quadbikeAny reply to that will likely derail this thread so I will refrain. 🙂
quadbikeWell I am not an admiral..if anything I like to pretend that I am a General.:p
the F-35 thing…I believe they are backed up till 2020 with orders from the member countries…so realistically India can get her hands on the F-35 not earlier than 2025 even if they order today. Plus I don’t think the US will give India F-35 technology especially when India will be operating another 5 gen aircraft.
:p
I think the RFI is for Aircraft that goes onboard the much larger IAC 2. By the time that enters service I think F 35 will be available. I do not think there would be a question of Americans not offering it, by then F 35 would likely be their only fighter aircraft in the market. 😉
quadbikePakistan has it really easy don’t they free helicopters and free upgrades.
quadbikeConsidering that the navy will have only 3 carrier’s by 2020 (best estimate)…I don’t see space for more Naval Tejas.
There will not be a F-35 in the Navy.That is just wet dreams.
Admiral Samsara kindly explain why your Navy send RFI to Lockheed then :rolleyes:
quadbikeHe was not taking info from the USAF pilots, he made a lot of factual errors like the Israeli Radar and Jammer on Mig 21 Bisons etc.
quadbikeAh, I forgot. The assumptions of Boeing not withdrawing bidding again, of it all going perfectly on time and of Apache being selected. Silly me.
There is a long way to go before you can make statements like Apches being in Indian service in 2015 dont you think?
Boeing is bidding this time because there is no restrictive clause as in the first time, but Eurocopter is no longer bidding with its Tiger (it was in the original IAF tender)
I said it may. It probably will if they do it the normal way. Americans unlike the Russians are known to deliver their stuff on time or early.
I think Apache is going to win the IAF tender of 24 attack choppers. The first may arrive by the time Pakistan is getting the Super Cobra.
quadbikeIndia asks US to ease high-tech export controls
WASHINGTON: India has asked the United States to review and update its export controls to reflect the changed political realities of their
emerging strategic partnership.Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao raised the issue with the US Department of Commerce during a two day meeting here of the India-US High Technology Cooperation Group (HTCG), a key component of India US Strategic Dialogue.
At this first meeting of the HTCG since President Barack Obama took over last, “the two sides were able to consolidate the progress made in the last five years and identified the next steps for further expanding high technology trade between India and the US,” according to an Indian embassy release.
The identified steps were “especially in the areas of Defense and Strategic Trade, Biotechnology and Nano-technology,” it said without spelling them out. “They also agreed to create new groups for focused attention on cooperation in Health IT and Civil Aviation.”
The bilateral official talks of the HTCG, co-chaired by Rao and US Deputy Secretary of Commerce, Dennis F Hightower Tuesday were informed by the recommendations made by industry representatives of both countries on promotion of high technology trade between India and the USA.
Officials did not say how the US responded to the Indian demand voiced publicly by Rao to ease US high technology restrictions applicable to India and remove Indian firms from the barred Entity list.
“We see this as yet another area where Indian and US interest converge and, as a reliable and strategic partner, we look forward to seeing enhancement of trade in such goods and technologies between our two countries and removal of remaining Indian organizations from the Entity List,” she had said at the business-to-business session of the HTCG.
“It is anomalous that a body like ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation), which is developing several collaborations with (US space agency) NASA, should continue to be on this list,” Rao pointed out.
“The total exports of Advanced Technology Products from the US to India has increased from $1.3 billion in 2003 to over $4 billion in 2009, a somewhat impressive increase, particularly against the backdrop of the global economic slowdown,” she noted.
quadbikeIndia gets Russian N-sub for 10 years
NEW DELHI: India will soon have a nuclear-powered attack submarine prowling deep under the seas. Away from the spotlight on nuclear power reactors, aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov and MiG-29Ks, India and Russia quietly firmed up the 10-year lease of the K-152 Nerpa submarine during Russian PM Vladimir Putin’s visit here last week.
With the final lease and training agreements now in place, India is dispatching a 50-member submarine crew, including 8-10 officers, to Russia to train on the Akula-II class nuclear submarine.
“The Indian naval team will be leaving within 15 days. They will first undergo intensive training on Nerpa and then bring it to India on the 10-year lease,” said a defence ministry source on Tuesday.
