Tejas Mk1A (LA5033) Clears Taxi Trials Yesterday, First Flight Expected Anytime From Today

India's aerospace ambitions took a significant leap forward yesterday as the indigenously developed Tejas Mk1A fighter aircraft, designated LA5033, successfully completed low-speed and high-speed taxi trials (LSTT and HSTT).

These trials represent a major step towards the aircraft's highly-anticipated maiden flight, now expected to take place today pending the successful completion of final checks.

Certifying agencies are expressing confidence in LA5033's readiness, boosting optimism for today's potentially historic flight.

Yesterday's taxi trials were piloted by veteran test pilot Group Captain K K Venugopal (Retd), a member of the experienced Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) Civil Test Pilot (FW) group.

The successful taxi trials mark a crucial milestone in the development of the Tejas Mk1A, a more advanced and potent variant of the Tejas light combat aircraft.

The aircraft's maiden flight will represent a momentous achievement for India's indigenous fighter jet program, showcasing the nation's growing capabilities in aerospace engineering.

 

[Anurag]

I have already been proven right. Even if it is delivered today itself, it is still a delay of months. The Feb 3 deadline is from PIB, the official source of GoI information. They have specifically said 3 Mk1A planes before 3 Feb 2024.

First read the latest article of PIB(source exact date of article is 25 nov 2023) then conclude the things!! And the thing is who is right or wrong doesn't matter here!! If you think hal is responsible for the all the delays then let the IAF punish them!! In democracy our dm or pm himself will be lauding the hal for their excellence work for Tejas Mk1a!!

 

[beencensured]

How would a radar change make the plane fly faster???

Well, It was already tested on Tejas LSP before the Israeli radar; so obviously Uttam radar would been incorporated faster, and so Tejas mk1a would fly faster with indigenous radar.

 

[Sandeep]

If this is the first flight then they still have a long way to go before production can begin. They have made a number of significant changes, improvements and upgrades to enhance and modernise the jet into Tejas MK1A. Now they need to go through the very long process of testing it and certifying that all of the new technology, parts, equipment and software etc is safe to fly with and it has significantly enhanced the jets combat capabilities and the indigenous weapons package that can be used properly and safely. Hopefully it shouldn't take more than two years to receive its flight and combat certification but any other failure or problem will only delay the test duration and certifying it which doesn't help so we need to fix the problems as quickly as possible.

 

[beencensured]

How ................Actually reason is New Indigenous Digital Fly By wire Flight control computer

Well, Uttam was already tested on Tejas LSP before the Israeli radar, so obviously Uttam radar would been incorporated faster, and so Tejas mk1a would have flew faster with indigenous radar. Now, they want GaN.

 

[Akshat]

Well, It was already tested on Tejas LSP before the Israeli radar; so obviously Uttam radar would been incorporated faster, and so Tejas mk1a would fly faster with indigenous radar.

Firstly, improve your English. It will be 'fly earlier' and not 'fly faster'. Or maybe 'fly quicker'.

Secondly, if Tejas Mk1A was rolled out on time, Israeli radar would have been easier and quicker. HAL has delayed the deliveries. Even right now there is no news on orders for Uttam radar being placed so we don't know if it is even ready or not.

 

[beencensured]

Firstly, improve your English. It will be 'fly earlier' and not 'fly faster'. Or maybe 'fly quicker'.

Secondly, if Tejas Mk1A was rolled out on time, Israeli radar would have been easier and quicker. HAL has delayed the deliveries. Even right now there is no news on orders for Uttam radar being placed so we don't know if it is even ready or not.

Since, as written Tejas mk1a has not flown at least production variant, so no mistake in English.

 

[Akshat]

First read the latest article of PIB(source exact date of article is 25 nov 2023) then conclude the things!! And the thing is who is right or wrong doesn't matter here!! If you think hal is responsible for the all the delays then let the IAF punish them!! In democracy our dm or pm himself will be lauding the hal for their excellence work for Tejas Mk1a!!

Read the article published at the time of signing the contract. Source exact date 3 Feb 2021. Any article or comment after that giving a later date is a delay in itself. Also, I did read the article published on that day and it has no mention of Mk1A (used chrome word finder). Also looked for LCA, and none of the 22 matches say anything regarding this except one sentence which says order of 83 LCA has been placed, with no mention of delivery date. Now can I conclude that HAL is a blot and a curse on India?

And it's not that simple. Politics my friend, politics. Politicians and officials can't accept in public that they made a blunder by trusting HAL. So check the events. Tata is being groomed to be a competitor to HAL with C295. HAL is being privatized slowly. MRFA was opened under SPP model where a private manufacturing partner is a must. So look at actions, not words.

 

[Akshat]

Since, as written Tejas mk1a has not flown at least production variant, so no mistake in English.

Again, multiple mistakes in this sentence itself. Use proper punctuation.

 

[Anurag]

Read the article published at the time of signing the contract. Source exact date 3 Feb 2021. Any article or comment after that giving a later date is a delay in itself. Also, I did read the article published on that day and it has no mention of Mk1A (used chrome word finder). Also looked for LCA, and none of the 22 matches say anything regarding this except one sentence which says order of 83 LCA has been placed, with no mention of delivery date. Now can I conclude that HAL is a blot and a curse on India?

And it's not that simple. Politics my friend, politics. Politicians and officials can't accept in public that they made a blunder by trusting HAL. So check the events. Tata is being groomed to be a competitor to HAL with C295. HAL is being privatized slowly. MRFA was opened under SPP model where a private manufacturing partner is a must. So look at actions, not words.

