NEW DELHI – Indian Air Force (IAF) is eyeing more Israeli weapons andmissiles for its fighter jets including the indigenous Light CombatAircraft (LCA) Tejas. According to IHLS, an Israeli website specialising innews in the security and technology sphere, the IAF will test advancedIsraeli-developed systems on Tejas to find out their integration potential.IHLS claims that IAF will test air-to-air missiles and preciseair-to-ground weapon systems.
Tejas, IAF’s first indigenous supersonic jet, had on April 27, 2018,test-fired the 118-kg Israeli Rafael I-Derby air-to-air Beyond Visual Range(BVR) missile from the firing range off the Goa coast for the second timeafter an exhaustive study of the missile separation characteristics andplume envelope. The first test of the Derby missile by Tejas in RADARguided mode had taken place on May 12, 2017, at the Interim Test Range(ITR), Chandipur in Odisha. The missile launch was performed in Lock ONafter Launch mode for a BVR target in the look down mode and the target wasdestroyed.
The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is alreadyequipping one squadron of LCA Tejas with Israeli missiles. The IsraeliRafael Spice smart bombs which can use GPS/INS Satellite/InertialNavigation system to home in on targets are also being tested, claimed IHLS.
Tejas, the four-plus generation combat aircraft, is on its way to achievingthe Final Operational Clearance (FOC) by successfully firing the Derbymissile for the second time. The IAF will induct 324 Tejas fighters to makeup for the depleting number of squadron strength.
However, the IAF had made it clear to the DRDO that the next variant of theLCA – Tejas Mark II jets – should be entirely “new fighters” with “betteravionics, radars, enhanced weapons carrying capacity and powerful engines”.The IAF had in July 2017 inducted the first squadron of Tejas with twoplanes joining the force.