Paradrop training along LAC

India is quietly practising airdrops of paratroopers in high-altitude areas near the Line of Actual Control (LAC) to bolster operational readiness. The combat drills are a part of the overall plan to strategically counter China's massive build-up of military infrastructure all along the unresolved border. 

A major milestone in the ongoing endeavour was achieved just before Chinese defence minister General Liang Guanglie's visit to India last week when the first-ever "static line paradrop" from a heavy-lift Ilyushin-76 aircraft was conducted at Nyoma on August 29, sources said. 

The advanced landing ground (ALG) at Nyoma in eastern Ladakh, located just 23 km from the LAC at an altitude of over 13,300 feet, was re-activated when a medium-lift Antonov-32 transport aircraft landed there in September 2009. 

Since then, there have been other AN-32 landings at the airstrip as well as joint IAF-Army airdrops in the area. "But August 29 was the first time when the 'static line paradrop' (when parachutes, linked to the plane with cords, open on exit in classic airborne infantry mode) was successfully conducted by an IL-76," said a source. 

The airdrop, with a mix of 20 Army and IAF paratroopers jumping from a record altitude of over 15,000 feet, was conducted by the 'Mighty Jets' IL-76 squadron after months of planning at the Chandigarh airbase and the Delhi-based Western Air Command. 

"Though Nyoma's location is of immense strategic significance, the hazards of treacherous terrain and weather had to be kept in mind. An IL-76 can carry over 120 combat-ready paratroopers, which is three times more than an AN-32," the source said. 

IAF has also already chalked out a detailed Rs 3,500 crore project, though it is yet to recieve the finance ministry's nod, to upgrade the Nyoma ALG into a "full-fledged airbase" with a 12,000 feet runway capable of handling all kinds of aircraft to ensure "both defensive and offensive options" in the sector. 

Source:TOI

Lca – Tejas to be part of ‘Vayu-Shakti’ event in February next year

India’s Home Grown Fighter aircraft Tejas will be part of Indian air force’s  ’Vayu-Shakti’ Fire Power Demonstration .  ’Vayu Shakti’ will be unleashed at the Pokhran firing ranges (Jaisalmer district) in the deserts of Rajasthan in the third week of February next year.

Air Marshal Anjan Kumar Gogoi told media in recently held  press conference that “Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas will display its capabilities for the first time in Pokhran firing ranges” . About 100 planes of different variety like the Sukhoi 30s, Mirage 2000, Jaguars, MIG 21, attack helicopters, transport aircrafts including AN-32 and IL-78 MKI will display their full power.

Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) will be used to monitor the mammoth exercise, while an unmanned aerial vehicle will stream live video images of the target destruction.

According to sources close to idrw.org , Tejas also successfully completed 2000 Accident free Test flights recently and is inching to getting IOC-2 which will be done by end of 2012 .

Participation of Tejas in  ’Vayu-Shakti’ shows the level of confidence Which Tejas aircraft has earned in Indian air force to be part of largest Fire Power Demonstration to be conducted by Indian air force .

SOURCE: IDRW NEWS NETWORK

India to launch two foreign satellites mid September

he Indian space agency is gearing up for the launch of two foreign satellites next month, said a top official on Wednesday.

“The PSLV-C21 (the polar satellite launch vehicle) will launch a remote-sensing satellite from France and a small Japanese satellite as co-passenger during the second week of September,” K Radhakrishnan, chairman, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), told reporters in Chennai.

The 800-kg French satellite is called SPOT-6 and is built by Astrium SAS. The Japanese satellite Protiers weighs 15 kg.

nterestingly, the PSLV rocket will be carrying the heaviest foreign satellite (SPOT-6) for a fee after the 350-kg Italian satellite Agile.

As the total luggage will be around 815 kg, ISRO will be using its Core Alone variant of PSLV (rocket without its six strap on motors).

The mission will take ISRO’s total tally of ferrying foreign satellites to 29.

Source:IANS

INS Arihant India’s first nuclear submarine set for Sea trials

India on Tuesday said its first home-built nuclear submarine was set for sea trials, as it detailed billion-dollar projects to arm its navy with warships, aircraft and modern weaponry.

The indigenous 6,000-ton INS Arihant (Destroyer of Enemies) was unveiled in 2009 as part of a project to construct five such vessels which would be armed with nuclear-tipped missiles and torpedoes.

“Arihant is steadily progressing towards operationalisation, and we hope to commence sea trials in the coming months,” Indian navy chief Admiral Nirmal Verma told reporters.

“Our maritime and nuclear doctrine will then be aligned to ensure that our nuclear insurance comes from the sea,” Verma said,

Arihant is powered by an 85-megawatt nuclear reactor and can reach 44 kilometres an hour (24 knots), according to defence officials. It will carry a 95-member crew.

The Indian navy inducted a Russian-leased nuclear submarine into service in April this year, joining China, France, the United States, Britain and Russia in the elite club of countries with nuclear-powered vessels.

