black eagleA missile v/s missile test on Sunday
Balasore (Orissa), ians:
India will for the first time fire two home grown missiles against each other on Sunday to validate the capability of the weapon to achieve its design parameters, officials said.Termed the Prithvi Air Defence Exercise, one missile will be fired from the shore-based Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur-on-sea and the other from Inner Wheeler Island, both of which are located 150 km from state capital Bhubaneswar, sources said.
“If their trajectory is perfectly aligned, it would be termed a success of the operational status of the Prithvi-II missile,” they added. The aim of the exercise is to test the missile’s ability to provide an air-shield cover to important Indian metros of India against hostile attacks.
can you really provide air defence with the PRITHVI?
black eagleKolkata, November 14: INS Shardul, the third Landing Ship Tank of the Indian Navy after INS Magar and INS Gharial and the first of a new class, was handed over to the Indian Navy on 3 November. Credit, however, goes to Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers Ltd, the premier Indian defence shipyard, that has added another feather in its cap. Shardul boasts of an indigenous content of over 90 per cent with state-of-the-art equipment.
It will be having two WM 18 Rocket Launcher Mountings manufactured by Larson & Toubro and CRN 91 guns, made in Secunderabad, capable of firing 550 rounds. Its military lift includes 11 armoured tanks and 10 army vehicles escalating its carrying capacity to 760 tonnes. It can carry about 200 troops for longer duration and about 500 for shorter ones.
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The total cost of manufacture of INS Shardul has been estimated at around Rs 400 crore. In addition to this, two more ships are to be launched in the next couple of years. The director, Ship Building, Vinod Kumar, said the ship is being readied to head towards its home port at Karwar, Goa.
Shardul has a total complement of 11 officers and 145 sailors. Each department is headed by a departmental officer who functions under respective heads of departments.
The primary role of this ship is to transport troops, vehicles and armaments for amphibious operations and accomplish all objectives of landing, that is, beaching operations, transport combat equipment and personnel to Amphibious Objective Area. It has the capability of launching of marine commandos through sea and also by helicopters for vertical envelopment besides undertaking aerial evacuation of the casualties.
The crest of INS Shardul depicts a roaring Royal Bengal Tiger against a sky blue background. To sum up its commissioning, Commanding Officer Cdr Anil J Joseph, likes to call it a “troop-carrier”. No wonder why he terms INS Shardul as a “warship with a difference”.
black eagleIndia to have ‘3-carrier Navy’
As the construction of the first Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC) is on a smooth course, naval engineers have readied plans to construct two additional home-made aircraft carriers to make the Indian navy a ‘three-carrier navy’.
At the Cochin Shipyard Ltd, heavy machineries are being put in place to undertake the navy’s most ambitious project – manufacturing the 37,500 tonnes IAC to carry fighter planes and helicopters – from the scratch in another six years at a cost of Rs 3261crore.
The two existing aircraft carriers – INS Virat and INS Vikrant are from the UK. A third Russian carrier INS Vikramaditya (Admiral Gorshkov) is likely to be commissioned by 2008.
While INS Vikrant joined the services in the early 1960s and has been made a museum after more than two decades in service. INS Virat was commissioned in 1987.
“The manufacturing facilities now being put in place would not only be for making only one aircraft carrier. The navy has a long term plan of making two more. INS Virat can serve for another 6 to 7 years during which the final decision on constructing additional carriers can be made,” said a Navy officer.
Steel cutting have taken place in the IAC project, formerly known as air defence ship. According to the designs made at the Directorate of Naval Design (DND), the 840 ft ship will have 30 fighter planes and helicopters, out of which 17 can be accommodated in the hanger.
For the fighter fleets, the options are MiG-29K, naval version of the light combat aircraft, Sea Harrier, advanced light helicopter and Russian Kamov-31 helicopters. While there will be foreign consultations in a few areas, the naval engineers claimed the design to be completely indigenous. Only three other nations have built such a large carrier in the past.
“Besides the ambitious project, the navy is constructing three new destroyers, each weighing 6640 tonnes at the Mazgaon docks in Mumbai,” said Commodore K N Vaidyanathan, principle director of naval design at the DND. The organisation will complete its 50th anniversary on November 17.
