SOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG
Indian Navy while it is pushing hard to make another Vikrant Class Aircraft carrier at an estimated cost of ?23,000 crores (US$2.9 billion) but also has plans to develop a super aircraft carrier that will have 21,000-tons more displacement than the Vikrant Class Aircraft carrier in near future.
Vikrant Class Aircraft carrier has a displacement of just over 44,000 tons, Super Aircraft Carrier under consideration with have a displacement of over 65,000 tons and as per Navy estimate will cost over $5 billion considering it will feature more advancement due to CATOBAR configuration.
Continue readingSOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG
Breaching the Indian Air Force’s (IAF) mandatory 75% availability rate for contenders in India’s $20 billion Multi-Role Fighter Aircraft (MRFA) programme. According to Saab officials who spoke with idrw.org, the Gripen-E on offer to the IAF will have 90% availability rate across its fleet of 114 jets as a commitment from the company when it responds to the IAF’s yet-to-be-issued RFP.
The Gripen-E, a 16.5-ton aircraft, will be in the same class as the Tejas Mk2 and will also use the same engine from General Electric’s developed F-414 engine, which company officials believe will reduce IAF logistics and can be seen as an advantage for the company as well as a great supplement to the Tejas Mk2 programme.
Continue readingSOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG
Boeing that is planning to close down the production line of its F-18 E/F Superhornet facility in St. Louis by 2025 and is willing to move it to India if the Indian Navy agrees to procure the originally intended order of 57 jets under Multirole Carrier Borne Fighters (MRCBF) tender instead of the reduced number of 26 jets.
Navy chief, Admiral Hari Kumar recently said that both the F-18 and the Rafale fighter are being found acceptable by the Indian Navy for the indigenous aircraft carrier INS Vikrant, the Navy is looking to see how much ‘commonality’ there will be vis-à-vis the Indian Air Force’s Rafale.
Continue readingSOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG
Bengaluru-based Newspace Research and Technologies Pvt Ltd (NRT) has delivered two types of UAV, a Beluga hexacopter and a Nimbus Mk-III quadcopter to the Indian Army as part of the 100 Swarm drone contract that it secured from the Indian Army in 2021.
The last shipment of the Swarm drone was completed last week. NRT is expecting the possibility of more orders coming soon for its Beluga and Nimbus hexacopter that feature a 50km radius of operation and 3h endurance.
Continue readingSOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG
Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) owned upgraded Hawk Mk132 advanced jet trainer (AJT) that is called Hawk-i by the company will be used as a Testbed aircraft for the upcoming Hindustan Lead-in Fighter Trainer (HLFT-42) that was recently unveiled at Aero India 2023.
Hawk-i will be integrated with an indigenous Fly by wire system and indigenously developed Mission Computer and other systems such as secure voice communication and data link capability that will eventually find their way into HLFT-42 when work on the prototype begins in the next 4-5 years.
Continue readingSOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG
Armenian delegation that was sent to India last year carried out a series of tests of the Kalyani Strategic Systems Limited (KSSL) developed 155-mm / 39 self-propelled howitzers called MArG (Multi-terrain Artillery Gun) that are mounted on a 4×4 wheeled Truck before it placed orders for the weapons system.
Kalyani officials claimed that MArG 155/ 39 Truck-mounted gun was developed in 8 months and was tested by Indian Army on behalf of the Kalyani group in Balasore and Pokhran before it was offered to Armenia which was looking for a similar weapons system for their high altitude operations in an area where it has an ongoing conflict with Azerbaijan.
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 15-17, and 20-22 March 2023 as per information provided by Twitter user Damien Symon@detresfa_.
The designated area for the NOTAM is just over 200km in length which indicates it might be a test of a ship-based cruise missile like ITCM or Brahmos or of an Air Defence system.
Continue readingSOURCE: API
The Indian Navy carried out a successful precision strike in the Arabian Sea by ship-launched BrahMos missile with a DRDO-designed indigenous seeker and booster which for the first time replaced Russian systems in the missile but Hyderabad Magnetic Observatory and Alibaug Magnetic Observatory that uses magnetometers to record changes in the magnetic field including those on or near the Earth and in space observed some spikes which Richard Cordaro on Twitter claimed saw Hypersonic spikes.