Verma said 43 warships were currently under construction at local shipyards while the first of six Franco-Spanish Scorpene submarines under contract would join the Indian navy in 2015 and the sixth by 2018.

The admiral said the navy was also poised to induct eight Boeing long-range maritime reconnaissance P-8I aircraft next year.

Source:AFP

India:Second chance in Asia’s cockpit

As negotiations for the withdrawal of international security forces in Afghanistan by 2014 gather pace, India has decided to revive its only overseas military base in Farkhor, Tajikistan. Officials from the Ministry of External Affairs will travel there next month to finalise arrangements, following which Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon is expected to visit India in September.

The revival of the Farkhor airbase and the upgrading of the military hospital on its premises, where former Northern Alliance leader and ‘Lion of Panjshir’ Ahmed Shah Massoud was treated for his fatal injuries from the suicide bomb attack on September 9, 2011 — two days before the September 11 incidents in America — is a crucial link to India’s revamped Connect Central Asia policy unveiled in June at a dialogue forum in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, by Minister of State for External Affairs E. Ahamed.

With India’s risk-averse corporate community unwilling to follow the government’s lead in establishing a firmer footprint in the region since the break-up of the Soviet Union 20 years ago, Delhi has come to the conclusion that it must use its own muscle to project its strategic presence in Central Asia.

Much has already been written about this hydrocarbon-rich region and how China, Russia and U.S.-dominated western consortiums have laid networks of oil-and-gas pipelines to service their own markets. China, especially, has used energy supplies from Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan to fuel its relentless rise as an economic power – but the truth is that none of these benignly authoritarian regimes are complaining.

Kazakhstan has leveraged the sale of its energy resources to become, with a per-capita GDP of $13,000 in purchasing power parity terms, the richest state in all of Central Asia. Astana, a windy city in the Siberian steppe, was transformed into the capital in 1997 by a diktat of its President, Nursultan Nazarbayev, and today its skyline is littered with glass-and-gold-domed buildings. Divided by a river — the Ishim — that runs through the town, Astana has a Left Bank and a Right Bank, besides a glass-and-concrete pramid that doubles up as an exhibition space and a concert hall that looks like the Parthenon. Outsiders may wonder at the copycat Disneyland, but the Kazakhs are certainly not complaining.

Mr. Nazarbayev is hardly a latter-day version of Mohammed bin Tughlaq — who whimsically moved his capital from Delhi to the Deccan in the 14th century and then had to move it back — although he completely controls the state apparatus. Mr. Nazarbayev decided, when he came to Delhi for the Republic Day festivities in 2009, that 25 per cent of the Satpayev oil block will be given to OVL. Both China’s CNOOC and U.S.’ Chevron already had their share of Kazakh energy spoils and Mr. Nazarbayev wanted to expand options. (His wife is also believed to have been a follower of the Sathya Sai Baba, thereby adding to the India connection.)

That’s the general perception of India in Central Asia — that it is a rising regional power, not quite in the league of China but interesting to behold because of its enormous market, its incredible culture, its singular capacity to innovate and even its fractious democracy. India is not a priority, but it cannot be ignored.

Interestingly enough, a mirror-perception about Central Asia persists among the Indian elite. The land of Babur (Uzbekistan) and Bairam Khan (Turkmenistan) and Mirza Hiadar Dughlati (Kazakhstan) and Bedil (Tajikistan) is still cloaked in the mist of history and its combined 65 million population has largely been ignored. Although most Central Asian capitals are a couple of hours away from Delhi by air, the lack of connectivity by rail or road means that serious business interest is almost absent.

So China-Central Asia trade tips the scales at $29 billion and U.S.-Central Asia trade touches $26 billion while India-Central Asia trade stands at only $500 million (excluding investment in the Satpayev oil block and the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India, or TAPI, gas pipeline, which will take five years to fructify). That’s why India must do things differently if it has to return to Central Asia.

Alongside the revival of the Farkhor airbase in Tajikistan and the upgrading of the defence relationship with Dushanbe, private hospital chains like Max are being persuaded to set up trauma centres — if not hospitals — in key cities all over the region. Plans are afoot to start an India-Central Asia university in Bishkek. An e-information technology network is on the cards, just like in key countries in Africa. Meanwhile, talks are on with a Russian channel with a treasure trove of Hindi films, perfectly dubbed into Russian, to expand broadcast all over Central Asia. From Raj Kapoor to Shahrukh Khan, Bollywood is still the key to open hearts and minds in Central Asia.

With the western withdrawal from Afghanistan on the cards, the Central Asian pot will boil further. India lost the opportunity to drive deep into the region when the Soviet Union collapsed 20 years, but it’s now getting a second chance.

Hopefully Delhi won’t mess it up again.

Source:The Hindu

India, US close to inking over USD 600 mlln jet engine deal

India and the US are close to signing a deal worth over USD 600 million for supplying 99 jet engines that would be used in the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft ‘Tejas’ being developed by the DRDO.

