‘Production of Tejas top priority’
28 July 2013 4:34 AM IST
Production of Tejas, the much-awaited light combat aircraft (LCA), is currently the top most priority of both the DRDO and the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL). Avinash Chander, director general of DRDO, marked it out as the most important project that needs to be delivered to the air force at the earliest.
Chander said; ‘There is an urgent need for the LCA. With all the changes, the Tejas has become a very candidate for replacing MiG-21s. It has proved very high performance, excellent safety record, great riding quality etc. It has to come in the hands of the IAF as quickly as possible.’ He acknowledges that the Air Force is actively involved in rolling out the first production aircraft will emerge out of HAL within this financial year.
But he said, that though the Arjun Mark II, which will be going into trials in the first week of August, has become a ‘very powerful machine,’ it has become ‘heavy.’ While he claims that the ‘heavy’ tank can be fielded in the deserts of Rajasthan, ‘it will perhaps be difficult to be deployed in the Punjab plains.’ But he is hopeful that the army will demand for more Arjun Mark IIs, once they get familiar with using them.
The DG, DRDO, is highly optimistic about the new air-to-air missile, Astra. ‘The first trial has taken place this year from a Su-30 aircraft. It will get inducted in the next two or three years, he says, adding that the DRDO is also working on an ‘anti-radiation missile.’
He says that the night vision devices in the last two years have seen ‘tremendous improvement.’ In fact, Chander informed, the army has even cancelled its import orders and procured the DRDO manufactured devices. ‘We have filled a major gap in the army’s warfighting capability.’ The long range surface-to-air missiles, developed jointly with the Israel, will be tested off a ship next month as well, the DG said.
He thinks that a very key system is the ‘software defined radio’ (SDR). The radio can be configured in terms of any wave-form thus making it ‘compatible with any other radio used by any service.’
Chander said; ‘There is an urgent need for the LCA. With all the changes, the Tejas has become a very candidate for replacing MiG-21s. It has proved very high performance, excellent safety record, great riding quality etc. It has to come in the hands of the IAF as quickly as possible.’ He acknowledges that the Air Force is actively involved in rolling out the first production aircraft will emerge out of HAL within this financial year.
But he said, that though the Arjun Mark II, which will be going into trials in the first week of August, has become a ‘very powerful machine,’ it has become ‘heavy.’ While he claims that the ‘heavy’ tank can be fielded in the deserts of Rajasthan, ‘it will perhaps be difficult to be deployed in the Punjab plains.’ But he is hopeful that the army will demand for more Arjun Mark IIs, once they get familiar with using them.
The DG, DRDO, is highly optimistic about the new air-to-air missile, Astra. ‘The first trial has taken place this year from a Su-30 aircraft. It will get inducted in the next two or three years, he says, adding that the DRDO is also working on an ‘anti-radiation missile.’
He says that the night vision devices in the last two years have seen ‘tremendous improvement.’ In fact, Chander informed, the army has even cancelled its import orders and procured the DRDO manufactured devices. ‘We have filled a major gap in the army’s warfighting capability.’ The long range surface-to-air missiles, developed jointly with the Israel, will be tested off a ship next month as well, the DG said.
He thinks that a very key system is the ‘software defined radio’ (SDR). The radio can be configured in terms of any wave-form thus making it ‘compatible with any other radio used by any service.’
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