[Watch] Naval Variant Of LCA Tejas Successfully Conducts Night Time Arrested Landing, Next Landing On Aircraft Carrier

In a significant development, the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) successfully carried out a night-time 'arrested landing' of the naval variant of Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas on Tuesday (12 November), reports India Defence News.

DRDO tweeted a video of the landing carried out on Tuesday to demonstrate ease of handling and confidence.

"First night time arrested landing of LCA Navy carried out successfully at SBTF Goa on 12 Nov at 1845 hrs to demonstrate ease of handling and confidence achieved in arrested landing technologies. Hon'ble Raksha Mantri congratulated DRDO, Indian Navy and HAL for the achievement," the Defence PSU tweeted.

In September DRDO had carried out the first "arrested landing" of the two-seater LCA (Navy) Tejas at a shore-based facility in Goa.

"A normal LCA needs a runway spanning about 1-km for take-off and landing. But, for the naval variant, the take-off stretch is about 200 m and landing needs 100 m. Today, the NP-1 made its maiden arrested landing, and it was a textbook landing," a DRDO source informed.

The naval variant of LCA will now undergo an aircraft carrier compatibility test, after which landing trials will be conducted on the INS Vikramaditya.