The LCA project started in 1983 with main goal to replace the old MiG-21s in the 1990´s. If it then took 5 or 10 years for the designers to finally come up with a design and the government to give the final go ahead was just too bad for India, the end result was the same. The LCA never did replace the MiG-21s in the mid 1990s.
Now, 25 years after the LCA project started not a single MiG-21 have been replaced by it. And if the LCA ever comes to series production (like right now despite it does´nt even meet the most basic requirements) the first operative LCA squadron may enter service in 2015 and replacing the MiGs.
That is only 20 years behind schedule…
A success? Not in my book.
If the only reason to start the LCA project in 1983 was to create an indigenous aviation industry not even then is it a success. There are faster and cheaper ways to get there.
I know it´s not the easiest thing in the world to create a fighter, the industry that lies behind it and all that from almost scratch and I off course applaud India for making that decision decades ago. But that does´nt change the facts when it comes to the LCA project. I think that if India had chosen another path in 1983 (like a tight collaboration with an experienced western aviation company) they would have achieved results faster and cheaper. And the know-how gained from such a project could very well have resulted in a indigenous next-generation fighter being in the pip-line at the moment.
Maskirovka I agree with most of what your saying but not the timeframe, Tell me how do you start a project without a funding? It bogs down to the differences in how PSU and companies like Boeing et al work, when they says work started that means work started with all up funding (that is at companies risk), when we say work started its not started till there is a official sanction or budget for that matter.
And as i said comparing the timeframe if you go by, LCA was never stated to reach IOC/FOC before 2010 right on its very first flight which one known in 1999-2001, so yes by basic timeframe if you go by its late, whereeas if you go by when the thing flew first and add up 6-8 years back for its design and developement (with the fact we did not had the infrastructure), i dont think its that late for a country who is making its first plane after HAL’s adventure with a lot of planes was officially scuttled.
But it definitely remains to be seen what happens to LCA after it reaches IOC, only then I can agree with you that somehow somewhere it has failed to meet what it was supposed to do. I’ll keep my fingers crossed till then.
Sign In
