Navy chief says ADA let it down on LCA front

Port Blair: Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Nirmal Verma on Saturday lambasted the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) for frequent time overruns in the development of the Naval version of the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA).
“They [ADA] focused largely on the Air Force programme and the LCA [Navy] did fall behind…. There have been many promises made by the ADA but they failed us,” he told The Hindu on Saturday on the sidelines of the ongoing multi-naval Milan initiative hosted by the Navy.
Terming the carrier-borne aircraft development programme ‘crucial' for the Navy, he said the naval version of the aircraft was considerably different from the Air Force version, given the type of forces it would undergo while making arrested landings on a carrier deck. This called for a reinforced undercarriage. “It is often said that there is only 15 per cent difference between both versions. The Navy has always maintained that it may be 15 per cent in terms of material and systems, but it is a substantial part. And they [ADA] underestimated it.”
Asked about the geo-strategic interests of the Navy in the Indian Ocean region, he said India was a ‘benign friend' of the Indian Ocean littorals. Affirming that forums such as the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS) and Milan went a long way in addressing mutual concerns and forging working-level partnerships, he said the Navy would continue to do what it had been doing.
05/02/12 S Anandan/The Hindu

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Feb 2012, New Feb 2012