Perhaps when talking about India's domestic military project, many people have a sense of seeing jokes, in fact, no, India also has a little praiseworthy place, that is: perseverance, India will never easily give up any domestic project, often can persist to the end, only this persistence is absolutely unimaginable to us, such as: LCA fighter, this Indian development of more than thirty years of fighter, has not given up, is still in development and improvement, in September 2018, LCA fighter for the first time to achieve aerial refueling, Thus it is expected to solve the operational problem.
LCA
Since the advent of this fighter, there has been a considerable problem, that is, as a light fighter design, there is a problem of small bomb load, small range and combat radius, according to the Indian side, its combat radius can reach 850 kilometers, but the data released by the Indian side at the air show is: the combat radius is 300 kilometers, which is the smallest in modern combat aircraft, almost becoming an airport defender.
This problem cannot be solved by simple technical means, whether it is to increase the volume of the fuel tank, or to reduce the fuel consumption of the engine is unlikely to play much effect, perhaps only air refueling is the only effective means.
LCA refuel
India introduced the Il-78 air tanker many years ago, it can be said that there is no shortage of refueling platforms, the key is to install the LCA fighter with an aerial refueling system, and to solve the technical problems of aerial refueling. We should not think of the process of aerial refueling as simple, thinking that as long as there is an aerial refueling tanker, the problem can be solved with the oil receiver, in fact, there are still no small technical difficulties in the process of refueling, which can be said to be a considerable technical problem.
Western countries once paid the price of aircraft destruction and death in order to solve the docking problem of aerial refueling, and our army also succeeded through a fairly long period of test flight work, and now India has successfully overcome this technical problem, which is gratifying and congratulatory, which is an important step in India's technological development. No one should say anything more about it in the future: the legs are short. In the future, it can expand the combat radius from 300 kilometers to 500 kilometers, or even 600 kilometers, and it can also increase the load of ammunition a lot.
India solves a big problem just by developing a new feature for LCA! But how the effect is still worth observing, after all, the LCA fighter is a light fighter, its combat radius even if there is air refueling, is still not very impressive, and this fighter still has some technical problems, there are still many technical problems to be overcome, the current output is also a problem, and then advanced performance, no output is also a headache problem.
India's perseverance makes the LCA fighter more and more perfect, which is very important for the development of its aviation technology, the significance is naturally not small, but unfortunately in the direct effect is very limited, can only be regarded as the accumulation of research and development experience, after all, this insistence on the cost of the times, and the gap with the world-class level is still too large.