Indian will get 2nd awacs on Thursday

India is going to have second Airborne early Warning And Control system(AWACS)on thursady. This AWACS is imported from Isreal. This 2nd AWACS will arrive at Jamnagar and than it will deployed agra soon..By 2 AWACS, eastern and western both will be monitored at same time, siad officials.

Bramhos (Naval version) succesfully fired...

Just got off the phone with BrahMos CEO Dr A Sivathanu Pillai, delighted with the 11.30AM test of the Naval BrahMos supersonic cruise missile in a vertical launch from the Indian Navy destroyer INS Ranvir. Dr Pillai reveals the test was specifically aimed at testing the missile's accuracy when its flight path was infused with "diversionary manoueuvers" to mask the general direction of the launcher warship. The missile, vertically launched from a Vertical Launcher built for the BrahMos, was rolled in all directions successfully before before it smashed into the hull of INS Meen a decommissioned target vessel.

IAF to carry out air-to-air exercises with France, UK

Expanding its ties with global air powers, the Indian Air Force will carry out air-to-air exercises with France and United Kingdom this year.

"Firstly, the 'Garud' series exercise with the French would be held in France in June and the 'Indradhanush' series with the British Royal Air Force would be held at the Kalaikunda air base in West Bengal in October," Defence Ministry sources said here.

At the fourth edition of the 'Garud', IAF will be represented by its air superiority Sukhoi-30 fighter jets and the Il-76 heavy-lift transport aircraft in the aerial wargames with France.

"The Il-78 mid-air refuelling aircraft, which have helped in expanding the strategic reach of the IAF, are also likely to join the Indian contingent there," they added.

The French side is expected to field its latest Rafale fighters and various versions of the Mirage-200 fighters, sources said.

The Rafale is being offered by the French to the IAF for its requirements for the USD 11 billion contract for 126 multi-role combat aircraft.

The first Indo-French exercise was held in 2003 at the Gwalior air base and the second one was organised in France in 2005. The third was held at Kalaikunda air base in 2007.

Indian Navy aircraft crashes into residential area

A trainer aircraft with the Indian Navy's aerobatics team, Sagar Pawan, crashed into a two-storied building during an air show here on Wednesday.

Two naval pilots, Maurya and his co-pilot Nair were killed, police commissioner A K Khan said. The pilots had come from Goa where they were based. He was last seen in the morning by hotel staffers in the coffee shop having breakfast. Even while sipping his tea, he was seen gesticulating his hands to show how a plane could go up or down. The naval team comprising nine members had checked into a Hyderabad hotel on February 27.

The aircraft, an HJT-16 Kiran Mk2 trainer built by Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd, crashed a couple of minutes before noon in the Bowenpally locality near the old Begumpet Airport in the heart of the city. The police and the fire brigade had difficulty reaching the congested crash site.

Four people in the building, a part of which was badly damaged, were injured, as the plane fell on the side of the complex. Two of the injured are believed to be in serious condition and have been shifted to hospital. The debris from the crash fell on a car, crushing it. The building has developed cracks and residents are being evacuated.

The planes were showing acrobatic maneuvers when the incident took place. One of the aircraft, part of the navy's aerobatics team that uses four trainers, was unable to pull up from a dive and went into a spiral as the planes were breaking away from the formation and going in different directions. The acrobatics by the planes had begun even as Praful Patel, minister for civil aviation, was talking on the rostrum.

Thousands of people were enjoying the spectacle when disaster struck, sending thick clouds of smoke into the air. According to witnesses, the plane crashed into the mobile phone towers on top of the building. They heard a loud boom, after which the plane went down.

There are conflicting eye witness accounts. An old lady - a vegetable vendor - who was laying chilies on the ground close to the spot said that suddenly a boy of a pilot fell besides her, even as the plane went forward and crashed into the building. Hundreds of eye witnesses saw the plane fall and go up in flame.

On the way it snapped at electricity wires. There was leakage from the fuselage and whole area was covered with aviation fuel, putting the entire area to the risk of fire. But later fire brigade official spread foam to prevent a fire. One of the pilots tried to open his parachute while ejecting. Probably the height was too little and therefore the parachute did not open. The unopened parachute was seen at the site by eye witnesses.

Said Ashok, who was in his house at the time: "I was inside the house when I heard a loud noise and I came out to see flames."

An hour after the crash, Praful Patel addressing a pre-scheduled press conference had no details about the crash. "I hope for the best,” he said. "I can’t give you any information. I have none,” he added.

