Pictures of Naval LCA - First Supersonic Flight

[Indo-guy]

Livefist

Chanced upon these photos that I hadn't seen before -- not sure if any of you have. The first prototype of India's carrier-borne STOBAR fighter, the LCA Navy, quietly completed a supersonic flight in late March this year, with official word about the flight filtering out only the following month. It went supremely unreported. No surprise that the LCA-N team didn't want too much hoopla over the event. The NP1 prototype had flown just four sorties since its maiden flight in April 2012, and had been grounded for a major re-engineering of its landing gear (through a consultancy with Airbus Group) for nearly two years since. The team quietly worked towards the March flight in which the NP1 cruised at 1.1 Mach with an air force Tejas in chase. More details soon.

 

[OrionHunter]

I'll open the Champagne bottle once they become fully ops! Till then I'll just enjoy the pictures!

 

[Koovie]

So where will we use these planes?

Mig 29K`s are superior to them and are operational on the Vikramaditya and the Vikrant will use them too, right?

And any carrier after the Vikrant will use 4.5 gen fighters and above like the naval Rafale or even a naval variant of the FGFA.

 

[sancho]

So where will we use these planes?

This specific one (MK1), only in Goa for test flights, since it's a tech demonstrator version only, for basic development and testing of navalisation changes. IN will only the MK2 varients for their carrier, which has mainly pride reasons and not operational once.

 

[trident2010]

Good news !!

 

[Mr.S.Singh]

So where will we use these planes?

Mig 29K`s are superior to them and are operational on the Vikramaditya and the Vikrant will use them too, right?

And any carrier after the Vikrant will use 4.5 gen fighters and above like the naval Rafale or even a naval variant of the FGFA.

My guess is out of three AC, these would take place in IAC-1 untill suitable replacements are found, they would also be reserved forces held by IN incase of front line MIGs or Rafael Navy go to garage. I think Navy would build more bases and accommodate Tejas on Land

 

[Koovie]

My guess is out of three AC, these would take place in IAC-1 untill suitable replacements are found, they would also be reserved forces held by IN incase of front line MIGs or Rafael Navy go to garage. I think Navy would build more bases and accommodate Tejas on Land

I doubt that the Vikrant will use Tejas as their fighter arm.
It will use Mig 29Ks.

It would not even make too much sense to use them, because the IN has planes with better capabilities.

 

[Mr.S.Singh]

I doubt that the Vikrant will use Tejas as their fighter arm.
It will use Mig 29Ks.

It would not even make too much sense to use them, because the IN has planes with better capabilities.

it about building up a force, right now we have 3 AC's ... 41 Mig 29K have been ordered ... Rafael Navy isnt confirmed .. how will you arm the rest AC ?? Even if Rafael's are bough .. LCA naval version will be used on rotational bases on the 3 AC's. They may also go for addition AC's god know..

 

[Storm Force]

This project is pointless since mig29 is far more potent and useful air asset.beyond 2020 we need a fifth option not a tejas which is 25 years too late and too limited in range and payload for carrier operations

 

[Zhukov]

Nothing more then a Tech Demonstrator.
BTW it looks more beautiful then the land based version.

 

[GORKHALI]

Well those who talking about we can have Rafale and aa we got miggy on vikis then where we going to fit LCA,well an indigenous carrier plane is not at all a bad idea.As simply can't put all our faith on Imported maal.Specially Russians,Navy hardly got any faith on them during crisis as Russians always sell their Spare parts as gold standard when they see customer is in trouble.My own experince with URAL and KRAZ trucks,thank god India forcefully replaced their Fuel Guzzler engines with Krilsokar engines.

 

[Skillrex]

i have a question. in pic 2 and 3 . there is no second pilot .. so can a twin seater fly without its 2nd pilot ?

 

[Koovie]

it about building up a force, right now we have 3 AC's ... 41 Mig 29K have been ordered ... Rafael Navy isnt confirmed .. how will you arm the rest AC ?? Even if Rafael's are bough .. LCA naval version will be used on rotational bases on the 3 AC's. They may also go for addition AC's god know..

It will take years until the the Vikrant becomes operational, it will take many more years until the Vishal becomes operational and it will take many many more years until the 3rd carrier becomes operational. By that time technology will have advanced even further, the IN will have a bigger budget and much much much better alternatives to a naval Tejas

 

[FunkyGen]

Good job, what about your tank btw?

 

[sancho]

Specially Russians,Navy hardly got any faith on them during crisis as Russians always sell their Spare parts as gold standard when they see customer is in trouble.

But the important point is, THEY SELL EVEN IN CRISIS, so the higher costs they ask in such situations is still worth it, because we can keep our Russian arms in operation, while western counterparts must be grounded by the lack of spares.

i have a question. in pic 2 and 3 . there is no second pilot .. so can a twin seater fly without its 2nd pilot ?

Yes, it's basically meant for training and both seats usually are identical to operate the fighter by the new pilot or his trainer.

It will take years until the the Vikrant becomes operational, it will take many more years until the Vishal becomes operational and it will take many many more years until the 3rd carrier becomes operational. By that time technology will have advanced even further, the IN will have a bigger budget and much much much better alternatives to a naval Tejas

That's actually the funny part about it, the IAC 1 which N-LCA was aimed to, will be operational by 2017, the N-LCA Mk2 production can only start after the MK2 standard is developed and production of the air force version has started too, so beyond 2019. Till we have usefull numbers of the fighter and are confident enough for carrier operations with it, even more time will pass and IN will be limited to a few Migs only in the meantime. So when N-LCA MK2 might finally be available for service, IAC 2 or even a stealth fighter close for induction too, which also shows what a waste of time and money this is.