NLCA with a load out of 1-800Ltr centreline drop tank, 4 BVR and 2 CCM would be decent enough for providing air defence cover for the carrier task force. How much internal fuel they carry would matter, though. ...
What would be the combat radius of such a configuration? 300km? 400km?
Depends on the internal fuel that the aircraft can carry. No one has those figures as of now. Only actual testing with progressively higher loads will give the final results. By the way, the Israeli self protection EW jammer pod also has to be added to the payload list.
If the NLCA is to get a limited serial production of hopefully upto 16 aircrafts, perhaps they will also get the upgrades that the MK1A will get.
while appreciatve of indian R&D and the progress in aviation tech... i have not quite understood why india need a/c carriers...to fight whom and where? the real fights are happening on the land and in the air .... and we are short of moolah for that ..guns....ammo...obsolete a/c !!! in a shooting match i think we will be focussed on defence of the a/c carrier rather than offense !!
^^ This is not the thread however to discuss about need for A/C.
Regarding the Aviation Progress/Development - Just look at the list of the programs which will be live in next decade alone.
- LCA MK1A
- MWF
- NLCA Mk1
- TEDBF
- AMCA
- LCA Trainers / SPORT
- ALH
- Rudra
- LCH
- LUH
- IMRH
- Tapas
- Ghatak
- Saras
- RTA-70
- HTT40
- IJT Sitara
- Super 30
And there will be a large number of supporting programs in R&D, weapons, aircraft systems/sub-systems and so on. The Golden age of Indian Aviation is about to begin.
And I am not even counting screwdrivergiri programs like C245, MMRCA (if it comes), Ka-226 (if it ever happens), NUH, 57 Naval Fighters (if it ever happenes), and secondary programs like AWACS/Tanker programs.
Once NLCA lands and takes off from INS Vikramaditya, India will become the sixth nation after Russia, United States, France, United Kingdom and China to have mastered the art of an arrested landing and ...
Well, China cannot be included in that list. They've built a reverse engineered Su-33 clone named the J-15. And then they've used it on board their carrier. That's like India copying a MiG-29K and calling it HF-XX and then landing it on a carrier..well, the MiG-29K and the Su-33 already have been widely tested on carriers and landing them on one is a well explored operation. No surprises there, since the aerodynamics of both platforms (and hence J-15) as well its carrier landing ability is well known. When China manages to do so with a navalised J-20 or FC-31 or whatever, then they'll have truly mastered all the various aspects of landing a NEW type on a carrier.
I wish you also could provide me with some sharp cutting no nonsense take on the sudden production of 8 JF-17s TRAINERS in 9 months at PAC Kamra and explained how come up Pakistan suddenly produced them so quickly. I am sure we pump SU-30s faster than them ********
A lot of people are suddenly impressed and canning our production schedule of the Tejas trainers.