LCA news and discussion

[KrishG]

Finally! Congratulations!

Now I am hoping to see some nice pics very soon!

[Manish_Sharma]

Badhais to the children of Samrat Bharat! Swadeshi ki Jaykar !

[K Mehta]

Chaiwala News Network reports,
LSP 3 is being held back by just one component problem (not radar related), It is on test already on iron bird LSP-3 may be flight tested the same or the next day after that component is qualified. The component is almost ready, so lets hope for the best.

So my chaiwala was right, the guys are getting desperate to get to the finish line!

[RKumar]

Congrats .. to all ... BF rites, HAL, DRDO, GoI, MoD and IAF

BTW .. thanks to K Mehta for breaking news before hand

[Rahul M]

celebrations on hold till we get info on the radar.

[sum]

celebrations on hold till we get info on the radar.

Yeah, real obfuscation regarding whether its a TFTA ( yahudi), SDRE or a SDFA( SDRE+TFTA) radar?

Of course, that doesn't mean that the event shouldnt be celebrated.

[Sid]

celebrations on hold till we get info on the radar.

Jeez.. damn yindoos are hard to satisfy

Although tarmak007 has already quoted Israeli Elta MMR on radar front, but that part is still hard to digest.

[RKumar]

celebrations on hold till we get info on the radar.

[Bharadwaj]

Wow! Great job Ada Hal etc etc....Saw a grey tejas fly over here in whitefiled at around 10:45 not sure if this was the chase bird or lsp3.

[Sid]

Handsome Tejas LSP-3 kisses the sky with sweetheart Elta radar
http://tarmak007.blogspot.com/

India's LCA-Tejas programme inched closer to IOC on Thursday when an LSP-3 kissed the skies with an Israeli multi-mode radar (MMR), which answers to the call Elta. On the successful flight of the LSP-3 Director, ADA, Mr P.S. Subramanyam, has said that this is the “culmination of the efforts of the Tejas Team comprising of members from HAL, IAF, CEMILAC, DG-AQA, DRDO labs, PSUs, coordinated by ADA”. The test aircraft was flown by Wg Cdr G Thomas, VM of the National Flight Test Centre (NFTC) at ADA. The flight lasted for 52 minutes.

[Bharadwaj]

Handsome Tejas LSP-3 kisses the sky with sweetheart Elta radar
http://tarmak007.blogspot.com/

India's LCA-Tejas programme inched closer to IOC on Thursday when an LSP-3 kissed the skies with an Israeli multi-mode radar (MMR), which answers to the call Elta. On the successful flight of the LSP-3 Director, ADA, Mr P.S. Subramanyam, has said that this is the “culmination of the efforts of the Tejas Team comprising of members from HAL, IAF, CEMILAC, DG-AQA, DRDO labs, PSUs, coordinated by ADA”. The test aircraft was flown by Wg Cdr G Thomas, VM of the National Flight Test Centre (NFTC) at ADA. The flight lasted for 52 minutes.

I saw lsp3 on the first flight then . There was no Babying the aircraft. The turn for approach was downright tight.

[Nihat]

It was long long LOOOOOOOOONNNNGGGGGGG............... wait for LSP - 3. Delighted to finally see it up in the air.

I'm more hopeful than ever before about IOC by Dec. now. Eagely awaiting weapons trials with BVR's

[Bharadwaj]

It was long long LOOOOOOOOONNNNGGGGGGG............... wait for LSP - 3. Delighted to finally see it up in the air.

I'm more hopeful than ever before about IOC by Dec. now. Eagely awaiting weapons trials with BVR's

Is BVR capability part of IOC?

[karan_mc]

Vodka party tonight , but still no clarity over radar yet is it a JV MMR or base line 2032 ?

[SSridhar]

Congratulations to all those who worked to get LSP-3 up.

The Vayu 2009 issue says clearly that the radar is ELTA 2032 with antenna & radome from LRDE and scanner from ECIL. It had also spoken of other things besides the radar, VOR, ILS, TACAN and RWR on LSP-3.

[Jagan]

..and the pics from Simba-ji - same ones from tarmak.. but you know where they are from

http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/Image ... Tejas/LSP/

[chackojoseph]

Indian Light Combat Aircraft's LSP - 3 takes to skies

You can click the picture to enlarge. I am working on other pics. Will post asap.

