selvan33
FULL MEMBER
- Joined
- Nov 10, 2012
- Messages
- 1,267
- Reaction score
- 0
- Country
- Location
Lca-Tejas Production refusing to take off??
While inaugurating the 37th Directors Conference of DRDO Defence Minister AK Antony has asked the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) not to extend the date of final operational clearance of indigenous Tejas light combat aircraft beyond 2014. Is Defence Minister AK Antony hinting that the Project will be delayed again and another deadline will be missed?
It was on 31st March 2013, that LSP-8 made it first flight, HAL in media reports have informed that High speed taxi trials of the aircrafts were avoided since flight crew were confident on the aircraft, but people familiar with workings of the HAL, informed us that it was done to avoiding getting slammed by MOD and Auditor general in failure of HAL to deliver single Tejas aircraft for 2012-13 financial year. Since last aircraft which took to air (LSP-7) was also in last March.
Sources have told idrw.org that HAL has done similar stunts even with Hawk AJTs which were delivered to IAF without carrying out proper tests of equipments in past to meet year end deadlines. SP-1 which will be Serial production aircraft and will be used by Indian air force to carry out it own user trials which will be delivered by end of this year, but SP-1 has already suffered delays due to problems which surfaced in earlier aircrafts of fuel leaks and changes which need to be carried out on ejections systems which grounded whole fleet for more than 3 months.
DRDO for first time voiced concerns of Tejas Production line, terming it a 3rd Generation production line which HAL has been using to manufacture a 4th Generation fighter aircraft. Recent media reports have also raised concerns about the quality of the Tejas manufactured by the HAL. IAF had first placed orders for 8 LSP Tejas aircraft in 2003, Initially HAL failed to setup a production line for Tejas aircrafts which delayed the whole program by three years and it took HAL few more years to deliver 7 aircrafts (LSP-6 done delivered yet).
HAL has a firm orders for 40 Tejas MK-1 aircrafts from IAF, which were split orders of 20 a batch, first Batch (SP-1 to SP-20) will be based on IOC configuration and the second batch (SP-21 to SP-40) will be based on FOC configuration, but achieving FOC for Tejas MK-1 will not be easy task, since it will have to achieve higher angle of attack (AOA) from present 22 , and also needs to fix issues related to engine which it faced in high altitude trials . But the major task will be to clear Air to Air mode for the aircraft which includes successful test of BVR and WVR missiles against simulated targets. Any delay in achieving FOC will delay production of second batch of Tejas MK-1 ordered aircraft, which will take whole delivery schedule beyond 2018.
While inaugurating the 37th Directors Conference of DRDO Defence Minister AK Antony has asked the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) not to extend the date of final operational clearance of indigenous Tejas light combat aircraft beyond 2014. Is Defence Minister AK Antony hinting that the Project will be delayed again and another deadline will be missed?
It was on 31st March 2013, that LSP-8 made it first flight, HAL in media reports have informed that High speed taxi trials of the aircrafts were avoided since flight crew were confident on the aircraft, but people familiar with workings of the HAL, informed us that it was done to avoiding getting slammed by MOD and Auditor general in failure of HAL to deliver single Tejas aircraft for 2012-13 financial year. Since last aircraft which took to air (LSP-7) was also in last March.
Sources have told idrw.org that HAL has done similar stunts even with Hawk AJTs which were delivered to IAF without carrying out proper tests of equipments in past to meet year end deadlines. SP-1 which will be Serial production aircraft and will be used by Indian air force to carry out it own user trials which will be delivered by end of this year, but SP-1 has already suffered delays due to problems which surfaced in earlier aircrafts of fuel leaks and changes which need to be carried out on ejections systems which grounded whole fleet for more than 3 months.
DRDO for first time voiced concerns of Tejas Production line, terming it a 3rd Generation production line which HAL has been using to manufacture a 4th Generation fighter aircraft. Recent media reports have also raised concerns about the quality of the Tejas manufactured by the HAL. IAF had first placed orders for 8 LSP Tejas aircraft in 2003, Initially HAL failed to setup a production line for Tejas aircrafts which delayed the whole program by three years and it took HAL few more years to deliver 7 aircrafts (LSP-6 done delivered yet).
HAL has a firm orders for 40 Tejas MK-1 aircrafts from IAF, which were split orders of 20 a batch, first Batch (SP-1 to SP-20) will be based on IOC configuration and the second batch (SP-21 to SP-40) will be based on FOC configuration, but achieving FOC for Tejas MK-1 will not be easy task, since it will have to achieve higher angle of attack (AOA) from present 22 , and also needs to fix issues related to engine which it faced in high altitude trials . But the major task will be to clear Air to Air mode for the aircraft which includes successful test of BVR and WVR missiles against simulated targets. Any delay in achieving FOC will delay production of second batch of Tejas MK-1 ordered aircraft, which will take whole delivery schedule beyond 2018.