SOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG

At a Press conference to discuss the upcoming 90th Indian Air Force Celebration Day, a small promo video showcased at the presser showed glimpses of the Astra Mk2 Beyond visual range air-to-air missile being ejected from the Su-30MKI. While the video didn’t show the missile firing up its dual-Pulse motor indicating it probably was from a dummy ejection developmental trial.

Video also showcased for the first time use of the ejector pylon for the new missile system that, unlike Astra Mk1 which uses a Rail launcher. Astra MkII features ejectors launch that is done to reduce missile being jammed in the rail launcher but also to reduce any harm to the aircraft itself. Both Astra MkII and Astra MkIII will be using ejectors launch along with Rudram-1, Rudram-2/2A, and Rudram-3 Air to Surface missiles.

SOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG

Indian Air Force Chief Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari on Tuesday while speaking to the media confirmed that Air Staff Quality Requirements (ASQR) for the Sukhoi-30 upgrade have been finalized. As reported earlier by idrw.org it will be all Indian-made Indigenous systems that will be incorporated into upgraded Sukhoi-30 MKI and will not include any Russian systems.

In the first lot, 84 Sukhoi-30 MKI aircraft will be upgraded but the program might take 4-5 years before actual implementation of the upgrade kits will begin on the aircraft.

SOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG

Indian Air Force Chief Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari on Tuesday while speaking to the media surprised many when he said that the search for 4.5gen or 5th gen fighter jets under the Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) tender for 114 jets is still ongoing as air force is going through proposals that it has received.

IAF chief for the first time confirmed that the air force is now open to the idea of a 5th gen platform which was not the case earlier. Till now only proposals that have been received from prospective OEMs have been about their 4.5gen fighter jets.

SOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG

Armament Research & Development Establishment (ARDE) has successfully designed, developed, and installed at its Pune facility a 10 Mega Joule (MJ) capacitor railgun for further testing which can provide multi-mission, multi-domain capability with greater flexibility and a smaller footprint for ship, land and mobile platforms.

10 MJ can carry hypersonic projectiles weighing 500g to 1kg due to high-velocity projectiles will lead to shorter engagement times and offer a high firing rate to engage multiple threats simultaneously. idrw.org has been told that 10 MJ Railgun can be used as a single weapon system that can engage cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, combat jets, UAS, and surface threats.

SOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG

Indian Army and Indian Air force might have inducted indigenous developed Prachand aka Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) in its fleet but it still doesn’t come with its Main weapon, which is Air launched anti-tank guided missile (ATGM). Defence PSU HAL plans to start integration trials of the Dhruvastra helicopter-launched versions of a third-generation anti-tank guided missile by end of this year and clear it for operational usage on Prachand by mid-2023.

Prachand is currently armed with a 20 mm nose gun, 70 mm rockets and Mistral air-to-air missile developed by MBDA that will be later replaced by DRDO developed one in the future. recently idrw.org reported that Lockheed Martin Corp has shown its willingness to offer and integrate AGM-114R Hellfire missiles on Prachand.

SOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG

Top Brass of the Indian Navy will be approaching Finance Division in the Ministry of Defence to seek special provisions in the next year’s Navy budget that can be used to kick start pre-phase-I activities to develop a second indigenous aircraft carrier for the Indian Navy. Warship Design Bureau if approved will be getting seed money to progress upon design and development of a new aircraft carrier as full-fledged program funding will take time.

idrw.org has been told that the Indian Navy is adamant that a Second indigenous aircraft carrier is necessary since by 2030 it is expected that China will deploy an aircraft carrier group dedicated only to the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) and the Indian Navy will require Three aircraft carrier battle groups to counter any misadventures of the Chinese Navy in the region.

SOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG

Samir V. Kamat, Chairman of DRDO in an interview with Financial Express stressed that the MALE (Tapas UAV) program and SRUAV (Rustom-1) UAV Program have created enough technology and systems that can be easily reconfigured to be used for India’s High-altitude long-endurance (HALE) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).

For the first time, DRDO has confirmed the development of the HALE Class UAV that will be carried out by its associated lab Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE) which is leading the program.

SOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG

Lockheed Martin Corp which manufactures AGM-114R which is also known as Hellfire Missiles is considering offering the missile system to be integrated into an Indian-made Light Combat Helicopter (LCH). AGM-114R Hellfire missiles are the primary weapon system on the Boeing-made AH-64E Attack Helicopters that are already in service with the Indian Air Force (IAF).

