That was a real kurwa post martinez. 😀

What happened to the pilot>?

IAF MiG-29 Upgrade

Based on this and this, any ideas about the depth and extent of the IAF’s MiG 29 Upgrade?

Pit, Vympel, Flanker_man?

Harry

See this post please.

http://www.ndtv.com/morenews/showmorestory.asp?category=National&slug=IAF+promoting+airmen+to+officers&id=93345

IAF promoting airmen to officers

Nitin Gokhale

Sunday, September 17, 2006 (Air Force Academy, Dundigal):

One of the defining features of the Indian Armed forces is that officers literally lead from the front, right out there on the frontlines taking the brunt of the enemy attack.

The underlying philosophy is that when push comes to shove, there is no difference between a jawan and an officer.

But there are other examples where the gap between officers and soldiers continues to be bridged.

Five years ago all Rahul Panjiar was aiming for was a job. That would move him out of Bihar’s backward Vaishali district where his parents struggled to make a living.

When he was selected as an airman in the Indian Air Force in 2001, he was overjoyed.

Today, at the prestigious Air Force Academy, Rahul is literally aiming for the sky as he trains to become a commissioned officer and a pilot.

“Once I joined the Air Force as an airman, I came to know the hierarchy and realised how much an officer is respected.

“So with the encouragement of my commandant, I appeared for the NDA entrance exam, got through and after three years in NDA, here I am,” said Flight Cadet Rahul Panjiar, IAF.

Quantum jump

But Rahul is not alone in making this quantum jump.

Flight cadet Hariprasad, like Rahul, also joined the Air Force as an airman, working as a fitter on the team that serviced AN-32 aircraft.

After spending eight years in the lower ranks, Hariprasad too is now on the verge of becoming an officer.

Ex-airman Rohit Mukhopadhya’s case is even more amazing. For 18 years, working as an airman, Rohit steadfastly nursed a dream to become an officer.

Now having passed a department exam to qualify for a commission in the Air Force, he competes and works with colleagues half his age to realise that long-held ambition.

By July 2007, he will be a commissioned officer of the Indian Air Force.

“I always wanted to become an air force officer but 18 years ago, circumstances did not allow me to do so.

“It is because of the Air Force that I am now in a position to become one after so many years,” said Flight Cadet Rohit Mukhopadhya, IAF.

Official encouragement

Welcome to the new age Indian Air Force. In its 75th year of existence, more and more young men and women from rural, underprivileged backgrounds are now becoming officers.

A combination of official encouragement and steely determination of the new recruits has fuelled this trend.

Till a decade ago, this churning would have been unthinkable in the Indian Air Force, considered somewhat elitist among the three armed forces.

Hariprasad is a typical example. He joined the air force straight after graduating but kept acquiring new skills along the way.

“Ever since I joined the Air Force, it has consistently given me opportunities to upgrade myself. As a logistics officer, I hope to play a totally supportive but important role,” he said.

At the Air Force Academy, Rahul, Hariprasad and Rohit do not get any special treatment.

All three are like the other 300-odd cadets who join the academy every year to hone their skills in different functional branches like flying, navigation, logistics and maintenance.

Equal treatment

From humble beginnings in backward India to the elite academy, Rahul Panjiar and other ex-airmen like him have come a long way but for them the long journey to become Air Force officers has only just begun.

Although for the outside world, fighter pilots are the glamour boys of the air force, within the force every branch gets equal treatment.

It is also reflected in the way the training is scheduled at the academy.

Each new recruit, even those who will eventually become ground duty officers, is called flight cadet till he or she passes out.

Flying branch recruits are required to go through certain number of ground duty training classes. All of them stay, eat and play together.

Although women flight cadets have separate living quarters, they do not get any other special treatment. They have to go through the same physical conditioning as the men.

The idea, the training staff says, is to create a cohesive force.

