Indian Military Aviation News and Discussion

[Arun_S]

[quote name='Raj Malhotra' date='24 November 2010 - 08:22 PM' timestamp='1290609889' post='109432']

Arun, are you saying Russia is going to transfer TN warhead (the one that would work) to India? [/quote]

No way ! to transfer warheads from other country, because it is given then that country will control India, because for all you know it be a Trojan dud. (recalls me of fella called R Chidumbrum who thought he had a super duper next gen TN design (so good that it did not even require lab validation or airing of scientific counter arguments in his team) a design that was even superior to Yankee and Bear, just that when the day of reckoning arrived in 98 it went fizzle). I am convinced that Indian TN design is fixed. It just remains untested thus unknown. India just need access to high energy lab (or a field test). Not just Vodka but some fine french wine may already be flavoring the cauldron.

[Bharat_2009]

[quote name='Arun_S' date='25 November 2010 - 12:41 AM' timestamp='1290625403' post='109439']

No way ! to transfer warheads from other country, because it is given then that country will control India, because for all you know it be a Trojan dud. (recalls me of fella called R Chidumbrum who thought he had a super duper next gen TN design (so good that it did not even require lab validation or airing of scientific counter arguments in his team) a design that was even superior to Yankee and Bear, just that when the day of reckoning arrived in 98 it went fizzle). I am convinced that Indian TN design is fixed. It just remains untested thus unknown. India just need access to high energy lab (or a field test). Not just Vodka but some fine french wine may already be flavoring the cauldron.

[/quote]



Most likely option is lab testing than field testing. May be not under MMS regime but in the future. It is only a question of time.

[Raj Malhotra]

I am sorry, there was a typo. I meant to say “whether Russia will transfer the TN warhead technology”?



Coming to LCA topic if you think that Philip Rajkumar and HAL Chairman are more near to the truth then it would mean that LCA would see (i) lengthening of fuselage, (ii) which will also lead to longer wing chord i.e. bigger wing, (iii) redesigned, lighter & lighter lower fuselage (iv) AESA etc. This means a very different aircraft.

[Guest]

Arunji,



1. Your article on the deterrent also suggests that access to a high energy laboratory facility would suffice to confirm that the fixed TN is indeed fixed and make the TN credible. Is this route close to being as good as a field test ?



2. What about the SLBM warheads ? Are they too, based on this corrected TN or are they different, requiring fresh field tests ?



3. Will TSP/Chn be aware of our access to Russian/French high energy facilities if there is such access (your post above suggests there is)? Will this awareness make our TN credible in their eyes ?



4. If the answers above are "yes", dosent it make sense to deploy the corrected TN ? Dr. Santhanam suggests it is not while Dr. AK suggests several of them are. Which is true ? Makes sense to deploy the corrected TN in any case....more so if access to high energy facilities confirms the fix.

[Arun_S]

[quote name='Raj Malhotra' date='27 November 2010 - 12:40 AM' timestamp='1290798128' post='109472']

Coming to LCA topic if you think that Philip Rajkumar and HAL Chairman are more near to the truth then it would mean that LCA would see (i) lengthening of fuselage, (ii) which will also lead to longer wing chord i.e. bigger wing, (iii) redesigned, lighter & lighter lower fuselage (iv) AESA etc. This means a very different aircraft.

[/quote]



Yes. Lot of similarity (read common assemblies, as well as know-how, labs and people), but neverthless a new beast, and with the experience of LCA the team can take on this new engineering challenge with confidence and I think this time will deliver on time.

[Arun_S]

Wrong thread !



[quote name='Kritavarma' date='27 November 2010 - 01:37 AM' timestamp='1290801580' post='109476']

Arunji,



1. Your article on the deterrent also suggests that access to a high energy laboratory facility would suffice to confirm that the fixed TN is indeed fixed and make the TN credible. Is this route close to being as good as a field test ? [/quote]

Yes, but only when India builds, operated and sustains high energy lab manned with two independent teams of physicists & weaponeers to keep. the system honest

2. What about the SLBM warheads ? Are they too, based on this corrected TN or are they different, requiring fresh field tests ?

SLBM warheads, need to be TN (a different kind compared to land based of TN weapons, and dependent on rare earth - Mysore), thus IMHO require test.

3. Will TSP/Chn be aware of our access to Russian/French high energy facilities if there is such access (your post above suggests there is)? Will this awareness make our TN credible in their eyes ?

What is done in stealth, inspires confidence to designers.

What is shown in field inspires confidence in end user and deterrence in challenger heart.



Three different audiences.

