quadbikePlanning Commission pulled up for hurdles in ISRO project
New Delhi: A Parliamentary panel has sternly told the Planning Commission not to interfere in the decision making process of ISRO, particularly in the ambitious Human Space Flight (HSF) programme.
“The Committee fails to understand that when the Space Commission, the highest policy making body of the Department of Space, has given the go ahead to this (HSF) programme, why stumbling blocks were created at the government level.
“Planning Commission should not come in the way of conception and realisation of a programme only because it is instrumental in providing allocations for the Department.”
These strong words are in the 206th report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment and Forests which was tabled in the Lok Sabha today. The Committee is headed by Rajya Sabha member T Subbarami Reddy.
Government has already approved the pre-project activities for the Rs 12,400 crore human space flight project.
“We are now seeking phase-wise approvals for various steps in the project,” an Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) spokesman said when asked to comment on the report.
The Committee appeared miffed at the drastic reduction in the allocation for the HSF at the Revised Estimates stage in 2009-10.
In its report, the Committee noted that while the HSF was allocated Rs 238 crore at the Budget Estimates stage, the was reduced to Rs 30 crore at the Revised Estimates stage.
It said that the Department of Space had submitted the Budget Report for the HSF which was reviewed and cleared by the Space Commission, as well as, by a high-level Committee chaired by the Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission.
“However, it was indicated through the subsequent discussions that the Human Space Flight programme could be taken up in phases and the first phase should focus on developing critical technologies such as crew module, service module, crew escape system, environment control and life support systems,” the Committee report said.
It noted that the RE provision, therefore, had been reduced in view of the pre-project activities.
The Committee expressed the view that the HSF should not only be taken up in the right earnest but also be made successful at the earliest.
“The Committee strongly recommends that the right to take final decision in scientific and technical matters should be vested with the Department of Space only and financial constraints should not be allowed to come in its way towards progress of these crucial and critical programmes,” the report said.
quadbikeGripen Nervous About Ferrying Demo Aircraft To India, But Confident Of Repeat Performance In MMRCA Trials
The Indian Air Force evaluation team that was in Europe for phase-3 flight evaluation trials (FETs) of the Eurofighter Typhoon and Gripen Demo was stranded on the continent by the Icelandic ash cloud. Not sure if they’re back yet, but they had a fantastic time in Linkoping, Sweden, during the first week of this month when a member of the IAF team became the first non-Swedish pilot to fly the Gripen Demo from the front cockpit. The team had eight flights in the aicraft, and will fly it again next month. The Gripen Demo will touch down in Jamnagar on May 17, after which the IAF will decide the sequence of trials the airplane will be put through.
While the Gripen people are still basking in the rumours and feedback about how well their pair of Gripen-Ds performed during the India phase of the evaluations, the team is palpably nervous about ferrying the Gripen Demo to India. Met up with Gripen’s MMRCA campaign head Eddy de la Motte a couple of days ago. He told me, “While we are very confident that the Demo will perform perfectly in what is demanded of it, we hope there are no problems in bringing it to India. We will be hopping it across from Sweden to India. We don’t foresee any problems, but it is after all a prototype, and we can’t be too careful.” The IAF is likely to put the Gripen Demo through the full gamut of trials in Bangalore, Jaisalmer and Leh, though probably not in that order. In many ways, evaluating the Gripen Demo will be like testing an entirely different airplane, substantively different as it is from the original that flew in India last month.
The first down-select in the MMRCA is scheduled to take place by October this year.
quadbikeHey Robban can you do a Mirage 2000, Tejas comparison. It would be interesting.
quadbikeI agree completely. Buy a whole fleet of recent 2000-9 and update the rest of the fleet and you got your MRCA for much cheaper…
Maybe you could even get the 2000-5f from france to add up to the 126 aircrafts number and you’re set.
Nic
The MRCA is not a short term deal. It is going to be the backbone of the IAF fleet for the next three to four decades and a bunch of Mirages all of them more than a decade old and some of them even two to three decades old are simply not going to full-fill the purpose, however capable they may be.
It is a good deal nonetheless because it would allow the IAF to retire many legacy platforms like the MIG 21s and the non upgrade MiG 27s while easing in the much delayed MRCA and LCA.
quadbikeIISc will show astronauts art of space walking
Bangalore: The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) has developed a platform for vyomanauts (Indian astronauts), who will be selected by the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) for space missions, to practise space walking and learn to deal with space motion sickness.