Present at the airshow were the whos who of Indian aviation industry including minister Praful Patel, Jet Airways boss Naresh Goyal, Kingfishers Vijay Mallaya, Air India MD Arvind Jadhav, civil aviation secretary Madvana Nambiar, GMR boss G M Rao, GVK boss G V Krishna Reddy and dozens of representatives of Boeing, Raytheon and other companies. Commander Maurya who was commanding the flight belonged to the naval establishment INS Hansa in Goa.

Hyderabad’s Begumpet airport is used for VIP and private flights. The area where the crash occurred falls under the jurisdiction of the Secunderabad Cantonment Board. The crash, however, took place in a civil area under the board.

Gujarat builds 1st survey catamarans for Indian navy

Gujarat’s shipbuilding company, Alcock Ashdown, has broken into a new league. The Gujarat government-owned PSU has built the ‘hull form’ of two catamarans for the Indian Navy, the first catamarans for hydrographic survey to be inducted by the navy.
The first ship christened, INS Makar, was launched in early February and the second, INS Meen, was launched early on Tuesday morning at the shipyard in Bhavnagar.

With this advanced hydrographic suite, the Indian Navy will become one of the few navies in the world to have this kind of survey capability, and Alcock Ashdown has emerged as a leader in integrating complex systems. The vessels will be stationed in Vishakhapatnam. They are part of a fleet of six vessels being built by the shipyard for the Indian Navy at a total cost of Rs 800 crore.
Managing director of Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation and the shipyard, VS Gadhvi, told DNA that this is a significant achievement. He explained that this crucial assignment was not awarded to AAGL by the Indian Navy because it’s a government company, but through a competitive bidding process in which private players had also participated.

Executive director, naval projects, Subir Sengupta, says the primary role of the vessels will be to conduct coastal hydrographic survey of major and minor ports and harbours, their approaches and limited oceanographic survey.

MoD sidelines pvt sector in crucial defence project

Policy turnaround will give BEL Rs 10,000-cr project without tendering



The Ministry of Defence is poised to deliver a disheartening blow to India’s nascent private defence industry. After inviting private companies into the Rs 10,000-crore project for developing the Indian Army’s futuristic Tactical Communications System (TCS), the ministry is abandoning competitive bidding and handing over the project to a defence public sector undertaking, Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL). The reason cited by the ministry: Secrecy.

Left in the lurch are six private companies — Wipro, Mahindra Defence Systems, Tata Power, L&T, Rolta and HCL — which the defence ministry had vetted in detail before categorising the TCS project as “Make — High Tech”. In this category, the government funds 80 per cent of the R&D cost, while the selected vendor contributes 20 per cent. Also sidelined for the TCS are two non-defence PSUs (DPSUs), ECIL and ITI.

The TCS will be a fully mobile network, which can be transported anywhere during war, even into enemy territory, providing the military with a backbone network on which it can communicate and transfer data. The TCS operates much like a cellular phone network, but with two major differences. While cellular phone transmission towers are fixed onto buildings, the TCS’s exchanges and switches will be installed in high-mobility vehicles, allowing them to be transported and set up anywhere. Second, messages sent out over the TCS cannot be easily intercepted or jammed since they will not remain on a single frequency; instead, transmissions will hop frequencies, dozens of times every second, in a pre-programmed sequence.

It is to maintain the secrecy of this “hopping algorithm”, or the sequence in which the TCS hops frequencies, that BEL is being handed over the project. The defence ministry is citing a new cyber policy formulated by the apex National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) — a secretive body that functions under the Cabinet Secretariat, overseeing electronic intelligence. The NTRO had mandated that the “hopping algorithm” must remain the exclusive preserve of the government.

The NTRO’s interpretation has been shaped by guidelines issued by Shekhar Dutt, while he was deputy national security advisor. Now the governor of Chhattisgarh, Dutt had earlier served as defence secretary and as secretary of defence production, with close and longstanding links to BEL.

Now, based on that NTRO interpretation, a special defence ministry committee is about to recommend that the TCS procurement be categorised as, “Make — Strategic, Complex and Security Sensitive Systems”. Under the Defence Procurement Policy, this will automatically gift the TCS project to DRDO and BEL.

The six private sector rivals for the TCS project are fighting back against what they consider an unfair proposal. Last Wednesday and Thursday, they huddled with industry bodies, Ficci and CII, formulating their response to the defence ministry. Their argument: If the ministry ignores the private sector’s world-acknowledged competence in software, IT and communications, and continues sidelining them to benefit DPSUs, it will be hard to convince shareholders to continue investing into defence.

“We fully agree with the need for security,” explains a senior executive from one of the TCS contenders, “but secrecy can be fully preserved by reserving the ‘hopping algorithm’ for DRDO and BEL. To safeguard the secrecy of a Rs 20,000-microchip, which contains the ‘hopping algorithm’, the ministry is handing them an entire Rs 10,000 crore project.”

