The Defence Research and Development Organisation and Aeronautical Development Agency on Friday successfully executed the first-ever arrested landing of Light Combat Aircraft (navy) at a shore-based facility, INS Hansa in Goa, inching closer to the goal of operating from an aircraft carrier.
The LCA (navy) is the naval version of an indigenously developed Tejas fighter aircraft. An official statement said that the successful execution of arrested landing will pave the way for this indigenous platform to undertake Aircraft Carrier landing demonstration onboard the Indian Naval Aircraft Carrier, Vikramaditya.
Indian Navy needs several fighter jets for its future aircraft carriers including named INS Vikrant, which is under advanced stages of construction.
WATCH: LCA Tejas makes arrested landing at INS HANSA
On April 20 this year, the then Navy Chief, Admiral Sunil Lanba had said IAC-1 or INS Vikrant will be delivered to Indian Navy by 2021. The Navy hopes to have a third aircraft carrier in the near future to counter China’s growing might in the Indian Ocean region.
After several years of flight testing and four campaigns of dedicated testing at Shore Based Test facility Goa, on Friday the LCA (navy) Flight Test Team led by Commodore J A Maolankar (Chief Test Pilot), Capt Shivnath Dahiya (LSO) and Cdr J D Raturi (Test Director) successfully executed a “textbook” arrested landing.
“This arrested landing heralds the arrival of true indigenous capability and displays the professional prowess of our scientific community embedded with design plus build capability of HAL, CSIR Labs involved in executing this landmark event,” the statement added.
The statement also lauded the support of the Indian Navy through the navy project office and ministry of defence.
What is an arrested landing
An arresting gear, or arrestor gear, is a mechanical system used to rapidly decelerate an aircraft as it lands. The ability to come to a halt in a very short distance is a key feature needed for operations on board an aircraft carrier where the real estate needed to land is limited.
In Friday’s test landing, the fighter jet used a hook mounted on its fuselage to snare a wire to rapidly come to a halt after landing at a test facility.
An “arrested landing” on the deck of an aircraft carrier is a feat achieved by only a handful of fighter jets developed in the US, Russia, the UK, France and, more recently, China.
