the Astra rocket motor was ground tested in 2003. looks like they have been working quietly…still early days, atleast 100-150 test launches would be needed before squadron service ?

MBDA is the consultant….. 😉

Business Standard.

Boeing, Airbus ramp up sourcing from India

Our Corporate Bureau / New Delhi February 08, 2005
Dreamliner to take off on HCL software; EU consortium in talks with HAL for parts.

India seems to be emerging as a hot spot for global aircraft manufacturers, not just as a market but also as a destination to outsource manufacturing and software development.

While the European aircraft maker, Airbus, has started talks with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) to develop components for its latest offering, the A380, in India, Boeing has awarded a new deal to the Shiv Nadar-promoted HCL Technologies to develop software for its latest aircraft, the 787 Dreamliner.

According to Boeing’s Senior Vice-President Thomas Pickering: “HCL Technologies will focus its software development services on two aspects of the 787 programme. First, it will provide a hosting platform for the flight test computing system to support the requirements of the 787 global team. Second, the company will be providing software development services to many of the 787 systems partners.”

Boeing is also working with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, in a strategic alliance to conduct research in aerospace materials, structures and manufacturing technologies. The alliance with IISc will provide innovative ideas and help infuse the best of these technologies into Boeing.

The focus of the Boeing-IISc strategic alliance spans the range from nanotechnology, structural alloys, composites, smart materials and structures, process modelling and simulation, manufacturing technologies and prototyping through substructure fabrication and testing. These are technologies of critical importance to the future of aerostructures.

Airbus, which has already allocated manufacturing work worth over $80 million to HAL, was in talks with the Indian company to be part of the Airbus A-380 programme.

“We have been working with HAL and are in talks for some work for the A-380 also,” said David Velupillai, regional press manager, Airbus, which also has industrial relationships with Infosys, HCL Technologies, Midhani, Computervision and Vidhyacom.

It is worth noting that the two aircraft makers are in a bitter battle over many contracts in India, including that of Air-India and a host of private carriers.

Airbus has had an upper hand in recent times, with the majority of the aircraft orders going to it. The most noticeable among them is the order from Indian Airlines to buy 43 aircraft, which went to Airbus.

It has also been pointed out that more work will be outsourced to India as most of the orders from the state-run carriers will be linked to counter-purchase agreements.

ah the infamous palm trees in the FLIR shot. kill ’em kill ’em all!

and they laid down their Mirage-III fleet by selling a big stock of engines and spares to pakistan.

there is the small problem that indian defence spending was essentially frozen between 1988-1999 and accounting for inflation, declined in real terms. other than the MKI deal NO BIG DEAL was signed for in that decade.

so its a moot point. forget capex, even opex was very hard to come by.

further r&d on the web indicates that interested buyer owns a rice mill and is a exporter of rice (just did a google on his name). interesting.

I will post some excerpts from that MKI article:

[snip snip]
Due to the delayed work on the radar, Su-30MKI
aircraft in the various batches delivered to India are
equipped with different radars. Su-30MKIs of the first
batch (2002) have the N011M Bars Mk 1 radar, an almost
exact copy of the N011M of the 1990s with a limited
scope of tasks. The radar uses the Russian Ts101
computer, the same as in series-produced MiG-29s and
Su-27s; it can be used only against air targets.

The aircraft of the second batch (2003) are equipped
with the Bars Mk 2 radar using the previous computer
but with a wider scope of tasks. This radar enables
simultaneous attack against four targets with RVV-AE
(R-77) air-to-air missiles, and can perform ground
mapping. The aircraft can also launch Kh-31A anti-ship
missiles and Kh-59ME long-range TV-guided missiles.

The fighters of the final delivery (December 2004)
have been equipped with the Mk 3 radar with an Indian
computer manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited
(HAL) Hyderabad Division, securing performance of the
full scope of the navigation and combat functions,
including the use of the weapons in manoeuvring
flight. This version of the radar enables simultaneous
attack against one surface and one air target while
continuing full scanning functions. The radar can also
indicate targets for all types of armament. Using
target indication by means of the Rafael Litening
targeting pod, the fighter can launch laser-guided
bombs of the Russian-developed KAB-500L and KAB-1500L
types.