The decision to make these three new destroyers has been taken following the success of the three Delhi-class destroyers, which are INS Delhi, INS Mysore and INS Mumbai.
black eagle[COLOR=Blue]IAF upgrading fighter aircraft
Tribune News Service[/COLOR]
Chandigarh, November 13
The IAF is upgrading its existing fighter aircraft to maintain their combat potential in the absence of new inductions. Stating this here today, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Western Air Command, Air Marshal A.K.Singh, said that requests for proposals (RFP) for the 126 multi-role aircraft required by the IAF had still not been issued.
“It would take seven or eight years after the deal has been cleared to build up force levels. To meet requirements in the meantime till then, the existing fleet is being modernised to make it compatible with the new generation fighters,” he said.
The Air Marshal was on an inspection visit to the MiG-27/29 TETTRA School at the Air Force High Grounds.
He said that one squadron of the MiG-27 had been upgraded. The upgradation of the MiG-29 is in the pipeline, while the MiG-21 Bison upgrade was well underway, he added.
He said the IAF had introduced computer-based training on a large scale, where computer simulations are used to teach various subjects. The IAF is also evolving its own training procedures as original equipment manufactures are reluctant to part with certain technical details of equipment.
On the Siachen demilitarisation issue, he said we must demarcate the area before any withdrawal takes place so as to avoid counter claims at a later stage.
Earlier, the Air Marshal was briefed about training programmes and other activities of the TETTRA school by the Station Commander, Gp Capt B.K. Sood..
He also visited various sections of the school, newly set up MiG-29 training complex and the X-ray model of the MiG-27.
Air Marshal Singh also interacted with a batch of six Sri Lankan technicians who are here on a training course on the MiG-27. The Sri Lankan air force is purchasing four MiG-27 aircraft from Russia and these airmen have been sent here for advanced training.
This is the third batch from Sri Lanka to be trained on this aircraft here.
Meanwhile, president of the Air Force Wives Welfare Association (Regional), Mrs Priya Singh was briefed about the welfare activities by the local president, Mrs Preetika Sood. A special ladies meet was also held.
black eagleATV nuclear submarine not yet in full steam
The nuclear submarine still seems to be facing problems and the Russians seem to have stepped in to bail India out, though at a heavy price. Estimated to have cost the national exchequer a sum in excess of Rs 2,500 crore till date, the nuclear submarine project which started some time in 1971 has had lots of problems essentially related to the design of the submarine hull and the reactor it is supposed to house. The problem was in integrating the pressurised water reactor (PWR) to fit into the space available within the submarine hull. Sources say these problems have now been overcome. Independent observers of the project, however, still doubt whether the miniaturisation of the pressurised water reactor (PWR) was successively achieved. The BARC had shelved three designs because of the scientific objections of a former Naval Commander and nuclear scientist B K Subbarao who was part of the Naval team set up to look into the design feasibility. He was later incarcerated as a spy till the courts exonerated him. A fourth design also did not meet the specifications of the Navy. Earlier, India had obtained on lease the INS Chakra, a 670A Skat class (in Nato parlance Charlie-I) submarine, with the intention of reverse engineering its PWR. The Russians however did not allow the Indians anywhere near it though they did train Navy crews to operate a nuclear submarine. The central question then is, where will the submarine’s PWR come from? It is here the Russian connection looms large and the recent deals with Russia, observers say, are pointers in that direction. Apart from the $ 3 billion arms deal, the two Kudankulam reactors are estimated to cost $ 2.9 billion, to be paid in dollars. There is documentation to show that India is reportedly amenable to the Russian demand that the former purchase a ‘‘series of power reactors’’ for which an agreement between the two countries exists. With the Russians now on record saying that they are looking to build at least 6 VVER-1000s at Kudankulam, India will need at least $ 18 billion (assuming no cost escalations) to pay the Russians over the next 20 years. A stiff price to pay for the LWR design for a nuclear submarine, according to observers. This inference, say informed sources, is bolstered by the fact that the submarine being built belongs to the Russian 949A class, known in NATO parlance as Oscar-II, the kind which the ill-fated Russian Kursk belonged to. Earlier it was conjectured that the submarine being planned belonged to the Severodvinsk class. Oscar-IIs are nuclear-powered guided missile submarines (SSGNs) exactly what India needs for a credible nuclear deterrence. Initially, observers were of the opinion that India’s own nuclear submarine may not fructify even by 2007, but now with the categorical assertion that Sagarika is slated for September 2001 underwater trials, the culmination of the project within the specified time frame may just about be possible. If this happens, India will take a giant step forward to realise the dream of a credible second strike nuclear capability.
