toanThe first of the jet from France is to be delivered in 36 months that is September 2019 and the entire lot will be delivered over the following thirty months.
The French company will make India-specific changes, such as next generation missiles like Meteor and Scalp, which will add capability much beyond India’s immediate adversaries. The Meteor, is a BVR (Beyond Visual Range) air-to-air missile with a range in excess of 150 km. It will allow IAF to hit targets inside both Pakistan and Tibet from within its own territory. The Scalp is a long-range air-to- cruise missile with a range of 300 km.
The Ministry of Defence and the IAF team that negotiated the price have secured a concession of almost 722 million euros (approximately Rs 5,390 crore). In January this year, a day before French President François Hollande and Prime Minister Narendra Modi were to jointly issue a statement during the French President’s visit to India, the French team had quoted a price of 8.6 billion euros.
The negotiations ended at a price of 7.898 billion euros, sources in the Ministry of Defence said. Of this, 3.42 billion euros is the cost of the bare planes; 1.8 billion euros is associate supplies for the infrastructure and support; 1.7 billion euros is India-specific changes to the plane; 710 million euros is the additional weapons package and 353 million euros is the cost of ‘Performance-based Logistics Support’.
Under this logistics support, Dassault will ensure that at least 75 per cent of the fleet remains operational or air worthy at any given time under what is called the existing frontline fighter, the Sukhoi 30-MKI has only 60 per cent availability.
Other concessions include are free training for nine IAF personnel, additional guarantee for 60 hours of usage of training aircraft for Indian pilots and six months of free weapons storage without charge.
Under the originally planned (and now scrapped) proposal to produce 126 planes in India, the first batch of 18 planes were to be manufactured in France and 108 were to be manufactured in India. France cited that cost of man hours (labour) in India need to produce a plane was 2.7 times higher due to lack of automation. This along would have meant additional Rs 150 crore per plane.
toanIf MOD is looking for a single engine aircraft to be built in numbers , Would F-16 or Gripen would be a better choice in terms of capability it offers ?
Then why not just more Tejas MK1A, Tejas MK2, and even Tejas MK3 ??
The fighters for IAF at the time of around 2025:
Heavy fighters: Su-30MKI, FGFA.
Medium fighters: Rafale, MIRAGE-2000UPG, MIG-29UPG, and (perhaps) AMCA.
Light fighters: Tejas MK1/MK1A/MK2, Jaguar UPG, Hawk.
Is it really a good idea to introduce another new fighter with the completely different radar, avionics, engine, and logistics system to the nine fighters that IAF will use at that time ??
toanSea Power: The Italian Job – Fincantieri’s proposal for Sea 5000
Fincantieri’s proposal for the Sea 5000 Future Frigate is based upon the Italian version of the European FREMM (FRegata Europea, Multi-Missione).
More specifically, the Australian variant will be based upon the Italian Navy Anti-Submarine Warfare variant, rather than the similar but more austere General Purpose version.
toanRCS of around 0.01 m2 class (-15~-25 dB) I guess.
http://saab.com/globalassets/publications-pdfs/aeronautics/gripen/ps_05_a_fighter_radar_brochure.pdf
According to the declaration of Saab, the newest uprade for PS-05/A Mk4 radar could make it track the target of the RCS = 0.1m2 class at the same range of the previous PS-05/A MK3 radar to track the target of the RCS = 4.0m2 class in the high altitude before 2014.
And then considering the radar with the similar or even the better upgrading mentioned above and the AESA techonology (Raven ES-05), and its bigger brother with about 50% more T/R modules (CAPTOR-E).
toanCommercialization
GaN technology is now making the transition from specialized, government funded technology to high volume commercial mainstay. By leveraging the scale volume of the silicon industry, which is two orders of magnitude greater than even the GaAs handset market, we’ll soon be able to leverage GaN for cost-sensitive applications. At maturity, we believe that GaN on Si will benefit from silicon cost structures that are 3X lower than today’s highest volume GaAs and 100X lower cost than today’s GaN on SiC technology.
Unit cost:
GaN on Si: 1X (Bright future anticipation).
GaAs: 3X (The real unit cost today).
GaN on Sic: 100X (The real unit cost today).
toan1. GaN has 3 to 5 times of the output of GaAs ~ Only if your electrical and cooling systems can deal with the requirement of power and the removal of heat.
2. GaN is 10 times plus more expensive than GaAs now.
toan1. CAPTOR-E AESA radar with full capability.
