Tejas not to be battle ready before 2015.

[IndoUS]

Tejas was due to be comissioned in 1995.

That was before we got hit in the nuts with sanctions and US took all the technology and knowhow with them that they were helping in the co development.
As for the aircraft I would say designate it as an experimental and work on MK2 till we get the prototype of FGFA and incorporate what we learn from that and Rafale into AMCA.
As for the delay its taking so many years for US to get the F35 operational even when it has experience in building fifth generation aircraft while India got squat for experience.

 

[a.kumar]

Tejas was due to be comissioned in 1995.

First aircraft TD-1 roll-out happened only in 1995 , first flight in 2001 , actual work on aircraft started only in 1992 , ADA which developed LCA , was non existing till 1986 first company came up, then the aircraft , many here always count from 1985 like the article even when they know that ADA organisation which is developing LCA was non exiting in 1985 .

 

[satishkumarcsc]

First flight of AMCA will not take place till 2022 , till then Tejas MK-2 will mature and will enter production , No country can fight a war with only 5th generation fighters until that happens LCA is still relevant in Battle field .

First of all it is a very small aircraft and is a good point defence aircraft. It is as good as the Mirage 2k-5. The world has moved away and the LCA however you see is a light aircraft with less load carrying capability.

 

[a.kumar]

the biggest flaw of tejas is it lacks acceleration. Other factors are it aint as light as it was supposed to be and while chinese will be inducting J31 we will be inducting an aircraft which is a generation behind and still cant compete with 4th gen aircraft. Tejas as it is right now is only worthy of being used as a trainer

Lack of acceleration will be negated when flight of Tejas MK-2 with more powerful engine takes place , also keep in mind that Tejas MK-2 will form bulk of Tejas aircraft in IAf . in 2004 IAF changed weapons configuration of Tejas and included modern weapons which are more heaver , which lead to rise in weight but it can do job of Mig-29A in weapons payload but still weight less then Mig-29A , IAF have no need for LEAD trainers , AJT and IJT is good enough for them .

First of all it is a very small aircraft and is a good point defence aircraft. It is as good as the Mirage 2k-5. The world has moved away and the LCA however you see is a light aircraft with less load carrying capability.

So you are saying IAF should operate Heavy and Medium category aircraft ? even when lighter LCA can carry same payload of M2k and Mig-29 ?

 

[Peshwa]

FOC is pushed back by 1 year doesn't make the plane outdated , Many here have no idea how a aircraft moves from IOC to FOC .

F-35 --- IOC-1 2016 , FOC - 2025 = 9 years

LCA -- IOC-1 2011, FOC -- 2015 = 4 Years

Compare only the projects phases and not the aircrafts please , this is just an example

It's not that the project was a waste, it means that when other countries are moving towards inducting 5th generation birds, it makes little sense to spend additional research and up gradation towards a 4th gen plane unless we have huge orders on deck...

Failure is never the issue...it's a part of the process...not learning from ones mistakes is...if we don't invest in the future, we are twice bitten..

 

[Genesis]

This should put to rest any member on here maybe minus American and Russian, that ridicules China's engine program.

Making any of these things are extremely hard. I mean the Teja program includes no engine and it's facing all these problems.

 

[Anony]

It's not that the project was a waste, it means that when other countries are moving towards inducting 5th generation birds, it makes little sense to spend additional research and up gradation towards a 4th gen plane unless we have huge orders on deck...

Failure is never the issue...it's a part of the process...not learning from ones mistakes is...if we don't invest in the future, we are twice bitten..

Only US is moving towards fifth gen. For every other country, fifth gen is a distance dream of atleast post 2025. And if I talk about our threat perception, we need to look at which aircraft PAF and PLAAF will be having. PAF will keep inducting Jf-17 till 2025, which means 250+ Jf-17. These fighters will remain in service with PAF atleast till 2040. PLAAF will be inducting j-10 till 2020. These aircraft will also remain in service till 2035.

How can then Tejas become obsolete by 2020 what others members are claiming here.

And moreover some of these Pakistani nuds, How the hell they make mockery of Tejas when their inducted fighter Jf-17 can't do a vertical loop even today

 

[AUSTERLITZ]

What people don't undestand is everytime IAF adds a requirement,changes the engine or changes the radar like they did with kaveri or elta MMr the whole aircraft structure needs to be redisgned and that takes huge delays.Till 2005 it was kaveri,then new engine was chosen.Intakes and rear part had to be redesigned.They changed from indegineous radar to israeli elta radar,again nose cone had to be changed.Due to DRDO failure to deliver kaveri and MMR despite claims to do so and IAF inability to 'freeze' aircraft design..delay after delay....aftr delay.

