The Defence Ministry has set the target of manufacturing and exports orders worth ₹1,75,000 crore for the procurement of Defence technology innovations including the private and government firm where Make in India or the Atmanirbhar Bharat Plan would be taken into consideration to increase self-reliance.
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The Government of India has been planning a big decision to replace the Indian Air Force’s existing Dassault Mirage 2000s, Mikoyan MiG 29s, and SEPECAT Jaguars with the LCA Mk2. Last year the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) sanctioned ₹9000 crores to develop it. The existing squadrons of IAF will take over a decade to retire, and instead of seeking foreign options India is increasing its capacity for the Indigenisation of this Aircraft. As India has earlier made this aircraft, making it from scratch will help the Indian Air Force to integrate all the native weapons with foreign technology. Reportedly, Indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) TEJAS Mk2 will help to replace IAF’s fleet which is getting older in terms of technology and equipment. LCA Mk2 will be a great upgrade over the currently in-use LCA TEJAS Mk1, the critical design review of the aircraft is ready & the manufacturing process has been initiated and it will be rolled out next year. It will be one of its kind aircraft that will use Russian and French weapons and it will also be used in the export programs but the priority lies in meeting the demand of India’s self-security interests.
1. Specifications of LCA Mk2
LCA Mk2 is a 4.5+ Generation, Medium Weight Fighter (MWF) with a single engine, canard delta wing, multirole combat aircraft, Maximum speed of 1.8 mach, Service Ceiling height of 50000 ft, which was designed by the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) in collaboration with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for the Indian Air Force. The indigenous content of the fighter will be 90% after the licensed production of its engine. Integrating all indigenous weapon systems it will also equip 8 Beyond Visual Range Missile (BVRMs) which is a record that no fighter aircraft is capable of doing, along with this it will also carry Air-to-Ground missiles, Long-range Deep Strike missiles, Storm Shadow SCALP missiles. The indigenous weapons such as ASTRA, and BVR Air-to-Air missiles, LCA Mk2 have a mission endurance of 120 minutes and is powered by a GE-414 engine from General Electric a US-made turbofan engine it will be able to carry 6.5 tonnes of weapons payload. Indium Oxide Layer, Optionally Manned Cockpit, Powerful UTTAM Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) Radar, etc. shares its properties with US F-22 Raptor aircraft making it a lethal weapon. Having triangular and tailless design gives it an advantage of structural simplicity & lightweight combined with low aerodynamic drag and adequate lift affecting the Radar Cross Section (RCS) of aircraft and the Canards help to improve the manoeuvrability giving it more lift. Furthermore, it carries an armament that includes of 1 x 30mm Gun, and 13 hardpoints having a combination of MICA, ASRAAM, Meteor, Astra, NG-CCM, BrahMos-NG ALCM, LRLACM, Crystal Maze, Rudram 1/2/3, Spice Bombs, DRDO Glide Bombs, DRDO SAAW Bombs, Sudarshan Laser Guided Bombs, Cluster Munition, CATS ALFA, etc.
2. Condition of Squadrons
Currently, the Indian Air Force is operating only 32 squadrons, but in an adverse situation of handling two-front warfare with Pakistan and China, we need 42 squadrons of the IAF as was earlier stated by the Air Chief Marshal of the Indian Air Force VR Chaudhari at a seminar on ‘India’s Eminence in the Emerging World Order’ that the shortage of fighter squadrons and force multipliers are the critical deficiencies that need to to be overcome as soon as possible and as the decision taken by the IAF to take down the existing fleet of Mig 21 also known as Flying Coffin by 2025 makes it much challenging to procure the upcoming advanced fighter aircraft to replace it with the replacing aircraft.
3. The Future of Indigenisation
The Ongoing initiative of Govt. of India and the IAF about the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) program which is a project operational by Bharat Electronic Limited (BEL) inked with an MoU with the Defence Research and Development Organisation’s (DRDO) Aeronautical Development Agency for the 5th Generation Aircrafts. In a meeting with the British Engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce it said that it wants to co-develop the powerful fighter engines with India on the AMCA program and the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) will remain with India only. Rolls-Royce powers some of the top engines including the Jaguars, Hawks, C-130JS, Airbus, etc. showing that the UK has been keen to increase its defence cooperation and production with India. DRDO has finished the design of the Fifth Generation AMCA and is waiting for the next step of Critical Design Review (CDR) for the fabrication, demonstration, and tests that can meet the performance and expectations of the aircraft and the IAF. This twin-engine fighter features technologies like Stealth, Internal weapons, Super Cruise, Serpentine Air Intake, Air-to-Air missiles, Air-to-Ground missiles, etc. also the indigenous HAL’s HLFT-42 trainer aircraft whose model was presented at Aero India will be used to train the fighter pilots for AMCA.
