coldfire2005Mig-31 might work
coldfire2005IAF’s MiG-29 crashes in Arabian Sea, pilot bails out
BY : PTI
A MiG-29 jet fighter of the Indian Air Force crashed in the Arabian Sea off Jamnagar coast during a training mission around noon today but the pilot ejected safely.
Flight Lieutenant Dheer, was rescued after he bailed out of the aircraft which crashed at 1153 hours, an IAF spokesman said in New Delhi.
The IAF’s all-weather air superiority aircraft was on a one-on-one training sortie when the pilot lost control of the MiG-29 which crashed in the sea about 50 km off Jamnagar, he said.
Naval divers from the INS Valsura base are being pressed into service to fish out the aircraft’s cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder (black-box), the spokesman said.
The MiG-29 belonged to the IAF’s 28 Squadron and it had taken off from Jamnagar for the training exercise.
This is the sixth aircrash being suffered by the IAF this year and the fifth MiG-29 to crash since June 2006.
The earlier five crashes involved a MiG-27, two MiG-21s, a Hawk Advanced Jet Trainer and a Kiran trainer this year. A pilot was killed in one of the crashes.
In January this year, a MiG-27 crashed near Hashimara in North Bengal, followed by a MiG-21 crash near Bhuj in Gujarat in February.
In April, a Hawk trainer crashed at Bidar, Karnataka and in May, a Kiran trainer crashed at Dindigul near Hyderabad killing a lady trainee pilot.
In the fifth incident, also in May, a MiG-21 from Bagdogra air base crashed.
http://www.idrw.org/2008/09/01/iafs_mig29_crashes_in_arabian_sea_pilot_bails_out.html
at this rate of crashes of Mig29 (5 in 2 years) we may see early retirement of this birds
coldfire2005even i am not that impressed with Irbis-E (Snow Leopard) if i include 10 years down the line when every aircraft will be flying with Aesa radar but may be a derivate of Pakfa radar might find place in mki
coldfire2005i am talking about Irbis-E (Snow Leopard) which is a development of the N011 Bars radar ,i have read a lot about in the media but Iaf has not come with answer to media speculation some are saying new it might be AESA radar as MMRCA aircraft will have AESA and Iaf may want Aesa in mki too
coldfire200540 Follow orders of MKI will come after 2010 and will be first batch of fighters to carry new Radar and after that follow on MKI built in India will carry new radars
coldfire2005Su-30MKI mostly performed A2g missions
coldfire2005Ankush it seems that decison on new engine has not been taken yet ,i donot think we will end up with 3 different engines for Tejas ,one will be eliminated either its 100kn Engine which Media has been talking about or end of Kaveri
coldfire2005It seems that only First 40 Tejas will have GE engines and while other follow on will have this new JV kaveri or Air force might have agreed to first batch and second batch (40+40) to have new engine while BlockII Tejas will have kaveri
coldfire2005no details yet on that
coldfire2005MCA is not dead just in cold storage ,iaf is looking and studying a role for the MCA, people who have worked in hal think MCA will be a Ground attack fighter with secondary role of air-defence ,Air-superiority and CAP which is performed by su-30 now and will be taken over by Pak-fa in future ,while MCA will take over Jaguar and Mig-27 role once it starts retiring ,Tejas will only replace Mig-21 series around 300+ should be the actual production life of Tejas ,when can MCA take over ?? not until 2020 or beyond for sure
coldfire2005Flight evaluation by Jan
BY : Express News Service
Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal F H Major, on Thursday, said that the flight evaluation of the 126 medium multi-role combat (MMRC) aircraft, which the Indian Air Force (IAF) plans to acquire , would be conducted next year.
“The technical evaluation of the aircraft is going on and we are hopeful of progressing to the flight evaluation stage by January,” Major told reporters, after receiving the first HAL-built Hawk Mk 132 aircraft. The IAF has received bids from the Eurofighter Typhoon, the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, and the Lockheed Martin F-16, three other aircraft the Swedish Gripen, the French Rafale and the Russian MiG-35 for the 126 MMRC’s.
A request for the proposal was floated last year by the IAF and after the aircraft is put through field trials, the winner would be decided.
Refusing to comment on the front-runner to win the bid stating that all were formidable aircraft, he said that the off-set clause of the new Defence Procurement Policy was an ideal opportunity for aerospace companies to cash on.
On the IAFs Aerospace Space Command, he said that it was in the process of evolving and a space cell has already been set up at the Air Headquarters in New Delhi under an Air Vice Marshal.
“What we are looking for is to use space-enabled facilities, where we can have sensors and communication systems in the space so we can have our eyes and ears there,” he said.
Excellent coordination
The Air Chief Marshal said that the IAF and the Indian Army maintained an excellent coordination in Jammu and Kashmir and termed the recent exchange of fire by Pakistani troops as a cause of concern. “Any kind of skirmish situation on the Line of Control or the International Border is a cause of concern,” he said.
HAL’S FIRST HAWK HANDED OVER TO IAF
THE first Hindustan Aeronautics Limited-built Hawk Mk 132 was delivered to the Indian Air Force (IAF) on Thursday.
