LCA-NP1

The naval prototype (NP-1) of India’s Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) is slowly and steadily crossing every hurdle that has come up its way in the last 18 months. With a roll out rivaling even blockbuster movie releases in July 2010 — the NP-1  — believed to be the only naval aircraft in the light weight category in the world with aircraft carrier operational capabilities, will be airborne soon.

While its designers at Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) and its makers at Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) are not speaking officially and off the record, sources at the shop-floor who tweak technology for NP-1 daily, inform Express that ‘it is a matter of time before NP-1 hits the skies.’  Initially, it was envisaged that the naval aircraft will be a derivative of the Indian Air Force version of the LCA (Tejas). But the peculiar requirements of naval operations coupled with safety norms led to substantial differences in the aircraft structure, resulting in delays.
“The overwhelming challenge of large structural loads, better over the nose vision has lead to heavier undercarriage and re-design of the front fuselage. Commonality was achieved in only few mechanical systems and avionics. The stringent naval requirements and rigorous ground testing of various systems is nearing completion,” say sources.
The modification of flight control laws, cabin pressurization including environment control checks, laser precision alignments and host of associated naval flight critical systems are in its final stages.  “The landing gear with its high sink rate of 7.1 m/sec arising from ship deck requirement has imposed serious challenge to the designers, which has now been successfully circumvented. The NP-1 has completed its ground vibration test (GVT), structural coupling test (SCT) and extensive system integration tests with power plant using state-of-the-art facilities,” sources said.
Fuel management with dump facility for emergency recovery on board is a special feature of this aircraft.  The heart of the flight control system (FCS), which is a quadruplex redundant digital flight control computer supplemented by LEVCON (leading edge vortex controller) air data computer, is being integrated with auto throttle and arrester hook. “The LEVCON functionalities for conventional and ramp take-off is under regression checks for final assessment on various simulators prior to its implementation on the aircraft. The arrester hook design for ship-borne operations is yet another unique carrier borne feature,” sources said.
The aircraft so far has completed four engine ground runs (EGRs), including three with after burner for entire operational envelope.  “The platform is underway for low and high-speed ground handling and flying quality checks to assess the aircraft characteristics prior to its maiden flight,” sources said.
When specifically asked about a possible date by which NP-1 will finally do what it is meant to be – flying – sources said: “It is scheduled to fly this month. Many challenges are new and we are taking them head on.”

Source: The Express Tribune

Interceptor achieves a direct hit of incoming target missile

Validating Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) capability, India successfully launched an interceptor missile to destroy an incoming target missile in a direct hit at an altitude of 15 km over the Bay of Bengal on Friday.

The target missile mimicked an incoming enemy missile with a range of more than 2,000 km.

A few minutes after the ‘hostile’ missile, a modified surface-to-surface Prithvi, took off at 10.10 a.m. from Launch Complex-3 at Chandipur, the interceptor missile, Advanced Air Defence (AAD), was fired from the Wheeler Island. As the target missile climbed to a height about 100 km and began descending at rapid speed, the interceptor travelling at supersonic speed homed on to the target and smashed it to smithereens around 10.15 a.m. at a 15-km altitude in the endo-atmosphere.

The crucial test was conducted as part of India’s plans to deploy a two-tiered BMD system to engage and kill incoming enemy missiles in the endo-atmosphere and exo-atmopshere.

This was the seventh interceptor mission and the fifth endo-atmospheric interception. Six of the tests to date have been successful, including the first three in a row.

Immediately after the modified Prithvi was launched, the Long Range Tracking Radars near Puri picked up the target missile as also the Multi Functional Radar at Paradip tracked the missile and passed on the information to guidance computer, which gave the command for launching of AAD after computing the target’s flight. Equipped with inertial navigation system, a hi-tech computer and a radio-frequency seeker the AAD locked on to the target missile and blasted it in the terminal phase.

