LCA Tejas To Be Modified Further After Engine Failure

India’s indigenously developed LCA Tejas will have to be modified further for operating in high-altitude areas after the engine failed to work during a recent trial, according to Indian Air Force chief Air Chief Marshal N A K Browne. 

"Recently we went for high-altitude trials. The engine (of LCA) did not work at that altitude because it is a different cup of tea. Even the Su-30, when it was taken to Leh, it had to be modified. So, the LCA will have to be modified. It has to do the retrials," he was quoted as saying. 

Browne today announced that the much-delayed Tejas light combat aircraft will be ready for induction into operational service by 2015. 

“By my estimate it (the Initial Operational Clearance II) should be by the end of this year and the Final Operational Clearance (FOC) should take another year-and-half more," he added. 

The FOC is the final nod required before an aircraft is considered to be ready for operational deployment in an air force. While the IOC I of the LCA Tejas was completed two

years ago, but the FOC date has been postponed due to certain issues, according to a PTI report. 

The Tejas aircraft will partake in the ‘Ironfist’ exercise scheduled to be at Pokharan in

Rajasthan on February 22.

“There it will be firing the R-73 missile along with laser guided bombs etc. But a lot more work is still required," he said.

Meanwhile, DRDO chief V K Saraswat had earlier said that the LCA had completed 2,000 test flights.