IAF will add two more Israeli AWACS to its fleet

NEW DELHI: India will order another two advanced Israeli Phalcon AWACS (airborne warning and control systems), or the "formidable eyes in the sky'' capable of detecting hostile aircraft, cruise missiles and other incoming aerial threat far before ground-based radars at a cost of over $800 million soon. 


Top defence ministry sources say the "draft contract'' for the two new AWACS "is now finally in the final stages of being examined'' before it's inked as a follow-on order to the $1.1-billion tripartite agreement among India, Israel and Russia in 2004, under which IAF inducted three Phalcon AWACS in 2009-10. The purchase comes at a time when Pakistan is fast snapping at India's heels in this complex military arena, having first inducted four Swedish Saab-2000s and on the verge of getting four Chinese ZDK-03 AWACS. 


India's tryst with AWACS has been beset with several problems. First, delivery of the first three AWACS , which have the Israeli 360-degree Phalcon early-warning radar and communication suite mounted on Russian IL-76 heavy-lift military aircraft, was delayed by over two years. Then, there were major teething problems in them getting fully operational, with the Phalcons even being grounded at Agra for some time. 


But the IAF is all gung-ho about them, claiming they are "true game-changers'' in modern air warfare, which is more about BVR (beyond visual range) combat rather than face-to-face dogfights of yore. "The Phalcons significantly boost the effectiveness of both offensive and defensive operations. Their enhanced detection and interception capability, connected to fighters and surface-to-air missile systems, are tremendous force-multipliers," said an officer. 


Apart from detection of incoming cruise missiles and aircraft from over 400-km away in all-weather conditions, and direction of air defence fighters during combat operations, the Phalcons while flying well within Indian airspace can also monitor troop build-ups or activity at airbases and missile silos deep inside Pakistan. 


Indigenous efforts to develop mini-AWACS in a Rs 1,800-crore project approved in 2004, under which AEW&C (airborne early warning and control) systems developed by DRDO are being mounted on three Embraer-145 jets obtained from Brazil for $210 million, have, however, been hit by several delays. 


As earlier reported by TOI, their project completion date has been pushed back to April, 2014. These indigenous airborne surveillance platforms will have a normal radar range of 250-km and a 375-km extended one, with a 240-degree coverage and five-hour endurance time.


Source:TOI

Tata wins Indian radar-jamming contract

BANGALORE, India, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- India has awarded Tata Power Strategic Electronics Division a contract for two integrated electronic warfare systems to be deployed in mountain regions.

Tata came out the low bidder, narrowly beating Israeli firm Elta, for the contract estimated to be around $186 million, the Press Trust of India reported.

The IEWS will be used to locate, detect and jam enemy radar and electro-optical measures in mountainous borders with China and Pakistan.

India's defense department sent out the tender in 2007 to domestic and foreign companies -- Israeli firms Elisra and Elta, Thales of France, EADS of Germany and domestic suppliers Tata Power, Larsen and Toubro, Bharat Electronics, ITI and Axis Aerospace.

The contract likely will be finalized this month, the Press Trust report said.

The deal follow another major contact win for Tata Power SED in April, a $260 million contract to modernize 30 Indian air force military airports.

Tata Power SED beat Selex of Italy to win the contract, the Modernization of Airfield Infrastructure-Phase I. It was the first win by a domestic private-sector defense company against overseas bidders.

"Award of this contract won against a global defense tender is a watershed moment, not only for us but also for increasing private-sector participation in Indian defense," said Rahul Chaudhry, chief executive officer of Tata Power SED.

The SED division of Tata Power -- India's largest private sector power utility with an installed generation capacity of over 2300 MW -- has won previous defense contracts for ordnance programs and subsystems for first-tier suppliers' equipment.

In 2006, Tata Power SED and Larsen and Toubro's heavy engineering division picked up a $45 million contract to produce 40 Pinaka multi-barrel rocket launcher systems.

SED also was part of the group, including Bharat Electronics, government research organization Defense Electronics Research Laboratory and Tata's CMC information technology company that developed the Samyukta mobile integrated electronic warfare system.

It was said to be the largest Electronic Warfare System in India when deliveries began in January 2004.

Tata's aviation business, Tata-Sikorsky, is joint venture for manufacturing aerospace components and systems in India, specifically cabins for Sikorsky's S-92 helicopter.

