by Neelam Mathews and Chris Pocock
The Indian Navy has started the process of identifying twin-engine fighter candidates for its Indian Aircraft Carrier-2. It has rejected the naval version of the single-engine, domestically producted, HAL Light Combat Aircraft (LCA). India has procured Russian Mig-29Ks for its current carrier Vikramaditya (formerly the Russian carrier Admiral Gorshkov) and for its first indigenous aircraft carrier (IAC-1), which is under construction.
“The present naval version of the Light Combat Aircraft does not meet the qualitative requirements of the Indian Navy,” Chief of Navy Staff Admiral Sunil Lanba told AIN. “While the Navy will continue to support the Defense Research Development Organization (DRDO) in developing a carrier-based LCA, we will seek [alternative] aircraft elsewhere at the same time,” Lanba confirmed. They will most likely be catapult-assisted take-off but with arrested recovery designs, to match the design of the IAC-2. (The Vikramaditya and IAC-1 have ski-jump take-offs).
Read the full story at AINonline