Indian Military News

Re: Indian Army & Navy news thread

Indian Navy to Announce Tender Very Soon for Upgrade of "Sea King" and Ka-28 Helicopters, and also Convert Option for MiG-29K into Firm Order

India's navy will announce very soon an international tender for the restoration and service life extension of "Sea King" and Ka-28 naval helicopters, India Defense reports referring to a source in the country's defense leadership.

The project's cost will be nearly 150 million dollars.

According to the "request for proposals" being prepared, the upgrade will include replacement of the engines, avionics and radar systems and an update of the range of missiles.

At the present time, India's air force is using 14 antisubmarine "Sea King" and 12 Ka-28 helicopters.

The "Sea King" helicopters were obtained from the British Westland company at the end of the 1980s. Subsequently, the Indian navy encountered difficulties in using and overhauling them after the United States imposed sanctions in 1998. There were no such problems with the use of the Russian helicopters; however, at the present time the require mid-life overhaul and upgrade.

The source also reported that according to the new plan, India will realize in the very near future the option to obtain an additional batch of ship-based MiG-29K/KUB fighters in Russia.

As reported earlier, India announced readiness to adopt a decision about an additional purchase of the airplanes after receiving the first of them this year.

The option for obtaining 30 more aircraft of this type was detailed in the original contract for the delivery of 16 MIG-29K/KUB fighters. According to the conditions of the agreement, India can adopt a decision to turn the option into a firm contract before the end of 2008. In this case, after assembly of the 16 airplanes under the firm contract, while not interrupting the manufacturing process, deliveries of the new batch can begin at once.

As is expected, the first MiG-29K/KUB will arrive in India this month and will be used for training naval pilots at the Hansa ((phonetic)) airbase in Goa.

The delivery of all 16 airplanes, as is expected, will be completed in 2009.

Source: 11.06.08, ARMS-TASS

Re: Indian Army & Navy news thread

I hope the Indians throughly inspect their Russian aircraft before accepting them... especially after the fiasco of Algeria's MiG-29's.

Re: Indian Army & Navy news thread

PDT)


Delay in Hawk delivery schedules

Ravi Sharma

Technical hitches found in some of the British-manufactured aircraft

BANGALORE: Delivery schedules of the Hawk Mk 132 Advanced Jet Trainer are
being delayed by a month or two owing to technical hitches in some of the
British manufactured aircraft supplied to the Indian Air Force.

As per the latest reworked schedule, all 24 Hawks that are to be built by
the BAE Systems were to be delivered before June end.

But with the Air Force highlighting a few, albeit minor technical issues
most notably, in a few of the Hawks delivered, the BAE Systems has been
asked to rectify these before further deliveries are made.

Senior Air Force officers said the technical issues concerned "corrosion in
some hydraulic pipelines," oxygen leaks and a malfunctioning of the Quick
disconnect Equipment Connector

So far the BAE Systems has flown in 12 Hawks to India. The aircraft are
stationed at Air Force Station (AFS) Bidar, Karnataka.

The officers, who were associated with the Hawk induction told The Hindu
that the BAE Systems was aware of the shortcomings and had taken steps to
rectify them.

$1.75 billion contract

India had signed a $1.75 billion contract to buy 66 Hawks. While 24 aircraft
will come under the direct supply route, the rest will be license built by
Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) here.

Confirming that the Air Force had raised the shortcomings with the BAE
Systems, Air Marshal V. R. Iyer, who recently took over as the Air Officer
Commanding-in-Chief, Training Command Air Force, said these issues were
understandable as the Mk 132 was being tailor-made for the Indian Air Force.

"With the Hawks our pilots can be trained too much higher levels. They will
be much better prepared and be better products. We are hoping to have 30
Hawks by January 2009," he said.

Re: Indian Army & Navy news thread


t-carriers

Emerging Market For Secondhand Aircraft Carriers

February 29, 2008

India is torn between Moscow and Washington in a deal to buy secondhand
aircraft carrier.

