SOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG.
The Stealth Wing Flying Testbed (SWiFT), which began as a technological demonstrator to develop and demonstrate technologies for controlling the flying wing configuration and flight characteristics at high-subsonic speeds for the larger Ghatak programme, may become a full-fledged programme in its own right as an Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA).
The Stealth Wing Flying Testbed (SWiFT), powered by a Russian NPO Saturn 36MT engine, is a 1-ton All up weight (AUW) stealth demonstrator that has been tested since 2020 and has flown several times as a demonstration for the larger programme that will be unveiled in 2026.
Continue readingSOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG.
Aeronautical Development Agency and Indian Navy plans to complete Preliminary Design Review (PDR) in coming weeks and breaking from IAF tradition will present file to the Ministry of Defence to clear budget for 14000 crores for the development of four prototypes of Twin Engine Deck Based Fighter (TEDBF).
The Indian Navy has committed to purchasing 60 deck-based fighter jets when production begins in 2031, replacing Russian accident-prone 45 Mig-29K fighter jets from its fleet beginning in 2034 and completely by 2040.
Continue readingSOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG.
India’s quest for a joint venture for developing a 110kN engine for its 5th generation AMCA program is not heading anywhere, Trilateral discussions with American General Electric, French Safran and British Rolls-Royce have not resulted in any agreement as the GTRE team plans to have more round of discussions soon in coming weeks.
idrw.org has been told that talks are going in circles due to differences in the workshare clauses and the price of the entire program. Engine development from scratch needs to be divided into multiple phases and work share in each phase of the program needs to be divided as per technical abilities.
Continue readingSOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG.
The deal for procurement of 30 General Atomics MQ-9B sea guardian drones is refusing to take off due to the Indian Air Force and Indian Army showing less interest in the systems due to high cost. Indian Navy which is leading negotiations with the Indian Air Force and Indian Army will be holding crucial talks with the other two branches of the Indian Armed forces to get them onboard by agreeing to place reduced orders from 30 units.
General Electric MQ-9B sea guardian drones are priced around 100 million per unit which IAF and Indian Army find to be too exorbitant to invest for only 10 units for each service. The Navy is trying to work out a reduced number that is agreeable to each service’s requirements.
Continue readingSOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG.
Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has started work on the Naval-Light Utility Helicopters (LUH) variant that incorporate a modern surveillance radar and electro-optical equipment to undertake the role of maritime reconnaissance in addition to providing long-range Search and Rescue.
Ship-based variant Naval-Light Utility Helicopters (LUH) will feature folding rotors for deck operations and wheeled landing gears. Modern surveillance radar for the Naval ALH platform that is used by Indian Navy and Indian Coast guard has been modified for usage on the Naval-LUH variant.
Continue readingSOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG.
Indian Navy has decided to shift from gas turbine engines of Ukrainian origin for its next-generation warships programs and shift to its own indigenous marine gas turbine engines for the medium class of warships while bigger warships will still carry on using American or British gas turbine engines.
Indian Navy has around 150 warships that are powered by Marine gas turbine engines that were supplied by the Ukrainian company Zorya-Mashproekt. Russia is working on its alternatives but Indian Navy is planning to develop local indigenous alternatives for the small to medium class of warships and seek license production for marine engines that are required for larger warships.
Continue readingSOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG.
Hari Babu Srivastava, Director General (Technology Management), DRDO has said that work on the technology demonstration of ‘Gun on Drone’ has been successfully carried out and further development of the same will be carried out.
idrw.org has been told that DRDO has developed a 25lg drone that can be attached to a machine gun to hit targets with high precision and it can carry around 150 rounds that can fire in single shots mode or Automatic mode.
Continue readingSOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG.
India has re-issued Notices to Airmen (NOTAM) for a launch of a missile in the Bay of Bengal for the period from 27-29 Jan 2023 as per information provided by Twitter user Damien Symon@detresfa_. Earlier NOTAM was issued for the period from 12-14 Jan 2023.
The designated area for the NOTAM is 650km in length which indicates it might be a test of the ITCM cruise missile since the last test of the missile had failed due to ignition issues with the Manik engine.
Continue readingSOURCE: RAJESH AHUJA / FOR MY TAKE / IDRW.ORG
Britain, Italy and Japan are to cooperate in developing a sixth-generation fighter, Few details were available before the scheduled announcement beyond the project’s named Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP) and the fact the partners say they plan to have the fighter ready by 2035.
Japanese-European defence program will also see the development of a new engine advanced power and propulsion system that will see designing an electrical starter generator that was fully embedded in the core of a gas turbine engine, now known as the Embedded Electrical Starter Generator.
Continue readingSOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG.
ZMotion Autonomous System Pvt ltd, a company backed by Solar Industrial Explosives will be supplying a small number of sample units to the Indin Army and Indian Air force of its Trinetra Loitering munition for further trials. Hand-launched Loitering munition called Trinetra was developed for 60 million rupees and about a quarter of which was funded by the iDEX.
Trinetra Loitering munition was tested last March by the Indian Army at high-altitude Ladhak region and performance was found satisfactory.
Continue readingSOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG.
The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is in process of developing a launch tube with low-recoil for the shoulder launch Man-Portable Anti-Tank Guided Missile (MPATGM) program as the anti-tank missile was flight-tested in its final deliverable configuration last year from a makeshift tripod stand.
DRDO officials confirm that work is on reducing recoil once the missile is fired from the shoulder of a soldier so that it is a manageable force that can be handled by the soldier and for which efforts are being made to reduce recoil forces.
Continue readingSOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG.
The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is developing customised HELINA (Helicopter based NAG), a third generation fire and forget class anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) to be used from ALH-Rudra and Prachand-LCH that is further optimized for High Altitude operations and user trials of which is to commence soon.
HELINA already has cleared all user trials and last year it was tested at high-altitude ranges as part of user validation trials. The flight trials were conducted from an Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) and the missile was fired successfully engaging a simulated tank target.
Continue readingSOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG.
The first component in the Combat Air Teaming System program that has been developed by the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and Newspace Research & Technologies will be Air Launched Flexible Asset Swarm (ALFA-S) loitering munition.
idrw.org has been told that developmental trials of the ALFA-S loitering munition that is capable of gliding to targets located over 100kms from the launch point will start from ground-based systems in the coming months as fabrication work on the prototypes is nearing completion.
Continue readingSOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG.
India has issued Notices to Airmen (NOTAM) for a launch of a missile in the Bay of Bengal for the period from 12-14 Jan 2023 as per information provided by Twitter user Damien Symon@detresfa_. The first NOTAM was for the period from 04-06 Jan 2023 and the second was from 10-11 Jan 2023.
The designated area for the NOTAM is 650km in length which indicates it might be a test of the ITCM cruise missile since the last test of the missile had failed due to ignition issues with the Manik engine.
Continue readingSOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG.
DRDO has issued a Request for Expression of Interest (REOI) from reputed Indian Public Limited/Private Limited Companies to be a “Development cum Production Partner (DCPP)” for Aircraft Arrester Gear-NG.
The purpose of REOI is to shortlist the vendor for the issue of an RFP for the stated product. The scope of work of the vendor contains two phases called DRDO Project Phase and the Production phase.
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