The naval version of India’s home grown Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas has completed flight test in Goa.
The aircraft will operate from indigenous aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant after it is commissioned in 2018, Business Standard reported Tuesday.
The aircraft underwent taking off and landing from a 200 meter deck and ‘hot-refuelling or topping up the aircraft after a sortie with the engine running and the pilot in the cockpit, the newspaper quoted Commodore (Retired) CD Balaji, chief of the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), which oversees the Tejas development programme.
Tejas will be filling in as the light fighter whereas the MiG-29K aircraft will be the medium fighter on INS Vikrant.
Balaji reveals a committed navy is funding 40 per cent of the development cost of the Naval Tejas. The MoD has allocated Rs 3,650 crore ($548 million) for the naval programme.
The ADA chief described the flight trials in Goa between March 27 and April 25, in which two Naval Tejas prototypes flew 33 sorties from a Shore Based Test Facility (SBTF) -- a full-scale replica of an aircraft carrier deck. Built on land, the SBTF allows carrier deck take-offs and landings to be validated, without unduly endangering an aircraft carrier, or an aircraft prototype and pilot.