Yep … very much in the “behind” of history ! 😀

@Witcha : In view of your constant criticism of GTRE, i would like to remind you that there are NOT many countries who manufacture JET Engines !
If throwing loads of monies was all it took, every country in this world would be churning out engines !

for GTRE to have come up with Kaveri which meets about ~90 % of LCAs requirement is itself a feat, coming from a country where we dont even have indigenous manufacturing of automotive engines !

Touche’…

Anyways as for the rest of the reply, you cant keep saying for 10-20 years “oh but look sir it nearly works we have achieved 70% performance”… At some point you have to be realistic.. If the team is not delivering change the team or change the people who give the directions..

Mind you no point in just throwing a grenade into the pot without suggesting a solution.

So here is a solution, why not set up a JV with Eurojet or RR to develope a jet turbine, start with a new fresh team.. shut GTRE down (in terms of people atleast) and let them reply for jobs and vet them… If they are deemed good enough hire them otherwise re locate them…

But far as I know apart from the later part they have decided to go into a JV with someone finally..

Witcha Well, wasn’t one of the main objectives of Dhruv to develop the Indian aerospace industry? The purpose of buying a domestic product is defeated if we are still dependent on imports for most of it.

Obviously it’d be more expensive to build everything locally without any prior infrastructure. But without developing such infrastructure it’ll remain that way forever.

What would you have HAL do? Spend 30 years developing raw materials that are available on the market now? Why would you want to start competing against the likes of Hexcel, Cytec, Toho Tenex, Henkel, ACG to name a few. That part of the CAG report shows their over zealous nature in doing their “jobs” correctly and achieving their PDP targets (which ever they may be).. This is a very positive thing. But it should be incumbant upon the reader of the reports to bring some balance and understanding.

There is one thing, what happens to all of these reports? Does anyone start charging (criminal or civil charges) people involved or are these reports just confined to the anal of history?

quadbike The problem is HAL have to work in a specific time frame or risk losing orders altogether. This is why they use a high level of foreign content, if the GOI is so insistent on making everything indigenous then they must also insist the Armed forces to buy slightly inferior domestic product and give it time to mature.

You cannot have it both ways. The current strategy is better in the short term but not in the long term.

India to really move at a fast pace needs to start getting public-private partnerships and start funding companies like TAAL to move beyond build to print small or leisure aircraft manufacture.

Problem for the MOD is that the armed service have again and again shown their lack of faith in the ability of the DRDO and HAL to provide items on time. Unfortunately DRDO and HAL more often than not have proved them correct.

Abhimanyu History tells us that proper helicopters were introduced in the 1930s. MFDs were invented many decades later.

So the CAG should be happy that HAL got the chopper right. After all, it has rescued many soldiers at Siachen, it has flown better and higher than many foreign choppers of its class, and it comprises the Sarang acrobatic team (one of the only 3 globally).

Now the Ecuadorian CAG is definitely happy with the Dhruv. A Dhruv conducted a daring sea rescue operation there. When the very same unit crashed, the pilots walked away safely.

So……

Very inspiring counterpoint but you have to remember that the whole job of CAG is to criticise and bring to book the “wrong doers” as they see it.. CAG is doing a good job but it needs to be followed up properly.

Also what you can not argue against is the fact that the ALH does not really have many foreign customers and large number of orders.. Even with the flying display team which frankly does an amazing flight display.

India Discussing Offsets With Fighter Bidders

Aug 20, 2010

By Neelam Mathews [email]mathews.neelam@gmail.com[/email]
NEW DELHI

Following the Indian air force’s flight evaluation of six Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) candidates, the Indian government is now considering technical offset proposals and beginning discussions with the prospective vendors.

The Lockheed Martin F-16IN, Boeing F/A-18, Dassault Rafale, EADS Eurofighter Typhoon, Saab Gripen and Russian MiG-35 are in the running for the 126-aircraft program.

A European contender was invited to the Indian air force’s head office on Aug. 20 to discuss the flight evaluation and has been invited to the defense ministry to present its offset proposal. The vendor’s team includes all partners associated with the bid, including the airframe manufacturer, weapons suppliers, avionics and engine makers.

The second part of the proposal — commercial offsets — is expected to be opened by April 2011.

Read the rest at the Aviation Week website.. sorry didnt paste full article here.. It will be a shame when they do not select the Gripen NG.

Stealth has been considered at the inception of two major eurocanards and the design and project team settled on a compromise they thought most optimal for their requirements and situation.

I guess if they can gain on stealth without loosing the balance they had looked for earlier or the requirements for two aircraft has suddenly changed do not see what stealthification could add.

Any news about what exactly will go into the Mig 29 upgrade? is there any news saying if it will take on some of the technologies developed for the mig 35? Would be good to see the new engines in the IAF along with the OLS. Do not care for the thrust vectoring nozels but it would be a shame if the Mig 29s could not get a decent new radar and sensor suite making it into a smaller 30MKI