Indigenous Naval LCA inches closer to prove its Deck landing capability

The Light Combat Aircraft, Naval Prototype 2 (NP2) today successfully crossed the first step to become Deck Landing compatible on an aircraft carrier.

India has joined the select club of US, Europe, Russia and China having the capability of Deck Landing of fighter aircraft.

The LCA Naval Prototype 2 (NP2), piloted by Capt Shivnath Dahiya safely executed the first contact of the arrestor hook system with Arresting wire at moderate taxi-in speeds on location at the Shore Based Test Facility, INS Hansa , Goa, today.

Sources told ANI, "today was the first day of the deck landing capability test with the speed kept at the taxi-in which is between the 60 to 80 nautical miles per hour. For next two days the speed will be increased to about 100 nautical miles per hour, which will be the actual landing speed of a maritime fighter aircraft while it lands on an air craft carrier. This test will test the sturdiness of the arrester hook and also it will clear that there is no damage to the air frame due to the jerk generated during this exercise."

The first successful Taxi-in engagement was monitored closely by the Landing Signal Officer Cmde J A Maolankar and Test director Gp Capt A Kabadwal (Retd).

This is the first series of an engagement planned at proving the arrestor hook capability said Mr. T. Suvarna Raju, CMD-HAL.

PRO of the Indian Navy Captain DK Sharma told ANI, "Today's test is a positive step which takes us closer towards having an indigenous naval fighter aircraft compatible to land on an aircraft carrier."

The HAL's design wing, Aircraft Research and Design Centre (ARDC) has designed and developed the Arrestor Hook System (AHS) for Ship Deck operations of LCA Naval version.

The LCA Naval Prototype 2 (NP2), has been integrated with this AHS. Having verified in-air operation of Arrestor Hook System in Bengaluru on July 23, 2018, the aircraft has been operating at INS Hansa Goa, since July 28, 2018.

Carrier Compatibility trials (CCT) of Naval Aircraft are slated to be carried out at shore based test facilities, built at Indian Naval Base Goa. The CCT involves completion of extensive shore based trials before embarking on actual deck. This trial is the stepping stone towards completion of CCT trials of LCA Navy.

This milestone is achieved due the synchronized work of the teams of HAL, ADA, CEMILAC, RDAQA, Navy and NFTC.