To have people like Hariprasad, Rohit and Rahul helps in the ultimate objective of making tough and skillful air force officers out of men and women who join this elite institution.

Ink said it all!

http://www.dawn.com/2006/05/22/ebr1.htm

Economy — a reality check

By M. Ziauddin

Poverty: During the last drought cycle and when the government was still focusing on reducing the budgetary deficit by tightening the leash on expenditure under pressure from the IMF, almost 35 per cent of the population had fallen below the poverty line.

In the interim period following the injection of massive concessional assistance from outside, there has been a statistical improvement of five per cent or so in the situation. Still the level of poverty continues to hover around 30 per cent and not 25 per cent as has been claimed by the government in recent weeks.

The reason for this discrepancy is the government’s own attempts at fudging the poverty figures. It had used a figure of 32 per cent for the base year (2001) instead of the actual 35 per cent and now therefore it is forced to come up with an unrealistic figure of 25 per cent.

An exaggerated estimate of livestock population has also been used by this government year after year to window dress its overall growth figures, which it is likely to repeat again this year as the agriculture sector is likely to show a growth rate of no more than zero per cent.

Poverty has been variously defined. But those who do not have any landed asset, lack education (knowledge) and no access to the other assets do remain perpetually poor. In Pakistan, at least about 80 per cent of the population falls into this category.

So, no matter what you do to lessen poverty, you simply cannot succeed if you do not do realistic land reforms, promote the culture of lawful housing mortgage system, provide universal primary education to your population and disarm the warlords.

Pakistan spends far less than its South Asian neighbours on education do. Its annual education budget is only 2.3 per cent of the GDP while most low income countries spend on an average about 3.4 per cent.

Trade and current account deficits: And there is also the challenge of expanding trade and current account deficit which the budget makers will be facing this year. The exporters have made the most of the all the market access that we have so far received from the rich countries by way of a pay-off for joining them in the war against terror. And in the process, they have also exhausted all the idle manufacturing capacity. Now, in order to increase exports further, they would need to install new capacities and also find new markets.

But there is no sign of such a thing happening. And the expanding trade gap is being presently attempted to be covered by the using the $5 billion or so annual flows of remittances and the proceeds from privatisation. And what would happen once all the family silver is sold?

Luxury imports: There is certainly a lot of room to bring imports under control. But the appetite of the rich for expensive consumerism seems to have become inexhaustible and since they belong to the ruling elite who make economic policies, there is hardly any possibility of curbing expensive imports, especially of costly cars and fancy cell phones.

Shockingly, a number of plans are on anvil to ‘set up’ manufacturing units of new models of cars like Renault, Chrysler Daimler and Black Cabs etc.

But all of these brands are likely to be imported in assembled form or knocked down condition (CKDs of any model can be assembled in the available facilities that can be rented at economic rates) for at least three years on the plea that it would take as many years to put up a requisite plant.

And for setting up these plants, the well-connected sponsors are being allotted huge plots of land (at least about ten times more in size than the actual requirement) at throwaway prices. This is called foreign investment.

Hmmm….loads of stuff about Pakistan & its excellent links to terrors are us waiting.

Thats the Mission planning and data retrieval Unit (MPRU) with data loaded to and from a removeable cartridge. Its there on the Bison and the Tejas will have it. The other upgrades do not make a mention, but should have it.

Come to think of it, wasnt this developed for the LCA & then adopted for the Bison program?

Am fairly sure that the MiG-27s and Jaguars too have it.

Fair use & all that..

World News & Analysis

MiG Pushes Ahead With Light Fighter
Aviation Week & Space Technology
09/11/2006, page 34

Douglas Barrie
London

Russian air force recognizes Sukhoi T-50 design alone will not meet future fighter needs

Printed headline: Generation Gap

Russian combat aircraft manufacturer MiG could have a prototype of a lightweight fifth-generation fighter ready as soon as 2010, building on classified design work it has been carrying out for several years.

