitted with GE-404 IN20 engine.
LSP-3 23 April 2010 The first aircraft to have the Hybrid MMR radar[28][43] and will be close to the IOC standard.
LSP-4 (KH2014) - 2 June 2010 The first aircraft that was flown in the configuration that will be delivered to the Indian Air Force[44] In addition to the Hybrid MMR, the aircraft also flew with a functioning Countermeasure Dispensing System [66]
LSP-5 - Planned to fly by June 2010. In addition to all the systems fitted in LSP-4, it will have night lighting within the cockpit, and an auto-pilot.[66]
LSP-6 to LSP-28 - Planned to fly by late 2010.
[edit]Planned production variants
Tejas Trainer Two-seat operational conversion trainer for the Indian Air Force.
Tejas Navy Twin- and single-seat carrier-capable variants for the Indian Navy.
Tejas Mark 2- Featuring more powerful engine and refined aerodynamics.
The Tejas Mark-2 expected to be developed due to the inability of the Mark-1 to meet the Indian Air Staff requirements,will have a more powerful engine, refined aerodynamics and replacing other parts to reduce obsolescence according to an IAF spokesman.[38]
The LCA's naval variant would be ready for carrier trials by 2013 and is slated for deployment on the INS Vikramaditya as well as the Vikrant class aircraft carrier.[67]
Some of features of "Naval LCA Version":
Aircraft carrier operation with ski-jump and arrested landing
Nose drooped for better cockpit vision
Additional aerodynamic features like LEVCON and fore plane to reduce carrier landing speed
Maximum take off weight from carrier12.5 tons[vague]
External store carrying capacity from carrier3.5 tons
Strengthened fuselage
Stronger undercarriage due to higher sink rate
Arrestor hook for deck recovery
Fuel dump system
[edit]Operators
India
Indian Air Force
Indian Navy- Signed an order for six Naval LCAs at an approximate cost of US$31.09 million per aircraft.[68]
The ambitiousness of the LCA programme in terms of pursuing self-reliance in aviation technologies is illustrated by the fact that out of a total of 35 major avionics components and line-replaceable units (LRUs), only three involve foreign systems. These are the multi-function displays (MFDs) by Sextant (France) and Elbit (Israel), the helmet-mounted display and sight (HMDS) cueing system by Elbit, and the laser pod supplied by Rafael (Israel). However, even among these three, when the LCA reaches the production stage, the MFDs are expected to be supplied by Indian companies. A few other important items of equipment (such as the Martin-Baker ejection seat) have been imported. As a consequence of the embargo imposed on India after its nuclear weapons tests in May 1998, many items originally planned to be imported were instead developed indigenously .
Of the five critical technologies the ADA identified at the beginning of the LCA programme as needing to be mastered for India to be able to design and build a "completely indigenous" fighter, two have been entirely successful: the development and manufacture of advanced carbon-fibre composite (CFC) structures and skins and a modern "glass cockpit." In fact, ADA has had a profitable commercial spin-off in its Autolay integrated automated software system for the design and development of 3-D laminated composite elements (which has been licensed to both Airbus and Infosys).[16] These successes have gone mostly unnoticed in the shadow of the problems encountered with the other three key technology initiatives. Nonetheless, as a result of the accomplishments of India's domestic industries, presently about 70% of the components in LCA are manufactured in India and the dependence on imported components used would be progressively reduced in the coming years.[17]
HAL serves as the prime contractor and has leading responsibility for LCA design, systems integration, airframe manufacturing, aircraft final assembly, flight testing, and service support.[15] The ADA itself has primary responsibility for the design and development of the LCA's avionics suite and its integration with the flight controls, environmental controls, aircraft utilities systems management, stores management system, etc.
Of particular importance are the initiatives to develop an indigenous flight control system, radar, and engine for the LCA. The National Aeronautics Laboratory (NAL)now called the National Aerospace Laboratorieswas selected to lead the development of the flight control laws, supported by the Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE). HAL and the Electronics and Radar Development Establishment (LRDE)[18] are jointly developing the Tejas' Multi-Mode Radar (MMR). The GTRE is responsible for the design and parallel development of the GTX-35VS Kaveri afterburning turbofan engine for the Tejas.
The IAF's Air Staff Requirement for the LCA were not finalised until October 1985. This delay rendered moot the original schedule which called for first flight in April 1990 and service entry in 1995; however, it also proved a boon as it it gave the ADA time to better marshal national R&D and industrial resources, recruit personnel, create infrastructure, and to gain a clearer perspective of which advanced technologies could be developed indigenously and which would need to be imported.
Project definition commenced in October 1987 and was completed in September 1988. Dassault Aviation of France was hired as a consultant to review the PD and provide advice based on its extensive aviation expertise. The PD phase is a critical early element in the aircraft design and development process because from this flow key elements of the detailed design, manufacturing approach, and maintenance requirements.
[edit]Development history
HAL Tejas parked next to F-16 and Eurofighter at Aero India.
The LCA design was finalised in 1990 as a small delta-winged machine with relaxed static stability (RSS) to enhance maneuverability performance. The sophisticated avionics and advanced composite structure specified caused some concern almost immediately, and the IAF expressed doubt that India possessed sufficient technological infrastructure to support such an ambitious project. A governmental review committee was formed in May 1989 which reported out a general view that Indian infrastructure, facilities and technology had advanced sufficiently in most areas to undertake the project. As a measure of prudence, though, it was decided that the full-scale engineering development (FSED) stage of the programme would proceed in two stages.
Phase 1 would focus on "proof of concept" and would comprise the design, development and testing (DDT) of two technology demonstrator aircraft (TD-1 and TD-2) and fabrication of a structural test specimen (STS) airframe; only after successful testing of the TD aircraft would the Indian government give its full support to the LCA design. This would be followed by the production of two prototype vehicles (PV-1 and PV-2), and creation of the necessary basic infrastructure and test facilities for the aircraft would begin.
Phase 2 would consist of the manufacturing of three more prototype vehicles (PV-3 as the production variant, PV-4 as the naval variant, and PV-5 as the trainer variant) and a fatigue test specimen, and the construction of further development and test facilities at various work centres.
Phase 1 commenced in 1990 and HAL started work on the technology demonstrators in mid-1991; however, a financial crunch resulted in full-scale funding not being authorized until April 1993, with significant work on FSED Phase 1 commencing in June. The first technology demonstrator, TD-1, was rolled out on 17 November 1995 and was followed by TD-2 in 1998, but they were kept grounded for several years due to structural concerns and trouble with the development of the flight control system.[19]
One of the most ambitious requirements for the LCA was the specification that it would have "relaxed static stability" (RSS). Although Dassault had offered an analogue FCS system in 1988, the ADA recognised that digital flight control technology would soon supplant it.[16] RSS technology was introduced in 1974 on the General Dynamics (now Lockheed Martin) YF-16, which was the world's first production aircraft to be slightly aerodynamically unstable by design. Most aircraft are designed with "positive" static stability, which means they have a natural tendency to return to level and controlled flight in the absence of control inputs; however, this quality tends to oppose the pilot's efforts to manoeuvre. An aircraft with "negative" static stability (i.e., RSS), on the other hand, will quickly depart from level and controlled flight unless the pilot constantly works to keep it in trim; while this enhances manoeuvrability, it is very wearing on a pilot relying on a mechanical flight control system.
Development of a FBW flight control system requires extensive knowledge of flight control laws and the expensive writing of a considerable amount of software code for the flight control computers, as well as its integration with the avionics and other electronic systems. When the LCA programme was launched, FBW was a state-of-the-art technology and such a sensitive one that India could find no nation willing to export it. Therefore, in 1992 the LCA National Control Law (CLAW) team was set up by the National Aeronautics Laboratory to develop India's own version. The CLAW team's scientists and mathematicians were successful in developing their control laws, but could not test them since India did not possess advanced real-time ground simulators at that time. Accordingly, British Aerospace (BAe) and Lockheed Martin were brought in to help in 1993, but the effort required for the Aeronautical Development Establishment to code the control laws into the FCS software proved a much larger job than originally anticipated.
Specific control law problems were tested on BAE's simulators (and on HAL's, once theirs became available). As it was being developed, progressive elements of the coding were checked out on the "Minibird" and "Ironbird" test rigs at the ADE and HAL, respectively. A second series of inflight simulation tests of the integrated flight control software were conducted on the F-16 VISTA (Variable In-flight Stability Test Aircraft) simulator in the U.S. in July 1996, with 33 test flights being carried out. However, Lockheed Martin's involvement was terminated in 1998 as part of an embargo enacted by the U.S. in response to India's second nuclear tests in May of that year.
