the US has prosecuted some indians for attempting to purchase a few old chips found in printers and such.

I remain very skeptical the desired levels of tech for MRCA will be cleared in a non-neutered fashion. India can do a lot better by pulling in the EL-2052 into Mig-35 and Tejas.

my idea is the vast bulk of any countrys airspace does not have military quality accurate long range radar and no low level radar coverage in peacetime. the ATC radars are probably not as sharp on the ball as a SPY1D,S1850 or SMART-L.

where threat is perceived like from drug runners, the US border patrol deployed P3 machines with rotodome radars to catch these small low flyers.

SH can win order if US accomodates India on civilian nuclear deal which it has not done so far and infact a half-dozen non-negotiable points from indian pov are not being accomodated by US though it has similar agreements with 20+ partner nations.

its a no-can-do for SH otherwise. the MRCA deal is being deliberately delayed to see which way the winds blow. I think they will wait until 2009 to test the new US admin and to let EL-2052 complete tests to be ready for Mig-35.

I think either LSP-1 or PV-3 will start weapons trial in coming months.
also night flying – the Tejas has never flown at night yet.

http://www.hindu.com/2007/04/23/stories/2007042311530100.htm

CHENNAI: Supersonic cruise missile BrahMos, jointly developed by India and Russia, was successfully test-fired on Sunday from a mobile launcher from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur-on-sea, about 10 km from Balasore, in Orissa.

The14th test flight of BrahMos was in the Army configuration. It travelled a distance of 290 km in 290 seconds.

A highlight was a manoeuvre by the missile in its terminal stage. The manoeuvring was important from the operational point of view because the missile would deviate from its path and strike the enemy tangentially, informed defence sources said.

In the test-firing in February, BrahMos performed a “S” manoeuvre in the initial stage of the flight.

Iran with a arsenal of 500 brahmos and klubs fired from land based TELs should
be pretty interesting. both their seekers have a ~50km of the range and in
the confined waters of gulf and north arabian sea, they can fire into certain boxes (where F18s are streaming in from 😮 ) and hope to have the ASMs lock on to various targets including warships without any mid course updates or LRMP radar target spotting( which the USN CAPs can easily defeat ).

should be as simple sw fix to have the Klub stay silent for 100km, then go active search on radar, going silent again if painted by a hostile X-band radar, if it picks a juicy looking return, drop the 2nd stage and go supersonic else shut the radar and continue onward 😀

This is one of two Agni-3 hi-res pix released so far. Shows a white cloud coming out of the re-entry section. It is definitely not water vapour condensing as a plane/rocket goes fast coz the missile is barely off the pad.

http://album.frontierindia.com/displayimage.php?album=lastup&cat=0&pos=1

what could it be ?

do we have photos of other missiles showing this phenomena ?

is it a ‘message’ that the RV has its own engines for mirv ?

38+24 smerch in pipeline.

India Buys More Multiple-Launch Rockets

The first lot of Smerch reactive multi-launch rocket systems made by OAO Motovilikhinskie Plants will be dispatched to India in the coming days. Last week, Rosoboronexport and the Indian Defense Ministry signed a new option contract on deliveries of those systems for $300 million for 24 units. The total cost of the deliveries will be $750 million, making it one of Russia’s largest export orders for infantry weapons.

The contract for the delivery of 38 Smerch systems was signed on December 31, 2005. Its estimated values is $450 million, including military vehicles, navigations systems, personnel training and Rosoboronexport’s commission.

The first lot of weapons was to be set to India in the spring of last year, but the Indians had doubts about the reliability of the rockets’ engines. That issue has now been settled. The Smerch has a range of 90 km. and barrage time of 38 sec.

Delivery on the original contract with India is to be completed by next year, and by 2010 on the option contract. Besides India, Smerch systems have been supplied to Algeria (18 in 1999) and Kuwait (27 in 1996). http://www.kommersant.com/p757989/arms_trade/