Concerns Emerge As Indian LCA-Naval Nears First Flight

India’s first homegrown carrier-borne fighter effort is moving toward a first flight in March of this year, after missing its target of achieving the milestone last year.

The naval variant of India’s Light Combat Aircraft (LCA-N) completed systems integration tests, ground tests and slow-speed taxi trials following its ceremonial rollout last July, but missed its December 2010 first flight deadline because of concern over the platform’s landing gear and other critical systems; those uncertainties appear to have been resolved.

The naval component of the LCA program — the primary air force variant achieved initial operational clearance earlier this month — receives technical consultancy services from EADS to aid in development. Lockheed Martin had the role, but was unable to obtain requisite approvals from the Pentagon to carry out the work. The consultancy arrangement is mainly focused on aiding LCA modifications in the area of the landing gear, sink rate parameters for carrier recovery and weight optimization.

The naval prototype (NP-1) is the LCA program’s 12th airframe, and is to be followed later this year with a trainer prototype, both of which will go through their flight-test effort and carrier compatibility trials (CCTs) in Goa. The town is home to the navy’s largest air station, INS Hansa, where a shore-based test facility — a mock carrier deck with a ski-jump and arrester barrier assembly — is under construction by the Goa Shipyard company.

The navy has not officially revealed how many LCA-Ns it plans to field and has postponed a decision on committing to a number until the platform receives its improved General Electric F414 engine for a Mk-2 version.

The navy, typically supportive of indigenous programs, has recently begun to express misgivings over the platform it has backed unequivocally since its birth in 2003. Rear Adm. Sudhir Pillai, who heads the service’s air wing, now acknowledges the platform will have performance shortcomings over what the service ideally would like to field, while recognizing that there are benefits, too, of having an indigenous design.

The navy’s apprehensions over platform thrust are much more apparent now, with service sources suggesting that even the F414 is not powerful enough to satisfy the flight envelope they would like for carrier operations.

With the Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier set to be delivered by 2012, and the Indian Aircraft Carrier two years after that, it was revealed this week that the navy is exploring the possibility of keeping its sole carrier, the British-built INS Viraat, sailing until 2020, by which time it will be 60 years old. With a tiny complement of upgraded Sea Harriers left — the bulk of the fleet has crashed — the navy is trying to avoid Britain’s fate of having an aircraft carrier without carrier aircraft.