Can LCA Tejas Do the Job?
(Some real aspects of Tejas)
Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas is the most talked about indigenous aircraft being developed in India by the HAL. It’s a 4.5 generation aircraft and also has an element of stealth as its radar signature is very small because of its size and shape.
If the design is to be considered, it’s absolutely brilliant. But, the question is, ‘can it perform the tough job of protecting the Indian skies?’
Well, seems not in the current scenario. There are several reasons behind this; the
first being its speed. Though the HAL says that it can reach Mach 2; the top speed of
Tejas recorded till date is only Mach 1.3. It sounds nice, but is dead slow to dodge an incoming missile flying at speed of nearly Mach 4. The average
speeds of other 4.5 generation aircraft are above Mach 2.2. So, if the aircraft runs out of ammunition during a combat, it has no way to escape.
Speed of an aircraft plays a crucial role in a dogfight too. From the very beginning of aerial warfare, continuous efforts are being made to produce a faster and more maneuverable aircraft. And history says faster aircraft have always won. So, in the era of fifth generation fighters that can reach supersonic
speeds even without using their afterburners, can Tejas survive?
If we talk about advanced avionics, they surely increase performance in fighting,
but in desperate situations, the pilots have to go back to the basics. Slow speed affects the performance of Tejas in many areas. Tejas is a light category aircraft.
This means it cannot carry much armament for beyond visual range (BVR) combat. The pilot will have to switch to its 23 mm twin-barreled GSh cannon in an intense fight. Here
speed and maneuverability play their part.
As technical flaws continued to occur, in 2008, it was formally announced that Kaveri engine will not be ready for Tejas in time and an in-production powerplant will have to be purchased from foreign companies. The contenders are likely to be the Eurojet EJ200 and the General Electric F414 engines. But the selection process will take its time and till then the first operational squadron of Tejas will be fitted with the GE F404 engine. The F404 engine cannot provide enough
thrust to Tejas for combat maneuvers, thus restricting speed and ability to fight.
Another weakness of Tejas is lack of
thrust vectoring. It’s not that the Tejas is not agile, but here we are talking about ‘super maneuverability’ which is essential now-a-days. Super maneuverability is achieved by directing the
thrust developed by engine in required direction (thrust vectoring). With the help of it, an aircraft can perform almost impossible maneuvers.
The Sukhoi Su-30 MKI currently serving in the Indian Air Force has the most perfect thrust vectoring system ever built. The aircraft remains highly maneuverable even at very high angles of attack and near-zero speeds without stalling. It is feared as well as respected all over the world for this quality.
But, with no sufficient speed and lack of super maneuverability, Tejas will be a sitting duck for enemy fighters.
It’s not the first time when a brilliant design by HAL is lagging behind just because
of lack of a powerful engine. The same thing had happened with HAL HF-24 Marut, the first supersonic aircraft built in India. Designed by legendary designer Kurt Tank, the Marut could never be used to its complete potential just because of lack of thrust.
HAL should have had taken a lesson from it in the development of Kaveri engine, which was powerful enough to give Tejas supercruise ability. However, it also lacked thrust vectoring.
The LCA project shows a clear picture of government’s casual approach towards defense research and development. After independence, India has built only two indigenous fighter aircraft and only one tank. India is currently facing a tough challenge of curbing the ever increasing cross-border terrorism and the Naxal menace within. Apart from this, there’s always a threat from our hostile neighbor. In these circumstances, the government should have paid more attention towards defense projects.
Let’s hope that they take a lesson from the LCA project and don’t repeat the same mistakes in the development of new fifth generation fighter. Amen.
________________________________________________________
Accept it or not the design is good but AC is heavy, Engine and radar problem still exist. Poor speed , manevers, BVR missiles.
So many things lacking....I dont see and SQD b4 2015 when PAF will stop JF-17 production. 
