hmmm.

I wonder if the J-20 development offered a double motivation for India to team up with the Russians on PAK FA; first India gets access to a 5. gen fighter of their own; and second, looking at the large price tag the Indians are said to be paying I wonder if it also doubles as a kind of “bribe” to the Russkies; “we will give you all this cash and buy PAK FA if you guarantee that no 5. gen Russian engines will be sold to China…”

that’s like more than 5 billion dollars spent on something that makes no actual difference in the balance of power in the region, i think the military planners have more brains than that, 5 billion dollars can be actual army divisions supported by artillery and well stocked for a conflict, planes do not do much by themself.

Good job with the aerostat.Currently it has the Nishant’s EO payload.The two imported aerostats have the EL/M 2083 which are supposed to be similar to the 2080s.What are our options? A variant of the LRTR?or maybe the XV 2004?

Specs XV 2004 [c/o kprasad BRF]

………………………….

DSCA notice for the sale of 22 AH-64D Block III APACHE Helicopters.
The estimated cost is $1.4 billion.

http://www.dsca.osd.mil/pressreleases/36-b/2010/India_10-62.pdf

I think the radar coming out of the AEW program is the best bet it’s developed for very similar early warning and control roles, however the more important thing is constant improvement of capabilities, this program should not make the MoD stop the services from inducting the israeli one’s, as we closed down the land border’s the terrorists used the sea, now that the sea is under increased watch, the next terrorist attack out of pakistan could be in form of low flying small planes into the bordering towns, and the trouble is with the intelligence agencies reporting activities of the LET, HM and other such ******s out of Nepal, Bangladesh and even efforts to set up operations in Sri Lanka we need such platforms providing watch over a large area and altitude, along with a fighter force ready for quick interception.

Right, so anybody see China procuring any meaningfull numbers of Su-33/35 or Pak-Fa anytime soon.. nope.
Eighter they sign a deal with no less than 50 fighters, or no deal.

If China is interesting in anything on the Russian market, its got to be engines but i don’t see Saturn get any contract from China.
Mostly cause the Russian MOD would not permit this..

There is no point in not permitting sales, in case of older technology they already have Russia can sell them whatever they want, in case of latest technology Russia should not refuse large orders with large payments upfront, and sell it expensive, they cant buy engines from Europe or America, perfect customers to exploit be it engines, design and manufacturing consulting etc. etc.

The trouble is with cash to spend (worlds 2end largest economy and still rising in double digit figures) they will back themselves developing a decent engine for production line fighters and never sign up for large orders of the new engines

The new Chinese planes seems to be a two engine heavy fighter(if it has the big Su-30 engines), so PAK-FAs out of the equation.

What does overengineered mean?

Does it mean that bits and pieces are being added to an older airframe until it becomes a complete mess?

Or does it mean that a plane is being designed on basis of very high and unrealistic requirements so that it needs unproven and experimental technologies leading to disaster?

I would go for the second definition and then would point he finger at most recent developments from A400M to F-35.

Responding to a requirement of say 360 degree view with radar and other IR equipment, ability to carry XXXtons to XXXX Kms, XXX m take-off capability etc., will not be over-engineering, it will be responding to a requirement.

Providing capabilities which were never asked for, or providing more than that which was asked for would be over engineering.

PRC really needs to drop this super secrecy with defence programs, perhaps with other nations the need to justify investments into defence sector are greater so they have to be more open and try to keep a positive attitude, but this whole ‘it is there, and we don’t need to talk’ approach is strange.

With the Su-25 despite the airframe many users might face situations which demand a R-77 or a AShM capability, C-17 is expensive however the plane has proved to be very important for Many AFs looking for a specific capability that no other plane can provide.

The Arguments given here make LCA Tejas an over ambitious project, not an over engineered one.

However the LCA Tejas is an ‘overengineered’ project, they have taken more steps to ensure the integrity of the airframe than were necessary, the head of ADA came out with that statement, and that has caused some of the weight issues.

Since this our first time we are very conservative when it comes to designing and developing this aircraft. We wish to avoid failure at any cost. Technically, our aircraft weight is1.5 tonnes extra – because of our conservative design the weight is 500 kg extra.

http://www.domain-b.com/aero/20090206_lca_programme.html

M88 engines.. I wonder if France might be interested in picking it up for themselves.. although they may be too proud :diablo:

I sure hope the final design looks different than that model.

Yes it will be difficult to fit a man inside that, i dont think humans are that small, and without engines we will have to invent a giant Catapult to propel it, plus the visibility from a all metal canopy will restrict the situational awareness.

They have to design the technology demonstrators first, and from the images released over the last few years it seems that they are working on the design, anyways it will be finalised before the start of tech. demonstrators construction. (could be very similar to the current released designs).

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_o_no4M2xEPY/TOFHyVBjJII/AAAAAAAALoo/jaY61IgEzrE/s1600/AMCA%2Bfeatures.JPG

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_o_no4M2xEPY/TCUxu0lT22I/AAAAAAAAKuc/fNuDyEz2jUA/s1600/MCA+CUTAWAY+1.JPG

I’ve got my hands on AMCA documents that provide the first detailed view of just how ambitious the programme actually is. Let me run you through some of them.

The AMCA team has already asked private industry in the country to explore the feasibility of creating primary panoramic displays and other avionics displays that would befit a fifth generation cockpit environment. But the cockpit is just one of an ambitious official technology wishlist for the AMCA.

The envisaged changes begin at the very basic — system architecture — and look towards a triplex fly-by-light electro-optic architecture with fiber optic links for signal and data communications, unlike the electric links on the Tejas platform. And unlike centralized architecture on the Tejas, the AMCA proposes to sport a distributed architecture with smart sub-systems. Similarly, unlike the LCA’s centralised digital flight control computer (DFCC), the AMCA could have a distributed system with smart remote units for data communication with sensors and actuators, a system that will necessitate much faster on-board processors.

Next come sensors. The mechanical gyros and accelerometers on the Tejas will need to evolve on the AMCA into fiber optic gyros, ring laser gyros and MEMS gyros. The pressure probes and vanes that make up the air-data sensors will evolve into an optical and flush air data system, and position sensors will be linear/rotary optical encoders. Significantly, actuators — currently electro-hydraulic/direct drive — could be electro-hydrostatic to accrue substantive weight savings on the AMCA. Sensor fusion for an overarching situation picture goes without saying.

The AMCA could feature highly evolved integrated control laws for flight, propulsion, braking, nose wheel steer and fuel management and adaptive neural networks for fault detection, identification and control law reconfiguration.

http://livefist.blogspot.com/2010/11/exclusive-official-wishlist-of.html

The official CAD images above, from the Advanced Projects & Technologies (AP&T) directorate of India’s Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) provide further perspective on the low-observable design elements that are known to be going into India’s Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA), known for a while now to be a stealth aircraft concept. Serpentine air intakes (with minimum flow distortion and robust pressure recovery) and internal weapons bays, depicted in the images above, are some of the most critical nose-on low observability design elements going into the programme.

As part of the multidisciplinary design optimization (MDO) currently on for the AMCA — a wind tunnel model of which was first publicly displayed at AeroIndia 2009 — that design-based stealth features will include further optimized airframe shaping, edge matching, body conforming antennae and a low IR signature through nozzle design, engine bay cooling and work on reduced exhaust temperature. RAMs, RAPs, special coatings for polycarbonate canopy and precision manufacturing will all be part of the effort to make the AMCA India’s first stealth airplane.

http://livefist.blogspot.com/2010/06/stealth-in-indias-advanced-medium.html