Lca Engines Successfully Tested

The Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) has successfully completed its engine trials despite the two US technology suppliers, General Electric and Lockheed Martin, pulling out of the project.

The LCA prototype can now keep to its revised first-flight schedule of early 1999. The inaugural flight was earlier timed for the December 1998 Bangalore Air Show.

According to a confidential communication to the defence ministry from the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), the organisation developing the LCA, the tests were a success as all technical parameters were met.

Days after trials began in May, the US cut off all defence cooperation as part of the sanctions package which led to the two US firms pulling out. However, the ADA defied the US firms which wanted it to discontinue testing with their hardware inside the prototype, and went ahead with the tests.

Official sources said the agency would be able to proceed with the LCA taxi and flight trials without the support of the two US firms as all technology had been transferred to India.

The agency has also commenced work on the second LCA prototype, again fitted with a General Electric engine and Lockheed Martin flight control software. This will go through its paces by the year-end. Tests on the second prototype should be completed in a shorter time than the first as results obtained from the first will be applied to the second. The ADA has a budget of Rs 2,188 crore to deliver two prototypes to the production agency, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. This may be exceeded by 10 or 20 per cent as some changes in the testing schedule are required because of the two US firms pulling out.

The agency has decided to send an indigenous engine based on the GE-404 model to Russia for testing as the US has refused to entertain Indian defence projects. India may have to find another vendor to fine-tune the flight control software as the original partner, Lockheed Martin, too, has pulled out.