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With the successful performance of the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) ‘Tejas’, the Indian Air Force has now entered into the development programme of an indigenous Medium Combat Aircraft (MCA). This will be India’s debut entry into the Medium Fighter category which lies in the 15-tonne range.
The indigenous MCA will consist of a design team which will centre on premier state-owned agencies that built the LCA, namely the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), the National Aeronautics Laboratory (NAL), Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and a host of Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) laboratories.
The Director of ADA, Dr P.S Subramaniam said that the programme will aim to develop the MCA and build five to six prototypes at a cost $1 billion, the same amount that has gone into the LCA programme. As of now, a formal joint committee is being formed to finalize the specifications of the MCA.
India has recently placed an order for 126 Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) for an estimated $10 billion. Analysts feel that the MMRCA procurement is crucial for replacing the MiG-29s and Mirage-2000s that will become obsolete while the MCA is still being developed. An estimated 250 MCA are required by 2020 since most of the current fleet will phase out. This is where the indigenous MCA will be of significance.
While many of the contenders of the MMRCA are expecting repeat orders on their MMRCA after the initial batch of 126 aircraft, India is planning ahead by making its own MCA to plug the gap in the future. ADA sources indicated that none of the MMRCA contenders will be state-of-the-art by 2015-2017. However, the MCA will incorporate the technologies of the future, which currently feature only on the US Air Force’s F-22 Raptor.
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