Indo-US LCA cooperation -- Now it flies, Now it doesn't

Indo-US LCA cooperation -- Now it flies, Now it doesn't
Chidanand Rajghatta

WASHINGTON, JAN 4: When the long-awaited `technology demonstrator', the first prototype of the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) made its debut in the skies on Thursday it may have dipped a wing for the American help it received prior to 1998 and cocked a snook at US efforts to stymie it in the post-Pokhran era.

The aircraft is powered by the F404-GE-F2J3 engine manufactured by General Electric, one of America's most admired company that traces its roots to Thomas Edison and the electric bulb. But after GE had supplied eight such engines, the Clinton administration cut off supplies in May 1998 following India's nuclear tests.

The result: Although the first LCA prototype is powered by the GE engine, India is having to speed up designing and testing its indigenous engine, the GTX-35VS Kaveri, if it is to seriously consider serial manufacturing of the fighter aircraft. Kaveri has so far failed to meet the LCA's parameters.

At one time, the US put so much pressure on General Electric that the company asked New Delhi to return the engines. While that did not happen, Washington did hold up a consignment of avionics software that had been sent to the US for testing. The software has been jointly developed by Indian agencies andLockheed-Martin. It still lies in US custody.

While the on-off defence and technical relationship had had some effect on delaying the LCA, US officials say -- and Indian officials concur -- that is not the sole reason for the laborious progress in developing the fighter plane that first took shape on the drawing boards in 1983. ``Remember, the aircraft was supposed to fly in 1991 and the sanctions did not take effect till 1998,'' a state department official pointed out.

Despite the hiatus of the last 30 months, officials say the LCA will always be the high point in the sketchy defence ties between the two countries. The LCA cooperation deal took shape in the Rajiv Gandhi era and for a good decade or so, it constituted a solid exchange between two countries notoriously charyof each others' defence establishments.

Because of the deal, the two sides saw visits by senior US and Indian Air Force officers and staff to joint air exercises and an opportunity to fly in one another's operational aircraft. The deal also enabled posting an USAF pilot at the Air Force Academy in Dindigal and an IAF pilot instructor at the USAF Wright Anderson flying training base.

There was also major joint development activity between Lockheed Martin Controls Systems, Binghamton, New York and the Aeronautical DevelopmentEstablishment in Bangalore. The activity centered around the joint development of the Engineering Test Station (ETS) meant to test the onboard Digital FlightControl Computer with all the Onboard Flight Programs (OFP) for the LCA.

All that ended abruptly with India's nuclear tests in May 1998. But now with the new Republican administration coming in, the whole effort could be revived, considering it first took off during the Reagan-Bush era.

Officials say to put the LCA achievement -- despite the delays and its checkered history -- in perspective, it has to be realised that less than 10 countries in theworld manufacture fighter aircraft, a list that includes the US, Russia, Britain, China, France and Sweden.

The LCA is India's second shot at an indigenous jet fighter design. It made a limited number of HF-24 Marut Ground Attack Fighter in the 1950. But followinga somewhat unsatisfactory performance, that tradition and intellectual property was allowed to lapse.