Finally, a long awaited deal may come through..for minesweepers from South Korea

NEW DELHI — India’s Defence Ministry has decided to award a US $1.2 billion contract to Kangnam Corp. for eight mine-countermeasure vessels in India’s first big-ticket defense program with South Korea.

The deal has been cleared ahead of Indian Defence Minister A.K. Antony’s planned visit to Seoul later this year, and will help boost defense ties with South Korea, an Indian MoD official said.

The finalization of the contract was delayed after Italy’s Intermarine, which was competing for the contract, approached India’s anti-fraud agency, the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), with issues related to the transparency of the procurement. The CVC cleared the purchase last year, but the MoD has since dragged its feet in deciding to award the contract, the source said.

India is reaching out to friendly nations in the region, including Japan and South Korea, as part of its Look East policy in a bid to contain the rising influence of China, said defense analyst Mahindra Singh.

The Indian Navy is likely to give additional orders to the South Korean company for the countermine ships, since the service has a requirement for more than 24 minesweepers, an MoD source said. The Indian Navy operates 12 aging Pondicherry and Karwar-class minesweepers.

The purchase of the new countermine ships is part of a long-term plan to acquire vessels for littoral warfare, including large landing platform decks, fast attack craft and advanced offshore patrol vessels.

In 2008, India sent bids for the countermine ships to Kangnam, Intermarine, Northrop Grumman, Izhar of Spain and DCN International of France.

The Navy has wanted new minesweepers for more than 13 years, but delays in procurement due to bureaucratic red tape have been holding back the order.

According to the deal, the first two minesweepers will be constructed at Pusan, South Korea, and the remaining six will be built at the Goa Shipyard through technology transfers.
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Indo-South Korean ties deepen with minesweeper purchase

India Concerned about workshare on the FGFA program

Might as well just buy them off the shelf and let Russia foot the entire development bill. seems like a lot of money is being wasted on “joint” development.

Aviation Week article

October 21, 2013
NEW DELHI — Indian government officials are expressing concern over the country’s work share in its Fifth-Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) collaboration with Russia.

“We have a major opportunity in the FGFA program,” Indian air force (IAF) Deputy Chief Air Marshal S. Sukumar says. However, “at the moment it is not very much in favor of Indian development. We are flagging it through the government. It should be much more focused towards indigenous development capability.”

India’s work share in FGFA research and development and other aspects of the multi-billion dollar project at the moment is only around 15%, even though New Delhi is bearing 50% of the cost. The total program is expected to cost India about 1.5 trillion rupees ($25 billion).

Indian Defense Minister A.K. Antony is expected to discuss the progress of the FGFA program and the IAF’s concerns with Russian defense authorities during his visit to Moscow on Nov. 15.

“Apart from the cost factor of the FGFA project, the defense minister is expected to take up the issue of India’s share in the project, since it will have an impact on the country’s indigenous capabilities to develop such an advanced fighter aircraft,” a defense ministry official says.

India and Russia signed a preliminary design contract worth $295 million for the FGFA in December 2010, and the design phase of the joint venture program was completed in June. Currently the final design and research and development contracts are under negotiation between the two countries. “These talks are expected to be concluded next year,” Sukumar says.

The final design contract now being negotiated is pegged at $11 billion, with India and Russia sharing $5.5 billion each towards the cost of design, infrastructure build-up, prototype development and flight-testing. Each fighter is expected to cost over $100 million.

The IAF intends to buy around 300 stealthy FGFAs, made jointly by Russia’s Sukhoi and India’s state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL). The fighter should be ready for induction from 2020 onwards.

The aircraft is a derivative project from the Russian single-seat Sukhoi T-50 or PAK FA being developed for the IAF. Currently, four T-50 prototypes have performed more than 200 test flights since January 2010. The Russian air force plans to begin inducting the fighter in 2015.

S. Subrahmanyan, managing director of MiG Complex at HAL, recently expressed confidence that the first jointly designed prototype will be ready in 2015 and the induction of FGFA could begin as early as 2019.

HAL will get three Russian prototypes for re-design and testing in 2015, 2016 and 2017, and will hand over the first series-produced aircraft to the IAF in 2017, Subrahmanyan says.

India had initially pitched for 166 single-seat and 48 twin-seat fighters, but the IAF now plans to stick with single-cockpit fighters to reduce costs and protect stealth features.

its an old article..the Dhruv fleet was said to have crossed 55,000 hours of flying at that time..now its gone past 1,00,000 hours of flying.

