quadbikeSpace-based navigation to take off in April
Civil aviation in the country looks set to take the first step towards modern space-based navigation when GSAT-4, the country’s first satellite carrying a navigational payload, is flagged off in mid-April.
The navigational payload is only a part of the satellite and is part of the Rs 776-crore GAGAN programme initiated by the Airports Authority of India and the Indian Space Research Organisation at least five years ago.
An ISRO official said GAGAN (GPS-Aided Geo Augmented Navigational system) would herald the country’s move towards seamless modern air traffic management.
Higher reliability
Although this was an augmentation of the US-owned GPS, “We do not have the space segment now. This may eventually do away with terrestrial navigational aids. It will offer higher reliability and enhanced positional accuracy, besides many improvements” to flights, the official told Business Line.
A technology demonstration phase of the project conducted by ISRO and AAI across the country a few years ago proved that GAGAN could indicate aircraft routes and landing points far more precisely than ground based navigation to pilots. Switching into different countries would be smoother.
GPS augmentation
Only the US, Europe and Japan are implementing a GPS augmentation as mandated by the International Civil Aviation Organisation.
GSAT-4, the satellite that carries the GAGAN payload, is due to be launched on April 15, a PTI report said.
However, these improvements in air cannot be expected immediately, the official said. At least one or two more satellites will be needed to fully realise its benefits. The next follow-on satellite carrying the GAGAN payload – the GSAT-8 – is due later.
The GAGAN project was approved in 2008 after a technology demonstration phase. The satellite made in Bangalore has been moved to Sriharikota for pre-launch testing and preparations.
The ground equipment for the GAGAN system, sourced from Raytheon, US, formed a major component of the cost of the project.
Meanwhile, ISRO is working on a GPS-independent Indian regional navigation system of seven satellites.
quadbike3 Water Jet Fast Attack Crafts launched from Raja Bagan Dockyard
The Indian Navy today launched three Water Jet Fast Attack Crafts ”INS Kabra”, ”INS Koswari” and ”INS Karuva” to be deployed around the peninsula to keep a strict vigil, Rear Admiral K N Sekhar, CMD Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE) Limited said today.
At the launch of the warships from Raja Bagan Dockyard(RBD), Mr Sekhar said, ”For the second time in succession, three water jet fast attack crafts are being launched simultaneously from here.” The warships were lauched by Ms Letha Sushil, wife of Vice-Admiral K N Sushil. The names of the warships were assigned after three islands of the Arabian Sea.
With the launch, RBD had completed the launch of eight ships after it was taken over in 2006, said Mr Sekhar.
”Like previous occasions, we have again adopted unconventional methods of floating ships out from a dry dock,” Mr Sekhar said and added that launching from inclined berth restricted the shipyard to a single ship launch, but by floating out from a flooded dry dock, simultaneous launching could be achieved.
The ships have been fitted with state-of-the-art main engine controls, electronics, communication and navigation systems with fully air-conditioned modular-type accommodation.
The ships have Reverse Osmosis Plant for fresh water generation and sewage treatment plant to comply with international maritime organisation regulations.
The hull of these ships was highly efficient with excellent sea keeping characteristics, Mr Sekhar said, adding these ships could cut through the sea at a speed of 35 knots(65 kmph), powered by three water jets.
The function was also attended by Vice-Admiral KN Sushil and MLA Abdul Khalique Mollah among other dignitaries.
quadbikeBrahmos cleared for Air Force
Aiming to provide the country’s defence with an extra edge, the government last week inked a Rs 11,600-crore agreement that will pave the way for formal induction of the Brahmos missile into the Indian Air Force (IAF), besides giving two more regiments of the supersonic land attack system to the Army.
While the missile is already in service with the Navy and Army, this is the first time that a surface-to-surface version of the missile will be inducted into the IAF. This will give the IAF a cutting edge over adversaries in the region and will arm it with the capability of taking out enemy radars and other air defence installations without even sending fighters across the border.
Top sources said the multi-crore agreement with Brahmos Aerospace, a joint venture between the DRDO and Russian company, would enable factory production of advanced versions of the cruise missile that can be launched from aircraft, submarines, ships and land. Capable of attaining speeds between 2.5 and 2.8 mach, Brahmos missiles have a range of about 290 kilometres. “In the next couple of years, we will have different versions of the Brahmos in all the three services,” sources said.
Last week’s contract for the IAF is in addition to another project to develop a smaller version of the missile for the SU 30 MKI fighter for a land attack role.
After the Prithvi missile, this will be the second land attack missile in the IAF’s arsenal. While the primary user of the surface-to-surface version of the missile is the Army — two additional regiments for the land force were cleared last week — it also has a unique role for the IAF. “The Air Force felt the need to have a precision land attack missile to take down specific targets,” an official said. The initial order is likely to be for one squadron of the missiles followed by more.
