SOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG.
India has issued a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) for a launch of an experimental flight vehicle in the Bay of Bengal for the period from 19-21 January 2022 as per information provided by Twitter user @detresfa_. the designated area is 780km that indicates it might be a test of the Extended range variant of BrahMos-ER.
But the designated area does seems to be quite similar to what was issued in September 2020 when the HSTDV cruise vehicle mounted on a solid rocket motor was tested. Defence Ministry already had asked DRDO to fast track Hypersonic missile program and it is expected that this time HSTDV will be tested without the shield. HSTDV program will be followed by Two separate hypersonic cruise missile programs under ” Project Vishnu”.
Continue readingSOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG.
European missile firm MBDA is currently offering the Indian Navy its New Long-Range Anti-ship Missile System With Land Attack Capability ” TESEO MK2/E “, which the company claims has a range of 350km at very low altitude against all classes of warship and land targets, that relies on an advanced mission planning system that allows it to operate in congested and cluttered scenarios.
TESEO MK2/E is Low radar signature, High subsonic cruise missile that weighs only 700kgs which supports Salvo firing and has a two-way data link system, for target update/reassignment mid air.
Continue readingSOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG.
Indian Air Force (IAF) chief, Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari speaking to Vayu Aerospace has confirmed that the Indian Air Force (IAF) is looking to procure more CH-47 Chinook Helicopters for which it has started the process to get it cleared from the Cabinet Committee on Security later this year.
India had finalized a multi-billion dollar contract with Boeing to procure 22 Apache helicopters and 15 Chinooks for the IAF in September 2015. The original contract had provision for follow-on orders of 6 AH-64E Apache Guardian attack helicopters that were cleared in 2019 but this time it will be operated by the Indian Army’s Aviation Corps (AAC). IAF likely will press for 7 follow-on orders of CH-47 Chinook Helicopters that are part of the original contract but idrw.org has been told CCS might clear only 4-5 units due to the high procurement cost of these Boeing built helicopters.
Continue readingSOURCE: NARAYAN APTE/ FOR MY TAKE / IDRW.ORG
The military training aircraft market projection from 2021 till 2030 is estimated to be worth 6.62 billion as reported in a reputed defense sector think tank report and the market for Basic Jet Trainers, Intermediate Jet Trainers, and Advanced Jet Trainers for Fixed-wing Aircraft type will see further expansion after a lull over last decade next 10 years as many countries around the world are planning to replace their aging military trainer with new light trainer aircraft, which is likely to propel growth shortly.
This forecast will come as a tremendous opportunity for the state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) to market its HTT-40 (BTA), HJT-36 Sitara (IJT), and LCA-LIFT in the export market as this aviation segment is largely dominated by multiple players and but dominated by few and should come as low hanging fruit for India’s Aerospace sector to establish itself before other aerospace projects like fighter jets and heavy helicopters can be marketed abroad.
Continue readingSOURCE: SATYAJEET KUMAR/ FOR MY TAKE / IDRW.ORG
R Madhavan. Chairman & Managing Director Hindustan Aeronautics Limited while updating on the LCA-AF Mk2 program to the ” The Hindu ” said that the rollout of the first aircraft might be delayed to early 2023 as the company fears that spike in covid cases in the country might result in lockdowns that might affect supply chain that will delay in the supply of components and systems for the program.
LCA-AF Mk2 initially planned for August this year was pushed back to the end of this year and now hints are been dropped that it might be again be pushed to early 2023 that in HAL words can be up to March when the financial year for the company ends.
Continue readingSOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG.
ADE Director Dr. S Venugopal speaking to Dr. Anantha Krishnan Tarmak Media House has said that Rustam-1 SR ( Short range)-UAV that was developed to be a testbed for the bigger MALE Class Rustam-2 is an excellent UAV, to begin with, and it was later decided that the DRDO developed air to surface missile system for the UAV Class will be integrated into the UAV that is now been called Archer.
Venugopal said that the advantage of Archer and Rustam-2 is that both use the same avionics and systems including LRUs and Ground stations that can operate both UAVs with a switch of software that will reduce maintenance and logistics issues for the squadron that will be operating both classes of drones from its base.
Continue readingSOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG.
South Asian Terrorism Portal (SATP) that keep track of military and paramilitary casualties in the South Asian countries said in its latest report that Pakistan armed forces are taking more casualties than their bigger Indian counterpart in the last three years and fatalities are only rising and last year alone Pakistani armed force suffered over double the casualties then India.
According to SATP Data, In 2019 Pakistan had 137 casualties while India had 132, but 2020 saw a rise in Pakistani casualties that jumped to 178 while in India it went down to 106. 2021 in the backdrop of Taliban take over Afghanistan and TTP increasing frequency of its attacks on Pakistani forces it suffered 226 casualties while Indian casualties were the same as the previous year at 104.
Continue readingSOURCE: IDRW NEWS NETWORK
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DRDO’s GTRE is planning to conclude a deal with either Safran or Rolls-Royce for the development of a new 110kN Class thrust engine that can be used to power India’s AMCA MkII jets that goes into production in 2035 by mid of this year that will be directly under the preview of the PM’s Office and will be taken as a national project for which clearance of the project will likely take place soon.
idrw.org has been told that nearly 8 new engines will be manufactured after inking the deal within three years from the date of agreement that will be used as ground technology demonstrator engines to be used to test the engine in various configurations with or without afterburner section initially after which the project moves to fabrication of 6 more flying technology demonstrator engine that will be used on the Flying Test Bed aircraft prepared for the program.