While AGM-114R Hellfire missiles are designed specifically for use on the AH-64 Apache/Apache Longbow attack helicopter, it has been adopted on various other American made Helicopters like AH-1Z Viper, MH-60R, and Bell OH-58 Kiowa.

SOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG

Nagpur-based Economic Explosives (EEL) developed Nagastra-1 Loiter Munition has completed user trials carried out by the Indian Army as per a report by India Tv. Nagastra-1 can carry a 1.5 kg explosive warhead to a range of 15km and is a hand-launched Loiter Munition that can be an ideal choice for the Tactical Battle Area and it can establish firepower supremacy of our troops in contact.

EEL is also developing Nagastra-2 and Nagastra-3 Loiter Munition which will also soon commence user trials as per the report. Nagastra-2 can deliver a 4 kg explosive warhead up to a range of up to 25 km and is man-portable that can be carried in a backpack since it weighs only 20kg which includes communication control, payload, and launch mechanisms.

SOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG

Samir V. Kamat, Chairman of DRDO in an interview with Financial Express confirmed that the Private firm Larsen & Toubro is working with DRDO to roll out the prototype of the Zorawar Lightweight Tank by next year that will weigh only 25 tons as mandated by the Indian Army Requirement but will be powered by a 1000hp engine that is optimized for high altitude operations at the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

Indian Army had given in-principle approval of light tank development earlier this year and light tank requirements were based on the Request for Information (RFI) that was issued last year for 350 25-tonne lightweight tanks.

SOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG

Samir V. Kamat, Chairman of DRDO in an interview with Financial Express confirmed that the fabrication of India’s 5th Gen AMCA fighter jet program is yet to begin as DRDO waits for a final nod from the government of India. ADA and DRDO have asked for 15000 crores as official funding for the development of the AMCA program that will cover the initial cost of 5 prototypes and a few pre-production aircraft in multiple phases.

Kamat confirmed that the preliminary design has been finalized and the program has moved to the comprehensive design review (CDR) phase which is also progressing well. idrw.org in past has been told that the CDR phase is likely will be completed by end of this year or in early 2023 and by mid or late 2023 The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi will likely give the final nod to program.

SOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG

Samir V. Kamat, Chairman of DRDO in an interview with India Tv confirmed that earlier this month India and Armenia concluded a deal for the supply of Four Battery of Pinaka multi-barrel rocket launchers. One battery of the Pinaka system consists of six launch vehicles and each launch vehicle is armed with 12 rockets which are accompanied by a loader vehicle, Digicora Met radar, and links with network-based systems and command posts.

idrw.org has been told that Armenia has placed orders for the Enhanced version of the Pinaka systems that has a range of 45km. Armenia also has shown interest in acquiring the Guided Variant of the Pinaka which has a range of 75km.

SOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG

Chinese Government affiliated media outlet, T-House Opinions claimed that 18 countries will be authorized to carry out research at China’s Tiangong space station when it is ready. Russia, Kenya, China, Germany, Italy, France, Poland, Switzerland, Norway, Spain, Netherlands, India, Belgium, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Pakistan, and Peru are 18 countries that have been named by the media outlet.

Tiangong will weigh 70-ton weight when completed and is currently the largest and heaviest spacecraft China has ever built and also the world’s heaviest self-propelled spaceship in service. Tiangong will have its power, propulsion, life support systems, and living quarters.

SOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG

The Egyptian Air Force (EAF) has approached Indian Air Force (IAF) for spares of its Russian-manufactured MiG-29M2 fighter jets and Mi-17 helicopter fleet due to the distribution of the Russian supply chain due to ongoing sanctions on Russian companies with whom Egypt can’t deal directly on fear of American sanctions.

Egypt is in desperate need of spares for Klimov RD-33 Series-3 engines that are powering its MiG-29M2 fighter jets. Same engines are locally manufactured in India by the Indian state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).

SOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG

According to a report in Janes.com, Indian Private sector company Tonbo Imaging developed Electro-optical (EO) fire-control system named Elpeos will be integrated into a new variant of the Indian Army’s Arjun Mk-1A main battle tank (MBT) that was ordered last year.

Electronic video stability and integrated automatic target tracking are two features of the Elpeos system. It has a stabilizing system based on a gyroscope that counteracts vibrations and produces steady images. To minimize the soldier’s involvement, the technology automatically recognizes and monitors several targets. User participation is reduced as a result of the system’s analysis of the photos to locate the target of interest within a particular area.