india invites LCA partnerships, cross post by K M Guru of Indiawingroups.

[Guest guest]

India invites LCA partnerships - 14 February 2001 BAE Systems of the UK and

Russia's Sukhoi design bureau have announced their interest in creating

partnering agreements with Indian industry covering the continued development

of the Aeronautical Development Authority's Light Combat Aircraft (LCA).

Defence Minister George Fernandes recommended during the Aero India 2001

exhibition in Bangalore that India should establish links with other Asian

countries and South Africa to further the LCA project. Other excerpts from the

net: (not in any order)

 

India's only other tryst with building fighter aircraft - the HF-24, which was

developed with German help in the 1960s - was a failure, because of an

underpowered engine. With the deficient engine making it difficult even to

effect a take off and landing , the plane was a sitting duck during hostilities

with Pakistan.

Given the delays and the bungling, many in the IAF are surprised that the LCA

actually flew. As the pilot who commanded the first flight, Wing Commander

Rajiv Kothiyal of the National Flight Test Centre, ADA, told Frontline, "The

fact that we put it together and it flew is in itself creditworthy."

Even so, HAL, which has not been exposed to competition, has been able to dump

its aircraft consistently on the IAF. The HAL-manufactured propeller trainer

HPT-32, which over the past decade has suffered from engine flame-outs, and the

HF-24 are examples . The inaugural flight of another high-profile HAL product,

the Advanced Light Helicopter, took place in 1992, but it is still to be

inducted into the IAF. According to Air Marshal Philip Rajkumar, Head of the

National Flight Test Centre, ADA, in the cas e of the LCA the IAF has been in

the know at every stage of the project's development and "operational inputs

were also fed in at every stage".

Since HAL has not produced more than 12 aircraft in any given year, it would

take 18 months for it to provide the aircraft required for one IAF squadron.

Even if production got under way in 2012, it would take over 16 years to fulfil

the IAF's demand for 200 LCAs. By then the LCA would become obsolete.

FOLLOWING Wednesday's announcement that the Ministry of Defence is not averse to

looking for co-operation in the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) project, the French

company, Snecma Moteurs, has been holding talks with the departments of the

Ministry of Defence on working together on the Kaveri engine programme of the

Gas Turbine Research Establishment (GTRE). Snecma has agreed to supply turbine

blades and digital engine control systems for the Kaveri engine. Initially,

these would be sourced for the six prototypes as part of the ongoing

development programme of LCA.

THE Defence Minister, Mr George Fernandes, today indicated the country would

encourage private sector participation in areas such as the production of Light

Combat Aircraft and Advanced Light Helicopters and dockyards for making

warships. Mr Fernandes, who made this observation both in his speech at the

Aero India 2001 inaugural function and later at a news conference here today,

said the country was looking for partnership for both co-development and

co-production, which could be joint ventures. He said this could also develop

into co-marketing globally. However, these partnerships should mutually benefit

both India and the international partners, he added.

One needs to go back about a quarter century to understand the background to the

LCA programme. As Pushpinder Singh has pointed out in Vayu, that was when the

IAF drew up an Air Staff Target spelling out the need for a fighter to replace

the MiG-21 which, even today, continues to be the backbone of the air force.

The agile new aircraft was essentially for air defence with a secondary close

air support capability. It had to incorporate state-of-the-art avionics and

weapon systems while being pre-eminently affordable, considering that at its

peak the IAF's order of battle included over 400 MiG-21s in 19 squadrons. This

Target had become an Air Staff Requirement by the mid-1980s calling for a far

more potent fighter than the "Super Gnat'' originally envisaged. That was also

when the LCA programme was launched with the Aeronautical Development Agency

(ADA) formally constituted to manage it.

Some of those critical of the LCA do not seem to realise that affordability is

something that even the United States has learnt to accept as shown by the

launch of the Joint Strike Fighter programme last year. The JSF is in some ways

less capable than the US Air Force F-22 or the US Navy's F/A-18 E/F, but its

affordability makes it unbeatably essential to both services.

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