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!!