LCA Tejas:Latest Developments - Mark II to have ELTA AESA Radar

NEW DELHI - July 18, 2015 - PRLog -- According to an item published in the latest issue of Indian Military Review, P S Subramanyam, the outgoing director of the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas Mark II is on track. ADA's design challenge is to accommodate the bigger, heavier, more powerful, General Electric F-414 engine into the Tejas fuselage, which was built to house the current, smaller F-404IN engine. Subramanyam was confident that will not present a major challenge. He said the fighter will make its first flight by 2018-19; and will begin joining the IAF fleet by 2021-22.

Giving details, the new issue of Indian Military Review, published from New Delhi described the latest developments regarding LCA Tejas as under.

Derby BVR Missile Trials

It was reported on June 29, 2015 that integration of Derby BVR missile has been completed and flight trials will be conducted in July 2015.

Integration of R-73 Close Combat Missile (CCM) was completed earlier; 10 flight trials of the missile were conducted in Goa, Jamnagar and Jaisalmer. LGB delivery has been proven over 6 flight trials.

Sweden Offers to Collaborate

Sweden has offered to collaborate with India on production of light combat aircraft in the country as part of the 'Make-in-India' initiative as the two countries decided to scale up bilateral defence ties. Saab is likely to insist on a government-to-government (G2G) deal if they step into assist India in developing and manufacturing a light fighter.

Swedish Defence Minister Peter Hultqvist held talks with his counterpart Manohar Parrikar here during which a range of issues were discussed. Hultqvist talked about possible collaboration in manufacturing single engine light combat planes. He also visited Hindustan Aeronautics Limited and Bharat Electronics Limited units in Bengaluru.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had said in April his government was in talks with Swedish defence company 'Saab Group' to set up a production unit in his state.

DRDO had a few years back sought Saab's help in the Mark II version of Tejas, which will eventually be inducted into the Air Force.

HAL developing LCA-1P with AESA Radar

HAL is now working on developing a new variant of the LCA - LCA-I P - which will be equipped with an advanced AESA Radar and an electro-optic Electronic Warfare (EW) sensor suite.

The AESA radar will be supplied by Israel's ELTA Systems, a subsidiary of Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI).

AESA, or Active Electronically Scanned Array radar, is the key component in the AWACS, enabling a 360 degree look-down-and-around capability to IAF for about 400 km. The aircraft is designed to guide combat fleets and ground assets in a war scenario. With no moving part, AESA is much faster in capability than earlier airborne radars in which rotodomes moved mechanically and rather slowly to scan different areas.

The ELTA EL/M 2032 Hybrid AESA Multi Mode Radar (MMR), which was installed for the first time in LSP3, reportedly has an indigenous antenna and scanner but an Elta EL/M-2032 processing back end. The range of the radar is currently limited to 50-km (fighter sized targets) because the indigenously developed nose cone fitted on the aircraft absorbs radio emissions.

Production aircraft will feature a quartz nose cone from UK's Cobham which will improve detection range of the radar to 80-km.

LRDE is in the process of developing a AESA radar with a range of 100-km under Project Uttam as EL/M 2032 replacement. In December 2014, the LRDE AESA, was being tested on ground. The radar is reported to be 40-kg heavier than the EL/M 2032, which would rule out its use on the Mk-1, making it more suitable for Mk-2.

Elta claims that the long-range EL/M 2052 AESA fire control system is capable of detecting 64 targets, and of simultaneously engaging "several" using radar-guided missiles. A prototype of the radar is currently being tested on a Boeing 737 testbed. For ground surveillance, the design is capable of generating high-resolution synthetic aperture radar imagery and of detecting moving surface targets, and can also be used to support maritime surveillance tasks.

According to ELTA, the radar features a modular design, weighs 130-180kg (286-397lb), consumes 4-10kVA, depending on the design configuration, and has built-in growth potential.

AESA in fact was always in the LCA programme, and there were discussions with some foreign companies as well as with the state-run BEL in developing it.

The 36 Rafales being acquired by IAF in the Government-to-Government deal will also have the AESA radar, developed by Thales.

LCA-MkI, which achieved IOC-II (Initial Operational Capability, stage II) in January 2014 for acceptance by IAF as it is produced and tested, is yet to get the FOC (Final Operational Capability) but the focus now is on adding the EW package, originally planned for the LCA-MkII.

US companies Raytheon and Northrop Grumman have an established lead in the AESA systems while in Europe, Thales has just about achieved it for installation on Rafale and Eurofighter aircraft. In fact, AESA was a key requirement for India's MMRCA (Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft) competition.

The new LCA-MkI-P variant with the EW Package will also add some 50 kilos of more weight. The current LCA-MkI version uses 210 kilos with ballast in the nose to stabilize the aircraft. This will be removed, and the AESA and EW suite weighing about 250 kilos will be added

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