India's Tejas Mk 2 fighter aircraft is intended to replace a range of combat aircraft in the Indian Air Force, including the Mirage 2000. The Tejas Mk 2 is also intended to compete with the Saab Gripen internationally. (Janes)

India's Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas Mk 2 programme is languishing without funding, months after the project was approved by New Delhi.

The Tejas Mk 2 is intended to provide the Indian Air Force (IAF) with a 4.5-generation medium-weight-class fighter aircraft. The aircraft is designed to be an improvement over the fourth-generation Tejas Mk 1 aircraft currently in IAF service.

India's Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) officially approved the project on 1 September 2022 for development, flight testing, and certification. Janes previously reported that funding of INR66.17 billion (USD809.17 million) was sanctioned.

However, Janes

A P-8A Poseidon aircraft assigned to Patrol Squadron 45 of the US Navy. Boeing has inked an MOU with ST Engineering to explore potential collaboration opportunities on the aircraft type. (US Navy)

Boeing has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Singapore's state-affiliated defence company ST Engineering to jointly explore potential areas of co-operation regarding the P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft (MPA).

The MOU was disclosed by Boeing in a media release on 29 May. Under the MOU, Boeing and ST Engineering will “outline potential areas of collaboration in systems integration, training, local parts distribution, support and sustainment work for the P-8A Poseidon”, said the release.

“Boeing and ST Engineering have identified opportunities to collaborate in a number of areas and will explore these in more detail, including jointly developing a P-8 service centre in Singapore with the provision of engineers and aircraft maintenance technicians to support maintenance and engineering services,” it added.

ST Engineering had not responded to Janes request for a statement on the MOU and for more details on the potential collaboration at the time of publication.

A Comtech COMET troposcatter system set up for a BLOS network demonstration at SOF Week 2023 in Tampa, Florida. (Comtech)

Industry officials are looking to leverage Cold War-era tactical communications technologies as a potential enabler for the US Department of Defense's (DoD's) Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control (CJADC2) capability.

Programme officials with satellite communications (satcom) development company Comtech in May conducted a multivendor demonstration that blended satcom, tropospheric scatter links, and local area networks (LANs) to blend “multiple connectivity types, multiple connectivity bubbles” as a means to stand up a viable, beyond-the-line-of-sight (BLOS) combat communications network for a satcom-denied environment, said Dan Gizinski, chief strategy officer for defence at Comtech.

The demonstration – carried out during the inaugural SOF Week 2023 conference in Tampa, Florida – consisted of a satcom link via commercial provider Kymeta, combined with two troposcatter links connecting a small unit element with a forward-deployed command post 13 miles away.