Indian MoD clears DRDO-MBDA program to build naval SR-SAM 'Maitri' for Indian Navy

Source The Hindu :

The project has been in the works since 2007 to meet the requirements of the Army and the Air Force

The Defence Acquisition Council has approved the ‘Maitri’ project for the co-development of a Short Range Surface-to-Air Missile (SR-SAM) by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) with MBDA of France, Navy officers said on Monday.

“The DRDO has been directed by the government to engage Original Equipment Manufacturer for joint development,” a Defence Ministry official said.

The project has been in the works since 2007 to meet the requirements of the Army and the Air Force.

MoU with MBDA

The DRDO had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with MBDA in 2013, but there has hardly been any progress because the DRDO’s Akash missile system has similar functions.

The Army and the Air Force have expressed satisfaction with the capabilities of Akash, but the Navy has made it clear that Akash is not suitable for installation on warships.

This is likely to be discussed further during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to France next week.

Helicopter upgrade

Last Saturday, the Defence Acquisition Council gave approval for the upgrade of 10 Kamov-28 anti-submarine helicopters of the Navy at a cost of €297 million.

The helicopters are at the end of their service life.

Indian MoD approves buy of 6 Airbus A330 for Indian AWACS

 

Case for Su-34 as MMRCA

Source IDRW.ORG: 

Shiv aroor a Prominent journalist in his recent tweet confirmed that Russia indeed has offered Sukhoi-35 to India in case negotiation with France to purchase Dassault made Rafale fails to materialise before deadline. While he was able to confirm Russia’s offer but still there is no clarity about recent comments made by Rostec CEO Sergey Chemezov that India and Russia have agreed to jointly build 5th-generation fighter aircraft based on Su-35.





Deal or no deal on purchase of Rafale, Induction of additional air superiority aircrafts will not be easy for Indian air force since they will not be able to fill the gap left by failure to procure aircrafts under MMRCA requirements, which had asked for multi-role capable aircrafts. Indian air force chief in recently concluded Aero India air show made it clear that he want MMRCA aircrafts and it doesn’t have to be Rafale but certainly not additional Su-30 aircrafts. Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar had said few months back that if Rafale deal doesn’t materialise there is always option to go for an upgraded Su-30 aircraft which can fulfill the requirements of Indian air force, what he basically meant was that Sukhoi-30 can be further optimized in its strike capability.



With FGFA already in the pipeline and Su-30 already in the fleet, induction of another Air superiority fighter aircraft will make Indian air force heavily tilted towards “Air superiority” roles and will diminish its strike attack capability . In case India decides to Induct another fighter aircraft from Sukhoi family rather then additional Su-30, it could be wise to actually induct Su-34 Strike bomber aircraft then Su-35. Case for Su-34 should be considered since IAF will be putting half of its Mig-27 strike aircrafts fleet in Reserve from this year on wards and in next 5 years remaining fleet will be pulled out of active duties and Jaguars will be only Strike aircrafts which will be left in the fleet.



MMRCA contract heavily favored Strike attack capability of aircrafts over Air superiority roles, in fact MMRCA requirement were born after current strike aircrafts (Jaguar and Mig-27) were found not suitable to carry out surgical strikes in high mountain terrain of Kargil sector in Kargil war with Pakistan, While Point defence aircrafts like Mig-21, when used against target in high mountains, failed to make any impact. It was Mirage-2000 aircrafts which came in handy to take out the target in difficult terrain. MMRCA requirements favoured aircraft with multi-role capability and scored high on strike capability of the aircraft.



Su-34 is primarily designed for tactical operation against mobile and ground targets; aircraft has entirely new nose and forward fuselage giving it a distinctive look apart from Sukhoi-27/30 family. Aircraft also shares wing structure, tail, engine nacelles and canards with Su-30 family is also powered by same AL-31 engines. With 12 hard points, it can carry 12000 kgs of ordnance. With the help of front and rear mounted radars aircraft can fire R-73 missile from behind towards any chasing enemy aircraft without entering into a dogfight or turning the aircraft providing it enough self-protecting weapons suite and ability to multirole while still been in enemy airspace. Advantage of Su-34 over Su-35 is that aircraft is already in large scale production and eventually will replace close to 300 Su-24 ground attack aircrafts, while Su-35 along with Pak-Fa and Su-30SM will be inducted in equal numbers meaning smaller production runs of each aircraft types, making them more expensive

 

Amid Stalled Fighter Projects, Upgraded Mirage Cheers IAF

SOURCE Paxaquitania :With these pictures of the photographer and "spotter" Vincent Massé , we learn that the first upgraded Mirage 2000H of the Indian Air Force took off from BA 106 of Bordeaux, a sign that the update is complete.