Production began last November, 14 months after the agreement was signed, at a new facility in the Aerospace Park on the outskirts of Hyderabad, in Andhra Pradesh state.

It was in June 2009 that the Indian conglomerate Tata joined forces with Sikorsky as a way into India's lucrative aerospace industry. Tata Advanced Systems, a subsidiary of the holding firm Tata Sons, is leading the joint venture.

At the time of the joint venture signing in 2009, Jeffrey Pino, president of Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., said they were "proud to have the highly admired Tata Group join our global supply chain" and "India's aerospace market is poised for significant growth."

Source: http://www.upi.com

Third Sukhoi T -50 stealth fighter ‘to fly soon’

Russia’s third prototype Sukhoi T-50 fifth generation fighter will be ready to take to the skies in the near future.

Source: ITAR-TASS

“It will fly when the designers are absolutely confident in their product,” the source said.

The assembly of the fourth fighter is “in the final stages of completion,” he added.

 

The T-50 made its maiden flight in January and two prototypes have since been undergoing flight tests.

The T-50, developed under the program PAK FA (Future Aviation System for Tactical Air Force) at the Sukhoi OKB, is Russia's first new major warplane designed since the fall of the Soviet Union.

It is expected to enter service in 2016.

PICTURE: RAF Typhoons intercept Russian bombers

Royal Air Force Eurofighter Typhoons standing quick reaction alert (QRA) cover for the northern UK were launched to intercept a pair of Russian air force Tupolev Tu-95 "Bear" long-range bombers on 11 October.

Based at RAF Leuchars in Scotland, the Typhoons were drawn from the service's 6 Squadron, which assumed full-time QRA responsibility at the site earlier this year as the UK retired its last Panavia Tornado F3 fighters.

"The Typhoons maintained contact until the Russian aircraft cleared the UK's flight information region," the RAF said in a statement accompanying images of the action.

© Crown Copyright

With flight operations at Leuchars set to end as part of the UK's defence rationalisation effort, the northern QRA base location will shift to Lossiemouth, near Inverness in Scotland, from 2013.

Typhoons based at RAF Coninsgby in Lincolnshire, eastern England, provide the remainder of the UK's air policing service.

Robots help fighter Jets take off

In a small factory tucked away in Peenya, a dusty industrial suburb of Bangalore, a master-robot is busy rehearsing giving commands to a ‘slave-robot’ to integrate complex engine components of Sukhoi aircraft, a multi-role fighter jet. The slave-robot obediently follows the commands in a welding chamber with no oxygen within. This is the first of its kind facility built in India by Bangalore-based Hind High Vacuum Company (HHV) for defence major Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL). 

“Sometimes these are engineering nightmares, which we engineers look at as our pleasant dreams,” said Nagarjun Sakhamuri, managing director of HHV. The robot repeats motions with a precision accuracy of a few thousandths of an inch 24 hours a day in an inert atmosphere, which is beyond human physical capabilities. Every aspect of the process, trends, and diagnostics is recorded by a computer in real-time. The facility will be shipped off to the engine division of HAL at Koraput district in Orissa. HAL has jointly developed a version of Sukhoi in collaboration with Russia.

HHV won the contract, after India decided to make their own engines for the Sukhoi aircraft instead of buying them from Russia. This aircraft is expected to form the backbone of the Indian Air Force’s fighter fleet in the next decade. “We bid against Russians,” said Sakhamuri an engineer-turned-entrepreneur, who got the idea of using robots on fighter jets after watching a few kids playing a video game.

His innovation got accepted by the defence laboratories to use it on India’s indigenous light-weight combat aircraft Tejas. They wanted to make stealth version of Tejas by using robots to sputter special coating on the aircraft. This would prevent it from getting detected by radar. HHV has built many such indigenous speciality equipment and technologies for customers such as Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Larsen & Toubro and many public sector units.

For instance it has built hyper-sonic wind tunnels and shock tubes for Isro and DRDO to test their rockets and missiles. However, Sakhamuri’s firm, established in 1965 by his father, is not growing by just riding on their core vacuum technology alone.

Diversification in industries such as solar photovoltaic energy and thin films technology has helped the firm to tap new businesses. This strategy also helped them to attract the attention of venture capital firms such as Aureos Capital and Sidbi that have pumped in a total funding of Rs 60 crore in the past five years. With around 450 employees, HHV is now clocking annual revenues of Rs 180 crore and aims to double it by next year.