The NAL's CLAW team eventually managed to successfully complete integration of the flight control laws indigenously, with the FCS software performing flawlessly for over 50 hours of pilot testing on TD-1, resulting in the aircraft being cleared for flight in early 2001. The LCA's maiden flight was made by TD-1 from National Flight Test Centre (NFTC), near Bangalore, on 4 January 2001, and its first successful supersonic flight followed on 1 August 2003. TD-2 made its first flight on 6 June 2002. The automatic flight control system (AFCS)of the Tejas has been highly praised by all of its test pilots, one of whom said that he found it easier to take off with the LCA than in a Mirage 2000.[20]
Another critical technology area tackled for indigenous development by the ADA team is the Multi-Mode Radar (MMR). It was initially planned for the LCA to use the Ericsson Microwave Systems PS-05/A I/J-band multi-function radar,[21] which was developed by Ericsson and Ferranti Defence Systems Integration for the Saab JAS-39 Gripen.[22] However, after examining other radars in the early 1990s,[23] the DRDO became confident that indigenous development was possible. HAL's Hyderabad division and the LRDE were selected to jointly lead the MMR program and the radar development effort began in 1997.[24]
The DRDO's Centre for Airborne Studies (CABS) is responsible for running the test programme for the MMR. Between 1996 and 1997, CABS converted the surviving HAL/HS-748M Airborne Surveillance Post (ASP) testbed into a testbed for the avionics and radar of the LCA. Known as the 'Hack', the only major structural modification besides the removal of the rotodome assembly was the addition of the LCA's nose cone in order to accommodate the MMR.
By mid-2002, development of the MMR was reported to be experiencing major delays and cost escalations. By early 2005 only the air-to-air look-up and look-down modes two very basic modes were confirmed to have been successfully tested. In May 2006 it was revealed that the performance of several modes being tested still "fell short of expectations."[25] As a result, the ADA was reduced to running weaponisation tests with a weapon delivery pod, which is not a primary sensor, leaving critical tests on hold. According to test reports, the crux of the problem is a serious compatibility issue between the radar and the advanced signal processor module (SPM) built by the LRDE. Acquisition of an "off-the-shelf" foreign radar is an interim option being seriously considered.[24][26][27] The LSP-3 which flew on April 23, 2010 was flying with a hybrid version of Elta's EL/M-2032 pulse-doppler radar.[28]
[edit]Engine and propulsion
Initially, it was decided to equip the prototype aircraft with the General Electric F404-GE-F2J3 afterburning turbofan engine. Simultaneously, in 1986, a parallel programme to develop an indigenous powerplant was also launched. Led by the Gas Turbine Research Establishment, the GTRE GTX-35VS, named "Kaveri", was expected to replace the F404 on all production aircraft. However, progress in the Kaveri development programme was slowed by technical difficulties.
In mid-2004, the Kaveri failed its high-altitude tests in Russia, ending the last hopes of introducing it with the first production Tejas aircraft.[29] Continued development snags with the Kaveri resulted in the 2003 decision to procure the uprated F404-GE-IN20 engine for the eight pre-production LSP aircraft and two naval prototypes. The ADA awarded General Electric a US$105 million contract in 2004 for development engineering and production of 17 -IN20 engines, delivery of which began in 2006.
An RFP inviting companies for further development of Kaveri was issued. In February 2006, the ADA awarded a contract to the French aircraft engine company Snecma for technical assistance in working out the Kaveri's problems.[9] The Kaveri engine based on Snecmas new core, an uprated derivative of the M88-2 engine that powers the French Rafale fighter, providing 83-85 Kilonewtons (KN) of maximum thrust is being considered a third option by DRDO leading the IAF to object that since Snecma has already developed the core of the engine it is offering the DRDO will not participate in any joint development but merely provide Snecma with an indigenous stamp.[30]
In 2007, HAL ordered an additional 24 F404-IN20 afterburning engines to power the first operational squadron of Tejas fighter aircraft for the Indian Air Force.[31] Before the subsequent order, F404-GE-IN20 was trial-installed in the Tejas as part of final evaluations toward flight-testing, scheduled for mid-2007. The F404-GE-IN20 engine generated more than 19,000 pounds (85 kN) uninstalled thrust and completed 330 hours of Accelerated Mission testing, equivalent of 1,000 hours of flight operation.
In 2008, it was announced that the Kaveri would not be ready in time for the Tejas, and that an in-production powerplant would have to be selected[32] in the 95 to 100 kilonewton (kN) (21,00023,000 lbf) range to allow the aircraft to perform combat maneuvers with optimal weapons load. The contenders were the Eurojet EJ200 and the General Electric F414. The single crystal turbine blade technology, originally denied to Indian scientists, has also been offered to India by Eurojet via the EJ200 engine.[33] It has also been said by IAF sources that the airframe will have to be redesigned in order to accommodate the heavier engine which is expected to take up to three-four years. The initial batch of Tejas aircraft were powered by the F404 engine.[34]
It was reported that Eurojet offered two variants of the EJ200, which through a software change would also be able to meet the requirements of the Naval variant of the LCA. Eurojet also offered to help India in the development of the Kaveri engine.[35]
After evaluation and acceptance of the technical offer provided by both Eurojet and GE Aviation, the commercial quotes were compared in detail and GE Aviation was declared as the lowest bidder. "Further price negotiations and contract finalisation will follow, the Defence R&D Organisation (DRDO) announced on 30 September 2010. The deal will cover purchase of 99 GE F414 engines. The initial batch will be supplied by GE and the rest will be manufactured in India under a transfer of technology arrangement.[36][37]
[edit]Status
Tejas trainer under construction.
In March 2005, the IAF placed a 2,000 crore (US$454 million) order for 20 aircraft, with a similar purchase of another 20 aircraft to follow. All 40 will be equipped with the F404-GE-IN20 engine.[38] The Tejas is presently undergoing flight testing. It will be inducted into the IAF when it has received Initial Operating Clearance (IOC) which is expected to be in December 2010.[1][2] Consequently, the IAF has created a 14 member "LCA Induction Team" stationed in Bangalore that is composed of IAF pilots and officers and headed by an Air Vice Marshal. The team's objectives are to reportedly oversee the induction of the LCA, help solve any challenges that may arise, assist HAL in customizing the Tejas for operational use, and to create doctrines, training and maintenance programs and finally to assist the IAF in ensuring a smooth introduction of 'Tejas' into operational service.[39][40]
The first production variant of the 'Tejas' (LSP-1) flew on June 2008. Tejas completed 1000 Test Flights by January, 2009 with more than 530 hours of in-flight testing.[41] By February 2009 officials of the Aeronautical Development Agency stated that the Tejas had started flying with weapons and integration of radars would be completed by March 2009. In addition, they stated that nearly all system development activity would be completed by that time.[42] On April 2010, the third production aircraft (LSP-3) flew with a hybrid version of the Elta EL/M-2032 multi-mode radar and [28][43] by June 2010, the fourth production aircraft took flight in the configuration it would be delivered to the Indian Air Force in.[44] By June 2010, Tejas had also completed the second phase of hot weather trials. The objective of the hot weather trials was to prove that the aircraft was in an IOC configuration with the weapon system and sensors integrated.[45] The sea trials of the aircraft is being carried out.[46]
The trainer variant prototype took to the skies in November 2009.[47] In December 2009, the Indian government sanctioned 8,000 crore (US$1.82 billion) to begin production of the fighter jet for the Indian Air Force and Indian Navy.[48] The Indian Navy has a requirement of 50 Tejas and the first protoype, NP-1 was rolled out in July 2010.[49] IAF had ordered 20 additional Tejas fighter jets and the defence acquisition council had cleared the plan.[50]
[edit]Design
PV-3 in Indian Air Force grey camouflage pattern.
The Tejas is single-engined multirole fighter which features a tailless, compound delta-wing planform and is designed with "relaxed static stability" for enhanced maneuverability. Originally intended to serve as an air superiority aircraft with a secondary "dumb bomb" ground-attack role, the flexibility of this design approach has permitted a variety of guided air-to-surface and anti-shipping weapons to be integrated for more well-rounded multirole and multimission capabilities.
The tailless, compound-delta planform is designed to keep the Tejas small and lightweight.[51] The use of this planform also minimises the control surfaces needed (no tailplanes or foreplanes, just a single vertical tailfin), permits carriage of a wider range of external stores, and confers better close-combat, high-speed, and high-alpha performance characteristics than comparable cruciform-wing designs. Extensive wind tunnel testing on scale models and complex computational fluid dynamics analyses have optimised the aerodynamic configuration of the LCA, giving it minimum supersonic drag, a low wing-loading, and high rates of roll and pitch.
All weapons are carried on one or more of seven hardpoints with total capacity of greater than 4,000 kg: three stations under each wing and one on the under-fuselage centreline. There is also an eighth, offset station beneath the port-side intake trunk which can carry a variety of pods (FLIR, IRST, laser rangefinder/designator, or reconnaissance), as can the centreline under-fuselage station and inboard pairs of wing stations.
