Indian Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

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aksha

Captain
Widebody War Looming For Indian AWACS?
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A competition lies ahead for the supply of six widebody jets for India's reloaded AWACS programme, an effort that looks
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initially. The model above, appearing in public for the first time, depicts the proposed AWACS as being based on an Airbus A330 platform with the integrated 10-metre antenna radome. There's a reason: when the programme was revived some years ago, the DRDO had conducted an internal study and decided that the Airbus jet was what they wanted, though it was rapidly made clear that the field for widebodies was unrestricted, and that the DRDO needed to tender for those six jets. And that's what it began doing in March last year.

The DRDO is expected to issue an RFP, and the competition looks like it could potentially be a face-off between theAirbus A330and theBoeing 767(this post will be updated with official word from both, if they choose to). Word is Russia's United Aircraft Corp. could also send out feelers on the Il-76MD-90Aas a potential platform for the AWACS.

Senior scientists at the Centre for Airborne Systems (CABS) I spoke to here at Aero India 2015 said fabrication of the 10 metre antenna was progressing well, and that there could be movement on data link and communication systems and electronics this year.

The IAF is looking to operate at least 15 AWACS aircraft. It currently has three Il-76 based PHALCON platforms and will soon sign up for two more. The Indian AWACS RfP is likely, therefore, to be for six modified widebody platforms with options for four-six more.
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A

aksha

Captain
We have no doubts on Tejas’ capabilities: IAF Chief

Bengaluru, Feb 19: Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha said on Thursday that the Indian Air Force (IAF) would begin the Squadron formation of the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas after receiving third series production (SP) variant.

It was for the first time that an IAF Chief spoke comprehensively about the home-grown fighter jet's squadron formation. "We have no doubt about the capability of the aircraft," Raha said.

"The first two series production aircraft (SP-1 and SP-2) have some slight variations and from SP-3 onwards we will have them entering into the Squadron. The first squadron will consist of aircraft from SP-3 to SP-6," the Air Chief said.

As reported by this Correspondent earlier, the IAF will form the No 45 Squadron (Flying Daggers for Tejas. The same squadron last flew the MiG 21 Bison aircraft operating from Naliya in Gujarat.

The Tejas Squadron will be first raised in Bengaluru and later will be positioned at the Sulur Air Force base, near Coimbatore.

Full squadron strength by end of 14 5 year plan

Raha said the IAF would achieve the status of having required total operational squadron of 42 by the end of the 14th Five Year Plan. "We will form the second Tejas squadron when we receive the aircraft from the Final Operational Clearance block," he said.

The Air Chief said confirmed that in addition to the first order of 40 Tejas aircraft, 80 more will be ordered (Mark II version). He said the induction of the fifth generation fighter aircraft (FGFA) will play a crucial role in achieving the full operational capabilities.

On the sticky MMRCA (Rafale) deal, the Chief said that the Cost Negotiations Committee (CNC) is currently looking into the issues involved in the deal. "IAF needs MMRACAs and I am not saying it has to be Rafale.
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@A Bar Brother, so we can be sure that FGFA is coming ,
but about the rafale i will await the decision in march.
 
A

aksha

Captain
@A Bar Brother , then comes this

Rafale & Sukhoi Can't Replace Each Other: IAF Chief

Amidst swirling speculation that India's M-MRCA jet deal with Rafale is shuddering through final lap turbulence, and suggestions (including by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar himself) that the India could buy more Su-30 MKI jets if the Rafale deal didn't work out, Indian Air Force chief Arup Raha today publicly declared that the Rafale and Su-30 were different aircraft and that one couldn't replace the other.

"There's M-MRCA and there's Sukhoi-30. The requirements are slightly different. And they have their own capabilities. They compliment each other but do not replace each other," Raha said at his press conference at the Aero India show in Bengaluru.

Making clear the IAF's own thoughts on open suggestions that 'other options' existed in the event of a deal collapse, Raha said, "No, we don’t have a Plan-B as of now. We are only working on Plan-A."

