JALANDHAR/NEW DELHI: An Indian Air Force (IAF) MiG-29 fighter aircraft crashed near here Tuesday but the pilot ejected safely.

The pilot was identified as Lt. Commander Vikram Chauhan of the Indian Navy. He was on attachment to the IAF to train on the MiG-29 ahead of its deployment on the Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov that will be joining the navy fleet next year, an IAF spokesman said in New Delhi.

The fighter took off from the Adampur air force base, 20 km from here, at around 4 pm and crashed within two minutes, the spokesman added.

The fighter was on a routine sortie. It crashed near Dharoli Khurd village, missing some houses by just 200 metres.

“The crash occurred immediately on take off. The pilot ejected safely,” the IAF spokesman said.

The pilot was admitted to the military hospital in Jalandhar and is being kept under observation.

A court of inquiry had been ordered.

Fighters from the Adampur base will participate in an Indian Army-IAF joint exercise starting near Jalandhar May 11.

Three IAF MiG-29s have crashed in the past 11 months.

In September 2006, a MiG-29 that had taken off from Adampur crashed while preparing to land at Ambala. The pilot ejected safely.

In June, a twin-seat trainer version crashed into the sea off India’s west coast but both pilots bailed out safely.

Tuesday’s is the fifth crash of an IAF aircraft this year.

A Jaguar fighter had crashed at the Nal air base in Rajasthan on Jan 18. An indigenously developed Dhruv advanced light helicopter (ALH) had crashed on Feb 2 while rehearsing for the Aero India international air show at Yelahanka near Bangalore. A MiG-21 fighter met a similar fate near Kurseong in West Bengal on March 1.

On April 11, two pilots were killed when a Cheetah helicopter crashed over the Siachen glacier in Jammu and Kashmir.

Soon after assuming office last month, the IAF chief, Air Chief Marshal Fali Major, had said the force had recorded its lowest rate of 0.36 per cent accidents in its 75-year history.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/IAF_MiG…how/2019767.cms

http://www.hindustantimes.com/storypage/storypage.aspx?id=15b77d03-5681-44e5-abef-cc9265d37d69&&Headline=Indian+missile+a+%e2%80%98dud%e2%80%99%2c+air+force+doesn%e2%80%99t+want+it

New Delhi, April 25, 2007

Serious doubts have been raised by air force officers about the effectiveness of the Akash missile system, according to confidential documents of the Indian Air Force (IAF) seen by HT. The surface-to-air missile system, developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), consistently failed during trials, the papers show.

In March, a parliamentary standing committee on defence recommended a complete review of the structure and functioning of the DRDO.

The DRDO says all doubts have been cleared and the missile system is a success. But the IAF is yet to buy and deploy the missile system.

Doubts about the medium-range Akash missile system, developed at a cost of Rs 800 crore after more than two decades of research and trials, emerged at a meeting called by the Western Air Command in Delhi last year. Sixty middle-level and senior IAF officers attended the meeting.

A presentation, based on the report of an IAF expert who had witnessed the trials, contained several startling revelations. “The IAF expert witnessed repeated cases of missile parts falling off during many trials. He recommended that the Akash missile system was not fit to be deployed,” a senior officer, who attended the presentation, told HT.

Pointing out major flaws in this missile system, developed as a part of the country’s Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme, the report presented to the IAF officers says, “The expert noticed it took 25 minutes to load a single missile on the launcher, which rendered this missile system unfit for use in war-like situations. The night loading time would therefore automatically be twice more than daytime.”

Describing the Akash missile trials as a “disaster”, the presentation report says, “Out of 20 test trials seen by the IAF expert, the majority of them ended in a failure.”

“It was not capable of picking up low-level targets over any sea, due to multi-path reflection. The missile warhead was also not capable of engaging present-generation targets, due to repeated failures,” the report says.

However, the DRDO has strongly defended the missile system. In a written response to queries by HT, the DRDO said it was “fully satisfied with the current status of trials of Akash. Currently all doubts have been cleared and resolved”.

“The missile system is now complete after successful trials and the organisation is confident about its success,” the DRDO added.

The IAF report criticised the DRDO and senior officials from the Ministry of Defence, saying, “There was deliberate data suppression and the IAF was pressured to either change or withdraw the report.”

The report indicates that desperate moves were made during the trials to prove that the system was a success. “A radar was placed on a 13-metre-high platform for all trials, to increase the efficiency of the missile system artificially, which would not be the case in hostile conditions of war,” it says.

Cautioning the IAF on the limitations of the Akash missile system, the report says, “In its present status, Project Akash cannot meet the operational requirements of the IAF, due to major design flaws, and if the IAF wanted to use this particular missile system, then it would have to lower its acceptability standards.”

The DRDO, however, said the Akash missile system had an edge over other systems due to its multi-target handling capacity, being a fully automatic system. It said since the system was completely indigenous, it could be quickly upgraded within the country.

I don’t see any reason why star should be banned.

Correct! He is our great source of entertainment in here. Since Hamburger/F-18 left,I hardly have a good laugh! Cutting him off from here will deprive us from more laugh! 😀

which part is not indigenous?

The engines is still using AL-31 engines.. Only later half of these year then they try to convert to WS-10A

WS-13 is paper project untill this point. just like no engine for K-8/L-15.
MIG-29K/MIG-35/MIG-29OVT are all flying with 9300KG version of RD engine. and above there are decades of operational user input especially from hot countries of Africa/Middleast/Asia into improving RD engines for those climates. IAF experiance was the key. and further more there 10,500Kg test versions also flying and soon to be certified.
Unless China provide free engines with a fighter. there is no chance of WS-13 ever catching up in FC-1 life time.

I doubt so! FC-1 is a plane in direct with conflict with Russia Mig-29. Selling RD-93 to China to support FC-1 is like shooting its own Russia leg. Why would Russian do that? Basically is just like what Klimov president say,if we don supply China with RD-93,other will do it. China just need to get another supplier. Why not we just supply the engines and earn the market share?

In other words,he knows that China is going on with some engines thing and is near complete. China will have a substitute even without RD-93. in these case,might as well Russia become the supply and have root in this project and be a reliable supply to earn that big bucks rather than leeting the Chinese have the whole pie. The Chinese on the other hand have the J-10 almost fully indigenous. Getting FC-1 to be fully self reliant is not that critical since it is a plane on export! Since the russian are willing to supply,why not get a more reliable and proven engines plus using RD-93 will attract Mig-29 user since they are almost sharing the same engines and will thus solving more logistic problem..

FC-1 to clash with Mig-29 sales is an inevitable thing!

The official approval was only a matter of time. Both china and pakistan have been saying for ages this is not even an issue. The interesting bit is the one about thrust augmented engines.

But there is still some idiot out there who still think RD-93 cannot reached Pakistan…:diablo:

I doubt any manufacturer will do that. Licence manufacturing is very much possible. All you get is screw driver technology. Critical components get imported and rest sundry are made in house to claim indigenous manufacturing. Standard practice everywhere nothing Pakistan specific.

That is why PAF JF-17 will stick with Chinese radar even after the 50 unit deliver…

JF-17 will continue to have a Chinese monopoly of content(avionics and weapon) which is both good and bad for JF-17 as export for China…..