Don’t think info on Dhruv breaking a record was posted before :

Hindustan Aeronautics claim new records for high altitude operations

Helicopters of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited – the Public Sector Aeronautical giant literally scaled new heights on 2nd November 04 by setting new records of high altitude flying. Braving the icy mountain tops and strong winds HAL’s helicopters set new records in high altitude operations.

An Indian Air Force ‘Cheetal’, a derivative of Cheetah with a new engine and systems, piloted by HAL’s test pilot Group Captain A.S.Butola and Squadron Leader S.Sharma landed at ‘Saser Kangri’ in Ladhak region at a density altitude of 25,150 feet or 7670 metres above mean sea level at 8.45 AM setting a world record of high altitude landing ! Highly rarified atmosphere, strong winds and glare of blazing sun did not deter the agile & mighty Cheetal and its crew in executing a safe landing at this awesome altitude for the first time in the history of aviation.

While the Cheetal was executing its epoch making landing – one Indian Air Force Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) ‘Dhruv’(J 4041) set another record by flying at a density altitude of 27,000 feet or 8230 metres above mean sea level in the same region !
The mission was flown by HAL’s Chief Test Pilot Wg.Cdr.C.D Upadhyay – a retired veteran of IAF and a winner of Vir Chakra. He was accompanied by his co-pilot – another test pilot Wg.Cdr.Unni Pillai. This is the highest altitude ever attained by an intermediate class helicopter. Its a rare tribute to Indian endeavour made possible by the rich contribution of HAL designers, engineers, technicians and Indian Air Force pilots who have carried out these missions with total dedication. An excellent team effort to touch the sky with glory !!

Excellent indigenous design, perfect engineering and highly skilled flying are the ingredients of such remarkable success – all honed to perfection by HAL and Indian Air Force.

IAF scrambles after losing third Mirage in 3 weeks

NEW DELHI: The Mirage-2000 H fighter squadrons based in Gwalior are under fire from Air Headquarters after another aircraft crashed on Tuesday morning during joint exercises with the Singapore Air Force.

This was the third Mirage to go down in the last 20 days. The Mirage fleet, considered one of the most reliable arms of the IAF, had until now a high safety record. Since its induction in 1985, only five have been lost _ three in the last three weeks.

The crash on Tuesday involved a Mirage trainer, piloted by Wg Cdr Venkatesh and Flt Lt Rangachari. It was ditched after its engine stalled, apparently because of a compressor failure.

Preliminary reports indicated that the trainer experienced engine trouble at 18,000 feet. It stalled at 1,800 feet, still four nautical miles away from the Maharajpur runway. The pilots ejected safely.

While the maintenance wing has come under the Air Hqs scanner, it’s learnt that a French air force Mirage too met with a similar engine problem recently.

On September 23, a Mirage, piloted by Sqn Ldr H S Gill, went down and there’s prima facie evidence to suggest it had to with maintainence problems.

On October 3, a Mirage fighter, piloted by Sqn Ldr Ram Kumar, crash-landed at Plaisance airport in Mauritius. Preliminary findings point to pilot error.

A French technical team from Dassault Mirage is already in Gwalior, working with IAF and HAL experts to get to the bottom of the problem. The IAF has two Mirage squadrons: Tigers and Battle Axes.

While Air Hqs is tightlipped, it’s learnt that action may be taken action against some of the officers involved.

What has upset the IAF most is the September 23 crash where the nose wheel fell because some bolts had corroded. This clearly pointed to slackness on the part of the maintenance wing in Gwalior.

The Mauritius incident, on the other hand, is being attributed to pilot error because the undercarriage was not lowered in time before landing.Sources said that the aircraft’s auxiliary fuel tank, emptied while in flight, took the impact. Had the tank been full, the aircraft could have exploded. At the time of landing, the aircraft speed was some 220 km per hour.The Mirage, undergoing repairs in Mauritius, will soon be ready for the flight home.

http://www.newindpress.com/Newsitems.asp?ID=IEH20041012123132&Title=Top+Stories&Topic=0

From Jagan at Bharat Rakshak :

From Bharat Rakshak : The mirage in question KT 207, and a pretty good pic to : 😮

Chopper champs sweep the skies

The new made-in-India AHL Dhruv may sell in Chile thanks to the IAF’s aerobatics in the Andes :

Aerobatics is one of those sports which never allows you to fully settle down. There is always that wing of thought, which screams that flying an aircraft for fun or display is a colossal waste of fuel and precious risk. But adventure, the notion of demonstration, ingrained in any armed force’s projection of ability underlines the premise of an air display team.

