Is THAAD Suitable For India?, Kaveri Engines For LCA Tejas, IAC-1 Sea Trials

Is THAAD Suitable For India? Can America's Air Defence System Replace the Russian S400 to Secure Indian Airspace?

Aside from  threatening the country with economic sanctions under the Countering America’s Adversaries through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), the US has also indicated that it will cease to provide India with a number of defence products including Predator drones should India purchase the S400. Washington has considered offering India its own long range air defence platform, the Terminal High Altitude Air Defence THAAD system, should Delhi abandon its plans to acquire the S400?. While THAAD costs considerably more than the Russian system, the success of the new US strategy relies heavily on the weapons systems’ viability as a replacement for the S400.

One of the primary reasons why India sought the Russian S400, a platform designed with advanced anti stealth capabilities to counter & protect the country's airspace against China's fast growing fleet of stealth assets & Pakistani Threats.

Unlike the S400, THAAD not only lacks counter stealth capabilities but it also lacks anti meaningful aircraft capabilities entirely and is designed solely to intercept enemy ballistic missiles. This seriously limits its usefulness to India.

IAC-1 deserves greater attention. If only Indian defence moved away from episodic concerns

To be named Vikrant upon induction, IAC-1 has now begun its third round of trials at sea. Developed by the outstanding Directorate of Naval Design, the 40,000 tons aircraft carrier is the largest ship built in India and is certain to have a significant impact on national maritime security. But for it to fulfil its fullest potential, IAC-1 will have to be first joined by another larger aircraft carrier and second be flying indigenously developed aircraft, fixed wing and rotary. Both conditions are not beyond the realms of reality but require greater attention than the episodic concerns for Indian defence.

Kaveri to get its date with LCA Tejas

The pace of work on the Dry Kaveri engine development as an offshoot of the Kaveri engine is progressing well and soon it will head to Russia by mid this year to commence a series of tests that are planned on a Russian IL-76 aircraft using it as Flight Test Bed at a Russian facility. Dry Kaveri will replace one of the four engines of the IL-76 and the tests to be carried out up to 12km maximum altitude and a maximum forward speed of 0.7 Mash and under different operating conditions to validate the engine performance.

Bangalore based Gas Turbine Research Establishment GTRE under DRDO is also working on a new afterburner section for the new Dry engine that will be able to generate 73-78 kilo Newton Class of thrust when the afterburner is engaged. While the Dry Kaveri engine will be used to power the upcoming Unmanned Remote Strike Aircraft program, the Kaveri engine with the afterburner section will eventually be tested on the older LSP LCA Tejas aircraft as a technology demonstrator program and also has proof of concept by 2026-27.

Safran, a French multinational aircraft engine that carried out the technical audit of the Kaveri engine cleared it for inflight trials of the new engine after long-term issues with its core were identified and fixed in the last few years. Successful trials in Russia will clear its path to be ground tested with a new afterburner section that is currently been fabricated and later to be integrated into LCA-Tejas aircraft for further trials.

Kaveri engine program already has been delinked from the LCA Tejas program as no re-engineering program with upgraded or uprated Kaveri engine has been planned for Tejas Mk1 or Mk1A fleet as this aircraft will continue to be powered by American supplied F-404 engines but there are speculations that Kaveri with Afterburner will find its way into another project other then Unmanned Remote Strike Aircraft program eventually.

GTRE will soon start work with an international partner to develop a new 110 kilo Newton Class Wet engine for the AMCA program that will eventually also be used for the Navy’s TEDBF and Tejas Mk2 fleet at a later stage.