Curious to know which HMDS is selected for Tejas.
Also want to know the effectiveness of Derby BVRAAM with ELTA 2052 in comparison to RBE2AA and meteor .

DASH HMDS from Elbit.

Already integrated with the Mk1 and tested out extensively with the R-73E.

What is not yet fully clear is whether the newer i-Derby BVRAAM is the one that is to be used. Meteor’s range and no-escape zone is way larger than the i-Derby which is a medium range BVRAAM.

Flying Daggers and Tejas landed Langkawi for #LIMA2019 @IAF_MCC

The gent on the right in the orange overalls is the CO of No.45 Flying Daggers, Grp Capt Samarth Dhankar.

Tejas LA 5010 is first of its type to land in Langkawi, Malaysia for @LimaExhibition Two aircraft made 3 circuits before landing.

Alert 5 Twitter link

LCA Tejas Mk1 of No.45 Squadron ferried to Langkawi for the LIMA-2019 airshow

#LIMA2019 : IAF’s Made in India Light Combat Aircraft (LCA)-Tejas, is all set to participate in Langkawi International Maritime & Aerospace Expo 2019 (LIMA). Participating team members along with 02 Tejas aircraft ferried out today from AFS Kalaikunda for Langkawi, Malaysia

Tejas- LIMA 2019 patch

None of the partner nations have an air delivered nuclear weapon in their inventory as they are reliant on US bombs. It’s just like saying F22 is not capable of firing a R77.
It’s a matter of integration a US bomb (under NATO control) on Europe aircraft, nothing to do with the warhead on the bomb. You wont be able to plug and play a non integrated bomb on the Rafale without going through integration with French help. Same would have been the case with Eurofighter.

Ra’ad missile on Mirage 3/5 could technically carry a tactical nuke, but that was integrated after almost 50 years of use and developing a whole lot of in-house infrastructure around that aircraft, hence didn’t need French help.

Yes, and none of the Eurofighter partner nations even bothered to look at having the their Typhoon fleet capable of carrying the B61 nuclear bombs. Not till last year, when Germany began exploring the possibility of that being done. So while its “theoretically possible” to be done, it has not yet been done for any of its customers, whereas the Rafale is France’s primary nuclear delivery platform. Should be obvious to anyone as to what is a less risky option for India.

Germany presses US on potential Eurofighter nuclear role

Although not a nuclear power, Germany hosts some U.S. nuclear warheads under NATO’s nuclear-sharing policy and operates a number of Tornado warplanes that can deliver them. New jets will need to be certified by Washington to carry out nuclear missions, a process which can take years.

Germany’s defence ministry sent a letter to the U.S. Defense Department in April asking whether certification of the European jets was possible, how much it would cost, and how long it would take, the sources told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
..
Lockheed’s radar-evading F-35 fighter is already slated to have the nuclear capability in the early 2020s, while the Eurofighter would still need certification.

Airbus has said it is confident Eurofighter – a joint project with Britain’s BAE Systems and Italy’s Leonardo – could be certified by 2025. Sources familiar with the Eurofighter said it was possible to reconfigure the European jet to carry nuclear bombs.

But U.S. government sources say that schedule is ambitious given that the F-35 and other aircraft must be certified first. Washington has suggested it could take 7-10 years to certify the Eurofighter for nuclear missions, well beyond the Tornado’s retirement date, according to one German military source.

as far as how easy this would be …

GAF wants to know if its Eurofighters can carry US nukes

The process to make sure any of those planes could carry the B61 would likely include ensuring they could safely drop the bombs at all, as well as developing appropriate mission systems and software to enable this capability under various different attack parameters.

In addition, engineers would have to find ways to install the necessary systems and linkages so that the pilot can arm the weapon in flight. Each one of the bombs has a so-called “Permissive Action Link,” or PAL, that prevents the warhead from functioning until an individual puts in a specific code. You can read more about these safety features and other components of the bombs in this past feature.

Then again, to have the Typhoon wired for Indian nukes, the entire Eurofighter consortium would have had to give its approval, which is way harder than going with a nation like France with whom India already has experience in this area, given the IAF’s Mirage-2000s wired for nuclear delivery.

Cross posting from the IAF thread, since there is this dedicated LCA Tejas thread again.

From Shiv Aroor’s Livefist- he actually got to fly onboard a Tejas Mk1 twin seater (PV-5) at Aero India 2019.

As has been mentioned earlier, No.45 Squadron pilots love the Tejas and want more to be inducted quickly.

In other news, the Derby BVRAAM has been operationalised on the Tejas Mk1 fleet of No.45 Squadron.

Never a more urgent time to replace the IAF’s MiG-21s with India’s Tejas

Note: The seat incline is clearly visible in this last pic of Shiv Aroor in the back seat of the Tejas trainer.

At the recent Aero India 2019 show in Bengaluru, Livefist editor Shiv Aroor was invited to fly in a Tejas jet with chief of the National Flight Test Centre (NFTC) Air Vice Marshal Narmdeshwar Tiwari, a veteran Mirage 2000 pilot, who, in an earlier avatar, was mission leader during precision bombings of Pakistan Army positions on the famed Tiger Hill during the 1999 Kargil conflict. Passionate and committed to the Tejas, he balks when offered that the Tejas will be a solid replacement for the MiG-21.

“It is not just a replacement, it is a much more advanced aircraft with many more roles,” he told Aroor during their 30 minute flight in Prototype Vehicle 5 (PV5) over Karnataka in which Aroor was given control of the aircraft for several minutes.

Dr. Girish Deodhare, director of the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) that administers the Tejas program, is a man with a lot on his hands at this critical juncture for the project. But he’s also very pleased with feedback he has received from pilots of 45 Squadron, who, incidentally had brought a pair of LCAs to the Aero India show for display flights, a robust show of confidence in their new jet.

“The flight test team is entirely comprised of IAF pilots from different fighter types — there are Su-30 pilots, Mirage pilots and others,” Dr. Deodhare says. “So they know what they want. The experience of flying all those jets goes into testing the Tejas. It has helped refine the jet enormously. And that is why the feedback we’re getting from squadron pilots is so good. They love the aircraft and are waiting for more.”

…

The ADA and NFTC are certain that they can develop and test the LCA Mk.1A and Medium Weight Fighter at greater speed and with the benefit of hard experience with the LCA Mk.1. The heavy-lifting done in proving the baseline jet gives them the velocity and confidence to navigate the development of the LCA’s next two iterations, both significantly improved and battle ready jets on paper.

”The pitfalls are visible and known to us, and we now know how to avoid them,” says Air Vice Marshal Tiwari, who is currently involved with a gradual envelope expansion exercise that will allow the LCA to spread its wing into an even more capable jet. “Our testing has a total safety record and we have been careful to ease the LCA into its true performance capabilities. The results are very impressive.”

PAC JF-17 not to participate in LIMA-2019

Second air show where JF-17 participation was pulled out after Tejas presence was confirmed. Previous one was the Bahrain Air Show in 2017, which was the first airshow that the Tejas participated in.