The Tejas has integral internal fuel tanks to carry 3,000 kg of fuel in the fuselage and wing, and a fixed inflight refuelling probe on the starboard side of the forward fuselage. Externally, there are "wet" hardpoint provisions for up to three 1,200- or five 800-litre (320- or 210-US gallon; 260- or 180-Imp gallon) fuel tanks on the inboard and mid-board wing stations and the centreline fuselage station.
[edit]Airframe
Composites in the LCA
The LCA is constructed of aluminium-lithium alloys, carbon-fibre composites (C-FC), and titanium-alloy steels. The Tejas employs C-FC materials for up to 45% of its airframe by weight, including in the fuselage (doors and skins), wings (skin, spars and ribs), elevons, tailfin, rudder, air brakes and landing gear doors. Composites are used to make an aircraft both lighter and stronger at the same time compared to an all-metal design, and the LCA's percentage employment of C-FCs is one of the highest among contemporary aircraft of its class.[52] Apart from making the plane much lighter, there are also fewer joints or rivets, which increases the aircraft's reliability and lowers its susceptibility to structural fatigue cracks.
The tailfin for the LCA is a monolithic honeycomb piece, an approach which reduced its manufacturing cost by 80% compared to the customary "subtractive" or "deductive" method, whereby the shaft is carved out of a block of titanium alloy by a computerized numerically controlled machine. No other manufacturer is known to have made fins out of a single piece.[53] A 'nose' for the rudder is added by 'squeeze' riveting.
The use of composites in the LCA resulted in a 40% reduction in the total number of parts compared to using a metallic frame. Furthermore, the number of fasteners has been reduced by half in the composite structure from the 10,000 that would have been required in a metallic frame design. The composite design also helped to avoid about 2,000 holes being drilled into the airframe. Overall, the aircraft's weight is lowered by 21%. While each of these factors can reduce production costs, an additional benefit and significant cost savings is realised in the shorter time required to assemble the aircraft seven months for the LCA as opposed to 11 months using an all-metal airframe.[54]
Tejas at Aero-India 09
The airframe of the naval variant of the Tejas will be modified with a nose droop to provide improved view during landing approach, and wing leading edge vortex controllers (LEVCON) to increase lift during approach. The LEVCONs are control surfaces that extend from the wing-root leading edge and thus afford better low-speed handling for the LCA, which would otherwise be slightly hampered due to the increased drag that results from its delta-wing design. As an added benefit, the LEVCONs will also increase controllability at high angles of attack (AoA).
The naval Tejas will also have a strengthened spine, a longer and stronger undercarriage, and powered nose wheel steering for deck manoeuvrability.[55][56] The Tejas trainer variant will have "aerodynamic commonality" with the two-seat naval aircraft design.[57]
[edit]Landing gear
Hydraulically retractable tricycle-type landing gear.
The Tejas has a hydraulically retractable tricycle-type landing gear with a pair of single inward-retracting mainwheels and a steerable, twin-wheel forward-retracting nose gear. The landing gear was originally to have been imported, but following the imposition of trade sanctions, HAL developed the entire system independently.
India's Nuclear Fuel Complex (NFC) led the team that developed the titanium half-alloy tubes that are used for hydraulic power transmission and they are critical components in the LCA.This technology also has space applications.[58]
[edit]Flight controls
The HAL Tejas conducting an inverted pass shown here is an example of Fly-by-wire control.
Since the Tejas is a relaxed static stability design, it is equipped with a quadruplex digital fly-by-wire flight control system to ease handling by the pilot.[59] The Tejas' aerodynamic configuration is based on a pure delta-wing layout with shoulder-mounted wings. Its control surfaces are all hydraulically actuated. The wing's outer leading edge incorporates three-section slats, while the inboard sections have additional slats to generate vortex lift over the inner wing and high-energy air-flow along the tail fin to enhance high-AoA stability and prevent departure from controlled flight. The wing trailing edge is occupied by two-segment elevons to provide pitch and yaw control. The only empennage-mounted control surfaces are the single-piece rudder and two airbrakes located in the upper rear part of the fuselage, one each on either side of the fin.
The digital FBW system of the Tejas employs a powerful digital flight control computer (DFCC) comprising four computing channels, each with its own independent power supply and all housed in a single LRU. The DFCC receives signals from a variety of sensors and pilot control stick inputs, and processes these through the appropriate channels to excite and control the elevons, rudder and leading edge slat hydraulic actuators. The DFCC channels are built around 32-bit microprocessors and use a subset of the Ada language for software implementation. The computer interfaces with pilot display elements like the MFDs through MIL-STD-1553B multiplex avionics data buses and RS-422 serial links.
[edit]Propulsion
General Electric F404-IN20 engine for the eight pre-production LSP aircraft and two naval prototypes.
The wing-shielded, side-mounted bifurcated, fixed-geometry Y-duct air intakes have an optimised diverter configuration to ensure buzz-free air supply to the engine at acceptable distortion levels, even at high AoA.
The original plan was for the LCA prototype aircraft to be equipped with the General Electric F404-GE-F2J3 afterburning turbofan engine, while the production aircraft would be fitted with the indigenous GTRE GTX-35VS Kaveri turbofan being developed in a parallel. Continued development snags with the Kaveri resulted in a 2003 decision to procure the uprated GE F404-IN20 engine for the eight pre-production LSP aircraft and two naval prototypes and after accelerated trials an order was placed for 24 more IN20 engines for installation on the first 20 production aircraft. The Tejas Mark II will be equipped with the GE F414 engine.
[edit]Avionics
The Tejas has a night vision goggles (NVG)-compatible "glass cockpit" that is dominated by an indigenous head-up display (HUD), three 5 in x 5 in multi-function displays, two Smart Standby Display Units (SSDU), and a "get-you-home" panel (providing the pilot with essential flight information in case of an emergency[60]). The CSIO-developed HUD, Elbit-furnished DASH helmet-mounted display and sight (HMDS), and hands-on-throttle-and-stick (HOTAS) controls reduce pilot workload and increase situation awareness by allowing the pilot to access navigation and weapon-aiming information with minimal need to spend time "head down" in the cockpit.
The MFDs provide information on the engine, hydraulics, electrical, flight control, and environmental control systems on a need-to-know basis, along with basic flight and tactical information. Dual redundant display processors produce computer-generated imagery on these displays. The pilot interacts with the complex avionics systems through a simple multifunction keyboard and function and sensor selection panels.
Target acquisition is accomplished through a state-of-the-art radar potentially supplemented by a laser designator pod, forward-looking infra-red (FLIR) or other opto-electronic sensors to provide accurate target information to enhance kill probabilities. A ring laser gyro (RLG)-based inertial navigation system (INS) provides accurate navigation guidance to the pilot. The LCA also has secure and jam-resistant communication systems such as theIFF transponder/interrogator, VHF/UHF radios, and air-to-air/air-to-ground datalinks. The ADA Systems Directorate's Integrated Digital Avionics Suite (IDAS) integrates the flight controls, environmental controls, aircraft utilities systems management, stores management system (SMS), etc. on three 1553B buses by a centralised 32-bit, high-throughput mission computer.
[edit]Radar
The coherent pulse-Doppler Multi-Mode Radar in development is designed to keep track of a maximum of 10 targets and allowing simultaneous multiple-target engagement. Jointly developed by the LRDE and HAL Hyderabad, the MMR is being designed to perform multi-target search, track-while-scan (TWS), and ground-mapping functions. It features look-up/look-down modes, low-/medium-/high-pulse repetition frequencies (PRF), platform motion compensation, doppler beam-sharpening, moving target indication (MTI), Doppler filtering, constant false-alarm rate (CFAR) detection, range-Doppler ambiguity resolution, scan conversion, and online diagnostics to identify faulty processor modules. While originally planned to be fitted on production aircraft, delays in the development of MMR prompted the DRDO to co-operate with Israel Aerospace Industries to integrate a Hybrid version of the EL/M-2032 radar for use with Tejas.[28][43] The EL/M-2032 radar used in LSP-3 has a detection and tracking range of up to 150 km in air-to-air mode, the air-to-ground mode generates high resolution radar imagery of locations at up to 150 km, and air-to-sea mode can detect and classify naval targets at ranges of up to 300 km.[61]
The development of an AESA radar for the Tejas is expected to begin pending the selection of an developmental partner.The contenders for the contract are the European Consortium EADS and the Israeli company Elta.The initial contract will see the co-development of 10 prototypes.[62]
[edit]Self-protection
The electronic warfare suite is designed to enhance the Tejas' survivability during deep penetration and combat. The LCA's EW suite is developed by the Defence Avionics Research Establishment (DARE) with support from the Defence Electronics Research Laboratory (DLRL).[18] This EW suite, known as "Mayavi"(Illusionist), includes a radar warning receiver (RWR), self-protection jammer, laser warning system, missile approach warning system, and chaff/flare dispenser. In the interim, the Indian Defence Ministry has revealed that an unspecified number of EW suites had been purchased from Israel's Elisra for the LCA prototypes.[63]
The ADA claims that a degree of "stealth" has been designed into the Tejas. Being very small, there is an inherent degree of "visual stealth", but the airframe's use of a high degree of composites (which do not themselves reflect radar waves), a Y-duct inlet which shields the engine compressor face from probing radar waves, and the application of radar-absorbent material (RAM) coatings are intended to minimise its susceptibility to detection and tracking by the radars of enemy fighters, airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft, active-radar air-to-air missiles (AAM), and surface-to-air missile (SAM) defence systems.
