Couple of points of the top of my head :

Hopefully the engine issue for the block 2 Tejas will be resolved come Oct. My personal choice would be the the EJ 200, just for its design, growth potential and weight. Think the choice would also include full Tot.
We could yet see a big choice towards the MRCA contract if the EJ 200 or the GE 414 is chosen.

With regards to the Kaveri, last heard the K9+ had achieved 90-95% of the design intent for wet thrust. There was to be some foreign collaboration with possibly Snecma to reduce the weight and get the reheat thrust up to spec, but there hasn’t been any official comment on that recently. Known as the K 10.
I still believe it’ll happen.
Lets not forget there is a Kaveri marine version supposedly undergoing trials as of late last year and supposedly doing well….so there may be some hope for GTRE staying in the picture as well.

Otherwise, great news for the LCA tejas. With 40 aircraft to be inducted in the 2013 timeframe and the new re-engined Tejas to be flying shortly after, it’s a awesome plan for the IAF ahead.
Although with CTOW weight of 9.5 tons and MTOW of 13.5…shouldn’t we start seeing the LCA Tejas closer now to a MCA Tejas instead?

You’re right, which is why we are finding a way to fix it. But let me ask you this. If someone misinterprets factual information in a way that leads them to draw a conclusion favorable to their own point of view, and you refer to them with: “You sir, are the wart”, are you not also violating the exact same rules you expect that person to follow?

Not unless his very existence on this forum seems to be to derail one particular thread with a one minded purpose. The difference is quality and History of postings involved. Any indian related thread and the same repeat copy and paste of dubious and discussed links takes place again.
I can’t believe that this hasn’t been picked up before, and inaction on this count serves nothing but to reinforce a passive agressive motif to quality posters debating sensibly for years. A wart? Nick’s being kind….I would used a few cancerous body parts myself…..

Can someone post the pics? It appears the links are not working right now….

Somehow these same arguments of not being in service keep coming up constantly to degrade the IAF, but people don’t seem to be taking things holistically….A time frame for induction has been shown for the Tejas….Its components and systems form the core of the fleet already being the Sukhoi MKI and upgrades across the fleet.

These include :

The upgrades for the Mirages
The upgrades for the Mig 29’s
The upgrades for the Mig 27’s
The quick design and testing of the IJT
Components for the hawk.

Clearly the IAF has a goal in mind and seems to be ontrack to squash a outdated airforce on its border….

In any case we don’t need 3 threads discussing the same thing…if you got a reply…please post on the MMRCA thread which is discussing exactly the same thing. Then there’s the IAF thread….

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?

I think you are wrong. So far the IAF has ordered 20 LCA’s excluding the 8 LSP’s with an option for 20 more for the first batch. 40+ GE 404 IN20 engines have been procured for the same…till the time the flat rated Kaveri gets online. Recent tests of the K9 from the last aero India were promising and a joint venture with snecma was written for.
Numerous IAF chiefs are confident of the Tejas forming one of the IAF’s arteries and the IAF team working with ADA are working to get the first squadron into service by 2009-2010.

Since we’re posting random articles of programs that are widely discussed in India by reporters here’s another :

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Guest_Writer/Light_combat_aircraft_Indias_finest_achievement/articleshow/2868305.cms

The aeronautical development agency’s Tejas light combat aircraft (LCA) is the only such fourth-generation aircraft to be developed by a Third World country — that too, without any experience of third-generation aircraft development. Experience with the 40-year-old second-generation HF-24 does not help. It is also the only such Asian aircraft with an indigenous design, engine, avionics, and the like. Lastly, it is one of only six such aircraft types in the world — the others being the F/A-22, the Typhoon, Rafale, Gripen and the Japanese F-2.

Importantly, a large number of advanced technologies and equipment for it have been developed indigenously — co-cured co-bonded composites, the mission and flight control computers, use of computational fluid dynamics for aerodynamic design, the fly-by-wire flight control system, full-glass cockpit, complex software, avionics integration, sensor fusion, and the like. These have greatly enhanced India’s technological base.

Interestingly, carbon fibre composites make up about 45% of LCA’s structural weight — about the highest for any such aircraft that makes LCA lighter by about 20% than a comparable all-metal aircraft, and makes it easier to manufacture due to its lower parts count. That will give LCA an exceptional payload/range performance. Though the smallest combat aircraft in the world, and single-engined, it will have about the same four-tonne warload as the twin-engined MiG-29. Its small size will also give it a low radar cross-section, making it more difficult to detect.

There have to-date been only two problems — both with systems. The GTRE Kaveri engine has performed poorly so far. Safran, selected as a partner, may help set things right. The second problem system is the mechanically-scanned array radar. To exploit the full capabilities of LCA, it should have an Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar. Government recently announced a deal with the European company EADS for the joint development of such a radar.

LCA’s more than 800 test flights to-date have been very smooth. Some other aircraft have been less fortunate. The test programme has been slow, as the flight envelope needs to be opened up with great caution. Things will speed up now that six aircraft, including LSP-1, the first of eight limited series production aircraft, are flying, and external 800 litre drop tanks are being installed, to increase its 40 minute flight time by about an hour. Thus, initial operational clearance could be achieved by 2010, or soon thereafter.

It is claimed that LCA will be outdated by the time it enters service. Not true. All fourth-generation aircraft types, including LCA, will be under continuous development throughout their service lives. Several new technologies are currently under development, like voice recognition, which will free the pilots’ hands from some of the comparatively less-important work in the cockpit.

There is need for an AESA radar mentioned earlier. A multi-axis thrust vector control system is being developed for the Kaveri engine. There will also be regular upgradation of the various systems and subsystems over the decades to keep LCA a frontline aircraft as long as it’s in service. The technologies that have been incorporated into LCA are on par with those on other fourth-generation aircraft.

Importantly, LCA will have exceptional standards of maintainability and reliability. It will require far fewer maintenance man-hours per flight-hour than earlier aircraft. As a result, its life-cycle cost — its overall cost of purchase, operation and maintenance over its entire service life — will be the very lowest for any aircraft the IAF has ever had.

The so-called “cheap” Soviet-era aircraft were cheap in every sense of the term — starting with quality. Their maintainability and reliability were poor, they had very limited structural service lives, and their overall lifecycle costs must have bled their users white.

Amazingly, LCA may also have the very lowest flyaway (or initial purchase) cost of any current combat aircraft. Estimates range from as low as $20 million to about $35 million. By contrast, the 3+ generation F-16 had a flyaway cost of $55 million about two years ago — and could be even higher today. While a precise figure has yet to be worked out, LCA is sure to be the lowest-cost fourth-generation combat aircraft in the world, by a handsome margin.

Lastly, as combat aircraft become more complex, and training pilots to fly them becomes more challenging, advanced jet trainers may need to have a supersonic capability. The old, second-generation Northrop T-38 was the very first such AJT — and differed from the F-5B type trainer.

Today, the third-generation Korea Aerospace Industries T-50 and the Hongdu L-15 are already flying. A watered-down variant of the 13-tonne LCA may be just right as a supersonic advanced jet trainer — should the IAF want it. It would be the world’s first such fourth-generation aircraft, and could be developed at a very low cost and on a short time-scale.

LCA is outstandingly the very finest Indian engineering achievement in any field.

Sens got hacked???