ADA working on Indigenous Radome for Tejas Mk1A

Source : RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG.

Tejas Mk1 in production line of HAL (Image Source : Onmanorama)

The Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) has started experimenting and testing a new radome for the LCA-Tejas fleet that will eventually replace Cobham supplied Quartz Radome Nose cone for the upcoming upgraded Tejas Mk1A fleet. ADA already had designed an in-house Radome Nose cone for the LCA-Tejas Program, but in 2012 started looking for alternative radome for LCA as part of their product improvement activity.

ADA back then had confirmed that the existing Radome Nose cone in Tejas had issues with the lightning protection system and there was rainwater ingress at the radome-fuselage junction in the current structure. Later British company Cobham won the tender and started supply of Quartz Radome Nose cone from 2015 onwards and it was first seen on LSP-3 and later in all the LSP, IOC, and FOC jets that went into production in later years.

The length of the new radome remains more or less remains the same at 1970mm against Cobham supplied Quartz Radome Nose cone that was 1972mm but the diameter at the fuselage interface is now 892mm against 883.5mm seen in the present Nose cone supplied by Cobham. ADA already had developed a pre-production Radome Nose cone for the AMCA program for testing purposes and it seems technology developed is been adapted for the Tejas Mk2 and Tejas Mk1A program.

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