Indian LCA Tejus jet fires close combat missile

India’s Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejus has successfully test fired the R-73 Close Combat missile as a run up to the initial operational clearance and release into the Indian Air force. The firing was held as part of a Tejas detachment operating from INS Hansa in Goa, conducting the last phase of flight trials. One of the main objectives of the current phase of flight trials was clearing the firing envelope of air to air close combat missile from the Tejas. The R-73 missile, which is the chosen air to air close combat missile for the Tejas. The missile is integrated with the on-board Digital Stores Management System (SMS) and Open Architecture Mission and Display Computer. The missile selection is performed from the high resolution Multi Function Display (MFD) pages integrated with the state of the art on-board avionics. All these equipments form the IOC standard of Avionics. The test firing was done from the Tejas LSP-4 aircraft demonstrated that the safe separation of the missile from the test aircraft and no missile plume effect on the engine operation and fuselage.