India is buying billions of dollars worth of weapons from America while suffering from terrorist attacks from Pakistan fully aided by U.S, latest being nine Indian soldiers including two majors being killed in Afghanistan. To add insult to injury the US is also gifting Pakistan with free UAV's, frigates and laser guided bombs.Is this corrupt government subsidizing the killing of Indians by buying American products which themselves are Trojans and prone to sanctions. We should immediately declare the F-16/18 canceled in the MMRCA deal and halt any further purchases of American weapons.This will definitively send a strong message.
[size="6"]Russia Signs Major Deal to Sell 14 Soyuz Booster Rockets to France[/size]
Jean-Yves Le Gall of Franceââ¬â¢s Arianespace confirmed rumors about the intention to purchase Soyuz booster rockets from Russia.
"We have ordered 14 Soyuzes from the Russian Federation; the contract's cost is about $1 billion. These are ambitious plans," Le Gall said at a Russian-French business forum, held as part of President Dmitry Medvedev's visit to France, RIA Novosti reports.
Russia and France signed an agreement for cooperation between Roskosmos and the National Space Research Center of France (CNES). The agreement details the plan of the Russian-French cooperation within the scope of the Ural program to build state-of-the-art booster rockets. The document also stipulates the construction of the launch system for Soyuz rockets at the Kourou space center in French Guiana.
Spokespeople for Russian and French space corporations said that the equipment had been 90 percent ready. Roskosmos said that it was ready to perform the first launch of the Russian rockets from the north-east of South America already during the second half of 2010.
It is worthy of note that NASA officials acknowledged recently that Soyuz-TC was the best booster in the world. It was the best promotion that the Russian space technology could have in the world. Therefore, it is not ruled out that Russia will sell more than 14 rockets.
Unlike the USA, France continues to fund its space program fully. Russia is also interested in using the space center in Kourou since it is located much closer to the equator than Baikonur space port in Kazakhstan. A Soyuz-TC launched from French Guiana will perform a lot better.
France will launch Soyuz in the second half of this year. Seventeen more launches will take place afterwards. The number of launches will grow every year, Arianespaceââ¬â¢s CEO said.
Russian experts say that the contract with France will help Russia realize its plans to build a space port of its own in the Amur region. Baikonur ââ¬â the space port, which Russia uses now ââ¬â is located in Kazakhstan.
The construction of a new space center would cost 400 billion rubles, experts say. Last year, Kazakhstan did not coordinate documents for the launch of Russiaââ¬â¢s Proton-M booster, which was supposed to deliver a European W7 satellite in orbit. Russia pays Kazakhstan $115 million a year for the rent of Baikonur.
Russia still remains the leading space power in the world. In 2009, Russia performed 32 launches of booster rockets and delivered 29 domestic satellites and 20 foreign spacecraft in orbit.
ââ¬ÅIt makes 40 percent of all booster rocket launches in the whole world in 2009,ââ¬Â
[quote name='Arun_S' date='07 March 2010 - 12:32 AM' timestamp='1267901679' post='104913']
Good observations Austin.
It is heartening to note reduction in weight, and increase in thrust while keeping same SFC.
IIRC The core of this engine is repacked to be calles as AL55 to power the HJT-32 (Sitara)
[/quote]
Hi Arun two data are known and certain that is weight reduction of ~ 150 kg and Thrust of ~ 15T , but the SFC values are not reveled so its assumed to be atleast same as 117C.
[quote name='Austin' date='07 March 2010 - 11:06 PM' timestamp='1267982891' post='104939']
Hi Arun two data are known and certain that is weight reduction of ~ 150 kg and Thrust of ~ 15T , but the SFC values are not reveled so its assumed to be atleast same as 117C.
[/quote]
Better T-2-W ratio is a hallmark of a better thrust (efficiency) engine. But when deciding aircraft performance, the significant factor is the thrust 2 weight of the aircraft, not just the engine alone, because SFC values differ at different times:
Quote:It should be noted that SFC varies with throttle setting, altitude and climate. For jet engines, flight speed also has a significant effect upon SFC; SFC is roughly proportional to air speed (actually exhaust velocity), but speed along the ground is also proportional to air speed. Consequently, although the nominal SFC is a useful measure of fuel efficiency, it should be divided by speed to get a way to compare engines that fly at different speeds.
