A program update on the LCA
Achievements
Program Update by BR contributor “Abhibhushan” on 31 March 2018
“To celebrate completion of 65 years of commissioned service and 50 years since assuming my first command of an operational unit, visited the Flying Daggers for tea and crew room Gup. The boys are all experienced pilots. Boys come from varied backgrounds. Mirage 2000, Jaguar, MiG-29, MiG-27 are all represented. Soon there will be boys from Su-30MKI as well. The boys were all very upbeat about their present mount. Some snippets from crew room chatter:-“
* The Mk1 variant is better than un-upgraded Mirage 2000
* Talk about difficulties with maintenance exaggerated
* Intensive operations tried out successfully
* Lots of scope to increase its might
* If it is compared with all other fighters in the IAF for all-round ability, it will easily be within the top third of the list
| Prototype Aircraft – Milestones | |||
| Aircraft Type | Serial # | First Flight | Test Pilot |
| TD-1 | KH-2001 | 04 January 2001 | Wing Commander Rajiv Kothiyal |
| TD-2 | KH-2002 | 06 June 2002 | Wing Commander Tarun Banerjee |
| PV-1 | KH-2003 | 25 November 2003 | Squadron Leader Suneet Krishna |
| PV-2 | KH-2004 | 01 December 2005 | Wing Commander Vikram Singh |
| PV-3 | KH-2005 | 01 December 2006 | Group Captain Harish Nayani |
| PV-5 | KH-T2009 | 26 November 2009 | Group Captain Ritu Raj Tyagi and Air Commodore Rohit Verma |
| PV-6 | KH-T2010 | 08 November 2014 | Group Captain Vivart Singh and Group Captain Anoop Kabadwal |
| LSP-1 | KH2011 | 25 April 2007 | Group Captain Aditya Prakash Singh |
| LSP-2 | KH2012 | 16 June 2008 | Wing Commander Narmdeshwar Tiwari |
| LSP-3 | KH2013 | 13 April 2010 | Wing Commander George Thomas |
| LSP-4 | KH2014 | 02 June 2010 | Group Captain Suneet Krishna |
| LSP-5 | KH2015 | 19 November 2010 | Lieutenant Commander Ankur Jain (IN) |
| LSP-7 | KH2017 | 09 March 2012 | Group Captain Kolal Krishnamurthy Venugopal (Retd) |
| LSP-8 | KH2018 | 31 March 2013 | Air Commodore Kalianda Appaya Muthanna (Retd) |
| NP-1 | KHN-T-3001 | 27 April 2012 | Commodore Jaideep Maolankar (IN) and Wing Commander M Prabhu |
| NP-2 | NAVY-3002 | 07 February 2015 | Captain Shivnath Dahiya (IN) |
| Production Aircraft – Milestones | ||||
| Tejas Production Lines | ||||
| Line Number | Line Name | Location | Line Capacity | Achieved |
| Line 1 | Tejas Division | Bengaluru | 5 per year | |
| Line 1A | Kiran Hangar | Bengaluru | 3 per year | |
| Line 2 | Hawk Hangar | Kanpur | 8 per year | |
| Line 3 (proposed) | Su-30MKI Hangar | Nashik | 4 per year | |
| Year-Over-Year Tejas Production | ||||
| Year | Aircraft Delivered | Achieved | ||
| 2014 | One | |||
| 2016 | Two | |||
| 2017 | Three | |||
| 2018 | Five | |||
| 2019 | Eight [projected] | |||
| 2020 | Sixteen [vision] | |||
| Aircraft in IAF Service | ||
| No 45 Flying Daggers Squadron, Indian Air Force | ||
| Squadron Raising CO – Group Captain Madhav Rangachari | ||
| Present Commanding Officer – Group Captain Samrath Dhankhar | ||
| Squadron Home Base – Sulur AFS | ||
| No 18 Flying Bullets Squadron, Indian Air Force | ||
| Squadron Home Base – Sulur AFS | ||
| Future Milestones Planned in 2018, 2019 and 2020 | |
| * SP-12 to SP-16 (five birds in all) are are all on the final equipping phase. | |
| * 16 Tejas aircraft are to be delivered in 2019-20 fiscal year. | |
| SP-12 (Line 1) – As of 11 Nov 2018, SP-12 is ready for full performance EGR (engine ground run), with first flight in a week’s time. | |
| SP-13 (Line 2) – Expected to have first flight in December 2018. | |
| SP-14 (Line 1) – with the LCA Tejas Division. | |
| SP-15 (Line 2) – Expected to have first flight in December 2018. | |
| SP-16 (Line 1) – will have its wings from a private manufacturer – Larsen & Tubro. | |
| SP-21 (FOC variant) – Assembly of sets of air fame have already started. Expected to have a first flight in October 2019. | |
| SP-22 (FOC variant) – Assembly of sets of air fame have already started. | |
| SP-23 (FOC variant) – Parts to be up by the first week of December 2018. | |
| SP-24 (FOC variant) – Parts to be up by the first week of December 2018. | |
| 83 Tejas Mk1A variants to be ordered by the Ministry of Defence | |
| Proposal to convert Su-30MKI line to Tejas line, with initial deliveries planned for 4 aircraft per year |