TEJAS MK 1A

TEJAS MK 1A: An agile AESA Radar, In-flight refueling, Early-warning Suite, efficient weight distribution, Easy maintenance, onboard oxygen generator etc...

Photo: ADA

There is nothing like obsolete when the aircraft is continuously upgraded. When Tejas is primarily going to replace MiG-21, it needs to have a combat range of closer to that and it has already!!! MiG-21 can carry a limited types of weapons where Tejas can carry most of the weapons in IAF's inventory     including targeting pods. It is tailor made to Indian requirements!!

Photo: ADA

 US B-52 bombers joined the USAF fleet in 50s and 60s and it is going to serve the US forces for decades to come. no body is calling it as obsolete. I don't know to where those serving and retired IAF generals/officials(quote: EC article) has gone all these days whether in to hibernation or some kind of dhiyana in Himalayas and suddenly putting out there opinion that Tejas is obsolete 
smile emoticon.

Photo: ADA

My opinion is there should be two production lines for Tejas one by HAL and one setup by private sector and the production should be accelerated and the aircraft should be continuously upgraded like US F-16 and should be inducted in to the forces in bulk numbers. This is how Indian military aviation industry will grow and the next logical step would be two Engines version of Tejas!! then AMCA!!

Photo: ADA

The present Indian Government has taken a wise decision in this regard. And this is a slap on Foreign companies which were rounding the Indian MoD like vultures to grap the big pie all these days!!

LCA Tejas MK I: Present status and an simple analysis

Two of the 15 pre-production Tejas jet fighters produced by HAL and used for test and evaluation.Photo: ADA

Now it was revealed in public media that the final operational clearance(FOC) for Tejas will be acquired only in mid 2016 which is one year from now. The critical things that delayed the FOC are 23 mm twin-barrel GSh-23 cannon integration, quartz made radome, Air to Air refuelling mechanism among other stuffs. last two are contracted to a British company cobham which repeatedly delayed the delivery according to ADA officials but they are not telling the exact reason behind the delay whether the contract was awarded very late or the British firm is delaying because they need more development time or is there any intentional motive. One more thing to note here is until last month both serving and retired ADA/DRDO officials who have very close relation with Tejas Development  reiterated in public media that the FOC will be on time. No body even shown any sign that it will be delayed that too for a whole year but still there was apprehension among military aviation experts that integration of critical items like refuelling mechanism among others warrants a full year flight testing. But the ADA/DRDO officials always told that FOC will be on time. A delay of 1 year will not be decided with in a week or month....it would have been long known to those whose is in control of the project and they would have revealed the actual reason behind it but they chose not to and instead always mentioned in media when ever they encountered a query that the Tejas MK I FOC will be done on time that is mid of the year 2015 and when the dead line is almost nearing they are revealing the actual truth that  the FOC is delayed by a year. This thing is actually frustrating lot of folks who are actually supporting ADA/DRDO with respect to the development of  Tejas. This kind of behaviour by ADA and DRDO in general actually makes one to think that actually what the armed forces are telling is true with respect to ADA/DRDO adhering to the committed timeline. This actually makes the Armed forces where air force is a integral part to look some where for their urgent requirements. We cannot blame them if this is the case with lacklustre ADA&DRDO. I think now they will blame Cobham for the delay in delivery of the Radome and Refuelling mechanism.

These Government entities are still thinking that armed forces are their captive buyers. The government should force these entities to change this kind of mindset and make clear to them that if they are going to deliver on time, a readily available product will be down selected(in this case JAS gripen)and a production line will be established under "Make in India"  concept which is in line with government's policy.

The funny part of this issue is that leave Tejas MK II,  For Tejas MK I itself ADA is not able to secure FOC which is a single engined light fighter but as a long jump they want to design and built a double engined 5th gen AMCA. There is no talk about first building a double engined 4+ gen fighter and gradually increasing its capability, they want to build a 5th gen fighter straight up!! I am sure the technical experts in countries countries which mastered in double engine fighters would have been laughing at each other on hearing our ADA's strategic decision!!

