Indian armed forces woefully short of equipment: report

Malaysia shows interest in acquiring Brahmos supersonic cruise missile

New Delhi: The Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister of Malaysia Hon'ble Dato' Sri Mohd. Najib Tun Hj. Abdul Razak with a high-level delegation visited the BrahMos Weapon Design Complex here today.

Dr. A S Pillai, CEO and MD BrahMos received the delegation and highlighted the technological advancement made by the country with this high-tech project.

The delegation was shown the actual missile hardware and the sus-systems and a presentation was also given to the delegation explaining the technical features of the system.

Malaysia shows interest in acquiring Brahmos supersonic cruise missile

.....
After seeing the presentation, the Deputy Prime Minister (of Malaysia) said, "we are very much pleased with the technical progress made by India in high technology projects and are looking forward to stronger defence cooperation with the country based on the memorandum signed yesterday".

We are very impressed to see the BrahMos weapon systems especially with its 100% flight performance and pin point accuracy in neutralizing the targets, he said.




The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has developed light weight torpedo. The torpedo, developed under the project, Advanced Experimental Torpedo, is now named “Torpedo Advanced Light” (TAL). The torpedo has undergone technical trials during 1994-1998 and user trials during 1998-2000. User evaluation trials using designed and engineered models of the Torpedo were conducted during 2003-2005. Navy has termed these trials as successful and satisfactory. The expenditure incurred on Research and development of the torpedo during 2003-04, 2004-05 and 2005-06 was Rs. 164.93 lakhs, Rs. 36.94 lakhs and Rs. 23.63 lakhs respectively.

Bharat Dynamics Limited, Hyderabad has submitted budgetary quotation for 25 numbers of torpedo to Integrated Headquarters (Navy). Production will start immediately after placement of order.

This information was given by Defence Minister Mr Pranab Mukherjee in a written reply to Mr Kuldeep Bishnoi.

Source:
Courtesy of A Sharma, Bharat-Rakshak.com, who posted the article from Sainik Samachar magazine.

I hope that this torpedo is named Jal (water in Sanskrit). This will be a step closer in completing the pentalogy of missile nomenclature i.e. Prithvi, Agni, Jal, Akash (Earth, Fire, Water, Sky) and Vayu (Wind). India's A2A missile is inappropriately named Astra (weapon). The ideal name must have been Vayu.

Why defence . com is banned ????

ask webmaster...but I believe it has something to do whit people from there to troll in Defencetalk main pages. To my knowlidge its an nasty clone site that someones are making after they have been banned from the orginals one....

IndianFighter:

I've seen you working so hard in posting on two forums: the [Latest Indian MKI aircraft facing problems] and this forum. But do you think that you've posted too much?

I think that it's not good to post too much, because the side effect would make it becoming your personal thread and nobody would bother to check it.

At begining, I was quite interested in the MKI affairs, but later on when the thread goes off its orginal topic, I got tired and don't even check that thread. When eventualy check it, I found that the posters are mostly IndianFighter, IndianFighter and IndianFighter.... and very few others...

Just my suggestion, no other meaning, hope that you would consider it

Sincere yours
SteelBird

^^ actually its turned into IAF news thread. so its no more MKI related.

world is full of surprises.

ArjunMk1 said:

Why defence . com is banned ????

Click to expand...

You should post the ACTUAL URL of the report where that website COPIES from. It has been banned due to PM spamming on and may have done the same here on SDF. The owner, Srirangan was also banned on both sites and many others for useless trolling and advertisement and running a "fake" news agency based in Dehli, India. He has also been encouraging young and brainless Pakistanis to make clone sites of Pakistani Defence as well DefenceTalk as he has done. Same with Bharat Rakhshak News... post the URL which is in the FRAME (ACTUAL URL) not BR's, although BR is not banned as it is much more reputable as far as Indian military weapons are concerned at least. I do not like this type of cheap and deceptive advertisement. :nono:

SteelBird said:

IndianFighter:

I've seen you working so hard in posting on two forums: the [Latest Indian MKI aircraft facing problems] and this forum. But do you think that you've posted too much?