black eagleIn a workshop at Hazira, desi underwater missile launcher gets ready for trial
On the floors of the workshop of a well-known public limited company at Hazira, Project 78 (P78) is getting ready. The engineering works are complete and minor electrical wiring remain to be completed, a task which, according to sources, is scheduled to be finished by the end of the month and formally handed over to the Navy for tests. P78 is not just another engineering project. It is India’s underwater test missile launcher almost entirely indigenously designed and fabricated. It simulates the necessary conditions to launch a cruise or a ballistic missile from a nuclear-powered submarine. In the present instance, P78 is the first crucial step towards strategic weaponisation, since it is being geared to launch a missile tipped with a nuclear warhead. The missile for which the launcher is being readied is the mysterious Sagarika, first thought to be a cruise missile but now, again according to sources, virtually confirmed to be a ballistic missile. A cruise missile is a low-trajectory missile guided to its destination by an on-board computer. The ballistic missile has a high trajectory and transcends the atmosphere to re-enter from above the targeted site. Sources say that Sagarika will come in both versions — cruise and ballistic. It is, however, confirmed to be an advanced clone of the naval version of the Prithvi series. Prithvi-I is land-based, II is air-launched and III, sea launched. The difference is that Sagarika is designed exclusively for being launched from a submarine, hence is an SLBM (SLCM is a cruise missile.) The state of development of the SLBM/SLCM could not be confirmed but what could be confirmed was the targeted date for the test launch of the missile itself. A highly placed source directly involved with India’s prestigious, albeit long-suffering, advanced technology vessel project (ATV Project) — a euphemism for the indigenously being-developed nuclear submarine — disclosed to The Indian Express that Sagarika will have its first underwater flight test in September 2001. According to a retired Naval intelligence source, this means Sagarika is already ready and waiting for tests or in a very advanced state of completion. That is why the frenetic activity to have the P78 underwater missile launcher delivered to the Navy before April 2001 makes sense. The revelation assumes significance since it is the first solid and tangible fulfilment of the aim of the ambitious draft Indian nuclear doctrine to possess a viable and credible ‘‘second strike’’ capability to inflict ‘‘unacceptable damage’’ to an attacking enemy. It is a matter of recognised strategic principle that a viable and credible second nuclear strike capability is vested with sea-launched, in particular nuclear-propelled submarine-launched missiles, because they are difficult to track down using air or surface-launched enemy missiles. The Indian Government has consistently denied the existence of both the ATV project and the development of the SLBM Sagarika with a range of about 300 km. ‘‘Even today, no one is about to admit to the project. However, once the underwater missile test takes place in September, it will be there for the whole world to see,’’ the source said. Sagarika developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), needs to have a nuclear-powered submarine, for conventional diesel-powered submarines do not have the logistics and manoeuvrability to launch the missile from under water. This means that, despite its long and chequered history, the indigenously designed ATV Project is well on course since the ATVP and Sagarika complement each other. This correspondent talked to AK Anand, director, reactor project group of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC). Anand refused to either confirm or deny it. However, on a recent visit to MAPS (Madras Atomic Power Station) and IGCAR (Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research) sources at Kalpakkam confirmed to this correspondent that the nuclear reactor for the submarine was being fabricated there.
black eagle
Armed Forces wait as showpiece missiles are unguided, way off mark
NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 12: It is the Defence Research and Development Organisation’s most prestigious undertaking. Yet the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP) remains a venture matchless for its repeated and expensive failures.
Of the five missile families that the DRDO announced at the IGMDP launch in July 1983, two ballistic missiles, the tactical Prithvi and long-range Agni, have been inducted into the Services. But investigation by The Indian Express reveals that even these are far from operational readiness. Among the other three missiles, the situation is worse.
