SOURCE: SATYAJEET KUMAR/ FOR MY TAKE / IDRW.ORG
The era of fighter bombers will end when the Indian Air Force retires its Jaguar fighter fleet from its service in 2035. Mirage-2000 has been the Choice of aircraft that will play the role of delivering nukes if that day ever comes but the fleet won’t be their long enough and might be completely gone by 2035 onwards.
In 2010, The Strategic Forces Command (SFC) submitted a proposal to the Defence Ministry for setting up two dedicated squadrons of fighter aircraft which will act as Mini-Air Force.
Continue readingSOURCE: DEEPAK HILORI/ FOR MY TAKE / IDRW.ORG
Tata becomes the first Private sector company in India that will be manufacturing C-295 Transport Aircraft in India under license from Airbus. This is first for TATA which will be manufacturing not some airframes or components as part of the supply chain for an aircraft but will be the lead integrator for the assembly of the whole aircraft in the country.
State-owned Aerospace company Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, which was deliberately left out of the program lost an opportunity to be part of such a big program in India but the company has decades of experience in manufacturing earlier Avro and later Dornier Do228 Transport aircraft for the Indian Armed Forces.
Continue readingSOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG
The Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) will be submitting a preliminary design review (PDR) for the TEDBF program by March 2023. Completion of the PDR Phase will be the first major milestone in the program as the program will soon move towards a Critical Design Review (CDR) that will be achieved by mid or by late 2024.
idrw.org has been told that PDR will mean that the TEDBF program has achieved Technical maturity and the risk reduction phase has been concluded. PDR phase is completed when technologies are wither being demonstrated and preliminary design studies the operational and suitability requirements set by the user. The Critical Design Review (CDR) and the Preliminary Design Review (PDR) are two of the most important reviews in the acquisition process.
Continue readingSOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG
Dr. AK Ghosh, project director of AMCA at Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), told News18, that AMCA Mk2 will have indigenous content as high as 90% and AMCA will be comparable to other global fifth-generation fighter jets such as American F-35 Lightning II and the Su-57 aircraft of the United States.
Ghosh confirmed that once Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) approval for the indigenous Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) comes, three-and-a-half years after the CCS approval, the Prototype will be rolled out and the first flight will be concluded after one year after rollout.
Continue readingSOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG
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Soviet-era Ilyushin 38 aircraft maritime patrol aircraft will be completely retired from the Indian Navy by end of 2023 as per the latest media report, the Indian Navy already has retired 3 IL-38 aircraft due to their advanced age while the Navy has started replacing them with Modern P-8I at the INS Hansa from they operated earlier.
idrw.org has been told one aircraft will be retired by mid of 2023 and another by end of 2023 thus completing nearly 46 years of service to the country. Indian Navy lost two IL-38s in 2002 due to a mid-air collision that killed 12 crew.
Continue readingSOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG
The ADA-led team that is developing Engine Deck Based Fighter (TEDBF) for the Indian Navy might not have an internal weapons bay but will incorporate 3 underbelly weapon hardpoints that are already semi-recessed into the fuselage to reduce the protruding missile’s prominence.
Semi-recessed stores generally have lower RCSs than equivalent pylon-mounted stores and also offer reduced drag. At the Def expo, idrw.org also confirmed that NASM-MR anti-ship missile (AShM) presently under development by the DRDO was seen on the center pylon of the aircraft.
Continue readingSOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG
Pralay, a surface-to-surface conventional quasi-ballistic missile with a range of up to 500 km will start replacing aging India’s first indigenously developed, nuclear-capable Prithvi surface-to-surface missile by end of 2024 onwards in limited numbers. Pralay is India’s first tactical battlefield quasi-ballistic missile that has a low trajectory with a range of 150-500 kilometers.
Pralay was developed as per requirements of the Indian Army will shed its nuclear strike capability role that the Prithvi missile family carried in the late 80’s to the advent of better and longer ranged Agni-series of ballistic missile that has taken up this role now.
Continue readingSOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG
According to a report in the Times Now, Lockheed Martin-owned Sikorsky company and Tata are planning to locally manufacture S-76D helicopters in a Corporate or VIP role in India. S-76 is well-known for its work in VIP transportation and utility work and more than 800 plus helicopters have been manufactured since 1977.