In 2004, Moscow and New Delhi agreed on $1.5 billion deal to refurbish and
modify Admiral Gorshkov, the former Soviet aircraft carrier, with expected
delivery in 2008. Delays and budget overruns pushed the delivery to 2013.
Moscow is pressing New Delhi for additional $1.2 billion on top of the
amount agreed. Gross technical and financial screw-ups in refurbishing the
Admiral Gorshkov will cost the Indian side dearly both in money and delay
terms.

Secondhand Aircraft Carrier
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Here comes Washington with an offer India can't refuse. Washington offers to
sell soon-to-be-decommissioned U.S.S. Kitty Hawk with delivery in 2012 and
sweetens the deal with a fighter jet contract.

If New Delhi will prefer U.S.S. Kitty Hawk over the Admiral Gorshkov, the
Russians may be tempted to sell the hot secondhand merchandise to Beijing.
There have been persistent reports that Beijing intends to acquire an
aircraft carrier to achieve an edge in naval capability in high seas.

Whatever option India chooses, it comes with steep price tag and the whole
lot of strings attached.

Re: Indian Army & Navy news thread

^ That's all speculation.
Why would China want to buy the Admiral Gorshkov? Its better building your own design built specially for your needs...

Re: Indian Army & Navy news thread

flyzies said:

^ That's all speculation.
Why would China want to buy the Admiral Gorshkov? Its better building your own design built specially for your needs...

Click to expand...

Because it is available, especially if the Indians do decide to reject her. Having two carriers (even if they are not super carriers) enhances training operations.

Re: Indian Army & Navy news thread


<http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?i=3585408&c=ASI> &c=ASI

India to Upgrade 17 Sea King Copters for $300M

By vivek raghuvanshi
Published: 17 Jun 12:22 EDT (08:22 GMT)

NEW DELHI - The Indian navy has floated a global tender to upgrade 17 of its
Sea King anti-submarine warfare helicopters for $300 million.

The midlife upgrade will include replacement of obsolete and redundant
equipment, and integration of modern avionics, sensor and weapons to improve
its anti-submarine capabilities, an Indian navy official said. The Sea King
42 B helicopters operate off frigates and aircraft carriers.

The request for proposals was issued June 13 to defense companies in France,
Israel, the United Kingdom and the U.S., and the upgrade will be carried out
at the Indian navy's base at Kochi in the southern state of Kerala. Most of
the 43 Sea Kings purchased from the British company Westland Helicopters
about 20 years ago had to be grounded. Spare parts were unavailable
following U.S. sanctions in 1999, which were lifted in September 2001.

Currently, the Sea Kings are used in an anti-submarine and anti-surface
vessel strike role, for electronic warfare surveillance and search and
rescue, the Indian navy official said. After the upgrade, the helicopters
also will be able to operate in adverse weather conditions, day and night,
and be able to independently locate and destroy surface and subsurface
combatants.

The upgrade will include integration of advanced weaponry, include fitting
the helicopters with two anti-ship missiles (ASM). The ASM will have a range
of more than 50 kilometers, a very high subsonic speed and also have stealth
characteristics. The Navy official said the ASM must be a fire-and-forget
missile and be able to change course midway to target.

The radar must be able to automatically track 64 targets of all types and
have comprehensive surface surveillance capability. The Navy official added
that the helicopters should be able to process tactical information and
transfer data to fleet ships in real time.

A Defence Ministry official said funds will be provided to purchase
additional anti-submarine helicopters and MiG-29 K aircraft. The Navy had
contracted for the purchase of 16 MiG-29 K aircraft in 2004 for more than
$700 million for operation from the Russian aircraft carrier Admiral
Gorshkov and the home-grown carrier Air Defence Ship. The Navy made
provisions to purchase an additional 10 aircraft for the same price.

The MiG-29 K aircraft will begin arriving later this month.

Re: Indian Army & Navy news thread

FARNBOROUGH 2008: Indian carrierborne MiG handover inches closer


Anatoly Belov, designer general of the Russian MiG Aircraft Corporation, says the first MiG-29K and MiG-29KUB aircraft will soon be delivered to the Indian Navy, more than 12 months later than the original scheduled handover.

