[Amit_breakfree]

Recent and exiting news coming in:

1) The Defense Ministry's Defense Acquisition Council on Wednesday gave its green signal for the procurement of 83 indigenous Tejas fighter jets for Indian Air Force with more advanced configuration than the 40 currently on order.

2) While orders of 40 Tejas aircraft had been placed with HAL in initial configurations, the DAC paved the way for procurement of 83 of the more advanced Mk1A version of the aircraft from HAL by finalising the contractual and other issues

3) The proposal will now be placed for consideration of Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS). This procurement will be a major boost to 'Make in India' as the aircraft is indigenously designed, developed and manufactured with participation of several local vendors apart from HAL

4) Though the defense ministry statement made no mention of the price, the order for 83 Tejas aircraft is expected to cost ₹39,000 crores. The Tejas is expected to form the back bone of the IAF's fleet in the coming years.

For more information: https://www.livemint.com/news/india/...541462069.html

[dragracer567]

So, it seems that the govt. has finally cleared the purchase of 83 HAL Tejas Mark 1As. The 73 HAL Tejas MK 1As and 10 HAL Tejas MK1 trainers will be delivered by 2026. The deal is worth Rs 48,000 cr and should shore up the depleting number of fighters, especially since the Mig 27 has been retired while all Mig 21s and unupgraded Jaguars will also be retired in the coming years. Also, I believe the Tejas Mk 1 aren't exactly entirely combay-ready (correct me if I'm wrong on this), so the Mk 1A will be the version which is actually deployed on the front lines.

Source

The LCA Tejas Mk 1A is an advanced version of LCA Mk1 (FOC), which is in service with the IAF currently.

The new aircraft comes with four major capabilities over the current variant of LCA, which includes mid-air refuelling, improvement in operational roles, enhancing the combat ability and maintainability improvements through incorporation of Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) Radar, Electronic Warfare (EW) suite and Beyond Visual Range (BVR) missile capabilities.

While HAL has a current capacity to manufacture 8 LCA at its Bengaluru plant, HAL officials said it would be increased to 16 aircraft.

“Arrangement has been made to increase the production capacity to 16 as soon as the contract is inked,” an official at HAL told ThePrint, adding that the aim is to deliver the aircraft earlier than the contract schedule.

The standard delivery schedule for defence contracts in India begins within three years of signing the contract.

According to the plan, the first flight of the Tejas Mark 1A will take place by the end of 2022 and the first squadron would be completed by 2024.

IAF chief Air Chief Marshal Rakesh Bhadauria had in May last year said the force will have 40 Tejas Mk 1 and 83 Tejas Mk 1A, and around six squadrons of Tejas Mk II, which is still in works, in the long run.

It was in March 2020 that the defence ministry had cleared the deal.

Interestingly, the defence ministry had given the initial clearance for the deal in November 2016 and the IAF had issued the Request For Proposal (RFP) in December 2017. But negotiations got stuck as the IAF felt that HAL had quoted a very high price.

What is LCA Mk 1A?
LCA is a tail-less compound delta aircraft, which is equipped with Quadruplex Digital fly-by-wire. The aircraft is built with advanced composite materials with reduced weight, increased life and reduced signature.

LCA Mk 1A is a supersonic fighter at all altitudes for air combat, which can carry a payload of 3,500 kg and is best suited for offensive air support, according to HAL officials. The aircraft has a service ceiling of 15 km.

Participation of private firms
HAL has outsourced significant works on the Tejas Mark 1A to Indian firms like Larsen and Toubro, Dynamatic Technologies and Alpha Designs.

The front fuselage of Mark 1A has been outsourced to Dynamatic Technologies, the middle section to VEM, and the rear section to Alpha Design.

The wings for the next generation of the Tejas aircraft will be manufactured by Larsen and Toubro.

There are over 70 Indian suppliers involved in outsourcing of the detail parts of the aircraft.

