LCA Tejas: The chink in the armor.

Light combat aircraft was conceived as an extremely ambitious project for Indian Air force in the late 80's. India's HAL had previously produced the promising HF24 Marut with the help of the legendary designer Kurt Tank. With the romance of the giant slayer Folland Gnat embedded in the minds of the IAF brass, the concept of Light, Agile and nimble fighter of the 4th generation was envisaged. To design such an aircraft an entire aeronautical eco system was needed, and thus was born the ADA within the DRDO sphere of Labs, bypassing the HAL the largest and only aircraft manufacturing organization in the country which in retrospect might have been a poor decision.

So what went wrong? Pretty much most of it except the structure of the aircraft. By the time IAF was highly impressed with Mirage 2000, the goal became to produce comparable version of the same with an indigenous turbofan engine, a PESA multimode radar, Electronic warfare suite by the early 2000. The first prototype took to the skies 2001, with a GE F404 engine, meanwhile the kaveri engine project did not yield any substantial results. Similarly, the PESA radar did not take shape either. What did work was the state if the art composite airframe, control avionics and the fly by wire system for the system.  

Meanwhile while ADA/IAF was struggling to get the LCA operational, Mig 21's were running out of life, and started getting the undeserved nickname of the widow-maker. These airframes should have been retired a ling time ago, but due to delays of the LCA- Tejas, the life was being extended, in some instances not so successfully.

By the mid 2000's, IAF had again started changing it's mind from Light agile fighter to a light multirole aircraft capable of not only replacing the mig21's but also supplement Mig27's CAS missions and medium range air interdiction role. Knowing that LCA Tejas in it's current iterations wont be able to do so, MRCA (Mirage as stopgap) and subsequently ballooned into the MMRCA as a top tier omnirole Squadrons with LCA as the second tier Area defense system.

One look at the IAF fleet and it will show signs of heavy concentration on Air Superiority, most of it's platforms like the Su 30 MKI, Mig29, Mirage 2000's are exceptional Air superiority platforms, even the LCA was designed to be a nimble and agile dog-fighter. With success of the 4.5th generation multi-role aircraft’s, LCA's intended purpose too was modified to become the multi-role system in the avatar of LCA MK2.

So who is to blame for the delays in the project? Three main reasons seem to be Changing goal posts for the LCA from the Air Staff HQ; The disconnect of ADA/DRDO from it's own technology base and lack of the IAF's  ownership of the project have been the biggest contributors for the delays of this indigenous light combat aircraft system. One cannot rule out intentional misdoings in the ministry of defense to ensure that the project was starved for funds and intentionally mismanaged due to pressures from foreign aviation companies as has been alleged in quite a few quarters.

With dwindling squadron owing to already decommissioned Mig 23 and Mig 21 F/S/FL series air crafts along with Mig21 bison’s and Mig 27's on the verge of being decommissioned soon, LCA Mk2 is one of the most important projects for India, even more important to the national security of India than the FGFA or AMCA. With a heavy air superiority fleet of MKI , Mig 29's and Mirage 2000, India's air interdiction and Area defense gets weaker due to lack of internal cover of an area defense fighter like the LCA. With sufficient numbers of LCA being the work horse, it frees up the MKI's and Mig29 protecting trombay high and other installation to do their real jobs of taking the fight to the enemy.

Su 30 MKI, still the champion?

Su 30 MKI, An Indo-Russian variant of the much dreaded Russian flanker, was introduced in south asia in the early 2000. MKI, a beast of a strike platform with its massive N011 Bars Pesa radar mated to R77 AE and PD BVRAAM, a thrust to weight ratio close to 1.2, it massive A2G and maritime strike ordinance and it’s incredible range of 3000 Kms. Before the MKI came to the scene IAF’s primary air superiority platform was the Mig29M and the Mirage 2000 platforms, both comparable to the F16’s in the neighborhood,  but outclassed by the SU27’s in the PLAAF armory. MKI changed this equation, although with similar configuration of SU30 in the Chinese inventory, the chinese variants lacked  quite a few features like the Litening III targeting pods, canards, French and Israeli Avionics as the Su30MKI. The success story of the MKI has been such that even the Russian air force, ordered the SU30SM variant that closely resembles the MKI configuration. Malaysia and Algeria followed suit by ordering derivatives of the Su 30 MKI.


Pakistan has had its military doctrine directly based on India’s capabilities, whereas in China’s case, it has stayed away from any overt confrontational doctrine with India but maintaining a close awareness of IAF’s capabilities. The new platforms introduced by Pakistani Air force, to meet the challenges of maintaining minimum credible defense against India and combat obsolescence of its fleet was in a twofold strategy. F16 Blk52 variants were introduced as deterrence against technologically advanced platforms of the IAF. To combat obsolescence of its A5 Fantan, Mirage III/V and F7 (Mig21 Chinese variants), PAF introduced the FC1/JF17 aircraft developed by China as an export platform. China on the other hand developed their own single engine multirole aircraft J10, for combating the obsolescence of their own fleet. China also license produced J11 variant of SU27 be the primary long range multirole strike aircraft.

So how do these aircrafts match up against the SU 30 MKI of the IAF? Although F16 BLK52 and J10 both are quite capable aircraft, neither of them have the physical range or the radar capability to surpass the MKI, the payload on both of these aircraft is low compared to the MKI, and MKI also outshines both of these aircraft in supersonic and subsonic aerodynamic performance. The J11 and it’s naval cousin the J15 are of comparable configuration, but have the similar configuration to Su27’s lack the avionics and ordinance advantage that the MKI has over the Chinese flanker platforms. 

Super30 upgrade: Su 30 MKI in the IAF fleet are slated for the upgrades and will soon see structural upgrades for 50 airframes to accommodate the Brahmos supersonic ALCM. With air launched mode the Brahmos range will increase from it’s current 290 km to around 400 km. IAF is also testing Astra I and Astra II all aspect beyond visual range missile. IAF has also issued request for information for Brimstone ALCM and Meteor BVR for testing and evaluation.

With the current threat perceptions around the Indian subcontinent, the SU30MKI’s won’t be displaced in its stature for quite a few coming years. But within another decade China will deploy their 5^th generation strike platform J20, and most likely exports J31 to Pakistan, that is when SU 30 MKI is  most likely to be displaced from it’s throne.