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.

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

With the introduction of the Bharat ULH-ER, an 8-ton 155 mm x52 cal extended Range Artillery, the Kalyani group now has 8 different Artillery guns under its portfolio but it took export orders from Armenia to shake up the slow process that the Indian Army calls its World famous Internal trials to get called out for being a way to slow when it comes to indigenous weapons systems.

Since 80’s Indian Army inducted the Original 155mm Bofors gun and since then it has inducted two more imported Artillery guns which were the British M777 and Korean K-9 Vajra systems which cleared user trials in much shorter duration even though they were incidents of barrel burst that were conveniently blamed on the ammunition supplied by the OFB.

SOURCE: RYAN GEORGE KOYITHARA / FOR MY TAKE / IDRW.ORG

A global trend aimed at building an alternative economic and financial system parallel to the current one was intensified by the Russia-Ukraine war. The BRICS nations —Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—which together account for 41% of the world’s population—adding the GCC countries. These nations also make up 23% of the world’s economy and 18% of its trade, reflecting their proportional significance to the world economy as a whole. Saudi Arabia recently submitted an application to join the group, and it is perceived that current members heartily will welcome the move. Also being discussed is the possibility of the UAE and Turkey joining, which would fundamentally alter the balance of power in the world and contribute to a more stable system.

The three countries’ expected entrance will bring about a significant shift that will favour the East. Saudi Arabia, with its enormous energy potential, the UAE, as a major international financial and commercial hub, and Turkey, with its geographic location, industrial development, and technological advancement, will significantly increase their influence over the group and rebalance power between the East and the West.

SOURCE: RYAN GEORGE KOYITHARA / FOR MY TAKE / IDRW.ORG

Years after India’s independence, tensions with Pakistan reached a point where many border disputes were precipitated. India’s second war with its evil brother began in 1965 when Pakistan initiated Operation Gibraltar to smuggle troops into Jammu and Kashmir. At that point, Centurion MBTs made up the majority of the Indian Armoured army, and they operated reasonably well.

However, there was already a desire in the 1950s to use domestic industrial resources to create an MBT that was exclusively Indian. It was planned to build an existing model under license even before the conflict of 1965, but at the same time with relatively lighter specifications in comparison to the Centurion.

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

It’s more or less confirmed that the rollout of the LCA AF Mk2 has been postponed to the end of 2023 or at the worst case it will happen in March 2024 which means the first flight will be further pushed to late 2024 or early 2025 that is coming dangerously close to the AMCA program. AMCA’s timeline will see the first rollout in 2025 and the first flight in 2026 since the LCA AF Mk2 program was seen as the first step toward the realization of the AMCA program, little or no gap between both timelines suggests otherwise.

When LCA AF Mk2 and AMCA program were announced many questioned the need for a 4.5th gen fighter, the rationale put forward was that the LCA AF Mk2 program will bridge the gap between LCA Mk1 and AMCA in terms of technology upgrades and also engineering capacity upgrades but a shift in the timeline means that it is unlikely LCA AF Mk2 will have any major effect on the AMCA program nor it will contribute into creation of the necessary expertise and infrastructure that were to expand after the conclusion of the LCA AF Mk1 program.

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

Russian fighters have remained highly effective and lethal against Ukrainian aircraft near the frontlines throughout the war, especially the Su-35S with the R-77-1 long-range missile and, in recent months, the Mig-31BM with the R-37 very long-range missile. According to a recent study, the long-range air-to-air missiles MiG-31BM and R-37M have been incredibly effective against Ukrainian fighter planes.

R-37M was designed to shoot down tankers, AWACS, and other C4ISTAR aircraft while allowing the launch platform to stay out of range of any fighter jets that are escorting them. 600kg missile has a 60kg warhead and has an operational range of 150 to 350km and uses its semi-active and active radar homing for guidance.