Q)
On 4 January 2001, LCA’s maiden flight successfully completed by Technology Demonstrator TD-1 marking a major milestone in India’s indigenous combat aircraft programme. Over the last 20 years, LCA has marked significant achievements overcoming various challenges. How do you look at the last two decades and how far has the LCA programme reached?
The last 20 years have been a golden phase not only for LCA but for the whole Aerospace Ecosystem in India. The flight of LCA TD-1 in 2001 was India’s big leap in modern combat aircraft development. In TD-1 some particularly important technologies like Digital Fly by Wire, Unstable Aerodynamics, Composite Structures, Advanced Avionics, etc were being tested for the first time.
From the initial flights where various capabilities were proven progressively, today LCA has developed into a very potent weapon platform which shall form the backbone of the Indian Airforce.
The aircraft envelope has been expanded to its full FOC capability, numerous weapons have been integrated and the platform has become a pilot’s delight. With the successful development of LCA, the country has now mastered the key aerospace technologies to design future modern combat aircraft in the country.
The carriage of Beyond Visual Range (BVR) missiles and ASRAAM missiles for long range as well as short range operations is planned in LCA Mk. 1A in addition to prevailing store configurations to increase offensive capability.
Q )
Could you elaborate on the plans to upgrade the weapons capability and advanced technologies of LCA Mk. 1A? What is the present status of the Mk. 1A project?
One of the key features of LCA is the ease of integrating new weapons and sensors compared to an imported platform. Since the Aerodynamics, Flight Control laws and software, the Avionics and Weapon control algorithms and software are all indigenous, the complete knowledge about these is available within the country.
This makes integration of imported (both Western and Russian) as well as indigenous weapons and sensors quite easy.
Additionally, the complete capabilities of these systems can be extracted from the platform through suitable design of the software.
Thus, all future weapons which are feasible to be carried on LCA are being planned to be integrated.
In Mk1A, the AESA Radar is planned to be integrated along with a podded EW suite. In addition, the Avionics and Flight Control Computers are significantly upgraded to incorporate even more advanced features.
Q)
The FOC variants of LCA getting ready for delivery/flight are loaded with updated software to meet the operational requirements of Indian Air Force (IAF). Could you share the latest developments?
The FOC aircraft are enabled with the full flight envelope along with air to air refueling. Many new weapons are enabled on the FOC aircraft. In addition, an advanced autopilot and full carefree maneuvering capability is available on the FOC aircraft.
Moreover other than air to air refuelling all the other capabilities are also planned to be integrated on the IOC aircraft with suitable software updates.
Q)
Increasing the annual production of LCA to meet the requirements of IAF is a major concern and there has been push for increasing the pace of production. What are your thoughts on it?
The pace of production of the LCA aircraft is being ramped up rapidly. Two assembly lines are operational. HAL has outsourced many of the major sub assemblies to private industries which shall help in increasing the rate of production.
In the beginning there was a learning curve in production as we were making a modern indigenous aircraft for the first time (as against licensed production where the production techniques are well established). Now we are beyond the learning curve and with the stabilized processes, the rate of production is picking up considerably.
Q)
LCA Tejas is acclaimed as the lightest and smallest multi-role supersonic fighter aircraft. With the IAF too looking to induct LCA on a large scale how will it increase India’s air power and how does LCA outweigh its rivals in this segment?
Tejas is a nimble, highly maneuverable, light, multi-role fighter which has demonstrated its capabilities successfully in various IAF exercises. It is an exceptionally good air defence fighter and compares with the best in the world in its class. In numbers, it can meet the complete air defence capabilities of the country. It affords additional flexibility due to its multirole capability of carrying both missiles and bombs as well as air to air refueling capability.
Q) What are the updates on Tejas Mk. 2 project? How will the proposed fighter be a gamechanger for India?
Through the development of LCA all the technologies for design of a 4+ generation modern combat aircraft have been mastered in the country. Tejas Mk. 2 is an aircraft where these matured technologies are consolidated in a bigger, even more potent platform with significantly higher range, endurance and weapon carrying capability. While LCA was a replacement for MiG-21 class of aircraft for air defence, Tejas Mk. 2 will be a replacement for the strike aircraft like Mirage 2000, MiG-29, and Jaguar. However, technologically it will be a much superior platform compared the ones it will replace.