The Hawk Mk 132 aircraft, an advanced trainer, is expected to improve the quality of training rookie pilots of the IAF, who till date had to undergo a direct transition from trainer aircraft like Kiran to frontline fighters like the MiG-21. Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshall FH Major who received the first aircraft, said that the Hawk will help pilots shift from transonic to supersonic aircraft.
The Hawk aircraft which will be based at the Bidar Air Base, where 20 cadets of the IAF will undergo the Hawk training course, is expected to improve the training tremendously, he said.
To meet the requirements of the IAF, 66 Hawks have been acquired, of which 24 would be supplied by British aerospace major BAE Systems in flyaway condition and the remaining 42 would be built at HAL Aircraft division, Bangalore, under licence production.
HAL Chairman Ashok Baweja said that the remaining aircraft which are being built by HAL are in an advanced stage of completion and the Phase-II/III production is progressing as per the project plan.
“The 42 aircraft which is part of Phase-II will be delivered by 2011, followed by 57 of the phase- III will be delivered in the next 6 years. In total 100
aircraft will be delivered to the IAF,” he said.
http://www.idrw.org/2008/08/18/flight_evaluation_by_jan.html
coldfire2005Abhimanyu actual need for the MMRCA is to fill the gap of multi-role fighters and not replacement of Mig-21,actually IAF just wanted more (126) Mirage-2000V ,but MOD had other way round ,so Tejas which will be replacing 350 Mig-21/23 from the air force ,but 150 Tejas Trainers look huge numbers i will put it at 50 Nos
coldfire2005why Dr. Natarajan gave a figure of 400 Tejas was due to some reason ,since jaguars and Mig-27 will be retired from service from 2020-25 onwards there will be large vaccum around 200+ jets more for thier replacement,in future Iaf want to maintain few types of jet ,MKI will be workhorse ,while PAKFA a dedicated Air-superority fighter ,MMRCA and Tejas will form the low level Attack and point defence fighters ,since ADA has plans for Two more Block of Tejas in pipeline one being Tejas Block-II and Tejas A
coldfire2005European jet makers may replace Boeing in Tejas project
BY :livemint
India plans to seek the help of European jet makers such as Dassault Aviation SA and Saab AB to accelerate the development of Tejas, the indigenous light combat aircraft, replacing project consultant Boeing Co., a scientist involved in the project said.
The move comes after the US plane maker insisted that the Aeronautical Development Agency, or ADA, sign a so-called end-user agreement that would require India to seek US permission to export the aircraft to a third country.
Plane dispute: Tejas aircraft in flight. ADA had sought Boeing’s help in hastening the plane’s development for initial certification by 2010, the deadline for achieving the standards set by the Indian Air Force.
US law prohibits the export without its permission of high-technology equipment developed using American consulting partners or components.
“We have already done 99% of the job, the help (we sought) is just for the remaining 1%,” said a senior scientist at ADA, the military plane design agency of the Defence Research and Development Organisation.
The scientist, who did not want to be named because of the sensitive nature of the project, said the agency was yet to decide on a replacement for Boeing.
ADA sought Boeing’s help in speeding up the aircraft development for initial certification by 2010, the deadline for achieving the standards set by the Indian Air Force (IAF). Crucial to this is the Tejas achieving an angle of attack, or AoA, of 24 degree, a measure to prove the agility of the jet at extreme limits of performance.
So far, Tejas has achieved basic standards set by IAF such as reaching 15km in altitude, manoeuvres of 6 g, or six times that of Gravity, speed of Mach 1.6, or 1.6 times the speed of sound, and an AoA of 22 degrees.
Tejas, India’s first homegrown fighter in decades, is a single-engine supersonic fighter that has delta wings and no tail, and uses fly-by-wire technology that enables a pilot to control the plane electronically through on-board computers. “Because of the change in altitude (at 24 degree AoA), it could have an effect on the aircraft characteristics,” the ADA scientist said.
Boeing, which makes military planes such as F-15, F/A-18 and F-22 Raptor, said it continues to be in talks with ADA on the development of Tejas, within the prescriptions of US policy.
“Those requirements are set by the US government, in discussions with the government of India and ADA. So any question on export permissions is best directed to the US government,” said Brian Nelson, spokesman for India at Boeing Integrated Defense Systems, the plane maker’s military wing.
“These issues will (get) ironed out, given the kind of (military and political) engagements between the two countries,” said Ratan Shrivastava, director for aerospace and defence at the India offices of research firm Frost and Sullivan.
Boeing is also in the race for the country’s largest military plane contract of 126 fighter jets that is worth at least Rs42,000 crore, with its F/A-18E/F Super Hornet.
The Hindu reported first on 4 August that Boeing was delaying the Tejas development citing US laws.
This is the second demand in recent times by a US firm that an Indian agency sign the end-user agreement.
On 25 July, Mint reported that the Indian Space Research Organisation would on its own upgrade a semiconductor lab in Chandigarh after International Business Machines Corp. declined, citing concern that the space agency may use the chips designed there to guide rockets and satellites for the military.
Other then Boeing getting replaced by European firms ,one more important factor that has been seen in this article has been that few months ago when few members where arguing that Tejasstill has not achieved the 6g and Mach 1.6 can be put to rest now
coldfire2005CNN showed a pictures of a Dead Pilot in G-suit been carried away in a truck still with his helmet
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