The best thing about the tejas despite all the delays is its RCS.
Its one of the smallest fighters and would be very difficult to spot in a dogfight.
Its RCS for a non-stealthy platform is 0.5 sq m which is amongst the best in 4rth gen aircraft.This makes it a great ambush aircraft and takes over from the Mig-21 bisons in this role.
They achieved this in several ways apart from size.
1.Upper wing body blending reducing the corner reflections from the awacs radars searching from above,no corners formed when the flat wings get attached to cigar like fuselage in old fighters.This feature is only present in 4++ or 5gen fighters like rafale, sukhoi flankers,typhoon,f-22,f-35 and the new chinese and russian 5th gen prototypes.Even mirage 2000 ,J10 and jf17 do not have this feature.
2.Then there is the Y intake. Engine fan blades are one of the prominent sources of increasing radar cross section. This buried the jet engine inside the fuselage so no engine parts are visible and thus reduced visibility.
3.Canopy is coated with thin film of conductor of Indium tin oxide.
4.Most of all 90% of surface is made of composites with are radar wave resistant unlike all alumunium designs.Plus this reduces maintainence drastically as it has half the number of components of a mig,jaguar or mirage.
5.RAM coatings
Its wing loading too is very good,better than j-10 .It has an integrated OBOG system ,thus its quite suited for high altitude combat.TW ratio is 1.07 compared to j-10 1.15,but engine is a perennial weak point.
Main weaknesses are engine which should have more thrust(not going to happen until G-414 in mk2),production delays by HAL,very small operating range (500 km) will have to be mitigated by refuelling pod in mk1A,AoA issues due to tailless delta design largely solved,and with IRST and HOBS missiles like python -5. EW suite is good,radar is good.
I was never a fan of LCA and even called it failed a few years back,but i'm reading up on it and it had actually evolved into a solid aircraft at affordable price.Its RCS is its best selling point.Now our priority should be - Induct mk1 and mk1A as fast as possible,forget about more changes.Stabilize squadron strength first.From MK2 we need new G414 engine,preferably indigenenous AESA and better operational range.If it can incorporate more stealth features even better.
Overall in worst case scenario of 2 front war we can station the bulk of our tejas fleet in the west,supported by 2-3 squadrons of heavier air dominance aircraft,AWACS and S-400 it will defensively neutralize PAF over attempts to enter indian airspace.We can then throw in the mass of our heavier platforms against the chinese front where Tejas can play support role,and IAF will have advantage due to altitude handicaps and limited airbases in tibet. But most important thing now is to pump them out quickly.