A defence ministry Feasibility Study Group for the TCS has already discussed the issue of secrecy last year. It was decided that top-secret algorithms in the TCS would be developed by the DRDO’s Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (CAIR), but the private sector could develop the rest of the project.

Indian private companies have played pivotal roles in some of India’s most secret defence projects. Larsen & Toubro, one of the companies being sidelined in the TCS project, built most of India’s nuclear submarine, INS Arihant, and will have a similar role in building successors to the Arihant. Another private company, Tata Power, which built crucial command systems for the Arihant, also designed the core of the top secret Samyukta Electronic Warfare system.

The Kelkar Committee had recommended that such companies, with a track record and potential in defence production, should be designated Raksha Udyog Ratnas (RURs) and treated at par with DPSUs in the award of projects like the TCS. But, in an inexplicable volte-face after preparing a short list of candidate companies, the defence ministry decided against nominating RURs.

If BEL is awarded the TCS project, that windfall will lead to many more. Applying the NTRO’s logic to other command and control projects in the pipeline — such as the Battlefield Management System (BMS); the Operational Data Link (ODL); and the Net-Centric Operations (NCO) system — BEL seems likely to be awarded all of these on a single-vendor basis.

The Ministry of Defence has not responded to an emailed questionnaire from Business Standard on the TCS.

“It is particularly ironic that BEL is expected to safeguard security, when it is well known that BEL systems are built mainly from foreign components,” points out an official from a private company that is bidding for the TCS. “BEL’s Artillery Combat Command and Control System (ACCCS), a system similar to the TCS, has computers and software from Israeli company, Elbit. Whether these have come with malware or switches to render the entire system inoperable will only be known in the future.”

Parliament’s Standing Committee on Defence, too, has raised concerns about such “false indigenization”, where DPSUs have allegedly fronted for foreign companies. The Standing Committee’s report of December 2009 notes that, “a sizeable proportion of procurement takes place through the ordnance factories and DPSUs, which are indigenous sources, but have to depend on imports for manufacturing the finished product.”

Vayu Shakti 2010 pics

IAF grounds 100 MiG-27s,

After a fatal crash near Siliguri last week, the Indian Air Force (IAF) has grounded its fleet of nearly 100 Russian-origin MiG- 27 fighters on suspicions of a major engine snag. All five squadrons of the ground attack fighter, deployed primarily in the western and eastern sectors, have been confined to the ground since the February 16 crash in which a Squadron Leader was killed.
Engine trouble is a known problem in the MiG-27 fleet with crashes in the past being attributed to defects in the R 29 engines of the aircraft. More worryingly, the initial probe has pointed to a major flaw in the engine that seems to have occurred during the overhauling of the aircraft by the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). The entire fleet had also completed an indigenous upgrade programme last year that was executed by HAL.

Raising a red flag on the serviceability of the fleet, Air Chief Marshal PV Naik said the initial probe hinted at a problem during the overhaul stage that went beyond the realm of day-to-day servicing.

US dictating India's big defence deals?

Is the government under pressure from the United States to cancel fat defence orders to the European companies and go for purchases from the American firms?

The question is being raised after Union Defence Minister A K Antony recently struck down a $1.6 billion order bagged by the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company for supply of the Airbus transport planes to the Indian Air Force.

This was yet another order legitimately won by an European defence company last year with IAF selecting the multi-role tanker transporter Airbus A330 after four years of labour to pick up the best suiting its needs, but arbitrarily cancelled by Antony without giving any reason.

Last year, a concluded deal for 197 helicopters from Eurocopter, a French-German conglomeration, was similarly cancelled by the defence ministry, which gave a very dodgy financial argument to explain why Boeing's P81 Poseidon reconnaissance aircraft was preferred over Airbus in another deal.

Another decision to award a large tender for the secured defence communication to Motorola, an American firm, over EADS, is also mired in red tape and secrecy, with no explanation coming forward from the defence ministry for dumping the winner to oblige an American firm.

Those in the IAF who laboured for four years to finally pick up Airbus A330 are disturbed over the defence minister using his red pen to strike down the contract as their efforts, energy and money incurred went down the drain, leaving unfulfilled the critical requirement of having the best to meet the defence needs.

IAF sources say the choice of A330 over the Russian Ilyushin (IL86) was made on the basis of wanting a new generation product instead of going for an existing obsolete product. Though the price quoted by the Russian aircraft manufacturer was lower than that of A330, the IAF opted for the latter, the former rather cheaper on the ground of taking the totality of the life-cycle cost over 30 years.

