Indian Advanced Light Weight Torpedo dilemma

I hope India has manged to get the LWT into production, I would realy like to see some Indian export successes, they have alot of potentially very good products.
It would be good to see Europe, Russia and USA’s dominance of the international arms market broken.

Quite Contradicting Reports , Here is the MOD report which states otherwise
http://mod.nic.in/product&supp/body.htm

” BDL has also started manufacturing the lightweight torpedo developed by DRDO, which can be launched from surface ships to helicopters. “

On my interaction with DRDO(NOPL) guys at AE-2005 , It was clear that LWT had sucessfully passed all trails , including users and it was under production.

For the moment DRDO is involved in developing a HWT , and we could probably see a mock up of it at Defexpo-2006

If the navy has really ordered 900 torpedoes , we are not too sure what variant it is if its the new MU-90 or some other , also the Navy operates different variant of torpedo Russian , Western and Indian , It also goes for the same with Missile, radar & Electronics.

So even if the Navy has ordered a different kind of Torpedo ( which still need to be confirmed by MOD or IN ) , It should not be seen a failure of LWT.

Usual DDM stuff :diablo: oye Arshad paindoo,never believe our desi media in any defence related matter they report. :confused:

Navy facing shortage of submarine killer torpedoes

Press Trust of India

New Delhi, July 3, 2005

With the indigenous lightweight torpedo programme delayed, Indian Navy is facing serious shortage of submarine killer equipment for its new frigates, destroyers and submarines forcing it to turn to western suppliers for emergency purchases.

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) despite an 18-year effort has failed to make a breakthrough in the production of lightweight torpedoes and the Government after global tendering has issued licence to an Italian firm, Whitehead Alena Sistami Subacqua, for procuring the lightweight torpedoes, according to highly placed Defence Ministry officials.

Under the contract, India will build 900 lightweight torpedoes to replace Navy’s aging ones to arm new Naval warship platforms as well as replenish old stocks.

While, a few dozen torpedoes would be procured off the shelf, the bulk of the production would be undertaken in the Hyderabad facility of the Bharat Dynamics limited, officials said.

“Navy has placed orders for 900 torpedoes and the Indian Built torpedoes would also be offered for sale by the Italian firm to European and other customers,” they said.

Being launched from INS Godavari 😉

http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/attachment.php?attachmentid=86499

Ok its the torpedo. It was displayed in BDL stall in AERO India 05 stall. The stall was right in front of our stall. So it happened, i was briefed in through by the DGM Marketing BDL.

The torpedo works. The fact is that it will not enter production in hurry. IN is facing shortage of torpedos and hence its buying. The thing about failure is the usual media “annonymous” sources at work. Just that it took time to make it, which happens to be bit late.

Being launched from INS Godavari 😉

http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/attachment.php?attachmentid=86499

i believe IN is procuring more torpedoes from Whitehead most likely Euro torp Mu90, rather unlikely they will confuse that with C-303, especially the amount 900 it clearly states in that link.

you can download a 3.8mb product brochure from the BDL website and look up the
specs and photos of the LWT.

http://bdl.ap.nic.in/publish/04DECOYS_AND_TORPEDO.PDF

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0401/dailyUpdate.html

Making New Delhi’s intentions amply clear, India’s Defense Minister announced [Thursday] the decision of the government to go ahead and purchase 12 Mirage 2000 V fighter aircrafts from Qatar and 11 Dorniers from Germany for maritime surveillance, in addition to inducting nine offshore patrol vessels for the Indian navy, and a C-303 submarine-fired torpedo decoy system from Italy.

C-303 is a torpedo decoy from alenia whitehead
http://www.whiteheadaleniasistemisubacquei.com/products.html?cat=2,1

Well The italian company makes both torpedo – heavy and light as well as countermeasures. The whitehead alenia sistemi subacquei link gives more information about the torpedos. The MU90/Impact ALWT specification looks more like that of our own light torpedo. hope IN has this and not the old A.244/S Mod.3. They also manufacture countermeasures . So Flanker 101 do u know what exactly is the decoy?

With Regards,

Presanna

As far as i can make out, Defencenews seems to be confusing two different things. The deal with italy is for submarine DECOYS, not light torpedoes.

The name of the decoy was given out by not so honourable Defense Minister. This was falsely assumed to be light torpedos by one newspaper and soon copied by everyone else.

I am confused too..since the LWT is under mfg with BDL…and BDL wont touch it if it werent cleared by IN for series MFG.
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Jaguar V12 engine history
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JAGUAR AJ-V8 ENGINE

I have also tried getting to the bottom of this but cant. defencenews reported LWT didnt work, yet I can google +ve reports of it. all the indian media reports are root-noded in the defencenews report.

lets wait and watch. I had posted some links in one naval thread under BR.