HAL Tejas | Updates, News & Discussions-[Thread 2]

[MirageBlue]

3 x Tejas Mk1 fighters from No.45 'Flying Daggers' squadron

 

[MirageBlue]

Alright folks, the Defence Minister has just cleared the decks with AoN granted for 97 more Tejas Mk1A. That will take the total number of Tejas Mk1 and Mk1As to 220!

Deal to acquire 97 more Tejas Mk1A, 156 Prachand gunships cleared

New Delhi:
In a big boost for the military as well as defence production in India, the Defence Acquisition Council has cleared the procurement of 97 additional Tejas aircraft and 156 Prachand attack helicopters. Both aircraft are indigenously developed and the value of these deals is around ₹ 1.1 lakh crore.

The Tejas Mark 1-A fighters are being acquired for the Indian Air Force and the choppers for the Air Force and the Army. The Council has also cleared additional deals and the total value is estimated to be around ₹ 2 lakh crore.

If this happens, it will be the largest order book that indigenous manufacturers have received in India's history. What has been granted now, however, is an Acceptance of Necessity and contract negotiations will take place with manufacturers after that. This will take time, but the period may be far shorter than it would have been if foreign manufacturers were involved.

Once a final price is negotiated, the last sign-off will be done by the Cabinet Committee on Security. The final induction into the military may take at least 10 years.

A major upgrade of the Sukhoi Su-30 MKI aircraft is also expected to be cleared on Thursday. The IAF has over 260 Su-30 aircraft and the upgrade is expected to be an indigenous one, with India-developed radars, avionics and subsystems.
..

 

[Lord Of Gondor]

Tejas flying with the AIM-132 ASRAAM!
Image Credit to Twitter user Deepesh(@Distressed007)
Missile is very very impressive, some details from Vayu here:

MBDA’s AIM-132 ASRAAM(Advanced Short Range Airto-Air Missile) entered service with the Indian Air Force (IAF) as a ‘fireand-forget’ Close Combat Missile (CCM) for self defence of IAF-operated Jaguar strike fighters, in the process progressively replacing the earlier R.550 Magic. As the Jaguar is essentially a low-flying aircraft, the threat is projected to come from higher altitudes, so two missiles are carried on the Jaguar’s over wing stations. Over wing pylons require quick missile separation and ASRAAM being the fastest, lowest drag CCM weapon extant, inherently provides safe separation, unmatched “snap-up” capability, plus guaranteeing “first shot first kill” to avoid getting involved in an unnecessary dogfight.

MBDA’s ASRAAM is presently also in service with the RAF and RAAF, which is an optimum solution given its ability to passively provide short to medium rangeprotection. Reportedly, much impressed by its performance, the IAF have initiated proceedings to integrate the missile with its Sukhoi Su-30MKI and Tejas LCA fleet as well. It should be noted that although labelled as a CCM, the AIM-132 ASRAAM actually qualifies as a Near Beyond Visual Range Air-to-Air Missile (NBVRAAM) with its range exceeding 25 km.

The 2.9 metre-long, 88 kg missile is optimised for best possible pre-merge performance, following the dictum that whoever gets the first shot off is likely to win the encounter. Therefore the missile is built from the outset to acquire an opponent and successfully engage it at maximum range. Still, should the first shot not succeed, the missile will then provide close-in performance to destroy the target aircraft at close quarters.

