Soaring Tejas

With the order for Tejas Mark 1 fighters nearly fulfilled, attention turns to meeting the Tejas Mark 1A specifications By Ajai Shukla HAL, Bengaluru Business Standard, 28th May 24 With the Indian Air Force (IAF) having placed a Rs 48,000 crore order for 83 indigenous Tejas Mark-1A light combat aircraft (LCA) on Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) in February 2021, the Bengaluru-headquartered aerospace manufacturer is gearing up to deliver the first improved variant of the fighter this year. With the first Tejas Mark 1A fighter having successfully test-flown in March, HAL’s chief says the first delivery would be completed “in the next few months.” Thereafter, the production of 180 Tejas Mark 1A fighters and successive variants would generate the bulk of HAL’s income for the foreseeable future. “That is our priority. The build of the aircraft has started and we will ensure that 16 Tejas Mark 1A aircraft are delivered in this financial year, i.e. before March 31, 2025,” says HAL Chairman and Managing Director, CB Ananthakrishnan. Business Standard was granted an exclusive visit to HAL – the country’s biggest defence public sector undertaking (DPSU). HAL has almost completed delivery of its first two IAF orders of 40 Tejas Mark 1 fighters. Nine Mark 1s were left to be delivered this year, of which five twin-seat trainers have been delivered and the remaining four will follow, said Ananthakrishnan. Meanwhile, Ananthakrishnan says HAL is completing the integration of five major upgrades to the Tejas Mark 1, which will grant it the designation of Mark 1A. Two of the five major improvements, which are practically complete, are to the airborne radar and the electronic warfare (EW) suite. The Tejas Mark 1’s earlier, manually scanned array radar has been replaced by a far more capable AESA (Active Electronically Scanned Array) radar that makes the Mark 1A far more capable and versatile in air-to-ground and air-to-air combat. The second improvement to the Tejas Mark 1 involves the integration of new, self-protection jammers, and mission computers. Backing up these improved avionics are new-generation, beyond visual range, air-to-air missiles. Most notably they include the indigenous Astra missile and the Advanced, Short Range Air-to-Air Missile (ASRAAM), supplied by the European missile-maker, MBDA. Transforming the Tejas Mark 1 into the improved Mark 1A is also the integration of air-to-air refuelling across the fleet, which will greatly enhance the combat range of the Mark 1A. “The mid-air-refuelling probes have been fitted. The drogue lights and final testing has to be done and it has to be demonstrated. This is being done together for the entire fleet of Tejas fighters as a part of the contract for the second batch of 20 fighters,” says Ananthakrishnan. Finally, the Tejas cockpit has been tailored to the size and shape of 90 per cent of IAF pilots. “We have completely met the anthropometric requirements for the LCA, which requires the cockpit to be suitable for the 5-95 percentile of pilots,” said the HAL chief. Despite all these modifications, the Tejas Mark 1A will require further modifications and testing before it is in full operational mode. “Some integrations involving the fighter’s ordnance will be required, such as the firing of twin ASRAAM missiles. We have discussed the minimum deliverable configuration with the IAF so that they can start flying and suggest improvements and modifications,” said the HAL chief. “We will be able to address those issues and deliver the 16 aircraft in 2024-25 as fully configured aircraft that the air force can use,” he said. So far, the two Tejas Mark 1 squadrons currently in service have been based by the IAF in Sulur, near the south Indian city of Coimbatore. As the IAF brings into service more squadrons of Tejas fighters, especially the more capable Tejas Mark 1A and Mark 2, its doctrines and strategies will evolve making it likely that it be deployed to the Chinese and Pakistani borders. Part 2: With 180 Tejas Mark 1A on order, HAL boosts production capacity in Nashik to 12 fighters annually Part 2 of a 4-part series: “Soaring Tejas” By Ajai Shukla HAL, Bengaluru Business Standard, 29th May 24 Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), the lead integrator of the indigenous Tejas light combat aircraft (LCA), is grappling with an unusual predicament: a problem of plenty. Plenty of orders, that is. After taking more than two decades to build and induct the first 40 Tejas Mark-1 fighters, HAL must now produce and induct the next 180 Tejas Mark 1As – the new, more capable variant of the Tejas Mark-1 – in less than a decade. This will require HAL to accelerate its current production rates, dramatically scaling up the rate at which it will churn out the new Tejas Mark-1A fighter. After the Tejas Mark 1’s inaugural flight in January 2001, it took the Indian Air Force (IAF) another 14 years to commission the first Tejas squadron – Number 45 Squadron, the Flying Daggers. This year, it will be another 10 years before the second Tejas squadron – Number 18 Squadron, the Flying Bullets – expects to be operationalised. A fighter squadron normally fields 20-21 single-seat aircraft. These include: 16 single-seater and two twin-seat trainer aircraft. Three more fighters are held in reserve to make up combat losses. HAL moved its production into top gear in February 2021, when the Ministry of Defence (MoD) contracted with it for 83 Tejas Mark-1A fighters (four squadrons). The pressure on HAL increased further last month when the MoD began processing a contract for 97 more. HAL’s chief, CB Ananthakrishnan, has identified his key challenge as creating enough production capacity to satisfy the IAF’s demand for aircraft. If HAL fails at that, the IAF is likely to approach global original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to meet India’s requirement. HAL began its Tejas production with limited capacity: an assembly line in Bengaluru that could produce eight fighters a year. This could be doubled to 16 aircraft annually. “But that restricted us to slower deliveries and a longer delivery period. So we pro-actively put up a third production line in Nashik, ramping up our capacity to 24 aircraft per year,” said Ananthakrishnan. “Consequently, HAL is building eight fighters a year at its LCA Division in Bangalore; another eight in the so-called