HAL LCA Tejas: Updates, News & Discussions

[Daiba]

The point is not should have and what might have been better!

It is useful because it tells what kind of thinking leads to short-sighted decisions.

IMHO, here, India's stupidity in managing inventory is main issue. F404 did not have any domestic customers left in USA. India should have placed order to stock pile them as producing those engines was not a priority for GE. This was possible as early as 2014 when FOC was at hand.

Second point, US has a habit of taking money and not supplying goods. It has happened fairly often. So putting money in such a vendor's hand is stupidity.

Again, to re-engine the Tejas it‘s too late since it would require a whole new redesign of the rear fuselage, additional tests and certification for what is already a long delayed and IMO failed project!

I don't think so. India should even now go for a variant powered by a non-American engine. It will not take 30-40 years for that to mature. At worst 2-3 years. It will give India flexibility. And India is going to produce this fighter all the way till late 2030s anyway.

Not to mention, starting such effort will put a lot more pressure on GE. Infact, from now on, ALL the platforms should be moved away from American engines or atleast variants not having American engines should be invested in.

China had gone through an analogous phase when its own planes did not have a quality Chinese engines. J-20 has shuffled a few engines, including Russian ones. It is not impossible to manage variants.

 

[onlinpunit]

Same could be said about EJ200 and M88.
Infact a Kaveri with M88 core would have made more sense.

Right now, India is juggling F404 (which arrive at Washington's pleasure), M88s for Rafale and like India will get an assembly plant for that if order of 100+ Rafales goes through, RD33 MK (for Mig29/K) which are again assembled locally using Russian parts.
All of these are in similar or same thrust class. Would have made sense to keep them 2.

Just because something is shiny does not mean you stuff your home with it and 10 more things like it.

The engines were selected when the india usa relationship was developing after the end of cold war.
The engine and Fly by wire technology selection was part technical and part diplomatic sweetening.

 

[peacemaker99]

Hello boys, it was announced today that lca mk2 test flight will be by jan 2027.

This means high likelihood the plane has already flown. People nesr HAL know that public flights are just formalities for political bosses. LCH was spotted flying all over HAL for 4 or 5 months before the official first flight.

 

[Deino]

Hello boys, it was announced today that lca mk2 test flight will be by jan 2027.

This means high likelihood the plane has already flown. People nesr HAL know that public flights are just formalities for political bosses. LCH was spotted flying all over HAL for 4 or 5 months before the official first flight.

Never ever was there a Flight already!

 

[Cookie Monster]

Just seems like a never ending round of tests, integrations and trials that seem to go on for years, if not decades, while at the same time we are told dilvery is immiment and never seems to happen....

U r wrong. Many PDF Indian experts have already told us since like 10 years ago that hundreds of Tejas would be inducted in IAF while PAF would be obsolete with J7s, Mirages...
...and it's now 2026 so quite obviously IAF is ready to fight on 2.5 fronts.

 

[Shui]

Hello boys, it was announced today that lca mk2 test flight will be by jan 2027.

This means high likelihood the plane has already flown. People nesr HAL know that public flights are just formalities for political bosses. LCH was spotted flying all over HAL for 4 or 5 months before the official first flight.

@Big_Strong_Brother_India gives a like, lol.

 

[CallSignMaverick]

U r wrong. Many PDF Indian experts have already told us since like 10 years ago that hundreds of Tejas would be inducted in IAF while PAF would be obsolete with J7s, Mirages...
...and it's now 2026 so quite obviously IAF is ready to fight on 2.5 fronts.

Afaik 200+ of PAF jets are kinda retirement age no? Even the JF-17 Block-1s are nearing retirement age since their airframe lives were quite low (no idea about later blocks). All's not hunky dory with PAF either mate.

Hello boys, it was announced today that lca mk2 test flight will be by jan 2027.

This means high likelihood the plane has already flown. People nesr HAL know that public flights are just formalities for political bosses. LCH was spotted flying all over HAL for 4 or 5 months before the official first flight.

What's your source? I remember they said there won't be any rollout ceremony but direct first flights but i think people in bangalore would record it if it is flying.

 

[peacemaker99]

Never ever was there a Flight already!

Afaik 200+ of PAF jets are kinda retirement age no? Even the JF-17 Block-1s are nearing retirement age since their airframe lives were quite low (no idea about later blocks). All's not hunky dory with PAF either mate.

What's your source? I remember they said there won't be any rollout ceremony but direct first flights but i think people in bangalore would record it if it is flying.

Me is the source. For months i saw lch flying around hal- i used to work near there and saw lch tiger bird flying for months with an alh on tail. I was laughing my ass off when 'first flight' took place in ftont of dignitaries.

First flight is just a publicity event dude. Thats why ministers and defdnce chiefs and dignitaries come over. They know there is no risk of embarassment.

 

[Corax]

Afaik 200+ of PAF jets are kinda retirement age no? Even the JF-17 Block-1s are nearing retirement age since their airframe lives were quite low (no idea about later blocks). All's not hunky dory with PAF either mate.

