BlackArcherUS Navy has begun acquiring air launched Mk-54 torpedoes from Raytheon for the P-8I fleet of the IN.
New Delhi, Oct. 20 — The US Navy has begun acquiring the sophisticated lightweight air-launched Mk-54 torpedoes from the US weapon maker Raytheon for the Indian Navy.
A company spokesperson told India Strategic magazine ( http://www.indiastrategic.in ) from Tewksbury in the US that the US Navy has placed an order for the torpedoes and associated equipment worth $45.3 million for the Indian and Australian navies. The breakup of numbers and respective costs was not given.
The Indian Navy will deploy the missiles on its eight P-8I long-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft being built and integrated by Boeing. The torpedoes are primarily meant for hunting submarines.
The aircraft will also carry Boeing’s Harpoon Block II anti-ship missiles and other offensive systems, including the highly advanced Raytheon APY-10 radar to track even small vessels far away. Its range though is classified but should be between 300 to 400 km.
BlackArcher15 helicopters. Why does India putz around like this? Greece has 15 Chinooks.
Its a habit of making small purchases initially and then based on the in-service experience, making follow-on purchases that eventually get to the number they always wanted. Maybe its a procurement ploy, to skirt around MoF objections over the scale of the purchase.
This is the case with a host of items, from Krivak frigates to T-90/Arjun tanks to C-130J/C-17 transport aircraft to P-8I maritime surveillance aircraft..
I’m guessing we’ll see that happen with the AH-64D Apaches too. 22 is just too small a number for an army the size of the Indian Army. LCH’s will complement those numbers, but they need at least a couple more squadrons of heavy gunships.
BlackArcherUK : 20~40
Italy : 90 <= Subject to further cuts.
Korea : 0 <= F-35 is trailing behind the Silent Eagle and the Typhoon at the moment in the ongoing F-X contest, with experts giving it a 0% chance of a win.That’s the leak from DAPA and the stock market.
you put 0 for the US fighters, but the Silent Eagle is a Boeing product.
BlackArcherWell, a Gripen trainer would be able to meet the USAF’s KPP rather easily. The issue is cost. While the Gripen costs more to buy, Saab claims a very low operating cost.
That operating cost advantage would vapourise when compared to other non-afterburning trainers like the M-346 and Hawk which are lighter, simpler, cheaper to acquire up front and definitely cheaper to operate per hour as well.
Even the T-50 will likely be as cheap if not cheaper than the Gripen per hour to operate (with nearly similar empty weights and fuel fractions as well as similar F-404 engines) and will definitely be cheaper to acquire up front, unless the Gripen-T variant is a really dumbed down version without a bunch of avionics on board the Gripen C/D.
BlackArcherWell if KFX (1st Picture) has not materialized, then the single seat F-50 (2nd pict) can take over the program.
KFX if materialized can be alternative for anyone who can’t afford F-35 but still want what basically US/Western Tech (with Asian flavor) fighter.
A recent AW&ST report mentioned that there is a real fight going on in South Korea over the KF-X between Agency For Defence Development (ADD) and the Finance Ministry and a few think tanks that weighed in and stated that the KF-X proposal was not feasible.
With one of the leading critics of the KF-X likely to become Defence Minister soon, the entire project may end up being shelved in favour of a foreign design that is modified to suit South Korea’s requirements. And if that happens, affordability for exports may not be such an easy thing to achieve, and a export-veto may put a further spanner in future sales.
BlackArcherCost.
So if cost was the criteria, then why even look at the Gripen when the Tejas Mk1/2 are both going to be substantially cheaper to produce and maintain over their lifetime (having most parts produced in India and procured from Indian vendors).
Why should India sponsor jobs in Sweden (for CKD and SKD kits that will be how most of the first batches of the aircraft will be built) when with the Tejas it can all be done in India and when money has already been spent on developent of the infrastructure/assembly line?
BlackArcherIf they really were starting from scratch, then you’ve just highlighted one of the main problems. Given that India had built jet fighters with significant local design & manufacturing input in the 1960s & 1970s, why were they starting from scratch? What had happened to the knowledge base? Why was the manufacturing base just turning out ‘build to print’ foreign-designed aircraft?
I’m sure you know the answers for all the questions you’ve posted..or do you really want someone to give you the answers?
BlackArcher^ Pretty easy to recognise a troll.
Sigh… another person to add to my ignore list.
Nothing new. he surfaces whenever there is an LCA discussion going on and dumps on it. Then when the topic dies out, he disappears. You can search for his posts and see the pattern. Its been going on for a LONG time. No amount of logical arguments will change what he says and frankly most people have better uses for their time. Possibly the biggest troll among the Swedish fanboys (if he is a real Swede i.e.)..
