http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Tejas-will-not-be-ready-for-war-before-end-of-2015/articleshow/20417626.cms?

Tejas will not be ready for war before end of 2015

NEW DELHI: Defence minister A K Antony last week expressed the hope that the indigenous Tejas light combat aircraft would finally get the final operational clearance (FOC) next year. But a hard-nosed “internal assessment” shows Antony’s dream will be shattered.

The single-engine Tejas, already 30 years in the making, will not become fully combat-worthy anytime before end-2015. “The reality is that the around dozen Tejas prototypes are barely flying a couple of sorties a day. The initial operational clearance ( IOC)-II has again already been pushed to November this year from the earlier June-July deadline. It will take at least 18 months from IOC-II to FOC,” said a source.

In fact, the foremost challenge before the new DRDO chief-cum-scientific advisor to the defence minister, missile scientist Avinash Chander, is to ensure the long-running, meandering Tejas project firmly heads towards completion because it’s absolutely critical for India to have its own home-grown fighter.

The Tejas LCA project was first sanctioned in 1983 at a cost of Rs 560 crore to replace the ageing MiG-21s. The overall programme will now cost upwards of Rs 25,000 crore if the naval variant, trainer and the failed Kaveri engine are also taken into account.

It was in January 2011 that Tejas got IOC-I, which was initially heralded as the “full and final IOC” by the combine of DRDO, Aeronautical Development Agency and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd till better sense prevailed. The fighter can be certified as fully airworthy only after it passes the IOC-II stage.

But there are still “several basic problems” — leave alone complex issues — that continue to dog the fighter despite it having clocked over 2,000 flights. “Tejas still cannot taxi back after a sortie since its brakes have to be first cooled with compressed air. It has major fuel gauge inaccuracies. Moreover, its radome (radar cover) is defective with large electromagnetic signal losses,” said another source.

The light-weight Tejas will be ready to go to war only after the FOC, which will include integration of all weapons and other systems to ensure it can fire guns, rockets, laser-guided bombs and BVR (beyond visual range) missiles as well as undergo air-to-air refuelling.

IAF has earmarked the Sulur airbase in Tamil Nadu, near the Bengaluru HAL facilities where the fighter is being built, to house the initial Tejas squadron inducted in the IOC-II configuration to resolve “the expected teething problems”.

The force has so far ordered 20 Tejas in IOC-II configuration, with the American GE-404 engines, and another 20 in FOC. As per current plans, IAF will order six Tejas Mark-II squadrons (16 to 18 jets each), with the more powerful GE F-414 engines, once the fighter is combat-ready.

T-129 ATAK

^^ Love the cool retro Airwolf theme tune in the T-129 video 😎 One of my favourite TV shows as a kid.

AlphaBravo, Thanks on the update.

You’re welcome, but I only really gave my own opinion, can’t really speak for the PAF. My own interests come from following the good work that Alarn Warnes (former editor of AFM) does on reporting about more regional airforces around the world. His book about the PAF, which came out a few years ago, is a good read, but admittedly, conditions have changed somewhat since the book was released.

“On the other hand India has purchased mainly Russian Hardware. Which, has not turned out so well………..”

Turned out pretty well when they beat US supplied Pakistan, repeatedly 🙂 .

Depends what you mean here. The PAF achieved a 3:1 kill ratio against the IAF in 1965. They didn’t fair too well in 1971, but I believe still achieved higher number of kills against the IAF.

http://www.acig.org/artman/publish/article_324.shtml

http://www.acig.org/artman/publish/article_327.shtml

It has what is called a hybrid with 1 digital channel and 2 mechanical. From an article that was published in a Croatian magazine..

So a modern digital FBW could be provided if required, but so far no sign of that for JF-17 Block 2.

Yes, I’m fully aware that the JF-17 has a quadruplex digital FBW in pitch only, but analogue FBW in roll and yaw. But that isn’t the question I asked (almost 1 YEAR AGO!!). I was referring to whether it’s CG/CL are offset.

The TWR is actually above 1, as I understand from a respected Pakistani source, but I admit I don’t have any links to prove that. On a different note, here is a limited comparison that may interest you: http://www.grandestrategy.com/2012/03/43939282-comparison-of-jf-17-other.html

I bet your so called “respected” source is some PAF fanboy from PakDef forum called “Munir”, but going by official specs, even the PAC website has the TWR at 0.95.

http://www.pac.org.pk/jf-17

No many religions have morals because failure to live up to the morals has just reward for eternity.

If there is no action/reaction, there is no reason not to do anything.
If there is no after life, then only a fool does not get what ever thrills the one wants out of life.
Dead is dead, so do not worry about “after wards” go for it. The man with the biggest gun makes the rules. If one does not like the rules, eliminate the rules makers and make new ones.
That is the difference between religions that believe in after life and persons who think everything is the result of an accident where ones comes out of nothing and returns to nothing.

Makes me wonder why atheists are such pansies that then drop their pants and squat for powers that be.
Get some balls and change the world, absolutely nothing to lose as life is only as good as one lives it
Better short and glorious than long boring years of having to drop one’s pants and squat when ever told to, as the atheists do now.

Hell, Satanists have more balls but then that is just another religion.

Well, you could argue that the Catholic and Orthodox churches simply “dropped their pants and bent over” for the powers that be during the early 20th century in the face of Atheist powers like the Nazis and Communists. Didn’t really see much “balls” from the organised religions then, nor during the religious sanctioned hundreds of years of African slave trade, so much for the higher morals of the religious authority.

Most of the Western world is moving away from religiously derived moral codes and moving towards a more humanistic approach of organising their societies, with practising religion on the decline and rising atheism.