Defence
Tejas Mk-2: Indo-US Jet Engine Deal To Increase Local Content To 90 Per cent, First Flight By Mid-2025
Tejas Mark-2 displayed at Aero India (Livefist/Twitter).
After signing the deal to manufacture General Electric (GE) F-414 jet engines in India, the percentage of local contents in the in-development Tejas Mk-2 will increase to over ninety percent.
"With this new pact ninety percent (90%) of the components will be indigenous and the focus will be on state-of-the-art radar systems, weapons and other capabilities," Prabhulla Chandran, Director of avionics and weapons systems at the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), a DRDO lab said.
He also predicted that the single-engine Tejas Mk-2 will be more advanced than even the twin-engine Dassault Rafale.
"The one-engine fighter will be better than Rafale," Chandran said. The remainning ten percent includes only the ejection seat and some sensors.
He made these comments while attending a confernece on Avionics Technologies organised by the Central Scientific Instrumentation Organisation (CSIO).
The deal to manufacture GE's F-414 engines in India was signed on 22 June when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on a 'state' visit to the United States.
This deal is historic since it will involve transfer of technology (ToT) of more than 80 per cent which, hitherto, the US has never even sold to its treaty allies like the UK, France and Australia.
Chandran also said that "it will take more than 18 months to roll-out the first prototype of Tejas Mk-2" confirming the estimated end-2024 timeframe, adding that "the first flight will take another six months", by mid 2025.
In comparison, the percentage of local components in the Tejas Mk-1A, will be 50 per cent which will be progressively increased to sixty percent by the end of the programme, according to a statement released by the Ministry of Defence (MoD).
The IAF has initially committed to buy six squadrons or 120 jets, with the first jet to be commissioned in-service by 2027-28.
However, due to the delays in the roll-out of the prototype, it is expected that the plane will only be inducted in 2029-2030 timeframe.
The Tejas Mk-2 fighter is a heavier and more technologically advanced version of Tejas Mk-1A. It will have a more powerful GE F-414 engine producing a thrust of 98 KN compared to the Tejas Mk-1As GE F-404 engine of 83 KN.
Furthermore, Tejas Mk-2 will feature various enhancements, such as the indigenous Uttam radar with Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) technology, an advanced Electronic Warfare (EW) suite, an Infrared Search and Track (IRST) sensor, a newly built Digital Flight Control Computer (DFCC), and an improved weapons package.
With a weight of 17.5 tonne, the Tejas Mk-2 can carry over six tonnes of weapons, providing increased operational capabilities.
Additionally, it offers a longer endurance of two hours compared to the Tejas Mk-1A's 57 minutes.
The increase in the local content of the bigger, heavier and more technically advanced Tejas Mk-2 indicates the maturing of the Indian Aerospace industry, after efforts of more than four decades.
