And Now, Indian MoD Flags Sharp ‘Shortcomings’ In LCA Tejas

The continuing saga over India’s LCA Tejas Mk.1 fighter continues, with the government today putting out in new detail the “shortcomings” in the platform expected to enter service over the next one year. Here’s what it told Parliament today:

The following shortcomings have been reported in Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas-Mk-I:

1. Absence of Internal Jammer affecting survivability. 2. Aircraft performance shortfalls. 3. Maintainability issues.

The above shortcomings were primarily due to following reasons:

1. Internal jammer technology at that time was based on TWT amplifier which needed about 1000 ltr volume space for integration on aircraft. Hence it could not be accommodated at the time of development of LCA Tejas, Mk-I.

2. The maintainability issues were raised by Indian Air Force (IAF) late in 2009, when design and drawings were already frozen for Mk-I. However, many of the safety critical maintenance issues are already addressed in Mk-I.

3. Government has sanctioned project for development of LCA Mk-II in 2009. Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) is the prime agency for development of LCA Mk-II with the public and private partnerships.All the above mentioned shortcomings in LCA Mk-I have been addressed in LCA Mk-II version.

9 thoughts on “And Now, Indian MoD Flags Sharp ‘Shortcomings’ In LCA Tejas”

  1. Seems like a misleading headline. Sure there were issues that IAF pointed out after the design was frozen in 2009. They seem fixed, but the lesson here is that IAF needs to feel like its their project since they came up with the silly specs of wanting a small light fighter that is loaded with the stuff found on f-15s and MKI's.

  2. Shiv, where is the MOD flaging anything, they are responding to a query and all three noted there are hardly anything, considering, IAF did not want to wake up on time and first one, I have to ask this, how many aircraft's in the Indian Air Force have this POD or had these when the requirement was put across.
    My concern is the heading is misleading, the statement itself is just an update not denouncing anything. Nor should it be seen as accepting anything.

  3. It seems that Tejas is doomed as a fronline fighter for the IAF. This is the right time to bring in a few squardrons of Mig 29M/SMT for a one to one replacement of the Mig 21 without any tamasha A better choice would be the Gripens in an air defense role but the media and the opposition will have a field day screaming scam from rooftops.

    The Tejas can continue as a Naval fighter since the requirements are few and can be met by the HAL PSU.

  4. Quite trivial issues which can certainly addressed by suitable mods during the service life of the aircraft. Certainly does not merit the hype generated in the headline!! There seems to be some serious lobby trying to scuttle the effort.

  5. Much smaller electronic jammers are now available as well as new high end technology is available like giving wrong information of the position to the adversary. There are technologies that can copy the friend information and relay to the opponent confusing it as a friend. The advantage of LCA is it is small , made mostly of composites and should have smallest radar cross section and with GE 414 ÉPÉ engines it can deliver unparalleled performance. With that high T/W ratio the internal fuel can be increased to 6 K liters and conformal fuel tanks be added. The front section has to increase in length to have electronic warfare suite. The maintanence must be user friendly so that in 30 minutes it can be refueled and rearmed and ready for next sortie so that with high sortie rate you have effective force expansion.The air intakes have to be redesigned. The naval version should have thinner wings in cranked delta shape with 20 percent increase in surface area with spoilers on the sides. Moulded wing desiegn would help in thinning the wings and reducing the weight. I feel this is most crucial and most difficult phase of the plane desiegn and I remember the. Good old days when NG was spending a million dollar a day and placed every possible resource to work.Quickly built a prototype and start. Testing the prototypes with GE 414 engines.success is waiting for you.

    TIMBAKTOO

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