Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar: LCA’s shortcomings addressed in its Mark-II version

The shortcomings of indigenous Light Combat Aircraft Tejas Mark-I, like its survivability, performance and maintainability issues, have been addressed in its Mark-II version, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar informed Lok Sabha on Friday.
The minister’s statement on the technical shortcomings in the LCA project came at a time when he was talking of making the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) the backbone of Indian Air Force.
The minister listed absence of internal jammers affecting survivability, aircraft performance shortfalls and maintainability as concerns in the Tejas Mark-I.
Parrikar also added that the maintainability issues were raised by IAF late in 2009 when design and drawings were already frozen for Mark-I. “However, many safety critical maintenance issues are already addressed in Mark-II,” he said.
The government had sanctioned project for development of LCA Mark-II in 2009. The Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) is the prime agency for development of LCA Mark-II with public and private partnerships. “All the above mentioned shortcomings in LCA Mark-I have been addressed in LCA Mark-II version,” Parrikar said.

 indianexpress