Defence analysts say there may not be a great conspiracy but there is certainly something wrong in the way the defence ministry is cancelling deals with the European companies despite winning the tenders and standing up to quality requirements of the Indian forces.

They point out that concluded transactions between sovereign nations do not just get cancelled.

The pertinent questions are being raised as to whether the Manmohan Singh government is succumbing to the continued American pressure as quid-pro-quo for the civilian nuclear deal.

One another MiG-21 Crashed

An Indian Air Force MiG-21 combat jet crashed soon after take-off from Bagdora in West Bengal on Friday but the pilot ejected to safety, an IAF spokesman said.

"The aircraft crashed around 3pm soon after take-off and the pilot, squadron leader Rahul Tiwari, ejected safely," the spokesman added.

"The pilot was picked up by an SAR (search and rescue) helicopter and has been taken to hospital," the spokesman said.

This is the second crash of an IAF fighter in three days. A MiG-27 had crashed near the Hashimara air base, also in West Bengal, on Tuesday.

Indian Navy to induct 4 'lethal' MiG-29K into its fleet

The Indian Navy is all set to receive a shot in the arm with the induction of four MiG-29 K combat aircraft into its fleet here on Friday.

The formal ceremony to induct the MiG-29K ' Air Dominance Fighter' aircraft would take place at INS Hansa, the Indian Navy's premier naval station. With the induction of the advanced aircraft, the Indian Navy would join an elite club of navies across the world who have the MiG-29K aircraft in operation.

Talking to mediapersons on the eve of the induction ceremony, Commander Theo Phillis, the commanding officer (CO) of the newly formed squadron 303, which is also known as the 'Black Panthers', described it as a proud moment for the Indian Navy.

When asked about the difference between the Sea Harrier, which are currently in operation in the Navy, Phillis said the MiG-29K would offer a whole lot of other advantages to the navy.

"In MiG-29K, the range of target detention is more. Though the Sea Harrier is still a capable aircraft, the MiG-29K is newer and better," he said. "The MiG-29K is more easier and pleasant aircraft to fly," added Captain Surendra Ahuja, commanding officer of INS Hansa.

Captain Ahuja also explained that there are lot of differences between the MiG-29 B (Bravo) that the India Air Force (IAF) has been using and the MiG-29K , which is to be inducted into the Indian Navy.

The MiG 29K is among the latest and most potent fighters designed by the Mikoyan Gurevich bureau. The MiG-29K is equipped with the air-to-air refueling facility, while this is absent in the MiG-29B, Captain Ahuja said.

The IAF's old MiG-29 fighter, which was inducted in the mid eighties, is a third generation pure Air Defence figher, whereas the MiG-29K belongs to the fourth generation, and is capable of fulfilling multiple roles.

The new combat aircraft is more than 30 percent heavier than the old MiG-29.The MiG-29 is equipped with anti-aircraft 'Beyond Visaul Range Missiles, guided Anti-Ship Missiles, 'smart' guided-bombs and rockets that are more lethal and better than the old MiG-29 K's armaments.

It has a folding wing for close parking and reducing ground space, which is an important feature considering the fact that it would deployed on the air craft carrier INS Vikramaditya (formerly Admiral Gorshkov) once it arrives in the later half of 2012.

The aircraft also boasts of state-of-the-art sensor suite that includes a very responsive and capable radar. The pilot's helmet is equipped with the 'Topsight-E' Helmet-mounted Display and Sight. This unique feature would enable the pilot to shoot a target, without turning the whole aircraft, by merely looking at it.

The India Navy is planning to induct a total of 45 MiG-29K's into its fleet, out of which four (16 of those bought from Russia) were delivered at the INS Hansa in December last year.

Akula nuclear submarine to be delivered to India by May

Indian Navy will regain its underwater warfare nuclear capability in the next 60-days with the Russians assuring that the Akula-II class attack submarine the Nerpa would be delivered by mid-May.

The assurance that the nuclear submarine would be delivered "strictly on schedule" was given by top Russian shipbuilding officials to the Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who is to visit New Delhi on a state visit next month.

Nerpa has been handed over to the Russian Navy for its sea trials.

"The 518th project, the Nerpa submarine is currently completing trials in the Pacific basin. We believe that we will be able to deliver it on time, according to agreed schedule," Chief of the United Shipbuilding Corporation Roman Trotsenko told Putin at today's meeting.


Source:The Hindu

20 Daksh Robot soon In Army

The Army has ordered 20 limited series production variants of the DAKSH remotely operated IED handling robot vehicle. The photos above show the Daksh during a demo at DefExpo 2010. A marked success for DRDO's Research & Development (Engineers) at Pune. An order of over 400 units is expected for the MK-II version. Spoke to officers who were part of the user trials of the bot, and they were thrilled with it. More on DRDO's military bots shortly...

