Indian Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

On Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar’s first official visit to the United States from December 7-10, Washington has signaled its willingness to co-develop with India an aircraft engine for India’s indigenous fifth-generation fighter that is called the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA).

India’s Defence R&D Organization (DRDO) believes it essential to work with US company General Electric Aviation (GE) in up-rating its F-414S6 engine into the so-called F-414 Enhanced Engine, which would power the futuristic AMCA.

As Business Standard reported earlier (June 1, “Carter to face Indian demand for engine technology”), GE has been eager to partner DRDO in this lucrative project. But the US government had earlier stood in the way, reluctant to transfer to India strategic technologies, such as the high-melting-point alloys needed to build the gas turbine.

During Parrikar’s visit, Washington signaled that it has changed its mind. “Secretary (of Defense Ashton) Carter informed Minister Parrikar that in light of the strengthening relationship between the United States and India, the (US Department of Defense) has updated its policy on gas turbine engine technology transfer to India. As a result of this policy update, the Secretary is confident that the United States will be able to expand cooperation in production and design of jet engine components,” says the joint statement issued on Friday by the Indian Embassy in Washington.

That opens the doors for GE and DRDO to work together in uprating the F-414S6 engine, which India has already selected for the indigenous Tejas Mark II. This will enhance the current engine’s peak power of 90 KiloNewtons (KN), delivering 110 KN of thrust. The AMCA’s twin F-414 Enhanced Engine will thus deliver an awesome 220 KM of peak power.

The green signal for co-developing this engine appears to have been given, with the joint statement saying: “Secretary Carter and Minister Parrikar look forward to US companies working with their Indian counterparts to submit transfer requests that will benefit from this updated policy.”

For GE, this could be a commercial windfall, providing it an assured market for all India’s indigenous fighters. This would include 100 F-404 engines for the Tejas Mark I, another 100 F-414 engines for the Tejas Mark II; and 400 F-414 Enhanced Engines for a planned 200 AMCAs.

Since an aero engine’s life is about 1,500 hours, each fighter – with a service life of 5,000-6,000 hours – consumes 3.5 engines. That means GE could be supplying 700 engines for the Tejas Marks I and II, and 1,400 engines for the AMCA over their service lives. This is a sizable share of the Indian aero engine market, which the DRDO estimates to be worth Rs 3,50,000 crore over coming decades.

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MUMBAI: After serving for over 32 years, the country's first indigenously designed and built missile-guided frigate Indian Naval Ship (INS) Godavari is scheduled to be decommissioned on December 23. It was commissioned on December 10, 1983.

Over the past three decades, the INS Godavari class warship has been successfully deployed in numerous international operations since it was inducted into the fleet. After its decommissioning, the Indian Navy will decide on the three aspects of the future of the warship.

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NEW DELHI — Ahead of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Moscow Dec. 24-25, India's autonomous auditing agency Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) says the Russian-made Su-30MKIaircraft with the Indian Air Force (IAF) suffer from poor serviceability, which is just around 55 percent to 60 percent against the prescribed norm of 75 percent.

The 218-page CAG report tabled in Indian Parliament Dec. 18 notes that the operational readiness of Su-30MKI was low due to high rate of AOG (Aircraft on Ground), low serviceability and less achievement in flying hours.

An IAF official said the high rate of AOG means that out of 210 Su-30MKI with the IAF, around 115-126 aircraft are grounded for repairs and serviceability, which the officer said affects the combat worthiness.

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Plans to lease a Yasen class attack submarine are being reconsidered after fairly advanced talks on the project.

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Hyperwarp said:

Aksha, any truth to this? -



Read more at::

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In September, 2015, Indian Air Force has indicated the requirement of 100 Tejas LCA AF MK 1-A aircrafts, for which a formal order is yet to be placed. The plan of manufacturing and completion is from 2018 to 2022-23.

The specifications derived for design & development of LCA MK 1-A are based on the applicable international military standards. Kaizan techniques are being adopted to ensure international standards.

