Air Force Tejas Mk1A: News & Discussions: 02 January 2022

[fanne]

i would fire ss missile, pin point accuracy at all airports where stealth fighter will land or take off from. That included hardened pens as well.

[fanne]

The above is an existing capability that we have today!!

[Cain Marko]

Reality: Enemy has 3x Gen5 fighters in numerical superiority.

That's a problem only if you play the game on their terms.

A stealth fighter will enable them to swat down our Rambhas & Katrinas, and allow them to dominate our skies - that's the theory.

But from an engineering perspective what they are doing is not allowing an X-band radar to come within detection & fire-control range

But then, what if you choose to solve that engineering problem. For example:

1) high power ground based radars that operate in non-stealth bands. A dense grid of multi-static radars that are networked in real-time and able to immediately detect stealth aircraft (without a fire control solution). That's the awareness part

2) since India is a "missile superpower" we play to our strengths; we launch a large diameter long range SAMs towards the predicted direction; a 2-way data-link will reorient the missile if any change in direction is observed; a second /third missile may be launched from a spatially separated (but networked) launcher if the energy loss on the first missile is considered significant. Basically you form a kill box

3) once the missile is within a certain range, it turns on the large diameter nosecone's X/Ku band fire control radar and homes in; if this does not provide enough range, then perhaps we consider launching missiles in pairs...each pair has an Imaging-IR missile and an GaN AESA RF missile to ensure maximum kill probability; even better, let the missile pair talk to each other and share seeker information so the missile with the highest sensor score (GaN AESA RF or Imaging-IR) controls the other missile

Use the IADS to do the job and make it very hard for the stealth adversary to escape the kill box.
In conjunction, launch a Tejas Mk1A with a CATS Warrior to make life harder for the J20 fat dragon.
Reserve your 300+ Su-30/Rafale fighter fleet to launch standoff cruise missiles at the enemy and not to engage within your airspace. That's how you maintain a flexible deterrent

I think this was the plan with the iir mica and even the r27 ir version. It's also what the Russians are trying with the s400 + nebo radar system. It'll be hard to manage this with rf seeker on sams by themselves. But with a decent iir seeker and a combined salvo, it might be a good idea. The radar grid has to be very dense and multidirectional. The acquisition of the voronezh system along with the s400 and the local equivalent of the ultra long sam might just be the answer. Nevertheless India will need some form of high end stealth platform as tip of the spear, even a silver bullet force.

[ashishvikas]

L&T Prepares First Private-Sector Wings of Tejas

https://alphadefense.in/index.php/2025/ ... -lt/?amp=1

[uddu]

L&T Prepares First Private-Sector Wings of Tejas

https://alphadefense.in/index.php/2025/ ... -lt/?amp=1

Tejas flies on L&T wings as HAL completes production of last IOC fighter...

Read more at: https://www.onmanorama.com/news/india/2 ... ghter.html
Bengaluru: The last Light Combat Aircraft Tejas Mk1 fighter from the Initial Operational Clearance (IOC) block has flown out of the hangars of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).

And most significantly, it (SP-16; SP stands for Series Production) flew on the wings made by Larsen & Toubro (L&T). This is a major step in HAL’s efforts to outsource Tejas parts to the private industries, in line with the Make in India mandate.

Engineers in HAL familiar with the Tejas Mk1 production confirmed to Onmanorma that the L&T wings came to LCA Division in January this year.

“The full structure (both left and right wings) came from L&T and our teams completed the wiring and pipeline work within two months. This is a significant development in Tejas production,” an official said. Tejas SP-16 first flew on March 11 while SP-15 on March 22.

[Jayram]

Thats a 2020 news article!! Anatha K's beard was still in its infancy

[fanne]

I have a sneaky feeling that two parallel timeline universe have merged, some people are from the other universe. In that timeline all of this has already happened

[uddu]

Thats a 2020 news article!! Anatha K's beard was still in its infancy

Thats what it is. This wing thing by private players is not something new.

[maitya]

Jokes apart, there's a significant confusion wrt all these recent news items on HAL's private partner participation in the Mk1A production.