[Anabhaya]

Excellent. For the next two years I can count the following challenges team Tejas Mk.1 will have to surmount:

* IOC by end of 2010 and FOC in 20-24 months?
* Certification of both A2A and A2G modes of MMR-Elta ASAP.
* Complete delivery of 1st squadron within a year - 20 airframes, and have them wake up people all around Sulur AFS.

When they manage this they'd have the Mk.2 to work on. New engine, new radar - some redesign and the entire IOC/FOC process all over again! The Tejas has a long long way to go...thus at least we've now got one less thing to worry about.

[chackojoseph]

Pictures of Tejas LSP-3

I am still captioning them I guess you don't need captions

[symontk]

Congrats to all who worked for LCA

Missed due to lot of important meetings, but heard the sound of the aircraft

[Asit P]

Hip hip Hurray.

[manoba]

Too many surprises.

The LSP-3 was chased by a Tejas Trainer flown by Gp Capt RR Tyagi and Wg Cdr (Retd) PK Raveendran.

The test aircraft was flown by Wg Cdr G Thomas, VM of the National Flight Test Centre (NFTC) at ADA. As per procedure the first flight was accompanied by a chase aircraft which was a Tejas Trainer flown by Gp Capt RR Tyagi, the Chief Test Pilot and Wg Cdr (Retd) PK Raveendran SC, the Group Director (Flight Test). The test flight was conducted from the Telemetry station by the Test Director, Wg Cdr S Toffeen, under the supervision of Air Cmde Rohit Varma VM, the Project Director (Flight Test). The flight took off from HAL airport in Bangalore and all the objectives of the flight were met within the duration of 52 minutes.

Source

Congratulations to the entire Tejas team.

[Rahul M]

isn't that WingCo G Thomas who was CO of No20 sqdn that went to red flag ?
so now we have a very experienced MKI pilot in the test flight team as well ! there are or have been pilots from M2k, Mig-29/27, jags and SHars in the LCA test flight team.

[Pratik_S]

Still there is no news on the radar, these guys have done a lousy job on providing info. I am trying to get more info on the radar. But its a great achievement and congo to all the people involved.
Angle of Attack

[marimuthu]

The Vayu 2009 issue says clearly that the radar is ELTA 2032 with antenna & radome from LRDE and scanner from ECIL. It had also spoken of other things besides the radar, VOR, ILS, TACAN and RWR on LSP-3.

If antenna,radome and scanner are from India, and only the back-end processing is Israel, then why it is called ELTA 2032.

[Manu]

Congratulations to HAL, DRDO, ADA and the many thousands of determined folks who have worked quietly behind the scenes and suffered much criticism, including from the likes of me.

Fingers crossed for IOC before 12.31.2010.

[SSridhar]

If antenna,radome and scanner are from India, and only the back-end processing is Israel, then why it is called ELTA 2032.

That's why it is called MMR. The reference to ELTA-2032 is to distinguish it from 2052.

[sivabala]

If antenna,radome and scanner are from India, and only the back-end processing is Israel, then why it is called ELTA 2032.

That's why it is called MMR. The reference to ELTA-2032 is to distinguish it from 2052.

I spoke to a naval officer who is an electrical engr in IN.
According to him, in news they show photo of radar as rotating dish. However in actual, RADAR is a box deep inside a ship that process the signals from the dish and paints on the screen. For the defense people, the brain of the RADAR is that box. The transeivers (i.e. rotaing dish in ships) is just referred as antenna. From the above news report what I could get is, our MMR development was not successful (one issues mentioned was heat dissipation problem). However, they used the transceivers and the scanner developed for MMR with the brain being ELTA 2032 or 2052 for LCA. Somebody with RADAR knowledge can give more insight.

[Singha]

having just one a/c up with radar is not too good. given the HW is basically 'set' now, why not refit another of the LSP with
radar. SW updates and fixes can be burned into both as needed.

[Gagan]

Congrats HAL, ADA, LRDE, ECIL, DRDO and ELTA.

This is wonderful news.

So finally LCA is is fully configured, WgCdr Thomas, must have experienced what the LCA looks like in its full bloom.

Jai Hind!

[Carl_T]

any videos?

