WitchaNot really. Maybe in this case an honest comment made in jest.
The AK has needed serious maintenance after every major cruise. I’m curious to see if the same goes for this one, is that stupid?
I have no particular axe to grind over Russian equipment. I also expressed some opinions about early Mig29s today and I stand by them as I don’t particularly see them as unsubstantiated or controversial.
Following this cruise the Kuznetsov is scheduled for a 5-year refit at Sevmash, so even if any major problems appear as a result of this cruise, it won’t matter.;)
Witchahttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYueaFelZ9U
Cheers .
Thanks. It may be just me but I note some similarities to the Rafale…
As interesting as it looks though, the Rafale is a great plane and I’m happy India is buying that instead.:D
WitchaDid that actually fly or was it just a static model?
I ask this because I can’t seem to find any air intakes in that pic.
WitchaI dont think scrapping it at such a late stage is a good idea..getting it into service somehow is much more important..because lets face it..after the hawks retire (several years from now) what then?do we again buy a trainer or maybe use the experience from IJT to make one ourselves?
When that happens do what South Korea did for the T-50: Partner up with a leading international aerospace firm to take care of the high-risk areas of development with assorted TOT.
Alternately just take an existing design and derive a modified version of it for Indian needs. Like the Aermacchi M-346 designed with Yak-130 DNA.
Ray, the problem with this idea is that it looks good on paper. Domestic developer unable to come up with something that is world beater ? lets call in some excellent project managers from the pvt industry, let them bring in consultants for top dollar and lets get our hands on something that works. Sure these companies can handle big projects, but they do not have experience with big R&D projects, where the returns are uncertain and unexpected setbacks guaranteed. When the product is meant to be cutting edge, technology has to be developed instead of being brought off the shelf, and that is the achilles heel of such an arrangement. The Indian companies getting into defence sector specialise more in production and project management than research and design. If forced to “develop” a certain product today for a next generation product rather than getting the “blue prints” from foreign suppliers, you would see 4-5 out of six suppliers coming up with a design that fails the staff requirement and the rest two will probably fail during the product development cycle.
Lets say today you have Samtel marketing topsight hmds in a jv with Thales. How long do you think will a company like Samtel, which has lets say 10 years of experience making small cockpit accessories, to come up with a home grown HMDS ? Or Astra microwave, which is currently making aesa t/r modules and other defence related electronics from technology licensed from LRDE and DRDL. How long will it take for them to expand their line of work into specialised military grade signal processors for next gen radar for AMCA and have the necessary expertise to help the coders to optimise their code for their specific processors ?
If there is anything that needs to be done, it is to desecrate the researcher-manufacturer divide. DRDO is a research organisation which has to develop vendors and grow them out of the teething phase because the high technology manufacturing in India is not good enough, and only then is one of the DPSU’s able to manufacture the product. Anyone who has worked in production will tell you that your product is allowed to be only as good enough as your sub-vendors and suppliers are, and we have a critical shortage of them. Forget backup suppliers, even the primary suppliers have a tough time keeping up. This has lead to a situation where instead of having one unified management for every single project, there is a musical chair going on between DRDO labs, vendors and the DPSU’s, and that right there is a recipe for disaster.
The private cos have to start somewhere. Even our defence PSUs with their decades of experience are heavily dependent on foreign technology inputs and licensed production/assembly. Once they have some experience in actually producing, maintaining and upgrading aircraft they’d be better suited to handling development programmes, perhaps with some foreign assistance. This is how our automobile sector developed.
Witcha^I wish the Indian Navy had negotiated for some of its own crew for to be sent for training on that cruise. Great way to gain experience both for flying the MiGs in various real maritime environments as well to gain experience for truly international-scale deployments that may come useful when they eventually serve on the Vikramaditya.
WitchaI may be wrong, but I recall reading that the Indian Air Force was considering switching to a larger platform for the DRDO’s indigenous AWACS after the first 3 units(which will be based on the EMB-145). The E-190 was mentioned as a candidate…
WitchaAnd regarding the IJT, I’ve seen no real progress in its development for years now. I recall it was originally supposed to already be in service. The Kirans are not as reliable as one would hope, when will they finally be replaced?
Would it be viable to just scrap it altogether and use the Hawk as the sole jet trainer like most of its other users do?
WitchaI’m not sure how you can look at global trends over the last few decades and conclude that privatization is the way to go. You want to end up in the situation the US has now with Lockheed Martin?