BlackArcherSwitzerland’s $150 million/copy Gripen deal includes an R&D participation as well as an industrial participation. Remember that the Gripen E/F is significantly different from the C/D model and is essentially an all new aircraft.
As for the Gripen as a Tejas replacement, India can license produce the Gripen for under $50 million a copy if they stick to a modest target; an C/D airframe, a mechanical radar, existing avionics, etc. Afterall, Saab is preparing to submit a Gripen based trainer to the USAF T-X trainer contest, which implies a low unit cost is possible from the Gripen.
Ain’t gonna happen because it brings nothing substantial to India. the Tejas Mk1 is almost there, and only the most myopic decision maker would allow the program to be shelved for an imported design to be brought in, that too one that brings no significant advantages over the shelved model and costs a heck of a lot more.
BlackArcherWait, they needed a process to determine that the Chinook, a helicopter of much smaller size, weight, and power, would be cheaper to acquire and to operate than the Mi-26?
That ain’t exactly rocket science.
Since they were part of a competition, the costs were analysed. That the Chinook was L1 was probably known to the IAF, but without figures provided by Boeing, nothing can be certain. Now, they’ll likely have the helicopter they most likely wanted from the beginning.
BlackArcherALH Dhruv operations of the Indian Army in Jammu & Kashmir state are shown in never before seen detail including night time ops..
the documentary is in Hindi though, so for non-Hindi speaking viewers, its only visuals that count. Apart from the commentator’s over-the-top commentary, the points mentioned by the pilots and commentator:
– Very versatile due to state-of-the-art systems
– Ability to fly hands-off day or night
– with an integrated avionics architecture that ties all the systems on board with the Mission Computer that controls them.
– Inducted around 10 years ago into service and around 60 Dhruvs are now part of the Army Aviation Corps and more are being added
– After adding the Dhruv to counter-terrorism ops, has brought a lot of flexibility to these ops
– All AAC Dhruv pilots are selected from the fighting branches of the IA and need to have at least 2 years/300 hours experience flying Cheetah or Chetak helicopters before converting to the type
– High amount of redundancy on the Dhruv, with excellent instrumentation, with state of the art avionics and autopilot
– Good power and very good high altitude performance
BlackArcherThe Light Utility Helicopter contest may also see a decision soon, as per Shiv Aroor
BlackArcherUS pips Russia as ‘lowest bidder’ for heavy-lift 15-chopper deal
NEW DELHI: The US is now all set to bag yet another mega Indian defence deal, with the iconic Boeing-manufactured Chinook heavy-lift helicopters emerging as the cheaper option than its strong contender the Russian Mi-26 choppers.
Defence ministry sources said the commercial bid for the twin-rotor Chinook, which has seen recent action in Iraq and Afghanistan, has emerged as the “L-1 (lowest bidder)” in comparison to the Mi-26 after both the huge helicopters passed the extensive technical field trials conducted by Indian Air Force (IAF).
“The present contract is for 15 such multi-mission helicopters. The Chinook bid was lower both in terms of initial direct acquisition cost as well as life cycle cost. The contract negotiation committee will now finalize the deal for the Chinook,” said a source.
..
Just as I had predicted, that the Chinook would win. Life cycle cost is what will be used to tilt the MRTT contract in the A-330’s favour as well.
Shiv Aroor mentioned that
Boeing’s director for rotorcraft business development Mark Ballew is quoted to have said on October 24 that the company expected the Indian contract to be signed next year, which sounds about right.
BlackArcherIt is the same F404-402 as the previous selected was 15 year old. . 19,000lbs is max limit for F404-402 and that is uninstalled in tests. It is incremental improvement with time.
http://www.geaviation.com/engines/military/f404/
http://www.geaviation.com/press/military/military_20080620.html
http://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/ain-defense-perspective/2012-05-04/indias-naval-lca-flies-needs-more-powerNaval LCA is heavy that F414 cannot solve the power deficiency. It has to go all the way 26000lbs EPE. There is simply no hope for Kaveri-Snecma and ultimately even GE will take losses on deal as there is no sign that 99 F414 can be used in production reasonable time. as the previous 44 are still not used up in 9 years.
You asked if the LCA has flown with more than 1 engine and it has. Now you come up with new stuff..
while the F-404-IN20 is based on the F-404-402, it has several new features including a FADEC
Based on the F404-GE-402, the F404-GE-IN20 is the highest rated F404 model and includes a higher-flow fan, increased thrust, a Full Authority Digital Electronic Control (FADEC) system, single-crystal turbine blades and a variety of single-engine features.
But I forgot whom i was dealing with.. Only Russia is great and only Russian equipment is great. Everything else is lousy and everyone else is incompetent. Now happy ?;)
BlackArcherI believe RM12 has more thrust than any other F404
and I read somewhere (GE website?) that the F-404-IN20 engine had the highest thrust of any F-404 variant..
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