[edit]Escape systems
Although two-seat variants of the LCA are planned, the examples built to date are crewed by a single pilot on a Martin-Baker zero-zero ejection seat. The British Martin-Baker ejection seat is planned to be replaced with a locally-developed alternative.[64] To improve pilot safety during ejection, the Armament Research and Development Establishment (ARDE), Pune, India created a new line-charged canopy severance system, which has been certified by Martin-Baker.
[edit]Flight simulator
To support the aircraft a dome-based Mission Simulator has been developed by the Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), Bangalore. It was inaugurated by deputy chief of air staff of Indian Air Force. It has been used to provide design support during the initial phase of LCA development in particular handling quality evaluation and planning and practicing mission profiles.
[edit]Variants
[edit]Prototypes
Model of Tejas Naval version
Conceptual drawing of the Naval LCA
LCA Trainer
Aircraft already built and projected models to be built. Model designations, tail numbers and dates of first flight are shown.
Technology Demonstrators (TD)
TD-1 (KH2001) - 4 Jan 2001
TD-2 (KH2002) - 6 June 2002
Prototype Vehicles (PV)
PV-1 (KH2003) - 25 November 2003
PV-2 (KH2004) - 1 December 2005
PV-3 (KH2005) - 1 December 2006 - This is the production variant.
PV-4 - Originally planned to be a Naval variant for carrier operations, but now a second production variant.
PV-5 (KH-T2009) - 26 November 2009 - Fighter/Trainer Variant
Naval Prototypes (NP)
NP-1 - Two-seat Naval variant for carrier operations.Rolled out on July, 2010.[65]
NP-2 - Single-seat Naval variant for carrier operations.
Limited Series Production (LSP) aircraft
Currently, 28 LSP series aircraft plus 20 aircraft are on order.
LSP-1 (KH2011) - 25 April 2007
LSP-2 (KH2012) - 16 June 2008 This is the first LCA fitted with GE-404 IN20 engine.
LSP-3 23 April 2010 The first aircraft to have the Hybrid MMR radar[28][43] and will be close to the IOC standard.
LSP-4 (KH2014) - 2 June 2010 The first aircraft that was flown in the configuration that will be delivered to the Indian Air Force[44] In addition to the Hybrid MMR, the aircraft also flew with a functioning Countermeasure Dispensing System [66]
LSP-5 - Planned to fly by June 2010. In addition to all the systems fitted in LSP-4, it will have night lighting within the cockpit, and an auto-pilot.[66]
LSP-6 to LSP-28 - Planned to fly by late 2010.
[edit]Planned production variants
Tejas Trainer Two-seat operational conversion trainer for the Indian Air Force.
Tejas Navy Twin- and single-seat carrier-capable variants for the Indian Navy.
Tejas Mark 2- Featuring more powerful engine and refined aerodynamics.
The Tejas Mark-2 expected to be developed due to the inability of the Mark-1 to meet the Indian Air Staff requirements,will have a more powerful engine, refined aerodynamics and replacing other parts to reduce obsolescence according to an IAF spokesman.[38]
The LCA's naval variant would be ready for carrier trials by 2013 and is slated for deployment on the INS Vikramaditya as well as the Vikrant class aircraft carrier.[67]
Some of features of "Naval LCA Version":
Aircraft carrier operation with ski-jump and arrested landing
Nose drooped for better cockpit vision
Additional aerodynamic features like LEVCON and fore plane to reduce carrier landing speed
Maximum take off weight from carrier12.5 tons[vague]
External store carrying capacity from carrier3.5 tons
Strengthened fuselage
Stronger undercarriage due to higher sink rate
Arrestor hook for deck recovery
Fuel dump system
[edit]Operators
India
Indian Air Force
Indian Navy- Signed an order for six Naval LCAs at an approximate cost of US$31.09 million per aircraft.[68]
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In the final phase of its tests before formal commissioning, India’s indigenous light combat aircraft Tejas went past its ultimate speed of 1,350 KMPH over the Goa skies and clocked the fastest speed ever, a top IAF officer said on Tuesday.
“The aircraft went past its ultimate speed of 1350 kmph on December 7 over the skies in Goa after take off from the naval air station INS Hansa,” Commander Rohit Varma, project director (flight test), National flight test centre, told reporters here.
“This is the fastest speed ever achieved by an Indian- made fighter aircraft,” he said.
The aircraft also passed flight flutter test diving from an altitude of four kilometers to almost sea level at 900 feet.
“Tejas has already passed high-altitude tests in Leh, the desert rigours in Rajasthan and now it has proved its worth over the maritime space in Goa,” Varma said.
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The IAF has already ordered 20 LCAs from HAL at a contract worth Rs 2701.70 crore. The fighters are to be delivered by 2013.
The LCA, a project of aeronautical development agency (ADA) is the first supersonic fighter craft manufactured indigenously by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).
The aircraft will have naval and Indian air force version, of which the latter is undergoing testing at Goa naval base.
“It can fly from a base and also from an aircraft carrier,” P S Subramanyam, Programme Director (Combat aircraft) and director, ADA, said.
The officials confirmed that the naval version of the aircraft would be attached to aircraft carrier Gorshkov once the aircraft is inducted for operations.
... contd.
“The aircraft went past its ultimate speed of 1350 kmph on December 7 over the skies in Goa after take off from the naval air station INS Hansa,” Commander Rohit Varma, project director (flight test), National flight test centre, told reporters here.
“This is the fastest speed ever achieved by an Indian- made fighter aircraft,” he said.
The aircraft also passed flight flutter test diving from an altitude of four kilometers to almost sea level at 900 feet.
“Tejas has already passed high-altitude tests in Leh, the desert rigours in Rajasthan and now it has proved its worth over the maritime space in Goa,” Varma said.
Ads by Google
The IAF has already ordered 20 LCAs from HAL at a contract worth Rs 2701.70 crore. The fighters are to be delivered by 2013.
The LCA, a project of aeronautical development agency (ADA) is the first supersonic fighter craft manufactured indigenously by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).
The aircraft will have naval and Indian air force version, of which the latter is undergoing testing at Goa naval base.
“It can fly from a base and also from an aircraft carrier,” P S Subramanyam, Programme Director (Combat aircraft) and director, ADA, said.
The officials confirmed that the naval version of the aircraft would be attached to aircraft carrier Gorshkov once the aircraft is inducted for operations.
... contd.
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thank you iRobot!
---------- Post added at 05:54 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:54 PM ----------
HAL Tejas - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
---------- Post added at 05:54 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:54 PM ----------
HAL Tejas - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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---------- Post added at 05:57 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:56 PM ----------
Israeli Rafael To Deliver Litening Targeting Pods For HAL Tejas LCA Fighter Jet Programme
2007-06-05 Rafael has been selected to supply its Litening targeting pod to equip the Indian air force's Aeronautical Development Agency-built Tejas light combat aircraft.
The order - of undisclosed value - covers the production of Litening systems for the service's initial batch of 20 production aircraft.
Defense Update:
LITENING incorporates in a single pod all the targeting features required by a modern strike fighter. The LITENING program, launched by Israel's Research and Development authority RAFAEL in 1992, combines multiple sensors for maximum flexibility in a single pod at low cost.
The original pod included a 1st Generation FLIR, a TV camera, a flash-lamp powered laser designator, laser spot tracker for tracking target designated by other aircraft or from the ground, and an electro-optical point and inertial tracker, which enabled continuous engagement of the target even when the target is partly obscured by clouds or countermeasures.
The HAL Tejas is an advanced, lightweight, supersonic multirole fighter aircraft being developed by India. It is a tailless,[1] compound delta wing design powered by a single engine. Until the aircraft was formally named (by then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee) as Tejas on 4 May 2003, the project was known as the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), which continues in popular usage.
Limited series production of the Tejas has commenced in 2007; it is currently projected to achieve limited initial operational clearance (IOC) with the Indian Air Force (IAF) by 2008, followed by full operational clearance (FOC) by the end of 2010.[4] A naval variant capable of operating from the Indian Navy's aircraft carriers is also in development.
