SOURCE: SATYAJEET KUMAR/ FOR MY TAKE / IDRW.ORG

Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari has pointed out ‘critical deficiencies’ being faced by the Indian Air Force (IAF), such as the shortage of fighter squadrons and force multipliers. Whether it is fighter jet procurement or procurement of force multipliers, IAF has been not only lagged but has unable to fix its procurement policies that no files seem to be moving in any direction even after years of knowing that squadrons numbers are down and need to be brought up in desired period or it will play catch up to its arch rivals China and Pakistan for decades to come.

The IAF currently has 31 fighter squadrons, while the authorized strength is 42. As some squadrons have been phased out in recent years, the number has decreased. There is an urgent need to accelerate inductions to close the gap, especially since China is actively bolstering its air power.

SOURCE: JOYDEEP GHOSH / FOR MY TAKE / IDRW.ORG

Looks like Indian Navy is repeating 1990s mistake. After the fist 2 Shishumar class submarines were built and delivered from Germany and 2 were built at Mazagaon Docks in India with last one rolling out in 1990. Once that was done the human resources, supply chain, setup all sat idle. Even after MDL pleaded with Indian Navy and government to issue order for atleast 1 more that expertise gained is not lost, the Indian Navy and government refused and by early 2000s everything was lost. Indian Navy and government instead started looking for new submarine in 2003 and we got Scorpène, the last of which is set to roll out next year.

Now we are sitting on piles of Type 209 ToT related document. If Indian Navy and government had ordered newer batches of 3 Type 209 subs every 5 years applying better technologies progressively, we wouldn’t have ever faced shortage as we see today and we wouldn’t have needed the Scorpène either with total 16 Type 209. Work on AIP going on side by side would have allowed one of the submarines to be used as test bed and after validation we would have started equipping our submarines with AIP by now. We can still test our homegrown AIP on the Type 209 starting 2023 and completing it by 2025.

SOURCE: RAJESH AHUJA / FOR MY TAKE / IDRW.ORG

In 2021, the Indian Air Force (IAF) cleared the procurement of ” RAMPAGE” a Long-Range Precise Supersonic Missile from Israel. RAMPAGE is a new long-range air-to-ground precision strike missile that can travel at supersonic speeds, and can be used to target Communication infrastructures, Air force bases, control towers, squadron buildings, Munitions storage, bunkers, Air defense sites, and Logistic centers.

Rampage is just an air-launched weapon of the EXTRA, a long-range artillery rocket that has been adopted to be launched from the air from a fighter jet like the Israeli F-16, Indian Su-30MKI, and Mirage-2000 without much modifications.

SOURCE: SATYAJEET KUMAR/ FOR MY TAKE / IDRW.ORG

Defense minister Rajnath Singh at the formal induction of the second of the four Visakhapatnam class destroyers, indigenously designed by the Indian Navy’s Warship Design Bureau and built by Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Ltd (MDL) said that India will do shipbuilding for the world.

India which has been designing warships like frigates and destroyers for the last 40 years is yet to sell such large displacement vessels while it has had some success with the sale of fast patrol boats and offshore patrol vessels (OPVs) up to 1300-tonne but has not been able to crack niche segment for Naval warships like frigates and destroyers for some time now and its crucial India gets its act right if it wants to be in top exporters of defense equipment in next 15-20 years.

SOURCE:  DEEPAK HILORI/ FOR MY TAKE / IDRW.ORG

India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), since 2015 has been working to make a lighter and more agile Agni-5 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that internally was referred to as ” MkII’. DRDO had started to plan to reduce the weight of the 50-tonne Agni-5, for which it has been working on replacing its older, heavier subsystems such as hydraulic to electro-mechanical actuators in favor of lighter, more reliable ones, many of which were managed by replacing maraging steel with lightweight composite materials.

Recent Media reports confirm that Agni-V has received a 20% weight reduction which means Agni-5 MkII now has a lunch mass of 40000kg with 1100kg nuclear payload that can deliver a warhead to a target that is 7000km. Agni-VI which was supposed to be the successor of the Agni-V with a range of 6000km with a similar payload is now negated with the development of the MkII.

SOURCE: SATYAJEET KUMAR/ FOR MY TAKE / IDRW.ORG

The recent test of 5400km Agni-V has not only put the whole of the Chinese mainland in its firing range but also covers all overseas military bases that the Chinese military has been building around the Indo-Pacific. India’s need for further development of ICBMs or successors of the Agni-V shouldn’t be a priority since India now has a stable road-mobile ICBM that can be hidden anywhere in India and when required fired at any major city in China.

India needs to focus much more on the development of land-based hypersonic cruise missiles and hypersonic glide vehicles to up its offensive capabilities and can’t risk falling behind in its next-gen weapon system that China is progressing at rapid speed and already has deployed these weapon systems.

SOURCE:  DEEPAK HILORI/ FOR MY TAKE / IDRW.ORG

Britain, Italy, and Japan are to cooperate in developing a sixth-generation fighter, the three nations under the project’s name – Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP) plan to have a fighter ready by 2035 Under the banner of “Team Tempest” a British industry partnership involving BAE Systems, Leonardo, MBDA and Rolls-Royce but India was offered to be part of Team Tempest way back in 2018 when UK has held talks with India on joining the coalition.

India after pulling out of the joint Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) program with Russia, should have taken this opportunity to fill the gap for the second 5th gen fighter jet program that India wanted not so long ago. The tempest that is advertised as a 6th gen fighter could have been above AMCA in terms of MTOW and could have been an ideal replacement for the Su-30Mki in the top tier.

