Integration problems for India ?

This is the first step to a forthcoming marked achievment.

The LCA has made A maiden flight.

Performance of this craft has been over debated so, I will not bore anyone with comparable stats.

The question now is what will happen in terms of India’s ability to integrate present designs with future development.

India now finds itself in the position that China found itself in 1994. A design for its future aircraft is here. Non-power components have now been tested in impact and in response during flight. Capability of frame and loaders have been checked in flight.

Now, the question. The same question that China and Pakistan had different answers to in 1994.

Integration with the systems are to be used in the production. If this question is not answered correctly, 2005 would see the LCA as a tech-demonstrator.

There is a considerable flaw in trying to integrate US-support systems for engines in order to fit those of primary Rusee components.
China has found that to be difficult with providing suitable component support for Pakistan, both in the Karakoram and FC-1 projects.
However, it is not a system that is unmanageable as the indications on the J10/Lavi have proved to be less problematic.
The key area in question is the Indian reproduction of the US flight control mechanism.
Though the prowess of Indian coding is never in question, the problem of integrating it with a Russee based Engine management control system is going to be a tall task.
(Pakistan’s involvement in many PLA/PLAAF and naval projects has been to deliver such systems and had taken many “trials” to get to a competant level in the early 90s).

Though the initial problems with the European wing components and composites are less treacherous they are a concern when India, inevitably, tries to replace them with Rusee technical specifications (without which the whole future production of the aircraft would be jeopardised).

The Rusee Tu-16 testing of the Kaveri and its extensive modification of the Mig 23 to retrofit the F404s has been stalled many times since its first testing in 1995.
The first operational engines though went through extensive tests in 1996 took another 4 years to get flight tested.
Without further extensive testing by Rusees the transfer from the F404s to Kaveris might become further lethargic.

India has to concentrate at the same time on improving the present flight control system which Northrop has dropped while they are integrating (as I said above).

In short, India is now where China was in 1995 with respect to integration. However, India is working at a steamroller pace that was lacking in the Chinese front untill Pakistan’s testing of the avionics.
India would not suffer from extensive shortage of support on any front, unlike the Chinese and the Pakistanis, but they might have to rethink many aspects of the craft.