Scientific advisor to Defence Minister V.K. Saraswat, Defence Research and Development Organisation's (DRDO) Chief Controller for missiles and strategic systems, Avinash Chander and other top missile scientists were present.

Source:The Hindu

Interceptor missile test on February 10

India's missile scientists are gearing to conduct an interceptor missile test on February 10 as part of the plans to deploy a two-layered Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) system.

This will be the seventh interceptor mission. The exercise is meant to test the capability of the system to kill incoming ballistic missiles with a range of 2,000-3,000 km. Of the six exercises held to date — the first was in November 2006 — five have been successful.

The proposed operation would be closer to the deployable configuration of the system for endo-atmospheric interception, according to Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) officials. During the upcoming mission, the interception of the target missile is planned at an altitude of 15 km in the endo-atmosphere. Four of the interceptor missile tests conducted so far have been in the endo-atmosphere, two in the exo-atmosphere.

Soon after the modified surface-to-surface target missile, Prithvi, is launched from Chandipur, an Advanced Air Defence (AAD) missile will take off from Wheeler Island to intercept and destroy the incoming projectile, which, after reaching a height of 100 km, will start descending.

Upon Prithvi's launch, the Long-Range Tracking Radars near Puri will start tracking the target. A little later, the Multi Functional Radars located near seaport town Paradip will detect and track the missile and provide data for the guidance computer. This will compute the flight path of the target missile and launch the interceptor at the right time. The interceptor computes the optimal path for the missile to hit the target. In the terminal phase, the radiofrequency seeker will track the target and enable the interceptor to home in on to the target.

Source:The Hindu

Rafale: Why it is the last plane standing

Big-ticket defence deals are rarely based on technical merit alone. The French-built Rafale isn’t the first – nor will it be the last – aircraft to be picked for geopolitical or strategic reasons.

Warped games

When diplomatic hardsell failed, did France and Britain choreograph the air war on Libya to showcase their aircraft in a bid to influence India’s decision on the fighter aircraft deal?

Let’s not get outraged here. For the West, war is a small price to pay if it can help win some orders for their beleaguered companies. After all, there’s no better hardsell than real combat.

The air war over Libya lasted nearly three months. This despite the entire resources of NATO coming into play against a tiny country of just over six million people. In fact, it came to a stage where NATO ran out of ammunition and Qatar had to open up its armoury for the Western air forces.

The prolonged war served two purposes. One, surgical strikes on Libya’s cities destroyed bridges, roads, communication services, schools, hospitals and entire blocks of Government offices.

Secondly, the war became a theatre to showcase the latest weapons. Libya, one of the most stable countries in the Arab world, became a live firing range. UK-based Defence Analysis commented on this at the height of the bombing campaign. “The war in Libya is turning into the best shop window for competing aircraft for years; more even than in Iraq in 2003,” said its editor Francis Tusa. “You are seeing for the first time in an operation the Typhoon and the Rafale up against each other, and both countries want to place an emphasis on exports.”

A former defence export official with a NATO country agreed. “As soon as an aircraft or weapon is used on operational deployment, that instantly becomes a major marketing ploy; it becomes ‘proven in combat’,” he told Reuters.

The Libyan operation marked the combat debut for the Typhoon. Both the Rafale and Typhoon pounded Libya day and night, a mission that led to the deaths of hundreds of civilians and destroyed infrastructure on a major scale. You have to admit it is a neat little game: destroy-occupy-rebuild-bill.

What was being played out in Libya was a Kafkaesque saga – French Rafales bombing the Libyan Air Force’s French Mirages, which French President Nicholas Sarkozy had agreed to modernise. And the Typhoons had just a year before the war, taken part in a Libyan air show attended by Muammar Gaddafi’s generals.

According to TIME magazine’s Battleland blog the Indians were watching NATO’s Libyan operations with interest. That, however, is debatable. The IAF wouldn’t really care about data on the heroics of Rafale and Typhoon pilots against a defenceless city.