Meanwhile hypothetical 126 Rafale, the Indian fighter can still count on its Mirage 2000! 51 aircraft, 46 Mirage EH (cars) and 13 TH (two-seater), dating from the 80s and whose modernization is engaged. Dassault Aviation, Thales and MBDA , indeed having won this contract by almost 3 billion euros in 2011 (2.72 exactly 1 Thales to Dassault 400 million euros and 959 million in missile MBDA), after 10 years of negotiations.

These Mirage are being currently provide a new avionics, electronic warfare equipment and a more powerful radar. The upgrade also provides armament and local infrastructure.

If 50 (accuracy: India lost 3 of those Mirage since 1984) have yet to go through the workshops of Bordeaux / Merignac, one, nicknamed it the "KF107" as his number has something to dream for a second youth. ..

 

Another test today, the ASTRA with telemetry equipment in place of warhead fired from Su30

India’s Beyond Visual Range (BVR) air-to-air missile ASTRA was once again successfully test fired today by the Indian Air Force off the coast of Odisha near the Integrated Test Range, Balasore. The missile has been indigenously designed and developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). In today’s test flight an ASTRA missile carrying telemetry equipment in place of the warhead was fired from a Sukhoi-30 aircraft against a Lakshya (Pilotless Target Aircraft) target. The target was successfully engaged and it was captured by Telemetry and Electro-optical tracking stations.

A successful trial of ASTRA, conducted yesterday, was also launched from a Sukhoi 30 aircraft, which was aimed at confirming missile’s capability to undergo manoeuvre involving very high gravitational forces upto the order of 30 ‘g’. These fourth and fifth launch campaign were coordinated by Air Headquarters including the flight of Lakshya target.

The Defence Research & Development Laboratory (DRDL), Hyderabad of the Missile Complex is the primary development agency for the missile. Dr. K. Jayaraman, Director, DRDL was present at the mission centre overseeing the trials along with Dr. Subhash Chandran, the Programme Director. Dr. VG Sekaran, Director General (Missiles & Strategic Systems) has congratulated the team of designers, technologists, production and quality agencies, and Air Force for developing and testing such a complex system which is comparable with the best in the world.

The Project Director Dr. S Venugopal said that “the fourth and fifth Air Launch of ASTRA was once again perfect in all respect and engaged the target with precision. More tests will follow to prove its repeatability.” He said Astra has proved its capability as a formidable weapon.

On request from many Indian followers- #AdarshLiberal – Indian Liberals and Reverse Outsourcing!

SOURCE NITICENTRAL: Why does the Indian Mainstream Liberal Media (MSM) outsource its issues, while the Liberal political parties outsource their political fights ?

One of the most “out of place doubts” I recently saw being raised on the Internet was on Quora, a Q&A website. A question was posed, obviously by one of the so called Indian liberals #adarshliberal, to Jimmy Wales the founder of Wikipedia and a contributing member of Quora as to what he thought about the whole Nirbhaya documentary incident being played out in India.

The answer was quite predictable, a western sermon to Indians from a supposedly high moral pedestal.

Which brings us to the topic of this column – What exactly does a Jimmy Wales have to do with the Nirbhaya documentary episode?

With all heartfelt sympathies to the family of the innocent victim in a ghastly episode of violence by an animal in the guise of a man, the way this whole story about the documentary and its purported ban by the government unfolded was an unfortunate chaotic twist to this sad tale of grief and suffering. Without getting into the merits and demerits of filming such a documentary let’s look at the repercussions of invoking foreign players into teaching us the  changes that we need to make as an Indian society collectively.  What good has this cacophony in the international arena done to us? Nevertheless how much of grief did it lessen for the near and dear ones affected by this dreadful incident?