DRDO claims its first success, Prithvi-I, is fully operational. However, the missiles were forced upon the Army even before crucial terminal accuracy trials were complete, according to a 2003 report by one of DRDO’s own top scientists. Even now, despite DRDO’s claims, the Army does not rely on the Prithvi as an effective deterrent and cannot do so unless serious technological issues affecting launch preparedness are resolved.
Former deputy director of the Prithvi project and now DRDO’s chief controller of missiles and strategic systems Dr V K Saraswat’s report RCI/PGT/PGM/1 admits: “Accuracy of missiles like Prithvi is acceptable in surface-to-surface theatre role, but precision strike without collateral damage is not possible with this system.”
Agni-I and Agni-II, the only strategic delivery systems in the Army’s arsenal, are considered risky. DRDO has told the Parliamentary panel, in testimonies available to The Indian Express, that the missiles have been successfully tested five times. What it conveniently leaves unsaid is the fact that this is out of at least 10 tests. Either way, the Army feels a handful of tests is not enough to prove a missile’s worth.
The Agni-III, which plunged into the sea after just five minutes of flight in July, will be tested again only towards mid-2007 as the teams at DRDL and the Integrated Test Range in Chandipur try to unravel the disaster.
As for the remaining three, anti-missile system Trishul is a closed chapter proving to be only a technology demonstrator, by former Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s own recent admission, after it was decided that persistent beam guidance glitches could not be put behind the project.
Even though the system’s radar is ready and functional, the Trishul team has never been able to correct the missile’s flawed trajectory — in all tests it has escaped out of its envelope. The project’s manpower has already been distributed among PSU Bharat Dynamics Ltd in Hyderabad, the Indo-Israeli Barak-II next generation missile project, the Project Nag and the submarine-launched missile, designated K-15.
A notional one-year extension granted to the project till December 2007, after hectic lobbying, is being seen as an outrage by the Army and Navy.
The Akash medium range surface-to-air missile, which DRDO publicly claims “is in the process of induction” will, according to the Ministry in testimony to a Parliamentary Standing Committee, only begin Phase-II user trials in December on a T-72 platform, a change that could pile up the massive time overrun further.
An exasperated IAF, which calls Phase-I user trials unsatisfactory, has decided to buy Israeli Spyder missile systems instead.
Realisation of the ramjet propulsion system has crippled the Akash programme, which continues to flounder when the missile is fired at its ceiling range of 25 to 27 km. The IAF, in fact, has certified the missile to a range of just 16-18-km, virtually declaring it a dud at maximum capacity. Officers in the IAF fear the Akash may go the Trishul way, but Natarajan claims: “The Akash missile defence system has been successful.”
The third missile, the anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) Nag, which DRDO brags as an “imminent success,” has not been accepted by the Army. After 57 flight trials, it has encountered unforeseen problems with its Imaging Infrared (IIR) seeker, rendering it inaccurate until the seeker is properly miniaturized for use. User trials are slated for June-December 2007. Saraswat’s report calls for integrating Nag’s seeker with Prithvi to make the latter a precision-guided munition (PGM) but that hasn’t worked either, since the Nag’s seeker is far from ready.
The result: After over two decades of research in seeker technology and expenditure of upto an estimated Rs 800 crore, all Indian missiles, even the Indo-Russian BrahMos,fly with foreign seekers. This is especially troubling since the North Korean and Chinese missiles are known to fly with far superior terminal guidance technologies.
The IGMDP should have wrapped up each of the projects by December 1995 using Rs 388.83 crore, but it got a 10-year extension from the then Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao after the then DRDO chief APJ Abdul Kalam managed to convince him that only a two-three year extension was not acceptable. Its revised funding: Rs 1771.43 crore, a budgetary overrun of Rs 1,382.6 crore. The time line has been further extended to December 2007 under the current chief M Natarajan.
“The Akash was to come at a certain time, and it didn’t. I had to change everything to make up for the delay.”
Air Chief Marshal SP Tyagi
“It was a troubling scenario. On the one hand, DRDO assured us of Trishul’s success, and on the other our Western fleet was sitting completely vulnerable to a Pak missile attack.”