Many first-time astronauts experience space motion sickness when they are exposed to an environment with negligible gravity. The condition is caused when the brain receives conflicting messages from sense organs about the state of motion.
The wobble board, developed by IISc as part of a project given by Isro to study space travel, assesses the capability of human beings to stay steady in a low-gravity environment. It also helps in training them to remain stable in such conditions.
IISc is next only to the US space agency, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa), in conducting studies on space walking. The theoretical studies at the institute are conducted by SN Omkar, a faculty member, and his team.
“Space motion sickness is similar to seasickness or motion sickness,” Omkar said. “It is experienced by more than 50% of astronauts during space flights,” he said.
The symptoms include loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, gastro-intestinal disturbances and fatigue.
“Our study helps devise training methods for better brain and body coordination to mitigate the sickness to some extent,” Omkar said.
“There has been no study so far to quantify the stability factor in a human being,” he said. “This is will be the first-of-its-kind study.”
The study involves making a person stand on the wobble board, which will be connected to a computer system. Readings of the movement and stillness of the board and the subject will be taken. A graph will then quantify the stability factor.Isro will train its astronauts on the basis of the observations made by the IISc study, a member of the team conducting the theoretical study said. “Since we can now test how stable a person will be during space travel, the study will help select only the fittest people for space flights,” a team member explained.
An astronaut training centre is also expected to be set up at IISc.
quadbikeOpen up the skies
Escaping a well-laid and well-executed ambush is difficult for troops in any combat situation irrespective of their level of training. All tactical commanders, therefore, take the usual precautions that are provided in any standard training manual to avoid getting into an ambush and these are known to the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and other paramilitary personnel and combat troops at all levels of the command structure. However, if for some reason precautions are not taken, breaking out is difficult, if not impossible. One has to be simply lucky to survive the attack. The view that the CRPF soldiers were killed because of deficiencies in training is, therefore, simplistic.
The Indian Peace-Keeping Force went to the jungles of Jaffna, Sri Lanka, with some of our best- trained troops. What they had to depend on was not the usual counter-ambush drill taught during training, but heavy weapons like the 84 mm Carl Gustav rocket launcher. Unfortunately, the troops in Chintalbeada in Chhattisgarh were not carrying any such powerful area weapons, in the absence of which training would be hardly of any use. Small teams of commandos can afford not to carry heavy weapons. But if commandos or medium teams of other combat troops enter into an ambush during an intelligence-led operation or a routine area patrolling, the fire power required to give the troops a fighting chance needs to be very high. Firing from small arms like AK-47s and Insas rifles at an invisible enemy will only mean losing ammunition, contributing to more panic and finally getting completely overwhelmed.
Increasing fire power alone, however, is not a fool-proof arrangement when the enemy is well-entrenched, is more in number and has a better control of the ground, and reinforcements are an impossibility. The US Marines or the British Royal Marines, consisting some of the best-trained and best-equipped combat troops in the world, depend on air support to break out of ambushes and attacks. There is no alternative to quick air-support. It is perfectly within the scope of the existing Indian laws for the police officers on the ground to request support from the air force when they are overwhelmed by armed enemies. This is not an issue of law, but of executive policy. Any collateral damage will be minimal and should be acceptable. Once a decision is made, the necessary standard operative procedures (SOPs) will have to be prepared to expedite processing the request for aid.
The Indian Air Force has the capability to support ground troops and to neutralise armed enemies. Necessary resources, logistics and SOPs have to be put in place so that the air force can engage the enemy within 15 minutes of commencement of fire. Our ground troops should carry better weapons and satellite phones and global positioning systems to request air support. This is, of course, not to say that troops should not take the usual precautions not to walk into an ambush.
In April 2009, the Maoists attacked a Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) post on Damanjodi Hill in Koraput district, Orissa. The brave soldiers fought for eight hours without support and did not allow the post to be overrun. Thirty minutes after the firing started, I led a team of commandos to try and reach the post that was 21 kilometres away to support the jawans. The cross-country climb took six hours. By the time support reached nine lives had been lost. Can India dreaming of becoming a world power in the 21st century not have found the resources to provide air support, at least with some light and sound to confuse the enemy? I can never forget the sense of helplessness, agony and frustration that I felt that night while leading the men on the battleground. And still, at least one news portal blamed us, alleging that “the local police had allowed the men to die”.
quadbikeHuman error, faulty design behind Saras crash: probe
Bangalore, April 22 (IANS) Wrong selection of mode switch or failure to re-start the engine during the flight trial of the faultily designed light transport aircraft Saras led to its crash March 6, 2009, the investigation by the Indian aviation regulatory authority said Thursday.