Finally I agree that development of Tejas bring lot of good things to our aviation industry but at the same time the DPSUs like HAL only doesnt make up the whole aviation industry and private industries also should be allowed to take up some thing and ADA should share the knowledge it gained in Teja's development with them similar to what DARPA is doing in US so that they can also innovative develop some new technology to improve the our LCA. this kind of inventiveness is almost nil in DPSUs. Although HAL claim that they have applied for 1000s of patents we have to see how much proprietary & innovative technologies are made out of those patents!

Final thing is that if the Tejas achieves FOC at 2016 and have a combat radius around 400km, that will be most likely end up as a trainer aircraft for IAF as it cannot deploy it even for tactical border patrol. So the need of the hour is improved Tejas MK II with combat radius closer to JAS gripen E which is going to use the same engine. Even the present version of  gripen which uses the same engine fitted in Tejas MK I have a combat radius of  around 1000+ Kms so it means that the aerodynamics Tejas needs to be refined to increase its combat radius which can easily done on Tejas MK II as it is still in the drawing board :-) !! The resources should not be shared with AMCA development and once Tejas MK II achieves FOC only ADA should start working on AMCA. that also a 4+ gen fighter first and then increasing it capability gradually. otherwise the AMCA development will also go for decades with frequent false promises like the one made in case of Tejas MK I FOC!!

News: Chinese-PAK JF-17 is selected by SriLanka to form a Squadron. Lessons for IAF!!

Chinese-Pak JF-17 fighter ordered by SriLanka
Image credits: Shimin Gu;

Today there is a news that the JF-17 fighter jointly developed by China and Pakistan was selected by Srilanka to form an fighter squadron. The JF-17 which is basically an vintage soviet MiG design sold to Chinese. And they developed it as an full blown fighter with Russian engines and Pakistan was their first export customer. Although Pakistan says its an joint venture it essentially got a license to manufacture the jet in their country nothing more than that. Chinese have done most of the development work on the fighter and sold it to Pakistan. As China is fully occupied with their own fighter programs like 5th generation J-20, J-31 , J-15 etc... they wanted to have the manufacturing base for JF-17 in Pakistan. So according to Pakistan air force the delivery will start from 2017 to srilanka.

Here is a lesson that IAF should learn from the PAF. when JF-17 was first introduced in to Pakistan air force in good numbers. At that time it lacked many capabilities for even to become a basic fighter. But still they accepted JF-17 in to their service and regular PAF flights flown them. This numbers of the flying aircraft and the feedback from the PAF helped the developers to a great extent to refine the aircraft and add additional features. Also PAF at anytime didn't reject the JF-17 on any grounds and they readily accepted the present version of the aircraft with what ever capability it offered and this helped the program in many ways and also motivated the development team. Now JF-17 is in good shape although it is lagging technologically in many ways.

When it comes to LCA program of India, From the starting of the program on multiple occasions IAF keep on changing its requirements!! Initially it agreed with the GE-F404 engines later when it came to know that Navy version is going to get a powerful engine because of carrier take and landing requirement, IAF also changed it requirement to have powerful engine. The same applies for range of weapons it carries and its range. LCA Tejas is going to replace MiG-21 in Indian service. Although a versatile aircraft MiG-21 can carry a limited types of weapons and also in limited quantity. But IAF wanted LCA Tejas should carry most of the weapons that Indian Air force is possessing and also everything should be tested before the Aircraft is officially inducted in to the Airforce. As the Aircraft is not accepted by the airforce and produced as prototypes and limited series production aircraft that may not see regular Airforce service, it increased the development cost. 

Instead of this kind of approach, if the Airforce accepted the LCA Tejas- MK-I in its present state and ordered more number of aircraft and have each trench of the aircraft delivered with additional capabilities means, that would have provided an much needed boost to the program and motivated the LCA Tejas development team to a greater extent. But most of the time IAF came with negative view about the aircraft!! If the LCA is accepted in to IAF and regular IAF pilots started to flying in the aircraft type in large numbers, Team Tejas would have got invaluable feedback to improve on the aircraft aerodynamic control, avionic upgrades, weapon carriage and firing etc... But IAF always needed an fully finished aircraft with all the capabilities fully tested without thinking that this is India's first attempt in developing a modern Jet fighter. If IAF is not motivating this program who else will???

IAF should remember the following facts:  when accepted in to service Mirage fighter came with some basic fighting capabilities missing, MiG-29 was not fully developed when soviet union sold them to India, Su-30 was not a Multi role fighter when it was inducted in 1997!!

