Rajat Pandit.
At a time when the US is fast-developing hypersonic bombers capable of flying at 20 times the speed of sound, India’s largely home-grown Tejas light combat aircraft will “not be ready to go to war” anytime before 2015.
The latest assessment of Tejas, which has now clocked close to 2,000 flights in its almost three-decade-long developmental saga, holds the light-weight fighter will be capable of firing guns, rockets and BVR (beyond visual range) missiles as well as air-to-air refuelling only by 2015 at the earliest, say defence ministry sources.
That is when the single-engine Tejas will become fully combat-ready after getting the final operational clearance (FOC). The review suggests that the fighter is again headed to miss a deadline in its convoluted tale that began in 1983 as an endeavour to replace the ageing MiG-21s.
So far, Tejas has achieved only initial operational clearance-I (IOC-I) to certify it’s airworthiness. “The IOC-II for the fighter, which also includes integration of some weapons like laser-guided bombs, was pushed back to December 2012. But now, it will only be possible by July, 2013, or so after over 200 more sorties. FOC will come only two years after that,” said a source.
India will eventually spend over Rs 25,000 crore in the entire Tejas programme, including the naval variant and trainer as well as the failed Kaveri engine, as earlier reported by TOI. But more than the cost, it’s the time taken to develop a fully-tested, weapons-ready fighter that underlines how critical defence projects should not be run.
While it is true that developing a supersonic fly-by-wire fighter from scratch was never going to be easy, the entire project could have been managed much better. IAF, on its part, is supporting the fighter programme since it knows the country’s need to have indigenous weapon systems is strategically critical.
Plans are underway to upgrade the Sulur airbase in Tamil Nadu, which will house the initial Tejas squadrons inducted in the IOC-II configuration, at a cost of Rs 524 crore. While the first 20 Tejas will be powered by the American GE-404 engines, the next six Mark-II squadrons (16-18 jets in each) will have the more powerful GE F-414 engines. The $822-million deal for 99 GE F-414 engines is likely to be inked soon, with additional engines being ordered at a later stage.
The number of fighter squadrons in IAF will further dip to 31 over the next three to four years with phasing out of the aging MiG variants, further impacting IAF’s combat capabilities, before it slowly begins to pick up with new inductions. Projections show IAF will have the required 45 squadrons only by 2032.
-via The Times of India.
This research activity is like this only , in research activity our brain drain is main enemy , our Sunitha is in space , she is from NASA, and in NASA 22% of scientist’s are from Indian origin , but what we can do , good peoples are living organisation and settling out side for their betterment .Our governments can’t stop this .
And more over the after the 1998 sanctions our research activity’s speed is come down , we have to break this intellectual blockade .
And truly speaking no one wants that India should come front of all the other nations , so like this problems will created to us .
so we have to under go this “sade sathi of Rahu”, we can hope we will over come .
hi
No one in the world is going to offer the best technology of fighter aircraft’s to you , they only wants business ,then they will not give you the parts , technology ,even nuclear weapon carrying systems etc. ,so we have understand the difficulty .
This project is started in mid 80′s and going on like this , our governments, PSU’s to put some kind of the interests.Up to that time things will be like this “aye ram Gaya ram “attitude .we cant change the systems .
we have to undergo the “prismatic time “
INDIAN TANKS FROM 60′S, APC FROM 1970.S TEJA.S FROM 80;S SHAKTIMAN & NISSAN VEHICLE 70.S[DIED IT OWN DEATH]GUNS 1960′S IFG[ HEAVY AS GCF] AMMUNITION SINCE 1960 NOW WE WANT IT FROM USSR. ORDANCE BOARD ALONG WITH ORDNANCE FACTORIES WHO FAILED IN ALL ABOVE EQUIPMENT ARE NO GOOD TO OUR FORCES. THE WHITE ELEPHANT SHOULD BE TAKEN AWAY FROM MINISTRY OF DEFENCE & BE ALLOWED TO COMPETE AS CIVIL FIRMS UNDER MINISTRY OF INDUSTRIES . ENOUGH SHELTER HAS BEEN GIVEN LET THEM SURVIVE AT THEIR ON CAPABILITIES
OUR PSU.S HAS MADE MOCKERY OF SYSTEM. THEY ARE NOT CONCERNED WITH SAFETY & SECURITY OF NATION.BRING THEM UNDER SPECIAL ACT TO PRODUCE RESULTS IN TIME BOUND .LAZY TO BE PUNISHED & SENT HOME