The lease flows from a secretive agreement inked between New Delhi and Moscow in January 2004, with India funding part of Nerpa’s construction at Komsomolsk-on-Amur shipyard in Russia with an initial $650 million.
Nerpa was to be inducted in Indian Navy as INS Chakra by mid-2008 but technical glitches delayed the process. Then, just as it began its sea trials in November 2008, 20 sailors were killed on it due to a toxic gas leak. After repairs, Nerpa is fully-operational now.
India had also leased a `Charlie-I’ class Russian nuclear submarine from 1988 to 1991. That submarine, too, had been named INS Chakra but the expertise gained was steadily lost since India did not operate any other nuclear submarine thereafter.
The over 12,000-tonne Nerpa in itself will, of course, not fulfil India’s long-cherished aim to have a credible nuclear weapon triad — the ability to fire nukes from land, air and sea.
While Nerpa is nuclear-propelled, it will not come armed with its long-range nuclear-tipped missiles due to international treaties like the Missile Technology Control Regime.
But it will contribute in other ways. For one, it will train Indian sailors in the fine art of operating nuclear submarines. This will be useful when India’s own nuclear submarine, the over 6,000-tonne INS Arihant, becomes operational by 2011-2012.
Two, Nerpa will be used to provide protection to INS Arihant, which will be the launch platform for nukes after it becomes operational. Armed as it will be with torpedoes and and 300-km Klub-S cruise missiles, Nerpa will be a silent, lethal hunter of enemy submarines and warships.
Three, Nerpa will help India in its objective to have three SSBNs (nuclear-powered submarines with long-range missiles) and six SSNs (nuclear-powered attack submarines) in the long-term.
Unlike conventional diesel-electric submarines which have to frequently surface to replenish oxygen to recharge their batteries, a nuclear-propelled submarine can operate underwater for virtually unlimited periods of time. Consequently, a SSBN or a `boomer’ is considered the most difficult-to-detect-and-target platform for launching nuclear strikes.
While India has only 16 ageing conventional submarines at present, all the 71 US submarines are nuclear-powered, while 14 of them are SSBNs. China, in turn, has 10 nuclear submarines in its 62-submarine fleet, with three of them being SSBNs.
quadbikeRussian MiGs to boost naval air power
Dubai: Eyebrows were raised when India signed a deal last Friday to buy 29 MiG-29k fighter aircraft worth $1.5 billion (Dh5.5 billion) from Russia during Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s visit to the country. This was part of a broader deal to purchase $7 billion worth of military hardware from New Delhi’s traditional supplier of arms, including an aircraft carrier, the Admiral Gorshkov.
Problems
Over the years, the reputation of the Russian aircraft manufacturer Mikoyan — especially its MiG-21 plane — has suffered due to the high number of crashes that have led to the deaths of many fighter pilots, with the Indian press branding the jets as “flying coffins”. Indeed, the plot of a blockbuster Amir Khan movie Rang De Basanti revolves around the death of a pilot in one such MiG-21 crash.
But leading Indian defence analysts have dismissed all such fears. Speaking to Gulf News from New Delhi, Dr Thomas Mathew, Deputy Director-General at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, said that the MiG-29 was a “different and very efficient aircraft”. “I have spoken to many navy aviation people who have flown this jet, and it is a top-of-the-line aircraft.”
Asked why India insisted on buying Russian military hardware and not much more sophisticated US equipment, Mathew said: “The top-of-the-line US aircraft are superior to the top-of-the-line Russian jets. But what the United States will offer is a scaled down version, and the Russian top-of-the-line version is better than [the scaled down version of] American aircraft.”
When asked why Algeria recently returned a shipment of MiG-29 planes, Mathew said: “Algeria does not have an aircraft carrier. The Indian deal is for MiG-29k, which is a carrier-based version of the aircraft, and is most suitable for our navy.”
India is slated to receive the Gorshkov in 2012. Currently, India only has the half-a-century-old Viraat aircraft carrier, which is not operational. And most of the country MiG-21 fleet is to be retired by the end of 2012.
Another defence specialist, Rahul K Bhonsle, who heads security-risks.com, a New Delhi-based military analysis firm, concurred with Mathew’s view.
