Supersonic Tejas - A Review

[Srinivas]

Supersonic Tejas​

Achieving speed of Mach 1.6, equivalent of 1,699 kilometers per hour, light combat aircraft (LCA) Tejas is India’s first indigenous supersonic, light weight fighter aircraft. There has been no looking back ever since the LCA took its maiden test flight on January 4, 2001.
By Vantika Dixit

Achieving speed of Mach 1.6, equivalent of 1,699 kilometers per hour, light combat aircraft (LCA) Tejas is India’s first indigenous supersonic, light weight fighter aircraft designed and developed by Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) as its prime partner under the Ministry of Defence. The supersonic fighter is expected to get initial operational clearance by December 2010 and the final operational clearance by December 2012. There has been no looking back ever since the LCA took its maiden test flight on January 4, 2001.

Powered by gas turbine engine, the LCA Tejas is an advance technology, single seat, single engine, supersonic, light weight, all weather, multiple role air superior fighter aircraft. The LCA features tailless compound delta planform with relaxed static stability, fly-by-wire flight control system, advanced digital cockpit with elimination of all the mechanical gauges, multimode radar, and all digital avionics system. The aircraft can perform state-of-the-art electronic warfare (Ew) jobs which can identify the enemy radiations and jam them with strong burn-through capabilities. There are variants of LCA Tejas meant for different requirements. LCA Trainer is a two seater trainer used for training purposes. LCA Trainer PV5 is already fabricated and took its maiden flight on November 26, 2009.

“Before ADA started developing the LCA, no indigenous alternative was available with India. The country felt the need for indigenous development of fighter aircraft mainly from the defence point of view and utilization of technological capability available in-house. As a result, in 1983, the government approved the initiation of the LCA program with a seed money of Rs 560 crore towards preparation of project proposal for full scale engineering development. The government split the complete development program into two phases: Technology demonstrator phase which was approved in April 1993, and the prototype development phase, which got approved in November 2001. Configuration of the aircraft was finalized in 2004, ” explains Program Director PS Subramanyam, who is also director of ADA.

LCA Tejas has been primarily built for the air defence role which is for area defence. It is also used for escort missions, in the air-to-ground roles and interdiction. The aircraft also can perform air-to-air and air-to-sea roles. LCA Tejas is modified to derive a Naval variant for Indian Navy. The Navy variant will be capable of operation from a carrier ship at sea. The trainer version of LCA navy, LCA NP1 is already under fabrication. “The Naval version has to be designed to cater the stringent requirements of vision, approach angle, landing gear loads, ski jump take off, and landing at shorter length. The Naval version will have stronger landing gear, arrester hook system, and drooped nose section for better cockpit vision during deck landing. It will have fuel dump system and an advanced control feature of leading edge vortex control for better landing performance,” says Subramanyam. The Naval version of LCA is expected to make its first flight in 2010.

The LCA Tejas is tested thoroughly in each stage. Test rigs/simulators are established and each system is tested individually and cohesively before it is integrated into the aircraft. The IAF has placed an order for 20 aircrafts with 16 fighters and four trainers. Further order has been initiated for 16 more fighters and four trainers. These series production aircrafts are planned to be delivered in the first quarter of 2011 for induction by the IAF. The first squadron is likely to be set up at Sulur, near Coimbatore. The present expenditure is more than Rs 5,000 crore with nearly 100 major work centers and 300 smaller work centers engaged in the development of LCA Tejas. Government has approved additional Rs 8, 000 crore for developing higher derivatives of the Tejas aircraft. The development cost of Tejas is now being shared by the IAF and Indian Navy also. Developing a technologically advanced fighter aircraft has led ADA to also take up the development of an autonomous unmanned research aircraft (AURA) and an advanced medium combat aircraft (AMCA) to add to India’s might, and pride.

Vantika Dixit is Senior Assistant Editor of Technology Review India edition.

Supersonic Tejas - Technology Review

 

[BlueDot_in_Space]

Old article

 

[rashtriya.rifles]

so many articles floating around and not one mentioning a concrete date by which it will be getting a FOC !!
these articles means cr@p without that date... !!!!