The BVR capabilities
LCA Mk 1A will have inbuilt capability to fire BVR missiles such as Derby missile and is already integrated on current Tejas itself.

Indigenously developed BVR missile (ASTRA Mk 1) has been identified to be integrated on Mk 1A, which will be a weapon of choice of IAF, HAL officials said.

This weapon will give an edge to LCA Tejas over its contemporaries like the Sino-Pak product JF 17 in BVR warfare.

With the introduction of podded Self-Protection Jammer (SPJ) and AESA radar in LCA Mk 1A, the survivability of the aircraft is further enhanced, HAL officials added.

AESA radar
AESA radar means it will have improved range than the regular system and will enable near simultaneous missile firing for multiple targets and increased situational awareness.

AESA radar will be electronically scanned agile beam radar based on Transmit/Receive Modules (TRM) and support multi-mode operation in X-band with a bandwidth of 600 MHz or more.

The radar is capable of tracking 16 targets at a time in air-to-air, air-to-ground and air-to-sea modes, HAL officials said.

Electronic warfare suite
EW suite will provide capabilities for electronic counter measures with extended band of operation for threat detection and jamming capability. The EW capability will increase survivability of the aircraft in a networked environment.

With the integration of an external jamming pod, the aircraft will be able to do its duty as an offensive air combat platform.

Other key additions
The HAL official quoted above said the LCA Mk 1A comes with Digital Moving Map with 2D maps and 3D perspective view, besides provision for Global Navigation Satellite System, Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System-based positioning system, GPS Aided Geo Augmented Navigation, and Satellite Based Augmentation System.

This, HAL officials said, will enhance the operational capabilities and take India towards its home-grown GPS.

[blackwasp]

One of the biggest defence deals in the Indian aviation field has got the go-ahead of the authorities. Tejas combat aircraft has 50% localisation and is not entirely Atmanirbhar as quoted earlier. Localisation can go upto 60% in the future.

The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) cleared the Rs 48,000 crore order for 83 Tejas aircraft for the Indian Air Force (IAF), in what is the biggest defence deal in the indigenous aviation sector.

The deliveries will start three years after the signing of the contract, which is expected to be done in February. The aircraft will have 43 “improvements” over the 40 Mark-1 Tejas aircraft already ordered by the IAF.

It’s not however clear if the upgraded version addresses the concerns about the aircraft that the IAF had red-flagged in 2017 — an endurance of just 59 minutes vis-a-vis 3 hours for the Swedish aerospace company’s JAS 39 Gripen and 4 hours for the US-based Lockheed Martin’s F1-6; payload capacity of 3 tonnes for the Tejas against 6 and 7 tonnes for the Gripen and F-16 respectively; a lifespan of 20 years for the Tejas versus 40 years for both the Gripen and F-16; and a servicing time of 20 hours for each hour of flying for the Tejas, against 6 and 3.5 hours for the Gripen and F-16 respectively.

The aircraft itself isn’t 100% ‘atmanirbhar’ — with Defence Minister Rajnath SIngh conceding that “the indigenous content of LCA-tejas is 50%”, which is expected to go up to 60% at best in the near term.

Interestingly, the total amount is nearly equal to the original price tag of Rs 50,000 crore that Hindustan Aeronautics had projected. Last year the price had been reduced to Rs 37,000 crore after the IAF was told to prune its demand list of spares and logistics support, while HAL was directed to snip its profit margin from 12% to 6%.

Source - Times Top 10

[skanchan95]

Originally Posted by dragracer567

So, it seems that the govt. has finally cleared the purchase of 83 HAL Tejas Mark 1As.

Finally!!! Great News. Took a long time coming and I only hope the subsequent steps till the first aircraft gets inducted in the IAF doesn't take an eternity.

I also hope the Light Combat Helicopter & Light Utility Helicopter contracts too is fast tracked, especially the LUH when it now seems that the Ka-225 Hoodlum contract is going nowhere.