“Either wrong selection of mode switch or non-pressing of start switch is the most probable cause for turboprop engine not relighting (restarting) during the test flight of the Saras P2 aircraft, resulting in its fatal crash,” the final report of the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) concluded on the accident.
The two pilots of the Saras and an engineer of the Indian Air Force (IAF) were killed when the aircraft plunged to the ground near Bidadi, about 30 km from here.
The twin-engine second prototype, designed and manufactured by the state-run National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), was test flown by chief test pilot, Wing Cdr.K. Praveen, test pilot Dipesh K. Shah and flight test engineer, Sq. Ldr.S.Illyaraja of the IAF’s Aircraft System & Testing Establishment (ASTE).
The board of inquiry, instituted by the DGCA to investigate the crash, also pointed out that NAL failed to design suitable control surfaces to attain the prescribed limit and prior to formulating the Pratt & Whitney engine relight procedures in air.
“Design improvement on control surfaces is required even for flight testing purpose to enable the crew fly the aircraft manually without getting into fatigue level,” DGCA’s inspector of accidents C.P.M.P. Raju said in the 75-page probe report.
The regulator also recommended NAL to consult other aircraft manufacturing industries to explore the convenient limit of control forces for easy manoeuvrability by pilots.
Flying the experimental Saras for the first time, the pilots attempted to switch off and relight in midair (about 9,000 feet) one of the two engines (PT6A-67) as part of the mandatory flight development programme requirement.
“After ascending to its designated height of 9,000 feet, the left engine was switched off. When the crew attempted to relight or restart it after a minute, it failed, resulting in the aircraft losing height, going out of control and crashing,” the report said.
All the three on board were charred to death and were on their seats. There was evidence of fire after the crash, while the aircraft fuselage was broken from rear of the main plane and found in an inverted position. The aircraft was completely destroyed due impact and fire.
“At about five minutes prior to crash, when some abnormal behaviour of the aircraft was felt by the pilots, the co-pilot was hilariously telling commander ‘road is there for emergency’ and also advised FTE (flight test engineer) for placing readiness of parachute for emergency.
These parachutes were not used by the pilots/FTE in the accident. It is not known whether the pilots were trained to operate the parachutes in case of exigencies. Records provided to the investigation are insufficient to show their training on parachutes exercise,” the report said.
Incidentally, NAL flew the same aircraft at the Aero India 2009 air show in Bangalore without the DGCA’s permission.
The multi-role Saras was developed for use by the military and civil aviation sector at an estimated cost of Rs.150 billion though the project was conceived in the mid-1990s.
Named after the Indian crane, the airframe of Saras-PT2 was built with lighter composites to reduce its overall weight by about 400 kg from its first prototype, which was overweight by about 900 kg.
quadbikeThales to modernise avionics on Indian Air Force MiG-29s
New Delhi, April 22 (IANS) European aerospace giant Thales has been chosen to modernise avionics on the Indian Air Force (IAF) fleet of MiG-29 multi-role fighters to enable interoperability with Western military aircraft so as to avoid friendly fire, it was announced Thursday.
The jet’s manufacturer, Russian Aircraft Corporation, MiG (RSK-MiG), has chosen Thales to provide the Combined Interrogator Transponder (CIT) and Cryptographic National Secure Mode (NSM) as part of the MiG-29’s retrofit to enhance their capabilities and increase their service life, a Thales statement said.
The cryptographic mode will equip India with the first national secure identification capability for protecting its own assets.
Under the latest contract, Thales is set to deliver the first IFF (identification friend or foe) CIT to MiG in 2010, with the initial building block of a comprehensive secure identification capability delivered in mid-2011.
The CIT is one of the most advanced systems compliant with the latest NATO and International Civil Aviation Organisation standards and regulations. Some 16,000 units of IFF equipment have been installed onboard more than one hundred types of platforms worldwide including airborne, ground and naval platforms, the Thales statement said.