Significantly, the IAF has ordered the Block II advanced version which can home in on a particular land target amongst a group of similar targets, making it the only supersonic cruise missile with such precise strike capabilities.
quadbikeBoeing eyes collaboration with ISRO on communication satellites
BANGALORE: Boeing has evinced interest in collaborating with Indian Space Research Organisation in the area of communication satellites, and the two entities are exploring joint opportunities, a senior ISRO official said.
But the future possible cooperation with Boeing is unlikely in the field of joint-building of communication satellites as the Indian Space agency already has a tieup in this segment with EADS Astrium, Managing Director of Antrix Corporation, ISRO’s commercial arm, K R Sridhara Murthi indicated.
“They (Boeing) said they are interested in having collaboration with us in the field of communication satellites. But we (ISRO) already have an alliance with Europeans (EADS Astrium),” he said.
“May be some new areas of business we (ISRO and Boeing) have to explore. We need to do a lot of homework before we could arrive at collaborative level. Still, it’s very preliminary type of exchange,” Murthi said.
ISRO, meanwhile, is expanding its alliance with Astrium, with which it has an agreement to jointly offer communication satellites with a launch mass of two tons to three tons for the international market.
“We are trying to cooperate in other areas (in addition to communication satellites) such as earth observations. So, we have built along with them (Astrium) some multi-sensor ground systems for the USA and we are also trying to cooperate in other areas and explore what other type of cooperation we can do in the field of earth observations,” he said.
quadbikeInteresting. Very interesting.
With the UK budget in the brown stuff, what price Gripens on the new carriers instead of $150million+ JSFs?
Still would developing and then buying the Sea Gripen be cheaper than buying the F 35 B, noting that UK has already invested a large amount in its development.
quadbikeAnother View 😉
I think you can clearly see the cockpit layout and number of MFDs in this.
quadbikeMake a thread in general section on public vs private and leave this alone. The occassional rant is fine however 🙂
quadbike
From Aero India 09.
quadbikeShiv Aroor Reports in his blog that the Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) flew today.
quadbikeIndia developing winged reusable rocket : ISRO
Bangalore, Mar 28 (PTI) India is developing a winged reusable rocket and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has configured a Technology Demonstrator as a first step towards realising it, the space agency said in a report.
India’s space scientists have already configured a winged Reusable Launch Vehicle Technology Demonstrator (RLV-TD). This is a first step towards realising a Two Stage To Orbit (TSTO) fully re-reusable launch vehicle, according to Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
The agency said in its latest annual report that a series of technology demonstration missions have been conceived.
“The RLV-TD will act as a flying test bed to evaluate various technologies like hypersonic flight, autonomous landing, powered cruise flight and hypersonic flight using air breathing propulsion. First in the series of demonstration trials is the hypersonic flight experiment (HEX),” it said.
quadbikeChinese help to build Sri Lanka port no security threat: Indian Navy
Kolkata: The Indian Navy today said it did not see any security threat to the country in the Chinese involvement in building Hambantota port in southern Sri Lanka.
“Building the port in Sri Lanka will not hamper our security. India is too vast for that,” Southern Naval Command’s Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Vice-Admiral KN Sunshil, told newsmen after the commissioning of three Fast Attack Craft at Garden Reach near Kolkata.
“We need not be too concerned with Chinese assistance in building the port. What is to be seen is whether the Chinese sit there even after completion of the port,” he said.
Media reports say that China is helping build the Hambantota strategic port with an estimated investment of $1 billion over the next few years. The port is expected to accommodate nearly 33 ships by 2020.
For the time being, the Chinese were providing the technology for building the port and it would be used as a freight hubbing centre, Sushil pointed out.
Sushil said after the Mumbai attack, the Centre had come out with a coastal security plan involving the Navy, the Coast Guards, the local police and even fishermen.
“The idea is defence in-depth. This means, formation of several layers of defence so that if one layer misses the enemy, there will be others to intercept him,” he said.
He said that involving the fishermen in the coastal security system was yielding results and they were now playing an important role in surveillance.
“We have involved the fishermen in such a manner as to make it very difficult for any vessel to pass them unnoticed,” he said.
Earlier, speaking at the commissioning of water jet fast attack craft (WJFAC) ‘INS Kabra’, ‘INS Koswari,’ and ‘INS Karuva,’ at the Rajabagan Dockyard of the Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Ltd (GRSE), he said these ships would help the Navy counter unconventional threats.
Commissioned by Sushil’s wife Letha, the three ships are the last in the series of 10 WJFAC designed by GRSE.
