Navy backs TEDBF Program, 6th Gen Laser Jets, L&T Delivers Reactor End Shield

Dogfighting Stealth Jets Could Become Obsolete As US China Look To Arm Their Fighter Jets With ‘New Age Weapons’

US defense giant Lockheed Martin is reportedly developing a mini version of The High Energy Laser with Integrated Optical dazzler and Surveillance HELIOS, small enough to be fitted in a fighter jet.

The HELIOS, which is being developed for the US Navy, is to be deployed aboard an Arleigh Burke class guided missile destroyer by the end of 2021.

The US sixth generation fighter jet, called NGAD or Next Generation Air Dominance fighter, could be the potential host of the shrunken laser system.

A laser system has many advantages as it provides more accuracy than a gun and offers “unlimited munition” compared with the limited number of missiles being carried by a fighter jet.

Lasers could potentially make the traditional air to air dogfighting obsolete, since a fighter with a laser weapon could destroy a target instantly without having the need to do a follow up shot.

However, an aerial laser is much more delicate and complex than a ground based laser system, especially when they’re attached to a supersonic fighter jet. Operating aboard a jet, a laser weapon would require more amounts of electricity and regular maintenance due to passing through dust, water, and ice particles.

The current laser in question is the HELIOS, which Lockheed Martin describes as more than just a high energy laser. The HELIOS system’s multi mission capabilities include long range Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance and Counter Unmanned Aerial System mounted ISR Dazzler.

L&T delivers critical equipment for India’s nuclear reactor

The heavy engineering arm of Larsen & Toubro, flagged off the Second End Shield for NPCIL’s indigenously designed 700 Mega-Watt-Electric Pressurized Heavy Water Reactors to be set up at Gorakhpur Haryana Anu Vidyut Pariyojana in Fatehabad district of Haryana. The flag off ceremony took place at L&T’s Hazira Manufacturing Complex in the presence of dignitaries from NPCIL and L&T.

These end shields form a crucial part of the pressurized heavy water nuclear power reactors used to prevent the direct radiation field that comes from the reactor’s core region. The manufacturing of End Shields (9 metre in diameter weighing at 140 MT ) involves Critical machining, Bi Junction welding with stringent distortion control technology.

L&T Heavy Engineering dispatched the first 700 Mega-Watt-Electric-Steam-Generator for the Gorakhpur nuclear power project in March 2021, creating a new global benchmark in the nuclear manufacturing industry by producing the complex equipment in 36 months.   

L&T Heavy Engineering supplies high technology reactors and systems to global companies in Refinery, Oil & Gas, Petrochemical, Fertilizer & Nuclear Power industries.

Navy backs TEDBF Program over foreign jets, plans to prioritize it

The TEDBF (Twin Engine deck Based Fighter) program will soon be taken as a priority mission after Navy decided to drop plans to procure 37 Deck based fighter jets from an International vendor for operations from aircraft carrier as Aeronautical Development Agency and Navy are close to finalizing the final design specifications of the proposed 4.5++ Generation Deck based fighter program to be called as TEDBF that will replace Russian Migg-29K from 2035.

Aeronautical Development Agency has estimated that the TEDBF Research and Development program cost will be around 13000 crores that first needs to be cleared from the Defence Acquisition Council out of which 60% will come from the Government and 40% from the Navy’s Budget for which Aeronautical Development Agency and Navy need to first agree on minimum order unit of the jet that will go into production.  

Aeronautical Development Agency ADA Navy will settle on 100 units of TEDBF that will be enough for three carrier strike groups. ADA at Aero India 2021 had said that the rollout of the prototype will happen in 2025 and the first flight has been scheduled for 2026 and production in 2029 to 30.

DRDO chief has confirmed that prototypes of the TEDBF will be powered by the American F414 GE-INS6 but the production batches will switch to a new high powered 110 kilo Newton thrust class engine that GTRE jointly plans to develop with the Rolls Royce. In a bit of new development, the Navy has not ruled out the development of a Naval AMCA that may or may not be used as a deck based fighter jet in very small numbers.