How would an innocent Indian Ph.D. student being denied an admission in Germany after beingstereotyped as a rapist from India help the cause of preventing such crimes on the fairer sex in the future? Or rather would effective policing help in India in any way? Do we need a BBC reporter to tell us that there is a problem with mindsets that is triggering wrongs against our women? What about the claims of a sustained campaign against India by a section of the stakeholders in BBC owing their loyalties to our unfriendly neighbour? Are we giving them more ammo for a smear campaign against India and Indians?

The solution to one issue may not lie in creating another.

Indian liberal Mainstream Media (MSM) and their outsourcing

In the not so distant past there was an episode that trumped all acts of liberal imprudence. A certain Ms. Dutt who has a knack for figuring out if anything is against the idea of India and of the “truth vs. hype” fame asked Tulsi Gabbard the lone Hindu senator from US if she was going to be a Hindu her whole life? What kind of logic drives such a question coming from a journalist of such senior repute?

The same media house that also proudly claims to be an Indian channel has never even projected the Kashmiri Pandit problem to a detail that it deserves. Yet they have given extra space to secessionists from Kashmir, who wanted separation from India. They also gave space to several controversial figures like Teetsa Setalvad (who is currently being probed for corruption) and Arundhati Roy (who in spite of all her literary acumen did make many statements that can definitely be argued upon!) While in a democracy it is important to give a chance to all voices, but to what extent? At the extent of not giving an equal amount of opportunity to those who actually believe in the idea of India contrary to those who do not? Even in the USA there is an equally big divide between the left leaning liberal mainstream media (MSM) and those who are on the right side of the political spectrum given credence by a select few media houses. Has an Indian politician or media house ever been invited to play judge to the debate between Republicans and Democrats in the US?

This particular Indian liberal Mainstream Media channel (MSM) is also considered to be a lighthouse in the sea of Indian liberal waters for strayed over liberal intellectuals and opinion-holders returning from foreign lands who have everything except an Indian passport that has been forsaken (any guesses?).

Further continuing about the travails of such liberal indiscretions another famed journalist of the same channel Ms. Nidhi was wrong-footed by a no nonsense British Member of Parliament Barry Gardiner after being egged on by the anchor about the moral standing in dealing with a person like Modi after the 2002 riots? For God’s sake does it take a foreign MP to put some sense into this liberal journalist with a certain agenda that a person who is exonerated by the Indian courts and is well respected by his own people (the ballot boxes in Gujarat proved this time and again!) isn’t to be commented or judged by a foreigner. More so it would amount to foreign interference! Does this channel or this journalist have a liberal or left leaning agenda that is worth going to any extent? Are they willing to invoke foreign elements into their debates and ask them to judge the moral bearings of their ideological opponents from India? What if the foreign countries or judges use this to their advantage in global negotiations damaging Indian interests or just plainly believe in whatever is being implicated about Modi or his party and form an impression about India that hurts it?

Maybe the sequel to their series “Truth vs. Hype” should be “United we stand, divided we fall!”, at least that idea would be ringing in their ears!

And what about the another liberal messiah in the form of a media house that did not show Arunachal Pradesh as a part of India (Read: Arunachal Pradesh, absent from The Idea of India?), all the while highlighting any tom dick and harry who as motor mouths on the extreme right make uncalled statements, especially in a world ruled by boisterous and paranoid media houses.

Left leaning Indian liberal political class and their outsourcing

While the media houses that form the liberal mainstream media (MSM) in India are examples of such ill-advised adventurism in outsourcing their ideological differences to the extent that Indian interests are damaged severely, their political bosses that form the core of the Left leaning Indian liberal political class is no less of a culprit in this regards.

There is a black day in Indian democracy when Gandhi the founding father of India’s spirit must have been really upset after a lifetime of struggle to help us liberate from foreign occupation. This was when some left leaning Indian liberal parliamentarians including independents and various regional parties like the JD(U)  amounting to around 65 faxed a request letter to the American president asking him to deny Mr. Modi’s visa.

