Tejas Mk.2 Build Begins

Finally, HAL has begun the process to build the first Tejas Mk.2 air force prototype, envisioned as a slightly larger but much more capable fighter than the floundering Tejas Mk.1. On November 19, HAL’s Aircraft Research & Design Centre (ARDC) floated the first of many requirements for raw materials — alloys and such — for the first Tejas Mk.2 (first pictures) prototype vehicle and other assemblies. More requirements will be put out over the next few weeks.

HAL is looking to put the Mk.2, powered by the General Electric F414-GE-INS6 turbofan engine, into the air in 2014. The highly anticipated Mk.2 programme will cost at least $542.44-million (Rs 2431.55-crore), comprising full scale engineering development. The IAF has put down an official requirement for 83 of the Mk.2s. Working on a detailed post on the Mk.2. No timeframe, though!

43 thoughts on “Tejas Mk.2 Build Begins”

  1. I do not intend to belittle the efforts of all parties involved in the development and production of the Tejas(entire program) but what is the point of the Tejas? Our main regional rival China has already developed the comparable J10 and its in been in service for a few years now, even Pakistan has begun flying JF 17 and has ordering J10's, our squadron numbers are at an all time low and the best we can do is hope that the Tejas Mk2 will fly by 2014 and the final pen on paper on the Rafale deal is still months away and god knows where the AMCA is. China is already testing J20 and another stealth aircraft and we are at our weakest just waiting and hoping for home grown projects to take off which already haven't done so in 30 odd years.

  2. ready,set,go..retire… will never see action.. will be a flop star.. .. with same story repeated.. ARDC employee is collection retirement pension by then.. taxpayer money wasted.. scrap it now.. and import it.. copy of mirage 2000.buy mirage factory from france will be cheaper.

    1. @ 4:54 may be because they are meant to be light:) but i also wanted a twin engined tejas.. For that a lot of design and parameters would them have to be changed.. Any ways lets hope for the best..

  3. why Hal west lot of time for 3.5 gen jet china-pak jet entered early and get operational but indi jet structural for dezine modification simply buy korian attack trainer t-50 and make tajas mk-3 mk-4 mk-5 ……

  4. This is excellent news. However, for expediency DRDO must give the manufacturing contract to an Indian private entities.

    HAL has a record of 'step-motherly' treatment to DRDO's projects — priority is accorded only to imported designs from Russia, France and elsewhere OR to its own in-house projects like IJT.

  5. All the best for the Tejas MK2 team. We should never give up and continue our research. We cannot believe what the chinese says, it was not easy for Russia/USA to build a stealth fighter, so we don't have to believe China. J-20 will be nothing more than prototype. It will take lot of years to see production, even it is in production, i don't believe that it will have better stealth than Rafale itself. Nobody can develop that much fast. Chinese products are not that reliable.

  6. Indeed a great news. Best of luck to HAL and its team. Finally IAF is going to induct indigenous product, expected lots of noise e.g. 3.5 gen for MK 1 etc etc. How many countries has actually created their own aircraft?

  7. Great piece of news to start the day with…Why 2014? Why 1 and half year to develop from the design? If the same can be done in 1 and half years, why can't be it done in half year? Stupid HAL….Get it done by 2013 April…

  8. To Folks Who Think Tejas is a Total Waste:

    Did you learn to run before you learned to crawl? I understand China has started to build 5th Gen planes, but they didn't get there without going through building simpler designes. India has not built a fighter since decades. Indians need to re-learn that, and Tejas has been the stepping stone. Tejas may not be 5th gen material, but it has begun to train the next generation of Aero-space builders. It has served as an educational instution. We do not learn everything in college, we learn most of what we do on the Job while on the job, and that is how Indians too will gain the capabilities of building world class planes. Everything takes time, no one is born with the skills to build the 5th gen. LCA is like first year of college, LCA-mk2 is like the second year, AMCA is what takes you to graduation and anything after that can be expected to be on par with the rest of the world. Things take time, you have got to be patient. We have bought for many decades, now it's time to learn so that we can design and build a couple of decades down the road.

  9. The IAF has put down an official requirement for 83 of the Mk.2s then to zero(0) see soon.. everything will be replace with Rafale and su-20mki. see soon.. Tajas join IAF in dreams. Challenge..

    Watching this news for 30 years. same Arjun story.

  10. I feel it is high tme hey try out a much larger version of tejas with double engine and internal weapons bay and with stealth in the skin that should have front canards and that would be great. Say bye bye to Rafale as it too expensive to produce and has obselete engine and may cost more than 100 million per aircraft to upgrade considering old vintage mirage for just avionics upgrade costing more than 41 million per aircraft.

    TIMBAKTOO

  11. HAL is just waiting money and time to continue this project. After so many years of study, design and manufacturing, we have enough experience to move on AMCA. If we move on AMCA now, we will put it in service ahead of China. We have almost everything in inventory better than China's except maybe Missiles. China cannot even make a reliable screw driver. If you don't believe, just go to buy one and try.
    I hope HAL same the money and effort and move on. Tejas is already a 4++ aircraft, it has almost all 5 gen components. With some effort and support from Russian, HAL will get AMCA done.

  12. Crawling for 30 yrs..looks like a retarded chil

    What do we do when worst comes to worst..show chinese we r still in college..coming couple of decades will change map of world

    We should buy beg borrow steal or whatever to keep up

  13. "What is the point of the Tejas"

    Great question. But then people who ask this question are clearly not looking for an answer. If they were, it is not too difficult to find the answer.

