Flight control computer facility for LCA Aircraft project inaugurated at BEL

India’s Light Combat Aircraft(LCA) program took off towards early completion following the inauguration of a facility to manufacture the Digital Flight Control Computer (DFCC) for the LCA(Tejas), at Bharat Electronics’ (BEL)'s Bangalore Complex by Indian defence minister A. K. Anthony. The inauguration was witnessed by Mr Ashwani Kumar Datt, Chairman & Managing Director, BEL, staff and engineers of BEL besides invited dignatories. Mr Dutt also handed over the advanced Gun Fire Control System for the P-28 class of ships for the Indian Navy on the occasion, in the presence of the defence minister. The DFCC is a state-of-the-art, multiple redundant (improving its reliability, one channel will take over if another fails) Digital Fly-By-Wire Flight Control System of the LCA- Tejas, which controls the maneuvering (pitch, yaw and roll)of the aircraft. DFCC is a flight critical sub-system to be manufactured as per AS 9100 standards. To meet this requirement, BEL has set up an integrated manufacturing facility for assembly, inspection and testing of DFCC, all under one roof. The facility includes Thermal Cycling Chamber, Vibration Machine, Dehumidifying Chambers for storing PCBs, high resolution inspection tools for identifying process errors, Automated Test Equipment for rigorous performance testing and Engineering Test Station for testing the DFCC unit. The Naval Gun Fire Control System(GFCS) is a quick reaction, multi-sensor, multi-weapon, short/medium/long range defence system against air/surface/shore targets on board naval ships. THE GFCS is designed to provide air/surface/shore defence with 76 mm and 30 mm guns. Its purpose is to locate a hostile target using a radar or video tracker, acting on early warning search radars and to track its approach with high accuracy, in order to obtain reliable target data. The target data is further processed and used to control the weapons by pointing it in an exact ballistic firing position for eventual destruction of the target. The GFCS continues to track the approaching target, simultaneously pointing the weapon on the target, until destruction of the target is complete.