Tejas light fighter in India’s Light Combat Aircraft Project has gone through more than three decades of research and development, it is expected that it will not be inferior to any 4-generation fighter in the world, accompanied by the cheap price when mass-produced.
The Tejas was developed which sought a replacement for the hundreds of MiG-21 fighters nearing the end of their service lives in the Indian Air Force. The single-engine Tejas has a tailless delta-wing configuration and supposedly costs only $25 million per airplane. However, it took decades for the LCA to come together, and it continued to rely heavily on foreign components, including an Israeli Doppler radar and General Electric F404 turbofan engines.
Unfortunately, the situation of LCA is similar to many other Indian weapons programs, the evaluation time is too long to make it obsolete as soon as it is officially put into service. Even the Indian Defense Ministry had complained about the light fighter program, claiming it was even less than the “old man” MiG-21 and suggested the government boldly canceled the project.
The Tejas’ life began in the 1980s of the last century when the Indian Air Force asked for a new fighter to replace the Soviet-made MiG-21, which was slowly outdated. The program is designated as Light Combat Aircraft with HAL as the main contractor. According to the original plan, the new Indian aircraft will make its first flight in 1990, going into service in 1995. However, the development process meets all difficulties one after another and lasted much longer than expected. It was not until 1995 that the TD-1 prototype was built, however, problems with the flight control system prevented the prototype from taking off. In 1997, the LCA program had to be redesigned. It was not until 2001 that the TD-1 prototype successfully completed the first flight, 11 years behind schedule. In 2003, the LCA was officially named “Tejas”.
Recently, Indian Hindustan Aeronautics Limited has completed procedures to officially begin mass production of Tejas MK-1 light fighter jets. Currently, the Indian Air Force is still using many Russian aircraft as well as some British and French fighters. The embarking on the production and upgrading of a fighter jet for themself is considered an important step forward in the Indian defense industry.
Tejas has a tail-less compound delta-wing configuration with a single dorsal fin. This provides better high-alpha performance characteristics than conventional wing designs. Its wing root leading edge has a sweep of 50 degrees, the outer wing leading edge has a sweep of 62.5 degrees, and trailing edge has a forward sweep of four degrees. It integrates technologies such as relaxed static stability, fly-by-wire flight control system, multi-mode radar, integrated digital avionics system and composite material structures. It is the smallest and lightest in its class of contemporary supersonic combat aircraft.
The maximum payload capability of Tejas is 4,000 kg. All weapons are carried on one or more of seven hardpoints: three stations under each wing and one on the under-fuselage centreline. An eighth offset station beneath the port-side intake trunk can carry a variety of pods like FLIR, IRST, laser rangefinder, as can the centreline under-fuselage station and inboard pairs of wing stations.
Auxiliary fuel tanks can be carried under the fuselage to extend range. An aerial refuelling probe on the starboard side of the forward fuselage can further extend range and endurance. Rafael’s Derby fire-and-forget missile will serve as the Tejas’ initial medium range air-air armament. The Brahmos NG supersonic cruise missile is being developed for the Tejas.
The Indian fighter plane is equipped with a 23mm twin-barrelled GSh-23 gun with a burst firing rate of 50 rounds a second and muzzle velocity of 715m a second is installed in a blister fairing under the starboard air intake.
Stealth features have been designed into Tejas. Being small provides an inherent degree of visual stealth, the airframe’s high usage of composites, a Y-duct inlet which shields the engine compressor face from probing radar waves, and the application of radar-absorbent material coatings are intended to minimise its susceptibility to detection and tracking.
Tejas uses Martin-Baker 16LG zero-zero ejection seat. DRDO integrated an indigenous CSS, or canopy severance system, in the Tejas which allows the pilot to eject safely.
The original prototype was equipped with the General Electric F404-GE-F2J3 afterburning turbofan engine. Production versions are fitted with one General Electric F404-GE-IN20 turbofan engine with full authority digital engine control. This engine provides a dry thrust of 12,100 pounds and up to 20,200 pounds with afterburner. It can fly at a maximum speed of Mach 1.6 to 1.8 and maximum altitude of 15,000m. The range of the aircraft is 1,750km with drop tanks.
The Indian Air Force has only ordered 123 Tejas jets so far to equip six squadrons by 2024. HAL, however, is having difficulty ramping up production from eight aircraft a year to the desired sixteen.
On the short term, HAL seeks to improve the Tejas Mark1 by installing an Israeli EL/M-2052 Active Electronically Scanned Array radar, jamming pods and an aerial refueling probe. This Tejas Mark 1A subvariant will make up the latter two-thirds of the Mark 1 production run.
New Delhi is continuing to refine the aging Tejas design with the Mark-II version, which is set to make its debut in 2025. The new version of the jet will be equipped with the 22,000-pound thrust class General Electric F414 engine, which was originally developed for the Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet. However, the Indians are attempting to revive the failed Kaveri indigenous engine that was originally slated to power the Tejas before it became glaringly apparent that it was not up to the task.
The formation of the first Tejas-equipped squadron started in July 2011. The squadron will initially have four aircraft. The Tejas made its international debut on 21 January 2016, when two aircraft flew in the Bahrain International Air Show.
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The jet has attracted the attention of a number of countries such as the United Arab Emirates and the Royal Malaysian Air Force. However, this interest only stayed at the level of asking for information related to Tejas for their light fighter aircraft needs.It seems that the export of this Indian aircraft to the international market will face many challenges. Not yet discussing quality issues, the weapons packages attached to this aircraft are also a difficult choice. Thus, a potential customer might be better served to simply purchase a used F-16 or F/A-18—which are far better jets with a far more attractive package of weapons, and the combat experience has been proven.
