SOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG.
According to a report by ” Shephard Press ” the Price of raw materials such as carbon composites has skyrocketed and is causing Indian vendors financial difficulties as India struggles with challenges associated with rising import bills and disruption to supply chains of specialized military materials during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Mk1A, which uses carbon composites in 45% of its airframe, that is slated to start delivery from February 2024 onwards might be the first victim with delays expected. there are some 463 vendors in the LCA program that are supplying carbon wing skins, forward fuselage, flaperons, rudder, keel beam, front fairing, upper fuselage shells, crown, and side panels but are already struggling with raw material supply issues claims report.
Continue readingSOURCE: RAJESH AHUJA / FOR MY TAKE / IDRW.ORG
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation recently de-registered 4 Boeing 747 jumbo that was not part of the Air India deal with Tata Group. The jumbo jets are nearly 30 years old. As per public information, this Boeing jumbo jet was flying top Indian dignitaries, president, PM, and VP, on medium to long haul flights until they were replaced by Air India One Boeing 777-300ER.
Ukraine-Russia war has put GTRE plans to test Dry Kaveri engine on Russian Il-76LL (Flying Lab) aircraft on definite hold. The lack of Flying Lab for New Engines testing in India means delays could eventually affect the Unmanned Strike Vehicle program which was to be equipped with a Dry Kaveri engine generating 46kN of Thrust.
Continue readingSOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG.
Drone warfare finally seems to be catching up with the Indian Generals that there are finally have re-look at the Defence Research and Development Organisation’s (DRDO) proposed short-range, armed UAV called Archer, based on the earlier Rustom-1 that can be classified in the same class as Turkey’s Bayraktar TB2 that has played a key role in wars in Ukraine and Azerbaijan.
Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has issued an Expression of Interest (EoI) for the Selection of partners to half a dozen private companies in mid-2021 that will be in charge of assembly and manufacturing of 20 Limited Series production that will be supplied to both the Indian Army and Indian Air Force as part of user trials if it meets certain requirements then more 100 units will be ordered said informed sources close to idrw.org.
Continue readingSOURCE: JATIN RAM / FOR MY TAKE / IDRW.ORG
It was in April back in 2012, that India for the first time had tested the Agni V ICBM that had a range of over 5000km and that could hit not only the whole of China but also as far as targets in Europe but also made many of India’s friendly countries nervous about country’s ICBM program that in last 10 years it’s more or less meant curtains on development of land-based intercontinental ballistic missile program in the country.
Agni V unlike other missiles has been sparingly tested only 8 times in the last 10 years as India doesn’t want to be seen as trigger happy nuclear state. In the last few years, Agni-V also has disappeared from the military parade that takes place on Republic day. India is the only country in the so-called ” nuclear elite ” group of big 5 that wants to maintain a low profile on its Agni-V program.
Continue readingSOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG.
Electronics and Radar Development Establishment (LRDE) has issued a Request For Information (RFI) for the Active Protection Radar that is designed to detect and automatically track Anti-Tank Rockets (ATRs), Anti-Tank Guided Missiles (ATGMs), and Tank Rounds and will be part of the Active Protection Systems (APS).
Active Protection Radar is usually installed on Main Battle Tanks and Armored Personnel Carriers (APCs) to deliver an early warning to the crew of a potential threat. Active Protection Radar will have 360° upper hemisphere coverage that comes in handy in detecting top attack ATGMS that are seen in modern Anti-tank systems to activate hard-kill countermeasures.
Continue readingSOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG.
After the closure of the Su-30MKi plant, Aircraft Division Nasik, is now shifting its focus to manufacturing parts and assembling structures for the LCA Tejas Mk1A and AMCA program as seen with recent tender activities that were for the Welded Structure of Lca Wing Jig.
HAL LCA division at Bengaluru that is in charge of manufacturing LCA-Tejas Mk1 recently started the shift to start manufacturing 18 LCA-Tejas Trainer jets and will shift to Tejas Mk1A jets from 2023-24 onwards again. HAL wants to use the Nashik facility to enhance the Tejas Mk1A production rate from 16 to 21 for which it plans to create the necessary infrastructure at the Nashik factory so that it can be used to manufacture 5 additional Tejas Mk1A per year for domestic and export markets.
Continue readingSOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG.
French Naval group has confirmed that it is no longer in the race to provide six next-generation conventional-diesel attack class submarines to the Indian Navy’s Project-75I after it was not able to meet certain conditions of the Indian Navy. The naval group said it will continue to collaborate with India on the refit of the Kalvari class submarine with the DRDO-developed Fuel Cell-based Air Independent Propulsion (AIP) System.
DRDO-developed Fuel Cell-based Air Independent Propulsion (AIP) System land-based prototype was successfully demonstrated in endurance mode and max power mode as per the user requirements and now DRDO has started fabrication of the AIP system that it plans to integrate with help from the French Naval group into the first lead ship from 2023 onwards.
Continue readingSOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG.
Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL) Director recently confirmed to the media that the INS Vikrant is set to go for the last leg of its sea trials after which it will be officially handed over to the Indian Navy by end of May. INS Vikrant will be commissioned into the Indian Navy in August around independence day.
idrw.org has learned that the last leg of trials will see touch and go landing on the aircraft carrier by the Mig-29K at high sea and later take-off and landings from its deck. In previous trials, Mig-29K was placed in the aircraft carrier with the help of cranes to study the deck and hangar movements onboard the aircraft carrier.
Continue readingSOURCE: MAHESH SHETTI / FOR MY TAKE / IDRW.ORG
Modi will be the first high-profile dignitary to visit France in the first week of May after the re-election of the French president Emmanuel Macron.” La Tribune ” recently reported that France is keen on pushing for the sale of Rafale M to the Navy and deal for additional Rafale for the air force. Talks are likely to be held with India for the purchase of additional Scorpène class submarines for its Navy.
Since it is a three-nation visit, it is unlikely anything major deal might be announced but they are chance that a deal for the lease of one in-flight refueling aircraft from the French air force might be concluded as it got principal approval from the MoD. Airbus A330 MRTT is a French Air Force-owned asset that doesn’t require to go through major rounds of approvals and since it will be wet-leased it can be absorbed into the Indian air force at a faster rate.
Continue readingSOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG.
It seems the United Kingdom is keen on getting India on board in the development of the 6th gen platform with latest sizeable workshare pact with Indian developers that will involve India in the development of the software for the Tempest fighter jet said a report filed by the Financial express.
Even though India has not officially commented on the offer to join UK lead program to develop a 6th gen fighter jet, the United Kingdom’s offer to India will be to develop a whole software spectrum that includes mission control software, radar source coding, and Ground-based simulators for the pilot training.
Continue readingSOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG.
Gas Turbine Research Establishment (GTRE) Bangalore will be giving another go to develop a 12 MW Kaveri Marine Gas Turbine (KMGT) with a modified core, work for which already has commenced after MoD and Navy agreed to the indigenous engine for the maritime propulsion due to ongoing war in Ukraine.
KMGT when last tested, was not able to maintain its peak power out for a longer duration at the tests that were conducted at the Marine Gas Turbine testbed Facility that is capable of testing the Gas Turbines up to 25 MW of shaft power at Naval Dock Yard, Vishakapatnam.
Continue readingSOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG.
DRDO along with officials from the Indian MoD is participating in Asian Defence & Security 2022 in Manila, Philippines from 27-29th April 2022, where it will be Exhibiting state of art systems based on advanced technologies. DRDO pavilion will be used to promote other Indian-made weapons systems after concluding a deal for the sale of the Indo-Russian Brahmos cruise missiles system to the Philippines.
DRDO is highlighting the capabilities of the Akash surface-to-air missile system and Pinaka rocket system to the Philippines Army. Israel’s state-owned Rafael Advanced Defense Systems has supplied SPYDER, a ground-based air defense system to the Philippine Air Force but the Philippines Army is interested in acquiring a ground-based air defense system that can be installed on strategic locations facing the West Philippine Sea.
Continue readingSOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG.
Indian Navy is planning to drop plans for the vertical launch system (VLS) cells for its Project-75-I submarine program that could have allowed it to carry Brahmos submarine-launched cruise missiles, instead, DRDO and the Navy are working on developing high sub-sonic submarine torpedo launched cruise missiles that will have a range of 1500km and later can be adapted also on Kalvari-class submarine fleet.
Dropping plans for the VLS system for the Project-75-I submarine program might have been much to do with the limited numbers of SLCM that are presently available that can be adopted for the Vertical launch and also due to the limited range of current BrahMos missiles (450km) system.
Continue readingSOURCE: JATIN RAM / FOR MY TAKE / IDRW.ORG
A few weeks ago more details of the RudraM-III became public where the missiles were seen with hypersonic fixed wings leading to speculations that the RudraM-III is a hypersonic missile system but the missile can’t be classified as a hypersonic missile even if it can go hypersonic. Hypersonic is a term used to describe platforms that can travel at speeds above Mach 5, many ballistic missiles achieve such speeds but that doesn’t mean they can be classified as hypersonic missiles systems.
RudraM-III seems to be a conventional air-launched ballistic missile that can achieve hypersonic velocities through a quasi-ballistic flight path that never departs the atmosphere, and it can maneuver throughout its trajectory to avoid being intercepted. The above schematic diagram confirms that the RudraM-III will have a single-stage booster that will propel it after launch from air to high supersonic speeds while the second stage dual-pulse motor will help it attend low hypersonic speeds while it is carryout final terminal stage maneuvering.
Continue readingSOURCE: RAJESH AHUJA / FOR MY TAKE / IDRW.ORG
It seemed for a while that French Safran was in talks with India’s GTRE to jointly develop a 125 kN thrust class engine for the AMCA program but recent joint statements after the visit of the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to India, talked about a joint venture for the development of new engine but again it is still not clear with whom India will be developing a new engine for the AMCA program.
Both Safran and Rolls-Royce have been assigned to develop next-generation fighter jet engines for the 6th gen fighter jet programs that are been divided into two groups in the European Union that are both working in separate 6th gen programs called FCAS program that involves Spain, Germany, and France, while the Tempest team consists of the United Kingdom, Italy, and Sweden.
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