Nice try with your cope and deflecting to bring PAF into the discussion. What indians like you don't realise by that comparison is just how far behind your beloved tejus is. The block I JF17s are approaching almost 20 years old now! So due either an MLU type overhaul/upgrade, or replaced with more advanced Blocks, my guess would be the latter given the better cost/benefits trade-off. Your tejus don't even have any engines! let alone hopelessly dreaming about ever reaching the number of JF17s built. And I know exactly what you guys are gonna come back with ... "It's a Chinese jet painted in Pakistan colours" blah blah blah. Yet your French/ijrali/Russian/American tejus painted saffron is barely flying.

 

[Cookie Monster]

Afaik 200+ of PAF jets are kinda retirement age no? Even the JF-17 Block-1s are nearing retirement age since their airframe lives were quite low (no idea about later blocks). All's not hunky dory with PAF either mate.

Did I say it was? Ur argument is whataboutism?

I was pointing out the inflated claims/ego of a large amount of Indians on PDF living in lala land. Instead of acknowledging that...u resort to "yeah we are in bad shape but so are u"...I suppose that's a sort of acknowledgement that those tons of Indian fanboys were/are delusional.

 

[Corax]

Did I say it was? Ur argument is whataboutism?

I was pointing out the inflated claims/ego of a large amount of Indians on PDF living in lala land. Instead of acknowledging that...u resort to "yeah we are in bad shape but so are u"...I suppose that's a sort of acknowledgement that those tons of Indian fanboys were/are delusional.

It's the usual response from these rss boys and their manual.

 

[CallSignMaverick]

Nice try with your cope and deflecting to bring PAF into the discussion. What indians like you don't realise by that comparison is just how far behind your beloved tejus is. The block I JF17s are approaching almost 20 years old now! So due either an MLU type overhaul/upgrade, or replaced with more advanced Blocks, my guess would be the latter given the better cost/benefits trade-off. Your tejus don't even have any engines! let alone hopelessly dreaming about ever reaching the number of JF17s built. And I know exactly what you guys are gonna come back with ... "It's a Chinese jet painted in Pakistan colours" blah blah blah. Yet your French/ijrali/Russian/American tejus painted saffron is barely flying.

Its your friend who brought PAF into this though... and LCA also doesn't have an airframe life of 3000 hours and engine with total technical life of 2200 hours.



Engines are coming, and 2nd squadron of LCA MK1A airframes are getting ready at HAL... Unless you believe that the contract for LCA Mk1As would get cancelled entirely. Coz the order for 121 UTTAM AESA radars by HAL a few days back doesn't suggest so. If anything Mk1s are going to get the radars as well alongside.

Did I say it was? Ur argument is whataboutism?

I was pointing out the inflated claims/ego of a large amount of Indians on PDF living in lala land. Instead of acknowledging that...u resort to "yeah we are in bad shape but so are u"...I suppose that's a sort of acknowledgement that those tons of Indian fanboys were/are delusional.

Lack of acknowledgement would be saying all's hunky dory with IAF, accepting IAF is in bad shape isn't lack of it. Given how often I read that all's hunky dory with PAF here I'll call it equally delusional too

 

[Cookie Monster]

Lack of acknowledgement would be saying all's hunky dory with IAF, accepting IAF is in bad shape isn't lack of it. Given how often I read that all's hunky dory with PAF here I'll call it equally delusional too

Lol this is the problem with u folks. Large masses of u are so obsessed with Pakistan...
...that reality stops to matter.

Let me paint a picture using other nationalities.
A Japanese would be like "we are out numbered", "we need to do develop this", "we need to have this capability", "we need to increase defense spending"...
...bcuz China is gaining a significant advantage...North Korea is increasing ballistic missile ranges..etc.

...u would never find a Japanese ignore the big picture and make delusional statements...just to feel good and say things like "but we WILL have this capability...we can fight on 2.5 fronts and defeat both North Korea and China"..etc.
...and when called out about it...their response being ridiculous whataboutism to continue to feel good instead of coming back to reality...
..."but North Korea's economy is a joke"

Do u get it now? Whataboutism doesn't change reality...it doesn't change that large masses of ur public live in fantasy just to feel good.

P.S. if u are not getting the point...and going to come back to the same whataboutism just to continue to feel good..don't bother responding. Find some dark corner and do what u gotta do to keep pleasing urself over and over.

 

[CallSignMaverick]

Lol this is the problem with u folks. Large masses of u are so obsessed with Pakistan...
...that reality stops to matter.

That's what all of you think, that the world revolves around you trying to actively conspire against you

Let me paint a picture using other nationalities.
A Japanese would be like "we are out numbered", "we need to do develop this", "we need to have this capability", "we need to increase defense spending"...
...bcuz China is gaining a significant advantage...North Korea is increasing ballistic missile ranges..etc.

Japanese are actually developing and buying stuff for their own needs, and building them too. They don't have to repeat everything like a parrot on internet which nobody in the higherups read. And they are an industrially advanced economy far ahead of whatever north korea is and cute of you to think a country can defeat Japan with just ballistic missiles, for a country that has a BMD network and ~150 F-35s in service and order.

