HAL Tejas Jet Fighter

The specifications of the new Tejas --- termed “Standard of Preparation – 2018” (SoP-18) --- were agreed in New Delhi on September 23, between the air force and the Tejas’ designers and manufacturers. One hundred SoP-18 Tejas fighters will join the IAF, starting 2018-19.

The key battle-winning capability in the SoP-18 Tejas is “active electronically scanned array” (AESA) radar that Israel will develop jointly with India. This was the clincher that made the IAF agree to buy 100 SoP-18 fighters from Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), in addition to the 20 Tejas Mark 1 already on order.

HAL also undertook to equip the SoP-18 Tejas with air-to-air refuelling, a “self-protection jammer” (SPJ) under the fighter’s wing, and to refashion the layout of internal systems to make the fighter easier to maintain.Yet, it was the AESA radar that conclusively grabbed the IAF’s attention. No Indian fighter has this capability yet

AESA radar enjoys key advantages over conventional “mechanically steered” radar. In the latter, the antenna is moved manually to let the radar beam scan the sky for enemy targets. In AESA radar, the beam moves electronically, switching between multiple targets so rapidly that it effectively scans them simultaneously, even when they are located far apart --- in the air, on sea, and the ground. By switching its beam rapidly, the “multi-tasking” AESA radar can simultaneously track enemy aircraft, guide missiles to those targets, and jam enemy communications and radar. In modern-day aerial combat, AESA radar would be a key difference between defeat and victory.

Since India’s Defence R&D Organisation (DRDO) cannot yet miniaturise airborne radar for a fighter’s nose (it has built a larger radar for airborne early warning and control aircraft), the Tejas fighter was equipped with the EL/M- 2032 radar, bought from Israeli company, Elta.

The impending replacement of this manual radar with Elta’s ELM-2052 AESA radar illustrates the symbiosis between Israel’s high-tech defence industry and India’s equipment-hungry military, and how each sustains the other.

Business Standard first reported the IAF’s decision to order 100 improved Tejas Mark 1A fighters (August 13, “With Tejas Mark II years away, HAL asks air force to buy Tejas Mark 1A”, and October 2, “Parrikar cuts Gordian knot to boost Tejas line”). Now, from HAL Bengaluru, comes this account of how Elta’s ELM-2052 AESA radar was chosen.

The decision stems from the IAF’s on-going plan to refurbish its 123-aircraft Jaguar fleet, upgrading those six squadrons of deep penetration strike aircraft to continue in service for another 15-20 years. This involves spending $2 billion (Rs 13,000 crore) on new, more powerful engines (the Honeywell F-125N has been chosen); upgrading 61 Jaguars with HAL’s vaunted DARIN-3 navigation-attack system, and arming the fleet with lethal, smart munitions like the Textron CBU-105 “sensor-fuzed bombs” that India bought from the United States in 2010.

Then, in 2012, Elta sensed an opportunity and offered to equip the Jaguar with its new ELM-2052 AESA radar. This would provide the Jaguar real ability to beat off enemy fighters, even while on its primary mission of ground strike. Says HAL Chairman, T Suvarna Raju, “I was delighted when Elta offered the AESA radar for the Jaguar. Elta wanted neither development costs, nor more time.”

Elta’s offer, however, came with the condition that at least one more fighter in the IAF’s inventory should field the ELM-2052 AESA radar. To sweeten the deal, Elta offered to work jointly with HAL on an improved version of the ELM-2052.

This was a win-win for both Elta and HAL. “Look at the market HAL provides Elta. The 61 Jaguars being upgraded to DARIN-3 would all be fitted with the ELM-2052. At least 100 Tejas would get the improved version, possibly with more to follow. Meanwhile, 50 IAF Mirage-2000 fighters are being upgraded, but with a manual radar that could become obsolescent quickly. So the improved AESA could eventually equip the Mirage fleet too, adding up to 200-plus radars”, says Raju.

Aerospace industry experts highlight other benefits for Elta. While bearing the design and development cost of the new AESA radar, the Israeli company would save a great deal of money by having flight-testing done on IAF Jaguars.