IAF should have a look at Indian Navy which gives an greater importance to indigenous efforts and with full heart supports LCA-Tejas navy-program where IAF at one point threatened the development team that it will pull out of the program!! Now almost all of the Ships ordered by Indian navy are built at Indian Shipyards!! Finally the IAF should accept LCA-TEJAS-MK1 in greater numbers compare to present 20 aircraft on order and should closely help various development agencies to develop TEJAS-MK-II in short duration. If this is not happening induction of Tejas MK-II will be decades away instead of proposed 2022!!!

LCA Tejas MK I vs MiG 21.

Tejas MK I vs MiG 21.

Two MiG 21s and a Tejas MK I (center) flying in formation
Image credits: http://www.tejas.gov.in/

Here we are  comparing Tejas with  MiG 21 because Tejas is the actual aircraft that is going to replace MiG21 in Indian air force.

Compare to MiG21 Tejas is an very good all rounder except in two key aspects. One is combat radius and second one is the menuvarability.

MiG 21 has a combat radius of 1000+ kms where Tejas has only 300+ kms which limits the number of tactical messions it can undertake with out air to air refuelling and this is one of the main reason IAF is not happy to have Tejas in its fleets. Also this may be the reason the government is looking for some other single engine fighters like mirage 2000 and JAS Gripen to complement along with Tejas to replace MiG 21 in to the IAF!

When it is coming to high angle of attacks Tejas still needed to be improved compare to MiG21 and the development is still going on. Also as of now Tejas is not as menuvarable as MiG 21 and flight testing & development on that front is going on.

Now Tejas is very important to India to validate its fighter jet designing skills. It is very tough to design an aircraft with negative aerodynamic coefficient and with fly by wire technology. India has demonstrated its capabilities in this two technologies to the world by incorporating them in Tejas!!

Tejas is tailored made for IAF with even inputs taken from IAF pilots for cockpit layout and ease of use of various controls in cockpit.

IAF is free to integrate any weapon in to Tejas which is not the case with Mirage or any other foreign aircrafts!

Also the Tejas MK II which is under developement will overcome most of the disadvantages of Tejas MK I I including its combat radius!

India's Very Own Cruise Missile: Nirbhay .

Image Credits: DRDO

Image Credits: DRDO

India was taken in to surprise during the gulf war and other american led war compaigs on seeing a particular weapon system that is cheap to own,cheap to operate, highly versatile, smart enough to change its target during the flight,smart enough to loiter in the war zone just waiting for the right target, have the capability to beam back the live high quality video footage until its target is hit,capable of doing autonomous manoeuvre to evade enemy air defences , capable of flying in subsonic speeds with out any trails and can cover a range of more than 1000 kms!!!,can be launched from land and sea(ships and submarines) and the smart weapon is called Tomahawk Cruise Missile.

On seeing the advantages and flexibility of the weapon system Indian government ordered DRDO to develop an similar system for Indian armed forces. The answer is Nirbhay Cruise missile!!

Before getting in to the details about the Nirbhay a short introduction about a cruise missile. Unlike a Ballistic missile which travels in a ballistic flight path, an Cruise missile will cruise to its target just like an Jet aircraft cruising to the intended airport. The only difference is unlike an conventional aircraft an Cruise missile will take-off vertically like an Rocket, using its first stage rocket booster and by using thrust vectoring technology positions itself in to Horizontal flight path. Once in horizontal trajectory its second stage will take over after that its wings will be automatically deployed and making it an conventional aircraft. Unlike its first stage which is powered by a rocket booster its second stage will be powered by a turbofan engine similar to an passenger jet aircraft. This Engine is more fuel efficient, less noisy and more reliable. Once in cruising altitude the missile's endurance is decided only by its on-board fuel. The missile can have its own guidance or can take occasional course correction from the ground stations or can hook onto satellite based navigational systems to pinpoint its target!