Admiral Sushil Kumar (retd)
black eagle6,000 cr wasted, 10-yr delay & they want 150,000 cr more
DRDO has just asked the Govt for an assured Rs 10,000 crore per year for 15 years. In the first of a series, The Sunday Express finds out why this is a joke on the nation’s security and the taxpayer
Showpiece Projects, Big Blots
New Delhi, November 11:Make India prosperous by establishing a world-class science and technology base…provide our Defence Services the decisive edge by equipping them with internationally competitive systems and solutions… design, develop and lead to production state-of-the-art weapons systems…
That’s the “vision” and the “mission” the Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) has proudly spelt out for itself.
An investigation by The Sunday Express into official records that include detailed testimonies by the Ministry of Defence to a Parliamentary Standing Committee — its report is yet to be tabled in Parliament — shows that if there’s one thing this behemoth of 50 laboratories with a staff of about 33,000 has developed to almost perfection, it’s this: wrapping itself around the flag to hide a record of delay and non-delivery in virtually all major weapons programmes.
At a time when China is rapidly modernising its armed forces through international collaboration and acquiring advanced technology from abroad, the DRDO has become a prisoner of its own misleading slogan on self-reliance. In preventing the armed forces from buying urgently needed weapons with brave talk, “we can make it here”, and failing to deliver, the DRDO has introduced uncertainty into the government’s defence planning.
According to latest official records, obtained by this newspaper, in 12 of its showpiece projects, none of which is anywhere near completion, the DRDO has overshot sanctioned estimates by Rs 6,013.43 crore in just the last 10 years. The projects include the crucial guided missile programme, the Arjun tank, the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA Tejas), the Samyukta communication system and Kaveri jet engine.
To put this in perspective, this cost overrun is larger than DRDO’s budget of Rs 5,356 crore for the current year. And this is reflective of just 12 projects. It speaks nothing of 427 others, all in varying states of drift. And yet DRDO claims, “Global level R&D and any world-class defence product can be brought out in competitive time and cost.”
These were the words used in a September 22 presentation to the Standing Committee especially in the year of the organisation’s biggest symbolic failure, the Agni-III strategic missile.
But if cost overruns were not enough, consider this: Records show that for all major projects, DRDO’s average time overrun is 10.11 years (see chart). For example, a 16-year delay for the Arjun tank and 12 years for just Phase I of the LCA Tejas.
Responding to a written questionnaire from The Sunday Express, DRDO chief M Natarajan, who has also been involved with one of DRDO’s biggest failures, the Arjun tank, says: “This is a complaint which I hear very often. But one should understand these are all R&D projects. All advanced countries face similar situations. If you say that we are always late, then it would not be fair to us. We generally deliver the goods on time.”
If that were true, Natarajan must have had a trying time explaining that on October 29 at the very first DRDO presentation to new Defence Minister A K Antony. Drawing comparisons with the China-Russia relationship, Defence Secretary Shekhar Dutt reportedly wanted to know why there were such “massive delays” in DRDO projects and persistent technological gaps.
Former IAF chief Air Chief Marshal S Krishnaswamy was more direct. Called in a year after he retired to give testimony, he told the Parliamentary panel: “For improvement in DRDO’s working, it is essential to make fundamental changes in organization and structure with accountability to the user and to do work in time.”
Krishnaswamy couldn’t have been more spot on. For, although DRDO defended its performance by blaming the three services — they change their requirements while development is in progress, they spend too much time on trials — here’s just how bad the current situation is: In the 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th Plans, with DRDO’s failures a compelling factor, according to the Defence Ministry, the country has spent an average of 24.25% of the Defence budget on imported systems to fill in holes caused by DRDO’s non-delivery. That translates into roughly Rs 42,376 crore since 1991-92.
Even the “self-reliance” index, the one plank the entire DRDO justifies itself on, has remained static for the last 15 years. Ironically, in 1991, it was President A P J Abdul Kalam, then DRDO chief, who charted out a plan to push self-reliance up to 70% by 2005. Today’s self-reliance index, according to the Ministry’s own estimate: 30 per cent.
Kalam, in fact, started the Self-Reliance Implementation Council (SRIC) in 1992 and monitored it to check for slippages and gaps. But that was more an academic exercise than anything else. For five years now, the council hasn’t met once.
