SOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG

Heightened tension with China on the Ladakh sector has come as a boon to Project Zorawar to develop a 25-ton Light Tank for the Indian Army as DRDO and L&T plan to rollout prototypes later this year, Indian Army also plans to conclude trials within 18-24 months.

25-ton Light Tank will first go through Internal trials after rollout and will be immediately handed over to Indian Army for High-altitude trials had have been lined up along LAC from the Ladakh sector to Arunachal Pradesh.

SOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG

Dr Tessy Thomas, Director General of Aeronautical Systems, DRDO inaugurated the manufacturing of the Dry Kaveri engine module at the Godrej & Boyce facility which was also attended by Nyrika Holkar, Executive Director, Godrej & Boyce.

GTRE (Gas Turbine Research Establishment) in September 2022 awarded Godrej Aerospace a contract to manufacture eight modules of a 48 kN Dry Kaveri engine without an afterburner. 48 kN Dry Kaveri engine will be used on the Unmanned Strike aircraft that is under development by the DRDO for the Indian Air Force.

SOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG

Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) has started the process for getting CCS clearance for the over Rs 15,000 crore project to build the fifth-generation advanced medium combat aircraft (AMCA), which will be implemented through Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) that is aimed at enabling concurrent engineering and production in faster timelines that will see the participation of Private sector company.

Boeing’s Indian subsidiary is considering participation in India’s AMCA program that will see the SPV route where private players will have a majority stake with a minority stake in Government owned companies like Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).

SOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG

The Indian Air Force (IAF) and DRDO’s Electronics and Radar Development Establishment (LRDE) are collaborating to develop a successor to the framed N011M Bars Hybrid Phased Array Radar (PESA), which combined the best of both worlds by adopting technologies from PESA and AESA, which was created when Russia lacked the technology to develop an AESA Fire Control Radar on its own.

Because of its sheer size and massive weight for an entire radar system weighing around 500+kgs, the N011M will be replaced in 2024-25 by an upscaled Uttam AESA Radar that will weigh less than half of its predecessor while providing a significantly increased detection range.

SOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG

Tejas, India’s indigenous light combat aircraft (LCA), performed admirably at the Exercise Desert Flag, a multilateral air exercise in which air forces from the UAE, France, Kuwait, Australia, the United Kingdom, Bahrain, Morocco, Spain, the Republic of Korea, and the United States took part.

While IAF is tightlipped about the performance of the 5 aircraft that took part in Exercise Desert Flag, idrw.org has learned that it met all operational flight requirements while flying for the first time outside India and participated in diverse fighter engagements.

SOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG

While the LCA-Navy is being used as a Technology Demonstrator programme for the development of the Twin Engine Deck Based Fighter (TEDBF), idrw.org has been told by sources close to the programme that the Navy is still evaluating the aircraft and may consider it for other roles (Trainer) after the NP5 Trainer aircraft is completed.

NP5 has been under assembly and will be used to conduct off-nominal landing trials to study and collect data on the stress points on the landing gears, which will be critical in the development of landing gears for the TEDBF programme.

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

With Germany trying to secure a deal for a six-generation submarine from India in a Government to Government (G2G) deal, people familiar with the matter have told idrw.org that South Korea also has started diplomatic maneuvering in Delhi for its bid where it has offered lithium-ion and fuel cell system powered DSME3000 submarine to meet Indian Navy’s submarine requirements.

South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., Ltd. (DSME) is the sole bidder that has agreed to all the liability clauses and Transfer of Technology (ToT) demands made by the Indian Navy and offered DSME3000 submarine that meets two key benchmarks that involve niche technology that Indian Navy seeks that being lithium-ion batteries and fuel cell system.

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

As Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) and Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) are set to approach the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) for clearance for the development of fifth-generation Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) after completion of the Critical Design Review (CDR), ADA has revealed the process that it follows once 15000 crore program is cleared.

The immediate step after the clearance could be metal cutting to start production of the prototype which will be rolled out four years from the date of the CCS clearance and will be followed by four more prototypes that will join the flight developmental program one year apart from the first flight of the prototype.

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

Video of India’s first C295 tactical transport getting unique grey IAF livery at an assembly at Airbus Defence & Space’s San Pablo site near Seville, Spain has emerged before it completes its first flight soon.

Airbus commenced taxi trials and ground trials of the Indian-bound C295 tactical transport aircraft last few weeks ago and the first aircraft will be delivered to India later in the third quarter of this year.

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

Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Larsen & Toubro (L&T) co-developed Light Tank Prototype will be rolled out later this year but as per ” Business Standard”, Indian Army also will procure at least the first regiment of the Light Battle Tank from the L&T that will be of 45 units.

Last year at Defence Expo 2022 at Gujrat, idrw.org was told by L&T officials that DRDO only contracted L&T as a development partner for manufacturing of the Prototype that didn’t make them the de facto production partner in the program at a later stage hinting that the program might see the opening of tender for other interested vendors.

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

With a focus on reducing Indian dependency on Russian hardware, Pentagon has been pushing the Biden administration to elevate the Indian position to levels as same to close allies like Israel and Japan in terms of access to US-made Military hardware as per the latest media reports.

The US in February surprised Indian military planners when it brought Two F-35A to India at the Aero India 2023 Airshow indirectly making a pitch for the sale of 5th Gen fighter jet even though India had not expressed interest in the program.

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

India has issued Notices to Airmen (NOTAM) for a launch of a missile around the Andaman & Nicobar Islands, near the Malacca Strait for the period from 25-28 April 2023 as per information provided by Twitter user Damien Symon@detresfa_.

The designated area for the NOTAM is just 465km in length which indicates it might be a test of a ship-based cruise missile like Brahmos Extended Range.

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

General Said Chanegriha, Chief of Staff of Algerian People’s National Army was briefed about the Indian-developed Astra Mk1 Beyond Visual Range Air to Air (BVRAAMs) missile at the LAAD 2023, Military exhibition that is being held at Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.

Astra Mk1 BVRAAMs which are equivalent to American AIM-120C5 Beyond Visual Range Air to Air Missile (BVRAAM) with a head-on range of 110km have started replacing Russian Vympel NPO R-77 missiles from India’s Sukhoi-30MKI fleet.

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

Indian Armed Forces after a discussion on their requirements have submitted a report that MQ-9B Predator high altitude long endurance (HALE) armed drones to be procured from General Atomics will be 18 units with each service getting 6 units each that have come down from the initial assessment of 10 units per service branch in total for 30 units.

MQ-9B Predator which will cost India a whopping $100 million per unit has seen resistance from Indian Army and Air Force due to cost while Indian Navy was firm to induct 10 units into its service and was heading the intra-service negotiations.

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

Atul Dinkar Rane, CEO and MD BrahMos Aerospace Private Limited has said that the company is planning to test a 1.5-ton BrahMos-NG Supersonic cruise missile with a range of 290km by end of 2024 or early 2025 with a missile entering production later in 2025.

BrahMos-NG, Air Launched Weapon System already has caught the attention of many Airforce and many Su-30 operators like Vietnam and Indonesia, Malaysia is closely watching this program since adapting and integrating BrahMos-NG into their Su-30 fleet won’t require extensive hardening of the mid-fuselage and other modification as required for the BrahMos-A ALCM.