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IAF May Order For More LCA

: Feb 26, 2014 - : 12:54 am

With an inordinate delay in the purchase of medium multi-role combat aircraft and in the development of the fifth generation fighter aircraft, the Indian air force  (IAF) is looking at increasing the order for the indigenous Tejas light combat aircraft (LCA) to plug the gap of retiring aircraft.
The IAF initially had plans to raise only six squadrons of the LCA,–two squadrons of the Tejas Mark I, and four squadrons of the improved Tejas Mark II– comprising about 20 aircraft each. But with the main stay MiG-21 and MiG-27 aircraft on the brink of being phased out, the IAF plans to replace them with the newly developed Tejas.
“The MiG-21 and MiG-27 aircraft of the IAF have already been upgraded and currently equip 14 combat squadrons. These aircraft, however, will be phased out over the next few years and will be replaced by the LCA,” India’s junior defense minister Jitendra Singh says. However, “steps have been initiated for upgrading other fighter aircraft like MiG-29, Jaguar and Mirage-2000,'” he adds.
The LCA MK I aircraft, which got initial operational clearance (IOC-II), in December has already entered the production phase. “The LCA MK-I would go into immediate production and two squadrons comprising 40 aircraft would be raised by the IAF by 2015 and 2017 respectively,” says an official from the state-run aircraft maker Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL). The LCA is expected to get the final operational clearance (FOC) this year.
The IAF, which also has medium and heavy aircraft is looking at a balanced force with the LCA seeking to replace the MiGs, whereas the medium range comprises aircraft like Mirage and the heavy like Sukhoi. About 250 odd MiG-21 and MiG-27 aircraft of the IAF are expected to be phased out by 2018-20, leaving the force with just 26 squadrons consisting of six Jaguars, three MiG-29s, three Mirage 200s and 14 squadrons of Sukhoi Su-30s. IAF is aiming to augment its fleet strength to 42 operational squadrons by 2022.
The much-awaited purchase of 126 Rafale MMRCA from French firm Dassault Aviation has been be further delayed as negotiations to calculate the life-cycle cost haven’t been settled and due to lack of money for any new buys.
“The MMRCA will materialize, but it will not be in this financial year [ending March 31],” Defense Minister Antony had said recently. “The negotiations on life-cycle costs are continuing. I hope we will be able to close it [during the] next financial year.”
The first Tejas squadron with GE-404 engines will be fully in place at the Sulur airbase in Tamil Nadu only by the end of 2015, while the second squadron is expected to come in 2017. The four Tejas Mark-II squadrons with GE F-414 engines is expected to start coming in from 2021-2022 onwards.
Since the program began in 1985, about 70 billion rupees have been spent on the Tejas Mark I. By the end of this year, when it obtains FOC, it would have consumed a budget of  79.65 billion rupees ($1.09 billion) including building of 15 aircraft and creation of infrastructure for production of eight aircraft per year. The phase three of the project is expected to cost 24.31 billion rupees.
Separately, 36.50 billion rupees have been sanctioned for developing the naval Tejas, which is ongoing. The navy plans to buy  six to eight LCAs.
In total,  the Aeronautical Development Agency will spend 140.46 billion rupees on the entire Tejas program, including the IAF, naval and trainer variants. Since the LCA  has approximately 60% indigenous content, the production cost as well as life cycle cost of  the aircraft will be comparatively lower to that of any other comparable class of aircraft, the defense minister says. “This compares with the developmental cost of JAS 39 NG Grippen is $1.80 billion for developing five proto vehicles,” he says.

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