As of 26 May 2007, the LCA had completed 672 successful test flights in all (TD1:207, TD2:258,PV1:135,PV2:28,PV3:38,LSP1:6).
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Tejas Mk-2 will incorporate 5 gen fighter elements
BY ADMIN AT 16 OCTOBER, 2010, 3:09 AM
BY:Vinayak shetty for www.lca-tejas.org / idrw.org
Tejas MK-1 is fast approaching its IOC which will happen in December 2010 , but ADA officials have already done their premilanary design of Tejas Mk-2 , and to avoid further delays , Two Tejas MK-2 were designed keeping in mind the dimensions provided by two Engine manufactures who were in race to provide 100 + plus engines to the Tejas Mk-2 program .
Ge’s F414IN engines were logically chosen for the Tejas Mk-2, since they had same dimensions and length of F-404 engines which were powering Tejas MK-1 .but Tejas Mk-2 as per sources will incorporate advance technology developed keeping in mind MCA over a decade has a parallel in house development now officially known has AMCA.
India currently is working on Indigenous AESA again with inputs from a international partner. Officials close to the program have told www.lca-tejas.org that major avionics will be ready for the aircraft within next two or three years, Tejas Mk-2 will have lot of key elements which will find its way into AMCA and FGFA later.
Tejas MK-2 will also have a newly laid out cockpit layout with better computing power since it also be housing new mission control computer, Samtel Display Systems (SDS) is also working on touch based Multi Function Displays (MFD) for Tejas Mk-2 , which will later find its way in AMCA too .
Tejas Mk-2 will also see structural changes in the aircraft which will be noticeable in wider wing span to carry extra weapons load along with extra fuel, aircraft will also have large air intakes to let the high thrust engine generate additional power for the aircraft, engine change for Tejas Mk-2 will result in the rear fuselage being changed too .
Commonality between Tejas Mk-1 and Tejas MK-2 will be digital Fly by Wire (FBW) Flight Control System (FCS) along with some avionics which both aircraft will share, but sources also told us that FBW Software will require some modification in them to support structural changes which Tejas MK-2 will have.
When asked about development of Tejas MK-3 sources told us that it all depends how Tejas Mk-2 develops and how IAF responds to it , further development can happen but AMCA will be logical choice if it comes out in time for IAF rather then Tejas MK-3 .
Categories : Exclusive
---------- Post added at 05:59 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:59 PM ----------
First of India’s Tejas aircraft ready in 2010
Monday 17 March 2008
India will induct two squadrons of its long-delayed Tejas light combat aircraft into service from 2010, and could add a further four such units if its first batch of aircraft impresses in operations.
The Aeronautical Development Agency system had been due to enter air force service early this decade, but design and performance issues and problems with the development of its indigenous Gas Turbine Research Establishment Kaveri engine have caused lengthy delays.
«There were hitches in the past, but the tests that we have been doing over the last few months indicate that those have been resolved», says chief of air staff Air Chief Marshal Fali Homi Major. «The programme was streamlined and it is a much better aircraft now. We are confident that it can serve our needs.»
Once available for operational service, the Tejas will replace some of India’s ageing fighters, such as the Mikoyan MiG-21.
About Tejas
The HAL Tejas is a lightweight multirole fighter aircraft being developed by India. It is a tailless, compound delta wing design powered by a single engine. Originally known as the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) — a designation which continues in popular usage — the aircraft was officially named “Tejas” by then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Limited series production of the Tejas commenced in 2007; it is currently projected to achieve limited initial operational clearance (IOC) with the Indian Air Force (IAF) by 2008, followed by full operational clearance (FOC) by the end of 2010. A two-seat trainer variant is also in development, as is a naval variant capable of operating from the Indian Navy’s aircraft carriers. The IAF is reported to have a requirement for 200 single-seat and 20 two-seat conversion trainers, while the Indian Navy may order up to 40 single-seaters to replace its Sea Harrier FRS.51 and Harrier T.60.
Through the use of modern design techniques, lightweight materials, and use of composites; it is estimated to become the lightest jet fighter in modern production.
BY ADMIN AT 16 OCTOBER, 2010, 3:09 AM
BY:Vinayak shetty for www.lca-tejas.org / idrw.org
Tejas MK-1 is fast approaching its IOC which will happen in December 2010 , but ADA officials have already done their premilanary design of Tejas Mk-2 , and to avoid further delays , Two Tejas MK-2 were designed keeping in mind the dimensions provided by two Engine manufactures who were in race to provide 100 + plus engines to the Tejas Mk-2 program .
Ge’s F414IN engines were logically chosen for the Tejas Mk-2, since they had same dimensions and length of F-404 engines which were powering Tejas MK-1 .but Tejas Mk-2 as per sources will incorporate advance technology developed keeping in mind MCA over a decade has a parallel in house development now officially known has AMCA.
India currently is working on Indigenous AESA again with inputs from a international partner. Officials close to the program have told www.lca-tejas.org that major avionics will be ready for the aircraft within next two or three years, Tejas Mk-2 will have lot of key elements which will find its way into AMCA and FGFA later.
Tejas MK-2 will also have a newly laid out cockpit layout with better computing power since it also be housing new mission control computer, Samtel Display Systems (SDS) is also working on touch based Multi Function Displays (MFD) for Tejas Mk-2 , which will later find its way in AMCA too .
Tejas Mk-2 will also see structural changes in the aircraft which will be noticeable in wider wing span to carry extra weapons load along with extra fuel, aircraft will also have large air intakes to let the high thrust engine generate additional power for the aircraft, engine change for Tejas Mk-2 will result in the rear fuselage being changed too .
Commonality between Tejas Mk-1 and Tejas MK-2 will be digital Fly by Wire (FBW) Flight Control System (FCS) along with some avionics which both aircraft will share, but sources also told us that FBW Software will require some modification in them to support structural changes which Tejas MK-2 will have.
When asked about development of Tejas MK-3 sources told us that it all depends how Tejas Mk-2 develops and how IAF responds to it , further development can happen but AMCA will be logical choice if it comes out in time for IAF rather then Tejas MK-3 .
Categories : Exclusive
---------- Post added at 05:59 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:59 PM ----------
First of India’s Tejas aircraft ready in 2010
Monday 17 March 2008
India will induct two squadrons of its long-delayed Tejas light combat aircraft into service from 2010, and could add a further four such units if its first batch of aircraft impresses in operations.
The Aeronautical Development Agency system had been due to enter air force service early this decade, but design and performance issues and problems with the development of its indigenous Gas Turbine Research Establishment Kaveri engine have caused lengthy delays.
«There were hitches in the past, but the tests that we have been doing over the last few months indicate that those have been resolved», says chief of air staff Air Chief Marshal Fali Homi Major. «The programme was streamlined and it is a much better aircraft now. We are confident that it can serve our needs.»
Once available for operational service, the Tejas will replace some of India’s ageing fighters, such as the Mikoyan MiG-21.
About Tejas
The HAL Tejas is a lightweight multirole fighter aircraft being developed by India. It is a tailless, compound delta wing design powered by a single engine. Originally known as the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) — a designation which continues in popular usage — the aircraft was officially named “Tejas” by then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Limited series production of the Tejas commenced in 2007; it is currently projected to achieve limited initial operational clearance (IOC) with the Indian Air Force (IAF) by 2008, followed by full operational clearance (FOC) by the end of 2010. A two-seat trainer variant is also in development, as is a naval variant capable of operating from the Indian Navy’s aircraft carriers. The IAF is reported to have a requirement for 200 single-seat and 20 two-seat conversion trainers, while the Indian Navy may order up to 40 single-seaters to replace its Sea Harrier FRS.51 and Harrier T.60.
Through the use of modern design techniques, lightweight materials, and use of composites; it is estimated to become the lightest jet fighter in modern production.
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Tejas Light Combat Supersonic Fighter
By phieubat360
1.Specifications:
Dimensions:
Length13.2m
Height4.4m
Wingspan8.2m
Weights:
Empty Weight5,450kg
Approximate Take-Off Weight9,530kg
External PayloadMore than 4,000kg
Engines:
Prototype Aircraft1 x GE F404-GE-F2J3 turbofan engine with afterburn
Production Aircraft1 x GE F404-GE-IN20 turbofan engine, rated at 85kN
Performance:
Maximum SpeedMach 1.8
Maximum Altitude15,200m
Manoeuvrability+9g to –3.5g
Gun:
Burst Firing Rate50 rounds a second
Muzzle Velocity715m/sec
2.Introductions:
The Tejas single-seat, single-engine, lightweight, high-agility supersonic fighter aircraft has been undergoing flight trials in preparation for operational clearance, and by mid 2005 had flown over 400 flights up to speeds of Mach 1.4. The Tejas light combat aircraft design and development programme is being led by the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) of the Indian Department of Defence with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) as the prime industrial contractor.