2. Serial upgrading for DASS EWS, Pirate IRST, data-link, HMD, and avionics.
3. Aerodynamic modification: mainly for improving the flight performance of heavy weapon configuration.
4. Double seated derivative with the new data-link and communication system for controlling UCAV.
5. Capability for using CFTs +/- bigger external fuel tank.
6. Engine upgrading: better SFC, longer service life for engine components, thrust improvement for compensating the increase of fighter’s weight.
7. RCS and IR signal reduction.
8. Integration of new weapons and pods.
toan2025 ~ 2030 Future European Navies：
A. Aircraft Carrier：
1. UK：CVF*2, 70,000 ton, 40~50 aircrafts (F-35B*48）, Self-defense: Phalanx 20 mm CIWS*3.
2. French Navy: R91*1, nuclear power, 42,000 ton, 30 to 40 aircrafts（Rafale M*44）, Self-defense: Arabel PESA radar + A43 VLS*32（ASTER-15） + SADRAL CIWS x 2 + 20 mm gun*8.
3. Italian Navy：STOVL Carriers, 20 aircrafte（F-35B*15~30）.
* Cavour carrier: 27,000 ton, EMPAR PESA radar + A43 VLS*32（ASTER-15） + 76mm CIWS*2 + 25mm gun*3.
* Trieste LHA: 33,000 ton, L-Band AESA radar and 4FF X-Band AESA radar + A50 VLS*32（ASTER-15, ASTER-30, or CAMM-ER） + 76mm CIWS*3 + 25mm gun*3.
4. German Navy: none.
B. Destroyer and Frigates:
1. UK：19 ships
* Type 45 destroyer*6：8,000 ton, SAMPSON AESA radar + A50 VLS*48（Aster-15 and Aster-30） + space for additional 16 to 24 VLS.
* Type 26 frigate*8：8,000 ton, Type 997 AESA radar + CAMM VLS*48 + MK-41 VLS*24（ Tomahawk, LRASM, ASROC etc.）.
* Type 31 frigate*5：Smaller, lighter, and cheaper than Type 26 frigate.
2. French Navy：15 ships。
* Forbin Class AAW*2：7,000 ton, EMPAR PESA radar + A50 VLS*48（Aster-15 and Aster-30） + space for additional 16 VLS.
* FREDA AAW*2：6,000 ton, Herakles Plus PESA radar + A50 VLS*32（Aster-15 and Aster-30）.
* FREMM-Fr frigate*6：6,000 ton, Herakles PESA radar + A43 VLS*16（Aster-15） + A70 VLS*16（SCALP-NAVAL CM）.
* FTI frigate*5：4,000 ton; Smaller, lighter, and cheaper than FREMM frigate.
3. Italian Navy：22 to 28 ships.
* Doria Class AAW*2：7,000 ton, EMPAR PESA radar + A50 VLS*48（Aster-15 and Aster-30） + space for additional 16 VLS.
* FREMM-IT GP PLUS frigate*2：7,000 ton, New 4FF AESA radar + A50 VLS*16（Aster-15, Aster-30, or CAMM-ER） + A70 VLS*16（SCALP-NAVAL）.
* FREMM-IT GP and ASW frigate*8：6,700 ton，Kronos AESA radar + A50 VLS *16（Aster-15 or Aster-30） + space for additional A70 VLS*16（SCALP-NAVAL）.
* PPA frigate*10 to 16 with three variants：4,600 ton（Light variant） to 6,200 ton（Full variant）, 4FF AESA radar（Light variant：X band；Light-PLUS variant：C band；Full variant：X + C band）, A50 VLS*16（Aster-15, Aster-30, or CAMM-ER；Light PLUS variant and Full variant）+ space for additional A70 VLS*16（SCALP-NAVAL）.
4. Germany Navy ：11 ships.
* F124 AAW*3：5,800 ton, APAR AESA radar + MK-41 VLS*32（SM-2 x 24 + ESSM x 32）.
* F125 frigate*4：7,200 ton, TRS-4D GaN AESA radar + 21 cells SEARAM CIWS*2.
* MKS180*4：8,000 ton, Two AESA radar towers + space for MK-41 VLS*48 + 21 cells SEARAM CIWS*2.
C. Submarine：
1. UK：11 ships.
* SSBN*4（Vanguard class SSBN –> Successor class SSBN）, 16,000 ton.
* Astute class SSN*7, 8,000 ton.
2. French Navy：10 ships.
* Le triomphant class SSBN*4, 14,000 ton.
* Barracuda class SSN*6, 5,300 ton.
