Indian light combat aircraft (LCA)-lessons learnt in R&S during development

The development of advanced fighter aircraft is a highly challenging task and the experience is invaluable and rewarding, especially when the development is made for the first time. The technology development from conceptual stage to final realization is a long journey for the new systems getting matured for integration on the aircraft. The common denominator for any such development is to accomplish reliability and safety requirements. The project complexity demands a planned, systematic and effective approach for R&S assurance during development phase. In the case of LCA, more than 100 work centers were involved in the development activity spread over the length and breadth of the country. The integration and testing of complex systems on the aircraft posed a lot of teething problems to the team, who accepted the challenge and were finally successful. During the process of development, quite a number of lessons were learnt, which have been summarized in this paper, along with important aspects on R&S assessment.