Moreover, since all the technologies are already proven, the development has no risk of time and cost escalation (as against in LCA where technologies had to be developed concurrently with the operational platform)
_________________________________________________
Interview with ADA Chief
Dr Girish Deodhare
On 4 January 2001, LCA’s maiden flight successfully completed by Technology Demonstrator TD-1 marking a major milestone in India’s indigenous combat aircraft programme. Over the last 20 years, LCA has marked significant achievements overcoming various challenges. How do you look at the last two decades and how far has the LCA programme reached?
The last 20 years have been a golden phase not only for LCA but for the whole Aerospace Ecosystem in India. The flight of LCA TD-1 in 2001 was India’s big leap in modern combat aircraft development. In TD-1 some particularly important technologies like Digital Fly by Wire, Unstable Aerodynamics, Composite Structures, Advanced Avionics, etc were being tested for the first time.
From the initial flights where various capabilities were proven progressively, today LCA has developed into a very potent weapon platform which shall form the backbone of the Indian Airforce.
The aircraft envelope has been expanded to its full FOC capability, numerous weapons have been integrated and the platform has become a pilot’s delight. With the successful development of LCA, the country has now mastered the key aerospace technologies to design future modern combat aircraft in the country.
The carriage of Beyond Visual Range (BVR) missiles and ASRAAM missiles for long range as well as short range operations is planned in LCA Mk. 1A in addition to prevailing store configurations to increase offensive capability.
Q )
Could you elaborate on the plans to upgrade the weapons capability and advanced technologies of LCA Mk. 1A? What is the present status of the Mk. 1A project?
One of the key features of LCA is the ease of integrating new weapons and sensors compared to an imported platform. Since the Aerodynamics, Flight Control laws and software, the Avionics and Weapon control algorithms and software are all indigenous, the complete knowledge about these is available within the country.
This makes integration of imported (both Western and Russian) as well as indigenous weapons and sensors quite easy.
Additionally, the complete capabilities of these systems can be extracted from the platform through suitable design of the software.
Thus, all future weapons which are feasible to be carried on LCA are being planned to be integrated.
In Mk1A, the AESA Radar is planned to be integrated along with a podded EW suite. In addition, the Avionics and Flight Control Computers are significantly upgraded to incorporate even more advanced features.
Q)
The FOC variants of LCA getting ready for delivery/flight are loaded with updated software to meet the operational requirements of Indian Air Force (IAF). Could you share the latest developments?
The FOC aircraft are enabled with the full flight envelope along with air to air refueling. Many new weapons are enabled on the FOC aircraft. In addition, an advanced autopilot and full carefree maneuvering capability is available on the FOC aircraft.
Moreover other than air to air refuelling all the other capabilities are also planned to be integrated on the IOC aircraft with suitable software updates.
Q)
Increasing the annual production of LCA to meet the requirements of IAF is a major concern and there has been push for increasing the pace of production. What are your thoughts on it?
The pace of production of the LCA aircraft is being ramped up rapidly. Two assembly lines are operational. HAL has outsourced many of the major sub assemblies to private industries which shall help in increasing the rate of production.
In the beginning there was a learning curve in production as we were making a modern indigenous aircraft for the first time (as against licensed production where the production techniques are well established). Now we are beyond the learning curve and with the stabilized processes, the rate of production is picking up considerably.
Q)
LCA Tejas is acclaimed as the lightest and smallest multi-role supersonic fighter aircraft. With the IAF too looking to induct LCA on a large scale how will it increase India’s air power and how does LCA outweigh its rivals in this segment?
Tejas is a nimble, highly maneuverable, light, multi-role fighter which has demonstrated its capabilities successfully in various IAF exercises. It is an exceptionally good air defence fighter and compares with the best in the world in its class. In numbers, it can meet the complete air defence capabilities of the country. It affords additional flexibility due to its multirole capability of carrying both missiles and bombs as well as air to air refueling capability.
Q) What are the updates on Tejas Mk. 2 project? How will the proposed fighter be a gamechanger for India?
Through the development of LCA all the technologies for design of a 4+ generation modern combat aircraft have been mastered in the country. Tejas Mk. 2 is an aircraft where these matured technologies are consolidated in a bigger, even more potent platform with significantly higher range, endurance and weapon carrying capability. While LCA was a replacement for MiG-21 class of aircraft for air defence, Tejas Mk. 2 will be a replacement for the strike aircraft like Mirage 2000, MiG-29, and Jaguar. However, technologically it will be a much superior platform compared the ones it will replace.
Moreover, since all the technologies are already proven, the development has no risk of time and cost escalation (as against in LCA where technologies had to be developed concurrently with the operational platform)
_________________________________________________
Interview with ADA Chief
Dr Girish Deodhare
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