LCA Tejas Falls Short of Earlier Expectations

[sonicboom]

LCA Tejas Falls Short of Earlier Expectations

Nov 24, 2010
By Asia-Pacific Staff


As India’s homegrown Light Combat Aircraft (LCA Tejas) nears critical initial operational clearance next month, Indian air force officials say the aircraft will fail to meet performance requirements laid down by the service for the limited-profile Mk.1 platform.

According to an Indian air force source associated with the long-delayed indigenous fighter program, when the Tejas passes this milestone in December, it still will not be the fighter the air force had agreed to accept for limited squadron service. Performance specifications that the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) has not been able to attain include sustained turn rate, speed at low altitude, angle of attack and certain weapon delivery profiles. Exactly how far off the performance is from the specification remains classified.

The Tejas program has enlisted EADS to help expand the flight envelope to meet service requirements.

These shortfalls come on top of a thrust deficiency that necessitated the selection of a more powerful engine, General Electric’s F414-INS6, this year for a proposed Mk.2 version.

“We are still working to get the platform on track for initial operational clearance,” says an air force officer. “It appears the exercise of resolving certain performance parameters will spill over into the post-induction phase,” he notes. “There was a very committed effort toward envelope expansion, though we have fallen short in certain key specifications, which we will continue to work on.”

Former air force chief Srinivasapuram Krishnaswamy, who first pushed the idea of a limited induction of the homegrown fighter even if it did not fully meet service requirements, argues that the aircraft needs to be delivered without any further delay. “Once it is delivered, all outstanding issues can be ironed out and our pilots can get a chance to see what it is capable of. It is important to get it into service. That is the key.”

Initial deliveries of the aircraft early next year will be to the Indian air force’s Aircraft & Systems Testing Establishment in Bangalore, where the platforms will be tested before formal induction into squadron service for a year-long exercise in defining a role for the Tejas. The service has ordered 20 Tejas Mk.1 jets (and is processing an order for 20 more), powered by the GE F414-IN20 for two inaugural squadrons that will be established at peninsular air bases after the Aero India show in February.

The Tejas program has embarked on putting the ostensibly more capable Tejas Mk.2 on track, as well. An ADA team is optimizing the Tejas airframe for the F414 powerplant and has initiated studies on the aircraft’s proposed operational envelope, fluid dynamics studies of new components and analysis of new engine components. The team is also producing fresh numerical master geometry and inboard drawings, a new digital mock-up of the entire Mk.2, and a wind tunnel model in collaboration with the National Aerospace Laboratory.

The Tejas Mk.2 is scheduled to make its first flight in 2014, with full-rate production to follow two years later.

http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/gener...l&headline=LCA Tejas Falls Short of Earlier Expectations&channel=defense

[keysersoze]

Hmmmm how many years is it now? The thing better perform like a X-wing by the time it is operational.

[keysersoze]

At Rs 17k cr, Tejas cost zooms 3000%
Rajat Pandit, TNN, Nov 21, 2010, 02.01am IST

NEW DELHI: India will spend Rs 17,269 crore in the overall developmental programme of Tejas light combat aircraft, which was first approved in 1983 at a cost of Rs 560 crore to replace aging MiG-21s. This represents an almost 3000% jump, as per revised "sanctioned costs" of the entire Tejas programme, including the fighter's naval variant, which will run till December 2018. IAF pilots are, of course, still forced to fly virtually obsolete MiGs since Tejas is yet to be inducted. Latest figures also show each of the first 40 Tejas fighters will cost around Rs 150 crore, over and above the huge developmental cost.

This comes even as defence minister A K Antony this week assured parliamentary consultative committee on defence that long-delayed Tejas will finally get its "initial operational clearance" in December. The "final operational clearance" is slated for December 2012. While Tejas' per unit cost compares favourably with similar fighters like Gripen ( Sweden), its developmental cost — coupled with the fact that it has already been 27 years in the making — is way too high.

