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LCA test flight this year

The Defence, Research and Development Organisation will start flying the Indian Light Combat Aircraft this year, says A P J Abdul Kalam, scientific advisor to the Union defence minister. Indigenous missiles would be inducted into all the three wings of the defence forces by the turn of the century, he said.

Kalam was inaugurating a special symposium on 'Aerospace India: 21th century', organised by the Hyderabad chapter of the Aeronautical Society of India.

The Advanced Light Helicopter, Kalam said, would fly with indigenous engines and that the country would have the capability to design, develop and produce all types of missiles. The Bangalore-based National Aeronautical Laboratory had also been given the approval to develop a small passenger aircraft of a 20- to a 50-seat capacity, he added.

Kalam said the 1985 to 2000 phase of aerospace development in India was ''fantastic'', and that the country had paved its way for self-reliance in space technology. By 2000, the country would have the ALH, launch vehicles, spacecraft and missile capabilities, besides the LCA. Such composite progress would help transform strategic technology development in the country, he said.

Agni, the intermediate range ballistic missile, Kalam felt, might not need flight tests. He also asserted that the missile programme would not be put in cold storage despite pressure from the US and other countries. He also rejected any possible threat from the new IRBM missile inducted by Pakistan. "You don't worry; we have taken care of all these," he said.

He attacked the affluent nations for denying technologies in strategic areas and said India was formulating a plan for self-reliance in technology. The plan envisaged the development of critical technologies by 2005 to combat the technology denial regime not only in nuclear technology, but also in space and defence research. He said many strategic areas was being affected by the continuous enforcement of TDR but that he was confident that young Indians would accept the challenge to develop critical technologies indigenously.

The Bharat Ratna recipient, however, cautioned Indian aerospace scientists and the industry that the second phase, between 2000 and 2010, would be crucial in the face of stiff international competition.

Suggesting consolidation of aerospace technology, he reminded them that the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty-II coming into force during that period would put tremendous pressure on the market as India was traditionally a ''fantastic buyer'' of armaments.

''If the LCA goes into production by 2003, as the users want it to," he said, it will mean a Rs 30,000-crore (Rs 300 billion) business by way of aircraft development, production and life cycle cost.'' Since this could make a serious dent on the international arms market, Kalam warned that tremendous pressure could develop on India in this area, even from within the country.

UNI

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