[Guest]

[url="http://www.afpc.org/publication_listings/viewBulletin/1087"]INDIA FORMS ARUNACHAL SCOUTS FOR BORDER[/url]

Just days ahead of a round of talks with China over their disputed border, India has announced a new military battalion will be named after the Indian state at the center of the Sino-Indian territory dispute. Since the Sino-Indian war of 1962, China has claimed 56,000 sq miles of the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, what China calls “South Tibet.” Tensions between the two Asian powers over the disputed territory have been heightened in recent years and India has been bolstering its defenses along the along the border, where China holds a distinct advantage in military installations and basic infrastructure. According to the head of India’s air force, P.V. Naik, “Eight advance landing grounds are being upgraded and there are five to six major airfields where infrastructure will be improved to enable them to received more modern aircraft.”



The new military battalion, meanwhile, will be named the Arunachal Scouts, although it was raised from a garrison in Shillong, in the neighboring state of Assam. Some 5,000 troops strong, the Arunachal Scouts will be drawn from locals trained in specialized, high-altitude combat (Arunachal Pradesh straddles the Himalayas). Arunachal’s chief minister, Dorjee Khandu, insisted the new force would reflect the “martial strength” of the region, where India has formed several paramilitary groups out of local “martial” ethnic groups, such as the Assam Rifles, Gorkha Rifles, and Naga Regiment. (Financial Times November 11, 2010).....

[Guest]

[url="http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2010/12/06/350580/lockheed-martin-set-to-deliver-indias-first-c-130j.html"]Lockheed Martin set to deliver India's first C-130J[/url]

The Indian air force's first of six Lockheed Martin C-130J tactical transports will be handed over to the US Air Force on 16 December, ahead of its delivery to the nation in late January.



To be based as Hindon air base, New Delhi's first US-built military aircraft will make its public debut at the Aero India air show in Bangalore in early February, says Abhay Paranjape, Lockheed's director, C-130J India.



India's first three stretched-fuselage Hercules are involved in pre-delivery testing at Lockheed's Marietta site in Georgia, with the second to also be signed over to the USAF during December and flown to Hindon in late February. The nation's other three aircraft are on the final assembly line in Marietta.

[Guest]

[url="http://www.hindustantimes.com/News-Feed/newdelhi/Secret-IAF-file-found-on-roadside-in-New-Delhi/Article1-645073.aspx"]Secret IAF file found on roadside in New Delhi[/url]

A secret file related to over $11 billion deal for procuring 126 multirole combat aircraft went missing from the Defence Ministry and has been found on the roadside in New Delhi, prompting the Indian Air Force to order a probe into the incident. The secret files are related to the Offsets clause in the deal and were found on the roadside in a Delhi locality recently, IAF officials said here, adding that the file has been recovered.

...



Under the Offsets clause in the defence production procedure, a foreign vendor bagging any deal worth over Rs 300 crore has to invest back at least 30 per cent of the contract's worth back in Indian defence sector.



Under the M-MRCA deal, the offsets were pegged at 50 per cent of the worth of the deal.



American F-16 and F/A-18, French Rafale, Swedish Gripen, Russian MiG 35 and European Eurofighter are the six contenders participating the deal for supplying the aircraft to the IAF

Some low life babu must be selling info to everyone.

[Guest]

[url="http://www.dawn.com/2011/02/01/pakistan-blocked-from-indian-airshow.html"]Pakistan blocked from Indian airshow[/url]

NEW DELHI: India, which hosts South Asia’s biggest airshow next week, has not invited arch-rival Pakistan, China or Iran to the biennial event, organisers said on Tuesday.



“Invitations to the airshow have not been sent to China, Pakistan and Iran but these are decided by the foreign ministry,” defence production secretary R.K. Singh told a news conference in New Delhi.

<img src='http://www.india-forum.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':lol:' />

[Guest]

[url="http://www.lexingtoninstitute.org/letting-india-into-the-f-35-club-makes-good-sense?a=1&c=1171"]Letting India Into The F-35 Club Makes Good Sense[/url]

Author: Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D.

[Bharat_2009]

[quote name='Mudy' date='02 February 2011 - 12:06 PM' timestamp='1296628080' post='110526']

[url="http://www.lexingtoninstitute.org/letting-india-into-the-f-35-club-makes-good-sense?a=1&c=1171"]Letting India Into The F-35 Club Makes Good Sense[/url]

Author: Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D.

[/quote]



but it doesn't make any sense for India. <img src='http://www.india-forum.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />



How about F22s??



