India's LCA Ready for the World- to be Displayed in Final Operational Mode at Aero India 2023

An LCA Tejas fighter in final operational clearance (FOC) mode, loaded with its full complement of weapons, will be displayed at Aero India 2023.

The FOC mode display indicates that the aircraft is ready to be inducted into air force service or to be exported. India has been trying to export the LCA and has displayed the aircraft at several international air shows in recent years.

On the home front, the LCA has an order of some 100 plus aircraft from the Indian Ministry of Defence and is seen as a potential replacement for the MiG-21 fleet. India is one of the few countries still flying the antiquated Soviet origin aircraft.

Aside of Tejas, the 14th Edition of Aero India will have a separate “India Pavilion” which is based on Fixed Wing Platform theme to show case India growth in the fixed wing area including the future prospects for the same. India Pavilion will further showcase the growth of India in developing an eco-system for Fixed Wing platform which includes the demonstrating of various structural modules, simulators, systems (LRUs) etc of LCA-Tejas aircraft being produced by Private Partners. There will also be a section for Defence space, New Technologies and a UAV section which will give an insight about the growth of India in each sector.

LCA Tejas is a single engine, light weight, highly agile, multi-role supersonic fighter. It has quadruplex digital fly-by-wire Flight Control System (FCS) with associated advanced flight control laws. The aircraft with delta wing is designed for ‘air combat’ and ‘offensive air support’ with ‘reconnaissance’ and ‘anti-ship’ as its secondary roles. Extensive use of advanced composites in the airframe gives a high strength to weight ratio, long fatigue life and low radar signatures. Tejas is equipped with state of the art features like glass cockpit, zero-zero ejection seat, inflight refueling probe, Jam proof AESA Radar, UEWS with SPJ, CMDS, HMDS DashV and BVR missile capability. LCA has come a long way in terms of development and presently available in Air Force fighter & twin seater and LCA Navy fighter and twin seater.

Other variants like LCA LIFT (Lead in fighter trainer) and MK-2 is being developed for LCA Tejas. Some of the uniqueness of the aircraft is as follows:
• One of the smallest & lightest aircraft in its class
• Excellent flight safety record
• Available in all four variants to meet all customer needs
• Composite constitute 90% by area & 45% by weight
• Supersonic at all altitude with minimalistic RCS
• Quad-redundant fly by wire aircraft
• Payload carrying capacity upto 30% of AUW (all up weight)
• Open architecture enabling customized weapon integration
• Maintenance friendly with low operating cost

Aero India is a biennial aero show and aviation exhibition being held in Bengaluru at Yelhanka Air Force Station from 13th to 17th Feb 2023.