Quote:While specific fuel consumption has its advantages, it has its disadvantages as well. While it allows engines of all sizes to be compared, resulting in a chart that shows the most efficient engine, it can also leave out other important factors. The engine design, what it will be used for, and where it will be used all affect the engine's performance and specific fuel consumption can only make an educated guess at which engine will perform the best.
There is new generation engine underdevelopment for PAK-FA and will take atleast a decade per official source , the new engine will reportedly have a thrust rating of ~ 18 T.
How much of a challenge it will be to develop Variable Cycle Engine ( VCE ) ?
In late 80's GE tried to develop a VCE for YF-22/23 , but then settled for a less risky F-119.
Quote:"The U.S. administration says its global missile shield program is not directed against Russia. However, our conclusions on the true potential of the future missile defense system should be based on specific military and technical factors, not on words," Lavrov said.
"We will not accept a state of affairs when a missile defense system poses a threat to Russia's nuclear deterrence potential," he went on.
[size="6"][url="http://www.janes.com/news/defence/jdw/jdw100312_1_n.shtml"]Boeing wins deal to convert F-16s into aerial targets[/url][/size]
The US Air Force (USAF) has awarded Boeing a USD69.7 million contract for initial engineering, manufacturing and development work associated with the conversion of retired Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon combat aircraft into aerial targets.
The agreement, announced on 9 March, calls for Boeing engineers and support personnel to convert the F-16s into QF-16s for use as aerial targets by USAF fighters and weapon systems. They will be able to fly either manned or unmanned.
QF-16 design and development work will take place at Boeing's St Louis facility in Missouri. Ground and flight-testing and production will be completed at the company's facility in Cecil Field, Florida.
Quote:ââ¬ÅWe are in the process of negotiations. They will be completed in the near future and we shall ink a contract for the technical sketch project of this plane then,ââ¬Â Pogosian said, adding that such major undertakings were very time-consuming.
This is one of the reasons why the contract was not signed during Vladimir Putinââ¬â¢s visit to India, he added.
Quote:On February 16 Industry and Trade Minister Viktor Khristenko said that a Russian-Indian project for jointly developing a fifth generation fighter would enter into the active implementation phase this year.
Russia and India, he said, ââ¬Åare starting joint work on this product being well aware that they will share the copyrights.ââ¬Â
Quote:Also, Khristenko said that the parties would share benefits from selling the plane not only on their domestic markets, but also on the markets of third countries.
ââ¬ÅThis is an unprecedented situation. India is the sole country with which we have decided to establish such partnership,ââ¬Â Khristenko said.
Interesting experiments carried by Russians in mid 90's on Scramjet could very well be the basis of hypersonic Brahmos 2 ( via flanker/secretprojects )
Interesting design improvement and innovation in the new Russian Liquid Fuel SLBM, this has a throw up weight of 2.8T and max tested range of 11,000 km
The missile comprises a number of new technical designs:
* three-stage missile of silo-limited dimensions;
* application of a high-accuracy astro-inertial control system and ââ¬ÅGLONASSââ¬Â navigation satellite radio correction system substantially increased the firing accuracy;
* various flight trajectories at minimum and intermediate firing ranges and dispensing of re-entry vehicles within an arbitrary zone can be realized ;
* operational capabilities of missiles were improved due to the possibility of launching from high latitudes of Arctic.
Here is one video of Sineva doing North Pole Launch
![[Image: soyuz-3.jpg]](http://english.pravda.ru/img/idb/soyuz-3.jpg)
![[Image: 53_1_Teh_harakteristiki_AL-31_FP.jpg]](http://www.npo-saturn.ru/img/editifr/53_1_Teh_harakteristiki_AL-31_FP.jpg)
![[Image: mb_mig-35_1200.jpg]](http://www.airforce.ru/photogallery/gallery8/mig-35/mb_mig-35_1200.jpg)
![[Image: c144d4ce3bb5.png]](http://i074.radikal.ru/1003/ae/c144d4ce3bb5.png)
![[Image: pakfafront.jpg]](http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/8483/pakfafront.jpg)