“If you are looking for a [quality] maritime aircraft operating out of an aircraft carrier, the MiG-29 is the best. It is a big leap forward in terms of technology. It’s quite a modern fighter. Under the circumstances, I think it is a very good deal for the Indian navy.”
Shopping spree
Currently, the Indian Air Force is seeking to buy 126 fighter aircraft, in a whopping $11 billion deal, considered the country’s single largest ever. MiG-35s of Russia, F-16INs from Lockheed Martin and the F/A-18E/F of Boeing of the United States and JAS 39 Gripen from Saab of Sweden, among others, are vying for the deal, known as the MRCA (multi-role combat aircraft) Tender.
“Despite all the rumours, no one is sure who will get the MRCA Tender. Only the first phase of trials is over. The second phase is slated for this September. We may not know till the next two years who will bag the contract,” said Bhonsle
quadbikeRIP
2 IAF personnel killed in explosion
Jodhpur, Mar 16 (PTI) Two Indian Air Force personnel were killed in an explosion at the Air Force station here today when they were changing the tyre of a fire fighting equipment.
According to Defence PRO Lt. Col. N.N.Joshi, Warrant Officer S. Pandey and a Sergeant H. Singh were changing the tyre of the high quality Crash Fire Tender, which is used to douse the fire at the Air Force station and aircraft when it burst leaving both seriously injured. They were taken to the hospital where they succumbed to their injuries.
Joshi said an investigation would be conducted into the incident. “We need to know the reason how it happened as it is very rare occurrence”, he added
quadbikeI think you may be being very very optamistic.
India cancelled its attack chopper tender after Bell and Boeing withdrew.
It has not started a new tender yet and certainly not trials.Please explain how on earth India may have Apache in service by 2015?
First of all Bell and Boeing did not withdrew, they simply did not bid because the first tender ruled out FMS procurement.
:rolleyes: And a new tender was floated after that. Trials will possibly begin this year or 2011 and if its selected by 2012 add to that 3 years (usual delivery date after contract being signed) you will get 2015. 😉
quadbikeYeah I have noticed offlate you are not covering as much defense stuff, Would there be a change in that in future ?
Will you be making a comeback with something like the Jet Set, new season?. 🙁
quadbikeI was talking about the IAF only. The IN would have(i think)
50 odd MIG 29K
30-40 Naval Tejas
20+ F 35 😀 (for IAC 2)
quadbikeI think they will win…it will also coincide with the LCA engine selection.
The reluctance to sell the U-212 subs to Pakistan is also probably a show of faith from Germany.
126+ Eurofighters
270 Su 30 MKIs
250+ FGFA
😉 Would take some beating.
quadbikeTo counter Chinese threat; Air Force base in State mooted
Imphal, March 12, 2010: Taking into cognisance the relentless Chinese threat in North Eastern region and the country, setting up of an Indian Air Force base in Manipur has been proposed and the State Government has already discussed the matter.
According to a highly placed source, the State Government has been approached for its approval in connection with the survey work to be conducted for setting up the proposed Air Force base in Manipur.
The Air Force base which would be used for the purpose of surveillance and other security reasons has been proposed in Manipur to counter increasing threats from China in India and more particularly in North East region.
Disclosing that the proposed Air Force base in Manipur would be set up not in the valley but in the hills, the source explained that radar and other sophisticated equipments would be installed and there would be facilities for helipad at the proposed Air Force base whose main responsibilities would be to monitor aircrafts flying from across the border and other illegal activities.
Similar proposal for setting up base of the Indian Air Force has also been put before the Government of Mizoram, the source disclosed, adding that Air Force authority has given more preference to Mizoram.
Meanwhile, a meeting chaired by Commissioner of Home, Government of Manipur V Vumlunmang and attended by Joint General Manager of Airport Authority of India was held today to discuss the proposal of the Air Force.
The proposal would be taken up for further discussion by the Home Department to the State Government again.
In case the Government approves the proposal, the Air Force authority would despatch its officials for the required survey work.
The Air Force officials would survey for at least two to three possible sites in the hill areas.
It may be noted here China has been not only claiming Arunachal Pradesh as its part but has also set up one of its air force bases near the Myanmarese coast of the Bay of Bengal.
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