The first LCA Demonstrator I aircraft made a maiden flight in January 2001. The LCA Demonstrator II first flew in June 2002. The second prototype vehicle (PV-II) made a maiden flight in December 2005 and the third in December 2006. The Indian government approved limited series production of 20 Tejas for the Air Force in April 2006.
First flight of the production aircraft was in April 2007. Tejas is planned to achieve initial operating capability (IOC) in 2008 and enter service in 2011. The trainer variant is scheduled for first flight in 2009.
“Tejas is a single-seat, single-engine, lightweight, high-agility supersonic fighter aircraft.”
Tejas, the smallest lightweight, multirole, single-engined tactical fighter aircraft in the world, is being developed as a single seat fighter aircraft for the Indian Air Force and also as a two-seat training aircraft. In November 2008, the Indian Air Force confirmed a requirement for 140 Tejas aircraft to equip seven squadrons.
The design of a carrier-borne Tejas in single-seat and two-seat versions with a modified nose, strengthened landing gear and an arrestor hook was granted approval in 1999. The carrier variant has retractable canards and adjustable vortex control.
The development programme for the carrier-borne versions was agreed by the Indian government in 2002 and the first flights of two prototype aircraft are scheduled for late 2009. The carrier variant may replace the fleet of Sea Harriers.
The Indian Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) is carrying out a conceptual design study of the ADA medium combat aircraft, which will be an advanced, stealthy version of the Tejas, to replace the Indian Air Force Jaguar and Mirage 2000 fleet. The medium combat aircraft has two engines with fully vectoring nozzles and no vertical or horizontal tail.
Delta planform design
The aircraft is of delta planform design with shoulder-mounted delta wings. The aircraft has a fin but no horizontal tail. Lightweight materials including aluminium and lithium alloys, titanium alloys and carbon composites have been used in the construction. The wing structure includes composite spares and ribs with a carbon fibre-reinforced plastic skin.
The National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), based in Bangalore, has designed and is responsible for the manufacture of the fin and the rudder and the construction of the aircraft fuselage.
Tejas cockpit
The aircraft is fitted with a night vision compatible glass cockpit with Martin Baker (UK) zero-zero ejection seats.
The cockpit has two 76mm×76mm colour liquid crystal multi-function displays developed by Bharat Electronics, a head up display developed by the Indian government-owned Central Scientific Instruments Organisation (CSIO) in Chandigarh, a liquid crystal return-to-home-base panel and keyboard. The pilot also has a helmet-mounted display.
“Tejas is the smallest lightweight, multi-role, single-engine tactical fighter aircraft in the world.”
The aircraft has a quadruplex fly-by-wire digital automatic flight control. The navigation suite includes Sagem SIGMA 95N ring laser gyroscope inertial navigation system with an integrated global positioning system.
The communications suite includes VHF to UHF radio communications with built-in counter-countermeasures, air-to-air and air-to-ground data links and a HAL information friend-or-foe interrogator. The cockpit is fitted with an environmental control system developed by Spectrum Infotech of Bangalore. The avionics suite has an integrated utility health-monitoring system.
Fighter weapons
The aircraft has eight external hardpoints to carry stores, with three under each wing, one on the centre fuselage and one installed under the air intake on the port side. A 23mm twin barrelled GSh-23 gun with a burst firing rate of 50 rounds a second and muzzle velocity of 715m a second is installed in a blister fairing under the starboard air intake.
The aircraft can be armed with air-to-air, air-to-ground and anti-ship missiles, precision-guided munitions, rockets and bombs. Electronic warfare, targeting, surveillance, reconnaissance or training pods can be carried on the hardpoints. Drop tanks can also be carried.
In October 2007, the Tejas successfully test-fired the R-73 air-to-air missile. The Vympel R-73 (Nato codename AA-11 Archer ) missile is an all-aspect short-range missile with cooled infrared homing. The missile can intercept targets at altitudes between 0.02km and 20km, g-load to 12g, and with target speeds of up to 2,500km/h.
Countermeasures
The aircraft’s electronic warfare suite, developed by the Advanced Systems Integration and Evaluation Organisation (ASIEO) of Bangalore, includes a radar warning receiver and jammer, laser warner, missile approach warner, and chaff and flare dispenser.
Sensors
The Electronics Research and Development Establishment and HAL have jointly developed the aircraft’s multi-mode radar. The radar has multiple target search and track-while-scan and ground-mapping modes of operation. The radar incorporates pulse Doppler radar with Doppler beam shaping, moving target indication and look-up / look-down capability. The radar is mounted in a Kevlar radome.
Turbofan engines
The prototype development aircraft are fitted with General Electric F404-GE-F2J3 turbofan engines with afterburn. Production aircraft will be fitted with one General Electric 85kN F404-GE-IN20 turbofan engine with full authority digital engine control. HAL placed an order for 24 F404-GE-IN20 engines in February 2007.
“Tejas can be armed with air-to-air, air-to-ground and anti-ship missiles, precision-guided munitions, rockets and bombs.”
LSP-2 (limited series production 2) will be the first aircraft to be fitted with the engine. Flight trials with the production engine began in June 2008.
It was planned that a new turbofan engine, the GTX-35VS Kaveri, under development by Gas Turbine Research Establishment (GTRE), would be fitted to the production aircraft, but delays in development led to the purchase of the General Electric engines. Snecma-Larzac has been chosen as the industrial partner in the engine development.
The Kaveri engine develops 52kN dry power and 80.5kN with afterburn. The aircraft will use multi-axis thrust vectoring nozzles. The engine has Y-duct air intakes.
The aircraft has wing and fuselage tanks and an in-flight refuelling probe on the front starboard side. Drop tanks with a capacity up to 4,000l, can be carried on the inner and mid-board wing and fuselage centreline hardpoints.
The aircraft is fitted with a HAL gas turbine starter unit model GTSU-110.
---------- Post added at 06:01 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:00 PM ----------
Sept. 30: A day after defence minister A.K. Antony’s return from the United States, the ministry of defence handed a major contract to an American firm for supply of engines to power the ‘Made in India’ fighter,Tejas Mark II.
The contract, worth about $750 million for 99 F414 engines of General Electric Aviation-hints at the potential winner of India’s biggest defence deal yet: the $11 billion acquisition of 126 Medium Multi-role Combat Aircraft. The same engine powers the US-manufactured F/A-18 Super Hornets. These American military jets were the first of the six competing aircraft to be evaluated by the Indian Air Force for the multi-billion dollar acquisition in August 2009. Two jets were flown over the skies of Bengaluru, Jaisalmer and Leh.
Sources in MOD said the decision to pick the F414 over the other competitor Eurojet’s EJ200 (which incidentally powers Eurofighter, another jet in the reckoning for MMRCA deal) signals an edge for the Super Hornets over other fighter aircraft, assessed for the mega-buck procurement.
“Both the engines were suitable to power Tejas Mark II, but with today’s choice the prospects of Super Hornets are certainly high. It gives the vendor (Boeing) many advantages as the engine line (for manufacture of engines) will be ready in advance and benefits under the off-set policy would also be transferred to Indian firms. This will reduce the cost of the fighter significantly and give the IAF the benefit of using engines in its inventory,” sources said.
---------- Post added at 06:02 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:01 PM ----------
Air force to get 20 more Tejas fighter aircraft, says Antony
, raghu.k@livemint.com
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The Indian Air Force (IAF) has won the approval to buy 20 additional Tejas fighter jets, the home-grown light combat aircraft to be built by military plane maker Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), defence minister A.K. Antony said on Tuesday.
The defence acquisition council has cleared the plan, he said. So far, IAF has ordered 28 Tejas aircraft, currently under development at the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), the design agency for the aircraft.
The additional order would give a boost to the indigenous plane project, which has faced an uncertain future due to delays in its development and certification.
“Now, LCA (light combat aircraft) is a reality,” said Antony, who recalled that he had received suggestions when he took over as defence minister that the Tejas, the Arjun battle tank and the Akash missile programmes be scrapped. “Despite all those prophecies of doom, all (three projects) are becoming a reality.”
The Tejas was conceived in the 1980s to replace the ageing fleet of Russian MiG-21 planes.
The project got the government’s nod in 1990, a prototype was rolled out in the middle of that decade, and the first Tejas took to the skies in 2001.
Since then, 12 Tejas planes have flown 1,400 flights on test missions. The aircraft is expected to get initial operational clearance, or the certification for minimum standards set by the IAF, by December.
A two-seat naval version of the plane, which was rolled out on Tuesday by the minister, will take to the skies around October, said P.S. Subramanyam, programme director at ADA.
“The learning has been enormous. We have been able to compress time,” he said.
The two-seat naval trainer has been redesigned to take off and land on an aircraft carrier—needing about one-tenth of the 800-900m on a regular runway.