“Indian politicians ask Obama to deny a visa to one of their own!” screamed Washington Post. It was like a slap on the face of a billion plus Indians! As if the idea of India was bursting open at the seams! No matter how big of a political difference an Indian parliamentarian has, appealing to the moral discretion of a foreign country’s ruler more than the supreme court of its own land speaks volumes about their patriotic inclinations towards India. Such MP’s should be named and shamed. And it will forever stand as a testimony to the misadventures of the Indian liberal political class who sacrificed India for the sake of their own petty political gains.

Another example of such indiscretion is when Rahul Gandhi spoke of Hindu extremism being a cause of worry bigger than anything else in India while conversing with the Ambassador of a foreign nation at an event as per the leaked cables. This was nothing but outsourcing one’s political fights to foreign judges and in all fairness has seldom been seen from the right wingers. And any such patriotic moral fiber is instantly dubbed as “Extreme nationalism” in the liberal lingo.

The above mentioned instances have emboldened so many foreign elements to finger in India’s internal affairs that some foreign newspapers have openly endorsed against Modi appealing not to vote for him. This can be termed as nothing but gross interference in the internal affairs of another county.

To add to all this the recent questioning of the Indian Coastguard’s claims of shooting down a boat belonging to Pakistan in Indian waters by the congress party is dangerous tinkering of the Indian security apparatus for political gains. Any such doubts should be dealt with by engaging with the government directly rather than doubting the integrity of India’s men and women in uniform in public thus emboldening the enemy. The congress party with all its experience should have known better!

How much longer will the Indian liberal political class and mainstream media outsource their domestic politcal squabbles ?

Where is the counter media narrative to keep these #AdarshLiberals in check ?

JSDF Iron Fist 2015 Mechanized Raid Dry Run

PAKISTAN TODAY HAS SUCCESSFULLY TESTED "Indigenous" BURRAQ UAV LASER GUIDE MISSILE-Seriously !!!

RAWALPINDI: Pakistan has successfully test fired an indigenously-developed armed drone Burraq and Barq laser guided missile, the ISPR announced on Friday.

According to DG ISPR Asim Bajwa, Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif witnessed the test fire, which had impressive accuracy and multiplies capability against terrorists.

The army chief commended the engineers and scientists involved in the development for their untiring efforts to acquire state-of-the-art technology.

According to Bajwa, General Raheel termed it “a great national achievement”, and added that it would add to the country’s existing anti-terror campaign.








But Then here comes the shocker but expected its Nothing but a Chinese Drone CH-3 but renamed as Islamic one.

Two guided munitions can be seen on the upside-down aircraft; one appears to be an AR-1 laser-guided missile, while the other may be an FT-5: a small Chinese guided bomb that was designed for use with UAVs.









Looks like only thing indigenously about this is its name

Below the crashed CH-3 UAV used by nigeria.

Must Watch -LCA Tejas performing at the Aero India 2015 - Asia's Premier Air Show

Marvellous PAK-FA taking a sharp turn.

Info board from KNAAPO

Indian Light Combat Copter Goes Through Cold Tests

Cold weather trials of India's Light Combat Helicopter were carried out at Air Force Station, Leh early last month. “The trials covered engine starts with internal batteries after overnight cold soak at 3 km altitude and 4.1 km altitude”, HAL chairman T. Suvarna Raju has said in a statement. The engine starts were satisfactory in the temperature of minus 18 degree C at 4.1 km, the flights were also carried out to assess high altitude performance and low speed handling, the statement said.

The LCH prototype, TD2 was ferried from Bangalore to Leh and the flight trials were carried out involving customer pilots from Air Force and Army and with the participation of representatives from RCMA (H/c) and DGAQA (H/c).
“Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) Technology Demonstrator TD-3 made its maiden flight in November last year and the TD-4 is likely to fly soon. The IOC is expected in the later part of this year and to achieve this we are concentrating on building more prototypes and increase the number of flights to reduce the lead-time for IOC”, Raju said.

Testing Time ahead for HAL India- “Make in India” for HAL trainer, import of Swiss trainer capped

Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) has prevailed over the Indian Air Force (IAF) in a long-running battle over the basic trainer aircraft on which IAF rookies will learn to fly.

Backing HAL and “Make in India”, the ministry of defence (MoD) ruled on Saturday that the IAF would have to buy the Hindustan Turbo Trainer – 40 (HTT-40), which HAL is developing in Bengaluru.