Thales will also supply the IAFâs MiG-29 fighters with the TOTEM 3000 latest generation Inertial Navigation and Global Positioning System.
In addition, Thales is also equipping the Indian Navyâs newly acquired MiG-29KUB aircraft with the Topsight E helmet-mounted sight/display (HMS/D), for which it successfully completed integration phase with the aircraft in November 2009.
Thalesâs cooperation with MiG started in 1993 with the design and supply of a full avionics suite for the Russian Advanced Trainer MiG-AT. This opened up new cooperation on programmes such as the MiG-21 and MiG-29 upgrades, the statement said.
Thales is a global technology leader for the aerospace and space, defence, security and transportation markets. In 2009, the company generated revenues of 12.9 billion euros with 68,000 employees in 50 countries.
quadbikeWanshan Looks Like it has a Dosa maker as well !
Eat dosa, sink enemy
New Delhi, April 21: India’s first warship with a chapati-maker and a dosa-maker on board is scheduled to be commissioned next week, signalling that the naval headquarters has decided to put crew-comfort on its list of priorities along with firepower.
The modular furnishings in crew quarters — designed for the navy by a private company in the business — will also allow for modifications should the government, at a later date, change policy and allow women on board warships. Women’s quarters would have attached toilets.
The navy’s older warships are either of Soviet/Russian vintage or based on designs that discounted comfort for the crew (except for the senior officers). This meant that crew often had to “hot bunk” (share a bunk) in beds tucked into nooks and crannies that were available after the machinery and weapons were mounted.
The INS Shivalik (Project 17) is the first “stealth” frigate — so called because it is expected to be more difficult to detect by enemy radar — to be made in the country, at the Mazagon Docks Limited in Mumbai. The vessel’s architecture has been conceived by the navy’s own design directorate.
“We have modular accommodation for the crew which will mean more comfortable and hygienic living conditions,” the director-general of the Naval Design Directorate, Rear Admiral K.N. Vaidyanathan, said here. Vaidyanathan has been with the project since its designing began in 2000.
The chapati-maker in the fully air-conditioned galley (kitchen) will turn out nearly 500 rotis per hour. The ship will have a crew of about 250, including 35 officers. The first commanding officer is Captain B. Suresh. In the navy’s other (older) warships, the crew includes a larger complement of cooks and helpers than the Shivalik will need.
Like every other piece of equipment on board, the chapati-maker and the dosa-maker have been configured to remain steady despite the rolling and the pitching of the ship as it sails and conducts manoeuvres.
Vaidyanathan said the new interiors for the crew would be a standard in the warships that are being built now. Among them are two more frigates of the Shivalik class (the INS Satpura and the INS Sahyadri) and the larger destroyers of the INS Kolkata class (three).
The INS Kolkata is now moored in the Mumbai docks— it was put out to sea because of a shortage of berths — and is awaiting trials before being commissioned in 2012.
The Shivalik was delayed partly because the Obama administration last year asked the US firm supplying the gas turbines for it to wait for a go-ahead. India negotiated that roadblock and the frigate now has a Cobog (combined diesel or gas) propulsion system capable of powering it to 30 knots (more than 50 kmph).
At the heart of the 5,600-tonne frigate is a ship-wide integrated data network and a combat management system. Every surface of the ship is “slanted” to deflect radar signals.
Commodore Anil Kumar Saxena, the project director, said stealth features also incorporated technology to suppress heat emitted from the engines, noise from the propellers and the vibration of the machinery. The deck, on which the guns are mounted and the missile-silos embedded, is fully covered.
The Shivalik, whose keel was laid in 2002, is estimated to have cost Rs 2,300 crore. The entire project of three frigates could cost more than Rs 8,000 crore. The second vessel is scheduled for commissioning in November this year and the third in mid-2011.
quadbikeShort supply of fleet haunts Navy
Just after the 1962 war with China, the centre zeroed in on the optimal level of naval fleet strength for securing India. Nearly half a century down the line, the navy still has not been able to achieve that level.
The emergency committee of the Union Cabinet had accepted a force level of 138 ships for navy in 1964. The current strength level is 129 ships including vintage submarines, which in any case are being phased out. The navy currently has 37 major war vessels (carrier, destroyers, frigates), 16 submarines, 59 minor war vessels and 17 auxiliary ships. Another minor vessel – an anti-submarine warfare corvette – was launched in the water from Kolkata on Monday. The vessel will be inducted after sea trials.
