Yeah good find. Now I know how a Mig-21/25 sounds.
The Mi – 24 and the EF-2000 was a little dissapointing though and Dont forget to turn on the volume to max.

http://www.voanews.com/english/2005-03-03-voa4.cfm

Former Prime Minister Says Pakistan Had Nuclear Capability Long Before Nuclear Tests By Gary Thomas
Washington
03 March 2005

Benazir Bhutto

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto says her country has had a nuclear capability far longer than commonly believed.

In an exclusive VOA interview, Ms. Bhutto said her government had a nuclear capability when she came into office the first time in 1988, ten years before Pakistan’s first nuclear test.

She said Pakistan had all the components for nuclear weapons, but never assembled them until India set off several tests in 1998. “When I became Prime Minister I was told we had not put together the bomb. We had the components of the bomb. So, when is a chicken a chicken? Is it a chicken when you have it in separate parts but you don’t put it together? Or is it a chicken when you actually put it together? And although we had the components of a nuclear weapon, we took the conscious decision not to put together a nuclear weapon, which is why when India detonated it took us some time to put together the weapon and actually have our own tests,” she said.

But she says Pakistan may have had a nuclear weapon long before that. She says her father, former prime minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, had told her from his prison cell that preparations for a nuclear test had been made in 1977. Her father was hanged by General Zia Ul-Haq in 1979. “And I remember that he expected Pakistan to have its first nuclear test in 1976 – sorry, in August, 1977. I was in his conduit to the person who was actually running the nuclear program who is no longer alive now. His name was Mr. Munir and he was chairman of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission. He told us that the nuclear test had been delayed to December 1977, and then he told us the nuclear test had been indefinitely delayed,” she said.

Pakistan’s nuclear program was sparked by India’s own nuclear ambitions. Ms. Bhutto says that what India has, Pakistan generally wants as well.

But Ms. Bhutto denies any knowledge of the nuclear proliferation network of Pakistani nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan. Mr. Khan has confessed to peddling nuclear technology to Libya, Iran and North Korea. Pakistan’s current president, General Pervez Musharraf, has not allowed outsiders to interview Mr. Khan to learn the full extent of his international atomic arms bazaar.

Ms. Bhutto says it is impossible that he acted alone without official connivance, but that she was not aware of his activities. “I find it very hard to believe that A.Q. Khan could have done it on his own,” she said. “It was a vast network involving weapons of mass destruction. There were so many trips that he made. A man who could not leave the country without government permission – how was he making so many trips? I can understand one trip to Iran for religious purposes. But 17 trips, as has been printed in one of the newspaper reports?”

Ms. Bhutto says she did get missile technology from North Korea, but that Pakistan paid cash for it. “We would obtain the blueprints but we would keep them for ourselves and we would not develop them until India did it. And it was on that assurance I went to North Korea and obtained the missiles. But my government paid for it in money,” she said. “There was no question of (nuclear technology) transfers.”

Ms. Bhutto remains in political exile in London and Dubai. But she says her husband, released from a Pakistani prison last year after serving an eight-year jail term for corruption, will return home in April to take up the political mantle that she is barred from assuming.

The orange thing seems to be the cover for the engine . Right ?

E-2 makes Gorshkov a whole new animal. Still an expensive, maintainance hungry , animal, but, one with very real teeth and, more importantly, the awareness of when it can bare those teeth without biting off more than it can chew!.

Jonesy, others what are the most maintainance hungry areas on a carrier ? I’m guessing the engines and related structures are one. Second ? [/This question is from one who has never been on an operational carrier]

http://www.centralchronicle.com/20050214/1402126.htm

7 prototypes of LCA to fly by next year

BANGALORE: All the seven prototypes of the indigenous fly by wire light combat aircraft, Tejas will fly by March next year logging precious flying hours requisite for its clerance, a senior official of the Lca project said.

With the prototype 2 (LCA-P V 2) ready for take off by the end of this month or early March the LCA programme has been hastened to meet the deadline of handing over the aircraft to the IAF by 2008, LCA project director M R Ramanathan told UNI in an Interview at the Aero India 2005.

