quadbikeIt is on top of the 16 on order (12 Ks + 4 KUBs). I think IN has plans for using some of them for permanent shore based ops. But they may arm the first IAC as well.
The second IAC is to have EMALS and would be much bigger plans, so probably the RFI issues to Lockheeed SAAB and others are for this.
quadbikeDoesn’t this ruin any chance for IAF/navy procuring any future F-35B/C?
How long do you expect those Mig-29K to be around before being replaced?
India must be quite satified with those Mig-29K.
Thinking of it there are other Navy fighters out there on the marked..Thanks
No because they are for the Vikramaditya and Shore Based operations. IAC 1 and 2 will need new fighters and for these F 35 B is a strong contender.
quadbikequadbikeMissile system way ahead of India: China
A Communist Party-backed Chinese newspaper has quickly refuted a top Indian scientist’s claims that India’s ballistic missile defence technology is superior to that of China.
India is 10-15 years behind China in missile technology, Chinese Rear Admiral Zhang Zhaozhong was quoted saying on the Global Times front page on Friday.
The report was prominently reproduced across the Chinese media. “India’s technology for its measurement and control system, which is used to trace launched missiles, remains at a very low level, and they are unable to constitute a complete and reliable missile defense system,” Zhang said.
Zhang, also a professor at the Chinese National Defense University, said that China doesn’t consider India a strategic rival while developing military technology.
He was reacting to claims of India’s superior missile technology by V K Saraswat, who heads the Defence Research and Development Organisation.
“Some Indian politicians always depict China as an imaginary enemy in order to develop nuclear missiles and submarines, which only reflects their lack of confidence and dwelling on historical problems,” Rear Admiral Yang Yi, at the University of National Defense, was quoted saying. Last month, China successfully test-fired its first missile interception system.
“It’s still unknown when Agni-III will be deployed by the Indian army, though they claim the missile is ready for use. And it might take at least another five years to ready the Agni-V,” Zhang said.
quadbikeRussia, India May Join Forces to Explore the Moon, Putin Says
March 12 (Bloomberg) — Russia and India may join forces in exploring the Moon, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said, touting the two countries’ potential for cooperation on high technology projects.
“We need to identify priorities for our joint work in space,” Putin said during a video conference in New Delhi today. “Moon exploration could be one of these priorities.”
Russia, which sent the first satellite and man into space, is rebuilding a space program that was decimated by the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Russia is working on space projects with the U.S. and China and is planning to fly an Indian astronaut in its Soyuz vehicle.
Under a space cooperation agreement signed today, Russia plans to send an Indian cosmonaut into space in 2013, Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov told reporters.
Anatoly Perminov, head of the Russian Space Agency, said in New Delhi in December 2008, that India may get its own spacecraft after 2015.
Russia and India earlier agreed to send an unmanned mission to the Moon and erect a laboratory on the lunar surface. The accord will expire at the end of 2017.
Perminov last year told Rossiiskaya Gazeta, the Russian government’s newspaper of record, that Russia plans a manned flight to the Moon by 2025-2030 and to Mars by 2040.
quadbikeIndian navy thwarts pirate attack on Greek ship
NAIROBI (Reuters) – Indian navy commandos thwarted a suspected Somali pirate attack on the Greek bulk carrier Melina 1 off the Indian coast, East African maritime officials and the Indian navy said on Monday.
Andrew Mwangura, of the East African Seafarers Assistance Programme, said the weekend attack about 200 nautical miles (370 km) west of India’s Lakshwadeep islands closely resembled those of Somali pirates.
“The location seems way outside Somali pirate territory but the unsuccessful attack seems to bear all the hallmarks of Somali pirates — three mother ships, two skiffs,” he told Reuters.
India’s navy confirmed the incident, saying it despatched elite marine commandos, a coastguard vessel and an attack helicopter when it received a distress call from the Malta-flagged vessel during the early hours of Saturday.
“The hijacking attempt was successfully thwarted and we escorted the ship for awhile and she is now safe,” Commander Roy Francis of the Indian navy told Reuters, adding that the team had returned to base.
The navy team was not sure of the identity of the pirates and Somali pirates had not previously been known to attack vessels so close to the Indian territory.
Mwangura said the vessel was transporting coal to India from Ukraine, with a 23-member Ukrainian-Filipino crew.
Somali pirate gangs typically hold hijacked ships for ransom, which often runs into millions of dollars.
quadbikeIndia, Russia expected to settle aircraft issue with Putin’s visit
NEW DELHI, March 11 (Xinhua) — Six years ago, New Delhi signed a deal worth almost one billion U.S. dollars with Moscow to pull out an abandoned aircraft carrier from the Russian junkyard and arm it with some of the most modern MiGs: the Mig29Ks.
Russia delivered the first four of the 16 combat jets recently but there is no sign yet of the carrier.
With Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin arriving here for a one-day visit on Friday, the two countries are expected to definitely settle the aircraft issue with a possible signing of agreement, said Indian official sources. India recently has agreed to shell out 2.34 billion U.S. dollars for the aircraft.
