India's HAL 'Tejas' Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) redesign

[rajkhalsa]

Hi

Yesterday, the Production Variant (PV)-2 of the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. Tejas (meaning 'Radiance', and pronounced 'Tay-jazs', pronouncing the 'j' as a 'j' and not 'h' ), a huuge milestone in the LCA program.

This is a near-production design bulid of the Tejas, and as a testbed incorporates a significant number of avionics, materials and structural redesigns over the previous PV-1, and tech demonstrators TD-1 and -2.

Several more PV prototypes will enter service this year.

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Fourth generation of India's combat aircraft joins test-phase

Software-intensive fourth generation Light Combat Aircraft Tejas (second prototype vehicle), indigenously designed and developed by India, joined the test phase today with its maiden flight here.

Its maiden flight launched at 1010 hours was successful and met all flight test objectives, DRDO officials said.

Capability of Tejas aircraft as a flying platform, has been demonstrated with 474 flight tests carried out utilising two technology demonstrators and one Prototype Vehicle.

[...]

There is a "quantum jump" in the build standard of Tejas (PV2), which is software intensive fourth generation combat aircraft built to the production standard. Besides having high percentage of composite materials in Airframe Structure, it incorporates a state-of-the-art, integrated, modular avionics system with open architecture concepts to facilitate easy hardware and software upgrades and re-usability.

Avionics Systems of Tejas (PV2) provides excellent Pilot Vehicle Interface in glass cockpit having an all round panoramic view to reduce the pilot's workload and to increase the situational awareness.

The maiden flight of Tejas (PV2) is an extremely significant landmark in Indian Tejas full-scale engineering development programme. Flying and testing of this prototype will lead to induction of the first batch of production standard LCAs, Aeronautical Development Agency officials said.

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The Tejas program, after initial delays, is back on (really, aheadof ) course, and will initially enter the IAF fleet by 2008, and fullscale production by 2010, where it will eventually replace the role of the MiG-21 Bison. While intially delayed, the aircraft has been significantly upgraded in design, technology and potency, so when it does become inducted, it will be state-of-the-art.

It is the smallest, lightest multirole fighter in its class, and has the most % composite material makeup of any production fighter. This, plus its extremely small size, allows it to have a very low RCS, the TD-2 variant, which featured about half the composite material construction of the final design, apparently has about half the RCS of the Mirage 2000 in the IAF. The avionics, computers, etc. designed for the LCA are all Indian, have already been flight tested, as they make up much of the components on other aircraft, significantly the Su-30MKI, which benefited from the tech spin offs. It is designed to be very easily upgradable with new technologies.

The low weight but yet very strong composites also allow for a large thrust-to-weight ratio without compromizing on weapons payload. When the Kaveri engine, which is farther behind on design than the aircraft itself, will be inducted in the 2012 timeframe, it will allow the aircraft to be capable of supercruise. Till then, it will be powered by upgraded American GE F-404-IN engines.

The unique cranked-delta design, and the overall aircraft structure with significant wing-fuselage blending, etc. allows for incredible manoverability without the need for canards, which further reduces its RCS compared to similar aircraft, like the Gripen and the J-10. Interestingly, the LCA was initially designed with canards, but were later removed when the mastering of the wing design made for no significant handing improvements with canards. The Navalized version of the LCA, which will enter service on the indigenous ADS carrier in 2012 will incidently have small canards.

The operating cost of the Tejas will be extremely low, and the purchase cost only about $21 million per aircraft, upwards (downards?) of only 1/3 the cost of similarly potent aircraft, like the Gripen, Rafale and J-10, which are roughly in its class (though larger.)

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Here are some pics of the first flight of Prototype Vehicle-2 over Bangalore on 1 Dec 2005., with Wg Cdr Vikram Singh at the controls. It is in a bright yellow primer paint used for testing. The most noticible structural changes are the inclusion of an air inlet in the front of the tail, a slightly redesigned fin, and possibly redesigned undercarriage:










Meanwhile, PV-1 has been painted in the IAF low-viz grey scheme, and has been fitted with a weapons mockup:






^ a Tejas linup in the HAL, with PV-1 in the middle. (It was coated in primer before the grey paint)


Meanwhile, TDs-1 and -2 carry out a fly-by over the HAL-NFTC complex





And an older picture of PV-1 and the TDs, which shows their wing shape


And TD-1




Cheers,
Raj

[vryhpyammoadded]

Looks like a sweet little ride. From the top it sort of reminds me of a mini AVRO arrow. Nice plane.

[blackeagle238]

Looks a bit like a mix of the Arrow and Rafale. Nice pics.

[Alphonse]

Sweet ride, but India always manage to find the ****tiest colors to paint them with.

[rajkhalsa]

Yeah, they are pretty gaudy

It looks sweet in grey though

[ed316]

cool planes how do they stack up against the Modern ones around today?