Cordaro explained that ” Missiles often produce acoustic waves which penetrate our ionosphere, creating magneto-acoustic waves. Resulting in magnetic field fluctuations recorded on ground-based magnetometers”.
Continue readingSOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG
National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) will carry out the first flight of the scaled-down model of the High Altitude Platform (HAP) in May this year that will fly up to 3 km,(9842ft) and will act as a technology demonstrator for the bigger HAP the company plans to develop.
A fully-fledged HAP will be able to fly up to 18-20km (65616ft) which NAL claims can be used by the local civilian agency to establish emergency communication systems in disaster-hit areas, to check pollution, and to map development activities in the area. HAP can also be used by security agencies to keep a tight vigil at borders and prevent infiltrations and smuggling.
Continue readingSOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG
Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) has increased the repair and overhaul (ROH) capability of the Sukhoi Su-30 MKI aircraft from 16 to 20 every year and the earlier turnaround time which was 30 months has now been reduced to 15 months, which comes as a boost to Su-30MKI fleet often called as the backbone of fighter fleet with IAF.
HAL had set up the Su-30MKI ROH facility at its Nashik Plant where the facility provides full maintenance support and enhances the serviceability of the Su-30(MKI) fleet throughout its life cycle.
Continue readingSOURCE: DEEPAK HILORI/ FOR MY TAKE / IDRW.ORG
It seems Indian Air Force is again in the mood for the purchase of another Transport Aircraft that eventually will replace the ageing fleet of Soviet-Era An-32 Short-haul Transporter that was procured in the mid-’80s after recently concluding a deal for the purchase of Airbus C-295M Tactical Transport Aircraft that will be manufactured in the country.
IAF is looking to procure nearly 80 medium-lift military transport aircraft that will replace 118 An-32 Short-haul Transporter and seems to have dropped plans to procure more C-295 that are classified in the same class of aircraft but instead, it has decided to go for a plane with nearly double the cargo carrying capacity then An-32 it intends to replace.
Continue readingSOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG
The Rolls-Royce Turbomeca Adour Mk 871 turbofans engine that is manufactured by Rolls-Royce in collaboration with Safran subsidiary Turbomeca has been having troubles with its turbine blade lifespan issue that lead to the grounding of the Royal Air Force’s Hawk T2 training aircraft after engine problems were identified.
Rolls-Royce has claimed that it is not a problem restricted to India alone and has provided an interim solution to the HAL but idrw.org has been told that a permanent fix to the issue of short-lived turbine blades will only come by end of 2025.
Continue readingSOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG
Chief of Naval Staff Admiral R. Hari Kumar told ABP Live that both Dassault Aviation’s Rafale M and Boeing’s F/A-18 Super Hornet have cleared technical trials held by the Indian Navy and both aircraft met its requirements for deck-based operations from two Indian aircraft carriers but it will be the decision of the government since the Navy has said yes to both.
Kumar acknowledged that IAF that operates Rafale will have a commonality for spare parts and support etc that might play a crucial role in its considerations.
Continue readingSOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG
Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) CMD CB Ananthakrishnan told the media that the scale model of the Hindustan Lead-in Fighter Trainer (HLFT-42) showcased at Aero India 2023 is fully a company initiative to offer Indian Air Force (IAF) a next-generation trainer aircraft platform that can be used to train pilots to fly next-generation fighter jets like AMCA.
HTT-40 and HJT-36 were based on the user (IAF) requirements but HLFT-42 is based on the possible requirements to meet evolving changes in the fighter pilot training curriculum and the lack of twin-seater aircraft being developed for future fighter jets like Tejas Mk2 and AMCA.
Continue readingSOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG
Indian Navy has initiated the process of starting a study for a larger carrier as informed by Admiral R Hari Kumar to the media. The 65000-tonne aircraft carrier that will use “catapult assisted take-off but arrested recovery” (CATOBAR) will see the adaption of next-gen Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) and Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG) systems.
General Atomics which has developed EMALS & AAG Systems for U.S. Navy’s nuclear-powered, 100,000-tonne Supercarriers also has claimed to develop smaller EMALS & AAG Systems that can be used on smaller aircraft carriers like one Indian plan to develop.
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