India To Build Aircraft
Written by admin on February 5th, 2009
The Medium Combat Aircraft (MCA) is a twin-engined 5th generation stealth strike aircraft being developed by India. It will complement the HAL Tejas and the Sukhoi Su-30MKI in the Indian Air Force.
The main purpose of this aircraft is to replace the aging SEPECAT Jaguar & MiG-27. Design work on the MCA has been started although it is still awaiting approval
Although India began the development of the Light Combat Aircraft in 1983, India has mulled the eventual development of a 5th generation fighter aircraft, that would eventually replace the SEPECAT Jaguar and Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-27 bomber/strike aircraft of the Indian Air Force. The LCA also known as the Hal Tejas will be introduced before the MCA.
In August 2006, India’s then defence minister Mr. Pranab Mukherjee announced in Parliament that the government is evaluating the experiences gained from the LCA programme for the MCA. Thus, presently, it is likely that the indigenous MCA programme shall be chosen by India for its future 5th generation fighter aircraft along with the Indo-Russian fifth-generation fighter.
A single unsubstantiated report, based on comments attributed to a Mr. M Natarajan, has claimed that the plane might fly by March 2009. However, given that MCA is in design conceptualization stage, the claims made in this report are improbable.
In October 2008, the Indian Air Force has asked the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) to prepare a detailed project report on the development of Medium Combat Aircraft (MCA) incorporating stealth features.
In February 2009 ADA director P.S Subramanyam informed the media during the Aero-India 2009 seminar, that they are working closely with Indian Air Force to develop Medium Combat Aircraft. He added that according to the specification provided by the Indian Air Force, it would be a twenty ton category and twin-engine aircraft powered by the Kaveri-Snecma engine.
The MCA appears to be an elongated version of the LCA, with 2 engines and the tail-fin removed. The compound clipped delta wing design is similar to that of the LCA. The engines are likely to be the Kaveri engine, if it is available by then. Whichever engines are chosen, they are likely to have thrust vectoring and supercruise capabilities. The expected thrust-to-weight ratio of the engines shall be 7.8:1. Thus, the only components common between MCA and LCA will be part of the wing, the Kaveri engine, and some systems and subsystems. MCA will also be heavier than the LCA (12 ton dry weight).
Fighter Jet Expected March 2012
