Further delaying complete weaponisation of
the Tejas Light Combat Aircraft, the Aeronautical
Development Agency has now scheduled the indigenous
jet's Final Operational Clearance for December
2018.
“The current target date for FOC is December
2018.
The production of 20 FOC aircraft will be
taken up after the FOC clearance by Aeronautical
Development Agency,” Subhash Bhamre, Minister
of State for Defence said in a written response
in the Rajya Sabha.
On March 31, 2006, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited
signed a contract to deliver 20 LCA to the
Indian Air Force in IOC (Initial Operational
Clearance) configuration by December 2011.
Out of these, only nine fighters have been
delivered to the 45 Squadron of the IAF till
date.
The production of the remaining 11 Tejas in
the IOC configuration is now being taken up
at the HAL.
Out of the 11 jets, seven would be single
seater combat aircraft and four would be twin-seat
trainers.
In its present format, the LCA Tejas was capable
of only undertaking air defence operations
and conventional ground attack with heavy
bombs, Bhamre said.
Even before the production of the aircraft
began, HAL signed a second contract in December
2010 to deliver another 20 aircraft to the
IAF in FOC configuration by 2016.
Bhamre said the government sanctioned Rs 1,381
crore to HAL in March 2017 to augment its
production capacity from 8 aircraft in a year
to 16 aircraft.
The aircraft manufacturer has also taken a
number of steps to fast pace the production
cycle.
These include increasing the number of jigs
for front, centre and rear fuselage and wings,
modularisation of the electrical looms and
outsourcing of major modules to private manufacturers
with HAL playing the role of an integrator.
One key step towards FOC was achieved in April
2018, when Tejas successfully fired Derby
Air-to-Air Beyond Visual Range Missile to
expand the aircraft's firing envelope and
demonstrated safe operation of the aircraft
during missile plume ingestion into the aircraft
engine under worst case scenarios.
