majalah militer

India's premier defence agency DRDO is carrying out a two-week second phase weapon testing trials of the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) at an Air Force base in the north-western sector.

"The focus of the current phase of testing is safe separation and accuracy of weapon delivery. The results from the tests would validate aerodynamic interference data as well as complex weapon release algorithms in different modes of release," DRDO officials said.

A composite test team comprising specialists from Aeronautical Development Agency, IAF, HAL and other aerospace agencies is based at the trial location to evaluate the performance of the indigenous combat aircraft. DRDO has directly linked the trial location with the base telemetry station at Bangalore via enabling designers and other specialists to monitor the activities in real time. ISRO's GPS Radiosonde is used for gathering accurate upper air data at the trial location.

DRDO is expected to hand over the first squadron of the LCA in December 2010 to the IAF in the initial operational clearance (IOC) configuration. A total of seven LCA squadrons will be inducted in the IAF. The first two squadrons of the IAF will be in the IOC configuration whereas the rest five will be the LCA Mark II, which will be an upgraded version of the aircraft. (india-defence)