According to highly placed sources in the Indian Defense Ministry, a price row between India and Russia had delayed the delivery of the carrier, which was originally named after the legendry Soviet Admiral Sergei Gorshkov and now rechristened by India as INS Vikramaditya, an ancient Hindu king.
Russia has told India that it cannot build the ship at the cost offered in 2004 and added a new price tag of 2.9 billion U.S. dollars.
Going back in time, the price of military equipment had never become an issue in India-Russia military relations which are an extension of the Cold War legacy, when such irritants were often overlooked in the name of friendship.
But the economics of military ties between India and Russia have changed rapidly with time and the emergence of new players on the scene.
According to Defense Ministry sources, as recently as 15 years ago, India would not have imagined buying military equipment from countries like Israel and the United States, who are now its fastest growing arms partners.
So in that sense, the entire dynamics of India-Russia relationship is undergoing a silent change.
The delay in the delivery of Gorshkov-Vikramaditya has already derailed Indian navy’s ambitious plans to operate three aircraft carriers to play the dominant role of a sea power in the Indian Ocean.
The carrier will be inducted in 2013 though it was intended to enter the Indian navy fleet by 2008.
Indian navy’s sole power projector — Royal Navy’s Hermes which is known as Viraat, or the majestic, in its Indian avatar — is running on borrowed time. The ship would have been decommissioned by now but its life has been extended after several rounds of overhauling.
“Ideally speaking, the Vikramaditya would have joined the force by now. But the current estimate is that even if the price issue is settled this year, the ship would not be ready to be delivered by the end of 2013,” the sources said.
According to the contract signed in January 2004, Russia’s Rosoboronexport was to deliver the 44,570-ton aircraft carrier to India in 2008.
The 1.5 billion U.S. dollar contract earmarked 964 million U.S. dollars for Gorshkov refurbishment and 536 million U.S. dollar for the complement of 16 MiG-29K fighter aircraft on board.
Indian Navy does own the responsibility for the price hike and the resultant delay in the delivery of the Gorshkov carrier.
Recently in response to an Right to Information (RTI) application, Indian Navy admitted that it placed the 1.5 billion U. S. dollar Gorshkov order without visual inspection.
“As per the contract signed in January 2004, the original package was drawn up based on visual examination in as-is condition wherein it was found that the majority of the equipment, systems could be repaired while the electronic equipment could be renewed,” Vice-Admiral S. P. S. Cheema with the Integrated Headquarters, Ministry of Defense (Navy), wrote in his RTI response.
“On opening up the equipment for a detailed examination and survey of the state of the hull structures, systems, cabling, etc, it emerged that these could not be repaired and hence would have to be replaced with new ones. These additionalities have resulted in the increase in project costs,” Cheema said.
Interestingly, India is building another aircraft carrier, known as the Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC) at home and this would not be ready before 2015. But The ship is still on the drawing board.
quadbike‘No plan to induct women fighter pilots in IAF’
Jodhpur, Mar 9 (PTI) There is no plan to induct women fighter pilots in Indian Air Force in near future, Air Chief Marshal P V Naik said here today.
“We are yet to study the induction of women as fighter pilots by some countries including Pakistan. Moreover, it is a decision which the IAF alone cannot take,” Naik told reporters on the sidelines of President Standard Presentation ceremony.
However, the IAF chief said “we have 790 women officers in the IAF and some of them are also flying helicopters and transport vehicles which is a matter of pride for us”.
Expressing concern over the fighter plane mishaps, Naik said “losing a pilot is more worrisome for us instead of losing a plane”.
But he claimed that the IAF has succeeded in bringing down the accidents in past some years.
quadbikeIndia signs weapons deals worth $4bn with Russia
THE INDIAN government has approved a clutch of agreements with Russia for military hardware estimated at more than US$4 billion (€2.9 billion) ahead of prime minister Vladimir Putin’s day-long visit to New Delhi today, spawning a possible arms race in a highly volatile region.
The cabinet committee on security (CCS) headed by prime minister Manmohan Singh confirmed the long negotiated and highly contentious $2.34 billion deal to refurbish Admiral Gorshkov, the 44,500-tonne second-hand aircraft carrier which the Indian navy acquired in 2004 for the price of its refit.
Russia had originally agreed to retrofit the 23-year-old decrepit carrier crippled by a fire in 1994 for $975 million, but the eventual cost of resurrecting it had almost tripled, resulting in bitter acrimony with Moscow, the largest supplier of assorted weaponry to India for more than four decades.
The carrier is now likely to be delivered in 2013, almost four years behind schedule, because of the price wrangle.
The CCS also agreed the $1.2 billion purchase of 29 additional MiG 29K maritime fighters that would form part of the air arm of an aircraft carrier under local construction at Kochi in southern India.
