LCA-Mk2 Configuration frozen, steel cutting soon, AMCA design completed: Aeronautical Development Agency Chief
The configuration for the Light Combat Aircraft LCA-Mk2 has been frozen and steel cutting is expected to begin soon while configuration for the fifth generation Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft AMCA has been frozen and preliminary design completed, & ADA is in critical design review stage, a senior scientist from the Aeronautical Development Agency has said.
Roll out of the aircraft Mk2 is planned next year
and the first flight in early 2023.
The aircraft features enhanced range and endurance
including an onboard oxygen generation system, which is being integrated for
the first time. Heavy weapons of the class of Scalp, Crystal Maze and Spice 2000
will also be integrated on the Mk2. The Mk2 is 1,350 mm longer featuring
canards and can carry a payload of 6,500 kg compared to 3,500 kg the LCA can
carry. The Mk2 will be powered by a more powerful GE-414 engine.
AMCA is a twin-engine stealth aircraft with an
internal weapons bay and a diverterless supersonic intake, which has been
developed for the first time for which the design is complete. It will be a 25 tons
aircraft with internal carriage of 1,500 kg of payload and 5,500 kg external
payload with 6,500 kg of internal fuel. AMCA-Mk1 will be powered with existing
GE-414 engine and an AMCA-Mk2 with an advanced, more powerful engine to be
developed later.
China Aggressively Upgrading Its J-10
Fighter Jets; Why India’s HAL Tejas Lags Behind The PLA Airforce Aircraft?
Both are highly capable aircraft in their own right
but the development, rollout, and upgrade trajectory have been more consistent
for the J-10, with the HAL aircraft slightly lagging, bogged by delays and
criticism.
The J-10 and the Tejas symbolize the painstaking
techno industrial effort of both nations, both first taking flight just three
years apart. The J-10 first flew in 1998 and the Tejas in 2001.
However, the J-10 was a heavily redesigned,
modified, and reverse engineered version of the scrapped Israeli Lavi program,
saving the Chinese in coming up with an airframe ground up. The Lavi itself had
to be shelved by the Israelis under pressure from the US.
The LCA on the other hand merely received assistance
from Dassault in the late 1980s, with the rest of the development undertaken by
India’s state run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited HAL itself, ground up, facing
severe technology denials.
Both are single engine, delta wing configuration
jets, with the J-10 being slightly longer and bigger. It has ventral air
intakes, sporting swept front canards, and the wings in the low wing position.
The smaller and nimble looking Tejas-Mark1A has a high wing configuration with
body sided air intakes.
Russia Still Hopes to Sell More Sukhoi-35
to China — But Isn’t Likely to Succeed
Since its entry into service in early 2014 Russia
has aggressively marketed its Sukhoi-35 fighter jet for export, with China and
Egypt each placing orders for 24 jets in 2015 and 2018 respectively.
The fighter's prospects for future sales have been
brought to question primarily because of competition from rival Russian
heavyweight fighters such as the Sukhoi-30SM/SM2 and the Sukhoi-57, with Russia
currently offering more fighter classes from this weight range for export than
the rest of the world combined.
With Egypt having yet to receive its final aircraft,
China has been considered a possible client to acquire further Sukhoi-35, with
a purchase potentially providing a major boost to the Russian military aviation
industry. The aircraft have sold under previous contracts for approximately 1
billion dollars for every twelve units, including the cost of training, spare
parts, armaments and deliveries, making them the most expensive non western
fighters ever exported.
But China is not expected to show any significant
interest in further acquisitions largely due to the capabilities of competing
aircraft produced by its own defence sector.