Until the HTT-40 is delivered, the IAF will make do with 75 PC-7 Mark II trainers it has already bought from Pilatus of Switzerland. Under an “Options Clause” of that contract, the purchase of 38 more Pilatus trainers was sanctioned on Saturday. These would cost about Swiss Francs 230 million (Rs 1,500 crore).

After a meeting of the MoD’s apex Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), which arrived at this decision, a senior MoD official, briefing the media, said: “The DAC has ordered the IAF to order the HTT-40 in adequate number, to make this project commercially viable.”

The IAF has steadfastly opposed the HTT-40 project. As Business Standard revealed (July 29, 2013, “Indian Air Force at war with Hindustan Aeronautics; wants to import, not build, a trainer”) then IAF boss, Air Chief Marshal NAK Browne, wrote to Antony, incorrectly claiming that the HTT-40 was costlier than the PC-7 Mk II.

HAL rebutted that claim, convincing the MoD that the HTT-40 would cost Rs 38.5 crore, compared to the Swiss Francs 6.09 million price of Pilatus trainer, which comes to Rs 39.5 crore. When life-cycle costs were factored in, the indigenous HTT-40 would be far cheaper over four decades of service.

Last month, Business Standard --- which has followed and reported this issue in detail--- revealed (February 14, “Defence ministry official questions whether Pilatus was cheapest trainer”), that a key MoD procurement official had written to Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar that the PC-7 Mark II trainer was actually far more expensive than had been originally assessed.

With the IAF digging in its heels and blocking funding, HAL has put Rs 300 crore of its own into the HTT-40. Senior project managers say the trainer is on track to fly this year, and enter service by 2017-18.

The DAC has ordered strict monitoring of the HTT-40 project, to guard against delays. “The progress of the project will be monitored by a Committee that will report regularly to the DAC”, said the MoD official who briefed the media.

IAF pilots undergo three stages of training. In basic training, or Stage-1, rookie pilots learn to fly on simple aircraft like the PC-7 Mk I, and the HTT-40. They graduate to Stage-2 training on intermediate trainers like the Sitara, which HAL is developing. In Stage-3 training, which is done on Hawk advanced jet trainers, pilots prepare to fly frontline IAF fighters.

With the navy and army air wings steadily expanding, these services are likely to buy their own HTT-40s, in case the trainer proves an unqualified success. HAL has also proposed the HTT-40 for import, positioning it as a weaponised light attack aircraft.

The IAF grounded its earlier basic trainer, the HPT-32, after a fatal crash in 2009 that killed two pilots. Experts say the HPT-32’s safety record did not warrant peremptory grounding of its 110-trainer fleet.

Over 30 years of flying, in which 2,000 IAF pilots were trained and the HPT-32 logged 400,000 hours, there have been 17 crashes in which 19 IAF pilots were killed.

While grounding the HPT-32, the IAF continues to fly the MiG-21, which has a far more worrying safety record. In Jun 2003, the IAF head, Air Chief Marshal S Krishnaswamy, told the media that 98 MiG-21 crashes had claimed 43 lives in 5,53,000 sorties between 1994-2003.

Over the years, according to MoD figures tabled in parliament, 482 IAF MiGs (of all types) have crashed, killing 171 IAF pilots, 8 other servicemen, and 39 civilians. Yet none of these fighters were grounded.

In another procurement decision on Saturday, the DAC okayed the tendering of a Rs 32,000 crore project to build 12 modern “mine counter measure vehicles”, or MCMVs, in India. Foreign shipyards will bid to partner Goa Shipyard Ltd in building these 600-1,000 tonne vessels that detect and defuse mines, which an enemy could deploy to deter movement of our commercial vessels and battleships. An earlier tender for these vessels was withdrawn amidst allegations of corruption.

In addition, the DAC cleared the Rs 533 crore purchase of one C-130J Super Hercules transport aircraft from US company, Lockheed Martin, to replace one that crashed last year.

Important Timelines for HTT 40:

>Honeywell engine selected for TP 331-12B which gives 950 sHP power .
>Engine is on schedule i.e. April
>Engine Integration will be done by June-July.
>First Flight is schedule on September- 1st week