The JF-17 is closer to that in capability than to a F-16A or even a Mirage 2000. At least it is a modern replacement of the MiG-21/F-7.

The plane will have some serious weapons in the future. It already has BVR what F16A lacked. It will have cruis missile and other smart weapons liek he Brazil anti radiation missile. BUT… It is not in operational service yet. The first squadron will be up and running in 6 months so let us wait and see how the second batch will evolve. First batch are most of the time not much. Starters. Gripen A, F16A, Mirage2000H, mig29A, S27-Flanker or F18… All evolved and the second and surely third MLU showed real impressive planes. Same will probably happen with LCA. Surely the naval variant will be more impressive then the plane sofar. Let us wait and then compare with other examples.

Really?

The Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) project was sanctioned in 1982 with a budget of Rs 560 crore to develop a state-of-the-art fighter aircraft to replace IAF’s MiG-21 fighters. Close to Rs 6,000 crore have since been spent but the aircraft, rechristened as Tejas, still remains under development. It is currently being tested with a substitute engine (F404-GE-IN20) and makeshift avionics package.

…..The minister was only continuing the legacy of bafflements about the LCA project ever since its launch. When originally launched in 1983 with the objective of replacing the Indian Air Force’s fleet of MiG-21s, the outlay for the LCA development was rupees 560 crore. It has been spent ten times over till now! The project was renamed ‘Tejas’ (glory) during Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s regime.

…..A separate project by another DRDO white elephant, Gas Turbine Research Establishment (GTRE), was mounted to develop the indigenous Kaveri engine, supposed to power Tejas. Even as the original budget of rupees 382 crore was repeatedly revised to reach rupees 2,840 crore, the power plant is nowhere near reality after eight years. Its main turbine disintegrated in the test bed due to elementary design and quality compromises. But, GTRE’s brilliant scientist bosses were unwilling to be criticised.

Still the LCA is according a trusted website better then Gripen (NG) so compared to that it will have export potential. Every defence project is having troubles with budget. Cause it is the latest tech. Kaveri needs time. Look at how much time it took to improve rd33. I do not hear someone talking about that. It could be used in LCA-N.

LCA is significantly under budget, although it is late by 3-4 years.

Late is relative. They IAF (ab)used the Mig21 to max and it is right on time to be replaced by a multi role plane. And as long as it has no opponents to fight it is on time. Saab did decades to make Gripen and India (according to BRF) did achieve that same without the crashes. It designed its own engine instead of redesigning foreign. It made a whole new industry and after this many planes are realised. The price is right, a lot cheaper then average foreign fighterjet at the moment.

-The insurgents can trace (even if it is scramled it is there) the opponent. They are capable of doing things not known. Suprise is less. What is next? Laser to destroy the UAV sensor? Sam? The reality is that if they had only AK47 and caves then they would have been dead long time ago.

-The UAV is controlled by sat. I do not think they can control the UAV or the sat. It takes a lot of bandwith so they might saturate frequencies.

That is not a bad deal. Consider engine (5-7 million) and avionics (?) to be the most expensive (=import) but making it surely a brand new plane… You cannot buy many planes for this prize. It probably adds cause production setup is now included in the prize… It settles between J10 and fc1.

Well, you must remember, these countries are all too aware of how long it takes to destroy ~450 aircraft in modern jet combat (roughly 4 hours, give or take).

Cheers,

Logan

How would they defeat nuclear nation with just conventional power? Air assets are nice but just playing a minor part. The Irac war showed the opposite what the western politicians and media were telling. You can destroy antire nation with boycots… You can go grounding it with no fly zones. You can go in with overwhelming air power with stealth to B52… You still need huge army to get a foot on the ground. And even then you have to accept losses and have something called retreat strategy… I think there is a reason that Israel has huge air asset (unbelievable huge compared to anything and payed by American taxpayers) but I think it is just to compensate army size. The moment any opponent gets nukes or BM it will be over. That is exactly the reason that Israel is so much involved in destroying Iran asap. Is succeeded in Irac. And if you look between the lines then Iran is the next opponent. And the Israeli’s are more then happy to provide India weapons to counter their next objective.

I think it would be safe to recognize Israel and settle the whole scene before things get out of control.

I presume you’re talking about the Mirage-2kH..(M2K-H)..the Snecma M53-P2 is a generation older than the M-88 which is the latest engine that Snecma produces. They don’t even produce these engines anymore. Even if they did, its weight is much higher than any of the engines that have ever been considered (F-414, F-404 IN20, F-404F2J3, EJ200, M-88, RD-33MK, etc.). So, even while its thrust in AB is quite good, its not possible to use this engine in the Tejas without all-up weight going up significantly which will defeat the purpose of the extra thrust.

Totally clear. I just thought that it was not more weight and with Mirages having nice power it should have done as good on the Tejas. Besides that it would be cheap (selling production line which is not used and probably upgradable to better performance) then getting a latest with all the whistles but also the higher price. On the other hand we can skip cheap for any plane now. We hear about AESA, top engine, top avionics and that surely is already the price go higher. But still a lot lower then average you can buy from others.