[SmartCat]

Going by bullishness of IAF towards Tejas platform and all that "Atma Nirbhar" stuff going on, I think we can say goodbye to MMRCA 2.0. After this order, IAF is likely to order Tejas Mark 2 with F/A-18 Super Hornet's engine and 7 ton payload.

[Dieseltuned]

Der aaye durust aaye. Roughly translates to rather late than never.

If the IAF is showing interest in the Tejas platform and if nurtured well then this can save the country trillions of dollars of tax payers money going out to foreign coffers.

And who knows this might turn out to be the proverbial dark horse in the fight whenever the need arises.

My personal opinion, this contract should have been done earlier. But as I said rather late than never.

[dragracer567]

Originally Posted by SmartCat

Going by bullishness of IAF towards Tejas platform and all that "Atma Nirbhar" stuff going on, I think we can say goodbye to MMRCA 2.0. After this order, IAF is likely to order Tejas Mark 2 with F/A-18 Super Hornet's engine and 7 ton payload.

I'm not so sure about that. The squadron numbers are still dropping and the MMRCA was always independent from the Tejas and the IAF is really bullish on getting more Rafales as well. Dassault has also said that they will manufacture the Rafales in India if more than 100 are ordered with parts sourced locally as well and make India a manufacturing base for future orders (like Greece).

[GTO]

Mod Note: Thanks for sharing! Moving all posts related to the new Tejas aircrafts deal to a new thread

[SmartCat]

Article debunking negative media articles (possibly funded by the import lobby) on HAL Tejas:
http://delhidefencereview.com/2020/0...tejas-fighter/

Myth 1: Combat endurance of Tejas is just 1 hour, compared to 3 hours for the Gripen and 4 hours for the F16.

Myth 2: Combat payload of Tejas is just 3 tonnes

Myth 3: Lifespan of Tejas is just 20 years, compared to 40 years for Gripen & F-16

Myth 4: Can do just 1 sortie a day. Needs lot of maintenance

[aveoman19]

While a lot has been discussed about the Tejas MK 1A as well as the MMRCA 2.0, what excites me the most is the fact that the skills of producing more advanced fighters will ensure that India's AMCA be a supremely capable 5th Gen fighter enough to ward off the so called "5th Gen J20" of our neighbour and be more capable of future proofing with development happening on the fully autonomous 6th Gen fighters. Exciting times ahead. God bless our country

[amods]

Got to praise and remember Hon. Manohar parrikar for early induction of Tejas in IAF. Without him, it may well have been still "under development and improvement" Tejas until MK 1A arrived.

Early(ier version) of Tejas truly proved a reliability builder and a stepping platform for this order as we could see the IAF's growing trust in Sulur squadrons(No. 45 and 18) and western front deployment last year.

Mark 2 will be a mighty beast ready to take role of biggies - IF it gets operational even by 2030.

[warrioraks]

This is a very important and momentous decision. India has to catchup with the world when it comes to design of fighter jets and LCA program has been a success story in bridging that gap. The program has faced a lot of tough times due to sanctions from US (Pokhran blast), our armed forces preference for IMPORTED MAAL and constant degradation by foreign manufacturers. Kudos to ADA and HAL for the achievements. There has not been a single crash to this date over a span of decades and this is no small feat! Our scientists and engineers literally had very less to build on since our last desi winged aircraft (Marut) is a distant history and I am assuming most of the knowledge would either have been archaic or would have been lost. Despite that Tejas MK1A is a pretty capable aircraft going by some accounts.

Also credit needs to be given to this government. They have been successful in bringing a mindset change within the forces (especially the airforce and army). Indian Navy has always been big on indigenisation as far as I remember.

Overall a proud moment and I hope HAL is also allowed to market and sell the aircraft to friendly countries as well. Let's milk this cow and rake in the moolah

[V.Narayan]

Went through the Times of India article and the Delhi Defence Review rebuttal. My comments given below against the points/myths

Originally Posted by SmartCat

Article debunking negative media articles (possibly funded by the import lobby) on HAL Tejas:
http://delhidefencereview.com/2020/0...tejas-fighter/

Myth 1: Combat endurance of Tejas is just 1 hour, compared to 3 hours for the Gripen and 4 hours for the F16.