This information was given by Minister of State for Defence Rao Inderjit Singh in a written reply to Shri KTS Tulsi in Rajya Sabha today.

DM/NAMPI/RAJ

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aksha said:

heard a couple of articles saying India is interested in Yasens in early 2015both by the economic times, both by written by the same guy Manu Pubby.not the most trustable journalists around, has a habit of mixing hot air in his articles.


but i don't think India will lease another Akula either,

talks about it are indeed in trouble.

Saurav jha ,(the most trustable source/ an unofficial mouthpiece of the DRDO , some say)
said the Akula deal is in trouble, but the S400 is well on its way.

if he says the akula deal is in trouble , it is likely to be in trouble

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Jeff Head said:

I seriously doubt...to the point of incredulity...that the Russians will lease any Yasen to anyone, including India.

It is their latest and greatest and they are having a hard time getting them themselves.

On the other hand, the Akula IIs are very decent SSNs and the Indians already have one and operate it well. It would absolutely make GREAT sense for India to get a second one as a stop gap for them until they can build their own SSNs.

Logistically it would make sense. Training wise it would make sense. Operationally it would make sense.

I have encouraged the people I knw in India to do so and I hope they do.

Now, whether they can negotiate a good deal from Russia, and whether they believe Russia will perform is another question.

But Russia did get the 1st Akula to India and it is now in service. They know how to do this and getting a second would be very good for India. As I say, I hope it happens.

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Reliance Defence said on Thursday it had signed a manufacturing and maintenance deal potentially worth $6 billion with Russia's Almaz-Antey, the maker of an air defence system that sources said the Indian military was poised to buy.

The partnership between the Indian firm controlled by billionaire Anil Ambani and the Russian firm was announced as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi began a trip to Moscow aimed at strengthening defence ties.

Earlier this week, Indian defence ministry sources said the government had cleared the purchase of five S-400 air defence systems that are estimated to cost about $4.5 billion in a bid to modernise the country's defences against airborne attacks.

"The two sides identified the air defence missile systems.... radars and automated control systems as areas of partnership.... as well as offset policies of the Indian Ministry of Defence," Reliance said in a statement.


Under the offsets policy, global defence contractors are required to invest a percentage of the value of any deal in India to help it build a defence industrial base and reduce imports for a military that has emerged as the world's biggest buyer of arms in recent years.

India is forecast to spend $250 billion over the next decade to upgrade its military and Modi's government wants a greater role for Indian state and defence firms.

Reliance is forging close ties with Russia to jumpstart its ambitions to develop a defence business from scratch. It said it had also discussed joint implementation of modernisation, repair and overhaul of Almaz-Antey systems already in service in India.

The company also plans to bid for contracts for local manufacture of helicopters, submarines and ships. Earlier this month, Ambani's Reliance Infrastructure (RLIN.NS) took sole management control of Pipavav Defence and Offshore Engineering Co (PIPA.NS) which has built patrol vessels for the Indian navy.

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As soon as Air Chief confirmed to the reporters that IAF indeed will place orders for more than 120 Tejas MK-1 aircrafts in its current configurations, One particular International news agency's from its Indian bureau in Delhi fired the first salvo against Country's Tejas Program by ridiculing Air-forces decisions to order what they reported was a flawed aircraft and also Questioned logic behind not going for larger orders of French Rafale fighter jet .

Attack from International News Agencies on India's LCA-Tejas Program seems to have ruffled some feathers in International Arms lobby group which seem to be worried about new-found love by IAF for Indigenous Aircraft types and its future plans which involves development and supporting indigenous types like Tejas MK-2 and AMCA to meet future needs of the air force.

While it was somewhat expected from International News Agency but what should have surprised many in India is that Our National media to was in sync with each other in attacking Airforces decisions to support Tejas Program, while many media houses in India redistributed the same article in their publications other tried to give their own spin by involving inputs of anonymous Airforce officials or of long time Anti-LCA Critics .