 

[Darth Vader]

maiden test flight on January 4, 2001
and now its 2013 and still prototype

 

[Ayush]

When will you come tejas??

 

[AADHAAR]

India gives FOC only when the any weapon system, be it ships or aircrafts, are fully equipped with trained pilots, operational combat stategies drafted and incorporated in the IAF (or IN's in case of ships) doctrine.

Some of our "neighbours" declare "FOC" first time a plane manages to lift off the ground.. and in the end, the plane is due for retirement before it ever got anywhere close to being fit for war.

There is a difference between inducting weapon systems for display in parades .. and weapon systems inducted for actual war operations.

 

[Dandpatta]

can the mods please put all Tejas threads into one? One too many..

 

[rashtriya.rifles]

India gives FOC only when the any weapon system, be it ships or aircrafts, are fully equipped with trained pilots, operational combat stategies drafted and incorporated in the IAF (or IN's in case of ships) doctrine.

Some of our "neighbours" declare "FOC" first time a plane manages to lift off the ground.. and in the end, the plane is due for retirement before it ever got anywhere close to being fit for war.

There is a difference between inducting weapon systems for display in parades .. and weapon systems inducted for actual war operations.

although your parade thing is true for some of our neighbours but lets not digress from the topic.. First prototype of LCA flew in 2001 and FOC slated for 2015 for MK-I and 2018 for MK-II ? Why so much time ?

It sounds as if you are waiting for a toddler to grow up and learn physics and apply it.. and prior to 2001, they have had a whole lot of time to study the basics theoretically..
And the radar, that was never impounded by US after pokhran tests ? The fcuk is the status of it ? I heard they are still crying to get the Elta-2032 for it ..

In short, I must say HAL sucks big time !

 

[Backbencher]

Relax guys . When we have waited so long for this beast to take its shape then 1 or 2 years of delay wont matter .
The fact of the matter is its specs look quite impressive and above all it will book Indias place in the history .

 

[faithfulguy]

Indian people are the most patient people in the world. In any other countries, this kind of failed project would be cancelled long time ago.

 

[scarcry]

Indian people are the most patient people in the world. In any other countries, this kind of failed project would be cancelled long time ago.

Thats why 0 tejas crash.

 

[AADHAAR]

Indian people are the most patient people in the world. In any other countries, this kind of failed project would be cancelled long time ago.

Well, Indians lose their patience with something J-10 too early .... one or two crashes; there goes J-10 into the dustbin.

PLAAF has exhibited marvellous "patience" with J-10.

 

[faithfulguy]

At least China can get a plane flying. They even help your best friend Pakistan build a plane. Indian projects are a continuous redefine of specs and requirements. That is why an Indian project is never completed. Two years ago, LCA was suppose to be inducted by 2013. Now its 2015. Maybe you guys can get PAKFA first as its designed by Russians.

http://www.defence.pk/forums/indian...-ready-iaf-induction-march-2012-k-antony.html

Here is AK Antony in Aug 2011 stated that LCA would be ready by Mar 2012.

Just curious, does India have an high altitude test facility yet?

 

[rashtriya.rifles]

please don't reply to the dumbfuck chinese members here.. Forget about their J-10s, take anything from their high speed metros to SLBM testing to anything under construction.. much more labourers die due to negligence there than here in India..

over 270 people got injured in shanghai metro and in a separate incident 5 people got killed .. and this is the first google search i made.. there will be lots more..

In contrast no of deaths in Delhi metro till date has been Zero ! and in construction phase of such a HUGE project only 3 labours died and that too when construction contracts were handed out to private groups..

Their SLBM exploded inside their own submarine while they were testing it.. LMAO how pathetic can be that ? Their rocket crashed over a village where more than 500 people had died..

God knows how many J-10s fell from the sky just because their engines got hung when they tried to gain altitude too fast !

 

[kurup]

Indian people are the most patient people in the world. In any other countries, this kind of failed project would be cancelled long time ago.

And in some other countries , the same project would have been rename numerous times and introduced as a new one to satisfy their ego.