“Israeli Aircraft Industries (IAI is Elta’s parent company) and HAL have signed an agreement that says we would partner IAI in developing the improved AESA radar for the Tejas”, confirms Raju.

Defence ministry sources say the agreement specifies that 60 per cent of the new radar, by value, would be manufactured in India.

The Elta proposal is typical of how Israeli defence companies do business, explains a senior HAL manager. The Israeli Air Force operates US-built F-15 and F-16 fighters, which come fitted with US-designed AESA radar. All this comes to Israel free, as US military aid to a crucial ally. That leaves little space in Israel’s military inventory for equipment built by domestic companies like Elta. Yet, the Israeli government insists on nurturing its defence industry, in case the pipeline from Washington ever shuts.

“To stay in business and to fund high-tech R&D, Israeli defence companies like Elta rely heavily on sales to India, particularly the IAF”, says aerospace expert, Pushpinder Singh.

Illustrating Israeli capabilities, the Tejas Mark I was already armed with an all-Israeli combination of the Elta EL/M-2032 radar, the Derby and Python air-to-air missiles, and a data link that digitally interconnected these. Indian test pilots say this was a “world-class” air-to-air combat configuration. But now, the Elta-HAL AESA radar could make the Tejas a more capable air-defence fighter.

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In New Delhi on September 23, decades of friction came to an end when key stakeholders in the Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) finally agreed on the specifications of a fighter that would join the Indian Air Force (IAF) in large numbers, starting in 2018-19.

Termed “Standard of Preparation - 2018” (SoP-18), these specifications were agreed between four agencies. Besides the IAF, they include the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), which oversees the Tejas programme; Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), which builds the fighter, and the ministry of defence (MoD).

SoP-18 involves four major, and several minor, improvements. As Business Standard reported yesterday (“Cutting edge Israeli radar wins air force approval for Tejas fighter”), a crucial enhancement in the SoP-18 Tejas will be “active electronically scanned array” (AESA) radar, which Israeli company, Elta, will develop with HAL.

Besides AESA radar, the SoP-18 Tejas will be equipped with the capability for air-to-air refuelling; a “self-protection jammer” (SPJ) mounted in an external pod to confuse enemy radar, and an improved layout of internal systems to ease maintenance.

HAL is currently building 20 Tejas fighters to the initial operational certification (IOC) standard. HAL chief, T Suvarna Raju says, over the next three years, production will ramp up from four aircraft this year; to seven in 2016-17; and eight in 2017-18, thus completing the order for 20 IOC fighters. From 2018-19 onwards, 16 SoP-18 Tejas fighters will roll off the line each year.

“Ramping up production to 16 Tejas per year will cost us about Rs 1,252 crore. We have mutually agreed that HAL will provide half the cost, and the IAF and navy will together pay the other half,” says Raju.

Meanwhile, ADA will continue developing the Tejas Mark II, replacing the current General Electric F-404IN engine with a new GE F-414 engine. The IAF remains sceptical about the Tejas Mark II, but the navy is certain the Tejas must have the more powerful F-414 engine to enable it to get airborne from short aircraft carrier decks.

That means that, along with the SoP-18 Tejas that would remain in production till 2024-25, the Naval Tejas Mark II would have to be somehow produced alongside.

Air-to-Air refuelling

The integration of air-to-air refuelling has been regarded as essential to give the Tejas enough reach. Currently, its internal tanks carry just 2,300 litres of fuel, with another 2,400 litres carried in external pods. However, external pods cannot be carried into battle, and they take up two weapon stations, reducing the fighter’s punch. Without external fuel tanks, the Tejas has a combat radius of barely 300 kilometres.

Air-to-air refuelling will step up combat radius to 500 kilometres. Towards that, a late prototype of the Tejas, numbered LSP-8, was fitted with an external fuel probe. This is being integrated and will soon undergo flight-testing.

Says a veteran fighter pilot: “As important than the ability to fight is the ability to turn up at the fight. That requires long legs and, for a light fighter, that requires air-to-air refuelling”.

External jammer pod

Tejas designers admit the absence of a jammer to throw enemy radar off the scent is a key vulnerability of the Tejas. While designing the fighter, they simply ran out of space for an internal jammer. With the IAF dropping its insistence on an internal jammer, ADA and HAL have now offered an “external jammer pod”.