It's pretty easy (simple googling will do) to cite new-items from 2019-2021 timeframe, where the very same private partners were supplying the very same major components, for the SP series production campaign.
viz, Front Fuselage by Dynamatic Technologies Limited, Rear Fuselage by Alpha Tocol, Center Fuselage by VEM Technologies, Wing-set by L&T, Coimbatore and Tain-fin and Rudder by TASL and NAL.

Here's one such news item: Vayu Aerospace - Jan 2021 (Refer to pg 30)

So now, the question arises, what's new or different that has happened with the MK1A production campaign, that exactly the same "news" is getting published again - and worse with monikers like "... for the first time ..." etc.

Maybe there's something fundamental that we are missing here ...

[Rakesh]

From the official Twitter account of the MoD. What a new low of shamelessness from the MoD.

Quoting an article from TOI-let to celebrate the arrival of the very delayed 2nd turbofan from GE.

https://x.com/DefenceMinIndia/status/19 ... 5973444086 ---> India gets second GE-404 engine for LCA MK-1A, to receive 12 more by end of current fiscal.

[maitya]

X-Post from the Tejas Mk2 Medium Weight Fighter: News & Discussion thread...

https://x.com/dotcom_1106/status/1942109709357715704 --->
...

Ok, so Arithmetic/Unitary-method time folks:

First notice the play of words in HAL CMDs quote above:
1) Wrt Engines: 1st in April'2025, 2nd by end-Jul'25 and 12 within this calendar year.
Which means 10 more between 1st Aug'25 and 31st Dec'25 - which is indeed 2 engines/month.

2) Aircraft Delivery - 12 aircraft will be delivered by end of this Fin year (i.e. 31st Mar'26).
Which means utilising these 12 engines (1 - Mar'25 + 1 - Jul'25 + 10 Aug-Dec'25), 12 MK1As will get delivered by Mar'26.

Out of which, 6 were recently paraded in public, in Bengaluru and presumably 1 more already ready in Nashik.
So these 7 are awaiting these being-delivered-engine integration and thus minimum 5 more platforms should be in final assembly, awaiting roll-out and flight testing (using Reserve engines).

Now what is left unsaid is, what these 3 Assembly lines will be doing between Jan'26 - Mar'26 - after all, to deliver something by Mar'26, it needs to be out of the assembly line and deep into flight testing by say Dec'25, isn't it?

And remember, 8-Platforms/Year/Assembly-line implies 2-Platforms/Qtr/Assembly-line. And there are 2.5 Assembly lines currently functional (will transition to full-fledged 3 Assembly lines from FY26-27 onwards).

[ashishvikas]

From the official Twitter account of the MoD. What a new low of shamelessness from the MoD.

Quoting an article from TOI-let to celebrate the arrival of the very delayed 2nd turbofan from GE.

https://x.com/DefenceMinIndia/status/19 ... 5973444086 ---> India gets second GE-404 engine for LCA MK-1A, to receive 12 more by end of current fiscal.

^^ While tweet was unwanted, it’s good that it’s being tracked by mainstream media and top MOD level.

[Prem Kumar]

^ I heard that the MoD got rightfully blasted for this on Twitter, for celebrating this shameful episode & for trying to pass it off as an Atmanirbhar project!!

[Prem Kumar]

....
Maybe there's something fundamental that we are missing here ...

The only thing worth celebrating would be a reduction in assembly times: say from 2 months to 2 weeks (due to automation, robotics, process improvements etc)

If an Elon Musk or Baba Kalyani took over HAL, they'd show how its done. And how the anemic 12 planes a year per assembly line, can be tripled

P.S. Of course, its a different matter that the order-size doesn't justify/motivate any such increase in rollout rates

[mody]

Another article on the wing assembly delivery by L&T.
https://www.msn.com/en-in/lifestyle/pet ... dcfe1&ei=9

There is definitely something that doesn't add up. What about the 32 IOC/FOC aircrafts? The wings for those were made by L&T or by HAL or now L&T has changed now changed the manufacturing process and there is something fundamentally different from the earlier wing assemblies supplied for the IOC and FOC aircrafts.

The article says that L&T will be supplying 4 sets of wings this year and will ramp up production to 12 sets.

Some more clarity is required on this issue.

[Tanaji]

What happened of those aircraft that were fitted with category B engines? Are those now being passed off as new deliveries?