Key to the missile’s acquisition range performance and high 90 degrees off boresight lock-on capability is its 128x128 element Focal Plane Array (FPA) Indium Antimonite Imaging Infra-Red (IIR) seeker mounted on a two axis gimbal. The device is manufactured as a single Indium-Antimonite die and in effect is a single chip low resolution thermal imager sensitive in the 0.5 to 5.4 micron band. FPA dramatically increases sensitivity because it continuously “stares” at the target, thus exposing a much larger detector area for much longer to the target’s emissions. Moreover, because it uses a television style scan, rather than conical reticule scan, it is for all practical purposes immune to flares as well as blinking Infra-Red (IR) jammers.The only robust countermeasure is a laser with sufficient power to blind or burn it out. Because in effect the FPA produces a TV picture of the target scene, it is virtually impossible to break lock by violent manoeuvres at any range, also since the gimbal mechanism will adjust line of sight of the FPA. The target airframe is tracked using contrast lock techniques similar in concept to those used by the AGM-65 Maverick ASM, and therefore escape from seeker coverage is geometrically impossible – providing the airframe can sustain this. The ASRAAM warhead is a compact DASA-built blast fragmentation design, fired by a Thorn-EMI laser proximity fuse, with a backup impact fuse. This highly accurate ASRAAM is in effect a “hittile” as the warhead serves the purpose of guaranteeing the otherwise almost certain kill produced by a direct hit with a high velocity missile airframe.

The selection of AIM-132 ASRAAM for a considerable proportion of IAF platforms is indicative of the fact that enhanced situational awareness in modern air warfare has resulted in the probability of majority of aerial duels taking place in near beyond visual range, where a combination of Active Radar Homing (ARH) Beyond Visual Range Air-to-Air Missile (BVRAAM) and IIR homing NBVRAAM is likely to dominate the proceedings.

 

[MirageBlue]

View attachment 1033893
Tejas flying with the AIM-132 ASRAAM!
Image Credit to Twitter user Deepesh(@Distressed007)
Missile is very very impressive, some details from Vayu here:

The ASRAAM is key to the Tejas Mk1A since it allows for dual carriage on the outermost pylon. The other outermost pylon will then carry the DRDO ASPJ or the Elta EL-8222 WB SPJ pod.

This is truly big for the Tejas Mk1A program and will be a capability that will likely move to the existing 2 Tejas Mk1 squadrons as well.

 

[air marshal]

 

[Faceless]

The ASRAAM is key to the Tejas Mk1A since it allows for dual carriage on the outermost pylon. The other outermost pylon will then carry the DRDO ASPJ or the Elta EL-8222 WB SPJ pod.

This is truly big for the Tejas Mk1A program and will be a capability that will likely move to the existing 2 Tejas Mk1 squadrons as well.

Are there any future plans for dual rack pylons for Astra mk1 and mk2 on the mid board pylon.
Maybe A derivative from the Tejas mk2

 

[air marshal]

 

[MirageBlue]

Are there any future plans for dual rack pylons for Astra mk1 and mk2 on the mid board pylon.
Maybe A derivative from the Tejas mk2

Not seen any such mockup or design. It might well be that like you said, once it is designed and developed for the Tejas Mk2, it may be used on the Tejas Mk1A too.

 

[MirageBlue]

Tejas Mk1 flew close to 1400 km in a single hop without refueling to reach Dubai Air Show

Showcasing its long-range capabilities, the Indian Air Force (IAF) flew Tejas Mk-1 jets close to 1,400 kilometres in a single hop from India to Al-Maktoum International Airport to participate in the Dubai Air Show.

This impressive display of long-range capability, positions the Tejas favorably for potential export opportunities.

Group Captain Dinesh 'Danny' Dhankhar, the commanding officer of the No. 18 Squadron 'Flying Bullets,' of which the Tejas jets that participated in the airshow belong, shared insights into the capabilities of the Tejas jets during an interview.

Ferry Range

Group Captain Dhankhar revealed that the Tejas, with three drop tanks, is able to fly a maximum distance of more than 900 miles or 1450 kilometres.
He said for this airshow, the squadron flew to Al Maktoum International airport, a distance of 850 miles (1,368 km) directly, without needing any air refueling.
This is significant since concerns were raised in various quarters about its maximum strike range owing to its small size. Notably, Tejas is the smallest single-engine jet in the world, in its class, measuring only 13.2 meters in length, with an 8.2-meter wingspan and 4.4 meters in height.