Sikorsky S-76 is in civil service around the world with airlines, corporations, hospitals, and government operators including ten countries that rely on the S-76 for the Head of State mission but it also in limited military usage with half a dozen countries.
Continue readingSOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG
Ministry of Defence (MoD) has specifically instructed DRDO and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) that it needs to work on per unit cost and reduce the manhour cost in the production of the Tejas MkII aircraft to promote it in the export market. IAF and MoD already have committed to procure 10 squadrons of the new fighter jet and have asked to come at a viable ballpark figure of the fighter’s cost while taking advantage of manufacturing aircraft in larger numbers.
ADA and HAL are working out details to include more indigenous content in the aircraft from earlier decided 75% to now over 90%, which will include many of the components and systems that earlier were to come from abroad will now be manufactured in the country due to scale of the program due to upfront order commitment from the IAF.
Continue readingSOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG
Vem Technologies has joined hands with Austrian company Schiebel to manufacture Camcopter S-100 rotorcraft unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in India. idrw.org has been told that Company plans to take the indigenous route for the manufacturing of the S-100 as mandated by the Ministry of Defence and has claimed it will have more than 60% locally sourced materials.
S-100 production in India will start in the next six months from now at a low scale rate but the rate of production will pick up in the next 12 months claimed company officials to idrw.org.
Continue readingSOURCE: GIRISH LINGANNA / FOR MY TAKE / IDRW.ORG.
Argentina, the eighth largest country in the world, together with Chile and Bolivia, forms the Lithium Triangle. The Lithium Triangle accounts for more than 70 per cent of global lithium reserves. However, Argentine mining operations have been less than stellar, currently providing barely 15 per cent of the global output.
The Argentine government is bullish on lithium mining as the market is expected to double by 2028 to USD 7 billion. And Hindustan Aeronautics Limited’s (HAL) Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) Prachand can enable their Lithium dream.
Continue readingSOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG
BrahMos-A equipped Su-30MKI provides the Indian Air Force massive offensive firepower that simply can’t be ignored but not many Su-30 operators in the region have shown interest in the missile system since it requires mandated strengthening of the undercarriage of the Su-30 airframe.
But idrw.org has been told that After Vietnam and Indonesia, Malaysia another Su-30 Flanker operator has put in a formal request to India to be briefed about the upcoming BrahMos-NG program that will start developmental trials in 2024 and is likely to enter production in 2025.
Continue readingSOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG
The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is seeking to develop a Retractable Air-to-Air Refuelling (AAR) System for the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) program that can support Articulated Probe and Drogue System. DRDO is seeking partnerships with PSUs, Private sector companies from India to execute this program under the Technology Development Fund (TDF) scheme of the Ministry of Defence.
AMCA will get a Retractable refueling probe that is mounted on the front fuselage of the aircraft between station 2 and station 3. The retractable refueling probe will be made up of Probe Nozzle, Weak link, Extension and retraction mechanism, Hydraulic Motor, Probe Light Integrated in the Probe tip, and Drogue light.
Continue readingSOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG
The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is seeking to develop a new generation air-to-air refueling Pod for use on air refueling tanker aircraft. DRDO is seeking PSUs, Private sector companies from India PSUs, Private sector companies from India that can develop Air to Air Refueling Pods for Boeing 767 Multi-Mission Tanker Transports (MMTTs) that Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) have agreed to develop under B767 conversion program.
Following India’s cancellation of the Airbus A330 Multi Role Tanker Transport (MRTT) program in June 2016, IAI and HAL agreed to procure pre-owned B767 aircraft and undertake aircraft conversion locally in India.
Continue readingSOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG
Vinod Kumar, project director of the LCA (Navy) and TEDBF at ADA confirmed that the CATOBAR(Catapult Assisted Take-Off But Arrested Recovery) variant of the TEDBF will be developed when the Indian Navy finalizes the final configuration of the Second Indigenous Aircraft carrier.
TEDBF which is under development will support STOBAR (Short TakeOff But Arrested Recovery) system that uses a ski-jump ramp on the INS Vikrant and INS Vikramaditya for takeoff from the aircraft carrier. Kumar said that once the aircraft carrier configuration is confirmed the launch bar for the redesigned nose landing gear will be designed for CATOBAR operations.
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