SOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG.

Dassault Reliance Aerospace Express Limited (DRAL) will sub-lease part of a plot in Multi-modal International Hub Airport at Nagpur (MIHAN) special economic zone (SEZ) from the Maharashtra Airport Development Company Limited (MADC) to set up Rafale fighter aircraft servicing center in the country. DRAL and MADC deal for sub-lease will clear path to set up Rafale servicing center that will become functional within one-and-a-half years as per media reports.

The upcoming facility at the DRAL will be used for overhauling Rafale jets and also carry out software and hardware upgrades to the jets soon that also includes integration and certification of local and imported weapons systems in the aircraft on behalf of the Indian Air Force that will be supervised by the French company. DRAL facility can also be used to manufacture Rafale for the Indian air force if the company is awarded a contract for additional jets that are mandated to be manufactured and assembled in India.

SOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG.

India’s first indigenous aircraft carrier (IAC) will begin its sea trials soon and recently Navy’s Westland WS-61 Sea King anti-submarine warfare helicopter became the first aircraft to land on the decks of the INS Vikrant when it was at Cochin Shipyard. Sea trials are likely to be conducted by end of this year and IAC is set to be commissioned into the Eastern Naval Command as INS Vikrant by mid-2022.

INS Vikrant will be able to launch 30 aircraft, including 20 fighter jets and 10 helicopters. The ship will be compatible with the MiG-29K and TEDBF after Sea trial, Naval Air Arm will start trials of the MiG-29K to demonstrate its combat capability in early 2022.

SOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG.

Ankur Kanaglekar, Boeing Head in India for Boeing Defense, Space, and Security speaking to an Indian media outlet has said that the company is willing to demonstrate the operation of its F/A-18 Block III Super Hornet on offer to the Indian Navy (IN) on both INS Vikramaditya and IAC-1 aircraft carrier, even though aircraft was not designed to operate from `ski-jump ramp’.

Kanaglekar said that the company has conducted more than 150 simulation studies and also has carried out the ski-jump test from a land-based facility to confirm that F/A-18 Block III can operate from both Indian aircraft carriers with ease.

SOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG.

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) Chairman G Sateesh Reddy recently in an interview confirmed that India’s first developmental trial of a Nirbhay cruise missile fitted with an indigenous Small Turbo Fan Engine (STFE) developed by DRDO’s Gas Turbine Research Establishment (GTRE) will be tested soon in coming days.

Nirbhay is India’s first indigenously designed and developed long-range cruise missile that can carry 200-300-kilogram warheads and can strike land targets at a distance of up to 1,000 kilometers. Nirbhay Long Range Land Attack Cruise Missile is already deployed in limited numbers with Russian NPO Saturn 36MT mini turbofan but India is upgrading the missile system with a more indigenous system that includes a new radio frequency seeker.

SOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG.

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) Chairman G Sateesh Reddy recently in an interview said that the organization is moving to into Single integrated Trial system of the next-generation weapons program that will include officials from the Certification agency, User ( Army, Airforce, and Navy), and the Developmental team will now be part of the trials from the beginning of each new program so has to reduce stages of weapons development cycle and also shorten the induction and production time of the new system.

DRDO has now combined the Developmental trials that were conducted by the developmental team of the weapon project that was usually followed up by User trials that could usually take 2-3 years in each multiple phase will now be reduced to considerably due to Single integrated Trial system.

SOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG.

India’s Air force took a crucial step forward recently and cleared its Sukhoi-30MKI fleet to be armed with Israeli Derby-ER Beyond Visual Air to Air missile for which one of the Sukhoi-30MKI was used to carry out series of aeromechanical integrity tests that was carried out to assess the mechanical, structural, and electrical compatibility between the missile and the aircraft, and whether vibrations, strain, stress, etc can be handled by the aircraft.

In Phase-I of the Captive flight, trials will involve the Su-30MKI carrying under its wings at one of its six hardpoints a Dummy Derby-ER missiles for multiple 90-minute sorties each, that covers the entire flight envelope of the aircraft. Phase-II will be followed with the actual missile being used in Captive flight minus its warhead and at last, the missile realizes mechanism will be tested before it is cleared to be fired from an aircraft.

SOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG.

Director of Russia’s Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation Dmitry Shugayev told TASS at the MAKS-2021 international air show that it has offered its Il-112VE light military transport plane to many partner countries including India. The Il-112VE light military transport plane is an export variant of the Il-112V aircraft developed for Russia’s Air Force and designed to carry and airdrop cargoes, vehicles, military hardware, ammunition, and personnel.