Happy Republic Day....

IAF radar spots 'flying object', turns out to be its own

A radar at the Indian Air Force (IAF) base in Nalia taluka of Kutch district spotted a 'flying object' near Indo-Pakistan border but later found it to be one of its own, defence officials said on Monday.

The incident took place around 18.00 hours yesterday when the radars at the Nalia Air Force base, which is near the Indo-Pak border, picked up signals from a flying object in the Indian air space, they said.

"Following this, personnel on the air base were alerted in anticipation of some hostile activity. However, within a few minutes the flying object was identified as one of our own," the officials added.

Nalia is on high alert following inputs of possible terror strike from air.

Intelligence inputs ahead of the Republic Day, on terror groups working to target Indian interests, had warned about Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) acquiring over 50 para-gliding equipments that could be used to carry out air-borne attacks in the country.

Indian Navy gets $1.5 bn to boost air fleet, counter China

The Indian Navy has started a $1.5 billion overhaul of its ageing Soviet-era fleet of aircraft, seeking to boost its air power in an Indian Ocean region where a growing China is threatening its traditional dominance.The investment is one of the biggest the Indian Navy has made in recent years and reflects New Delhi's urgency to modernise its military, a move that rival Pakistan says could spark an arms build-up and destabilise an already roiled South Asia.

India plans to buy 16 new MIG-29 fighter jets, half a dozen light combat aircraft, unmanned patrol planes and multi-role helicopters. Tenders for these will be floated soon, Indian officials said.The Indian navy is also upgrading its Sea Harrier fighter jets, IL-38 maritime anti-submarine warfare planes and acquiring five Kamov KA-31 patrol helicopters."We are acquiring new fighters and helicopters to...supplement a new aircraft carrier we are getting soon," said Commander P V S Satish, the Navy spokesman, in New Delhi on Thursday.

Analysts said the upgrade of the Navy was long due."It is almost a matter of time before ships from China arrive in India's backyard," said Brahma Chellaney, professor of strategic studies at New Delhi's Centre for Policy Research.India and China are locked in a battle to lead Asia. New Delhi fears China is creating an arc of influence in the Indian Ocean region, bolstering claims over what has traditionally been seen as India's backyard.

Indian officials said Pakistan, too, was modernising its navy.Pakistan's National Command Authority (NCA), which oversees the country's nuclear weapons, said last week India's arms modernisation plans could destabilise the regional balance.

IBNLive

Boeing Gets Initial India Request For 6 Refueling Planes

Boeing Co. (BA) said Monday it has received initial requests for information from India's federal government for supplying six refueling tankers, in what is likely to further expand the U.S. aircraft maker's presence in this burgeoning market for defense equipment.
"We will do a detailed evaluation of the request for interest from the Indian government, study our inventory, and accordingly inform the government," Vivek Lall, vice president and country head of defense and space and security at Boeing India, told reporters.

Lall didn't elaborate on the potential value of the contract.

"We will have to study what we can supply and then only we can talk about the value of the order."

Earlier this month, Boeing said that the U.S. government has received a letter of request from India's defense ministry and the Indian Air Force on the potential acquisition of 10 C-17 Globemaster III advanced airlifters.

India, one of the world's top importers of arms, wants to buy the new airlifters to modernize its fleet of Russian-built AN-32 and IL-76 airlifters.

The country is also in the process of acquiring 126 combat planes for an estimated $10 billion.

Boeing is among six companies, including Lockheed Martin Corp. and Dassault Aviation SA, who are vying for the contract--billed as the biggest fighter jet deal since the 1990s.

Boeing has estimated that it could bid for potential defense deals in India worth about $31 billion between 2009 and 2019.

"This number is going to grow as India tries to protect its borders," said Dinesh Keskar, president of Boeing India. "Our estimates are for segments which we can address such as fighter and attack aircrafts, heavy lift cargo aircrafts, missiles, airborne early warning and training systems."

New Plane Repair Center, 787 Dreamliner Delivery

Boeing Co. will start building a $100 million aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul center in a joint venture with state-run carrier, Air India, this year, Keskar said.

"We had deferred the construction of the MRO (center) since delivery of the 787 was being deferred," Keskar said. "Now, we are on track to deliver the first 787 Dreamliner to Air India by the second quarter of 2011."

The Dreamliners were originally scheduled to be delivered in late 2009. Air India has ordered 27 of the twin-aisle, long-haul aircraft.

Keskar said the MRO center, being built in the western Indian city of Nagpur, will primarily service Air India's fleet of 787 and 777 planes.