[Jamal K. Malik]

After LSP-3,Ateast I can sleep without looking again and again in LCA news and discussions thread just for new informations.
Thanks ADA, LRDE, HAL and others

[D Roy]

I think the day we can all pop the bubbly is when

1. India becomes really competent in gas turbines

2. AESA radars.

Frankly speaking India crossed the threshold on design / aeronautics a while back.

The mantra for the next ten years should be propulsion propulsion propulsion.

Once you are super good at propulsion you can bloody well build anything around it.

[Samay]

Handsome Tejas LSP-3 kisses the sky with sweetheart Elta radar; ADA boss 'PS' says IOC within sight

Start the assembly lines

[sum]

Too many surprises.

The LSP-3 was chased by a Tejas Trainer flown by Gp Capt RR Tyagi and Wg Cdr (Retd) PK Raveendran.

Amazing...an all Tejas tag team out there in the sky. Jingo khush hua!!!

having just one a/c up with radar is not too good. given the HW is basically 'set' now, why not refit another of the LSP with
radar. SW updates and fixes can be burned into both as needed.

Some jingoes are very hard to please

[Bharadwaj]

I think the day we can all pop the bubbly is when

1. India becomes really competent in gas turbines

2. AESA radars.

Frankly speaking India crossed the threshold on design / aeronautics a while back.

The mantra for the next ten years should be propulsion propulsion propulsion.

Once you are super good at propulsion you can bloody well build anything around it.

The mantra has always been and will always be "money and time" . Fortunately despite all psy ops consecutive Govts have remained committed to the overall goal and some credit must go to the political establishment for not being inept enough to pull the plug. We have a supersonic, maneuverable and most importantly what appears to be a safe and reliable combat aircraft for which the Nation has sovereign technological ownership. The missing bits in the puzzle will come in its own time.

[Kanson]

AESA radar is in parallel development....unless there is any official declaration abt the MMR type..cat can jump to anyside of the fence.

Yes the backend (Elta) relates to the brain. Whatever be the share of India in MMR radar...it is indeed a rejoicing moment for all those involved in the project.

[Nihat]

The Light Combat Aircraft (LCA Tejas) Limited Series Production (LSP) 3 aircraft took off for the first time today. This is the ninth test vehicle to join the flight line to undertake development flight trials of the Light Combat Aircraft Tejas towards operational clearance for induction in the IAF by the end of the year. The LSP-3 is a quantum jump in terms of the equipment fit on the aircraft. It is almost the final configuration including the new air-data computers, Israeli Elta multimode radar, new communication and navigation equipment and radar warning receiver. With this successful flight, the LCA programme is very close to Initial Operations Clearance (IOC), to be achieved by December. The remaining effort is mostly flight testing and demonstration of sensors and weapon performance.

The test aircraft was flown by Wg Cdr G Thomas, VM of the National Flight Test Centre (NFTC) at ADA. As per procedure the first flight was accompanied by a chase aircraft which was a Tejas Trainer flown by Gp Capt RR Tyagi, the Chief Test Pilot and Wg Cdr (Retd) PK Raveendran SC, the Group Director (Flight Test). The test flight was conducted from the Telemetry station by the Test Director, Wg Cdr S Toffeen, under the supervision of Air Cmde Rohit Varma VM, the Project Director (Flight Test). The flight took off from HAL airport in Bangalore and all the objectives of the flight were met within the duration of 52 minutes.

With this flight the total number of test flights accumulated across nine test vehicles of the Tejas programme has reached one thousand three hundred and fifty and has logged about 800 hrs of flight.

from livefist

[Rahul M]

Too many surprises.

The LSP-3 was chased by a Tejas Trainer flown by Gp Capt RR Tyagi and Wg Cdr (Retd) PK Raveendran.

Amazing...an all Tejas tag team out there in the sky. Jingo khush hua!!!

having just one a/c up with radar is not too good. given the HW is basically 'set' now, why not refit another of the LSP with
radar. SW updates and fixes can be burned into both as needed.

Some jingoes are very hard to please

that too flown by someone as senior and accomplished as WingCo George Thomas (not that the other pilots in the NFTC team are any less)

just goes on to show the level of support IAF is providing to the project.

[Raja Bose]

isn't that WingCo G Thomas who was CO of No20 sqdn that went to red flag ?

IIRC it was Ajay Rathore who headed the Red Flag team. I may be mistaken (due to old age etc.)