Military officials said India would also sign an agreement to acquire 40 additional Su-30MKI multi-role fighters to augment depleting force levels in the airforce, as Soviet-era MiG variant combat aircraft were retired. By 2017 the Indian airforce plans on operating some 280 Su 30MKIs, of which some 150 were being constructed locally under licence.
Mr Putin’s visit will also set the stage for the induction of the Nerpa Akula-II nuclear-powered submarine into the Indian navy later this year under a 10-year lease for an estimated $700 million. India would then become the world’s sixth nation, after the five nuclear-weapon states of Britain, China, France, Russia and the US, to operate a nuclear-powered submarine.
The Russian prime minister is also expected to sign agreements on the joint development of a fifth generation stealth fighter and a multi-role military transport aircraft, costs for which will be shared equally between Moscow and Delhi.
India and Russia have agreed to extend their strategic and military partnership by another decade to 2020. This includes the supply of material and maintenance contracts worth some $10 billion to Moscow, which remains India’s largest material supplier. Mr Singh, meanwhile, is also likely to ask Mr Putin for access to nuclear reprocessing technology for civilian use.
Russia is currently constructing two 1,000MW light water plants in India’s southern Tamil Nadu state, with four more proposed, but that number is likely to increase exponentially.
In December 2009 Russia signed an agreement with India to expand civil nuclear co-operation that was free from all restrictions, guaranteeing against any future curbs or events.
quadbikeIAF lost six fighters in six months: Antony
Six fighter aircraft and one helicopter of the Indian Air Force crashed in the past six months, Defence Minister A.K. Antony told the Rajya Sabha Wednesday.
‘In the past six months, six fighter aircraft and one helicopter of the IAF have crashed. Preliminary causes of the accidents were human error and technical defects,’ he said.
‘Various measures to reduce aircraft accidents including operational risk management, crew resource management and improvised training on aviation safety have been implemented to generate a safer flying culture,’ he added.
quadbikeIndia’s £510-mn chopper decision raises a loud cheer in the UK
New Delhi: The Indian ministry of defence will purchase 12 three-engined AW-101 helicopters from AgustaWestland, a unit of Italian major Finmeccanica, for the Indian Air Force’s elite Communication Squadron, which is tasked with the high-profile duty of ferrying the country’s president, prime minister and other VVIPs. The Rs3,726-crore (£510 million) deal allows the Communication Squadron to provide more complete and comprehensive services for the country’s highest ranked government officials in a security environment which has grown ten times more dangerous than ever before.
Given the fact that deliveries will only commence in three years time the decision has not come a day too soon.
Meanwhile, the Indian decision has raised a loud cheer in the United Kingdom as the choppers will be manufactured at Westland’s factory in Yeovil and the decision secures upto 4,000 jobs.
The news of the contract comes as a boost for the struggling programme for the UK Government had said last December that it would scrap a long-term plan to buy up to 70 medium-lift helicopters for the Armed Forces and instead purchase 22 Chinooks from Boeing. The Merlin, as the AW-101 is known in the UK, had been a favourite to win the order.
Its cancellation had raised questions about the future of the Yeovil facility as it now needs export orders to keep the AW-101 production line open.
UK defence analysts said the announcement was good news not just for Westland but for British jobs in general as thousands of suppliers in this country are dependent on the production facility.
quadbikeModernised ROSE Mirage III courtesy of Pakdef
Smart looking air defence colour scheme.
Improvements include Grifo M radar, AIM-9M missile, Martin Baker MK10 seat, new RWR, HOTAS functionality, new EW fit.
I thought the ROSE Mirages had some sorta BVR capability. Do they ? If so what is the missile used ?
quadbikeIt has been mentioned before that the intial buys by the IAF would be T 50 single seaters 50 of those and the rest (200) would be twin seaters. It would be the other way around in RuAF.
“The general agreement is that we work on both sides – the Russians and the Indians will cooperate on both versions of the aircraft,” he said.
Both Aircraft will have Indian and Russian components.
Nothing new.
quadbikeIt would be extremely cool if we could see IAF and PAF in same exercise. That would be the best pics. I hope I do not make some angry but one has to remember that both India and Pakistan have huge UN force contribution and do work together as a team in a very professional way. I see Turkey and Greece in same exercises and I hope that we can see that with these two very professional air forces in the future.
I think thats what the Americans want in the region, eventually try to mediate and solve issues with India-Pak and then have them in joint exercises and all that. It all serves American strategy in the region.
The trouble is Pakistan trusts China a lot more and India is undecided with changing U.S administrations blowing hot and cold.
quadbikeQuadbike
We may have got some planes and pilots, but no nations armed forces actually sided with us. This is unlikley to ever be the case. PAF will be on its own.
DovinR
Pure flame bait.
True, but receiving help in-terms of Planes and Pilots is not a small thing. India for example got some U.S transports during the Sino Indian conflict.
The F 16 sure is beautiful, for me its the most beautiful fighter jet ever (especially flying with a lot of payload) F 16 IN is a long shot for IAF but would be nice to see it in IAF roundels.
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