[Hellfish]

Are these the same ones that will by flying off carriers?

[brigadeotg]

Are these the same ones that will by flying off carriers?

Same base design but will be configured specially for the carriers. These will be designated N-LCA (Or Naval LCA). The ones that are flying now are for the air force.

[Alphonse]

Yeah, they are pretty gaudy

It looks sweet in grey though

Yea, pretty effing gaudy.

It would look sweeet in an off-black color.

[rajkhalsa]

cool planes how do they stack up against the Modern ones around today?

It is a very modern jet in every sense of the word. I'm not playing up my words when I say it will be top of the line when it enters service.

It's been marred by a lot of bad press and even worse reporting, and by tremendous delays caused by post nuke test (now withdrawn) sanctions that had DRDO engineers scrambling to reinvent the wheel.

But the net result was a much better, if harder, learning experience and an aircraft that is almost totally indigenous, from design to avionics to materials. The LCA of then (delay) was a primitive 4th gen, and the LCA of now is a true 4th+ gen aircraft. The difference is between an F-16 block 15 and a block 60 (though the LCA's design is much more modern config that should hold up pretty well in the next 20-30 years.)


Right now, its weapons and avionics suite (already integrated on other IAF aircraft) are equal to or more capable than the Gripens, which probably is its closest equivilant.

The Gripen has slightly more powerful radar for now, however. The Tejas, even in its TD-2 demonstration model has a significantly lower radar signiature than the Gripen, according to IAF pilots who flew both types of aircraft, though in this PV-2 and in the actual production model, the %age of composites will be significantly increased.

The Tejas is supposedly handles better and will be more manoverable than the Gripen and Rafale (the latter which IAF pilots have extensive experience flying on and with, as it was an initial MRCA contender), according to those same pilots.

The engines of both the Tejas and Gripen and will be very similar.


The biggest advantage, though, is cost. Flyaway price of the Tejas is about 5 million bucks cheaper than the Gripen (plus much cheaper lifecycle costs in the Indian scenario against the Gripen), but at the same time will be an overall more capable and upgradable aircraft when it enters service.

It's really for this reason the Gripen isn't a serious MRCA contender. If the LCA program wasn't there, you'd probably be seeing Gripens replacing the Bisons in the IAF

[dedgod]

Yellow...

I mean what were they thinking...

[rajkhalsa]

It's a primer. It's probably painted grey now. Those test flights were literally the first ones right off the production line. As soon as the last nut was tightened, they slapped a coat of paint on it and took it for a joyride for the press

That other TD-1 was initially only coated in yellow primer, but was painted grey before its display

[brigadeotg]

Dude log,
The LCA is still in the test phase. They can slap a coat of pink for all I care. What does that tell you about the actual aircraft itself? Painting the aircraft with a coat of grey isn't going to turn the LCA into a super-duper combat aircraft. When the LCA is pronounced combat-ready then you all can whine about the color (If it still sports the yellow that is..)

[liberation]

The Indians cannot produce an AESA radar like the Ericsson NORA, so the LCA cannot compete with the Gripen regarding BVR engagements.

According to one aviation journalist the LCA, when equipped with the GE F402GE-400, has an inferior instantaneous turn rate to the F-16.

The LCA is handicapped by short range and very limited payload, just like the mediocre Ajeet of yester year.

Thus it is simply not a competitive fighter. India is better off concentrating on licence production of the SU-30, a much more capable aircraft.

[ENSIGN FOREVER]

The Indians cannot produce an AESA radar like the Ericsson NORA, so the LCA cannot compete with the Gripen regarding BVR engagements.

According to one aviation journalist the LCA, when equipped with the GE F402GE-400, has an inferior instantaneous turn rate to the F-16.

The LCA is handicapped by short range and very limited payload, just like the mediocre Ajeet of yester year.

Thus it is simply not a competitive fighter. India is better off concentrating on licence production of the SU-30, a much more capable aircraft.

Agree and Disagree.

Agree--India is far from being capable of producing an AESA. But it can always obtain a licensing agreement and make them.

Disagree--The TEJAS has an F404-IN20 with sufficient thrust for the strike mission. IMHO the KAVERI engine will not make the cut, but the development phase also provides invaluable experience and knowledge. I have no doubt that as production gets going the HAL engineers will find ways to cut weight.

Agree/Disagree--Range/Payload. Legs may not be long but that's what AAR is for, and the IAF is beggining to put up a nice fleet in that regard. TEJAS is not supposed to be a deep penetrator, but a light attack fighter thus its mission is battlefield interdiction (not CAS). As for limited payload.....PGM! All you need is one.

Agree--While the TEJAS project has provided invaluable experience to HAL, I would've bought a license unit of reasonable price that is modern and reliable: JAS-39. Unfortunately it also comes with the US engine and restrictions, but that's life.