While this threatened to reduce the Tejas’ weapons carriage by occupying one of its seven hard points, HAL is overcoming that problem by fitting a “twin-arm” at that hard point. “One of the arms will carry the jammer, while the other will mount an air-to-air missile”, says the designer.

Maintainability

For the IAF, which must mount multiple missions everyday with each Tejas fighter, easy “maintainability” and “low turn-around-time” are key attributes. The HAL chief says the IAF wants the fighter to take maximum 14 minutes between landing after a mission; and taking off for the next mission, fully checked, rearmed and refuelled. Currently, the Tejas takes about 20 minutes.

“The IAF has carried out a ‘maintainability evaluation’ on the Tejas, and provided requests for action (RFAs) to HAL. Each RFA deals with a particular way to improve maintenance. We will be making 27 modifications in the fighter”, says Raju.

The Tejas already has built-in-test-equipment (BITE), which is a software programme that automatically checks the functionality of every crucial system. In case an aircraft system is not working optimally, the BITE flashes a warning light.

On the other hand, if no warning lights are evident, maintenance engineers know that all systems are working satisfactorily. The need to check each one manually is no longer there.

This also involves fitting “pressure refuelling” of the kind that exists in Formula One racing cars, which requires fuel to be pumped under pressure into the fuel tanks. Refuelling the Tejas takes just four minutes, and two more to fill drop tanks as well.

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NG: What about LCA, although it is not directly DRDO?

RM: Yes, the LCA model is being given a final shape. Let me tell you in product development, nothing comes perfect, be it an Indian product or a foreign product. Take the example of the Boeing P 8I. They have a long track record but there were some glitches. Over the last two years, most of the glitches were taken care of. The company reacted quickly and most of the issues are sorted out now. There are still some issues but I am sure these will be taken care of in the next one year, so that there is 100 per cent efficiency in this vital asset.

If that is the case with a well-established company like Boeing, how do I expect ADA or HAL product to be perfect in the first instance? So we inducted the LCA and by March 2016 most of the initial problems would be taken care of. And the production line will be initiated and the first squadron of LCA will start flying for the IAF. Once they start flying, further problems, if any, will be sorted out over the first batch. In principle, approval for first 100 LCA 1 A, procurement has been accorded, as per requirement of the Air Force and as agreed to by all concerned.

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Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas is throttling to script history probably by becoming the first home-grown Indian fighter jet to have flown outside the country's airspace. If no last-minute glitches (from babudom or technical) get onboard, then Tejas will strut its stuff at the 4th edition of Bahrain International Air Show (BIAS), scheduled from January 21-23, 2016. BIAS-2016 is being held at the Sakhir Airbase.

Senior officials of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) and Ministry of Defence (MoD) will brainstorm one last time in New Delhi on December 9 (Wednesday) to take a final call on Tejas' all-historic out-bound flying mission. "The green signal will be given on Wednesday after the crucial meeting. There are many nagging issues that need to be sorted out, including which country it would stop over during ferry to Bahrain," says an official. Two aircraft being readied ahead of the show As this report goes live on OneIndia, it is confirmed that two Tejas aircraft are being readied in Bengaluru, ahead of its possible historic ferry to Bahrain. With just over a month left for BIAS-2016, the officials are racing against time to put up a smooth show. Engineers and scientists in ADA and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) are all excited about the bright prospects of Tejas flying at BIAS-2016. Ahead of ferrying the platforms to Bahrain, the HAL-ADA team members are working on a ‘special software build' to enable the pilots have decided to demonstrate extreme manoeuvres. On the demonstration menu are ‘Vertical Square' which demands an 8 G envelope, the ‘Knife Edge' and the ‘Opposite U-turns. The platforms being readied for BIAS-2016 are LSP-3 and LSP-4, out of which one will be doing the flying duties and other on static display. The SP-1, now under the command of Indian Air Force (IAF) and HAL, is likely to be kept as a stand-by in Bengaluru. Tejas was on static display at BIAS- 2014, with India's prying plane AEW&C (Airborne Early Warning Control) hitting the skies. DRDO had then claimed that the products were displayed with ‘the aim of exploring the potential of exporting them to friendly countries in the region.'