The LCA Pv2 would be in a configuration of the series production aircraft and would be fitted with a multiple display panels in the cockpit.

Dr Ramanathan said the fifth prototype would fly from October this year and this would be followed by the six prototype in February next year. The seventh prototype, the twin seater trainer version would start flying from March. He said work had been initiated for the trainer aircraft and also the naval variant for which an additional rs.600 Crores had been released.

With a compound delta platform, LCA could fly in supersonic flights at all altitude with a service ceiling of more than 15 km and ‘G’ limits of about nine. Currently the Aircrat was having a performance of four G and it would be steadily increased to 8.5 G, he added.

He said the IAF had insisted that the twin seater LCA was made available at the earliest so that IAF pilots could train on the aircraft before it was inducted into the air force.

With the first aircraft taking to the skies in January 2001, currently three tejas technical demonstrators one and two and LCA PV 1 were logging flying hours with more than 360 sorties completed.

Dr Ramanathan said efforts would be made to ensure that the prototypes log necessary flying hours so that initial operational clearance was received for the aircraft. The final operational clearance would be sought later, he added.

The completion of the seven protypes would mark the end of the first phase of production, Dr Ramanthan said adding that in the second phase, weaponisation of the aircraft and firing of the missles from the Lca besides enhancing the speed to 1.8 Mach from the current 1.4 Mach would be achieved. Dr Ramanathan said one of the seven aircraft would be fitted with the indigenously developed Kaveri engine some time in 2007. The aircraft had already been identified.

In the phase two Multimode radar (MMR) the prime sensor of Tejas would also be tested for combat operations such as target search, detection, tracking and weapon aiming etc. The MMR jointly developed by the electronics and radar development establishment (LRDE), hal, aeronautical development agency (ADA) and the centre for airborne studies (cabs) had already been successfully tested on hack aircraft in air to air look up and down modes. It was ready for trials by June or July on Tejas aircraft and would be installed in the nose cone of Tejas.

The MMR could function in air to air, air to ground and air to sea modes. It could also be used for ground mapping and terrain avoidance as navigational aid during the flight.

United News of India

Harry the Third Pic is the LCA’s MMR ?

http://www.navhindtimes.com/stories.php?part=news&Story_ID=020927

Astra missile trials from June
UNI Bangalore Feb 8: The latest weapon in the missile programme, the air-to-air astra, will be ready for trials from June this year, a senior Defence Research and Development Laboratory official said today.

Sanctioned three months ago, astra, to form part of the arsenal of the indigenous light combat aircraft, Tejas, would have at least three launches this year and its peak development programme would be around 2006-07, the DRDL (Hyderabad) director, Dr Prahlad told UNI in an interview here.

Dr Prahlada, who would be delivering a lecture on ‘the Missile roadmap of India’ at the Aero India 2005 international seminar here, said in all 50 launchers and user trials would be conducted before astra could be readied for deployment. There was every possibility of the launches getting curtailed to around 35 or 40, if all the parameters were met early.

He said the pace of development of astra would match the LCA programme so that the weapon was ready to be fitted to the aircraft in the 2010-11 timeframe.

On the supersonic cruise missile Brahmos, taken up as a joint venture with Russia, Dr Prahlada, an outstanding scientist, said a few countries had shown interest in purchasing the missile. However, they were waiting for the Indian Navy to make the first buy and fit it in their vessel.

The missile had been exhibited in various air shows, including Malaysia, Singapore, Abu Dhabi, Russia and Chile. Heads of defence units of some countries had already made request for buying the missile. Dr Prahlada said under the joint venture agreement with Russia, the consent of either countries need to be taken before selling the missile to a third country. Already the two countries have come out with a list of acceptable countries. Even the United States did not have such a missile, he informed.

“We are waiting for the navy to come out with the first order. It is expected to come in 2005,” he said, adding that the first missile would be rolled out 18 months after the order was placed. The cost of each missile was expected to range from Rs 15 crore to Rs 18 crore.

