With international engines, DRDO fast-tracks LCA project
4 Feb 2009, 0043 hrs IST, TNN
Bangalore : All doubts raised over LCA being a key fighter aircraft for India owing to delay in the Kaveri engine can be put to rest.
The LCA will fly - and fly on international engines initially. DRDO has decided that Kaveri engine will not be a hindering factor in India showing off the lightest jet fighter.
M Natarajan, scientific adviser to defence minister A K Antony, has publicly spelt out DRDO's determination to fly the LCA in time for the IAF, even if on international engines in the first few squadrons.
At an Aero India press conference on Tuesday, ADA director P S Subramanyam, said: "I am confident that DRDO will keep to the December 2010 initial operational clearance (IOC) plan. We have started weapons testing on the LCA, and soon the aircraft will fly with the hi-tech MMR radar."
"We can do a few things with the Kaveri engine and fly the LCA no doubt. But that's not the point. There are new specifications and it will take time to meet those. Most of the work with existing specifications is over, but we're working on more complex aspects.
"Meanwhile, we understand the IAF has tight induction bands and we will get the LCA into those bands. The first two squadrons will fly on GE engines and the next four will fly on any international engine that qualifies our new request for proposals.
"The Kaveri engine will take another five years given the new specifications.
Engine development is not the easiest of things and no one is going to share technology on the platter.Meanwhile we will keep to IAF requirements," Subramanyam explained.
What this means is operations of the first six LCA squadrons are taken care of -- around 90 aircraft. To a large extent, the aircraft is indigenous and all that would be left would be the engine.
The flight path of the LCA seems clear after the go-ahead for international engines.