But one thing the author got right !!



from the above article



"There aren't many nations in Asia that could resist the combination of economic leverage and military power Beijing will soon bring to any dispute. But one nation that could be a potent deterrent to Chinese ambitions is India -- the sole country in Asia that can match the Middle Kingdom in population, productive potential and growth rates"



I am sure more and more people would see it this way as years pass by.

[ramana]

Ajai Shukla evaluates the mrca contenders:







European a/c lead

The clearest performance was that of the Russian MiG-35, which has not shown up at all at Aero India 2011. After multiple problems during the flight evaluation trials, it is regarded by the IAF as little more than an upgraded MiG-29. The Russian fighter is effectively out of the race.

Only marginally less dismal was the Lockheed Martin F-16IN Super Viper, which travelled to Bangalore but did not participate in the inaugural aerobatics shoot-out.



Defence minister A K Antony insisted today that political considerations would play no part in the MMRCA selection, but his officials were less diplomatic. “The F-16 is in the race only in name; the US will not be allowed to supply the same aircraft to both India and Pakistan,” said a senior MoD official. “Besides, the F-16 has come to the end of its development cycle. There is no scope for improving it further.”



Lockheed Martin seems to know its India campaign is blighted. Over the past two months, company officials and even the Pentagon, the US defence headquarters, have shifted the focus to the F-35, the fifth generation stealth fighter that Lockheed Martin is developing. But while the Pentagon’s acquisition chief, Ashton Carter, has signalled American willingness to include India in the F-35 programme, the Indian MoD is not persuaded.



On getting a fifth generation fighter from the US, Antony replied, “Already we are engaged with Russia to produce a fifth generation fighter…. No other country has offered us these technologies in the past. We are way ahead now [in the partnership with Russia]. There is no question of going back.”



The other American contender, the F/A-18 Super Hornet, regaled spectators with a superb display of combat manoeuvring, Showcasing its history as a combat fighter, the F/A-18 was the only contender that flew with missiles fitted under its wings, which is avoided in aerobatics because of the resulting drag. But though the Super Hornet was the tightest turner, its aerobatics were conducted at slow speeds. That sluggishness is also true of its campaign in India.



“We scored the F/A-18 poorly during flight evaluation,” says an IAF officer who was closely involved.



That leaves the three European contenders: the Eurofighter (from a four-country consortium), the Dasault Rafale (from france) and the Saab Gripen (Sweden). Each of them put up a superb display of high-speed aerobatics, performing loops, barrel rolls, and spells of inverted flying that clearly pushed the boundaries of the aircrafts’ flight envelopes.



The Gripen showed enormous agility in its vertical handling, something that would allow it to climb above the enemy fighter in a dogfight, to an advantageous killing position. At the end of his display, the Gripen’s pilot displayed how little runway the fighter needs to land, stopping dead in barely 900 ft.



But IAF officers point out two key drawbacks to the Gripen’s campaign: “The Gripen’s AESA radar is the least developed of all the MMRCA contenders; and, being a single-engine fighter, it carries significantly less weaponry than the big twin-engine contenders.”



The twin-engine advantage was immediately evident when the Rafale and the Eurofighter took to the skies, lashing the spectators with a blast of sound. There was little to choose between both those aircraft, their High-G (sharp turn); High-Alpha (slow flying) aerobatics leaving the spectators clapping.



“The MMRCA contest is now between the Eurofighter and the Rafale,” says an IAF officer associated with the flight evaluation. “It will boil down to price. But if the MoD accepts a smaller fighter, with a radar that has some way to go, the economically-priced Gripen could be the dark horse that wins.

Arun matches your evaluation.

[HareKrishna]

There was 4 countries that made the EF Typhoon

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/co...rators.png



France decided to make its own plane based on EF ,bcoz was not part of military NATO at that time.Ergo Raffale.

[Bharat_2009]

"Germany Will 'Contribute to an Arms Race,' Charges Opposition"



http://www.spiegel.de/international/germ...27,00.html



One more reason why India should ban import of fighter jets in the future from countries other than Russia.



If it is between Rafale or Eurotyphoon, we already know the answer.









and by the way India's AMCA rocks.



http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_o_no4M2xEPY/TV...C07358.JPG



Tejas Naval variant also looks good



http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_o_no4M2xEPY/TV...C07357.JPG

[Guest]

[url="http://en.rian.ru/mlitary_news/20110210/162533115.html"]Russian-Indian joint development of 5G fighter jet to cost $6 billion - HAL[/url]

The Russian-Indian joint development of a fifth generation fighter jet will cost some $6 billion, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) Financial director D. Shivamurti said



Russia and India signed in December last year a contract to jointly develop a design for a new 5G multirole fighter. Russia's Sukhoi holding and India's Hindustan Aeronautics Limited agreed in early 2010 to jointly develop a fifth-generation fighter jet based on the T-50 design.



