Def Min clears Rs 12,000 cr proposal for 56 aircraft

In a meeting of the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) headed by Defence Minister A K Antony, the IAF proposal to issue a global tender for procuring these aircraft was cleared, Defence Ministry sources said here.

The first 16 aircraft will be procured off-the-shelf from foreign vendors who will have to partner with a local private or public sector firm, they said.

The next 16 aircraft will have to have 30 per cent indigenous component while the remaining 24 planes will have 60 per cent locally-procured and produced items.

Asked why the state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) was not be involved in the project, they said the PSU was already burdened with projects such as the SU-30MKI production and upgrades of IAF aircraft fleet including the Mirage, MiG 29 and Jaguar aircraft.

HAL has a vast helicopter division and will also be involved in the forthcoming M-MRCA project for producing 126 combat aircraft, the sources said.

They said the 56-aircraft project would help in developing a domestic aerospace industry and capability to undertake such projects.

Who else if not HAL ? Mahindra (said to be considering buying beechcraft) or Tata (which has expressed the desire to partner with Lockheed Martin to produce C-130J in India should there be a large enough order) ? Or will L&T-Cassidian will expand its portfolio from defence electronics to aircraft assembly ?

Just a couple of nice pics:

Whoa, nice. If this was an actual formation during a war, some major bricks would be shat in the enemy camp :diablo:

What is the future development plans for the FA-50? When will it have an AESA radar?

IIRC they have settled fro SABR.

More dark clouds on the horizon…
http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-07-10/news/32618380_1_chetak-choppers-dac-russian-kamov

Defence Ministry to decide fate of 197 light utility helicopters
PTI Jul 10, 2012, 08.56PM IST
NEW DELHI: The Defence Ministry is expected to soon decide the fate of a deal to procure 197 light utility helicopters for the Army and Air Force after complaints were received about alleged deviations in tender norms during user trials of the participating companies.

Two companies including European Eurocopter and Russian Kamov are participating in the tender for supplying light helicopters to the two forces for replacing the fleet of vintage Cheetah/ Chetak choppers procured in the 1970s.

The STOC has now submitted its report and the DAC will examine in it in near future and will decide if the deviations can be accepted or not. If they are not acceptable, the tender can also be scrapped, they said.

“After going through everything, if anything goes wrong we will again cancel it,” Antony said.

India and the US are close to signing a deal worth over $600 million for supplying 99 jet engines that would be used in the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft ‘Tejas’ being developed by the DRDO. Around two years ago, India had selected the American company General Electric over its rival European Eurojet 2000 for the LCA Mark II programme expected to be ready around 2014-15.
Negotiations with the US firm over various issues involved in the deal, including price and transfer of technology, have been held and it is hoped that the deal for these engines to be fitted on the LCA Mark II would be signed soon, Defence sources told PTI here.

As per the contract, the order could be for 99 engines initially but India will have the option of order for another 100 engines in the future.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/NewDelhi/India-US-close-to-inking-over-600-mlln-jet-engine-deal/Article1-889421.aspx

I think that Indian Stretchable Time is a little too lenient to describe such timescales. We need a new time scale. Indian Procurement Time ?

Thanks for clearing that up.

Don’t know..any links?

My bad, it should have been Afnet demo.

http://m.outlookindia.com/story.aspx?sid=1&aid=693464

At the AFNET launch, the IAF showcased a practice interception of simulated enemy targets by a pair of Mig-29 fighter aircraft airborne from an advanced airbase in the Punjab sector using the gigabyte digital information grid.

During the AFNET-assisted operations, the Indian fighter jets neutralised intruding targets in the western sector, which was played out live on the giant screens at the Air Force auditorium offering a glimpse of the harnessed potential of the system.

The final orders for engaging the enemy targets were issued live by Antony, whose queries about how the operation went was responded to by the pilot as “excellent”.

Further, various other functionalities contributing towards Network Centric Warfare were also showcased.

Ok, all these network acronyms are getting confusing for me. Correct me if I am wrong:

1. AFnet is supposed to be the network backbone of IACCS.
2. AFnet will use ODL as primary data link for airborne assets (?)
3. ODL was successfully demostrated on MiG-29 in 2010(as a part of IACCS demo) (?)
4. IN uses Data Link II for linking its airborne assets (P8I) (?)
5. IN network is somehow compatible with ODL (reports of Shivalik class capable of directly linking up with IAF aew&c) (?)
6. Army is going for Tactical Communication System which will be the backbone for f-insas(?)
7. All these networks should be compatible with each other (?)