Tejas crosses milestone, test-fires combat missile

The programme to weaponise the indigenous fly-by-wire Light Combat Aircraft Tejas crossed a major milestone on Thursday with a close air combat missile being flawlessly test-fired from the aircraft.

Taking off from INS Hansa, the Naval air station in Vasco (Goa), Prototype Vehicle 1 piloted by the Chief Test Pilot of the National Flight Test Centre Group Captain N Harish, reached an altitude of 6.5 km and a speed of 0.6 mach before the R73 E Russian-made missile was fired in “the autonomous mode” from the aircraft’s left wing tip.

The firing of the ‘find, fire and forget’ air-to-air missile also demonstrated the health and handling of the aircraft during the actual firing, the dealing of unwanted frequencies that occur not just during flutter disturbances and while pulling through G, but even when a missile leaves the aircraft, effects of missile plume on engine air-intake and on composite structures like the wing surface, and missile separation aspects.

Read more