主题：印度要请波音帮助把LCA收尾？ -- 晨枫

最可笑的是最后两段，一如既往，眼看拉不开栓了，赶紧给ＬＣＡ定了个新的交付日期。ＬＣＡ的故事就沿着这条循环的轨道继续走下去。

原文发表于１２月５日，出处在这里。晨枫老大有空的话请给分析分析？这里头乐子大了。

外链出处

出版物：报纸－－The Hindu

Online edition of India's National Newspaper

Friday, Dec 05, 2008

ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

主标题：印度空军坚持ＬＣＡ要改进　IAF insists on changes to Tejas

作者：Ravi Sharma

副标题：ＬＣＡ没有达到空军的最低要求It does not meet minimum air staff requirements

副标题：ＬＣＡ的Ｍｋ２改型发展后，印度空军将考虑I采购１２５架。AF will consider acquiring 125 more Tejas’ when Mk2 variant is developed

副标题：ＬＣＡMk2因为引擎问题还要等几年。 Mk2　will take a few years because a new powerful engine has to be chosen

正文：

BANGALORE: The Indian Air Force has categorically ruled out placing further orders for the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), Tejas, with its current configuration.印度空军斩钉截铁地排除了进一步采购现行结构的ＬＣＡ。

In 2005, the IAF placed an order with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited for 16 fighters and four trainers. The then Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee said a decision on an additional 20 aircraft was under consideration. But that plan has come a cropper since the overweight, under-powered Tejas does not meet the IAF’s minimum air staff requirements (ASR).

The IAF decision though is not the end of the road for the Rs. 6,000-crore LCA programme. It will consider acquiring 125 more Tejas when an improved — Mark 2 (Mk2) — variant is developed. As indicated by an IAF committee in 2004, any further order will be subject to the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), the designer and developer of the LCA programme, showing “firm visibility that the aircraft will meet the ASR.”

Recently, the IAF even made a few suggestions on improvements in Tejas Mk2, including a more powerful engine, optimisation of the aerodynamic qualities and weight of the aircraft and “dropping and replacing” certain parts to take care of obsolescence.

Tejas Mk2 will take a few years to fructify, the biggest challenge being choosing a new powerful engine. In December, the ADA is expected to issue a request for proposal to General Electric for its GE F414 and to the European consortium Eurojet for EJ200, in a bid to procure 99 engines (with an option to buy another 49).

Once the engine is chosen, fuselage modifications will have to be carried out, flight tests started and evaluation undertaken. All trainer aircraft even after Tejas Mk2 rolls out will continue to have the present GE F404 engines.

Cold weather trials

On the LCA programme, the ADA is getting ready for ‘cold weather trials.’ They were to have been conducted in 2007 but were not because of questions about the aircraft’s reliability.

Two or three aircraft are scheduled to leave for Leh on December 8. Cold weather trials include landing the Tejas at Leh, one of the most challenging airfields in the world, and ‘cold soak’ when temperatures are around minus 15 degrees C to see if the systems on board function normally.

Slow pace

The IAF is also worried about the slow pace and quality of work at HAL. More so, because it will not be able to deliver by 2013, as scheduled, the 20 aircraft for which orders have been placed. Defence Minister A.K. Antony recently said the Tejas would enter squadron service by 2011, which date, according to officials, is highly optimistic as hardly 10 or 12 test sorties are now being undertaken. The IAF expects the final operational clearance for the Tejas only after 2012.