Welcoming the guests, GRSE chairman and managing director Rear Admiral KC Sekhar said the company’s ongoing modernisation programme was expected to be completed by mid-2011.
quadbike23 saved from burning ship
VASCO: In a late-night rescue mission off the coast of Goa, ships of the Indian Navy and Coast Guard rescued the 23 crew members of MV Maersk Miami, a container carrier whose engine room caught fire on Friday night. The efforts were assisted by merchant vessels also in the area, a press note issued by the defence ministry states.
Responding to the distress call received at 7.33pm from the vessel that was 43 nautical miles west off Goa and was headed for the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, Mumbai, authorities at the coast guard headquarters (West) alerted naval authorities in Mumbai and Goa as well as the coast guard in Goa.
Activating an international safety net to alert merchant ships in the area, so that initial assistance could be provided to the burning ship, a Goa-based naval team, with medical officers on board, set sail for the vessel in distress. The coast guard too launched an interceptor boat and diverted the MV Maersk Miami which was patrolling off the west coast. MV Aranda Colossus and MV Chimes, sailing in the area, were also asked to render assistance.
By midnight the naval and coast guard ships reached the ship in distress and by 2am the fire had been doused and the crew rescued.
Samrat, which reached at 7am, was used to transport the crew to sister ships, MV Maersk Dauphin and MV Nedllyod Africa. The owners of MV Maersk Miami have dispatched two ocean going tugs to assist in the salvage of the vessel.
quadbikeLockheed Martin offers ‘most advanced’ F-16 to IAF
March 29 (IANS) The F-16IN Super Viper combat jet that is in the running for an Indian Air Force (IAF) order for 126 planes is the ‘most advanced’ ever built and will enable the IAF to seamlessly transit to fifth generation fighters, its manufacturer Lockheed Martin says.
‘The F-16, if selected, will be the most advanced ever built. The only other such aircraft in service is with the UAE Air Force,’ Orville Prins, Lockheed Martin’s vice president (Business Development) for India, told a group of visiting Indian journalists here.
‘The Super Viper has the most advanced technology and capability available today on the international market. It is truly the ultimate fourth generation fighter with all it brings to the battlefield,’ he added.
According to Prins, an IAF team, while evaluating the F-16 at its manufacturing facility here, had found its performance ‘unbelievable and its acceleration and capability to manoeuvre remarkable’.
He also pointed out that the jet’s APG-80 AESA (advanced extended search array) radar was the only such operational in the international market today.
‘The AESA radar provides outstanding situational awareness and detection, ultrahigh-resolution mapping with automatic terrain following and air-to-air tracking of multiple targets,’ Prins said.
The AESA radar apart, he also pointed out that many technologies developed for the F-35 fifth generation fighter that the US Air Force has ordered, would be incorporated in the F-16 that India purchases.
‘This will enable the IAF to seamlessly transit to the F-35 if, at some later stage, it decides to purchase the jet,’ Prins said.
The Indian Navy has already submitted a request for information (RFI) for the F-35 in view of its unique short-take-off-vertical landing (STOVL) capabilities.
The F-16 is one of the six jets contending for the IAF’s $10 billion order that is likely to rise to 200 jets, the others being the Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet, the Eurofighter Typhoon, the Saab Gripen, the Dasault Rafale and the MiG-35.
One set of flight trials was conducted in India last year and another in the country of manufacture earlier this year, which included the live firing of ammunition.
With the trials set to conclude next month, a shortlist will be drawn up after which the price negotiations will begin, a process that is likely to take a year before the IAF decides on the winning bidder.
Eighteen of the planes will be bought in a fly-away condition and the remaining manufactured in India by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) under a transfer of technology (TOT) agreement.
India’s partnership with Lockheed Martin, Prins noted, ‘can provide access to the highest technology, opportunities for technology co-development, low risk licensed production, transfer of technology and opportunities for extensive long-term business’.
The jet’s selection would also ‘facilitate a key strategic partnership with the United States and the US Air Force that would include joint training and logistical and operational concepts’, he added.
The F-16 first flew in 1974 and over 4,500 have been ordered so far by 25 countries.
quadbikeUnarmed? 😀 Oops!
Unmanned. Might also be unarmed, but that isn’t what the U in UAV stands for.
😀 A Clean F 16 can also be a UAV then :diablo:
quadbikeVirtually lost? Did anybody else send a “IN” version of the flight tests? A “NG” version does not exist, a Demo does.
If a Gripen D makes i though the tests, a later version will have no problem doing it to…
Sign you are right we don’t know which plane would be selected. And Gripen has not ‘lost’ neither has any other fighter including the much hated F 16 IN.
Just wait till the final decision, or the first cut, It will surprise you. 😉 I think Gripen would be among the 3 shortlisted ones.
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