Generally there are different kinds of Cruise missiles which depends up on the type of the second stage used. if it is a turbofan engine chances are high that it can be a subsonic(speed that is less than the speed of sound) cruise missile, if it is an RAM jet engine the missile can be supersonic cruise missile(eg. Brahmose cruise missile and some Russian cruise missiles), finally if the missile has SCRAM jet powered second stage means it can be a hypersonic cruise missile.At present there is no known hypersonic missile in any country's arsenal.India and Russia are in preliminary talks to develop such an missile. Already India had a supersonic cruise missile called Brahmose which can be fired from land,sea and under water. 

But there are some disadvantages of Brahmose. Although it is pitted as  a joint venture between India and Russia, the propulsion stage of the missile is a Russian design which is adapted for Indian requirements and the Guidance and control is Indian designed. Because of this Russian companies have a greater say in any future modifications. 

Also because of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) the range of the Brahmose cannot be extended beyond 300 kms. Although its supersonic and packs a great surprise and punch during attacks, its weighs twice as that of other subsonic cruise missiles like Tomahawk which reduces the no of missiles carried by a ship or submarine. Lower range means ship has to venture near the enemy lines to launch the missile. because of its highly complex second stage RAM jet propulsion, the missiles are costlier to build!!

To strike a balance between all this a new requirement was developed for a subsonic cruise missile and DRDO started working on this project. Finally the product of the project was named as Nirbhay. As this missile was completely developed by India, We can incorporate any modification in to the missile unlike Brahmose which needs an approval from Russian companies. Some of the advantages of Nirbhay are its cheaper to build, weighs less, its all-weather capable and can be launched day and night,can carry more and different types of pay loads based on the individual mission and has the capability to loiter around the target area waiting for the right time to strike and many more via future upgrades.

In the latest test the missile demonstrated its capability of continuously flying for more than one hour at subsonic speeds and successfully crossed more-than 15 way points set by the testing agency. The entire testing mission was recorded by a fighter jet that travelled along with the cruise missile. As the size of the missile is so small it will be very tough to detect it on the radar.

Long way ahead:

This is just a starting of a family of Indian cruise missiles! There is long way to go. At present the turbofan engine deployed in Nirbhay was imported from Russia.Already there is effort going on to develop this engine in India. And then there is the Air force(air launched), Army(Land based) and Navy (Ship and Submarine launched)  version of the missile proposed . So the DRDO team should make this missile a potent platform and also pull considerable private players to reduce the development time.

A small Comparison between LCA TEJAS and Pakistan's Chinese developed JF-17.

LCA TEJAS MK I
Image credit: http://i.imgur.com/

Image credits: Wikipedia commons    JF-17

JF 17 is a Chinese developed fighter based on a old soviet MIG design. Its an all metallic war plane with no fly by wire controls means the pilot will have more work load to fly the aircraft. 

Unlike Tejas  JF-17 is not all weather  capable and also not fully developed by Pakistan. Where as Tejas is fully developed in india although some vital parts like Engine are imported. 

When it comes to Radar detection JF-17 will have larger radar foot print where as Tejas will have less because of the carbon composites body structures!!

Tejas have modern glass cockpit and continuously evolving according to air-force needs. The FOC standard Tejas will have in-flight refuelling,BVRs,capability to carry stand-off missiles,all kind of conventional and smart bombs which IAF posses. 

The FOC standard Tejas will be a Multi Role all weather 4.5++ aircraft. But JF-17 doesn't have this kind of all round capabilities.

INS VIKRANT!! Starting of a new era in Indian military ship building!!

Image credit: Livefist

India's first indigenously built Aircraft carrier the lead Vikrant class ship was undocked from the shipyard after successfully completing its second construction phase!! Now it will enter the third and final phase of the construction where all the war fighting weapons,radars and other equipments will be outfitted!! this development marks an new era in Indian ship building. Vikrant is the largest ever Navy ship built in India! Now India is capable of building  all kind of boats in its defence shipyards!!

When it comes to Vikrant it includes stae of the art new technologies like a AESA radar, it may equipped with Barak - 8 area defence system and latest version of MiG-29 KUB multirole fighters along with TEJAS Navy!! Also this is the first Indian aircraft carrier which features gas turbine propulsion which requires lot less maintenance compare to stean driven propulsion present in Vikramaditya and Viraat India's other two operational carriers. The gas turbine engines are provided by General Electric of united states and license manufactured by HAL in India.

Vikrant should be ready for sea trials by 2017 and should complete its sea trials and inducted in to Navy by 2018!!