I might be wrong but it appears that navy are more interested in a naval variant of LCA than AF being interested in a land-based one. BTW someone might be able to carify if IN has already allocated some funds for naval LCA?

that is just the way the IN has always been. being the smallest of the 3 service arms, they’ve learnt to make do with less money and in many cases the only way to get what they want is to fund indigenous programs and actively participate in their development. the IN has been very supportive of the N-LCA and they did allot funds for its development, but I dont recall what the figure was.

besides, they’re not that badly affected by the delay in the N-LCA program right now, they have other things to worry about- they have the SHar upgrade going on, are facing a spares shortage on that front and now will recieve MiG-29Ks almost on schedule, which wont have a carrier to fly on till 2012.

Did you see the Flankers at Car Nicobar?

that was Car Nicobar ? I did’nt know whether it was somewhere in the South or Andamans. so, the Jag IM is also at Car Nicobar then.

the Tejas when it’ll enter service will be have RAM coated composite skin (not a biggie, even MiG-27s in IAF service have RAM coating applied), treated canopy (technology for that has been developed already).

approx 690 mm antenna MMR with some Elta 2032 technology, BVR R-77/Derby, WVR R-73/ Python equipped and a RCS that’ll be smaller than most contemporary fighters thanks to higher composites and very small size. add to that avionics that will be as good if not better than the Su-30MKI which is easily the best fighter in Asia right now.

its a no match.

You might as well compare the all metallic, JF-17 with its smoky RD-93 engine that’ll give it away from a good distance if the BVR shot misses. anyhow, even that’ll be only when it finally enters service. :rolleyes: you ought to compare the MiG-21 Bison to the F-5BR, then you’re talking sense, Edited for trolling. Consider yourself warned.

some nice pics from Shiv Aroor’s blog.

http://livefist.blogspot.com/2008/03/more-random-photos.html

IAF’s No.1 Tigers Squadron has now turned 75 years !

some pics from a ceremony held at Maharajpur AFS Gwalior

http://livefist.blogspot.com/2008/04/tigers-squadron-is-75.html

hi quality LCA image

Abhimanyu, I personally have no doubt that ASR of Tejas would be superior to Mig-21s. Its simple logic for this to be the case, otherwise IAF would have simply replaced the old Mig-21s with new ones. However, your post raises an interesting point. If the ASRs of Tejas nearly match or exceed the Mirage-2000 in technology, are you referring to original M2K or later updates of M2K? OTOH, if MRCA is to be as late as you are saying-in this could actually happen in every likelihood-what would happen to IAF’s overall strength in between? Am i right in assuming that they would be forced to look for further stop-gap solutions, i.e. possibly buy more MKIs etc and/or upgrade more Mig-21s?

With regard to ASR, soes IAF want LCA to be a fully fledged true multirole machine from its induction or are they planning to take a machine which is able to do a few things like air defence (to start with) and gradually evolve into a true multirole platform?

Vikas, the ASRs would have stated what the IAF wanted in terms of payload (which is much greater than a MiG-21’s, but lesser than a Mirage-2000 thanks to smaller size), ease of maintenance, performance (turn rates instantaneous and sustained, climb rates, etc.), range, etc. most of which (except size) would be in the same ballpark as the Mirage-2000.

and this would’ve been based on original Mirage-2000 data since the ASRs were drawn (and revised, such as the deletion of the R-60 and its replacement by the R-73 which caused a good deal of re-design) in the mid-late 1980s, when the IAF had its Mirages in service for half a decade. Anyhow, except for avionics upgrades, even now the Mirage-2000-5 retains the nimble airframe and performance of the original Mirage-2000. unlike the F-16, the Mirages have not been subjected to major thrust increases or major payload increase, so the performance should have remained quite the same.

also, the Mirage was used as a benchmark quite early in the test program. I remember how a test pilot had described the Tejas’ landing speed as being lower than that of a Mirage-2000 and described it as being easier to land. the cockpit was noisy at that time and it was subsequently taken care of.

HuntingHawk, those pics were on BR quite a while ago..there’s more too.

Wellknown footage of a fire-work display. What a pity, because it does not show the reality. Two retired Sukhois were prominently displayed and some extra fuel added around those. It had been more intresting, when the real damage from gun-fire had been shown at the remains from that after a more realistic strafing run. In that footage the fuel was ignited, when the first rounds hit the prepared ground in front of the target fuselages.
It seems there is world-wide behavior to please the crowds or higher military with such Hollywood staged fire displays.

it was a post to show the MiG-23s underbelly getting covered by fire and smoke at the time of it firing its cannon, as GarryB had mentioned in his post. a pity that you did’nt see that and instead look at the destruction of a few heavily fueled Su-7s.:rolleyes:

On the face of it, an engine swap for the entire MiG-27 fleets looks like a waste of the Indian taxpayer’s money. Admittedly, some of these airframes are fairly new compared to the long retired Russian MiG-27 fleet, but as a single role, relatively short range type, the MiG-27 looks increasingly obsolete.

Instead of engine swap with very modest gains, it would be better to fund a single multirole type to replace both the MiG-27 and Jaguar. The IAF has far too many times different types of limited capability fighters – and far too many aging airframes.

It would not be unreasonable to double the number of airframes in the MMRCA program to 250+ so that high operating cost, aging types such as the MiG-27, Jaguar and early model MiG-29 could be replaced earlier than otherwise might be possible.

since you’re very concerned about India taxpayer’s money, just to let you know, this project has not been authorized for the IAF as yet..this is something the engine bureau is doing on its own to prove the soundness of the concept of swapping the Al-31F-3 in place of the R-29.