Papers are only “activated” when Parliamentary questions are asked. In what has the armed forces on tenterhooks now, on October 29, the DRDO recommended to Antony that a “certain percentage of defence acquisitions be earmarked exclusively for DRDO and indigenously developed products.”
The total cost of 439 projects currently in progress with DRDO adds up to Rs 16,925 crore, with just 17 of those adding up to Rs 13,560 crore, most of them on time and cost extensions. In September, DRDO asked, in its testimony to the
Parliamentary committee, for an assured allocation of Rs 1,50,000 crore at the rate of Rs 10,000 crore per year for the next 15 years starting 2010.
It’s time Antony asked the DRDO a few questions, beginning with the Integrated Guided Missile Development programme. There is no indigenous weapons project as prestigious as this, neither is there one that matches its record of repeated and expensive failures.
Every project has to fructify within a given timeframe, otherwise it will just begin to drift and lose focus
Air Chief Marshal S Krishnaswamy
DRDO needs greater accountability. We have not been able to get the maximum out of DRDO, even though self-reliance should be our core
Gen V P Malik
In our effort for self-reliance, we had placed much faith on DRDO, but this trust was only answered by delay after delay
Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat
We have had a mixed bag of success with DRDO. But there have also been failures. When time frames are not met, we have to look outside
Gen J J Singh
black eagleReview panel studying Agni III failure: scientific adviser
Further tests `depend on extent of correction required’
NEW IMPROVED COMPONENT: (From left): M. Natarajan, Scientific adviser to Defence Minister, Tessy Thomas, project director, Advanced System Laboratory (ASL) and Avinash Chander, Director, ASL, at the Ramakrishna Engineering Company in Chennai on Thur sday. — Photo: S.S. Kumar
CHENNAI: The failure of the Agni III missile test flight in July this year was being analysed by a review committee, said M. Natarajan, scientific advisor to the Defence Minister, while in the city to receive a component for the Agni programme.
Further tests would be scheduled depending on the extent of correction required, he added.
The first rocket motor case of the improved design, of maraging steel and with 1.2 metre diameter, for the Agni programme was handed over to the advisor on Thursday morning by the Ramakrishna Engineering Company.
The use of maraging steel, an iron alloy with very high tensile strength, malleability and resistance to fracture, would enable the use of higher density of propellant in the Agni III missile, said Mr. Natarjan.
This could increase the range of the missile by as much as 15 to 20 per cent without an increase in overall weight.
The current range of the Agni III missile, now in the testing stage, is around 3,000 kilometres.
It belongs to the Agni series of indigenously developed strategic ballistic missiles that can carry conventional or nuclear payload and are considered crucial to nuclear deterrence.
Avinash Chander, director, Advanced System Laboratory (ASL), said the component had been developed jointly with Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), ASL and Ramakrishna Engineering.
Ramakrishna Engineering is a manufacturer of aerospace and defence hardware in the city and has been producing hardware for national aerospace programmes, including GSLV, PSLV and Lakshya.
black eagleNSTL to design torpedoes with thermal technology
VISAKHAPATNAM: The Naval Science and Technological Laboratory in Visakhapatnam will shortly place the nation in the elite group of countries that design and develop torpedoes with thermal technology.
Revealing this to the press here on Tuesday, A. Sivathanu Pillai, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of BrahMos Aerospace Private Limited, said NSTL had already successfully designed heavy and lightweight electrically propelled torpedoes that are under production and now it has made a breakthrough in indigenously designing torpedoes with thermal propulsion system.
Faster and sleeker
He said: “Right at this moment I can say that these torpedoes will be faster, sleeker and stealthier. The torpedoes not only come under the guided category but also will have a longer range than the conventional ones. Once inducted they will add more punch to the naval firepower, as they can be used both from ships and submarines.” Updating on BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles, he said both the versions — anti ship and land target missiles — are on the induction stage both by the Navy and the Army.
