Indian Military

New Delhi – While the Indian Defence Minister A K Antony has assured that the indigenous ‘Tejas’ light combat aircraft (LCA) will get its “initial operational clearance” in December, the ‘Tejas’ LCA project has seen an astronomical rise in its price tag and the development cost.

According to sources, the first 40 ‘Tejas’ LCA to be inducted in the Indian Armed Forces will cost roughly $33.3 million excluding its development cost. As for the development cost of the ‘Tejas’ LCA, the overall figure is to the tune of $3.8 billion which is a 3000 per cent hike from the cost during the conception of the project over two decades ago. The sanctioned cost includes the fighter’s naval variant, which will run till December 2018.

The ‘Tejas’ has carried out around 1,420 flights with 10 prototypes till date. The full-scale engineering development (FSED) Phase-I till March 2004 cost Rs 2,188 crore. The Phase-II, to be completed by December 2012, will cost another $1.

[PIB] Nearly three decades after it was first conceptualized, the Initial Operational Clearance for the Light Combat Aircraft was accorded today when the Defence Minister Shri AK Antony handed over a formal “Release to Service Certificate” of Tejas aircraft to the Chief of Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal PV Naik, at a function in Bangalore. The “Release to Service certificate” is prepared by Regional Center for Military Airworthiness, an organization under CEMILAC (Center for Military Airworthiness and Certification) which has thoroughly scrutinized the entire design, development, equipment testing and the results of flight testing of all the systems of Tejas over the last several months. This is the first time an indigenously designed and developed military fighter aircraft is being certified for Air Force operations. This occasion marks a very important achievement in the design and development of Tejas in particular and military aviation in the country as a whole. After this, Tejas aircraft will be available for use by the Indian Air Force Pilots.

BANGALORE: India's indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas, which obtained its initial clearance to be eligible for flying by the Indian Air Force (IAF) last month after 27 years in the works, needs more improvement, defence minister A K Antony said Monday.
"The Air Force wants some more improvements to be incorporated, and I am sure the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) will address those concerns too," Antony said, inaugurating an international aerospace seminar ahead of AeroIndia here.
Tejas, which has witnessed a 3,000 percent jump in its development costs, is expected to be inducted into the IAF around December 2012 when the air force would have two fighter squadrons operating the aircraft from Sulur near Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu.
The cost of the aircraft development has shot up from the initial Rs 560 crore allocation in 1983 to Rs.17,269 crore now.
The single-engine, multi-role fighter is powered by the US General Electric's GE-F-404-IN-20 engines.

New Delhi – After the handover of the first  ‘Tejas’ Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) to the Indian Air Force (IAF) in January, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has now made an order of 24 additional F404-GE-IN20 from General Electric Aviation. These 24 after-burning engines would power the first operational squadron of Tejas LCA. These GE 404 IN 20 will be for Tejas Mark -1 LCA only while the 99 engines which were ordered earlier were GE 414-INS6 for Tejas Mark-II.

In January, the Tejas LCA was fitted with the F-404-GE-IN20 engine on a trial basis to conduct the final flight testing evaluation. The F404-GE-IN20 is the highest rated F404 model by General Electric and includes a higher-flow fan, increased thrust, a Full Authority Digital Electronic Control (FADEC) system, single-crystal turbine blades and a variety of single-engine features. The Tejas LCA has been accorded with the initial operational clearance (IOC) earlier this year.

According to the state-run Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), the indigenous Kaveri engine maybe ready for installation in 2018.

[Stratpost]

India’s negotiations with French firm Snecma for the development of a production version of the indigenous Kaveri engine to power military aircraft is in the final stage of cost negotiations, Defense Minister Arackaparambil Kurian Antony told the Indian Upper House of Parliament, the Rajya Sabha Wednesday.

Negotiations with Snecma are being conducted by a tender purchase committee with members from the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO), Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), the Indian Air Force (IAF), the Indian Navy and the Defense Finance Department.

“It is proposed to develop production version Kaveri (K10) engine on co-design and co-development basis with Snecma of France. The technical evaluation for this proposal has been completed. Tender purchase committee is negotiating the commercial aspects,” Antony said in a written reply during question hour.

He said so far, nine prototypes of Kaveri engines and four prototypes of Kaveri Core (Kabini) engines have been developed, and about 1,975 hours of testing have been conducted on Kaveri and its core engines at ground and altitude conditions.

