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Scramble 467
is the result of a 2015 partnership agreement with TASL.
Construction of the manufacturing facility began in 2016 and
was completed on schedule.
The Indian government (MoD) seems to have scrapped its
two-year-old plan to produce 114 single-engine fighter
aircraft with foreign collaboration under the “Make in India”
framework. The main cause is the political dispute between
one of the largest political parties and Congress over the
contract for 36 French Dassault Rafale fighter aircraft.
The original plan placed an unnecessary restriction on only
single-engine fighter aircraft, which limited the competition
to just two type of aircraft, the Lockheed Martin F-16 and the
Swedish Saab JAS39E Gripen. The MoD has now asked the
Indian Air Force to come up with a new proposal that will take
both single and twin-engine fighter aircraft into account.
According to a source within the Ministry of Defence the aim
is to increase the contenders and avoid needless allegations
at a later moment.
To speed up matters, the MoD will be looking at new additions
made by global players since the MMRCA trials were carried
out in 2011. The aircraft tested then were the Lockheed Martin
F-16 Fighting Falcon, the Boeing F/A-18 Hornet, Eurofighter
Typhoon, Dassault Rafale, Saab JAS39E Gripen and Mikoyan
MiG-35. Unfortunately, this will definitely take up extra time.
India’s track record for investments of this size is not that
well. The process consumes many years ending up in delays
and cancellations.
We just wondered when the first cracks would appear in
the positive news on acquiring new fighter aircraft. And
yes. On Sunday 4 March 2018, the Defence minister Nirmala
Sitharaman, explained that the government has decided to
back a heavily upgraded and revised variant of the Tejas
Light Combat Aircraft. This means that India is not interested
in acquiring either the Saab JAS39E/F Gripen or the Lockheed
Martin F-16 block 70 fighter aircraft.
According to Ms Sitharaman, monetary provisions for the
Tejas Mk2 are being made. The government had already
announced that it is going ahead with the purchase of 83
Tejas fighter aircraft. These include the Tejas Mk1 and the
Tejas Mk1A. The minister of defence also made clear that
development for the naval variant of the Tejas will continue.
That is strange as the Navy indicated that the aircraft is not
capable of embarking operations on board India’s aircraft
carriers.
Two years ago, the government announced that it was looking
to acquire single-engine fighter aircraft to supplement the
Tejas. Last month (see above), sources within the Ministry
of Defence indicated that India was no longer interested in a
class of single-engine fighter aircraft other than the Tejas and
had asked the Indian Air Force to revise its requirements to
also include multi-engine fighter aircraft. There is, presently,
no clarity on the shape of this acquisition and whether a deal
for another multi-role fighter jet will emerge. Time will tell
again what the next steps will be in this lengthy process.
Bharatiya Vayu Sena (AF)
Another aircraft type with the Indian Air Force that saw
reregistration. This time the SA315B Cheetal helicopter.
Photo and video footage dated 17 February 2018 showed a
114HU helicopter registered ZC4404. These new build Cheetal
helicopters were first noted at Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd
(HAL) Bengaluru in March 2010. In total twenty Cheetal
helicopters were ordered for use with the Indian Air Force
and the Indian Army. The original Air Force serial range was
J4401 to J4410.
On Saturday 24 March 2018, Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas
SP-09 (LA5009) successfully flew for the first time taking
off at 10:33hrs from HAL Airport in Bengaluru and landing
back at 10:54hrs. SP-09 flew for 21 minutes with Air Cmde
KA Muthanna (Retd) in the cockpit. This is the ninth series
production aircraft and will be handed over to the Indian Air
Force No.45sq ‘Flying Daggers’ after a few production sorties.
Details on the other series production aircraft are:
LA5001 f/f 01oct14, d/d to 45sq 01jul16
LA5002 f/f 22mar16, d/d to 45sq 01jul16
LA5003 f/f 28sep16, f/n with 45sq 06oct17
LA5004 f/f 03mar17, f/n with 45sq 06oct17
LA5005 f/f 08feb18, still with HAL
LA5006 f/f 30jun17, still with HAL
LA5007 f/f 12dec17, still with HAL
LA5008 f/f 13mar18, still with HAL, to be handed over to
45sq late April 2018
LA5009 f/f 24mar18, still with HAL, to be handed over to
45sq late April 2018
If you want to see the AT-3, Taiwan is the only place to be. The Thunder Tigers theme is clearly visible in the colourscheme on this example.
(0814/75-6014, AT-3, Kangshan, 24 February 2018, Ben Uffen)