"A detailed design phase, including the cost of the project, is likely to cost more than $6 billion," Shivamurti said. "The work between us and them [India and Russia] will be distributed in a 35/65 proportion."

[Guest]

[url="http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-South-Central/2011/0225/India-wants-fighter-jets-but-without-American-baggage"]India wants fighter jets – but without American baggage[/url]

[Arun_S]

[url="http://english.pravda.ru/russia/economics/03-03-2011/117080-sukhoi_pak_fa-0/#"]Russia successfully tests second Sukhoi PAK FA[/url]

03.03.2011 10:03



Russia has performed the first flight of its second Prospective Airborne Complex - Frontline Aviation (PAK FA), known as a fifth-generation fighter jet, officials from the national defense complex told Interfax-AVN.



"The flight continued for 57 minutes. The aircraft was piloted by Sergei Bogdan, an honored test pilot of Russia. All goals set for the first flight have been successfully achieved," officials said.



All systems of the aircraft were operating in a routine mode. "The inflight stability and control characteristics of the plane were positive. All systems and the engine of the aircraft were operating error-free," the source said.



Mikhail Pogosyan, the director of the United Aircraft Corporation, the head of Sukhoi and MiG, told reporters earlier that it was planned to conduct test flights for three fifth-generation fighter jets during 2011.



According to Pogosyan, the fifth-generation program is being developed according to the plan. The first aircraft has performed 40 flights.



The first flight of Russia's Sukhoi PAK FA fifth-generation aircraft took place on January 29, 2010. According to experts' estimates, the aircraft is unique for it combines the functions of strike aircraft and a fighter jet.



The fifth-generation aircraft is equipped with a completely new complex of avionics which integrates the function of the electronic pilot and the prospective radar station into the phased array antenna. The new system simplifies the work of the pilot and gives him an opportunity to concentrate on his mission.



The new fighter jet is capable of carrying both air-to-air and air-to-surface missiles. As for the first category, it goes about long and small range missiles, as well as medium-range missiles by Vympel Design Bureau. As for the second category (air-to-surface), the jet can carry anti-vessel missiles, common purpose missiles and guided bombs (250 kg caliber). In addition, the plane can carry guided different purpose missiles and bomb units of up to 1,500 kg in caliber on external suspensions.

All guided aviation means of destruction for Sukhoi PAK FA fighters are designed by Tactical Missiles Corporation.



The PAK FA, when fully developed, is intended to be the successor to the MiG-29 and Su-27 in the Russian inventory and serve as the basis of the Sukhoi/HAL FGFA project being developed with India.



Sukhoi director Mikhail Pogosyan has projected a market for 1,000 aircraft over the next four decades, which will be produced in a joint venture with India, two hundred each for Russia and India and six hundred for other countries. He also said that the Indian contribution would be in the form of joint work under the current agreement rather than as a joint venture. The Indian Air Force will "acquire 50 single-seater fighters of the Russian version" before the two seat FGFA is developed. The Russian Defense Ministry will purchase the first 10 aircraft after 2012 and then 60 after 2016. The first batch of fighters will be delivered without the "Fifth generation" engines. Ruslan Pukhov, director of the Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, has projected that Vietnam will be the second export customer for the fighter. The PAK-FA is expected to have a service life of about 30-35 years.

[Guest]

[url="http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/the-dewline/2011/03/how-to-get-rafale-bribe-india.html"]How to get 'Rafale', 'bribe', and 'India' and prostitute' in one headline [/url]

The Air Force has set up a court of inquiry against a wing commander for taking bribe from foreign aviation manufacturing companies to facilitate prominent static display of their aircraft during the recently concluded Aero-India 2011 exposition.



Wing Commander A.K. Thakur was caught accepting bribe from Dassault, France, for helping them display their aircraft prominently during the four-day held in Bangalore in mid-February.

The French company had informed the authorities when Thakur made the offer to them in exchange of an amount of Rs 20,000. On receiving the complaint, the defence exhibition organisation laid a trap and caught the wing commander red-handed.



What has shocked the IAF community in Bangalore and the MoD is allegations that European women were employed to "soften up" officers who were involved with making arrangements for Aero India 2011.



A photograph of an Air Marshall in the company of a European woman believed to be a commercial sex worker has been found and which, along with a separate report, has been sent to the MoD in South Block, New Delhi.

[Guest]

[url="http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/designers-insist-tejas-will-belie-all-sceptical-questioning/430868/"]Designers insist Tejas will belie all sceptical questioning[/url]