The MiG design, sometimes known within the company as the Light Multifunction Frontal Aircraft (LMFS), is to provide a successor aircraft in the class of the MiG-29 Fulcrum.

Russian air force chief Vladimir Mikhailov confirms the service now intends to pursue two designs, rather than a single, to meet next-generation fighter needs. Sukhoi was initially selected to develop the T-50 as the air force’s future fighter. This aircraft, however, is a heavy fighter in the class of the Sukhoi Su-27 Flanker. Mikhailov is quoted in the Russian press as saying MiG will develop a light-fighter to complement the Sukhoi design.

THE SHIFT TO FAVOR a two-tier approach to future fighter procurement reflects a victory for senior management at MiG. Company executives have been lobbying the air force to promote this strategy for several years. “People are beginning to understand the need for a second type of fighter,” one senior MiG executive told Aviation Week & Space Technology.

Russian air force “endorsement” will also help MiG in the export arena. Both MiG and Sukhoi have already briefed India on their respective fifth-generation fighter programs. New Delhi, however, is unlikely to opt for a Russian aircraft that is not–at least tacitly–supported by the military in Moscow.

MiG had originally been the incumbent designer to provide a successor to the Su-27, with the 1.42 Multi-role Frontal Fighter (MFI). Conceived in the latter years of the Cold War, one prototype of the 30-ton fighter was to be completed before cancellation in 1997.

MiG is working on a fifth-generation design in the same weight class as its MiG-29 Fulcrum, which the company is also continuing to upgrade. Credit: MiG

The collapse of the MFI program eventually turned MiG’s attention to a direct Fulcrum replacement, though until comparatively recently the company’s precarious finances were not able to support a full-scale development program. As far as LMFS is concerned, MiG has yet to receive any state support.

One company official says all work so far on the light fifth-generation fighter is being financed from its own funds.

Various configurations have been wind-tunnel tested. A company source suggests it is settling on a twin-engine design, with a dry weight of around 10 tons. The design includes thrust vector control, along with a “big wing” to increase maneuverability. Inward and outward canted fin variants of the basic design have also been examined, as has a tail-less configuration. A prototype, he suggests, could be completed within 30 months, with adequate funding. Engine manufacturer Klimov submitted a proposal for an engine for the LMFS earlier this year.

Many of the avionics and weapons systems in development for the T-50, or the PAK FA, as it is sometimes referred to, will also be applicable to MiG’s light fighter.

In terms of air-to-air armament, Vympel, now part of Russia’s Tactical Missile Corp., is working on upgrades of presently fielded weapons, as well as successor designs. Gennady Sokolovsky, Vympel’s general director until recently, revealed some of its plans at a conference in Moscow earlier this year. Sokolovsky appears to have revealed more than either the Russian Defense Ministry or Vympel intended because company officials remain reticent to discuss several of the program designations Sokolovsky detailed.

THE COMPANY IS WORKING on a new short-range air-to-air missile, referred to as K-MD and Izdeliye (Item) 300. This program likely corresponds to the K-30 designation. This weapon is to enter service in the first half of the next decade. Further development of the R-73 design continues–likely as a stopgap, and also for export.

Vympel is working on a substantial upgrade of its R-77 (AA-12 Adder) radar-guided air-to-air missile, likely in line with the Izdeliye 180/K-77M designations. This may see the missile’s signature lattice control fins replaced by conventional surfaces. Range will also be increased, and an upgraded radar seeker and improved electronic countermeasures will be included.

The Russian air force has only a limited stock of the basic R-77, likely drawn from production runs of the export version of the missile, known as RVV-AE.

While the Izdeliye 300 and the Izdeliye 180 will be applicable to the LMFS, the third class of AAM alluded to by Sokolovksy will be limited to the PAK FA, and possibly the MiG-31 Foxhound. Izdeliye 810 is a long-range AAM in the class of the R-33/K-37 (AA-9 Amos/AA-X-13).

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