Around two years ago, India had selected the American company General Electric over its rival European Eurojet 2000 for the LCA Mark II programme expected to be ready around 2014-15.

Negotiations with the US firm over various issues involved in the deal, including price and transfer of technology, have been held and it is hoped that the deal for these engines to be fitted on the LCA Mark II would be signed soon, Defence sources told PTI here.

As per the contract, the order could be for 99 engines initially but India will have the option of order for another 100 engines in the future.

The engine on offer for the LCA Mark II is GE F-414 engine, which are more powerful that the GE F-404 engines fitted in the first batch of LCAs that the Indian Air Force would receive in near future.

The need for changing the existing engines in the LCAs was felt after the IAF found out that the GE-404 engines were not providing enough power to the aircraft and more powerful engines were needed for the purpose.

The DRDO is developing the LCA Mk II to meet the Indian Air Force requirements and it will have latest technological equipment including the latest Active Electronic Scanned Array (AESA) radar and would be able to carry more payload than the LCA Mk I.

Last month, the trials of the LCA Mk I were carried out in Pokharan desert firing range where laser-guided bombs and other weapon systems were tried.

As per the current plans, the IAF will induct two squadrons of the LCA Mk I and then the delivery of LCA Mk II aircraft would done.

Source: PTI

India- India successfully tests nuclear-capable Agni-I missile Posted: 13 Jul 2012 08:26 AM PDT SOURCE: IANS India on Friday successfully test-fired its indigenously developed nuclear-capable Agni-I ballistic missile, with a strike range of 700 km, as part of the Army’s user trial from a test range at Wheeler Island off Odisha coast. The surface-to-surface, single-stage missile, powered by solid propellants, was test-fired from a mobile launcher at about 1010 hrs from launch pad-4 of the Integrated Test Range at Wheeler Island, about 100 km from here, defence sources said. “The trial of the sophisticated missile with a strike range of 700 km was successful,” a defence scientist said. Describing the launch as a routine user s trial by the strategic force command of Indian Army, he said the main objective was to train the user team to launch the missile. “It was a practice-drill. The user-team picked a missile at random from the production lot and fired it with logistic support provided by Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) at ITR,” he said. Agni-I missile has a specialised navigation system which ensures it reaches the target with a high degree of accuracy and precision, he said. The trajectory of the missile, which has an operational strike range of 700 km, was tracked by sophisticated radars and electro-optic telemetry stations located along the sea coast and ships positioned near the impact point in the downrange area. Weighing 12 tonnes, the 15-metre-long Agni-I, which can carry payloads up to 1000 kg, has already been inducted into the Indian Army. Agni-I was developed by advanced systems laboratory, the premier missile development laboratory of the DRDO in collaboration with Defence Research Development Laboratory and Research Centre Imarat and integrated by Bharat Dynamics Limited, Hyderabad. The last trial of the Agni-I missile was successfully carried out on December 1, 2011 from the same base. Since the missile has already been inducted into the armed forces, it is important to conduct user trials for training of defence personnel and improvement of their skills, sources said. Pakistani soldier repatriated Posted: 13 Jul 2012 08:23 AM PDT SOURCE: IANS The Indian Army Friday handed over a Pakistani soldier to its compatriot across the border in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir.The soldier, Arif Ali had crossed over to the Indian side of the Line of Control on Thursday morning. He was arrested by the Indian Army. He was carrying no weapons but was found to be in possession of Rs.13,000 of Pakistani currency and two SIM cards.Army sources said that after detailed questioning, it was discovered that the Pakistani soldier had inadvertently crossed over to the Indian side. There was no love angle or any hostile intention, the sources said. ‘As a goodwill gesture, the army decided to repatriate the Pakistani soldier,’ a source in the army told IANS The soldier was handed over to Pakistani army at Chakan Da Bagh on the LoC, the sources said. Work on submarine launched BrahMos in final stages

The work on launch of submarine variant of supersonic cruise missile BrahMos was in the final stages, a top official of the Indo-Russian joint venture BrahMos Aerospace said today.

“Yes we are on the job and it is in the final stages,” BrahMos Aerospace CEO and MD Dr A Sivathanu Pillai told reporters here when asked about the submarine launched-missile. 

Sea and ground-launched versions have been successfully tested and put into service with theIndian Army and Navy. The flight tests of the airborne version will be completed by the end of 2012.

Pillai said the Hypersonic version of Brahmos-2 cruise missile will be ready for launch in another five years.

With the research on propulsion of scramjet underway, the hypersonic missile, with four times speed that the present Supersonic missile, would be ready for induction into Indian forces by 2017.

With a 300 million Dollars investment, the company, a Indo-Russian joint venture, was doing a business of five billion dollars at present, he said.

However, he said the company would think of large scale exports only after meeting the requirements of Indian armed forces.

Source:IANS