Il-112VE light military transport is the same class as Airbus C295 multi-role transport aircraft that was cleared by the Indian Air Force and Indian Coast Guard in 2015 as the replacement for its aging fleet of Avro 748 transport aircraft but has been pending since due to budgetary issues.

SOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG.

India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) owned Ex-Air India, Airbus A319 (VT-SCO) that was recently snapped at the Air India Engineering Services Limited (AIESL) facility in New Delhi has now been transferred to the Centre for Airborne Systems (CABS) facility in Bengaluru recently. DRDO’s has named Flying Testbed as ” Anusandhan ” which translates into “Search”.

The Centre for Airborne Systems (CABS) is a laboratory of the Department of Defence R&D, DRDO, that expertises in the country for the development of Airborne Electronic Force Multiplier (AEFM) Systems focusing on systems development of the Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C)/Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS).

SOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG.

The joint Russian-Indian venture BrahMos Aerospace will re-arm the Indian Air Force’s (IAF) Sukhoi Su-30MKI fighters with its cruise missiles in two or three years from now, Alexander Maksichev, the company’s co-director, told Sputnik. BrahMos-A will significantly enhance the IAF’s strategic capacity to eliminate long-range targets in the Indian Ocean said the official.

State-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) that originally manufactured Sukhoi Su-30MKI fighters in India at its Nashik Plant already has developed Pair of Su-30MKI fighter jets that were used for developmental trials and now missile and aircraft have been cleared for the operational role and soon BrahMos-A Air launched Cruise missile (ALCM) will be enabled in more aircraft in next 2-3 years.

SOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG.

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) on Wednesday successfully flight-tested the next-generation Akash surface-to-air missile (Akash- NG) system from the Integrated Test Range off the Odisha coast.

The Akash-NG flight trial was conducted at 12.45 pm from a land-based platform, with all weapon system elements such as multifunction radars, command, control & comm systems, etc. “The missile demonstrated high maneuverability required for neutralizing fast & agile aerial threats,” said DRDO officials said in a statement.

SOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Pakistan’s National Security Adviser Moeed Yusuf prolong fight over each other interference over foreign policies and on Kashmir policies has now reached the office of the selected Prime Minister Imran Khan, with both accusing each other of interference and downcutting each other over various policies adopted by each department.

Yusuf wants Pakistan to maintain aggressive policies on Kashmir and has been claiming that India has suffered a massive setback in the International arena over its actions to remove Article 370, Article 35A, and is under considerable pressure from the International media and Human rights organizations. Qureshi on the other side maintains that no country is ready to back Pakistan on Article 370, Article 35A nor any country is keen to pressure India for restoration and had advised moving head and instead focus on having talks over stoping India from carrying out demographic changes.

SOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG.

On Sunday, When some Afghanistan-based media outlets reported that India dispatched C-17 transport aircraft with 40 tons of ammunition of 122-mm cannon for Afghan government forces, it spread like wildfire among Pakistani media outlets, who then accused India of prolonging the war in Afghanistan by delivering fresh stock of ammunition the Afghan National Army that uses artillery guns that have a caliber of 122mm.

One Pakistani defense analyst on a Private news channel claimed that fresh Indian ammunition will delay the fall of Kabul till September and fight for control of nearly 40-45% of the areas that are still not under Taliban control might take much longer.

SOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG.

Nigerian Defense Portals recently claimed that the Nigerian Army (NA) Aviation Corps is close to acquiring Squadron of Indian Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) multi-role attack helicopter designed and manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, but industrial sources close to idrw.org have again said that no such talks are being held with the Nigerian Army officials.

Nigerian Defense Portals had made the repeated claim that Nigerian Army (NA) Aviation Corps is close to inking a deal for one Squadron of 12-14 Indian Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) in the next few weeks and the negotiations are in the final stage. According to the same defense portals, HAL has quoted less than $1.70 million per unit of LCH to the Nigerian Army (NA) that turned out to be cheaper than the Chinese Z-10 and Turkish T-129 multi-role attack helicopter in the same class.

SOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG.

Just before the last of the US troops left Bagram Air Base, Indian Air Force (IAF) C-17 strategic transport aircraft was sported flying over Iranian air space headed to Bagram Air Base near Kabul and kandahar in Afghanistan. As per the OSNIT community, three sorties over last week were performed and it was suspected that flights were used to evaluate Indian personals from the consulate that included Indian military trainers and crew that were in Afghanistan to assist the Afghan National Army and Afghan Airforce, but as per Afghan media reports that weren’t the case.

According to Afghan media reports, at the request of the Afghanistan government, India airlifted 40 tons of small arms ammunition, including 120 mm mortar to help Afghan National Army that will be used in the fight against the Taliban, who have made significant gains across the country, including in the north, an area where the extremist Islamic movement has not been strongly supported in the past.