Keskar said Boeing will take about two to two-and-a-half years to build the repair center. "When Air India gets the plane (787), it won't require maintenance for at least two years, so we are talking about 2013 (when the center will be operational)."

Astra air-to-air missile to make its first flight

Veteran fighter pilots lament the end of the dogfight, the evocative name for a twisty, sky-ripping, adrenaline-packed aerial duel, in which the winner gets behind his opponent and shoots him down with a burst of cannon fire.

Today, it is less about flying skill, cold nerve and highly-responsive aircraft; the modern-day dogfighting ace is an airborne video-game expert who uses radar to detect his foe at long ranges, and launch a beyond visual range (BVR) missile even before his victim realises that the engagement has begun.

Just days from now, a Sukhoi-30MKI fighter will take off from an Indian Air Force (IAF) base, an Astra missile fitted on its wing. This will be the first-ever flight of this indigenously developed BVR missile, which the IAF hopes will add punch to its fleet of Sukhoi-30MKI, Mig-29, Mirage-2000 and Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) fighters.

The Astra, built by the Defence R&D Laboratory (DRDL), Hyderabad, will allow IAF pilots to hit enemy aircraft up to 44 km away, at altitudes up to 20,000 metres. Improving on that will be the Astra Mk II, with a longer range of 80 km.

The Astra incorporates many cutting-edge technologies. Here is how an Astra would take on an enemy fighter: an IAF fighter’s radar picks up the target; the pilot launches an Astra missile. A high-energy propellant quickly boosts the missile to several times the speed of sound. At ranges beyond 15 km, the Astra cannot “see” its target, so the IAF fighter guides the missile, relaying the target’s continually changing position over a secure radio link. Once it is 15 km from the target, the Astra’s onboard seeker picks up the target; after that the Astra homes in on its own.

At this point, the target would start turning and diving to throw off the missile. But the Astra manoeuvres better, and moves much faster, than even the most agile fighters. A radio proximity fuse measures the distance to the target. When the target is within 5 metres, the Astra’s radio proximity fuse detonates its warhead, sending a volley of shrapnel ripping through the enemy fighter.

Most of these technologies have already been proven. The propulsion system, the data link between the aircraft and the Astra, the radio proximity fuse, the onboard computer, the inertial navigation system and other key technologies were developed at the DRDO’s missile complex in Hyderabad.

The Astra’s seeker is still imported from Russia, but the DRDO hopes to develop one.

The forthcoming test with a Sukhoi-30MKI is called a “captive flight trial”; it will evaluate whether the Astra can withstand the physical stresses of supersonic flying and high-speed manoeuvring. Early in 2010, a “captive-II flight trial” will check whether the Astra’s avionics are properly matched with those of the Sukhoi-30MKI. The fighter should receive the missile’s signals; and the Astra should receive the aircraft’s commands.

“Matching an Indian missile with a Russian fighter’s avionics has turned out to be a complex task”, explains Mukesh Chand, one of the Astra’s key developers, “But the Astra will be much better integrated with the Indian Tejas LCA.”

Only in October 2010, after all the Astra’s systems are certified airworthy, will a live Astra be fired from a fighter. But the project scientists are confident; in a September 2008 test in Balasore, Orissa, a ground-launched Astra shot down an electronic target, validating many of the most complex technologies.

A drawback in the Astra remains its high weight; even a heavy fighter like the Sukhoi-30MKI cannot carry the missile on its wingtip stations. In comparison with the Astra’s estimated 150 kg, other BVR missiles like the Israeli Derby weigh around 100 kg only.

Nevertheless, the IAF believes the Astra will usefully supplement India’s inventory of BVR missiles. The Russian R-77 Adder, which arms India’s Russian aircraft fleet, faces worrying questions about its reliability. And the R530D missile, carried by the Mirage-2000, is nearing obsolescence.

Indian IT firms eye IAF's combat aircraft project

Indian information technology companies are eyeing the $10-billion medium multi-role combat aircraft deal, up for grabs from the Indian Air Force.

Of this, about $1-1.5 billion (Rs 4,600-6,900 crore) is the size of the total IT integrated services pie, that would include engineering services and IT services, said industry sources.

One of the largest deals, the $10 billion budget by the Indian Air Force for 126 multi-role combat aircraft is being eyed by global players. Six global vendors — Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Mirage, Russian Aircraft Corp’s MiG, Saab and Eurocopter — have been shortlisted and field trials for the aircraft have already begun.

“The field trials have already begun. The final decision will be taken before the end of next year and then the project will be open for financial deals,” said Minister of State for Defence Pallam Raju. This is also a project that has an offset of 50 per cent. According to India’s offset policy, the manufacturer that wins the contract will either have to invest 50 per cent of the contract value or source the same amount through Indian industry.

