HAL Tejas | Updates, News & Discussions

[kingdurgaking]

Its been a long time.. or more than a year for new LSP to fly.. i wonder whats cooking...

 

[sancho]

Sancho my friend if thats the case then MMRCA should go to EFT even though we both want IAF to choose Rafaels as it's more capable atm

Not necessarily, because as Dash correctly pointed out, the French offer is very good in this regard as well, actually they were the first that offered such ammounts of ToT, source codes and no EMU and they have a long experience with transfer of technology and licence productions in India, that's why I don't see a big advantage for the EF in this regard.
It is true that the EF partnership is interesting and the EF consortium includes bigger companies than the Rafale consortium, but the French have already some key co-developments and JV that could be important for LCA as well. Dash mentioned the Kaveri - Snecma engine, which could be a big point for LCA alone, but hopefully even for Rafale as well and it was reported that there are already joint developments on TVC for Kaveri engine and LCA with the French. Also they offered full ToT of the AESA radar + source codes, as well that radar as the base for the LCA MK2 radar. The RBE 2 AESA is ready now and could be a great choice to have more commonality in the fleet, while the EF radar is delayed and it is even likely, that the first EF will come only with puls doppler radars. If their radar will be ready only by 2015 and LCA MK2 is slated to make it's first flight in 2014, it will be too late for joint radar developments.
Another very interesting point is the JV between Thales and Samtel for HMDs and IRST, which both could be bases for common parts, or even joint developments for IAF Rafale and LCA MK2.

As you can see, the French offer is by far not less interesting, only because their companies are smaller and regarding the creation of jobs, this was reported from Dassault in the competition in Brazil:

Off Set RAFALE

The French aerospace consortium Rafale International, one of three finalists for the Brazilian F-X2 program which provides for the sale and supply of up to 36 new fighters of 4th-generation or 4.5 for the Air Force (FAB), which is formed by Dassault Aviation, Snecma and Thales, offered unlimited transferêcia technology fighter Dassault Aviation 'Rafale' offered to the Brazilian Air Force through the following ways...

...The offer of transfer of technology offered by Rafale International has proposals for 65 projects in cooperation with 38 organizations / industries Brazilian potential, 30 Memoranda of Understanding signed with Brazilian partners, stating their interest in proposed projects.
If approved, the plan of Rafale International will generate 29,000 jobs over a period of 10 years and the manufacturing activities of the Rafale will generate 3,500 direct jobs and 11,500 indirect jobs.

Google Übersetzer


And that is a competition for 36 up to 100 fighters for the air force + 24 for the navy, so they hardly hit our minimum requirement, what does it tell us about the jobs that could be created in India then?

 

[LiberalAtheist]

will the LCA MK2 have any of the following?

higher pay load
higher max take off weight
IRST
more hardpoints ?

 

[sancho]

Not really.What they proposed was to include India in the partnership i.e. the consortium. What that means is that we would be involved in any new developments of the EFT right from conception. Thats always a much better way to learn than from ToT.

That's only partly true, because the offer is to team up for further upgrades and mainly to fund them, while the development of these is basically is already done by the current EF consortium companies. Take the TVC as an example, it was offered for India and Tejas, or for EF, but was developed nearly a decade ago and is available as a ground tech demonstrator, but none of the current partners is ready to fund the final integration and testing and that's why they hope India would do it. We would get ToT for sure and might even get the production in India, but that's mainly because lower production costs in India, not because our industry would participate in the development.
Joint development is indeed more benefical for India, but the EF don't offer that much in this field, especially not much that would benefit the LCA as well, while the French seems to have an advantage here as exlained in the last post.

will the LCA MK2 have any of the following?

higher pay load
higher max take off weight
IRST
more hardpoints ?

Yes for the first 2, unclear for the 3rd and unlikely for the last point.

 

[dr.crazze]

Not really.What they proposed was to include India in the partnership i.e. the consortium. What that means is that we would be involved in any new developments of the EFT right from conception. Thats always a much better way to learn than from ToT.

ACTUALLY THATS NOT TRUE FULLY all the members of the consortium may ask for specific upgrades but they have to pay on their own unless there is any other country asking the same with which they can divide the cost in view of Europe getting f 35 it is unlikely that they will ask much as in case with germany hence india may find itself alone in costly upgrades in contary rafale is france's lead plane they have to upgrade it on all means and we getting them on lower costs as we shall be producing it

 

[Lord Of Gondor]

Tejas picture of the day.
Source-Official Tejas website.
All the 8 weapon stations are clearly visible and the LDP and AAM are also in place.

i do not know whether this image has already been posted.

 

[Vibs]

ACTUALLY THATS NOT TRUE FULLY all the members of the consortium may ask for specific upgrades but they have to pay on their own unless there is any other country asking the same with which they can divide the cost in view of Europe getting f 35 it is unlikely that they will ask much as in case with germany hence india may find itself alone in costly upgrades in contary rafale is france's lead plane they have to upgrade it on all means and we getting them on lower costs as we shall be producing it

That may be true. But everytime an aircraft is developed,certain technologies are present in the drawing board during the concept stage but excluded as the Europeans did not find it useful or found it too expensive, or it is only with the Soviets.
Even if India has to pay for it, the advantage of customizing the plane right at the concept stage (Like the Sukhoi Pak FA) is immense.

 

[Vibs]

ACTUALLY THATS NOT TRUE FULLY all the members of the consortium may ask for specific upgrades but they have to pay on their own unless there is any other country asking the same with which they can divide the cost in view of Europe getting f 35 it is unlikely that they will ask much as in case with germany hence india may find itself alone in costly upgrades in contary rafale is france's lead plane they have to upgrade it on all means and we getting them on lower costs as we shall be producing it

That may be true. But everytime an aircraft is developed,certain technologies are present in the drawing board during the concept stage but excluded as the Europeans did not find it useful or found it too expensive, or it is only with the Soviets.
Even if India has to pay for it, the advantage of customizing the plane right at the concept stage (Like the Sukhoi Pak FA) is immense.

 

[LiberalAtheist]

Tejas picture of the day.
Source-Official Tejas website.
All the 8 weapon stations are clearly visible and the LDP and AAM are also in place.

i do not know whether this image has already been posted.

i can't wait until LCAMK2 enters service but in this pic i only see 6 hardpoints under the wings

 

[Lord Of Gondor]

Sidhu-The other two are on the Fuselage before the rear landing gear housing.
http://www.tejas.gov.in/index.html
Awesome website,it also clears the doubt whether the Tejas will have A2A refueling probes or not.

 

[sathya]

two on the Fuselage looks light weight pylon.. hieght and weight may b the issue in mk1..
we may see heavy load under fuselage in mk2

 

[Water Car Engineer]

Tejas does a loop

 

[gulte]

Tejas does a loop

23 sec .. pretty cool

 

[LiberalAtheist]

these show the LCA hard points i'm just wondering if there are 8 hard points does that mean the LCA can only take off with 8 AAM's or more? can someone please clarify?

 

[MZUBAIR]

Officially, LCA still dont have engine !!!