SOURCE: SEKHAR JYOTHI/ FOR MY TAKE / IDRW.ORG

Electronic warfare is inclusive of all actions in the entire electromagnetic spectrum to intercept , analyze, suppress or manipulate the spectrum usage of enemy as well as to protect the friendly forces’ use of the spectrum from same type of attack by an enemy. The electromagnetic spectrum includes both the visible and invisible spectrum ranges, measured in multiples of hertz of the spectrum. Electronic warfare has the capability to provide intelligence about enemy communication it has combat power like jamming, disruption, or deception of usage of spectrum ranges.

An example of effective electronic warfare system would be the Russian R-330Zh Zhitel jammer which can shut down GPS, satellite communications, and cellphone networks in the VHF and UHF bands within a radius of ten kilometers . In EW electronic attack by deception is an integral part in which a system substitutes its own signal for an expected radar or radio transmission. As an example : Russian forces induced propagana and misleading orders to troops and civilians during the 2014–2022 take over of eastern Ukraine by hijacking the local cellular network with the RB-341V Leer-3 system.

SOURCE:  DEEPAK HILORI/ FOR MY TAKE / IDRW.ORG

Air Chief Marshal Vivek Ram Chaudhari is not the only one who is skeptical about the usage of armed UAVs in a conflict zone that has an established air defense grid that can provide full spectrum air defense coverage in the region. A recent study on the Ukrainian UAVs and drones initially, success shows that the average flight time of Turkish Bayraktar TB2 in the later part of the war was down to just 6 flights before it could eventually be shot down.

But when it comes to India, we have the right to bet our money on loitering ammunition but we can’t discount combat drones of our enemies, especially considering that Chinese armed UAVs are cheap and are made in factories that have no supply chain issues and can ramp up production overnight in case of war.

SOURCE: RAJESH AHUJA / FOR MY TAKE / IDRW.ORG

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) will be getting to manufacture another light trainer cum combat aircraft that will take the program that HAL has begged as the default manufacturer in the Indian Aerospace programs to four. HAL might have a rich history of local license manufacturing many aircraft and fighter jets since independence it also has a bad track record of never delivering products on time and the quality of the product sometimes were questionable.

Often HAL has been accused of rushing to meet its production target by compromising on the quality of work. The hawk-132 AJT program was such an example when programs suffered several delays due to poor workmanship and often delivered aircraft was not airworthy and had to be reinspected and many issues had to be fixed by IAF’s BRO to make them airworthy again.

SOURCE:  DEEPAK HILORI/ FOR MY TAKE / IDRW.ORG

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has confirmed that it developing the Hindustan Lead-in Fighter Trainer (HLFT-42) aircraft, a bare metal, low-cost,single-engine, tandem-seat trainer aircraft that will be offered as a supersonic advanced jet trainer and light combat aircraft in markets where LCA-Tejas might be seen as an expensive fighter jet.

HLFT-42 seems to be borrowing a lot from HF-24, at least in its wings, and air intake design. HF-24 design was very stable and the airframe supported Mach 2 speeds, but it never reached its potential due to a lack of suitable engines to power them. HLFT-42 inspiration might be HF-24 which was a naturally stable design but choosing HF-24 as a base also helps mitigate risks of overdependence on the flight controls (rudder, elevator, ailerons) to remain stable which will indirectly reduce the cost of the aircraft.

SOURCE: SATYAJEET KUMAR/ FOR MY TAKE / IDRW.ORG

HLFT-42, a low-cost trainer and light combat aircraft can have tremendous potential in the export market where many countries are looking for low-cost air power if it can be powered by the Kaveri After Burner variant of the engine that India has been developing for the Unmanned Strike Aircraft Program.

Kaveri Dry engine can generate 46kN of thrust that once mated with an afterburner module will be able to generate at least 71kN of thrust which could be good enough for aircraft that might have all up weight around 7.5 to 8 tons.

SOURCE: SATYAJEET KUMAR/ FOR MY TAKE / IDRW.ORG

U.S. academic and strategic affair-centric think tanks off late have been asking U.S congress and Pentagon to allow the export of its 6th generation stealth B-21 bomber that is going to be unveiled soon to the world this month. B-21 will be replacing ultra-expensive B-1B and B-2 in long run in the USAF fleet with the need for 70 units it will have a pretty long production run too.

B-2, a highly capable Bomber with stealth characteristics that was billed at $2 billion after adjusting inflation in today’s rate of 2022, B-21 raider will have a unit cost of just $650 million per unit which is nearly 1/4th of what B-2 could have cost exchequer today if its production line was reopened.

SOURCE: RAJESH AHUJA / FOR MY TAKE / IDRW.ORG

A few years ago when HAL announced that it will be working on Lead-in fighter training (LIFT) that will be based on the Tailless Compound Delta configuration of the LCA-Tejas airframe it was unusual setup for a LIFT aircraft since many manufacturers to reduce production costs and due to inherited issues with the delta configuration avoid using them in the advance jet trainer jets.

It was not long into the LCA-LIFT program before HAL seems to have realized that it was trying to swim against the tide and announced plans to develop a Hindustan Lead-in Fighter Trainer (HLFT-42) aircraft that likely will have a much more traditional swept wing design which is often found in the LIFT aircraft types around the world.

SOURCE:  DEEPAK HILORI/ FOR MY TAKE / IDRW.ORG

Air Chief Marshal Vivek Ram Chaudhari in a recent Interview called Timeline set by Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for two indigenous fighter programs as aggressive and was not sure if both agencies can deliver as promised since both have terrible record when it comes to delivery of home-grown fighter jets.

Tejas MkII Rollout already has been pushed to 2024 and will commence delivery in 2030-31 which means all development flight trials will be completed in the next 6 years this seems to be way too aggressive since Mk1 developmental flight trials lasted from 2001 till 2016 when the first squadron with IOC-II configuration was raised and Mk2 carries a whole lot of major changes to its avionics and systems that have little or no connection with the Mk1 program.