NEW DELHI: With an eye on the future and fed up with the "bureaucratic culture" pervading Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), the country's only aircraft manufacturer, IAF now wants the control of the navratna defence PSU.
IAF has asked the defence ministry (MoD) to appoint one of its three-star officers, instead of a bureaucrat, as the chairman and managing director of HAL once the present incumbent Ashok Nayak retires on October 31.
MoD sources confirmed IAF had even proposed the name of present assistant chief of air staff (operations & space), Air Vice Marshal M Matheswaran, a top-notch fighter pilot now approved for the air marshal rank, for the HAL post.
"The matter is being examined...no final decision has been taken," said a source. Simultaneously, a panel of names has also been drawn up to include Pawan Hans chief R K Tyagi, a defence accounts service officer S N Mishra, who earlier was joint secretary (aerospace) in MoD, and MSTC chairman S K Tripathi, among others.

NEW DELHI: The "mother" could well become the "granny" of all defence deals in the years ahead. India is likely to go in for another 63 fighters after delivery of the first 126 MMRCA (medium multi-role combat aircraft) if the "timelines" for its other fighter development projects are not met, say top defence officials.
When the MMRCA selection process was initiated by the defence ministry in mid-2007, the overall project cost was pegged at Rs 42,000 crore, or $10.4 billion for 126 fighters. But it will zoom well beyond $20 billion, if India eventually decides to opt for 189 jets since inflation is also being factored in. Even with 126 jets, this is the biggest such fighter contract going around the world as of now.
This comes even as MoD is all set to open the commercial bids of the two jets left in the MMRCA fray -French Rafale and Eurofighter Typhoon -"within a week or two". Eurofighter Typhoon is backed by the UK, Germany, Spain and Italy,
MoD has already rejected "any scope for comeback" by the other four jets, including the American F/A-18s and F-16s, ejected out of the MMRCA race in April on technical grounds after gruelling field trials.

New Delhi – The visit of US President Barack Obama to India has positively affected the Indo-US defence ties and both countries are on the verge of finalising several trade pacts as well. As per the White House statement, India and the US have finalised agreements on two lucrative defence deals worth nearly $5 billion.

Firstly, US aviation major Boeing and the Indian Air Force (IAF) have reached a preliminary agreement on the purchase of ten C-17 Globemaster III military transport aircraft. The second major development is that India has also declared the lowest bidder and selected the US-based General Electric Company for a contract to provide the Indian Aeronautical Development Agency with 107 F414 engines to be installed on the indigenous Tejas light combat aircraft (LCA). The defence deal related to ten C-17 Globemaster III military transport aircraft is valued at approximately $4.1 billion and the deal for General Electric engines for Tejas LCA is around $820 million.

New Delhi — India’s homegrown single-engine multi-role ‘Tejas’ Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) is finally ready for induction into the Indian Air Force (IAF) squadron. The Defence Minister A.K.Anthony handed over the initial operational clearance (IOC) certificate to IAF chief Air Chief Marshal P V Naik at a ceremony in Bangalore.

While the Defence Ministry has given Tejas LCA the operational clearance, the IAF will now use the supersonic fighter and give the Final Operational Clearance (FOC) after some systems and manoeuvres are finalised. The FOC is expected to be achieved by the end of 2012. The IAF will deploy the aircraft at one of its bases in Bangalore so that support from the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) can be accessible to overcome any initial glitches.

According to sources, the IAF plans to induct two squadrons in IOC mode by the middle of 2011. The IAF has already placed the orders for 40 LCAs in March 2005 and they will be powered by the American General Electric GE-F404 engines.

New Delhi — India will soon have its very own radar-based electronic warfare system (EWS) to enable the Armed Forces with a decisive edge in futuristic warfare. The State-owned Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has initiated the development of the radar based EWS which will be ready by 2013.

According to the DRDO, the radar-based EWS will be ready in three years along with test-ranges in the Indian states of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

The cost of each testing range is roughly $45 million. As for the EWS systems, they would use electromagnetic spectrum for attack, protection and warfare support to destroy the combat capabilities of the enemy. Currently, a prototype EWS has been integrated with MiG-27 fighter for test flight. According to the plan, the EWS will be integrated with MiG-29, Jaguar, Sukhoi-MKI-30 of the Indian Air Force (IAF) and the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas by 2011.

As for the testing ranges being envisaged by the DRDO for the EWS, the Chitradurga aeronautical test range at the DRDO’s 4,000-acre campus in Karnataka and will be used for communication-based EWS.