Some media house also went ahead and took potshots at Prime Minister Modi and Defence Minister Parrikar for forcing Air force to induct Tejas in large numbers thereby compromising National Security only to fulfill Made in India Campaign initiated by Modi for India's defence sector.

Paid News for long has been rampant in Indian Media Publications and in past too there has been repeated instance of series of attacks on DRDO and various Indigenous projects. Defense Experts for long have blamed deadly combo of Import friendly Service Arms of Indian Military along with Hostile aggressive Paid Media who have longed worked with International Arms Lobby to create a favorable conditions for their business in India.

Many of our Current and reputed Defense Editors/Reporters of many Indian Publications house have been accused of Lifafa Journalism (Paid Reports) to prepare favorable reports for International Arms manufacturers who in disguise of Study Tours have provided all expense paid tours to this reporters to their Manufacturing facilities abroad .

India for long which has a dubious distinction of being the largest arms importer in the World has been trying to change its image by supporting its indigenous defense manufacturing sector for which PM Modi had initiated ' Make in India' Campain which have been appreciated by Many International Defense sector Companies who are supporting it only to keep their long term business with India intact but also are worried about rise of Indian Defence sector which has long terms plans to increase indigenous route to meet demands of Indian Military establishments, We can only expect much more attacks and active lobbying by Media in near future as and when Defence sector in India grows.

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India’s three-decade long wait for an agile indigenous fighter jet has started to bear fruit. Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and Indian Air Force chief Arup Raha have

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at least six squadrons of Tejas fighters to replace the MiG-21 and MiG-27 fighters nearing the end of their service lives.

Apparently, Western arms lobbyists are not happy with Parrikar’s decision. India is the

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of military equipment. If Indian armed forces start inducting indigenous weapons, foreign defence manufacturers that have been circling the Indian military market stand to lose billions of dollars worth of business every year.

They might be trying their best to create a perception among Indians that Tejas is not a good fighter and it might put the lives of Indian Air Force pilots at risk. On Wednesday, Reuters published a half-cooked story titled “

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”. Within minutes, Indian media went into overdrive publishing the same story with different titles (they probably have content-sharing agreements with Reuters). Take a look at their headlines:

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These are just a few of the misleading stories being spread by Indian media. Reuters says Modi government is pushing “obsolete” made-in-India fighter on the Air Force, clearly ignoring the fact that IAF will be inducting 5-6 squadrons of improved, more agile Tejas Mark-1A, not the Mark-1 variant.

Tejas Mark-1A will be as agile as any other world-class fighter in its category

Tejas Mark-1 might have deserved the “obsolete” tag, but Mark-1A will be a modern state-of-the-art aircraft. In May, the Comptroller and Auditor General

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that Tejas Mark-1 does not meet the Air Staff Requirements. The CAG identified 53 shortfalls in Mark-1 variant, including increased weight, lack of electronic warfare capabilities, and reduced internal fuel capacity.

But HAL is fixing most of these issues (45 of 53, to be precise) with Tejas Mark-1A that IAF will be inducting in large numbers. The Mark-1A variant will be equipped with an advanced AESA radar supplied by ELTA Systems of Israel and an electro-optic Electronic Warfare (EW) suite that blind the enemy radars, preventing them from detecting the aircraft.

Tejas has already passed several tests in operating from mountainous terrains and tough summer. Reuters adds that there are concerns about the safety of pilots. Bullshit! Tejas has one of the world’s best safety records. It has completed nearly 3,000 sorties in the last 15 years, without ever suffering an accident…EVER. But Reuters clearly chose to ignore this fact because Tejas is “obsolete”. In contrast, French Rafale has

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.

Pilots at the National Flight test Centre who have flown Tejas for years have said on several occasions that Tejas is a fine fighter. They spoke about the fighter after flying it at 2,000km/hour, at a ceiling of 15,000 meters, carrying 3,500 Kg of mission payload. The fighter can detect enemy aircraft beyond visual range, fire Israeli Python and Derby air-to-air missiles. It also allows pilots to switch to a ground strike mode mid-flight.

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