My Experiences

Both Navy and Indian Air Force are going to need a fighter jet to secure our skies both near land borders and maritime coast. This can be the  main peace time  workhorse to guard Indian skies.   Navy calls its version Twin Engine Deck Based Fighter (TEDBF) , while Air Force can call it as Medium Weight Fighter (MWF) or Omni Role Combat Aircraft (ORCA). Here, the need is to make a fighter using the existing research on Tejas Mk2 and AMCA. We are reaching the goal of making our own Multi-role fighter with Tejas Mk 2. At present it has been designed to be a single engine jet with General Electric F414-GE-INS6 turbofan, 58.5 kN thrust dry, 98 kN with afterburner. The present expected weight of Tejas Mk2 is as follows: 1. Gross Weight: 11,300 kg 2. Max Take Off Weight: 17,500 kg. That means payload capacity is 6,200 kg. But, Tejas Mk2 being a single engine fighter cannot be used by Navy as Twin Engine Deck Based Fighter. Similarly, Air Force cannot make Mk 2 in larg...

HAL has been on the for-front of making and upgrading fighter jets and helicopters for Indian Military since beginning. It has demonstrated critical capability by designing and developing LCA Tejas, ALH Dhruva, Rudra, LCH and trainer aircrafts (HTT-40). It has majority share of indigenously manufactured aircrafts and plays a key role in manufacturing and upgrading imported aircrafts like Sukhoi-30MKI, Mig 29-UPG and Mig 29K, under license. We see Indian air force  consisting of a rainbow of aircrafts imported or made under license from other nations. Here HAL plays a key role in increasing indigenous content of these aviation systems with time. But by the time the indigenous content increases to more than 50%, these aircrafts systems tend to become obsolete. So the hard work done in getting transfer of technology cannot be used on the same aircraft but can be used in design and development of new systems.  With time the key strength of HAL is R&D and the ability to satisfy...