Continue readingSOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG.
CEO and MD BrahMos Aerospace Atul Dinkar Rane speaking to DD said that the Joint development of the BrahMos-NG (Next Generation ) has commenced with Russia and it will take nearly four years before the missile is ready for developmental trials. Rane said both countries are trying to achieve speeds that are nearly 1 1/2 times more than the existing missile variant of BrahMos.
BrahMos-NG will weigh around 1.5 tons which is nearly half the weight when compares to the existing BrahMos that is close to 3tons. BrahMos-NG is primarily been designed as an Air-Launched Cruise Missile Program that can be used for Anti-Ship missile (AShM) or as Anti-surface missile (ASM) against high-value targets.
Continue readingSOURCE: TUSHKAR SHIRODKAR / FOR MY TAKE / IDRW.ORG.
The developmental cost of AMCA is pegged at Rs.15,000 Crore ($1.9 Billion) that includes the cost for the building of 2 Next Generation Technology Demonstrator aircraft (NGTD) and 5 Prototype aircraft and the creation of infrastructure for the production of 16-20 aircraft per annum at a new facility that will come up at the Tamil Nadu Defence Industrial Corridor (TNDIC). AMCA Program cost is near twice the amount (Rs.7965.56 Crore ) that the Government had to spend on Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Phase-I & Phase-II Programs.
IAF’s commitment to the program when it enters the production stage is for 40 AMCA Mk1 aircraft and 80 AMCA MkII that will require another additional 550-600 crore per-unit costs in a separate deal at later stages. AMCA Program will also include a new engine program for which India will need to spend nearly 12-14,000 Crore while the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) program had allocated separate funds of just 3000 crores for the Kaveri engine development program.
Continue readingSOURCE: NARAYAN APTE/ FOR MY TAKE / IDRW.ORG
A Pakistani Minister has confirmed that they brought 25 J-10C fighter jets in response to India’s purchase of Dassault Rafale from France but J-10C is the second choice of Pakistan Air Force (PAF) after it failed to get hands-on more F-16 Block-52 jets over its present fleet of 18 units in service. PAF clearly won’t be getting any more upgraded F-16s and nor it will be getting any upgrade package kit that it wants for its older F-16 MLU-15 but J-10C is no match to Dassault Rafale but it could be fair to compare it with Tejas Mk2 that is currently under development.
Tejas Mk2 and J-10C are both under 20k ton aircraft that will be used for air superiority and multi-role operations and key data above gives J-10 an upper hand when it comes to the specification of the aircraft since it is bigger aircraft it is also equipped with an engine that is more powerful and also has a higher take-off weight.
Continue readingSOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG.
Retd. Commodore Jaideep Maolankar (Mao) who headed LCA Navy flight test units peaking to Dr. Anantha Krishnan Tarmak Media House gave his opinion on the Twin Engine Deck Based Fighter (TEDBF) said that the aircraft that will come out in 2030 has to be better than aircraft that came out 30 years ago (Rafale M) not only in terms of technology but also leap in technologies that are currently underway in fighter aircraft development world over.
Mao said even though TEDBF is a 4th Gen fighter aircraft program it has to incorporate technologies that leap over existing technologies even if aircraft is of the same generation and supported incorporation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) that will not only help pilots in aerial combats but also in executing weapon-carrying drones towards its target.
Continue readingSOURCE: IDRW NEWS NETWORK
IAF after placing orders for 83 jets upgrade Tejas Mk1A jets, has requested a host of new weapons that it plans to integrate and test this year for which HAL has been assigned as an integration and testing partner and DRDO/ADA have been assigned to develop software coding that will enable these weapons to be integrated with the Mission computer and Weapons control computer so they work as required.
The first major weapons system that will be tested and cleared for operational usage will be the indigenously developed Astra Mk1, Beyond visual range air to air missiles for which captive flights trials of the missiles already has started and launch trials for at least 3 missiles have been planned this year before it can be cleared for operational usage.
Continue readingSOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG.
The Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) has awarded a contract for the fabrication of 2 composite Radome to a British-based Meggitt Aerospace Limited. Composite Radome supplied by the company will be used on the first and second pre-production Tejas Mk2 jets, while efforts are being made by ADA to fabricate and develop technologies indigenously that will be used in production variants of the aircraft when it enters service in 2028.
Composite Radome maintain low observability to the enemy and Meggitt Aerospace Limited are specialists in the design, testing, manufacturing, and service of Advanced Composite Radome in the US and UK. According to ADA, Tejas Mk2 will feature 10% smaller Radome to incorporate an infrared search and track (IRST) system when compared to the dimensions of nose cone seen on the Tejas Mk1/1A.
Continue readingSOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG.
Dr. S Venugopal, Project Director for the Astra Program speaking to Dr. Anantha Krishnan Tarmak Media House has confirmed trials of the Astra Mk2 that will have a range of 160km will be tested in 2022 this is the first official confirmation coming from the DRDO. Venugopal also confirmed that Astra Mk1 integration into LCA-Tejas Mk1 is nearly completed and trials can happen any time in the coming weeks.
Astra Mk2 will be comparable in range to the American AIM-120D, the latest variant coming out of the AMRAAM family that has been reported to have a range of 161km. Astra Mk2 uses a double-pulse solid rocket motor to improve its range. Astra Mk2 will weigh around 175kgs that is little more than the AIM-120D that weighs only 161kgs but a lot lesser than Chinese PL-15E that is around 200kgs and has a range of 145km.
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