The navy had asked for another test of the missile to prove its short range capability, he added.

Dr Prahlada said but for the Russian joint venture it could have taken more than 12 years to come out with a missile like Brahmos which had a 300 km range and weighed three tonne. The Russians had nearly completed 80 per cent of the job with the engine and “we coupled it with our missile and guidance technology”.

All the eight trials conducted so far had been successful and this had surprised even the Russians as such a success rate was unheard of in their country.

He said that the DRDL was waiting for acceptance from the Indian air force to develop an air version of Brahmos whose water and land trials had been completed. The fighter aircraft need to be re-modified so that it could be fitted with the missile. Air Force version would weigh about 1.5 tonne, he added.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2005/20050209/main5.htm

Astra missile to be tested this year
Sridhar K Chari
Tribune News Service

Bangalore, February 8
The flight trials of Astra, India’s first attempt at producing an indigenous air-to-air missile, have been targeted for this year, following the sanction of a Rs 1,000-crore project to the DRDO laboratory developing it —the Hyderabad-based Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL).

DRDL Director Prahlada said the Astra project was initiated by the laboratory more than three years ago, and about Rs 20 crore was spent on ironing out technological issues. The total project period is seven years, with maximum flight trials scheduled to take place between 2006-2007.

The Astra is to be an advanced long-range (Beyond Visual Range – BVR) missile capable of engaging targets more than 80 km away. “It will be cheaper and lighter than existing missiles like the AMRAAM and the MICA,” he told The Tribune. It will have a motor propelled by a solid propellant, with advanced guidance that will enable in-flight re-tasking. It will be capable of achieving speeds of around 4 mach.

The Astra is being designed for the LCA, and the target is to have it ready by 2011-2012.

The other important air-armament under consideration is the air-launched version of the Brahmos supersonic cruise missile, which has successfully undergone several launches, including one where a target was effectively destroyed. The ship launched version weighs about three tonnes, and the air-launched version will weigh 1.5 tonnes.

Modification of the missile itself was not as complex a task as aircraft modification required to mount the Brahmos, he stated. The booster would have to be removed and a more light weight one put in. “If we put it, say on the Sukhoi, extensive work will have to be undertaken, perhaps in collaboration with the Sukhoi design bureau, in order to be able to mount Brahmos. Aircraft modification is what will take time.” No clearance yet for such modifications have been given, he said.

‘All missiles are ready, we need orders’

DRDL Director Prahlada has declared that all missiles of the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme are ready and orders were needed from the Armed forces in order to keep the programmes alive and personnel motivated.

“Yes, we have been late on them. But they are ready now. We need orders. For example, if the Akash surface to air missile is not given an order, it will go the way of the HF-24 Marut aircraft. We will just kill our capability, the know-how will vanish, and we will have to start from the scratch again years later, like we did with the LCA.”

The Akash was demonstrated for a range of 25 kilometres, and the army was now asking for 40 kilometre capability, he said. “Sure, I can go for Mark II, but for that I need an order of say 100 missiles for the existing one. Nowhere in the world is there free R&D. Development and orders are always linked, like in Israel. If that is there, even we as DRDO will not have any excuses.”

Even the Brahmos had not yet been given an order, he said. “They now want a short range demonstration, which we will do.” Interestingly, even the Russians have not ordered it, because Russia does not permit missiles with foreign components to inducted, he said. “That is the debate going on now, for after all it is a joint venture. But we need the first order from our Navy.”

Even the Trishul, where they stopped testing for over a year because of lack of successes, was now glitch free, he stated.

There are two or three long cylindrical tanks along the length of the cargo hold.

Thanks Ind73, Jagan.
The following link answers my question :
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1040926/asp/nation/story_3804898.asp
“”Astra 1’s cavernous belly holds two yellow tanks capable of storing 44,000 litres; together with the capacity in its wings, the FRA (Flight Refueller Aircraft) can hold up to 85,000 litres.””

OK next question 🙂 Do we know if the Indian Il-78’s have the newer PS-90A engines ?