India Took a Shocking 33 Years to Develop a Jet Fighter (And It’s Still Not Ready for Combat)
Dave Majumdar
November 23, 2016
http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/india-took-shocking-33-years-develop-jet-fighter-its-still-18505The Indian government is proposing to export its Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) Tejas light combat aircraft to other Asian nations. New Delhi hopes that the indigenously developed fighter’s relatively simple design and potentially low maintenance costs will be a selling point for the jet. But India’s prospects for selling the its “new” fighter are highly dubious.
“The government proposes to export the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas to other countries. In this connection preliminary discussions have been held with a few friendly countries,” reads a statement from Indian defense minister Shri Manohar Parrikar. “Presently, HAL has established facilities for manufacturing and delivery of 8 LCA per annum. There is a plan to ramp up the production rate from 8 to 16 Aircraft per annum progressively by 2019-20.”
It’s unclear which potential customers might be interested in the Tejas, though New Delhi has been trying to market the jet overseas with an appearance at the Bahrain air show earlier this year. But given that India has been trying to develop the Tejas since the 1980s without delivering a viable combat aircraft, it is highly doubtful that any of New Delhi’s allies would be willing to purchase such a fighter. Moreover, even after more than 33 years of development, the Tejas continues to be plagued with problems—though developers believe that they can resolve outstanding issues with the aircraft within a year. “I told them that all shortcomings should be fulfilled and the plane should be ready in a year,” Parrikar told the Hindustan Times on Nov. 20.
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Despite, India’s bold claims, the generally unimpressive Tejas is not in the same league as other comparable aircraft in the export fighter market. The Swedish Saab JAS-39 Gripen and even upgraded older model F-16s and F/A-18s generally offer superior performance for comparable and sometimes even lower prices. Moreover, the Tejas—with a hodgepodge of technologies drawn from Israel, France, Russia and the United States, among others—would be a nightmare to clear for export.
Despite being billed as an indigenous aircraft, roughly 25 percent of the current Mk-1 version of the aircraft is built from imported components. While that might seem fairly low, those components are the core of what makes a fighter a fighter. Imported systems on the Tejas include the Israel Aerospace Industries/ELTA EL/M-2032 radar, an Elbit helmet-mounted cueing system, a British-made Martin Baker ejection seat and an American General Electric F404 afterburning turbofan. Additionally, many of the jet’s weapons—such as the GSh-23 23 mm cannon—are of Russian origin. Indeed, the very fact that the Tejas is equipped with a U.S. engine means that Washington has a veto on which nations New Delhi can offer the aircraft to for sale. Thus, a potential customer might be better served to simply purchase a used F-16 or F/A-18—which are far better jets with a far more attractive package of weapons (not to mention political clout).
Meanwhile, India recently ordered 83 more Tejas Mk-1A jets, a slightly refined version of the current Mk-1 aircraft, of which 20 are on order. The Tejas Mk-1A will replace the current mechanically-scanned radar with a new Israel Aerospace Industries/ELTA EL/M-2052 active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar, a new electronic warfare pod and a Cobham in-flight refueling probe. There are also a host of other improvements to correct the deficiencies found on the original Mk-1.
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