Final Certification Process For Indian LCA Underway

Source: Defence Forum Of India

The final certification process for Tejas, India’s Light Combat Aircraft, has begun ahead of its crucial initial operational clearance (IOC), program official P.S. Subramanyam tells AVIATION WEEK.

The certification process is being conducted by a team headed by K. Tamilmani, chief executive at the Centre for Military Airworthiness and Certification (Cemilac). It is one of the most significant developments in the last nine and a half years of the program. The first prototype of the Tejas initial technology demonstrator made its first flight on Jan. 4, 2001.

“The certification mainly ensures that the user [the Indian Air Force] will be handed over a safe, mature and reliable aircraft with specified performance,” says Subramanyam, who is program director for combat aircraft and director of the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA). “Cemilac has given a clear road map segmenting two major steps—equipment and system certifications. The process was started a month ago.”

More than 300 engineers from ADA, Cemilac, the Defense Research and Development Organization, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd., the National Aerospace Laboratories and other program partners are working in tandem to ensure that Tejas enters the much-awaited IOC by December 2010.

“There’s excitement in the air,” Subramanyam says. “We are ensuring that everything goes as per the script—be it the tests on the ground, on the aircraft and while [in the] air. The Tejas certification mission is in full throttle.”

For its part, Cemilac has been updated with all the test schedules. “All operational equipment needs to be certified,” Tamilmani says. “We look at the reliability of all systems . . . especially in the flight-control systems. Tejas has four levels of redundancy stages for its flight-control computer.”

Tamilmani says Tejas has proved itself as a safe platform, and the Cemilac team interacts very closely with the users conducting the airworthiness certification.

“The envelope for IOC is frozen and we are working very closely with the [Indian Air Force] program management team at ADA and with other partners,” Tamilmani adds.