Aircraft Division in Bangalore and another eight in MiG Complex in Nashik. Other HAL divisions, such as the Composites Division, feed into these three main production lines,” says Ananthakrishnan. This will provide HAL the capacity to build the Tejas LCA at two production rates: 16 aircraft per year as per the “Contracted Schedule”; and 24 as per the “Enhanced Delivery Schedule.” “If, for any reason, we are unable to build these numbers in HAL we have a back-up plan involving the private industry. Private industry will also feed into these three main lines by building major assemblies, such as front fuselage, centre fuselage, rear fuselage, wings, etc. This adds to HAL’s capacity to make up for any shortfall that may arise,” says HAL’s chief. This will amount to a back-up production line for four full structures, he says. The facilities that would be set up to build these 220 fighters would be: 16 per year in Bangalore Complex and 8 per year in the MiG complex in Nashik where, for two decades, HAL assembled the Sukhoi-30MKI. HAL can increase Nashik’s capacity from eight to 12, with certain incremental infrastructure. But there is no plan to do this at present. “Earlier, we were producing 12 numbers of Sukhoi-30MKIs on an average each year, with each aircraft requiring 6-8 lakh manpower hours in Nashik, in addition to the outsourcing. LCA’s full capacity will be unleashed, as it requires just 1.75 lakh manpower hours,” says the HAL chief. The order book of Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) remains the envy of India’s defence industry, standing at Rs 94,000 crore at the end of the Financial Year 2023-24. That is more than three times the company’s turnover of Rs 29,810 crore last year. The order book includes 83 Tejas Mark 1A fighters, contracted with the Indian Air Force (IAF) for Rs 48,000 crore. However, it does not include the acquisition of 97 more Tejas Mark 1A, for an estimated Rs 65,000 crore, which the Ministry of Defence (MoD) announced in April. It also leaves out the procurement of 150-200 Tejas Mark 2 fighters – a larger, better armed and more sophisticated version of the Tejas Mark 1A fighter – that is being developed by HAL and the Defence R&D Organisation (DRDO). HAL officials told Business Standard during a visit to Bengaluru last month that they expect the Indian Air Force (IAF) to procure 100-150 Tejas Mark 2 fighters. The Tejas Mark 2 was conceived as a marginal improvement on the Tejas light combat aircraft (LCA). It has now evolved into a significantly larger and more capable fighter. This change comes from replacing the Tejas Mark 1’s General Electric F-404 power pack with GE’s muscular F-414 engine. While the F-404’s peak thrust is just 83 KiloNewtons, the F-414 delivers a blazing 98 kiloNewtons of thrust on full afterburners. This power increment enables the Mark 2 to get aloft with an all-up weight of 16.5 tonnes, including the 10-tonne weight of the fighter and 6.5 tonnes of external payload. This easily outperforms the Mark 1, which has an external payload limit of just 3.5 per tonnes. The Tejas Mark 2’s increased payload gives mission planners many more options. For air-to-air combat, the Mark 2 will carry the indigenous Astra Mark 1 and Mark 2 missiles; wingtip-mounted ASRAAM missiles and the DRDO’s RudraM (yes, that’s the spelling) anti-radiation missiles. The DRDO is also developing a range of bombs for the Tejas Mark 2. The Tara high speed, low drag, glide bomb is mounted on the pylons; along with laser guided bombs (LGBs) with laser-guidance kits. The SCALP missile, procured from European manufacturer MBDA, along with the Rafale fighters, will also be integrated with the Tejas Mark 2. To carry this payload, the Tejas Mark 2 will have 11 hard points, including one on each wingtip for the ASRAAM advanced short-range air-to-air missile. There will be three under-wing pylons on each side, one wet station on each side for fuel drop tanks, while the other three hard points are for long-range missiles such as the Astra and the RudraM, which the DRDO successfully tested on Wednesday. AA%20RudraM%20test The RudraM long range air-to-surface munition that the DRDO successfully tested on Wednesday “The fighter’s Preliminary Design Review (PDR) was completed in December 2023 and the design has been frozen. The manufacture of parts has begun and we expect the first Tejas Mark 2 prototype to be ready by June 2026,” said CB Ananthakrishnan, HAL’s chairman and managing director (CMD) to Business Standard. “The Mark 2 prototype will be ready by June 2026. After that, it will take about two years of flight testing to certify the various systems. By June 2029, we should start delivering the production aircraft,” he said. The Mark 2 fleet would require at least five years to build, starting from 2029-30. The numbers would initially be very small, but from 2030-31 they would again pick up, because the LCA Mark 2 would again get over. So the five years would end by about 2035-36. PDR is the process of determining the degree to which the aircraft’s design complies with the air staff qualitative requirements (ASQRs) and determining that the aircraft meets those requirements. This is followed by the Critical Design Review (CDR), which ensures translation of the preliminary design into a detailed design. “In the Tejas Mark 2, we have gone far beyond the PDR and begun building the aircraft. The design phase has almost been completed, except for some small changes that may be required,” said Ananthakrishnan. A key challenge in developing the Mark 2 fighter is increasing the capacity of its mission computer and flight software. A new mission computer has been developed and integrated into a Tejas Mark 1A for testing. Mission computers are the heart of the aircraft, driving its displays, sensors, etc. However, the critical aspects of control over the Tejas Mark 2’s flight – such as its quadruplex, fly-by-wire flight software – are controlled by its Digital Flight Control Computer. In developing this software, India has taken on, and won, the central challenge of designing and developing its own fighter aircraft. ================================ Timeline: Tejas Mark 2 development Preliminary Design Review : December 2023 First Mark 2 prototype build : June 2026 Flight testing (two years) : June 2028 Delivery begins of production aircraft : June 2029 Building of Tejas Mark 2 fleet (5 years) : 2035-36