It’s absolutely clear that the current state of one government-owned enterprise having a monopoly in everything defence-related is inefficient. Not a single one of HAL’s projects have ever been on time in recent history, and I doubt anyone here believes HAL’s existing Bangalore facilities is going to start production of the Rafale on time and at the desired rate given the 20+ development/production/repair/overhaul/modernisation projects they have ongoing or planned in the same period.
One thing I can certainly agree with is that HAL has gotten too big and too monopolistic for the IAF’s or its own good. It either needs some real domestic competition or at least a way for the military to diversify domestic suppliers so that programs can be divided between two or three companies rather than putting all eggs in one basket.
One good way of doing this would be to sell off some of HAL’s facilities/divisions to private firms. For example offloading the Hawk production line to Tata. This would serve as an effective way of kick-starting private defence manufacturers with the necessary talent and experience rather than having to wait decades for them to build up expertise from scratch.
But the GOI has always been stuck in 1960s Socialism with their defence production policies, and AK Antony and Pallam Raju are essentially Communists in all but political allegiance, so…:mad:
WitchaFor some reason, that article doesn’t mention the US veto’ing the previous attempt to export Arrow 2. To India. With the stated reason being ‘violation of MTCR norms’. Of course, when the US and its allies ‘violate’ the same it means jack.:rolleyes:
Funny they’re talking about re-starting Missile Defence dialogue with India, because given the fears from their Pakistani ‘allies’ it’s highly unlikely they’ll allow themselves or Israel permission to give India a missile defence capability. I still recall when India requested information on the PAC-3 and they were unwilling to offer anything more than a PAC-2.
WitchaI wonder if this makes the Indian Government kick itself that it did not wait a little longer on choosing the MiG-29K as its prime carrier-based fighter/bomber?
Do you think the Indian Navy might have done better selecting the Rafale M variant for the sake of operation commonality??Regards
Pioneer
The Navy certainly has had an eye on the Rafale as I recall an article on the naval LCA with the Navy Chief lamenting how he wished they could immediately deliver a Rafale-M caliber plane, but that they could only make progress in steps.
However the MiG-29Ks came contingent with the Vikramaditya deal and the Navy had no real choice back then(Though old reports suggest the Rafale was considered). Not to mention the Vikramaditya will be STOBAR and hence better suited for the MiGs anyway.
WitchaOne thing that has puzzled me for a long time is why all operational and planned UCAVs in existence are restricted to the air-to-ground role. Given they have radars, optical sensors and precision targeting(autonomous and remote-controlled) systems, what’s stopping designers from putting AAMs on them?:confused:
So long as UCAVs remain limited to air-to-ground the fears of them replacing manned fighters will remain ungrounded.
Witchahttp://lenta.ru/news/2012/01/19/project/
2nd “Dugyne” project 21820 laid down.
I wonder why the Russian Navy seems to have chosen conventional landing boats over more capable hovercraft designs like the Zubr. More economical?
WitchaAK-630M.
Thanks. I believe the closest Western counterparts(albeit smaller) would be the Visby class mini-corvettes. Do these also have composite superstructures, or just aluminium?
WitchaLaunch/Trial pics of Volgodonsk. Trials went well.
http://img841.imageshack.us/img841/1292/attachmentft.jpg
http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/9374/attachmentk.jpg
http://balancer.ru/forum/punbb/attachment.php?item=258860&download=1
http://balancer.ru/forum/punbb/attachment.php?item=258862&download=1
http://balancer.ru/forum/punbb/attachment.php?item=258867&download=1
http://balancer.ru/forum/punbb/attachment.php?item=258868&download=1
http://balancer.ru/forum/punbb/attachment.php?item=258869&download=1
http://balancer.ru/forum/punbb/attachment.php?item=258870&download=1
Nice. A lot of capability for that size.;) Do these boats have a composite superstructure like the Stereguschy class?
And are those CIWS mounts AK-630 or AK-306? Why not the Palma?
Witchahttp://lenta.ru/news/2012/01/10/billion/
Damage exceeds one billion rubles. Repairs will be carried out by Sevmash.
Not so bad. They were actually very lucky that only the sonar dome was damaged and not the torpedo chamber above. Else they may have had to pay several billions more for replacing the entire bow section. Or even the entire sub.;)
Sign In