During Aero India 2015, Ahmed Al Nemah, then acting Under Secretary for Civil Aviation Affairs, Bahrain Ministry of Transportation and Telecommunications, had held discussions with Indian counterparts on BIAS-2016. The show is expected to see an increased participation by 60 percent since its first edition in 2010.

Tejas flying picks up after a lull period

The Tejas test-flights have started to pick up momentum after months of lull activities owing to technical glitches relating to the undercarriage. The flight plan was badly hit during the months of May, June, July and August this year. In November bad weather further added to the woes of ADA and HAL. The naval programme too slowed down owing to similar issues. The combined number of flights (all variants minus SP-1) stands at 2998 as on December 8, 2015, clocking around 1926 hours. The Tejas was out flying at HAL Airport on Tuesday.

"To put in perspective, Year 2015 has not been an inspiring one for Team Tejas. But the programme has seen worst challenges and we are confident of moving ahead," says an official. With the SP-2 reaching the flight integration stage at HAL, the programme is now heading towards the Final Operational Clearance (FOC) in mid-2016. An impatient IAF is finally on the Squadron formation mode with the DRDO pinning hopes on bagging 100 Tejas MK-I As orders soon.

Flight-testing envelope will be expanded

Ahead of the Bahrain trip, Tejas is expected to expand the flight envelope clearance to 8G and at a higher Alpha of 24 degrees and more. "These parameters allow the aircraft to perform at higher manoeuvrability. The demonstrations planned for BIAS-2016 will be different from Aero India 2015," says an official. If mission Bahrain finally gets cleared by Delhi on Wednesday, then DRDO-ADA has to quickly put in place the logistics.

"It's going to be a great effort. Around 200-250 engineers, scientists and ground support teams will have to be positioned at various bases. Tejas will have to be first ferried to an IAF base on Indian border. For re-fuelling and other checks, a country in the Gulf (enroute Bahrain) needs to be identified. A large number of team will also have to be positioned at Bahrain as well," says an official.

For DRDO-ADA-HAL team flying Tejas at BIAS-2016 will be a bold statement. It will also give an opportunity for India to demonstrate (at an international show outside India) its entry into a league of nations capable of building such complex fight jet systems.

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Folks can't write peacefully.

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doing all tantrums for attention. Just over my house. Ear-splitting sound.

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LCA aeros overhead for about 20 mins. Beautiful. It had stopped for last 03 days and resumed today. I guess now, it is for the air show at Bahrain.

Update: Another aero display probably same tail number with around :30 mins turnaround - looks like quick refueling and back in air. Great show!

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Call it India’s first baby steps towards marking its presence in the multi-billion dollar global military market, but the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has decided to stir up excitement at the Bahrain International Air Show by flaunting the prowess of home-produced fighter jet ‘Tejas’ at the event next month.

And, it’s not just a shot at the international market, but also to showcase the military jet as the best example of the ‘Make in India’ initiative! Two ‘Tejas’ fighter jets will demonstrate their agility and other attributes at BIAS 2016, Sakhir Airbase, commencing on January 21, 2016, the first by any made in India aircraft.

In the run-up to the aerobatics display, IAF pilots have been rehearsing stunning maneuvers over HAL airport in Bengaluru. They would head to Bahrain in January after refueling stops at Jamnagar and Muscat, sources in MoD told Deccan Chronicle.

‘Tejas’ would fly at an air show overseas exactly a year after its entry into the fleet of the Indian Air Force (IAF) in a move described as daring by experts as the jet’s performance would be analyzed by aerospace professionals from across the world.

The fighter jet could make its debut in subsequent air shows at other venues across the world in order to enhance its export potential. The decision comes at a time when defence minister Manohar Parrikar presaged that defence equipment could be exported to countries which cannot afford the most expensive ones.

‘Tejas’, which has completed more than 3,000 sorties, was originally meant to replace MiG 21 fleet of IAF. Technocrats of MoD and HAL would attend the show to answer queries about the cost of these jets.

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