War games over Maoist belt

KOLKATA: Come October and the skies over Jangalmahal will resonate to the sound of powerful jet engines. Pilots of the Royal Air Force (RAF) in Eurofighter Typhoons will match their skills against the IAF’s flying aces in Indradhanush 2010 the third in a series of joint air exercises between India and the UK.

This is the first time that the RAF would be participating in war games at Air Force Station Kalaikunda.

“The IAF will fly Sukhois, Mig-29s and Mirage-2000s. Till now, the RAF has maintained that Typhoons and Tornados would participate. They are looking forward to their visit as Kalaikunda offers a lot,” an IAF officer said.

Kalaikunda is close to the Bay of Bengal that allows uninterrupted flying and firing practice without interfering with civilian air traffic. The air base has also been upgraded to accommodate contingents of pilots, airmen and support staff. The Eurofighter Typhoons flown by the RAF is among the aircraft offered to India.

IAF officers are not too concerned with the Maoist activity in West Midnapore though Kalaikunda is on the fringes of Jangalmahal and very close to Lalgarh. They say the Maoists have not posed any threat to the airbase or other installations, like the radar station at Salua, till now.

“The foreigners will certainly not leave the premises without escort. Moreover, all our bases are equipped to handle attacks by jehadi groups. We are already experienced in putting up guests from abroad and we don’t foresee any trouble,” the officer said.

The IAF which will send fighters to France soon for air exercises is certainly keen to take on’ the RAF on home soil. Though officers categorically state that such exercises are not competitive in nature, fighter pilots are constantly on the lookout for challenges.

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There is absolutely no change in the intake. its the same as always.

Probably referring to artillery gunshot and correction.

Private contractor developing Saras: Report
DGCA report into prototype’s crash slams National Aerospace Laboratory

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation’s (DGCA) report into the crash of the Saras prototype aircraft during a March 2009 test flight has found fault with the project’s management and work practices of its developers, the National Aerospace Laboratory here. Apart from design changes, the report has asked the laboratory not to employ private contractors for designing the country’s first civil aeroplane.

The report has accused the premier laboratory of subcontracting the design and development of Saras to a private agency, Aircraft Design and Engineering Service (ADES) Ltd, Bangalore. “The work schedule of the project indicates that almost complete work on design and development of Saras project is being done by the contractor, including flight testing analysis,” it said.

The laboratory made sure that it would retain the sole right of patenting the design and inserted a clause in its contract with ADES. However, it did not pay much attention to confidentiality and ignored adequate safeguards in case of leakage of technical information by the subcontractor.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation said that since the 14-seat Saras was a national project, utmost care should be taken in its implementation. “The concept of employing a private contractor in the design and development of the Saras Project requires to be discontinued immediately. Only support for parts and appliances should be obtained from them,” the report said, adding that the contracting system followed by the laboratory needed to be reviewed.

Probable cause of the crash, according to DGCA, could be the incorrect re-light of the second engine by cutting off the live first engine at an insufficient height leading to rapid loss of altitude – a procedure devised by the designer and adopted by the crew.

Lack of crew coordination and cockpit procedures, handling of controls, non-aborting of flight by the crew in coordination with the flight test director after failure of first relight attempt and devising engine relight procedures by NAL without consulting the propeller manufacturer were the contributing factors for the tragic incident, DGCA said.

The report also added that Saras was the first civil turboprop plane being flown by pilots from the Indian Air Force’s Aircraft and Systems Testing Establishment. “Assessment of crew for human factor is important. Human factor of the flight crew were not assessed by NAL for the civilian cockpit and flight operation environment (of Saras) as the test pilots are basically from the Air force environment,” the report said. It also pulled up the IAF and said the “management committee” jointly set up by IAF and NAL for monitoring the test flight did not play the role that was originally envisaged for it.

Accident inspector MP Raju submitted his report to DGCA authorities last December. It was put on the public domain today.

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Link to DGCA investigation report

Money spent on Gorshkov akin to price of similar warships

NEW DELHI (PTI): Government said the USD 1,783 million to be spent for refurbishing and repairing the Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier “compares well” with the price of similar warships built in other countries.

“The repair and refurbishing cost of about USD 1,783 million (USD 1.78 billion) of the ship compares well with the cost of other aircraft carriers of similar capabilities being built elsewhere in the world,” Defence Minister A K Antony said in written reply to a Rajya Sabha query Friday.