Take-Off Performance

Asked about the Tejas flying capabilities, Dhankhar said that Tejas is by design a highly lethal aircraft and has very nimble flying characteristics and take-off performance.
Expanding on its take-off performance, he said that the Tejas is capable of taking off from runways of 1,400 to 1,500 feet (457 to 609 meters) in length, which is the shortest in its class.

Indigenously Developed Fly-By-Wire (FBW) System

He added, "We are here to showcase its high rate of turn capability, as well as its high rate of climb performance."
The Group Captain credits its relaxed static stability and the indigenously designed fly-by-wire (FBW) controls for making the aircraft highly maneuverable and agile.
It is worth noting that the indigenously developed FBW software system so advanced that when it was tested in the United States on the F-16 Variable In-Flight Stability Test Aircraft (VISTA) testbed, it actually performed better in some flight regimes than with the F-16's own FBW software.
India indigenously started the development of the FBW system in the early to mid-90s. In 1992, India set up a dedicated National Control Law (CLAW) team under the National Aeronautics Laboratories (NAL) to develop the FBW software.
Since this type of futuristic control system had never been developed in India, and there were no simulators in India, the project team approached the United States weapons major 'Lockheed Martin' for design consultancy and testing.
However, India was sanctioned by the US following the Pokhran nuclear tests in 1998. This stopped the cooperation altogether. The Indian scientists, on the other hand, were able to develop the FBW system without any foreign help.
Finally, when the sanctions were lifted in 2001, and the FBW system was tested on the F-16 VISTA testbed, it was highly praised.
All the pilots who flew the F-16 testbed with Indian FBW praised the system, reportedly saying that the F-16 flew better than with its original control law in some flight regimes.

Tejas Jet Engines High Thrust

Dhankhar also states that the Tejas is capable of high rate of turn, as well as, its excess reserve of thrust makes it capable of undertaking high rate of climb.
The high thrust is provided by US-made General Electric (GE) F-404 IN20 jet engine, providing close to 85 kn of thrust.
Its aerodynamic design and compound delta platform with carefree handling provided by the engine make the aircraft capable of undertaking a high rate of roll even at lower speeds, he adds.

Man-Machine Interface

When asked about the man-machine interface of the aircraft, Group Captain Dhankhar states, "When it comes to man-machine interface, I think this is one of the best platforms."
"Initially when we inducted aircrew from Mig-21 background, we were thinking that they are going to take extra effort or extra time to settle down on the aircraft, but to our surprise, we realised that no extra effort was required. That was thanks to the man-machine interface" of the aircraft, the Group Captain states.
"We realised that the systems replicated as such on the multi-function display (MFD) in the cockpit, it's a fully glass cockpit, and it is very easy to decipher all the systems of the aircraft," he adds

 

[air marshal]

 

[Silicon0000]

How many of HAL Tejas right now in service?

 

[Chandragupt Maurya]

How many of HAL Tejas right now in service?

40

 

[Archie]

How many of HAL Tejas right now in service?

The IAF currently operates two squadrons of Tejas Mk1 with around 36 Jets( 32 single seat MK1 and 4 twin seat trainers) and 184 of them are on order ( 14 twin seat trainers and 170 combat coded Tejas MK1A)
A comprehensive upgrade program is planned in 2026 for the first 2 squadrons ,that includes a complete overhaul of the aircraft's avionics systems. This upgrade will bring the older Mk1s closer in capability to the newer Mark 1A variant

IAF Prepares to Deploy First Squadron of LCA Tejas Mark 1A Jets, Upgrade Older Mk1s – Indian Defence Research Wing

idrw.org

Tejas Mk1 to get upgraded to M1A standard, Major Servicing due – Indian Defence Research Wing

idrw.org

 

[MirageBlue]

How many of HAL Tejas right now in service?

32 single seaters and 2 twin seaters have entered service so far. The remaining 6 twin seaters will be delivered to IAF by March 2024.

Tejas Mk1A deliveries are to start from February 2024.

 

[WAJsal]

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