 

[satishkumarcsc]

Lack of acceleration will be negated when flight of Tejas MK-2 with more powerful engine takes place , also keep in mind that Tejas MK-2 will form bulk of Tejas aircraft in IAf . in 2004 IAF changed weapons configuration of Tejas and included modern weapons which are more heaver , which lead to rise in weight but it can do job of Mig-29A in weapons payload but still weight less then Mig-29A , IAF have no need for LEAD trainers , AJT and IJT is good enough for them .



So you are saying IAF should operate Heavy and Medium category aircraft ? even when lighter LCA can carry same payload of M2k and Mig-29 ?

Thats why M2k and Mig 29 are undergoing upgrades to make them better. LCA needs a lot of work to be done...It would have been a great aircraft if it had come in the early 90s not in the second decade of this century.

 

[faithfulguy]

this project should be scraped asap...tejas is a impotent platform and is already out dated.

But some people want to see it completed because of pride. Its pride that is keeping this project going. But when it comes to fighting a war, this is a backup planes.

First of all it is a very small aircraft and is a good point defence aircraft. It is as good as the Mirage 2k-5. The world has moved away and the LCA however you see is a light aircraft with less load carrying capability.

Point defense means that the plane has less range.

 

[faithfulguy]

What people don't undestand is everytime IAF adds a requirement,changes the engine or changes the radar like they did with kaveri or elta MMr the whole aircraft structure needs to be redisgned and that takes huge delays.Till 2005 it was kaveri,then new engine was chosen.Intakes and rear part had to be redesigned.They changed from indegineous radar to israeli elta radar,again nose cone had to be changed.Due to DRDO failure to deliver kaveri and MMR despite claims to do so and IAF inability to 'freeze' aircraft design..delay after delay....aftr delay.

After enough delays, its time to unplug the project. If the new head of DRDO has any balls, he should make this recommendation.

 

[rockstarIN]

Something Ive been saying here for a long time.

It is not that Tejas will get obsolete, but the idea of Light weight aircraft specially for Indian Doctrine.

 

[AUSTERLITZ]

They should scrap mk1 altogether and go straight to mk2.Fed up now.

 

[AnnoyingOrange]

NEW DELHI: Defence minister A K Antony last week expressed the hope that the indigenous Tejas light combat aircraft would finally get the final operational clearance (FOC) next year. But a hard-nosed ``internal assessment'' shows Antony's dream will be shattered.

The single-engine Tejas, already 30 years in the making, will not become fully combat-worthy anytime before end-2015. "The reality is that the around dozen Tejas prototypes are barely flying a couple of sorties a day. The initial operational clearance ( IOC)-II has again already been pushed to November this year from the earlier June-July deadline. It will take at least 18 months from IOC-II to FOC,'' said a source.

In fact, the foremost challenge before the new DRDO chief-cum-scientific advisor to the defence minister, missile scientist Avinash Chander, is to ensure the long-running, meandering Tejas project firmly heads towards completion because it's absolutely critical for India to have its own home-grown fighter.

The Tejas LCA project was first sanctioned in 1983 at a cost of Rs 560 crore to replace the ageing MiG-21s. The overall programme will now cost upwards of Rs 25,000 crore if the naval variant, trainer and the failed Kaveri engine are also taken into account.

It was in January 2011 that Tejas got IOC-I, which was initially heralded as the ``full and final IOC'' by the combine of DRDO, Aeronautical Development Agency and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd till better sense prevailed. The fighter can be certified as fully airworthy only after it passes the IOC-II stage.

But there are still ``several basic problems'' — leave alone complex issues — that continue to dog the fighter despite it having clocked over 2,000 flights. ``Tejas still cannot taxi back after a sortie since its brakes have to be first cooled with compressed air. It has major fuel gauge inaccuracies. Moreover, its radome (radar cover) is defective with large electromagnetic signal losses,'' said another source.

The light-weight Tejas will be ready to go to war only after the FOC, which will include integration of all weapons and other systems to ensure it can fire guns, rockets, laser-guided bombs and BVR (beyond visual range) missiles as well as undergo air-to-air refuelling.

IAF has earmarked the Sulur airbase in Tamil Nadu, near the Bengaluru HAL facilities where the fighter is being built, to house the initial Tejas squadron inducted in the IOC-II configuration to resolve ``the expected teething problems''.

The force has so far ordered 20 Tejas in IOC-II configuration, with the American GE-404 engines, and another 20 in FOC. As per current plans, IAF will order six Tejas Mark-II squadrons (16 to 18 jets each), with the more powerful GE F-414 engines, once the fighter is combat-ready.


But then again,this is times of India,hope its a dud story.

These reporters are pissed off... My friend is a PRO in HAL he says that these jerks are not being given any news bytes these days so they are pissed off and print stories like this.... they want HAL to react to this kind of news by giving a press release ... but every time they are left licking their hurt egos.

 

[Alfa-Fighter]

After enough delays, its time to unplug the project. If the new head of DRDO has any balls, he should make this recommendation.

delays happen every time and everywhere, we heard that Chinese engine ready in 2010 but is 2013 and still using russian engines.