Answer the endurance of the Gripen E version and Tejas Mk1 are probably exactly the same give or take a few minutes. At full afterburner Tejas probably lasts a few minutes longer due to a slightly higher fuel fraction and a slightly lower thrust. At ferry cruise both are identical. The F-16 IN is better than both. Fuel fraction is (weight of internal fuel) / (clean take-off weight). At roughly 0.30 or so with modern metallurgy & composites you get to the maximum internal fuel after which you start burning fuel simply to carry the extra fuel. There is no figure called combat endurance but multiple figures depending on configuration, fuel, weapons, flight profile, speed, weather etc. Ferry range for both Gripen C & Tejas is ~ 1750 nm or about 3.5 hours at optimum cruise. Gripen E is about 400 nm more. This figure of ferry is only used for comparison purposes and has no bearing in combat. Given that at least on the Western border 90% of likely targets are less than 200 nm from the border both aircraft have adequate range to do their job.

Myth 2: Combat payload of Tejas is just 3 tonnes

You can only guess at this stage as to what is the weapon payload. Along with fuel carried it is usually not shared openly though some public figures are put out there. The full load for Tejas has been claimed at between 3500 kgs and 5300 kgs and that of Gripen C & E at 5300 kgs. Given their empty weights and engine thrust the payload has to be in the ball park of 15% of each other.

Myth 3: Lifespan of Tejas is just 20 years, compared to 40 years for Gripen & F-16

A typical fightersairframe today is typically called out at 6000 hours at the start and then with periodic refits extended to 9000 and then to 12000 hours. 6000 hours translates to 15 to 20 years of frontline flying. These are 'fighter hours' not airline hours which tend to be much much higher due to the more steady flying. Can the Tejas last 40 years -I do not know. HAL's design & delivery is being tested for the first time after the HF-24. Can it last 20 years - without a shadow of doubt. Can the Gripen or F-16IN with proper maintenance last 40 years - yes they can.

Myth 4: Can do just 1 sortie a day. Needs lot of maintenance

I don't believe that. That is like saying a car designed in 2010 needs a crank handle to get it started. The test flying itself would have tested how many sorties can be sustained in a day a long while back.

Selection of an aircraft is not on brochure figures alone but on several other factors especially given that we have been hurt in the past:-

- availability of spares & support - always without strings
- availability of the designer/ manufacturer to liaise with the IAF constantly on ironing out kinks, evaluating new items, integrating new weapons later on
- reliability on the front line
- access to continuous training
- flexibility of war load {most fighters have this now}
- job creation
- developing your indigenous capability

Glad to see the total order for Tejas cross 120. At long last, thank God at long last we are on our way. I first read about the LCA in c.1984. When the home Air Force puts its weight behind a indigenous design only then it can blossom forth. Finally the IAF has learnt that it, as the customer, has a big role to play in aiding itself by supporting indigenous designs. As I have never tired of saying the IN learnt that in 1972. The IAF has caught up after half a century.

[Turbanator]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

When the home Air Force puts its weight behind a indigenous design only then it can blossom forth.

Thanks for your practical inputs, Sir.

If I recollect, F-16 was offered to India for domestic production. Would it not have been better to take a proven aircraft and produce that locally instead of going startup?

Originally Posted by Red Liner

You cannot export it further defence exports is where the money is.

Ok, but isn't self-use is our priority? Down the lane, one can always pay royalties to the Lockheed or let them take orders and export and earn?

[Red Liner]

Originally Posted by Turbanator

Thanks for your practical inputs, Sir.

If I recollect, F-16 was offered to India for domestic production. Would it not have been better to take a proven aircraft and produce that locally instead of going startup?

You cannot export it further defence exports is where the money is.