Gaddafi: Expendable

There simply was no other reason for bombing Gaddafi. The late Libyan leader had patched up with the West in the recent past. He had handed over the blueprints for a rudimentary nuclear weapon sold to him by the Pakistanis; paid hundreds of millions of dollars to the families of the Lockerbie victims; and signed major defence deals with the same countries that later bombed his country.

So why couldn’t they go ahead and sell Rafales and Typhoons to Gaddafi? Well, how many planes could he have bought? Ten? Twenty? Not more. The Indians may end up buying up to 186 – worth nearly $17 billion. That’s enough to keep the French armaments industry humming for a decade.

Advantage India

So did India make a costly mistake? Only someone with blinkers on would say the Rafale is unworthy of being conducted into the IAF. The highly professional IAF (which operates over 700 aircraft and is the fourth largest air force after the US, Russia and China) had listed 600 parameters during the selection process, with 590 being the pass mark; anything less than that and the Rafale would have been shot down.

Some commentators have argued that by handing over the contract to a geopolitical lightweight like France, India lost a huge opportunity to secure strategic benefits from the US. But this argument has no legs. According to Jane’s Defence Weekly, India will splurge $80 billion on defence imports over the next five years. At a time when unemployment and hunger are widespread in the West, India’s huge civilian and defence markets are cushioning Western companies from a hard landing. Therefore, India doesn’t have to keep America happy; rather Washington will have to learn the art of being on good terms with New Delhi.

At any rate, the US has bagged several mega deals from India – the C-130 Super Hercules, C-17 Globemaster and P-3 Orion – and a troop landing ship. Russia has also got huge orders for corvettes, frigates, destroyers, a N-submarine, an aircraft carrier and the fifth generation T-50 stealth fighter-bomber. So the big two have little to complain about.

Rafale vs the Rest

There are some who say India should have gone for the F-22 Raptor or the F-35 Lightning. Failing that, India should have gone for the MiG-35 or Typhoon.

A few problems here. First up, the Raptor’s export is banned by US federal law. There is no way the US can sell it outside even if it wanted to. Besides, at $412 million each, it is a horrendously overpriced aircraft. For every hour it is in the air, the plane spends more than 30 hours in maintenance.

The US Defense Department says an average of just 55 percent of the deployed F-22 fleet has been available to fulfill missions guarding US airspace. And we are talking peacetime missions. Incredibly, America’s premier air superiority fighter, which has been in service since 2005, has never been flown over Iraq or Afghanistan.

The Project On Government Oversight, a nonpartisan independent American watchdog, has rubbished the US Air Force’s claim that the F-22 will “have better reliability and maintainability than any fighter aircraft in history”. “More procurement of the F-22 isn’t smart strategically or financially,” it says.

Another myth floating around is that the Rafale will fare poorly if it goes into combat against the F-22. However, the question of an encounter with the Raptor does not arise simply because the Raptor is stationed for the defence of the continental United States. Last heard, India had no plans to invade America.

Lighting fails to strike

The F-35 Lightning, a stripped down version of the F-22, is still several years away from delivery, and is currently facing a range of problems, including potentially crippling design, power and range limitations. Plus, it has a long line of – mostly unconvinced – customers, including Israel, South Korea, the UK, Japan, Italy, Spain and even Australia; India can’t hope to jump the queue. At any rate, the Russian T-50 (with some Indian inputs) will be superior to the F-22 so the IAF doesn’t need an interim stealth fighter. Certainly not the poor man’s F-22.

MiG-35: Deja vu

A true dogfight duke, the MiG-35 should have aced the test. But it failed to make it because it isn’t a new platform, based as it is on the MiG-29 of which India has several squadrons. The Russian plane, despite all its proven abilities, never really excited the IAF. Plus, with 70 percent of its fighter planes being of Russian origin, the IAF was keen on a Western fighter, just to have some balance. Call it a case of aviation deja vu.

