For now, this is the most recent information.
Navy A Step Closer To Getting Its Own Rafales, France Sends Detailed Bid
The Indian Navy is now one step closer to getting Rafale fighter jets to operate off the deck of its aircraft carriers, INS Vikrant and INS Vikramaditya.
www.ndtv.com
He didn't mention Vikramaditya.
Anyway, with 50% deployment rate, as per the Chief, moving Mig-29Ks away from Vikrant would mean we get 100% availability for Vikramaditya.
One squadron is what IN is looking at to give training in deck landing.
It meets the requirements for training and combat air patrol. It's only not suitable for carrying a large payload for strike. So 2 tanks and 4 AAMs; recce pods. That's about it. And, without folding wings, it has almost the same level of performance as the air force version, and that makes it better than Mig-29K in some areas, like G performance.
We are not getting any two-seat Rafales, so it's being compensated for with N-LCA. The jet will be able to simulate the Rafale, TEDBF and Mig-29K.
It will operate from all three carriers. NP-5 was the first production variant, it underwent first flight in August this year.
Maiden flight of LCA naval trainer NP5 successful in Karnataka
BENGALURU: The Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Naval Trainer Prototype NP5 successfully completed its maiden flight on Friday. The aircraft, which took off from HAL
It acts as a bridge between LCA and TEDBF for carrier aviation.
Huge achievement, don't you think? We quite literally took a Mirage III/2000 class jet and put it on a carrier.
You didn’t give any reference to the claim. NP-5 is part of the original development approved a decade ago. Navy said they will allow ADA to complete the development. Thats all there is happening no other sign as you imply.It meets the requirements for training and combat air patrol. It's only not suitable for carrying a large payload for strike. So 2 tanks and 4 AAMs; recce pods. That's about it. And, without folding wings, it has almost the same level of performance as the air force version, and that makes it better than Mig-29K in some areas, like G performance.
We are not getting any two-seat Rafales, so it's being compensated for with N-LCA. The jet will be able to simulate the Rafale, TEDBF and Mig-29K.
It will operate from all three carriers. NP-5 was the first production variant, it underwent first flight in August this year.
Maiden flight of LCA naval trainer NP5 successful in Karnataka
BENGALURU: The Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Naval Trainer Prototype NP5 successfully completed its maiden flight on Friday. The aircraft, which took off from HALwww.newindianexpress.com
It acts as a bridge between LCA and TEDBF for carrier aviation.
Huge achievement, don't you think? We quite literally took a Mirage III/2000 class jet and put it on a carrier.
The point of that article is to highlight the fact that it's a production model. Which means, it's ready for serial production and induction for operational use on a carrier. Which means, we are successful. Whether we buy it or not doesn't matter, it's been brought to operational standards, it's not just a TD.
Now inducting it is just a matter of decision. HAL is pushing for it, and the IN has shown interest, especially 'cause they have always thought of inducting the N-LCA for shore-based training, if it fails on the carrier. Now they get both. Training and transitioning pilots will now become far easier than if they jumped from a land-based Hawk directly into a TEDBF or Rafale.
It was always been production standard model. It means the program is complete not that it will be ordered. As i said, navy want them to complete the development so that it will assist in TEDBF program.
Navy didn’t show any official interest. Correct me if im wrong. Its just wishful thinking.
From 2016 annual report.
Navy officially ditched the program after few years.
The IN ditched N-LCA as a carrier fighter, even Mk2. A trainer requirement was still there, pending the flight testing of NP-5 (a trainer), which happened just a few months ago.
In any case, Picdel was of the belief that it's practically impossible for India to develop a carrier jet at this time, questioning ADA's ability to develop TEDBF, never mind the even harder job of converting LCA for carrier ops, hence his comment: "I don't believe you." in #2001. It's quite a feat actually. It is even capable of ATOL.
So a message has been sent that ADA has mastered all the capabilities required for STOBAR ops. And to Dassault, it would mean there's a new carrier-capable competitor to the Rafale, even if it's STOBAR. And to America, it means there's a country around that can build and sell a carrier and an entire air complement to any other country on the cheap, like Brazil or Indonesia.
I never said that, I just thought that IN no longer wanted a single-engine aircraft for safety reasons.
you are correct but only for training purpose, just like Goshawk of USN, IN wants to operate N-LCA as a trainer only.
BTW, congrats for another 26 Rafale and additional 3 Scorpene subs.
In fact, I find it hard to understand why safety is important for embarked fighters, but not for trainer aircraft.
Training is done close to coast. In Sea Harriers we used to fly non diversionary even beyond 500 NM from coast. Normally for flying beyond 500 NM from any available nearest diversion airfield, Navies prefer twin engine fighters.
I have never seen any official saying NLCA can be a candidate to fill the trainer requirement.
They are specifically ordering airforce twin seater Rafale and we already have enough Mig-29KUBs. Their current training structure is Hawk -> KUB -> K. Which will continue.
Hawk is for Naval Orientation training (NOT). When we pass out from AFA, we undergo training in Navy to learn to fly over sea which is extremely demanding as we have ground features available over ground to judge our height and land features for navigation but its all water all around over sea. After the NOT, we go for higher performance aircraft training to IAF on Migs. After getting trained in flying high performance aircraft, naval Aviators convert to the final aircraft. Like in my case , I flew Hunters with IAF 20 Sqn before converting to Sea Harriers. Than I flew Chetak choppers to learn hovering and finally converted to Sea Harriers. In case of Mig-29K, we have a trainer but that takes a lot of flying hours from the KUB to train pilots. N-LCA will help us reduce this time to go to Deck as the time for final conversion to main aircraft will get drastically reduced as we will not be required to send our pilots to IAF for training on high performance aircraft training. We will do it in house and also teach the pilots deck landing.
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Okay, but I remember you saying that we will fail with TEDBF. That we won't meet the desired specs and within the timeline suggested.