India’s defence budget for 2010 is $28 billion (around Rs 128,800 crore), of which 30-40 per cent has already been spent.

Sensing the opportunity, many of the Indian IT companies have started entering into tie-ups. India’s largest IT company, Tata Consultancy Services, already designs jets for Swedish aerospace major Saab. TCS also works with Boeing, the US major. Similarly, Mahindra Satyam recently announced its tie-up with Saab to pursue defence opportunities. The tie-up is initially looking at the global defence and homeland security market. The company also said the centre of excellence being set up will look at the Indian government’s large investment plans on nationwide security.

Wipro Technologies, India’s third largest IT company, is also looking at partnering with local players for this deal.

IAF slams HAL, bats for private sector

Private sector companies engaged in aerospace manufacture and R&D now have an influential new supporter: The Indian Air Force (IAF). In New Delhi today, the IAF’s vice chief, Air Marshall Pranab Kumar Barbora forcefully called for government policy changes to encourage the private sector in aerospace production, to kickstart a sector that has long been dominated by public sector Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL).



Industry bodies like the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) have pushed these measures earlier. But the military has so far toed the Ministry of Defence (MoD) line, which automatically grants Defence Public Sector Units (DPSUs) like HAL a predominant position, effectively confining private companies to the ancillary supply of aircraft sub-systems.

But Air Marshall Barbora, a blunt-speaking MiG-21 veteran with a reputation for plain speaking on controversial matters, contrasted the private sector’s success in modernising more than 50 airbases, with HAL’s dismal export performance.

Pointing out that even Pakistan had more defence exports than India, the IAF vice chief said, “I visited HAL a few days back. They are proud that they are making parts for Airbus. But a few days back, China produced the whole Airbus. We are happy producing a door here and something else there.”

Air Marshall Barbora listed out policy changes that the government urgently needed to implement to energise the private sector. These included:



# Government must fund R&D and manufacture by private companies, like it has done for the DPSUs. “They (private sector) have to be part of the new structure. If you don’t give them finance, they won’t come up.”

# Assuring firm orders (or Minimum Order Quantity) to private companies, which will allow them to recover the money they spend in developing a product. “If they know they have to produce 1,000 of this, they will be willing to invest.”

# Removing government curbs on defence exports by the private sector, to allow them to recover investment costs. “Our own [defence] requirements are miniscule. If you don’t allow private companies to export, he will say, ‘you look after yourself, I’ll look after myself.’”

# Addressing “the CVC syndrome”, in which “anyone can file an FIR and everything comes on hold”. The IAF deputy declared that procurement processes must go on without disruptions by motivated allegations of corruption.

# Increase the Foreign Direct Investment limit, which is currently 26 per cent. “We have taken steps, but they are not bold enough. We have to be bolder, to invite more investment.”

The IAF deputy also slammed political parties for criticising and scanning defence contracts signed by the previous government, each time power changed hands. Air Marshall Barbora said, “The government becomes the opposition and the opposition becomes the government and blocks everything. That impinges very badly on defence.”

Pointing out that dependence on defence imports remained an Indian vulnerability, the IAF deputy slammed the US for placing sanctions on India after the Pokhran nuclear tests. Holding France up as a model to follow, Air Marshall Barbora said, “France said that, by so and so year, we will go fully indigenous. And they did that. [After that] France blasted all the nuclear devices that they wanted in the Pacific Ocean and nobody could do anything, because they had indigenised [defence production].”

According to a CII-Ernst and Young report, India has over 6,000 SMEs supplying DPSUs, Ordnance Factories, DRDO and the armed forces with 20–25 per cent of their total requirement of components and sub-assemblies. In addition, there are almost a hundred large private companies involved in defence manufacture.

These recommendations were made at a seminar on “Energising Indian Aerospace Industry” in New Delhi.

India, Russia close to PACT on next generation fighter

Late last year, a defence ministry delegation to Sukhoi’s flagship aircraft facility in Siberia became the first Indians to set eyes upon the next-generation fighter that is slated to form the backbone of the future Indian Air Force (IAF). In that first meeting, carefully choreographed by Sukhoi, the new fighter, standing on the tarmac waved a welcome to the Indians, moving all its control fins simultaneously.


The effect, recounts one member of that delegation, was electric. The senior IAF officer there walked silently up to the aircraft and touched it almost incredulously. This was the Sukhoi T-50, the first technology demonstrator of what India terms the Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA). Senior defence ministry sources tell Business Standard that — after five years of haggling over the FGFA’s form, capabilities and work-share — a detailed contract on joint development is just around the corner.

