Friday, July 1, 2016

HAL Tejas supersonic fighter jets inducted into Indian Air Force







HAL Tejas, also known as the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) project, has been inducted into the Indian Air Force. Two of the single-engine multi-role fighter jets, pegged to be the world's smallest and lightest supersonic fighter, were handed over to the Air Force. They will be stationed in Bengaluru, as part of the first Tejassquadron called 'Flying Daggers'.

The Origin: Hall Tejus



In the year 1969 the government of India on the advise of Hindustan aeronautics limited accepted it’s proposal to design a fighter based on the Air staff requirement on a proven engine. HAL completed the study for the fighter in the year 1975 but the project failed due to various international political and economic reasons as an ideal foreign engine cannot be procured.




In the year 1983 when IAF realized the need for a new combat aircraft for two main reasons. The first reason was to replace the Mig-21s inducted in the beginning of the year 1965 which formed the backbone of the IAF was soon approaching the end of their service life The “Long Term Re-Equipment Plan 1981” noted that the MiG-21s would be approaching the end of their service lives by the mid-1990s, and that by 1995, the IAF would lack 40% of the aircraft needed to fill its projected force structure requirements.

The LCA Program


In the year 1990 the final design for the Tejas was frozen it was going to be a small tailless delta winged machine with relaxed static stability (RSS) and control-configuration for enhanced maneuverability. Soon after the design finalization a review committee was formed in the month of May 1989 to report the thing necessary like infrastructure, facilities and technologies in India had advanced sufficiently in most areas and that the project could be undertaken. Project definition commenced with France’s Dassault Aviation in a reviewing/advisory role; this phase, costing 560 crore (US$85 million), was completed in September 1988. the route of a two-stage full-scale engineering development (FSED) process was opted for.

Design and Capacity



The Tejas is a single-engine multirole fighter much like the Mirage-2000,F-16,Saab Gripen and FC-1 xialong of Chian except one difference which is that it features a tailless, compound delta planform.



The Tejas is made up of light composites which helps in making the aircraft lighter.
The LCA is constructed of aluminium-lithium alloys, carbon-fibre composites (C-FC), and titanium alloy steels.
The Tejas employs C-FC materials for up to 45% of its airframe by weight, including in the fuselage (doors and skins), wings (skin, spars and ribs), elevons, tailfin,rudder, air brakes and landing gear doors.
The aircraft is fitted with a night vision compatible glass cockpit with Martin Baker (UK) zero-zero ejection seats.
The cockpit has two 76mm×76mm colour liquid crystal multifunction displays developed by Bharat Electronics and CSIO developed furnished by ELBIT DASH helmet.

Weapons




The aircraft has eight external hardpoints to carry stores, with three under each wing, one on the centre fuselage and one installed under the air intake on the port side.


A 23mm twin-barrelled GSh-23 gun with a burst firing rate of 50 rounds a second and muzzle velocity of 715m a second is installed in a blister fairing under the starboard air intake.The aircraft can be armed with air-to-air, air-to-ground and anti-ship missiles, precision-guided munitions, rockets and bombs. Electronic warfare, targeting, surveillance, reconnaissance or training pods can be carried on the hardpoints. Drop tanks can also be carried.

In October 2007, the aircraft successfully test-fired the R-73 air-to-air missile.The Vympel R-73 (Nato codename AA-11 Archer) missile is an all-aspect short-range missile with cooled infrared homing. It can intercept targets at altitudes between 0.02km and 20km, g-load to 12g and with target speeds of up to 2,500km/h.





Reference:
http://www.ndtv.com/delhi-news
http://www.defenceblog.com
http://www.google.com

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