In January 2004, MiG won a contract to supply twelve single-seat MiG-29K aircraft and four MiG-29KUB trainers, as well as simulators and spare parts. Two of the aircraft were originally due to be delivered to the Indian Navy in June 2007 and six more in November 2007, with deliveries to be completed by 2009.

But the MiG-29KUB did not make its first flight until January 2007 and the MiG-29K did not take to the air until June 2007, so the first four deliveries were pushed back to May 2008 – a deadline that was missed.

MiG is to responsible for training pilots and maintenance personnel, and for aftersales support and servicing. There is an option in the contract for a further 30 aircraft.

The MiG-29K is the first variant in what MiG refer to as a “new unified family of MiG-29 multi-role fighters”. These variants are based on the improved airframe of the

MiG-29M (Design Bureau designation 9-15) and have a high degree of commonality in structure, power plant, avionics and weapons systems.

The MiG-29K (9-41) was developed for the Indian Navy, and is based on the MiG-29M with increased internal fuel capacity, and digital fly-by-wire control system with other features borrowed from MiG’s original carrierborne design, the MiG-29K (9-31), cancelled in 1993. It has the same folding wing, strengthened undercarriage, tailhook and large dorsal airbrake.

The aircraft has a MIL STD 1553B based open architecture avionics system, a Fazotron-NIIP Zhuk-ME radar with a slotted planar array, and is powered by new RD-33MK engines with FADEC. The aircraft features OBOGS in the shape of a locally developed BKDU-130 oxygen generator system, and also includes Israeli EW equipment and a French Sigma-95 GPS receiver and TopSight helmet-mounted targeting system.

Both the single-seat MiG-29K (9-41) and the two-seat MiG-29KUB (9-47) have a new two-seat forward fuselage, with an extended two-seat canopy, though the single-seat aircraft has an extra fuel tank/avionics bay in place of the rear cockpit.

The aircraft are being delivered to serve aboard the former Russian navy aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov, now being refitted in Russia for the Indian Navy. The Gorshkov has been berthed at the Sevmash shipyard in northern Russia for 12 years, and its modernisation and conversion programme has been fraught with problems, delays and cost growth.

The 44,570 tonne ship, which will be named Vikramaditya in Indian service, will not be completed until 2010, after which it is expected to have to undergo 18 months of sea trials. The carrier will also embark Kamov Ka-27 ‘Helix-A’ and Ka-31 ‘Helix-B’ anti-submarine and AEW helicopters.

Re: Indian Army & Navy news thread

It seems Russia has a plan to make it up to the Indians:

Encouraged by the remarkable success of their pilot co-development defence project, the Brahmos missile, India and Russia are planning to design and build a futuristic main battle tank.

Defence industry experts will discuss the new project when a delegation of the Russian Uralvagonzavod (UVZ) tank-building factory visits India this week to participate in an international seminar on the Future Main Battle Tank (FMBT) organised by the Army along with the Confederation of Indian Industry.

Click to expand...

According to the Moscow Defence Brief magazine, the new tank will mark a great step forward in armour technology. It will feature higher speed, better firepower, sophisticated armour protection and a low silhouette. An armour-protected crew compartment will be sealed from the unmanned turret equipped with an automatic loader.

The crew will be provided with a virtual-reality command information system linked to reconnaissance aircraft and will enjoy a smoother ride thanks to a new hydro-pneumatic suspension.

The new tank is likely to have a new main gun of up to 152 mm calibre and a new hunter-killer fire control system with target acquisition in optical, thermal, infrared and radar spectrums that will be accessible both to the gunner and tank commander, the Moscow Defence Brief said.

Click to expand...

Source:

The number of Indo-Russian military projects increases yet again. There should be a thread for these if there isn't already, we never know what joint project they'll roll out next.