The contract, which Bangalore-based Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) will sign with Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), will commit to building 250 fighters for the IAF and an equal number for Russia. The option for further orders will be kept open. HAL and UAC will be equal partners in a joint venture company, much like the Brahmos JV, that will develop and manufacture the FGFA.

The cost of developing the FGFA, which would be shared between both countries, will be $8-10 billion (Rs 37,000-45,000 crore). Over and above that, say IAF and defence ministry sources, each FGFA will cost Rs 400-500 crore.

Sukhoi’s FGFA prototype, which is expected to make its first flight within weeks, is a true stealth aircraft, almost invisible to enemy radar. According to a defence ministry official, “It is an amazing looking aircraft. It has a Radar Cross Section (RCS) of just 0.5 square metre as compared to the Su-30MKI’s RCS of about 20 square metres.”

[That means that while a Su-30MKI would be as visible to enemy radar as a metal object 5 metres X 4 metres in dimension, the FGFA’s radar signature would be just 1/40th of that.]

A key strength of the 30-35 tonne FGFA would be data fusion; the myriad inputs from the fighter’s infrared, radar, and visual sensors would be electronically combined and fed to the pilots in easy-to-read form.

The FGFA partnership was conceived a decade ago, in 2000, when Sukhoi’s celebrated chief, Mikhail Pogosyan, invited a visiting Indian Air Force officer out to dinner in Moscow. Boris Yeltsin’s disastrous presidency had just ended, and Russia’s near bankruptcy was reflected in the run-down condition of a once-famous restaurant. But, as the IAF officer recounts, the vodka was flowing and Pogosyan was in his element, a string of jokes translated by a female interpreter.

Late that evening Pogosyan turned serious, switching the conversation to a secret project that, officially, did not even exist. Sukhoi, he confided to the IAF officer, had completed the design of a fifth generation fighter, as advanced as America’s F-22 Raptor, which is still the world’s foremost fighter. Russia’s economy was in tatters, but Sukhoi would develop its new, high-tech fighter if India partnered Russia, sharing the costs of developing the fighter at Sukhoi’s plant, Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aircraft Production Organisation (KnAAPO).

Reaching out to India was logical for Russia. During the 1990s — when thousands of Russian military design bureaus starved for funds, and a bankrupt Moscow cancelled 1,149 R&D projects — India’s defence purchases had kept Russia’s defence industry alive, bankrolling the development of the Sukhoi-30 fighter; the Talwar-class stealth frigates; the Uran and Klub ship-borne missiles; and the MiG-21 upgrade.

But co-developing a fifth generation fighter is a different ball game, financially and technologically, and India’s MoD hesitated to sign up. Meanwhile enriched by hydrocarbon revenues, Moscow gave Sukhoi the green light to develop the FGFA, which Russia terms the PAK-FA, the acronym for Perspektivnyi Aviatsionnyi Kompleks Frontovoi Aviatsy (literally Prospective Aircraft Complex of Frontline Aviation).

Today, Russia is five years into the development of the FGFA. In November 2007, India and Russia signed an Inter-Governmental Agreement on co-developing the fighter, but it has taken two more years to agree upon common specifications, work shares in development, and in resolving issues like Intellectual Property Rights (IPR).

The prototype that Sukhoi has built is tailored to Russian Air Force requirements. But the IAF has different specifications and the JV will cater for both air forces, producing two different, but closely related, aircraft. For example, Russia wants a single-seat fighter; the IAF, happy with the Su-30MKI, insists upon a twin-seat fighter with one pilot flying and the other handling the sensors, networks and weaponry.

Negotiations have resolved even this fundamental conflict. India has agreed to buy a mix of about 50 single-seat and 200 twin-seat aircraft. Russia, in turn, will consider buying more twin-seat aircraft to use as trainers. But even as both countries narrow their differences, fresh challenges lie ahead: preparing India’s nascent aerospace industry for the high-tech job of developing and manufacturing a fifth-generation fighter.

BSF foils first infiltration bid of 2010 along Indo-Pak border

The Border Security Force foiled the first infiltration bid of 2010 by armed militants along the India-Pakistan border in Samba sector of Jammu and Kashmir in the wee hours of Monday.

During the patrolling of the area, the BSF troops noticed some suspicious movement along the international border near Narianpur border out post in Samba district at approximately 1.15 am on Monday, said a senior BSF official.

Troops lit up the area with search lights and later fired on the infiltrating militants, forcing them back to the Pakistan side, even as they fired some rounds on patrol party, he said. "This was the first infiltration bid of this year," the official said.

There was no injury to the BSF troops. However, due to the thick fog, it was not known whether any militants had been injured in the BSF firing, he said, adding that no recovery was made during the search today morning.