Friday, February 11 2005 18:20 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Bangalore: India has begun concept studies to build a lead-in fighter trainer, a fighter-class aircraft for training pilots as a sequel to the home-grown Tejas, the Light Combat Aircraft, a top Defence ministry official said today (Feb 11, 2005).

"We are working on a lead-in jet fighter that will be a trimmed version of LCA," Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister M Natarajan told reporters at the Aero India 2005 air show in Bangalore.

He however said the project was not connected with the twin-engined Combat Attack Trainer (CAT) - a modern version of the Advanced Jet Trainer which State-run aircraft maker, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) has initiated, but was its own, with the aircraft having the same range of 800 kms like the Tejas.

"The concept and the requirements are being worked out," Natarajan, the Director General of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) said.

DRDO's Bangalore-based Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) is the lead agency to build the tailless, delta-winged, fly-by-wire, single-engine, multi-role supersonic fighter (Tejas), which, he said is also working on the Medium Combat Aircraft (MCA), a medium-range twin-engine combat fighter.

The MCA is a single seat twin-engine aircraft, to be powered by an home grown thrust vector Kaveri engine and will use smart structures and antenna, integrated modular avionics, tail-less technology for stealth features and will have an active lomar flow control, designed for long range offensive operations, officials said.

ADA Programme Director M B Verma said the technologies developed for the LCA is being used in other aircraft programmes in the country. "The experience gained by India in avionics, control fluid dynamics, composites in developing the combat aircraft has caught the attention of other countries. I reckon now that India has all the capabilities in designing a modern fighter aircraft," Natarajan said.