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

[uddu]

Everyone would love to have a more capable fighter in numbers with the IAF. Let the MK2 fly first, then we can order 97 more. Until then delaying/reducing MK1s make us end up with Na Ghar ka Na Ghat ka situation with neither MK1s nor MK2s.

[maitya]

We are almost there with Kaveri. The dry engine is now ready. Looks like it nearly matches the required thrust for Mk1A. But instead of testing it in the air, our people want to test it directly on Ghatak as per the report. I do not see a reason not to test it and address any issues that may arise actively. Develop a suitable afterburner, test it thoroughly until all issues are resolved, and build Mk1As and Ghatak as if there were no tomorrow. We are in control of the Western borders and most of the sea lines as well.

For many years, we had been hearing about the IAF's desire to have light, medium, and heavy fighters. Suddenly, there is no desire for a cheap, lightweight fighter. We are not hearing it at all. Why? There are no import options available, so we do not want any. MK1A with the Kaveri engine will be totally ours. We can make any number we can't and sell it to whoever we want. Imagine the export opportunities we can get with that.

One minor point that normally gets overlooked:
The Fan of KDE is a new design - it has higher degree of distortion tolerance, tailored for serpentine intakes of Ghatak - however std Kaveri doesn't require that much of distortion tolerance level.
So I'm wondering why can't a brand new Fan design (wide chord blades etc) is done, which pushes the Fan SPR to ~4 (from current 3.6). This will straightway, bump-up the dry-thrust levels, maybe around ~5-6% (of course, being ultra-low BPR design, the thrust increment will be modest, compared to say a 0.35 or 0.4 BPR design), which is like ~52KN (compared to 49.5KN now) dry.

Enough for Mk1/MK1A, when considered along-with the flat-rating feature - maybe they are waiting for Brahmos Aerospace to deliver an improved AB section etc.

[Bharadwaj]

DEF secy speaking at NDTV defence conclave: first two mk1a hopefully will be delivered sep end with full weapons integration. The order for 97 will ONLY BE SIGNED AFTER THIS MILESTONE.





https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/first-2 ... _topscroll

"The intent is to provide enough visibility to HAL to perfect this platform. About 38 are already in service, another 80-odd are being manufactured; 10 of them are ready, and two engines have been delivered so far. Hopefully, the first two of those are going to be delivered with weapons integration this September. We will do the contact signing next month," said Mr Singh during a fireside chat with Vishnu Som

[Cybaru]

Good to know 10 more can be in service soon!
Milestones are always good - help people drive product to completion.
By next time this year we should have more Tejas than Mirages! That will be a good day.

[Yagnasri]

which is like ~52KN (compared to 49.5KN now) dry.

Enough for Mk1/MK1A, when considered along-with the flat-rating feature - maybe they are waiting for Brahmos Aerospace to deliver an improved AB section etc.

We are not hearing anything about AB by Brahmos now. Hopefully they are working under the radar as of now.

There were also reports that the earlier Kaveri (or is it the Dry one designed for Ghatak?) had already exceeded expectations and was delivering 5.2 or something similar.

One more thing we hardly get to know is that the GE 404 lose some 10% of its performance levels under Indian conditions. We may need to consider minor modifications and extensive testing requirements for Kaveri, as well as suitable testing infrastructure, to ensure it meets the performance levels required for MK1A.