Designers insist Tejas will belie all sceptical questioning

[GUNS-N- ROSES]

This may be news of the year!
Congrats for making gen6 in $20million.
Q: will teja participate in red flag?

my counter question to u will u take JF-17 to red flag?

 

[bc040400065]

my counter question to u will u take JF-17 to red flag?

Don't know about red flag but i think it might participate in exercises in turkey this july.
But on the topic i think we should acknowledge each others success. Although i don't like its design but LCA has given india good experience and That is why countries invest in R&D. Good going India.

 

[Dash]

The Tejas Mark-II, to be developed by 2014 and roll off production lines by 2018, will perform 40 per cent better than the current fighter.
In an exclusive interview with Business Standard, P Subramanyam, director of the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), which is developing the LCA and the AMCA, responded to IAF criticism that the Tejas was not yet a world-class fighter. He said the Tejas Mark-I, still being flight-tested, had been flown to just 85 per cent of its full capability. The Tejas Mark-II -- in which a more powerful GE-414 engine will replace the current GE-404 engine -- would perform another 15 per cent better.
Designers insist Tejas will belie all sceptical questioning

Now if they roll MK2 out by 2018 its fine, however the engines will start getting delivered by 2014, at least the first 20, so they can do some flight testing by 2015-16 and IOC by 2017 and FOC by 2018. and this sounds busy. I have not taken AESA radar and Pods into consideration at all. I hope they make it.

ADA need to keep this schedule very tight.

 

[Abingdonboy]

my counter question to u will u take JF-17 to red flag?

This is not an attack AT ALL but the JF-17 doesn't have a2a refuelling capability does it?

 

[SpArK]

Now if they roll MK2 out by 2018 its fine, however the engines will start getting delivered by 2014, at least the first 20, so they can do some flight testing by 2015-16 and IOC by 2017 and FOC by 2018. and this sounds busy. I have not taken AESA radar and Pods into consideration at all. I hope they make it.

ADA need to keep this schedule very tight.

Hey DASH .. way back in 2008 EADS of EF has offered AESA (sameof EF) to LCA.. nothing has been heard since.. any info on that?

 

[Dash]

Hey DASH .. way back in 2008 EADS of EF has offered AESA (sameof EF) to LCA.. nothing has been heard since.. any info on that?

They didnt oofer the exact version, but rather a customized version for EF AESA radar. However that wasnt approved.
ELTA and EADS submitted their bid to co-develope radar with India.

Post Elta's withdrawal from the bid, coz of restriction on 2052 AESA radar, only EADS is left.
I dont have any onfo if this ever materialized.

Sometime back, I guess end of last year, DRDO said that they are very close in getting the AESA developed in a miniturized format. Nothing much has been heard since then.

However in 2010 July there was a news that the co-developement partner will be choosen soon. EADS is the only option left anyhow.

By all means the set back was US restriction on ELTA and may be it will be a re bid and its delaying the decision.

 

[sancho]

I don't think we have done enough for mk2. I mean we know IAF will place order of more than 100 LCA mk2 and 50-60 N-LCA for IN. We can opt for Swedish approach for Gripen. We can purchase IRST and aesa from anywhere. I think if we won't ask for ToT, we can even get aesa from US. But still we should integrate these features on mk2 otherwise its just a mid-life upgrade not the next version.

Upgrading radar and avionics belongs to an MLU, or fighter upgrade as well and AESA is still on the card. The specboards at Aero India mentioned multi mode radars, which AESA radars are as well, so we can't rule it out.
I still think that the main problem with LCA is drag and not the speculated weight, or thrust issue, but instead of re-designing the wings for example, IAF/ADA/DRDO...seems to go an easier way, by integrating the higher thrust engine. That might be enough to meet all performance requirements and of course needs less re-designing, but the development time for airframe changes and the new engine is way too high imo.
The 40 to 50 N-LCAs are still just planed so far and not officially ordered, not to mention that the number is too high with the 45 Mig 29Ks now. There is no need for 100 fighters at 2 carriers, that uses only around 20 fighters each, especially when they are limited capable like N-LCA.