    And then they completely abandon that very rewarding chain of thought and get into hand wringing and crying about how China is doing this, Israel is doing that, US has already done this, Russia has achieved that. And no comment on what India should do.

    But this is still harmless laziness, compared to the dangerous ignorance of folks proposing to throw away valuable foreign exchange in importing aircraft.

    Humble request, please compare the development cost of the Tejas to that of EF and Rafale. Also compare the timelines. Do read up on the ripple effect of government expenditure on the economy to understand how the government stands to get back as much or more of the money that it spends inside the country.

  14. I have no oposition to buying phoren aircraft, but at the same time, India should be seling aircraft too. It should not be one way. If russian, france or america wants us to buy their planes then they should buys ours too. The Tejas is an excelent lo cost light fighter. There are no competitors in her catergory. No one not even uncle sam can afford an all F-22 and F-35 air force. Having something like the LCA will help them keep their numbers up. We need to have a positive mentality to promote Indian products.

  15. If one were to stop and think, it will become apparent that developing indigenous technology and fostering advanced engineering skills and technology is the better path forward for India. So commendations to the Tejas team for all the milestones achieved. It certainly wasn't an easy road to this point. From here on, it will be only get easier and progress will be rapid.

  16. 1. someone posted on this comment chain…"one step at a time". He is bang on. Thats what LCA, mark-1 and Mk-2 and maybe Mk-3 represent.

    Many even in the IAF dont realize this phased approach. Is only possible when they sit down and do a holistic analyses. But a holistic analyses cannot be done by just anyone, and needs study,interactions, and inputs with DRDO/HAL/ ADA/User-Forces.
    Very few can do this.

    Need of the hour?

    Belief and Faith. We will get there. Its risky, but visualize possibilities in 10 years. Then talk.

  17. @Anon 2:20 Great comment.

    Most people just say "Oh why shouldn't we make an 5th gen or even 6th gen fighter?". These are the people who have no idea how complex an aircraft designing is. You certainly cant just pull an Fighter jet out of thin air. Things need approval and funds, rare earth metals are required, custom softwares etc take a long time to mature. One has to develop methods and run thousand of simulation for every small change. The experience gained, assets acquired, structure created, softwares developed for developing Tejas are the foundation on which our future aircrafts will be built. Note that India directly jumped to 4th gen. This was a very bold decision. So the people questioning Tejas since its 'just' an 4th gen fighter really need to wake up and smell the coffee.

  18. Creating a modern fighter plane that is successful takes time and a load of money.

    Just look at how much the US spends and compare that to India. We are years behind but once we get rolling we will catch up quickly.

  19. To All,

    India development has advantages.

    1. For every mission we cannot use Heavy combat aircrafts like Sukhio and Medium combat aircrafts, it would be dead costly to maintain them.

    2. Tejas can be deployed at any airfield in large numbers and will be used in defensive mode

    3. And most importantly, almost 4000 fighter aircrafts in this world are ready to retire and Tejas would be a cost effective and technically superior replacement for them.(Now you got why Pak is promoting its JF17 as cheap aircraft?)

  20. @ 9:07AM

    Unit cost of the Su-30MKI: US$29.3 million

    Unit cost of the Tejas: US$31 million

    Does anyone believe the Tejas is equal to a Su-30MKI?????????

  21. @Anon 12:03 am, Don't believe everything russians put out on wikipedia. They are professional swindlers and have mastered the art of fooling and cheating Indians. learn to read between lies and find the truth..
    Just read this article:
    http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2010-06-26/india/28278061_1_sukhoi-fighters-mmrca

    It says 15000 crore for 42 aircrafts.
    Now lets do math..
    15000 crore/42 = 357 crore per plane
    this was in 2010.. So lets take exchange rate as 50 Rs for 1 dollar..
    So 3570000000/50= 71.4 million $.. cool right ?
    thats more than twice the quote in wikipedia 🙂
    this wont be the first time Russians under quoting real value of stuff I guess( Gorshkov, T-90 etc etc) .

  22. ADA/HAL has to produce prototype as soon as possible , which will help in reak time lossed in MK1

    no more excuses pls

  23. Can HAL-ADA complete IOC testing of MK2 before 2017? This MUST be the Absolute FINAL deadline envisioned for IOC since, after that IAF will require 2 years MIN. for FOC testing and any further changes-enhancements to be made to the base MK2 airframe design and the FCS testing- for "Lifting of the Flight Envelope" – dog-house graphs; to the final penultimate design data specs. That way we can target FULL-Scale serial line production of MK2's to start in 2020 and complete by 2025. Stealth LCA MK3 and AMCA projects need to start right away also! I would very sincerely humbly request HAL-ADA to examine the possibility of a Stealth LCA MK4 design; with twin-360degrees thrust vectoring nozzle engines and No rudder or tail-planes concept fighter also Sirs [Pure cranked delta flying wing form]… I strongly believe that such a medium stealth-fighter category, would go a very long way to support the AMCA in combat missions, deep inside enemy territory…

  24. This is definitely good news as India is on the technological road to freedom from purchasing foreign fighters at exorbidant costs!! Hopefully, by the year 2030 India would have completely stopped importing any foreign built fighters!

  25. Hi All, Roughly Estimated costs of acquiring modern fighter aircrafts:

    Grippen – usd$ 80 million Plus.
    J-10 – $60 mil usd Plus.
    Rafale – $140 mil.
    SU-30MKI – $120 mil.
    Eurofigther – $150 mil Plus.
    F-16 – $65 mil Plus.
    F-18 – $80 mil Plus.
    F-35 – $200 mil.
    F22- – $180 mil Plus.

    LCA MK1 – $25 mil during serial line production phase!

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