India’s indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) ‘Tejas’ will soon have compact heat exchanger sets manufactured by the state-owned Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL). On Monday, BHEL announced through an official statement that it has bagged an order from state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for compact heat exchanger sets for the 83 `Tejas’ Mk 1A aircraft. The Indian Air Force (IAF) last year had placed an order for 83 LCA for its fleet to meet the shortage of fighter aircraft.

According to the BHEL company statement, the order from HAL envisages testing, manufacturing, and supply of 83 compact heat exchangers for LCA. Since 1996, Heavy Plates and Vessels Plant (HPVP), located at Visakhapatnam is the exclusive supplier of heat exchangers for LCA Tejas to HAL.

This has been jointly developed by BHEL-HPVP and Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), Bangalore. Together for the Environmental Control System (ECS) and Secondary Power System (SPS) of the LCA MK-1 programme, they have developed 13 different types of compact heat exchangers.

The state-owned BHEL is also working with Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) in developing Air Cycle Machine based Liquid Cooling System (LCS) for Aircraft POD application. This system is meant for the LCA Mk2.

For manufacturing of state-of-the-art Compact Heat Exchangers for different types of aircraft manufactured by HAL, HPVP already has dedicated intricate manufacturing and inspection facilities.

The company statement also states that the facilities are being augmented to meet International Aero Standards (AS9100). This means the state-owned BHEL is set to meet the requirements of HAL related to LCA, Su-30, AMCA, and ALH programmes.

Over the last three decades the company has been one of the major suppliers of the critical equipment and services in India’s Aerospace & Defence Sector.

Financial Express Online has reported last year that the 83 Tejas Mk 1A ordered by the IAF comes with the airframe and engine as that of the Mark 1.

And the Mk 1A is going to be equipped with AESA radar which has been bought off the shelf from Israel. There is an Electronic Warfare suite which has some indigenous content too.

It will be fitted with a state of the art ‘fly by wire’ (FBW) system and the weapons onboard will be a mix of indigenous as well as imported.

Most of the upgrades for Mk 1A have been developed in-house. This also includes FBW.

The Mk 1A also has the capability to fire precision guided munitions, bombs and Beyond Visual Range (BVR) missiles.

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