The submarine fleet is the worst lot among all warships. It is not only down in numbers but the serviceability of these is down to half. Navy officials admit that induction of submarines has not kept pace with the de-induction schedule.
Senior officers have told a Parliamentary panel that the Centre approved a 30 year long term submarine plan in 1999, which entails construction of 24 modern conventional diesel-electric submarines by 2030. Following the 1999 plan, the navy signed a Rs 15000 crore ($ 3 billion) deal in 2005 with French company DCNS to build six submarines at Mazgaon dock in Mumbai. The first submarine was to delivered by 2012.
This programme is lagging behind schedule due to protracted delay in supply. The delivery is now expected to commence in 2015 and the entire fleet should be available by 2018, a navy official told the committee. The Navy, meanwhile, is looking for a shipyard to start building the second line of six conventional submarines with foreign collaboration. The remaining 12 are likely to be completely indigenous.
The much awaited naval satellite is set to be launched between December 2010 and March 2011. The Rs 950 crore satellite, being developed by ISRO, will not only enhance connectivity between various ships and shore-based command units, but also improve navy’s surveillance capability.
quadbike40 Indian fighter jets to be fitted with BrahMos missiles
BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles, which is a joint venture of India and Russia, will be fitted on the Indian Air Force’s 40 Su-30MKIs fighter aircraft.
CEO and MD of BrahMos Aerospace Dr A S Pillai said: “The inclusion of BrahMos cruise missile will make the aircraft unique in firepower.”
Dr Pillai was speaking to a Russian news agency at the Defence Services Asia-2010 exhibition here.He also added that the first trials of the air-launched version were set for 2011 and the first test-flight with the missile on-board is scheduled for 2012.
The supersonic cruise missile has a range of 290-km and flies at a speed of 2.8 Mach.
The BrahMos missile is a successful joint venture of India”s Defence Research and Development Organisation and Russia’s NPO Mashinostroeyenia.
BrahMos missiles sea and ground-launch versions have already been successfully tested and put into service by the Indian Army and Navy
quadbikeGovt Tells Parliament About BAE’s Hawk AJT Screw-Up
The Indian MoD made this information available to Parliament today: Delivery of 42 (Hawk-AJT) aircraft was scheduled from 2007-2008 to 2010–2011 in a phased manner. Three aircraft were to be built from semi-knocked down (SKD) kits, three from completely knocked down (CKD) kits and 36 from raw material phase. The CKD and SKD kits were assembled on schedule. When production in raw material phase was taken up, it was found that the equipment supplied by the OEM had various shortcomings. The assembly jigs that were supplied did not meet the requirements, there was mismatch in the kits/components supplied, there were defects in major assemblies like the wing spar etc. These problems took time to overcome and hence affected the production schedule at HAL.
quadbikeEXCLUSIVE : US Writes To South Block For Conversion Of MMRCA Into Single Vendor FMS, MoD Refuses !!!
quadbikeDassault and Thales face a conflict of interests over sales of UAE and Qatari Mirages to India instead of upgrading the IAF’s existing 52 Mirage-2000H/THs. Cross-posting this article from BRF.
But since we know that the go ahead was given for signing the deal with Thales and Dassault for the upgrade of the IAF’s existing fleet of 52 Mirage-2000H/TH’s this offer may well be rejected..which is a shame really, since if the price is right, these are very capable fighters that will really come handy when the IAF’s fighter numbers are dwindling.
I think buying the UAE Mirages are the way to go, Half of the airframes are much younger than all but 10 of the IAF Mirages. Since we already have the support and logistics systems for the Mirage, what we can do is make the existing fleet our second string fighters. They are still much more capable than the MiG 21s for example, this may allow IAF to retire MIG 21s on time as well.
Then as Swerve suggested in the case of the Jaguar we can use the oldest of the Airframes for spares etc. to keep our Mirage 2000-9/2000-5 fleet healthy.
😉
quadbikeI think we are debating past one another. People are only contesting the claim that a weapon system be it a gun or an IR guided training round cannot be placed on an F22.
For that Wrightwing answers the F 18/T 38 cannot possibly have the F 22 on its sights if they do not break the ROE. Well we hardly care, Simply answer
1. Can an IR seeker acquire an F 22 ?
2. Can you point the guns on the thing (like the T38 pilot is doing),
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