EXCLUSIVE: LCA To Receive “HF” Designation Next Year

At this time next year, India’s Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas, is near certain to receive a long due HF (“Hindustan Fighter”) designation just ahead of initial operational clearance (IOC), after which the ubiquitous “LCA” tag will be dropped and serve only as its type description. A senior Air Force officer told me recently that while designating the fighter was scarcely a priority at this juncture, a file was in motion containing possible HF designations based on various parameters. HAL has been periodically questioned about why the LCA doesn’t already have an HF tag. Stands to reason, actually. HAL’s under development intermediate jet trainer, Sitara, already has its final designation HJT-36 (Hindustan Jet Trainer), and HAL’s yet-t0-begin development ab-initio trainer already has the designation HTT-40 (Hindustan Turbo Trainer). So it isn’t really clear why the Tejas hasn’t received its rightful lineage designation, after all, it is India’s first fighter jet after the Marut of the sixties, which had its own venerable designation, HF-24.

So then, the HF-X Tejas, it shall be.

Photo ©Copyright Shiv Aroor

54 thoughts on “EXCLUSIVE: LCA To Receive “HF” Designation Next Year”

  1. smashing! i suggest HF-71 to commemmorate how we bitch-slapped the porkis in the Liberation of Bangladesh operations. any other suggestions??

  2. Research and find some number which is considered unlucky by the porkis. Then provide that designation to the Tejas. My heart is singing with this news of HF designation. LCA is such a stupid name.

  3. how can pakis be proud of their stupid jf-17 when they have contributed zip zero zilch to it? i keep wondering this. at least tejas is ours. we can call it our own. look at bloody jf-17. even the bolts and aggregates are imported from china, which in turn has stolen them from russia. the lesson from jf-17 is that we should never trust the russkies either. they are backstabbing haraamis who are only interested in moolah.

  4. When some one talking about JF-17, I got this in my mind. The reason for naming JF-Bandar as JF-17 is that they want this tin can to turn the situation of (19)71. Turn the tables of 71 war and you get 17.

    I wonder if this is what pakis were thinking when they named it JF-17. I also wonder what will they name an aircraft which they hope to turn the tables of 99 war :). JF-66

  5. To avoid lot of hurdles & failures from past memory's HAL may selected HF, on my view HF71 seems to be good as per Numerology. WE need tejus mk2 version should be ready before the deadline. so HAL should not waste long time in the name of selecting engines . We wish IAF should have large numbers of sqn's in Tejus mark 2 version .

  6. I think it should be HF-71 as suggested by the first anon. there is no greater humiliation to paki rats than 1971 war, and we should immortalise it in the name of tejas (not to suggest that the war will not be immortal otherwise). HF-71 ke liye mera vote hai!

  7. i long for the day when a squadron of tejas fighters scream over sargodha and bomb the living fuck out of the PAF F-16s. lame ass porkis won't see nothing coming. jai hind, jai tejas. we don't need shitty countries like porkistan on the world map. merge it with afghanistan. and then let the stupid yanks clean it all up with nukes.

  8. shiv you are giving a choice which is symbolic with the years in which Indo-Pak wars were fought i.e 47,65,71 and 99.HF-24 Marut never entered serial production. if futuristic aircraft carriers would bear the same V series names the LCA can also be designated as HF-24 although 47 or some other number wont be bad either.

  9. shiv, your poll choices are symbolic with the years in which Indo-Pak wars were fought.although like the futuristic aircraft carriers which would retain their V names the LCA should also be rechristened as HF-24 as amark of respect to Marut which never entered production

  10. HF-71 is the best bet. If Pakis can showcase their Chinese JF-17 we must reverse the 17 to 71 and show the porkis their place. According to Madrassa maths 17 and 71 are opposite numbers standing for two different values. 17 stands for terrorism and 71 stands for freedom or liberation. Bravo HF-71

  11. Light Combat Aircraft –> Tejas –> Hindustan Fighter – X (Tejas). How abt getting the IAF to use it & then playing name name? Let me guess… The Medium Combat Aircraft will be called –> Hindustan Fighter – XX (Tejaswini)? … First came Adam (Tejas) and then came Eve (Tejaswini) and God (Indian Airforce) threw them out of the Garden of Eden (active service). DRDO should spent more time getting it's weapon systems ready on time, on budget and then mass producing them like hell. Dunno how one organization can mess up "PROJECT MANAGEMENT" so badly.

  12. yes…lets merge afghanistan and porkistan and call the merged entity fuckitstan or fuckshitstan…and then tell the yanks that this entity is planning more attacks on their soil..which will be the truth…after nuking the entity can be called fuckeditstan…:)

    jai hind!

