Prof. Prodyut Das 2

  The Tejas Mk2  corrections                                Prof. Prodyut Das The news is that the Government will not fund development of the Tejas Mk2 without first securing the ToT for the F 414 engine. The Government has a choice of three suitors and would naturally like to drive a hard bargain. A subtle other possibility could be that the Tejas Mk2 Layout as was supposed to have been final has a serious flaw and getting a second opinion/confirmation is felt necessary. The idea of holding up the project until an engine is finalized could be a mask. I believe the hold is no bad thing because the project was driving towards a precipice. The Tejas Mk2 project was started in 2007. One should not need funds to think and pipe dream but the project was funded in amounts of Rs 500 crores in 2007 and 2500 crores 2017 so the usual “shortage of funds” was not an issue. A roll out was announced for December 2022 or thereabouts. It was here that things began to de- rail. It so happened th

  “Waddling around the deck” – Weighty Matters & the Tejas part 2.                                                             by Prof.Prodyut Das In the 1950’s war classic “The Cruel Sea” by Nicholas Monserrat, the Australian Gunnery Officer of the Frigate HMS Saltash, apparently dissatisfied with the performance of the gun crews he was working up, is heard to yell “If you jokers are trying to break my heart by waddling round and round the deck like a bunch of old whores on a picnic- you have to try a long, long time! Get cracking!”. Reviewing the blundering process of the Tejas programme I am reminded of Lt. Allingham’s exasperation. When I had mentioned in my blog “Weighty Matters” that the empty weight of the F 16 A Block 10 was 6615 kgs people either did not believe it or saw it as a yet another unjustified attack on a valiantly struggling project; very few saw the opportunity for the correction the criticism revealed. The opportunity lies in the fact that if the substan