Some of the problems that AMCA would have faced:
In any naval plane, needs strong and hardened landing gear because the pressure on the arrested landing is very high and normal landing gear can’t take such enormous loads/pressure.
The belly of the plane also needs to be hardened so because when the plane almost 60% of the pressure is over there and if the belly is not strong/hardened the entire plane can tear into pieces and in turn cause damage to a $6–10 billion dollars carrier and claim the life pilot/s.
Seeing these conditions ADA came up with an entirely new frame and made a new plane called TEDBF.
Features of TEDBF:
TEDBF is a 4.5++ gen fighter aircraft that has a perfect balance of 2 things:
- Stealth
- Manoeuvrability
Stealth:
The entire aircraft will be similar to any 5th gen plane but it won’t be having any internal weapons bay. The plane will be shaped like a 5th gen fighter and will also have RAM painting on it.
The plane will be able to supercruise and as per HAL/ADA officials the plane can be powered by a scaled-up mode; of ingenious Kaveri engine based on the core of Safran and the engine should be able to produce 99Kn of thrust along with that the engine must support thrust vectoring like AMCA.
Manoeuvrability:
To make any plane super manoeuvrable in addition to a good engine we also need canards that will allow it to achieve high AoA (angle of attack).
The problem with most of the 5th gen fighters is that they don’t have canards due to the stealthy profile hence they are not able to perform manoeuvres like any 4.5th gen plane. But this plane will sport 2 canards which will allow the plane to be a super manoeuvrable plane like SU-30Mki.
Need of Indian Navy:
Look the Indian navy had clearly said that it needs a plane which can carry 4 air to air missile, 1 anti-ship/carrier missile along with 3 external fuel tanks and should offer a range of more than 1100Km or should be able to stay in the air for 2+ hours. So for this requirement, a 4.5++ gen plane like TEDBF perfectly fits the requirement hence it would be better than operating a 5th gen plane.
But now the Indian navy has changed its mind and most possible it wants to play a different game (which I like). It wants to have the following things:
- 4.5++ gen plane – TEDBF
- 5th gen plane – TEDBF Mk2
- STVTOL 5th gen plane – NAMCA
See the image of TEDBF again you will see that there is a lot of empty space in between the plane:
Now this area can be used to add an internal weapons bay that would be able to carry 4 missiles. But the challenge would be to make a retractable canard like when the navy wants that can add the canards and when they don’t want they can remove the canards.
Whenever the navy does anything they properly assess each and everything and according to them, TEDBF will be able to face any challenges that may arrive from any other foreign jet so we can safely conclude that TEDBF can deter any Chinese plane.
Can India manage and allocate funds for 3 planes:
Well, this is a laughable claim that is being claimed by people without verifying their facts. Even the USA has done it when they build F-15, F-16, F-18 and all of them came into service around 1978–80. So managing to build 3 planes simultaneously has been done so India can also do it.
India defence industry is very cost-effective and that’s why we have a record of making the worlds best LCA Tejas Mk1a. Tejas Mk2 is just a more upgraded version of Tejas Mk1a which will be an MVF so it won’t take many funds.
AMCA will also not take that much amount of funds as taken by other countries as the LRU and parts of it would be same as Tejas Mk2 (AMCA is not comprising it’s spces instead Tejas Mk2 is getting 5th gen plane parts).
Apart from that HAL will also green bucks from exporting planes, along with that HAL has now started to build plane even before getting the order of IAF which means that the company is strongly financed.