India and Russia recently signed a fresh deal worth USD 2.33 billion dollars for the Gorshkov, which was originally to be procured at a cost of USD 974 millions under a 2004 agreement.

Pointing out the reasons behind procuring the Russian-built aircraft carrier, he said,” requirement of two operational aircraft carriers for the Navy has been considered essential to perform its mandated tasks. Further, aircraft carriers are not easily available.”

Antony added, after taking these aspects into consideration, the induction of the aircraft carrier was finalised to enhance the combat capability of the Navy.

Meanwhile, answering another query, the Minister said in last four years only one accident had taken place during the aerial display of defence aerobatic teams.

A Kiran Mk II aircraft of the Navy had crashed on March 3 this year at Hyderabad at an air show. While two defence services personnel died in the accident, two civilians were injured.

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14th Edition Of Malabar Indo-US Naval Exercises Underway In Arabian Sea

Indian Navy Statement: MALABAR CY 10, will be conducted in the Arabian Sea from 23 Apr to 02 May 2010. This, the fourteenth round of exercise MALABAR, has frontline units of US Navy’s 7th fleet and Indian Navy’s Western Fleet participating. The scope of MALABAR exercise includes diverse range of operational activities at sea. During MALABAR CY 10, the US Navy will be represented by ships from CTF 70 of the USN 7th Fleet which is based at Yokosuka, Japan. The CTF will include the Cruiser USS Shiloh (CG 67), Destroyers USS Chaffee (DDG 90), USS Lassen (DDG 82) and Frigate USS Curts (FFG 38). In addition, one Los Angeles class nuclear powered submarine, USS Annapolis (SSN 760), two P3C Orion aircraft and a 28 member US Navy Special Forces team will also participate in the exercise. The Indian Navy will be represented by INS Mysore, an indigenous Delhi Class guided missile destroyer and three guided missile frigates, INS Godavari, INS Brahmaputra and INS Tabar. In addition, one Shishumar class submarine, INS Shankush, Sea Harrier fighters, other fixed and rotary wing aircraft are also scheduled to participate in the bilateral exercise.

The thrust of the exercise this year would be on Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW), Surface Firings, Maritime Interdiction Operations (MIO), Visit Board Search and Seizure (VBSS) and Submarine Operations. The exercise is primarily aimed at deriving mutual benefit from each others experiences.

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The air is filled with news on LSP 3 can anyone confirm???

Yes !

Indian Light Combat Aircraft’s LSP – 3 takes to skies

Indian military aviation R&D got a boost today as the Limited Series Production (LSP) # 3 aircraft, the ninth test vehicle joined the flight line to undertake development flight trials of the Light Combat Aircraft Tejas towards operational clearance for induction in the IAF by the end of the year. Successful, copy book maiden test flight of LSP-3 is significant on many counts.

The LSP-3 is a quantum jump in terms of the equipment fit on the aircraft. It is almost the final configuration including the new air-data computers, Multi Mode Radar, new communication and navigation equipment and radar warning receiver. With this successful flight, the LCA (Tejas) programme is very close to the Initial Operations Clearance, which is to be completed by December 2010. The remaining effort is mostly the flight testing and demonstration of sensors and weapon performance.

he test aircraft was flown by Wg Cdr G Thomas, VM of the National Flight Test Centre (NFTC) at ADA. As per procedure the first flight was accompanied by a chase aircraft which was a Tejas Trainer flown by Gp Capt RR Tyagi, the Chief Test Pilot and Wg Cdr (Retd) PK Raveendran SC, the Group Director (Flight Test). The test flight was conducted from the Telemetry station by the Test Director, Wg Cdr S Toffeen, under the supervision of Air Cmde Rohit Varma VM, the Project Director (Flight Test). The flight took off from HAL airport in Bangalore and all the objectives of the flight were met within the duration of 52 minutes.

With this flight the total number of test flights accumulated across nine test vehicles of the Tejas programme has reached one thousand three hundred and fifty and has logged about 800 hrs of flight.

On the successful flight of the LSP-3 Director – ADA, Mr PS Subramanyam has said that this is the “culmination of the efforts of the Tejas Team comprising of members from HAL, IAF, CEMILAC, DG-AQA, DRDO labs, PSUs, coordinated by ADA”.

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