[snip]

The avionics suite for Su-30MKI has been ordered by
the Indian Defence Research and Development
Organisation (DRDO) with a considerable proportion of
Indian, French and Israeli components. The navigation
and fire-control systems from the various countries
were integrated by the Russian Ramenskoye PKB avionics
design bureau around the MIL-STD-1553B databus. The
basic elements of the fire-control system, including
the Bars radar and the electro- optical
search-and-track device OLS-30 (36Sh-01), are of
Russian origin. The Sura-K helmet-mounted sight, as
well as key components of the Kh-59M missile (TV
seeker, datalink), originate from Ukraine.

Under a project named ‘Vetrivale’, India’s
Bangalore-based Defence Avionics Research
Establishment (DARE) developed the Su-30MKI mission
computer, display processor and radar computer, which
are now manufactured by HAL Hyderabad Division. The
other DARE product fitted to Su-30MKI is the Tarang Mk
2 radar-warning receiver (RWR) – a high-accuracy
direction finder (HADF) that is manufactured by BEL
(Bharat Electronics Ltd) at its Bangalore facility.
Tarang was originally designed for the MiG-21bis
modernisation programme and is now a standard fitment
in most IAF aircraft. HAL’s designs can also be found
in the integrated communication equipment and radar
altimeters.

Thales Avionics of France supplies for the Su-30MKI
its Totem 3000 ring laser gyro inertial navigation
system combined with Sigma-95 GPS receiver as well as
MFD 55 and MFD 66 colour multifunction displays.
Originating from Israel is the holographic head-up
display, digital map generator, the Rafael Litening
targeting pod and the electronic warfare system built
around the Elta EL/M-8222 jammer. The Flight
Refuelling Mk 32 pod carried under the Su-30MKI
fuselage – enabling ‘buddy-buddy’ refuelling
operations – is of UK origin.

[snip]

The first 26 licence aircraft will be assembled using
Russian-supplied parts. Later, the proportion of
assemblies made in Russia will be gradually reduced
and around 2010, it is expected that the first
Su-30MKI will be made entirely of Indian components.
At that time, the target production rate of 10 to 12
aircraft per year will be achieved. In 2003, HAL and
Irkut signed an additional co-operation deal,
according to which a parallel production line of
control planes (canards, tailplanes, fins and ventral
fins) will be launched in Nasik. These parts will be
installed not only on the aircraft made for the IAF,
but also to those built in Russia for other customers.

The deal combines licence production with full
technology transfer, including the Bars radar and
AL-31FP engines. Like the production of the airframe,
the manufacturing of subassemblies will gradually be
transferred to India. The chief designer of the Bars
radar, Tamerlan Bekirbayev of the NIIP institute, said
that by the end of 2004, NIIP had delivered eight
radars to Irkutsk for licence-built Su-30MKIs. After
being delivered to India (on the aircraft) the radars
are dismounted and disassembled, and then assembled
again. In the second stage of production, the radars
will be delivered to India separately from the
aircraft; in the third phase, individual modules of
radar will be delivered to India. Only in the fourth
phase, in about six to seven years time, the radars
will be manufactured by HAL Hyderabad Division,
although not entirely. For instance, the super-high
frequency (SHF) transmit-receive modules will always
be delivered from Russia.

[snip]

India intends to modernise earlier aircraft to the
standard of the latest batch of Su-30MKIs. Irkut
expects that the appropriate contract for this will be
signed in the early part of this year (2005). Over a
period of two years, the Su-30MKIs of the first and
second batches will be modernised with the Bars Mk 3
radar by either HAL or by IAF military repair
workshops. Some time later, the 18 Indian Su-30Ks will
return to Irkutsk, where they will be converted into
Su-30MKI (in fact, it is more likely that they will be
replaced with new-built aircraft).

[snip]

The currently manufactured engines, installed on the
third batch of delivered Su-30MKIs, have a service
life of 2,000 hours with a major overhaul after 1,000
hours; the overhaul cycle of the movable nozzle is 500
hours.

[snip]

The article is massive and contains details not just on MKI but the chinese flanker projects, the SU35, new avionics planned for flankers like Irbis , the russian flanker upgrade project, huge details on the whole MKI program (most important I have posted)

Truly a impressive piece of work by the writer.