Typhoon: Flying on bribes

The Typhoon made it to the finals but is embroiled in bribe scandals in every market it has entered – Saudi Arabia, Czech Republic, South Africa, Romania and Tanzania. It is alleged the Brits had a multi-million pound “slush fund” offering bribes to members of the Saudi royal family and government officials.

(British MPs were reportedly “hysterical” after India’s decision to award the contract to France. While the Labour Party’s Barry Gardiner called for “downgrading” of India-UK trade relations, other parliamentary fat cats spoke about India’s “ingratitude” and demanded that it rethink the decision. Clearly, despite their lightweight status, the British haven’t lost their colonial hangover.)

Rafale: Gust of fresh air

Under these circumstances, the Rafale, which means gust in French, seems like the perfect choice. The contract has a 50 percent offset clause built into it. Which means the deal will bring $8 billion in French high-tech into India’s defence production sector. Complete transfer of technology is mandatory so cutting-edge knowhow can be transferred to India’s own advanced fighter programme.

Dassault was prepared to down the shutters of the Rafale plant if they had lost, so right now they are over the moon. “We have waited 30 years for this,” said a visibly relieved Sarkozy. In fact, the French will now be more than happy to transfer the Rafale’s full technology suite to India, and perhaps throw in the Eiffel Tower, too, for good measure.

Also, the IAF’s fleet of 51 French made Mirage 2000s boasts an impeccable safety record over the past 30 years. They are likely to serve a further 15 years after an upgrade. Clearly, the French can be trusted to supply a decent aircraft.

Source:IDRUS

Xi Jinping’s visit to be 1st by a would-be China president

NEW DELHI: India and China are working on a possible visit by Chinese vice-president Xi Jinping sometime this year. If he does come this year, it would be the first time a prospective president of China would have visited India before assuming charge. President Hu Jintaowill be in India in March for the BRICS summit, which is being held here this year. 

Meanwhile, India and China exchanged written frameworks for the settlement of the border dispute during the recent meeting of the special representatives. Shivshankar Menon and Dai Bingguo will now parse the other's framework to try and arrive at a common framework which will be the basis for ultimately putting a line on the ground. Despite the exchange of documents though, this process is a long way away from completion. 

The special representatives talks have now evolved into a forum for reviewing bilateral relations. This year, India and China agreed to work together for maritime security, not only in the Gulf of Aden but even eastwards towards the Straits of Malacca, and further. "Our understanding is that we're working on cooperating on maritime seucirty that will not only be confined to the Gulf of Aden only," said sources. This would be a major confidence-building exercise if carried through. 

This fledgling effort, sources said, was being hit by statements from the US director of national intelligence, James Clapper predicting a limited war between India and China in the near future.

India and China also reviewed the Iran issue. Chinese premier Wen Jiabao's recent tour of the Gulf Arab states, conspicuously leaving Iran out of his itinerary, has been interpreted in India as keeping Beijing's options open among energy suppliers. While both countries maintain their opposition to Iran's nuclear programme, India's concerns in the region are slightly different from China's. India worries about energy sources and its 6 million people living and working in these countries. 

While China shares the concerns on energy, China, India feels, also has to be concerned about its status as an arms supplier. Apart from supplying Silkworm missiles to Saudi Arabia, China is a major supplier of small arms in the region. Given the chronic instability in these countries, China is worried about any potential backlash. 

China's overseas workers are coming under greater pressure. According to Indian figures, 22 Chinese nationals were killed in Pakistan alone in the last year; last week 25 Chinese workers were kidnapped by Bedouins in the north of Egypt's Sinai peninsula, on their way to work at a military-owned cement factory; in Sudan, 29 Chinese workers have been kidnapped by SPLM rebels in the south Kordofan province. Indian analysts say this bespeaks a trend that cannot be acceptable to Beijing.