Let me paint another picture for you, India was producing 1100+/yr short and medium range interceptors during peacetime when orders for Akash and MR-SAM were placed, and this was rate not capacity. With new factories U/C this number goes to higher-4 digits of air defence interceptors a year capacity compared to ZERO of you know who.


Saying "will" is much more certain than "need to". An Indian saying we will have AMCA in service in future is much better than saying "we need to develop something in response". One thing is a certainty the other isn't.

...u would never find a Japanese ignore the big picture and make delusional statements...just to feel good and say things like "but we WILL have this capability...we can fight on 2.5 fronts and defeat both North Korea and China"..etc.

How do you know? Do you speak on behalf of all? Nobody here says we're going to defeat everyone in some 2.5 front war. Again, made up stuff to cope.

Japan actually has the capability to fight and defend a 2-front war. As I said, it is a highly industrialised economy not someone begging for foreign bailouts every 2nd week. They can mass produce weapons and concentrate them on a common front much faster than whatever NoKo can ever dream of and enough to deter if not defeat PLA.

...and when called out about it...their response being ridiculous whataboutism to continue to feel good instead of coming back to reality...
..."but North Korea's economy is a joke"

You're the one who said we're delusional if some Indian members say "PAF will fly obsolete planes while IAF will continue to modernise", so why get pissed off when you get reminded of 200+ planes with no replacement in sight? And these are fighters I'm talking about. If you include all types of aircrafts across all 3 services the situation gets even more grim. Good luck replacing all of them in future.


At least IAF has 180 Mk1As + 12 Su-30 MKIs (apart from 26 Rafale-Ms for Navy) on order with 114 Rafales under negotiation and other projects like Mk2 and AMCA under various prototyping stages. For once we're trying to break dependence on foreign imports in the long run.

We also have our own collaborative combat loyal wingmen fighter drones under various stages of prototyping and testing for both IAF and IN, and only China has that capability under flight testing in Indo-Pacific albeit much ahead of India.

Do u get it now? Whataboutism doesn't change reality...it doesn't change that large masses of ur public live in fantasy just to feel good.

P.S. if u are not getting the point...and going to come back to the same whataboutism just to continue to feel good..don't bother responding. Find some dark corner and do what u gotta do to keep pleasing urself over and over.

Yeah fantasy like what? Your own fantasies that you project on others I suppose. This thread is about updates on LCA Mk1 and Mk1A, so "PAF rulez, JF-17 this JF-17 that, IAF going nowhere, PLAAF gonna eat you out" doesn't belong here. If saying "we will have this capability" is bad then there's other threads of "we will have J-35s soon IAF is finished". There are enough dark corners for that circlejerk.

 

[Corax]

That's what all of you think, that the world revolves around you trying to actively conspire against you

Japanese are actually developing and buying stuff for their own needs, and building them too. They don't have to repeat everything like a parrot on internet which nobody in the higherups read. And they are an industrially advanced economy far ahead of whatever north korea is and cute of you to think a country can defeat Japan with just ballistic missiles, for a country that has a BMD network and ~150 F-35s in service and order.

Let me paint another picture for you, India was producing 1100+/yr short and medium range interceptors during peacetime when orders for Akash and MR-SAM were placed, and this was rate not capacity. With new factories U/C this number goes to higher-4 digits of air defence interceptors a year capacity compared to ZERO of you know who.


Saying "will" is much more certain than "need to". An Indian saying we will have AMCA in service in future is much better than saying "we need to develop something in response". One thing is a certainty the other isn't.


How do you know? Do you speak on behalf of all? Nobody here says we're going to defeat everyone in some 2.5 front war. Again, made up stuff to cope.

Japan actually has the capability to fight and defend a 2-front war. As I said, it is a highly industrialised economy not someone begging for foreign bailouts every 2nd week. They can mass produce weapons and concentrate them on a common front much faster than whatever NoKo can ever dream of and enough to deter if not defeat PLA.


You're the one who said we're delusional if some Indian members say "PAF will fly obsolete planes while IAF will continue to modernise", so why get pissed off when you get reminded of 200+ planes with no replacement in sight? And these are fighters I'm talking about. If you include all types of aircrafts across all 3 services the situation gets even more grim. Good luck replacing all of them in future.
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At least IAF has 180 Mk1As + 12 Su-30 MKIs (apart from 26 Rafale-Ms for Navy) on order with 114 Rafales under negotiation and other projects like Mk2 and AMCA under various prototyping stages. For once we're trying to break dependence on foreign imports in the long run.

We also have our own collaborative combat loyal wingmen fighter drones under various stages of prototyping and testing for both IAF and IN, and only China has that capability under flight testing in Indo-Pacific albeit much ahead of India.



Yeah fantasy like what? Your own fantasies that you project on others I suppose. This thread is about updates on LCA Mk1 and Mk1A, so "PAF rulez, JF-17 this JF-17 that, IAF going nowhere, PLAAF gonna eat you out" doesn't belong here. If saying "we will have this capability" is bad then there's other threads of "we will have J-35s soon IAF is finished". There are enough dark corners for that circlejerk.

Remind us again how long you have been saying your "will" have tejus, mmrca, MK2, MCA?!