The navy is setting up a shore-based test facility, which will be similar to the deck of the INS Vikramaditya, the aircraft carrier Russia is building for India.
---------- Post added at 06:03 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:02 PM ----------
India to Develop More Powerful Tejas Fighter Plane (Update1)
By Vipin V. Nair - February 13, 2009 06:35 EST
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Feb. 13 (Bloomberg) -- India will build a more powerful version of its indigenously developed light combat aircraft for sale to the air force as the country seeks to reduce dependence on imports from Russian and European planemakers.
Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd., the state company that builds the aircraft named Tejas, will begin work on the ‘LCA Mark 2’ soon, Chairman Ashok K. Baweja said in Bangalore yesterday. India’s air force will take delivery of the first version of the Tejas for its fleet next year, Baweja said.
Hindustan Aeronautics will modify the plane’s fuselage and equip it with a more powerful engine to make the jet more appealing to the Indian Air Force, which has traditionally relied on Russian MiGs and Sukhoi fighter jets. India imports 70 percent of its arms requirements and needs to boost local production, Defense Minister A.K. Antony said Feb. 11.
The state company will produce 40 units of the light combat plane before production of the Mark 2 starts, Baweja said.
The country is also developing a twin-engine medium combat aircraft and an unmanned combat aerial vehicle, M. Natarajan, scientific adviser to India’s defense minister, said in Bangalore today.
“We are confident of implementing them in two decades,” he added.
Lockheed, Boeing
The government is evaluating bids by Lockheed Martin Corp., Boeing Co. and four other companies to supply 126 fighter jets worth $11 billion in the largest military contest in play worldwide. A decision may be taken by 2010, India’s Air Chief Marshal Fali H. Major said Feb. 11.
Production of India’s first indigenous fighter plane began in April 2007, more than two decades after it was conceived to replace the MiG fleet in the Indian Air Force. General Electric Co. that year won a $100 million order to supply 24 afterburning engines for use in the Tejas.
India’s arms purchases may triple in five years to more than $35 billion, according to Rahul Roy-Chaudhury, a South Asia analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. Imports may account for 70 percent of that, making it the largest arms importer after China.
Hindustan Aeronautics currently makes British Jaguars, and Russian MiGs and Sukhois under technology transfer agreements with the companies. The company last year won a $50.7 million order to supply helicopters to Ecuador’s air force.
To contact the reporter on this story: Vipin V. Nair in Mumbai at vnair12@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Bret Okeson at bokeson@bloomberg.net.
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---------- Post added at 06:04 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:03 PM ----------
Making of HAL TEJAS - Indian Air Force Fighter Aircraft by Pavel Romsy Web: 3D Visualization, Architectural Visualization, 3D graphics - Michelle Bivotti. - Visualization & media
This project was made to learn blueprint modeling and unwraping (I had never done this before). In this making of I´m going to show all parts of my work and also I´m going to point on mistakes that I have made. I hope that my making of will be useful for those who wants to start with this as well and will help them to avoid of making the same mistakes.
I used the following softwares and plugins:
VIZ2008 - scene
Brazil r/s V2 pro beta - rendering
Texporter - VIZ doesn´t have feature to save unwraped wire image (I didn´t find it
so this plugin was handy.
Photoshop - texture painting and postproduction
Some info about the jet which I created:
This aircraft is being developed for Indian army as LCA (Light combat aircraft) since 1983. Its main goal is to replace old MIG 21. In present is done prototype PV-3. In some details is similar with Mirage 2000. Aircraft is very small and it belongs among the smallest and the lightest in the world.
Tech info:
length: 13,2m
wing span: 8,2m
height: 4,4m
Empty mass: 5500kg
MTOW: 12500kg
Max speed: M1.6
flying range: 2000km
weapons: 1x23mm canon + 8 pylons
Scene Setup
At first I had to find some good blueprint reference. There was a little problem with this aircraft as it isn´t very famous. I found only one version of blueprint on google, unfortunately not much detailed.
---------- Post added at 06:04 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:04 PM ----------
The Kathryn Report: US engine for Tejas fighter aircraft
By phieubat360
1.Specifications:
Dimensions:
Length13.2m
Height4.4m
Wingspan8.2m
Weights:
Empty Weight5,450kg
Approximate Take-Off Weight9,530kg
External PayloadMore than 4,000kg
Engines:
Prototype Aircraft1 x GE F404-GE-F2J3 turbofan engine with afterburn
Production Aircraft1 x GE F404-GE-IN20 turbofan engine, rated at 85kN
Performance:
Maximum SpeedMach 1.8
Maximum Altitude15,200m
Manoeuvrability+9g to –3.5g
Gun:
Burst Firing Rate50 rounds a second
Muzzle Velocity715m/sec
2.Introductions:
The Tejas single-seat, single-engine, lightweight, high-agility supersonic fighter aircraft has been undergoing flight trials in preparation for operational clearance, and by mid 2005 had flown over 400 flights up to speeds of Mach 1.4. The Tejas light combat aircraft design and development programme is being led by the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) of the Indian Department of Defence with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) as the prime industrial contractor.
The first LCA Demonstrator I aircraft made a maiden flight in January 2001. The LCA Demonstrator II first flew in June 2002. The second prototype vehicle (PV-II) made a maiden flight in December 2005 and the third in December 2006. The Indian government approved limited series production of 20 Tejas for the Air Force in April 2006.
First flight of the production aircraft was in April 2007. Tejas is planned to achieve initial operating capability (IOC) in 2008 and enter service in 2011. The trainer variant is scheduled for first flight in 2009.
“Tejas is a single-seat, single-engine, lightweight, high-agility supersonic fighter aircraft.”
Tejas, the smallest lightweight, multirole, single-engined tactical fighter aircraft in the world, is being developed as a single seat fighter aircraft for the Indian Air Force and also as a two-seat training aircraft. In November 2008, the Indian Air Force confirmed a requirement for 140 Tejas aircraft to equip seven squadrons.
The design of a carrier-borne Tejas in single-seat and two-seat versions with a modified nose, strengthened landing gear and an arrestor hook was granted approval in 1999. The carrier variant has retractable canards and adjustable vortex control.
The development programme for the carrier-borne versions was agreed by the Indian government in 2002 and the first flights of two prototype aircraft are scheduled for late 2009. The carrier variant may replace the fleet of Sea Harriers.
The Indian Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) is carrying out a conceptual design study of the ADA medium combat aircraft, which will be an advanced, stealthy version of the Tejas, to replace the Indian Air Force Jaguar and Mirage 2000 fleet. The medium combat aircraft has two engines with fully vectoring nozzles and no vertical or horizontal tail.
Delta planform design
The aircraft is of delta planform design with shoulder-mounted delta wings. The aircraft has a fin but no horizontal tail. Lightweight materials including aluminium and lithium alloys, titanium alloys and carbon composites have been used in the construction. The wing structure includes composite spares and ribs with a carbon fibre-reinforced plastic skin.
The National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), based in Bangalore, has designed and is responsible for the manufacture of the fin and the rudder and the construction of the aircraft fuselage.
Tejas cockpit
The aircraft is fitted with a night vision compatible glass cockpit with Martin Baker (UK) zero-zero ejection seats.
The cockpit has two 76mm×76mm colour liquid crystal multi-function displays developed by Bharat Electronics, a head up display developed by the Indian government-owned Central Scientific Instruments Organisation (CSIO) in Chandigarh, a liquid crystal return-to-home-base panel and keyboard. The pilot also has a helmet-mounted display.
“Tejas is the smallest lightweight, multi-role, single-engine tactical fighter aircraft in the world.”
The aircraft has a quadruplex fly-by-wire digital automatic flight control. The navigation suite includes Sagem SIGMA 95N ring laser gyroscope inertial navigation system with an integrated global positioning system.
The communications suite includes VHF to UHF radio communications with built-in counter-countermeasures, air-to-air and air-to-ground data links and a HAL information friend-or-foe interrogator. The cockpit is fitted with an environmental control system developed by Spectrum Infotech of Bangalore. The avionics suite has an integrated utility health-monitoring system.
Fighter weapons
The aircraft has eight external hardpoints to carry stores, with three under each wing, one on the centre fuselage and one installed under the air intake on the port side. A 23mm twin barrelled GSh-23 gun with a burst firing rate of 50 rounds a second and muzzle velocity of 715m a second is installed in a blister fairing under the starboard air intake.
The aircraft can be armed with air-to-air, air-to-ground and anti-ship missiles, precision-guided munitions, rockets and bombs. Electronic warfare, targeting, surveillance, reconnaissance or training pods can be carried on the hardpoints. Drop tanks can also be carried.