If gov backed source is saying these things then I don't consider this as a fault of the manufacturer!! Well I paste here one of the paragraph of that particular article I am talking about that may help to clear the confusion...
IAF test crew have been involved with the Tejas project right from conceptual stage till prototype testing. The first version of the aircraft was inducted into the IAF in 2016. Currently, two squadrons of IAF, 45 Squadron and 18 Squadron, are fully operational with LCA Tejas. An order worth Rs 36,468 Crore for delivery of 83 LCA Mk 1A aircraft has been placed with HAL and delivery is scheduled to begin by February 2024. HAL has current capacity to build 8 LCA aircraft per year. This is being increased to 16 aircraft’s every year by 2025 and further to 24 aircraft every year in the next 3 years.

And whatever about the things you are talking about spv model I will welcome the move of private company getting tender but I highly doubt that MoD or Forces may able to utilise it!!

 

[Akshat]

If gov backed source is saying these things then I don't consider this as a fault of the manufacturer!! Well I paste here one of the paragraph of that particular article I am talking about that may help to clear the confusion...
IAF test crew have been involved with the Tejas project right from conceptual stage till prototype testing. The first version of the aircraft was inducted into the IAF in 2016. Currently, two squadrons of IAF, 45 Squadron and 18 Squadron, are fully operational with LCA Tejas. An order worth Rs 36,468 Crore for delivery of 83 LCA Mk 1A aircraft has been placed with HAL and delivery is scheduled to begin by February 2024. HAL has current capacity to build 8 LCA aircraft per year. This is being increased to 16 aircraft’s every year by 2025 and further to 24 aircraft every year in the next 3 years.

And whatever about the things you are talking about spv model I will welcome the move of private company getting tender but I highly doubt that MoD or Forces may able to utilise it!!

The government source is mentioning what are the specifics of the deal. If that is not obeyed, then it is no one's fault but the manufacturer's. Whether you consider that to be the case or not is immaterial. That's how law would consider it.

The part you mentioned doesn't contradict what I wrote. It in fact reinforces it but mine has more details. The delivery date in the original article is 3 Feb 2024. In your article it says deliveries will start in Feb 2024. So they are perfectly overlapping as 3 Feb 2024 falls in Feb 2024. And that was the time for delivery of all 3 planes so it can be considered as the commencement of the deliveries since the original deal considers deliveries in blocks. 3 in 36 months, and then 16 every 12 months. So whether you deliver all 16 in one go or in batches or individually is immaterial to the contract. The contract will only consider the number at the end of each year. Similarly, it will only consider the numbers delivered on 3 Feb 2024, which falls in Feb 2024.

If ADA and HAL allow the private companies to participate, then only will they get the tender. Ex-ACM and now the ruling party leader ACM Bhadoria is on record saying that ADA and HAL are not letting them get in and it is very important to get the private players on board.

 

[Anurag]

The government source is mentioning what are the specifics of the deal. If that is not obeyed, then it is no one's fault but the manufacturer's. Whether you consider that to be the case or not is immaterial. That's how law would consider it.

The part you mentioned doesn't contradict what I wrote. It in fact reinforces it but mine has more details. The delivery date in the original article is 3 Feb 2024. In your article it says deliveries will start in Feb 2024. So they are perfectly overlapping as 3 Feb 2024 falls in Feb 2024. And that was the time for delivery of all 3 planes so it can be considered as the commencement of the deliveries since the original deal considers deliveries in blocks. 3 in 36 months, and then 16 every 12 months. So whether you deliver all 16 in one go or in batches or individually is immaterial to the contract. The contract will only consider the number at the end of each year. Similarly, it will only consider the numbers delivered on 3 Feb 2024, which falls in Feb 2024.

If ADA and HAL allow the private companies to participate, then only will they get the tender. Ex-ACM and now the ruling party leader ACM Bhadoria is on record saying that ADA and HAL are not letting them get in and it is very important to get the private players on board.

Well I never take the side of hal as I know it's work culture is poor but as per me Mod & IAF is also equally responsible or I will say MOD is the responsible for most of the things!! They kept on stretching the project just for the sack of money and we end up paying a lot extra money then they try to save!! Bureaucracy is just poorly managed...

About the private sector not participating is because of uncertainty among the mod & forces itself just look at the case of L&T, they delivered the k9bajra on time and from that they are just waiting from many years for the further orders. Their line is idle & so is trained workforce and while we can utilise it in better ways but we didn't!!

 

[Akshat]

Well I never take the side of hal as I know it's work culture is poor but as per me Mod & IAF is also equally responsible or I will say MOD is the responsible for most of the things!! They kept on stretching the project just for the sack of money and we end up paying a lot extra money then they try to save!! Bureaucracy is just poorly managed...

About the private sector not participating is because of uncertainty among the mod & forces itself just look at the case of L&T, they delivered the k9bajra on time and from that they are just waiting from many years for the further orders. Their line is idle & so is trained workforce and while we can utilise it in better ways but we didn't!!

No doubt that there are many issues which plague our defense sector, including MoD officials and armed forces. But in this case, and in most others, the sole responsibility lies with HAL. An order has been given and now it is their responsibility alone to deliver which they have failed to do. In this case, from 3 Feb 2021 onwards, no one is responsible but HAL.

In case of Vajra, no one is waiting for anything. It is only media speculation. Army had always been clear that they want only 100 SPHs. That was clearly spelt out in their artillery modernization plan as well as the tender. So if anyone assumed more orders will be placed, it is their fallacy, not army's. Army had spelt it's stance right at the beginning. There is no uncertainty whatsoever. But L&T went ahead and delivered the order before time. HAL on the other hand took the money and then made excuses like small order size etc. That is the issue.