3. Italian Navy：6 to 8 ships.
* U212A SSK*4, 1,830 ton.
* Next generation SSK*2 to 4.
4. Germany Navy：6 ships.
* U212A SSK Batch I*4, 1,830 ton.
* U212A SSK Batch II*2, 1,860 ton.
toanSince the Brexit shall cause serious impact to the British economy, I guess in the next few years, the British government may have to say good-bye to:
1. The project of successor SSBN.
2. The plan for keeping two CVF carriers.
3. The plan of procuring eight Type 26 frigates now (More Type 31 and less Type 26).
4. The anticipation for introducing more than 19 destroyers / Frigates in the future.
5. The plan of introducing 48 F-35B before 2024 and 138 F-35B ultimately.
6. The project of co-developed FCAS UCAV (Delaying or even cancelling the plan).
toanBrexit To Threaten Eurofighter Typhoon Market in Asia
toanItAF today and future (AFM, 2016/07)：
F-35A and F-35B：
* 131 fighters for original plan and reduced to 90 fighters during 2012 (60 F-35A and 15 F-35B for ItAF, and 15 F-35B for navy).
* Already ordered 14 F-35A and 4 F-35B（From LRIP-6 to LRIP-12）.
* Italian government prepares to procure another 30 F-35 fighters before the end of 2020.
EF-2000：
* 121 fighters for original plan and reduced to 96 fighters during 2011.
* Already delivered 80 fighters with formation of five squadrons.
* P1E upgrade and introduction of Litening III pod this year.
Tornado IDS and ECR：
* RET8 MLU for 40 fighters.
* RecceLite pod, Litening III pod, GBU-24 LGB, GBU-32 JDAM, Storm Shadow, AGM-88, and GBU-39 SDB etc.
* Keeping in service until 2025 at least.
AMX：
* ACOL upgrade for 52 fighters during 2007 to 2010.
* RecceLite pod, Litening III pod, Lizard LGB, GBU-48 LGB, and GBU-32 JDAM etc.
* Shall be replaced by F-35 during 2018 to 2020.
AV-8B and TAV-8B：
* 16 AV-8B PLUS in 1994 and 2 TAV-8B in 1991 were procured.，
* 2 AV-8B PLUS have been lost up to now.
* MLU upgrading during 2012.
* AN/AAQ-28 pod, AIM-120B, AIM-9L, GBU-12 LGB, GBU-16 LGB, GBU-32 JDAM, and GBU-54 LJDAM etc.
* Shall be replaced by the 15 F-35B for navy before the end of 2024.
toanThe total order for Eurofighter now is 599, and the 478th productional Typhoon has been dilivered this month.
toanThe main point shall be the co-development of European UCAV.
As for the manned fighters for commanding and controlling UCAV, in the end they may be nothing more than the double seated and specialized Typhoon / Rafale / Gripen……
toan“Some months ago, the German MoD prepared a strategic defence capability roadmap, and they are looking for something to replace capabilities to fill the gap that will come with the replacement of the Tornado,” says Alberto Gutierrez, Airbus Group’s head of Eurofighter and combat aircraft programmes. “They have asked us to investigate what potentially could be the solution.”
Airbus believes the operational environment in 2030-2040 could require the use of a combination of manned fighters and unmanned aircraft. Described by the company as “mules”, the latter could perform roles such as reconnaissance, target acquisition, electronic warfare and even air strikes.
“We are currently working with the German air force on customer needs,” Gutierrez says. “We are thinking about something that will enter into service by 2030.”
Airbus Defence & Space’s early concept involves the use of a two-seat fighter, with one crew member to be responsible for command and control and manned-unmanned teaming tasks.
Speaking at the company’s Ottobrun site near Munich on 20 June, Gutierrez said: “What we cannot afford to do is a completely start-from-scratch aircraft. We are talking about the re-use of certain [Eurofighter] components and looking at what we are doing in our development cycles, for more prototyping. We are looking at a varying portfolio of new technologies.”
Gutierrez believes a joint development activity – such as that used on the four-nation Eurofighter programme – will “bring solidarity to our countries, and also secure our defence-industrial base and encourage growth”.
toanhttp://www.thehindu.com/news/national/made-in-india-f16s-on-radar-thanks-to-fdi/article8756876.ece
The defense minister who cries the Rafale: “Our FGFA, AMCA, and 40% indigenisation domestic LCA fighter are so great that we are preparing to introduce our enemy fighter’s assembly line into our country just for fun !!!”:eagerness:
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