I think that it's not good to post too much, because the side effect would make it becoming your personal thread and nobody would bother to check it.

At begining, I was quite interested in the MKI affairs, but later on when the thread goes off its orginal topic, I got tired and don't even check that thread. When eventualy check it, I found that the posters are mostly IndianFighter, IndianFighter and IndianFighter.... and very few others...

Just my suggestion, no other meaning, hope that you would consider it

Sincere yours
SteelBird

Click to expand...

Hello Steelbird. A few months ago I had started 2 threads : Indian Air Force News thread and Indian Army & Navy news thread, where I kept posting newws articles (mainly from BR).

But there was an altercation between myself and another member (now banned) on the IA and IN news thread, and hence those threads were locked as well as all topics related to India were banned.

Recently the latter rule was relaxed and news reports were posted. I requested Gollevainen to unlock those threads but he did not do so as old argumentss might have resurfaced.
Thus, I publicly made a declaration that IAF news shall be posted on the MKI thread and IA & Navy news on this thread itself.

Kindly read post #7 (by me) and post #8 (by Gollevainen). It was on Gollevainen's insistence that this thread has been kept for ALL India-related news so that a new thread is not started for every small news report.

I have also made this suggestion clear on post #15 on this URL:
http://www.sinodefenceforum.com/showthread.php?t=1846

Thank you.

Regards.

_____________________

Delays, glitches hit missile plan
Rajat Pandit
[ Sunday, June 11, 2006 11:56:45 pm]

NEW DELHI: India may have successfully tested Prithvi yet again on Sunday, but the fact is that its 23-year-old missile programme still continues to be haunted by technical glitches, time and cost overruns.

As if this was not enough, lack of requisite political will often also stymies development plans as shown by the delay in the maiden test-launch of the nuclear-capable Agni-III missile, as reported by TOI earlier.

Pakistan, conversely, continues to make steady progress in the missile arena. Of course, unlike India's "largely" indigenous efforts, Pakistan's programme has been based on covert help from China and North Korea, with the active support of the now infamous A Q Khan network.

Pakistan's 'Shaheen' missiles, for instance, are basically derived from Chinese M-9, M-11 and M-18 missiles, while
its 'Ghauri' series owe their origin to North Korean Nodong missiles. Even its latest 'Babur' cruise missile has "foreign imprints".

Be that as it may, here's a status report on the Indian missiles :

Prithvi: This tactical surface-to-surface "battlefield support" missile is the only one to be "fully and confidently operationalised" by the Army till now.

While the Army version has a strike range of 40 to 150-km with a one-tonne warhead, the IAF (P-II) and Navy (Dhanush) variants have a 250-km range with a 500-kg payload. Further tests, like the one on Sunday, are being conducted to finetune the different variants and increase their range.

Agni: This family of road and rail-mobile ballistic missiles constitute an important leg of India's nuclear deterrence posture. But while the Pakistan-specific Agni-I (700 to 800-km) and China-specific Agni-II (2,500-km) missiles have now been inducted into the Armed Forces, "some operational glitches" are still being sorted out, say sources.

As for the two-stage solid-fuelled Agni-III, the country's most ambitious missile till now, since it can deliver a one-tonne nuclear payload to over 3,000-km, its first test is now likely in August. "But it will take a few more tests before it can be ready," said sources.

BrahMos: This supersonic 300-km range cruise missile, first tested in June 2001, has done remarkably well, primarily because it's a joint project with Russia. Already installed in some warships, with destroyer INS Rajput being the first one, it has also being tested in the land-attack mode by Army.

Contracts worth Rs 3,500 crore have being inked with Navy and Army for this missile. Even as work is in progress to configure BrahMos on the Sukhoi-30MKI fighters, the government has now also sanctioned additional R&D funds towards doubling the present missile speed of 2.8 Mach.

