Major technology challenges ahead

By N. Gopal Raj

NEW DELHI, JAN. 4. While its maiden flight is an important step forward for India's indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), there are still major challenges ahead which must be expeditiously overcome for the aircraft to see combat service with the Indian Air Force.

The LCA project was sanctioned in 1983 with the intention that the country should indigenously develop the combat aircraft needed by the IAF rather than continually import them. It was conceived as a state-of-the-art aircraft tailored to meet Indian requirements. The problem was that such a modern aircraft could be made only with up-to-date capability in a wide range of technologies. Experience in some of these areas was at best rudimentary and in others considerable upgradation was needed.

The need to achieve a high level of technological competence in a wide number of areas simultaneously and in the course of just one highly time-bound project has been LCA's Achilles' heel. This shortcoming has manifested itself in the form of delays and cost over-runs which have dogged the project. The United States' sanctions after the nuclear tests in 1998 were a major blow to the whole project, despite protestations to the contrary.

The LCA is based on an unstable configuration. The aircraft would spin out of control if its fly-by-wire system's computers did not continually adjust the aircraft's control surfaces. Since India had no prior experience with fly-by-wire systems for aircraft, the U.S. company, Lockheed Martin, one of the largest aerospace conglomerates and a world-leader in that system, had been involved in the development of the LCA system.

The flight control laws, which mathematically model how the aircraft should react in various situations, were developed by a national team. The Lockheed Martin expertise is said to have been used for testing the robustness of the flight control laws and their implementation in the form of computer software. According to some sources, at the time of the U.S. sanctions, Lockheed Martin was grappling with the deficiencies they had noticed. After the sanctions, the Indians have had to debug the flight software on their own.

The adequacy of the LCA's flight control laws and their software implementation in all situations will be under close scrutiny now that the flight trials have begun. In particular, the aircraft's fly-by-wire system will have to perform flawlessly during the extreme manoeuvres which its unstable configuration makes possible.

The failure of the first flight of India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) shows that it is possible for a minor bug in the flight control software to pass unnoticed through extensive ground tests and manifest itself with disastrous consequences in certain circumstances during actual flight. Since the LCA, unlike the PSLV, is manned vehicle, there is little scope for error. There are also worries that problems with the flight control software could be time-consuming to analyse, understand and rectify.

While the performance of the fly-by-wire system will be of immediate interest, there are two systems whose indigenisation is critical for the success of the LCA programme. One is the development of actuators used in the fly-by-wire system to move the control surfaces and the other is the LCA's Kaveri engine. Given the extremely stringent requirements for their performance and reliability, delays in their delivery is a very real possibility.

Delay is just what the LCA project cannot afford. When the first prototype of the LCA was rolled-out in the presence of the then Prime Minister in November 1995, it was asserted that the first flight would take place a year later. That maiden flight has occurred only today.

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