SAVING TEJAS

AMIT GUPTA provides alternatives for the Light Combat Aircraft

- AMIT GUPTA

The Tejas was/is a good idea but the programme has been botched by the Hindustan Aeronautical Limited (HAL) and the Indian Air Force (IAF) much to the detriment of both organisations. What this article argues is that if a realistic approach is taken, the programme can deliver the aircraft needed to restock the IAF's ageing arsenal of fighters. It can also lay the basis for a future Indian combat aircraft programme.

Background

People forget that the LCA(Light Combat Aircraft) programme, as it was then called, was started with modest goals in mind. The plane was supposed to be built in a timely manner to replace what by the 1990s would be an ageing fleet of MiG-21s (given the travails of the Tejas programme the MiG-21 continues to soldier on in the force). This would have given the IAF a mix of high-low aircraft where the Mirage 2000 and Su-30MKI would give the force the advanced aircraft to carry out initial missions, which required precision guidance, penetration of enemy airspace, and the ability to maintain air superiority.

Once the enemy's forces had been degraded, the Tejas—which by then was supposed to be inducted in large numbers—could be used to carry out operations in a less threatening environment. Added to this was the decision to try and indigenously develop an engine for the aircraft which was dubbed Kaveri. Further, the Indian government recognised that the plane would require components from abroad but by the late 1990s countries like Sweden and S. Korea were doing exactly that while building indigenous aircraft.