Sagarika: Sanctioned in 1990, the development work on this submarine-launched land-attack missile has seen many ups and downs, with even a change in its profile from a ballistic missile to a cruise one. The Armed Forces now hope to test the cruise missile variants in the next two years.

Akash and Trishul: These crucial surface-to-air missiles (air defence systems) have fared the worst since they were conceived in the mid-1980s. The 9-km range Trishul's repeated failure, in fact, forced Navy to push for Israeli 'Barak' missile defence systems for its frontline warships during the 1999 Kargil conflict.

Defence Research and Development Organisation now says the 25-km range Akash, with 13 test flights in 2005 and three in January this year, has now completed "all development trials" and is ready for "user-trials". But it will still take a long time for Akash and the almost-dead Trishul to actually, if ever, enter the Armed Forces' inventory.

Nag: Similar is the case with this four-km anti-tank guided missile, touted to have "top-attack" and "fire-and-forget" capabilities, despite being tested over 50 times since 1990.

DRDO holds Nag's "pre-user trails" have been completed and the final user trials will be held between July and ecember. "But even then, it will take at least two years for it to become fully operational," said an officer.

Source:

Now this jurno : 'Rajat Pandit' is notorious for making foul cries ......... He is a negatine news man

Is this news article true? I wasn't aware of the fact that the thermal imaging of the T-90S was made by Thales.


T-90 tank flaws trouble Army

DC special
Chandigarh, June 12: Inducted to serve as India’s main battle tank just over three years ago, the Army’s fleet of Russian-built T-90s have run into serious trouble. The problems include critical flaws in its fire control system, availability of ammunition and, what military officers said, was “avoidable” overuse during training exercises, rendering many tanks in need of overhaul.

According to Jane’s Defence Weekly, the tank’s continuing technical flaws are “adversely impinging on the Indian Army’s operational preparedness.” Confirming the Jane’s report, senior Army officers told this newspaper that the French Catherine thermal imaging (TI) camera, which gives the T-90’s Belarussian (Peling IG-46) night sight its 3 km range and higher accuracy, is not “adequately tropicalised” and hence prone to malfunctioning in the extreme heat of the Rajasthan desert region, where temperatures inside the MBT routinely average between 55ºC and 60ºC.

During repeated manoeuvres in the Thar Desert, where the T-90s will ultimately be deployed in the event of an outbreak in hostilities, prolonged use under high temperatures had already “knocked out” between 80 and 90 of the Catherine TI cameras, rendering the FCS “unserviceable.” The officers said that repeated efforts to correct the problem had been without success.

The TI cameras are the crucial “eyes” of the tank’s systems. At Rs 2 crores each, the Catherine TI system comprises almost one-sixth of each T-90’s total cost of Rs 11.75 crores. One of the options currently being explored to rectify the FCS is to locally develop an airconditioning plant for the TI camera. For this, a former director-general of mechanised forces is understood to have already held discussions with some French manufacturers, including Thales (which makes the Catherine TI cameras).

However, neither this nor the local vendors called in by the DRDO have had any success in this matter. The Army, incidentally, does not have a D-G for its mechanised forces after Lt. Gen. G.D. Singh became deputy chief of staff at Army Headquarters recently. Under the circumstances, it could take any new D-G who is appointed quite a while before he can adequately address the T-90’s problems, possibly further delaying the MBT’s operational preparedness.

The problem of successfully integrating the Catherine TI camera with the Belarussian IG-46 sight is also believed to have considerably delayed the licensed production of T-90s at the Heavy Vehicles Factory (HVF) at Avadi. Sources said the indigenous T-90 production, as part of the transfer of technology agreement signed with Russia, which was scheduled to begin in 2006, has been deferred after problems were encountered in fitting out the FCS in assembled tanks.

Of the total of 310 T-90 tanks, 124 were bought fully formed and kits were imported for the remaining 186 to be assembled at Avadi. The first locally-assembled T-90s rolled out of the HVF in January 2004, but these too have run into problems with the FCS.