LCA Tejas Make In India Success

Hello aspirants

Indian recently tested the Tejas which is indigenously built jet and is working to induct it in the armed forces. Aircraft will give an upper hand to the Indian defence force and will cut the cost of massive imports from foreign countries. This post will help you understand the design and features of the new LCA Tejas.

1. What is LCA Tejas?
   

• The Tejas is Light Combat Aircraft designed by the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for the Indian Air Force and Indian Navy.
• It came from the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) programme began in the 1980s to replace India's ageing MiG-21.
• The Tejas is the second supersonic fighter developed by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) after the HAL HF-24 Marut.
• It is the smallest and lightest in its class of contemporary supersonic combat aircraft.

2. Design
   

• Tejas has a length of 13.20 m (43 ft 4 in) and height 4.40 m (14 ft 9 in).
• Maximum payload for Tejas is 3.5 tonnes and have space for one crew.
• The range of the missile fired is 850 km with a Combat radius of 500 km.
• Tejas has a tail-less compound delta-wing configuration with a single dorsal fin which provides for high manoeuvrability.
• Its wing root leading edge has a sweep of 50 degrees, the outer wing leading edge has a sweep of 62.5 degrees, and trailing edge has a forward sweep of four degrees.
• Tejas has a relaxed static stability design along with its quadruplex digital computerised flight control system to ease pilot handling.

3. Features

• LCA Tejas comes with Mach 1.8 (2,205 km/h) speed and is a supersonic jet.
• Tejas comes with stealth feature which is difficult to detect by the radio waves. Being small provides an inherent degree of visual stealth.
• Radar-absorbent material(RAM) coatings are used to minimise its susceptibility to detection and tracking.
• The Tejas has a night vision goggles(NVG)-compatible "glass cockpit" which display real-time information.
• It has eight weapon hardpoints- 3 under each air wings, one under the central body, and one under the air inlet on the left side of the plane. 
• Including air-to-air missiles, air to surface( including anti-ship) missiles, precision-guided.
• Tejas has multi-mode weapon multirole capability and can fire laser-guided bombs.
• It is capable of flying non-stop to a destination over 1700Km away.

Recently HAL, the manufacturer of aircraft is starting its production of the weaponised version of Tejas Mk1. HAL has been ordered to produce 20 aircrafts under the Mk1 category, with Final Operational Clearance (FOC). 

This post will clear the topic and will help you in the preparation. Stay connected to DDE for more such post.