  13. porkis always level a chinese weapon with some invaders of western India (those who killed original Indians there) and call it 'indigenous'!!! Thats why they are called porkis….

  14. how about HF-84 or HF-95 ,i am not much in numbers any one will be great ,i am excited it is getting a HF designation i remember how i bugged HAL executive in Aero india regarding this matter . Marut HF-24 did enter production and 175 produced and HF-74 or HF-71 was given to updated Marut which crashed on its first flight so it is taken

  15. Back in 2004 when The State-run aviation major, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) had plans to design and develop a combat trainer jet for the Indian Air Force (IAF).proposed twin-engine jet trainer with enhanced capability ,large wings and fuselage and a hi-tech cockpit for enhanced training capability was rejected by Indian air force and Mod which had made plans to re-order more 66 British-made Hawk advanced jet trainers (AJT), which IAF is in process of been acquired . after five years now the Indian Ministry of Defence put out requests for information (RFI) for advanced jet trainers to meet a requirement of 57 new trainer aircraft, of which the Indian Air Force needs 40 and the Indian Navy, 17, Proposal which has been send to six makers of AJT around the world including BAE . HAL had even submitted a proposal regarding this to Mod and IAF and had promised first prototype in 39 months once go head was given by Government , now after one crash of newly acquired Hawks and pathetic supply of spares by British Aerospace most of the jet are fast becoming Hangar queens in Bidar in karnataka , where they are currently based for Training Young pilots for Indian air force . Lack of aircrafts have effected the pilot training , if the go head was given for Combat air trainer (CAT) Project way back in 2006 we could had some prototypes ready and using the same Saturn AL-55I engine with about 16.9 kN of thrust which currently powers HJT-36 Sitara which will replace the HJT-16 Kiran in its role as a trainer (Stage-2) in the Indian Air Force. CAT would have been positioned between the intermediate jet trainer (IJT) and light combat aircraft (LCA) and could have been way better than imported Hawks ,using similar avionics developed for LCA and IJT-36 could have kept the Development cost of the jet also low and could have been developed as a secondary ground attack aircraft for Indian air force .

  16. I would say the best serial for the venerable Tejas would be HF-X itself.. sounds good, don't you think… NATO codename Sunlight… opposite of the symbol on the flag of islamic republic of pakistan…

  17. Great News!!!

    Thank god the word "HINDU" is not noticed by UPA and its allies till now in HAL's name or even on the HF series of mili.aircraft, otherwise they could have called the word as COMMUNAL….

  18. It will probably remain HF-X forever, since X stands for experimental and the chances of LCA, sorry HF-X, coming into service under babu management are draining faster than my pee in the shower.

  19. why cant we use al 31 engines in lca as we r redesigning evrything engine , airframe etc…

    plus it gives more thrust than all western , ameriki, even rd series mig engines offcource chinks r using these engines in chendu but we may be getting the full tot of su30mki by next year and if wanted russinas may help us

  20. Hmm… the close-up shot of the Tejas doesn't look so good. Shoddy paint job, glass looks dirty like fibre glass, and what's that rust line under the canopy… poor weld job. I would've thought they'd keep the 6 flying aircraft spic and span… maybe they're still meddling around with the frame. If I was the IAF, I'd be hopping mad.

  21. to those dimbulbs complaining about the build-quality of this Tejas- its the wooden mockup you idiots ! look at the nose gear and compare it to the pics of the Tejas when its on the tarmac or in the hangar.

  22. How About the name Miracle It is a Miracle that the project is still going on and no matter what the Pakis or the Chinkis call theirs they cannot out do this in Quality or Capability

  23. What is in the name?
    But we need to indentify/categories the plane so we can name it IF-11 (India Fighter – Year of deployment)

  24. I would put the name Tejas36 or LCA 36 signifying the 36th latitude which we have to liberate on our NE border..

    Pak is as good as a clunker of history and makes no sense in being obsessed with history associated with it.

    The most imp thing is for the LCA to be the surprise factor to our adversary..

    In the words of Al Pacino (devil's Advocate) it needs to be " The hand under Mona Lisa's skirt" no one should see it comming.. thats how fearful it should be.

  25. To all those idiots who keep compare Indian armed forces vis-a-vis Porkis. I would say shut up. Stop comparing our growth with some bunch of idiots. Lets just compare or average ourselves to best in the world like US, Russia, UK, France and Israil. !!!! Aweee … ( I didnt name Japan and China, because I ment the best )

  26. The LCA should be canned. The IAF/ADA/GTRE, and the MoD are to blame for the pathetic state of affairs of this a/c. Even if it does come out, the numbers will be too few and the tech too outdated. Things might move quicker if ADA starts offering "Baksheesh" (in US $'s) to the IAF brass, and the MoD paper pushing clerks.

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