India’s indigenously developed Light Combat Aircraft Tejas successfully carried out an arrested landing in Goa, a major milestone in development of the naval variant of the jet. Officials said the test demonstrated the aircraft’s ability to halt at a short distance after landing on board an aircraft carrier.
Calling the maiden arrested landing of LCA Navy, a “golden letter day” in the history of Indian Naval Aviation, the DRDO said the development has put the country on the world map with the capability to develop a deck landing aircraft. “Today, the first-ever arrested landing of LCA (Navy) at the shore-based test facility, INS Hansa Goa will pave the way for this Indigenous platform to undertake Aircraft Carrier landing demonstration onboard the Indian Naval Aircraft Carrier, Vikramaditya,” said DRDO.
“After several years of flight testing and four campaigns of dedicated testing at Shore Based Test facility Goa, today the LCA (Navy) Flight Test Team led by Commodore JA Maolankar (Chief Test Pilot), Captain Shivnath Dahiya (LSO) and Commander JD Raturi (Test Director) successfully executed a textbook arrested landing at the Shore Based Test Facility, INS Hansa, Goa. This arrested landing heralds the arrival of true indigenous capability and displays the professional prowess of our scientific community Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) embeded with design plus build capability of HAL(ARDC), DRDO and CSIR Labs involved in executing this landmark event,” the defence agency said.
The successful test “marks the start of a new era where multiple agencies have come together to achieve a common goal”, the ministry stated. It has “put India on the world map as a nation with the capability to design a deck landing aircraft”, it added, and mentioned that Defence Minister Rajnath Singh congratulated ADA, Hindu-stan Aeronautics Limited, DRDO, and Indian Navy for this feat.
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