In October 2007, the Tejas successfully test-fired the R-73 air-to-air missile. The Vympel R-73 (Nato codename AA-11 Archer ) missile is an all-aspect short-range missile with cooled infrared homing. The missile can intercept targets at altitudes between 0.02km and 20km, g-load to 12g, and with target speeds of up to 2,500km/h.
Countermeasures
The aircraft’s electronic warfare suite, developed by the Advanced Systems Integration and Evaluation Organisation (ASIEO) of Bangalore, includes a radar warning receiver and jammer, laser warner, missile approach warner, and chaff and flare dispenser.
Sensors
The Electronics Research and Development Establishment and HAL have jointly developed the aircraft’s multi-mode radar. The radar has multiple target search and track-while-scan and ground-mapping modes of operation. The radar incorporates pulse Doppler radar with Doppler beam shaping, moving target indication and look-up / look-down capability. The radar is mounted in a Kevlar radome.
Turbofan engines
The prototype development aircraft are fitted with General Electric F404-GE-F2J3 turbofan engines with afterburn. Production aircraft will be fitted with one General Electric 85kN F404-GE-IN20 turbofan engine with full authority digital engine control. HAL placed an order for 24 F404-GE-IN20 engines in February 2007.
“Tejas can be armed with air-to-air, air-to-ground and anti-ship missiles, precision-guided munitions, rockets and bombs.”
LSP-2 (limited series production 2) will be the first aircraft to be fitted with the engine. Flight trials with the production engine began in June 2008.
It was planned that a new turbofan engine, the GTX-35VS Kaveri, under development by Gas Turbine Research Establishment (GTRE), would be fitted to the production aircraft, but delays in development led to the purchase of the General Electric engines. Snecma-Larzac has been chosen as the industrial partner in the engine development.
The Kaveri engine develops 52kN dry power and 80.5kN with afterburn. The aircraft will use multi-axis thrust vectoring nozzles. The engine has Y-duct air intakes.
The aircraft has wing and fuselage tanks and an in-flight refuelling probe on the front starboard side. Drop tanks with a capacity up to 4,000l, can be carried on the inner and mid-board wing and fuselage centreline hardpoints.
The aircraft is fitted with a HAL gas turbine starter unit model GTSU-110.
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Sept. 30: A day after defence minister A.K. Antony’s return from the United States, the ministry of defence handed a major contract to an American firm for supply of engines to power the ‘Made in India’ fighter,Tejas Mark II.
The contract, worth about $750 million for 99 F414 engines of General Electric Aviation-hints at the potential winner of India’s biggest defence deal yet: the $11 billion acquisition of 126 Medium Multi-role Combat Aircraft. The same engine powers the US-manufactured F/A-18 Super Hornets. These American military jets were the first of the six competing aircraft to be evaluated by the Indian Air Force for the multi-billion dollar acquisition in August 2009. Two jets were flown over the skies of Bengaluru, Jaisalmer and Leh.
Sources in MOD said the decision to pick the F414 over the other competitor Eurojet’s EJ200 (which incidentally powers Eurofighter, another jet in the reckoning for MMRCA deal) signals an edge for the Super Hornets over other fighter aircraft, assessed for the mega-buck procurement.
“Both the engines were suitable to power Tejas Mark II, but with today’s choice the prospects of Super Hornets are certainly high. It gives the vendor (Boeing) many advantages as the engine line (for manufacture of engines) will be ready in advance and benefits under the off-set policy would also be transferred to Indian firms. This will reduce the cost of the fighter significantly and give the IAF the benefit of using engines in its inventory,” sources said.
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Air force to get 20 more Tejas fighter aircraft, says Antony
, raghu.k@livemint.com
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The Indian Air Force (IAF) has won the approval to buy 20 additional Tejas fighter jets, the home-grown light combat aircraft to be built by military plane maker Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), defence minister A.K. Antony said on Tuesday.
The defence acquisition council has cleared the plan, he said. So far, IAF has ordered 28 Tejas aircraft, currently under development at the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), the design agency for the aircraft.
The additional order would give a boost to the indigenous plane project, which has faced an uncertain future due to delays in its development and certification.
“Now, LCA (light combat aircraft) is a reality,” said Antony, who recalled that he had received suggestions when he took over as defence minister that the Tejas, the Arjun battle tank and the Akash missile programmes be scrapped. “Despite all those prophecies of doom, all (three projects) are becoming a reality.”
The Tejas was conceived in the 1980s to replace the ageing fleet of Russian MiG-21 planes.
The project got the government’s nod in 1990, a prototype was rolled out in the middle of that decade, and the first Tejas took to the skies in 2001.
Since then, 12 Tejas planes have flown 1,400 flights on test missions. The aircraft is expected to get initial operational clearance, or the certification for minimum standards set by the IAF, by December.
A two-seat naval version of the plane, which was rolled out on Tuesday by the minister, will take to the skies around October, said P.S. Subramanyam, programme director at ADA.
“The learning has been enormous. We have been able to compress time,” he said.
The two-seat naval trainer has been redesigned to take off and land on an aircraft carrier—needing about one-tenth of the 800-900m on a regular runway.
The navy is setting up a shore-based test facility, which will be similar to the deck of the INS Vikramaditya, the aircraft carrier Russia is building for India.
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India to Develop More Powerful Tejas Fighter Plane (Update1)
By Vipin V. Nair - February 13, 2009 06:35 EST
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Feb. 13 (Bloomberg) -- India will build a more powerful version of its indigenously developed light combat aircraft for sale to the air force as the country seeks to reduce dependence on imports from Russian and European planemakers.
Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd., the state company that builds the aircraft named Tejas, will begin work on the ‘LCA Mark 2’ soon, Chairman Ashok K. Baweja said in Bangalore yesterday. India’s air force will take delivery of the first version of the Tejas for its fleet next year, Baweja said.
Hindustan Aeronautics will modify the plane’s fuselage and equip it with a more powerful engine to make the jet more appealing to the Indian Air Force, which has traditionally relied on Russian MiGs and Sukhoi fighter jets. India imports 70 percent of its arms requirements and needs to boost local production, Defense Minister A.K. Antony said Feb. 11.
The state company will produce 40 units of the light combat plane before production of the Mark 2 starts, Baweja said.
The country is also developing a twin-engine medium combat aircraft and an unmanned combat aerial vehicle, M. Natarajan, scientific adviser to India’s defense minister, said in Bangalore today.
“We are confident of implementing them in two decades,” he added.
Lockheed, Boeing
The government is evaluating bids by Lockheed Martin Corp., Boeing Co. and four other companies to supply 126 fighter jets worth $11 billion in the largest military contest in play worldwide. A decision may be taken by 2010, India’s Air Chief Marshal Fali H. Major said Feb. 11.
Production of India’s first indigenous fighter plane began in April 2007, more than two decades after it was conceived to replace the MiG fleet in the Indian Air Force. General Electric Co. that year won a $100 million order to supply 24 afterburning engines for use in the Tejas.
India’s arms purchases may triple in five years to more than $35 billion, according to Rahul Roy-Chaudhury, a South Asia analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. Imports may account for 70 percent of that, making it the largest arms importer after China.
Hindustan Aeronautics currently makes British Jaguars, and Russian MiGs and Sukhois under technology transfer agreements with the companies. The company last year won a $50.7 million order to supply helicopters to Ecuador’s air force.
To contact the reporter on this story: Vipin V. Nair in Mumbai at vnair12@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Bret Okeson at bokeson@bloomberg.net.
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Making of HAL TEJAS - Indian Air Force Fighter Aircraft by Pavel Romsy Web: 3D Visualization, Architectural Visualization, 3D graphics - Michelle Bivotti. - Visualization & media
This project was made to learn blueprint modeling and unwraping (I had never done this before). In this making of I´m going to show all parts of my work and also I´m going to point on mistakes that I have made. I hope that my making of will be useful for those who wants to start with this as well and will help them to avoid of making the same mistakes.
I used the following softwares and plugins:
VIZ2008 - scene
Brazil r/s V2 pro beta - rendering
Texporter - VIZ doesn´t have feature to save unwraped wire image (I didn´t find it
so this plugin was handy.Photoshop - texture painting and postproduction
Some info about the jet which I created:
This aircraft is being developed for Indian army as LCA (Light combat aircraft) since 1983. Its main goal is to replace old MIG 21. In present is done prototype PV-3. In some details is similar with Mirage 2000. Aircraft is very small and it belongs among the smallest and the lightest in the world.
Tech info:
length: 13,2m
wing span: 8,2m
height: 4,4m
Empty mass: 5500kg
MTOW: 12500kg
Max speed: M1.6
flying range: 2000km
weapons: 1x23mm canon + 8 pylons
Scene Setup
At first I had to find some good blueprint reference. There was a little problem with this aircraft as it isn´t very famous. I found only one version of blueprint on google, unfortunately not much detailed.
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The Kathryn Report: US engine for Tejas fighter aircraft
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