The IAF chief also stated, in what could be perceived as a sense of resignation over the turbulence negotiations have seen over the last 18 months, "Rafale has been selected as L1. It is a replacement. It is important that we have the MMRCA, I would not say Rafale. But we need to have it in the quickest possible time because the draw-down is true. Everyone is aware of the draw-down of combat squadrons of the IAF. Every air force faces this in its cycle of operations. It is not new or specific to IAF."
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Jeff Head

Jeff Head

General
Registered Member
aksha said:
...and umm [USER=147]@Jeff Head ,this isn't a tweet,this is a live report by livefist from Aero india 2015,
hope you will forgive??[/USER]
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Whatever they are, they are basically one liners, with no link, and they are being treated like major news or an article.

Please link to articles and discuss them.

...or, post your own informed views regarding such things.

But the point is, these very short, cryptic posts from "Live" updates, are cluttering up the threads they are on. Far too many, and most are cryptic, short little messages...sometimes posted a very few minutes apart.

If it is major news...post it and link to it. My suggestion would be to pick one or two per day to post that have substance and that you can link to and discuss in some detail on these thread.

SD is a place to post and discuss major news, and members measured, informed, and technical thoughts about the same on these issues.

Thanks.
 
A

A Bar Brother

Junior Member
The Philosopher said:
I
Its said that India's bureaucracy is very inefficient because of corruption and their weapon system seems to always suffer malfuctions because of poorly made parts like the LAC helicopter. I think that's what it's called so it's probably going to take longer then that plus the Russians aren't that helpful either
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Corruption in the military sector is much lesser than in the civilian sector. And except for Mig-21s, the crash rates of IAF aircraft is similar to global norms. I don't know what the South Americans are doing, but many IAF ALH crashes have been due to bad weather in the Himalayas.
 
A

A Bar Brother

Junior Member
Brumby said:
That wasn't the question nor the nature of my post. The issue I have with all these far out dates is that they are rather meaningless because India has a poor track record of delivering according to plan especially as complex as a 5th gen program. Rather than talk about these dates, actual signing of the FGFA contract would be a good step. So let's see if that can be accomplished in the near future. Everything else is really fluff.
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Fair enough.

Evidence based discussion is impossible here anyway.

And the Russians are doing most of the work, India is just doing some support work, so if you have issues about the planned delivery schedule, you will have to take it up with the Russians, not Indians.
 
Brumby

Brumby

Major
A Bar Brother said:
And the Russians are doing most of the work, India is just doing some support work, so if you have issues about the planned delivery schedule, you will have to take it up with the Russians, not Indians.
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If those far out dates are to be met on the FGFA program India needs to stop negotiating and actually start work on the program as it has a history of protracted negotiations .e.g Rafale deal, 8 years and counting. According to the Reuters report below, the FGFA contract may be signed sometime in 2015. This is a rather pessimistic reflection on events given the Russians tend to be rather optmistic and yet they don't seem confident. What is still in the way to a contract?

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A

A Bar Brother

Junior Member
Brumby said:
If those far out dates are to be met on the FGFA program India needs to stop negotiating and actually start work on the program as it has a history of protracted negotiations .e.g Rafale deal, 8 years and counting. According to the Reuters report below, the FGFA contract may be signed sometime in 2015. This is a rather pessimistic reflection on events given the Russians tend to be rather optmistic and yet they don't seem confident. What is still in the way to a contract?

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There are two interpretations to "this year". One, could mean anytime this year until December. Two, could mean "by March," because that's when our financial year ends. Funds for large programs become available only the next year. Anyway the CCS recently cleared massive programs for 7 frigates and 6 SSNs, so it makes sense the funds for MRCA and FGFA will be available only the "next year," April, 2015. The budget season will start soon.

That's why this statement, "At least the Russian side think it will be done in 2015," gets more importance. Basically he means to say the contract negotiations will be done soon.

Generally, I don't take such statements seriously. Even the CEO of UAC won't know when India will be ready to sign a Sukhoi contract. No different with Dassault. Trappier has said the same before about Rafale. After a contract is negotiated, the file goes to other departments and the time it may take will only be known to the Indian side.
 
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