black eagleYet another of India’s high-profile defense projects is facing delays due to criticism from the military service for which it was intended. The Air Force has said the Defence Research and Development Organisation’s (DRDO’s) $500 million effort to design and develop an airborne early warning and control system (AWACS) fails to meet the military’s requirements. A senior DRDO scientist said that the Air Force’s objections have halted work on the AWACS program at the Bangalore based Centre for Air Borne Systems (CABS) a premier DRDO aeronautics laboratory. A senior Defence Ministry official said the DRDO has been directed to re evaluate the project. It also will be scrutinized by the ministry and defense forces, he said. India will not be without an AWACS capability, however. In 2004, a $1.1 billion contract was signed with Israel for the Phalcon radar, which would be mounted on three Russian built Il-76 aircraft. The delivery of the Phalcon mounted AWACS planes will begin in mid-2007. A senior Air Force official said the problems with the indigenous effort include the Embraer EMB-145 aircraft proposed as the AWACS platform, which cannot fly 10-plus hours or at an altitude above 40,000 feet, which are the minimum requirements of the defense forces. In addition, the service official said, the surveillance radar has a range of only 300 kilometers and coverage area of 240 degrees, less than required. Call for Closer Cooperation The Air Force official said that the DRDO, awarded the work in September 2004, did not work closely with the end-users to set the technical parameters. The DRDO must work hand-in-hand with the users, the Defence Ministry official said, and cannot ignore the objections raised by the Air Force. The agency, in consultation with the Air Force, will set new technical parameters for the AWACS program, which is likely to be completed and cleared by the Air Force by mid-2007, the DRDO scientist said. The likely in-service date, therefore, will slip from 2012 to 2016. The government approved a DRDO proposal in 2004 to develop an AWACS capability. The approval followed Pakistan’s deal with Sweden to mount Ericsson’s Erieye radar on Saab 2000 aircraft. India’s program calls for three AWACS aircraft that can be deployed with all three military services as needed. The Air Force is the lead service on this project. The primary systems and subsystems for the program include: A phased-array radar. Identification Friend or Foe system. Microwave data link. Electronic support measures. Operator display consoles with tactical software. Air-to-air voice and data links. Satellite communication links. Search-and-rescue capabilities. An earlier effort by the DRDO to develop an indigenous AWACS capability was suspended in 1999 following the crash of the Airborne Surveillance Platform during trials.
black eagleBoeing will display Chinook helicopter
BANGALORE: Offering its F/A-18 Super Hornet Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MRCA) to meet the Indian Air Force (IAF)’s much publicised need for 126 such aircraft, the U.S.-based Boeing Integrated Defence Systems (IDS) has geared up to showcase its military muscle at the Aero-India international aerospace exposition early next year.
Till the last air show, Boeing’s commercial wing had dominated the American presence at the biennial exposition. But this year, with the IAF and the Defence Ministry showing a keen interest in MRCA on offer, Boeing will display not just the Super Hornet, but the heavy lift CH-47 Chinook helicopter, a twin-engine, tandem rotor aircraft designed for transportation of cargo, troops, and weapons during day, night, visual, and instrument conditions.
On display will be the T-45A aircraft, the Navy version of the British Aerospace Hawk aircraft, used for intermediate and advanced portions of the Navy pilot training programme for jet carrier aviation and tactical strike missions.
The P-8I Multimission Maritime Aircraft (MMA) will be another key display at the air show.
This aircraft has the objective of searching and destroying submarines, conduct shipping interdiction, and possibly engage in an electronic intelligence role.
Currently awaiting a formal request from the Government for the F/A-18 Super Hornet, Boeing IDS is confident that once the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal comes through, the aircraft would have a big chance of grabbing IAF’s biggest acquisition deal.
“When the civilian nuclear deal is through that will establish a level of trust (between the two countries),” Mr. Chris Chadwick, vice-president and general manager, Global Strike Systems, IDS, told The Hindu .
black eagleArmy chief still banks on DRDO to deliver
NEW DELHI: No senior serving armed forces officer ever comes out strongly against DRDO despite most of its projects being dogged by technical glitches, time and cost overruns. Similar was the case with General J J Singh on Tuesday.
The Army chief, however, made it clear that if a weapon system could not be produced indigenously or if the timeframe was crossed, then there should be no restriction on importing that particular capability.
