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.

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

While India is considering a German proposal for Government to Government (G2G) deal for the supply of Next-generation Diesel-Electric submarines to India while it scouts for International vendors for its Project-75I (India) tender, it is estimated that the overall cost of the project will be around $8 billion sharp rise from the Six Scorpène submarines are being built under Project-75 by the MDL under technology transfer from the Naval Group of France under a $3.75 billion.

idrw.org has learned that German offers for Six-next generation submarines as expected won’t come cheap but price escalations from the 2005 deal for Six Scorpène submarines will put them at nearly double the cost which too was locally manufactured in the country.

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

While attending the LAAD 2023, an international exhibition and conference for Latin American defence and security held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, India offered its BrahMos Supersonic cruise missile to the Brazilian military.

For some time now, India has had a strong interest in the Latin American market to increase its weapon exports to the region, and it has marketed this product in the region.

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

Russia’s space agency said on Monday that it was in talks with India about supplying RD-191 rocket engines. Roscomos is looking to India as a new market because it is no longer able to export rocket engines to the United States.

The RD-191 kerosene/liquid oxygen engines are used in Russia’s Angara rocket boosters. The RD-181 engine is currently used to power the first stage of Northrop Grumman’s Antares launch vehicle which after the Ukraine war sanctions has meant export to the United States has collapsed.

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

Bengaluru’s Raman Research Institute (RRI) will work with the Indian Navy’s combat systems engineering wing to develop secure communication channels of strategic importance using quantum technologies.

RRI announced last week a ground-breaking demonstration of secure communication between a stationary source and a moving receiver using quantum key distribution. Although the Indian Navy intends to use it for ship-to-shore communication in the first phase, quantum communications would provide secure communications for Indian missile submarines, raising the possibility that it could be used to communicate with nuclear-armed submarines.

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

According to a report in the ” The Hindu”, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India has flagged Three Defence PSUs selling Ordinance Factor, Trichy, Small Arms Rifle, Kanpur, and Rifle Factory Ishapore that from 2015 have been selling Indian Made Assualt Rifles to BSF, CRPF, ITBP and CISF over the cost of its production they’re by incurring a loss of ?366 crores over five years from 2015.

Three Defence PSUs have sold 12 different categories of guns and Assault rifles to Central Paramilitary forces at a loss because they failed to reduce their procurement cost of the raw material that is used to manufacture them in the country.

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

The Ministry of Defence, Government of India, intends to procure Quantity 439 (Indian Army-415 and Indian Air Force-24) Light Vehicles (Electric) along with 35 x Fast Chargers (Indian Army-29 & Indian Air Force-06) under the ‘Buy (Indian-IDDM)’ category with minimum 50% Indigenous content and seeks participation in the procurement process from prospective Bidders.

Light Vehicles (Electric) should be able to achieve speeds up to 120kmph and can carry a payload of 900kg with a range of 400km that comes with a Battery pack & Motor life of Not less than 8 years/ 1,60,000 km.