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India Defence Online, New Delhi — India has successfully conducted the drop tank jettison trials of the indigenous ‘Tejas’, Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) at the Aeronautical Test Range near Bangalore in southern India. The ‘Tejas’ LCA is slated to be reviewed by the Centre soon for its certification process as well as its Initial Operation Clearance (IOC).
According to the Aeronautical Development Agency, the ‘Tejas’ LCA design agency, a 1,200-liter drop tank was jettisoned from a Tejas limited series production (LSP-3) aircraft piloted by Group Capt.
Suneet Krishna. The current test of the jettisonable drop tanks will ensure that the LCA can easily get on to a swift mission mode during emergency situations. The drop tank trajectory was video captured in action by a ‘Tejas’ PV-2 which escorted the aircraft.
Besides the jettisonable drop tank tests, other tests such as pit drop tests were conducted on a test specimen using a specially designed rig with part of the aircraft system and a high-speed photography system integrated with it. The tests covered an array of conditions such as empty, partial and full drop tanks, according to ADA sources.
Meanwhile, the Indian Air Force (IAF) Chief is expected to make a final decision on the IOC which will lead IAF pilots to fly ‘Tejas’ LCA to check its handling qualities and other advanced features. The series production of the fighter aircraft will start next year and the performance of the production agency, namely the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), will determine the delivery schedules for rolling out the block of 20 LCA’s which will form the first squadron.
The tests on the ‘Tejas’ LCA were carried out in Chitradurga near Bangalore where a full-fledged Aeronautical Test Range (ATR) for use by all the aeronautical system developers in the country has been set-up. While work is still incomplete, part of the test range was activated to carry out the air-to-ground weapon and drop tank jettison trials of ‘Tejas’ LCA. As for ADA, it has become the first to use this facility for the testing on Tejas.
Indian defence news and strategic intelligence
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