“We have had a mixed bag of successes with DRDO. Some of their successes are Pinaka (multi-barrel rocket launcher), Nag (anti-tank guided missile), Nishant (remotely-piloted vehicle) etc. There have been failures also but indigenous efforts must be promoted,” he said.
Asked about Arjun main-battle tank, sanctioned 30 years ago but yet to become combat-worthy, he said: “Arjun is a tank with the latest fire-control system. It’s a heavy tank we will use it where it is best suited. It must be utilised since it’s an investment and national effort.”
As reported by TOI earlier, Army’s future armoured plans revolve around Russian-origin T-90S ‘Bhishma’ and upgraded T-72 M1 ‘Ajeya’ tanks. But with indigenisation the mantra, Army was virtually told to place an indent for manufacture of 124 Arjuns by the Heavy Vehicles Factory in March 2000.
black eagleReport exposes DRDO’s dismal record
Ajai Shukla
Over the last few days, the names of two missiles have dominated the headlines – the Israeli Barak and the Indian Trishul.
The controversy on the Barak came up because of the alleged role of middlemen. In the process, it brought up a debate on why the missile was needed in the first place.
The Navy for its part says the Barak is a brilliant missile and was needed because the indigenous Trishul was nowhere near completion.
The government has now clarified that the much criticised Trishul project has not, in fact, been shelved.
But there are many who continue to doubt the ability of the Defence Research and Development Organisation in developing state of the art weapon systems.
MoD’s report
It’s a confidential report from deep within the Ministry of Defence. It’s the latest review of the army’s projects with the Defence R&D Organisation (DRDO).
After a closer look, it becomes clear why the MoD classified the document as confidential.
To produce the report, the Army’s Vice Chief Lt Gen Pattabhiraman sat at the South Block with officers of the DRDO and the army.
He examined forty projects that the DRDO has taken up to develop rocket launchers, missiles and tanks, which the army desperately needs.
That analysis uncovers the DRDO’s dismal record of failure and delay. And the question is: with 30,000 employees and an annual budget of Rs 5000 crore, is this all that the DRDO can do?
During the Kargil conflict, BM-21 GRAD rocket launchers rained on peaks like Tiger Hill and allowed Indian soldiers to capture the heights.
With supplies running low after the war, the army asked the MoD to buy 85,000 rockets. But the DRDO can block any such proposals by saying, don’t buy, we’ll find a way to make them.
So all that was bought were 13,000 rockets from Russia. The DRDO promised to develop the rest.
The generals protested that the range of DRDO rockets is only 30 kilometers – ten km short of the minimum. So while the army remains short of more than 60,000 rockets, DRDO continues to experiment.
Delay and failure
The DRDO Review examined 39 projects. Just four of them are coming along well. In at least sixteen cases the DRDO is far behind schedule.
Eighteen of the projects – almost half – are categorized as technology demonstrators. It means the army hasn’t asked for them. The DRDO is trying to create a product.
The army is already doing an identical project separately where the infantry soldier’s kit equips him to fight by day or night, close in or at a distance.
The DRDO wanted to duplicate the effort with the army paying 10 per cent of its expenses.
“The DRDO should use their expertise to find solutions for problems which the Indian Army is presently facing,” said Lt Gen S Pattabhiraman, Vice Chief of Army Staff.
But the DRDO’s vision is far more ambitious. It includes cutting edge technology, like the artillery shells or aircraft bombs, fired from 40 kilometer away that find their way to a cross hair placed on a target.
The report says the purchase from abroad had been cleared at the highest levels, but the DRDO insisted it could make them in India.
But the shells could well go the way of the Akash missile, that’s been under development for twelve years. The DRDO has found a foolproof way to avoid army testing.
In the review meeting, the DRDO says it can’t do testing because the aerial target it was to develop for the Akash is even more delayed than the Akash itself.
Besides, the DRDO has just nine missiles left, so they can’t do testing with neither targets nor missiles to fire at them. The likely delay: two and a half years.
The CBI has noted in the George Fernandes case on the purchase of Israeli Barak missiles that the DRDO suggested there’s no need to buy them: its own Trishul missile could do the job.
But as the document shows, the DRDO’s claims are almost always well beyond its capabilities.
black eaglecan anybody throw light on the status of the NAG ATGM? And please provide a video link of this missile.
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