First upgraded M2K flies in France.
http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/dassault-flies-first-upgraded-indian-mirage-391427/

http://daily.bhaskar.com/article/NAT-TOP-mirage-2000-the-backbone-of-iaf-to-get-a-usd-2-4396094-PHO.html

This is the first time I am hearing about Derby and Python integration on Mirage-2000. All the weapon, HMDS and LDP integration has to be carried out by HAL, crystal maze standoff missile integration across the Mirage-2000 fleet is confirmed.

Wonder where the Dery/Python V news came from..the deal with MBDA for 500 MICA missiles to equip the fleet was signed long back.

India’s Fighter Strength is dropping by the day. Plus, the fact that the LCA is still years off and the PAK-FA and MMRCA many years on top of that. So, maybe the IAF should consider some more secondhand Mirage 2000’s.

hmmm, I wonder if France has some secondhand Mirage 2000-5’s available??? Plus, don’t forget that Taiwan and Brazil also have Mirage 2000’s setting around……..

There was a report that mentioned that hte IAF wanted to obtain 2 twin-seater Mirage-2000s from France as attrition replacements. They would also be put through the upgrade, which from French posters’ reports, includes airframe life increase.

Qatar has some 12 Mirage-2000-5s and UAE has around 60 as does Taiwan. But none of these would be available in the short term, till their air forces have something to replace them with. If the French have some older Mirage-2000 Cs, they could theoretically be put through the -5 Mk2 upgrade that the rest of the IAF Mirages are going through. But the IAF doesn’t seem to be pursuing any such line.

Same logic can be used to question most of China’s neighbor nation’s capability, Japan,Korea,Taiwan,India,Vietnam etc.

India has been fighting periodic wars and battles with Pakistan and also China since independence and the IA has been engaged in counter-insurgency ops for the past 2 decades in Kashmir and the North East..last major conflict was the Kargil war of 1999 with Pakistan. I’d venture to say that the odds of seeing action in the IA are among the highest of any army in the world. The comparison with the PLA doesn’t work.

Austin you meant IOC-2 right? IOC-1 was achieved last year.

article on Grp Cpt Suneet Krishna, one of the most experienced Test Pilots of NFTC, working on the Tejas program..not too many details, but worth a read.

Talkmag- India’s own fighter story

The G-force is one of several metrics a layman can zero in on to understand the progress the Tejas is making. When it first flew at the air show in 2003, test pilots had gone up to a mere 2G. So where is he taking it these days?

“6G. It is cleared up to that. And the alpha is about 20 degrees,” explains Sunit.

..

“When we first flew the Tejas, it was the first time we were testing a fly-by-wire (the FCS) system with no manual backup. There was a lot of apprehension. Even with the F-16 there were major issues, with all their decades of development experience. People were critical, there were worries about what could go wrong. It took a lot of effort to get it off the ground,” he recalls.

On February 5, the LCA completed more than 2,000 flights.

So how does the plane handle? Its test pilots have often compared it to the Mirage, another single-engine, delta wing aircraft.

“It is very contemporary,” he says, cautiously. “After the inaugural display, there were heartening reactions of ‘why is this not already in the Air Force?’ The plane will evolve.”

He sees the LCA successfully entering the IAF at the ‘light end’ of the fleet, in both ground attack and air superiority roles. “It is also a platform for the future,” he stresses. There is a Mark II with a more powerful engine to come, and an advanced medium combat aircraft (MCA) in the wings.

Finally, the Tejas is cleared for takeoff. Thumbs-up signs are exchanged with the ground crew, and Suneet taxies down the runway. He takes off, and there it is again. That neat little flight, which the IAF Chief of Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal NAK Browne, referred to as “a very attractive display.”

Earlier in the day, Browne told reporters the LCA should be in the IAF by 2015. RK Tyagi, Chairman of Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd, says once ADA completes the initial operational clearance-2 (IOC-2) in June this year, production can begin.

HAL can start off making eight LCAs a year, and can go up to 16, he said.

Tejas will feature in the IAF’s armament exercise later this year, called Livewire, where it will get to show off its combat capability. “It is an indigenous project, we have to support it. Sometimes we are critical, because we have to get it right. But I am very hopeful,” Browne said.