Re: Indian Army & Navy news thread

Project 15A DDG Detailed












The progress of fabricating the three Project 15A Kolkata-class guided-missile destroyers (DDG), being built at a cost of Rs84.59 billion by the Indian Ministry of Defence-owned Mazagon Docks Ltd (MDL), has been as slow as that of the earlier three Project 15 Delhi-class DDGs. Though approved in 2000, the first of these 6,800-tonne DDGs (see photo 4) will be ready only by 2012. All this will further delay the Indian Navy’s (IN) plan to order three more DDGs under Project 15B (which is now on the Directorate of Naval Design Bureau’s drawing boards) as well as seven new FFGs under Project 17A. Work on Project 15A was slowed primarily due to delays in finalisation of design data and Russian weapons and sensor systems to be used on board. Russia’s Baltisky Zavod Shipyard was also late in supplying equipment like shafting and propellers (costing $20 million for each DDG). The first shipment took place in late 2005, the second will follow in 2009 and the third in 2010. Moreover, extensive design and production rework has had to be done due to a large number of design changes made after production work had commenced. It usually takes six months to acquire long-lead items like cabling consignments, and two years to take delivery of the shafting and propellers of a warship. The time for warship-building is also dictated by the availability of diesel engines. Currently, there is such a tremendous demand for such engines that Wartsila, SEMT Pielstick, Caterpillar, MTU and MAN, the major producers of diesel engines, are fully booked till 2013. Each of the three Project 15A DDGs will be powered by a COGAG propulsion system comprising twin Ukrainian Zorya Production Association-built M36E gas turbine plants that produce more than 64,000hp. The M36E marine industrial gas turbine plant comprises four DT-59 reversible gas turbines grouped in two pairs, driving two propellers through two RG-54 gearboxes. There are four separate Russia-made gas turbine generators, two in each engine room, that drive two controllable pitch propellers through twin gearboxes. Also to be installed are twin Bergen/Garden Reach Shipbuilding & Engineering-built KVM-diesel engines each rated at 9,900hp. On-board power generation will come from four 1mWe Wartsila WCM-1000 generator sets driving Cummins KTA50G3 engines and Kirloskar 1MV AC generators. Each Project 15A DDG has a length of 163 metres and a width of 17.4 metres. Plate-cutting for the lead vessel, INS Kolkata, began on March 12, 2003 and the hull was launched on March 30, 2005. The weapons package will include twin 24-cell launchers carrying 48 Barak-2 vertically-launched 70km-range surface-to-air missiles, twin 16-cell launchers carrying 32 Barak-1 anti-missile missiles, 16 BrahMos vertically-launched MRCMs housed within a VLS cell built by Larsen & Toubro, and one Arsenal A-190E 100mm main gun. Principal on-board sensors will include the DRDO-developed and BEL-built Humsa-NG hull-mounted panoramic sonar and a yet-to-be-selected low-frequency active towed array sonar (with the EDO-built ALOFTS, THALES’ Captas-Nano, ATLAS Elektronik’s ACTAS and L-3 Ocean Systems’ LFTAS being on offer). Also to be fitted on board each of the three DDGs will be one S-band ELTA EL/M-2248 MF-STAR active phased-array multi-purpose radar and one EL/M-2238 L-band STAR low-level medium-range surveillance radar. The offboard countermeasures dispensing systems will be ELBIT Systems’ Deseaver (same as that on board the IN’s three existing Project 16A Brahmaputra-class DDGs). The integrated platform management system (IPMS) will be supplied by Canada-based L-3 MAPPS, while the MoD-owned Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) will supply the Electronic Modular Command & Control Applications (EMCCA Mk4) combat management system, CCS Mk4 composite communications system and an ATM-based broadband integrated shipborne data network. INS Kolkata is expected to be commissioned in 2010, followed by its two sister vessels in 2011 and 2012.
Another significant addition to the IN fleet of principal surface combatants in future will be the three follow-on Project 1135.6 guided-missile frigates (FFG) that are now being fitted out at Russia’s Kaliningrad-based Yantar Shipyard JSC. Each such FFG will be armed with eight vertically launched BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles (photo 5). The photos above (1 & 2) also detail the combat management system of the Project 1135.6 FFG (photo 3).
Posted by Prasun K Sengupta at 2:16 PM