Tejas, incidentally, has clocked around 1,420 flights with 10 prototypes till date. Its FSED (full-scale engineering development) Phase-I till March 2004 cost Rs 2,188 crore. The Phase-II, to be completed by December 2012, will cost another Rs 5,778 crore. To add to that, there is fabrication of two Tejas Mark-II, with alternate engines, to be completed by Dec 2018 for Rs 2,432 crore, along with development of indigenous technologies for Rs 396 crore. Naval Tejas FSED Phase-I, in turn, is to be completed by Dec 2014 for Rs 1,715 crore, with Phase-II slated for completion by December 2018 for another Rs 1,921 crore.

Tejas will, of course, also be powered by American GE engines, with its indigenous Kaveri engine floundering despite Rs 2,839 crore being spent on its development since 1989. Towards this, India recently finalised a $822-million deal for 99 GE F-414 engines. While the first 20 Tejas for IAF will be powered by GE-404 engines, next six Mark-II squadrons will have the more powerful GE F-414 engines.


Read more: At Rs 17k cr, Tejas cost zooms 3000% - The Times of India At Rs 17k cr, Tejas cost zooms 3000% - The Times of India

[vinod2070]

All these uninformed articles talking of X% cost escalations and Y% delays are writen by amateurs who don't know how the program was conceived and what was it's original purpose and scope.

As for the Pakistanis, I repeat. First create a 60 CC moped engine successfully. )

[Lady Macbeth]

Originally Posted by vinod2070

All these uninformed articles talking of X% cost escalations and Y% delays are writen by amateurs who don't know how the program was conceived and what was it's original purpose and scope.

I am not one to indulge in talks of 'Arms and Ammo' but a humble request to our dear V here......kindly enlighten us to the "original purpose and scope" of the object in question......is it one of those multi purpose thingee majigs that fly over unchartered territory at 2000mph, shoot some godforsaken bazookas at the red ants in my back garden, land at mars and the moon within a matter of minutes....all the while delivering ice cold lemonade and crispy onion Bhajees to the VIPs at the Dehli Dhaaba?

[vinod2070]

^^ AV had given these details earlier.

Bengaluru, Feb. 2: The IAF, long ridiculed as one of the world’s biggest air forces that has never flown its own indigenous fighters, could be flying a squadron of Tejas Light Combat Aircraft by the end of the year.
The defence minister, Mr A.K. Anthony, declared on Tuesday that the indigenous aircraft, the world’s smallest multi-role fighter “will certainly get the Initial Operational Clearance (IOC) by the end of 2010”.
In January, the Cabinet Committee on Security allocated Rs 8,000 crore for production of the air force version of the LCA and for the development of the naval version and the trainer, clearly indicating that there was now no doubt at the highest decision-making levels about the success of the project.
Tejas — long criticised as being too late, too expensive – was first conceived some 27 years ago. It began as a technology demonstrator project in 1993 and was subsequently cleared for development as a multi-role fighter in 2001.
Nearly, all trials have been completed in some 1,290 flights.
Mr P. S. Subramanyam, the man spearheading the development of Tejas, said, “Only the Multi-Mode Radar needs to be flown on Tejas, and that we will do this month”.
Mr Antony’s championship of the indigenous military technology has also seen DRDO notch up a Rs 4,000 crore IAF order to supply it six squadrons of Akash air defence missile systems, in addition to the two squadrons it already has and against stiff competition from the Israeli Spyder system.
just wanted to post something in this spicy discussion where members have failed to understand simple english words as CONCEIVED, TECHNOLOGY DEMONSTRATOR AND DEVELOPMENT

PLEASE stress on the highlighted words to clear all the misinformation thats being thrusted upon many

On for 27 yrs, chronically delayed LCA project gets Rs 8,000 crore more

One needs to understand that the LCA that we have now is a different beast compared to what was conceived all that time back.

[vinod2070]

Duplicate.