“It is a family run company, but the management has a professional approach,” said Balaji Srinivas managing partner at Aureos. Experts such as Rajiv Chib, associate director for aerospace and defence at consulting firm Pricewaterhouse-Coopers, said HHV’s technologies have varied applications in night and day vision equipment used by the armed forces. The potential is yet to be tapped either by indigenous night vision device manufacturers or in the defence offset route. “All the foreign original equipment manufacturers whom I took along during the visit have come away impressed. I am happy to see that HAL has realised their worth in the field of engine assembling,” said Chib.

Seeing the opportunity, HHV is now spinning its defence technologies for industries such as automotive and manufacturing. This year in August it became a global supplier for French automotive components manufacturer Valeo to supply machines that do special coating of headlamp reflectors. These headlamps are fitted in highend cars such as Maserati, Lamborghini and Alfa Romeo. “They lived up to our expectations,” said Yannick Le Nue, worldwide industrial director at Valeo. According to AK Barua, professor emeritus at the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science in Kolkata, the oldest research institute in the country, having cutting-edge technology and making globally competitive products is not enough. “China is progressing because there the small companies get lot of government support, which is lacking in our country,” said Barua.

Source:TOI

Tejas MK-3 is it on?

Recently sources are indicating that IAF is seriously considering increasing the numbers of Tejas aircrafts, Indian air force has already committed 40 Tejas MK-1 aircrafts, along with 8 Limited serial production aircraft.

IAF had projected 5 Squadrons (100) of Tejas MK-2, but IAF is considering adding more 2 to 3 Squadrons of Tejas aircrafts in its inventory post 2020, IAF after recalculation of fleet strength and expected delays in programs like FGFA and more time given to ADA for development of AMCA, means they will be short fall of aircrafts, IAF plans to retire all Mig-21 by 2017 and will reduce it Mig-27 strength by half in 2015 and complete phase out will be done by 2020.

ADA few years back was seen keen to work on third variant of Tejas (MK-3), in cooperating 5^th generation avionics along with AESA radar. AESA radar was dropped from Tejas MK-2 since IAF and DRDO felt that it will lead to delays in the program, since radar is still in development phase; testing and production will take time. IAF is open to AESA for later variants.

AMCA which was supposed to have it first flight before 2020 will get more time for development of 5^th generation avionics and technologies, to make it a true 5^th gen fighter has demanded by its customer.

Generation shift in indian army

New Delhi, Oct. 31: When the new vice-chief of the Indian Army takes charge tomorrow, he will herald a generational change in the top brass as he will be the first officer commissioned after India’s last full-fledged war in 1971 to rise to the post.

Lt Gen. S.K. Singh takes over from Lt Gen. A.S. Lamba who retired today after 40 years in service. As a young officer, Lt Gen. Lamba became a war veteran within a couple of months of being commissioned in 1971.

He was a second lieutenant in his artillery unit that gave fire support to the Indian infantry in its dash through the Pakistani ranks on the Jessore-Khulna-Dhaka axis as the Indian Army charged into the then East Pakistan capital and forced the surrender on December 16 that year and midwifed the birth of Bangladesh.

With Lt Gen. Lamba retiring today, there are only four more officers in the Indian Army — including the chief, Lt Gen. V.K. Singh — who were commissioned into service in the year of India’s last full-fledged war.

After the war, Lt Gen. Lamba, who was commissioned into the Regiment of Artillery, converted to a paratrooper. Packing commanding authority into his diminutive figure, Lamba went into combat again in counter-insurgency in Nagaland and Manipur and with the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka.

“When you see action at such close hand when you are so young — I was barely 19-20 years of age in 1971 — there is little to be afraid of for the rest of your life,” he told The Telegraph in a recent conversation.

Lt Gen. Lamba commanded a Mountain Brigade, the 16 Infantry Division, the elite 21 Strike Corps and the Army Training Command headquartered in Shimla.

Lt Gen. S.K. Singh, who takes over as the vice-chief tomorrow, has commanded a brigade in the Siachen Glacier, an infantry division on the Line of Control, a corps in Jammu and Kashmir and the recently created South Western Command headquartered in Jaipur.

Lt Gen. S.K. Singh could have an unusually long tenure as the vice-chief — over two years. He is from the regiment to which the late Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw belonged, the 8 Gorkha Rifles, and is its colonel commandant.