SOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG

The Indian Navy is collaborating with Indian private sector companies to develop a family of unmanned vehicles powered by a ground-based power source and capable of patrolling or gathering intelligence along India’s vast coastline.

Tethered Underwater Drones will allow the Indian Navy ability to travel longer distances underwater which could increase endurance from a few hours to 1-2 days for 24×7 monitoring of an area of interest.

SOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG

Indian Air Force (IAF) plans to approach Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) by the Second quarter (Q2) of the financial year to get Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) for the procurement of 114 jets under Multi-role fighter jets (MRFA) based on proposals moved by Air Headquarters with the approval of the concerned Service Chief.

AoN will confirm the projected requirement related to the operational situation. AoN is often accorded to a particular weapon system or equipment at the beginning of the procurement process post which IAF will issue a Request for Proposal (RFP) later this year or early next year as per information provided to idrw.org.

SOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG

India’s plans to develop a 110kN thrust class engine for the AMCA Mk2 programme will necessitate the development of an engine that can accommodate future planned upgrades to the aircraft and future variants while maintaining its power and thermal management system (PTMS) without reducing the engine’s life expectancy and increasing overhaul maintenance costs or decreasing MTTF (mean time to failure).

idrw.org has been told by informed sources that in the latest round of discussions, DRDO’s GTRE and IAF are specific that the new engine should have a Dry thrust of 75kN that will give Maximum thrust with an afterburner at around 110kN initially and later it should be able to accommodate another 10kN to around 120kN without requiring any Engine Core Upgrade (ECU).

SOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG

Russian Administration at the highest level is considering clearing, India’s request for the hypersonic cruise missile technologies that will be required to develop BrahMos-2K. India and Russia had announced plans to develop a hypersonic cruise missile of the BrahMos-2K almost a decade back but later Russia was hesitant.

Russia was not keen on the BrahMos-2K programme later with India due to a West-backed Hypersonic Missile Nonproliferation proposal that wanted to limit the sale and transfer of technology of the Hypersonic missile, which included hypersonic glide vehicles and hypersonic cruise missiles.

SOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG

State-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) was recently awarded a contract worth Rs 6,828 crore for manufacturing 70 HTT-40 aircraft for the Indian Air Force (IAF) has decided that the Basic Trainer Aircraft (BTA) will be manufactured in Bangalore and Nashik instead of having only one production line at Nashik.

HAL has not allocated the number of aircraft that will be manufactured at each facility but the majority will likely be done at the Nashik facility that has been lying idle after the closure of the Sukhoi-30MKI production line and a small area will also cater to the assembly of 5 LCA-Tejas jets.

SOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG

Paris-based ” Intelligence Online “, a daily publication on global intelligence has claimed that French-designed MILAN-2T, a man-portable (Infantry) second-generation ATGM has been supplied to Ukrainian Military from an unknown manufacturer with serial numbers and other details been scrapped.

The report claims that front companies might have been used to procure this weapon from countries that still manufacture them and reports hint that it might have come from India’s state-owned Bharat Dynamics Ltd which still manufactures them in India for Indian Army which has been operating it since 1981.

SOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG

Bangalore-based Genser Aerospace Private Limited that had showcased a full-scale model of its RAJAS–Rakshan in 2021, a Business jet that can be configured to be used as a defence aircraft is setting up an aircraft manufacturing plant at the Kanpur node of UP Defence Industrial Corridor (UPDIC) by 2024.

Genser officials said that RAJAS–Rakshan is under development in collaboration with the Aerospace Foundation Of India (Aerofi) for over 5 years and the aircraft can accommodate 2 crew with 7 passengers. RAJAS–Rakshan will have an All-up-weight of 5-tones that will be powered by a twin-turbofan engine that can cruise at 0.7 Mach and has a range of 4000km.

SOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG

French-speaking Military Online Portal ” Avions Legendaires ” Has claimed in its report that India might announce Dassault Aviation Rafale M as winner for Indian Navy’s Deck based fighter requirements for 26 units around PM Modi’s visit to Paris later this year.

According to the portal, the Indian Prime Minister will be Chief Guest at the Bastille Day military parade that is to be held in Paris on July 14, 2023, even though there is no confirmation from the Indian side yet on Modi being asked to be Chief Guest at this event.

SOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG

Bengaluru-based Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), has started the process to fabricate and install Tejas Mk2 Simulator at the Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE) facility in Bengaluru that will be used to train Test Pilots that will eventually fly actual aircraft around 2026.

Test Pilots are often used to gauge and get a first-hand view of what a fighter aircraft’s cockpit will look like and to also provide feedback on the layout of instruments to carry out further improvements before Developers finalize the design layout of the cockpit for the production aircraft.

SOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG

Pune-based Sagar Defence Engineering demonstrated its “Varuna” India’s first passenger drone that is capable of carrying 130kg human upto range of 25-30km with an endurance of 30 minutes to 20 African Military Delegates that are in the country for the India-Africa Army Chiefs conclave in Pune.

The “Varuna ” drone was designed for the Indian Navy which wanted to transfer its personnel from one warship to another at high sea, while on the move in case of a medical emergency or for transfer of cargo or spares.

SOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG

Dr Girish S Deodhare, Director General of the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) recently classified Twin Engine Deck Based Fighter (TEDBF), a canard delta wing, twin-engine, carrier-based, multirole combat aircraft currently under development for the Indian Navy as a “5th generation minus” fighter and it seems it will feature some of the characters of the Stealth fighter jets too even though it’s not a 5th gen fighter.

idrw.org has been told that TEDBF will feature Serpentine-shaped ducts along with Diverterless supersonic inlet (DSI), a feature that will be first seen on the 5th gen AMCA fighter jets to conceal the engine compressor face from radar waves.

SOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG

CCP mouthpiece in its latest report claimed that South American country Argentina is close to inking a deal with China for the purchase of JF-17 fighter jets that will also see the setting up of a production plant for local assembly of the jet in the country with export rights.

Reacting to this news A week ago, US Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar said “The Chinese fighter factory in Argentina is the worst.” According to Salazar, Buenos Aires intends to install a JF-17 factory, which a . he described as “Play with the devil.”

SOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG

Incubated at IIT Madras, Chennai-based The ePlane Company will be soon demonstrating a hybrid Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) that has a take-off weight of 200 kg including 50 kg of payload for a distance up to 200km with 160kmph speed has caught the attention of the Indian Army that is looking to develop Army specific variant with the company for its usage.

The company plans to test the UAV that has Eight sets of propellers to facilitate the vertical landing while four sets of forward propellers will enable it to cruise through the air in the next two months.

SOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG

Dr Abhay A. Pashilkar, Director, CSIR-National Aerospace Laboratories talking to ” Economic times” claimed that RTA-90 (Regional Transport Aircraft) seat turboprop aircraft, will require funding of $2 billion to be executed under a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) Model that will engage program with Private sector companies in the country.

Pashilkar said that $1 billion will be required for full-scale engineering development and another $1 billion for the development of Porotypes and to set up a production line in the country with Industrial partners.

SOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG

Dr Abhay A. Pashilkar, Director, CSIR-National Aerospace Laboratories confirmed that SARAS MK II, a 19-seat light transport aircraft that can presumably serve regional airports and reach India’s countryside, has undertaken wind tunnel testing and preliminary system design with next step is to create prototypes.

SARAS MK II is currently going through a detailed design phase and once drawings are completed it will enter the fabrication stage followed by a rollout and flight test that was to be done by end of 2024 or early 2025.