The Indian Air Force’s Surya Kiran team, which vapour trailed South Delhi’s skies with tri-coloured smoke on Friday morning, is an established, almost expected part of any IAF event now. But it’s been just over a year since the IAF decided to become the second airforce in the world after England’s RAF to have a military helicopter display team. Named ‘Sarang’ by Air Chief Marshal S Krishnaswamy, the eight-member, three-chopper team uses three spanking new home-made Advanced Light Helicopters (ALH Dhruv) with pop culture peacocks painted on their sides. The Sarang team is part of the IAF’s Aircraft and Systems Testing Establishment (ASTE) and is supervised by ASTE commandant Air Commodore Anil Chopra.

The genesis of Sarang is serendipitous. When the ALH Dhruv was finally unveiled, IAF quickly bought six. With waves of praise washing Hindustan Aeronautics corridors in Bangalore, the company decided it needed to be able to show the world how good the Dhruv really was. At the same time, the Air Chief pulled open the idea of a helicopter display team. The two ideas merged perfectly.

For starters, HAL was able to swoosh the Sarang along to Chile to show the country’s armed forces what the Dhruv could do in the Andes. By all accounts, the Chileans were impressed and a deal is now possibly near. But the demonstration of what the Dhruv could do lay squarely on Sarang turf.

Eight men — six pilots for three choppers and a pair of engineers — pushing the Dhruv to its technical limits, manoeuvring their choppers into formations whose names sound as engaging as they look. The perilous Arrow formation has two Dhruvs flying one below the other in the same direction, while the third flies in the opposite direction straight through them.

A sight as fetching as they come, but hardly the sort of thing for the weak-hearted. “You have to play a lot on the spectator’s illusions,” says Squadron Leader Suji Nair, who pilots Sarang-2. There are some moves that may look really good, but are actually easy to perform. Yet, there are those that don’t look very impressive, but are extremely difficult to do.

The closest the three choppers ever get to each other while in flight is about 13 metres, the diameter of the Dhruv’s main rotor. “There is an error margin but we cannot live on that,” says Flight Lieutenant Shailendra Pandey, Sq Ldr Nair’s partner. The Sarang team is convinced of the abilities of the ALH Dhruv, now being hawked around the world by HAL, happy with its marketing tie-up with a large Israeli aircraft firm.

Apart from its regular engagements with event airshows, including the upcoming JRD Tata centenary celebrations later this month, the Sarang team wants to fly higher and upgrade its strength to five helicopters by next year. “What we were made to perform in Chile was a miniscule percentage of this helicopter’s actual abilities,” reveals Sq Ldr Nair. His boss Wing Commander Hari Nair, who flies the lead chopper on the team, is also in Chile.

“Training for the team was difficult. We had to formulate a performance profile,” says Sq Ldr Nair. “We got video clips from the Royal Air Force Blue Eagles helicopter display team and others from a Swedish non-military chopper team and then decided on what manoeuvres we could perform. We spent five months perfecting the moves.”

IAF will raise an ALH Dhruv squadron outside Bangalore early next year, making the Dhruv a more inherent part of the force. With a new combat version (Light Combat Helicopter) of the Dhruv being developed, there are quarters which contend that India’s helicopter technology will soon match the best in the world. The commercial performance of the Dhruv will be, in no small measure, an indicator of just how well placed it is on the global aviation scene, especially since it is a multi-role product that can be customised for military and civilian use. Chile’s and Israel’s interest in the Dhruv is vindication of what Sarang continues to try to prove. As the ALH Dhruv becomes a more fundamental part of IAF, the process of discovering its capabilities continues. The Sarang team has pushed the limits further.

Link :

Its is indeed regrettable that people can’t afford to do their own research on episodes like Kargil, Turtuk and Siachen and yet continually blow comments in an aviation thread about them.

Pity that they say India refuses to cross the LOC, we have before and incase you forgot the above heights and villages were captured in 1971 and Post In 1983 in Siachen from pakistan or pakistan occupied kashmir, POK. This is even forgetting that Border arrangements along the IB, to our favor and a loss of a country in the east.

Even more regrettable that members continually parade MAD concepts as a frivilous game and as an end game to any action that we may take to defend ourselves in the terrorism and Proxy way that emanates from across the border.

Incase you forgot, the PAF hid and refused to take to the air the whole time while IAF planes dominated the air space around the LOC and occasionally taking to into pakistani airspace unchallenged.

And what does the Siachen episode have here in the IAF aviation thread? To me it shows the inherent strength of our media and the Justice system that exists in the armed forces. For whatever reason the accused will be tried and given a chance to defend himself in the courts under Indian law…another vote for the people…sorry if such procedures are unavailable in pakistan.

And of course, we have had enough debates on the Indian media before…everyone including Aloke Banerji is free to voice their opinion on the matter. He may think the ratio stands low right now, there are others in this forum…in the armed services…who believe that we hold an overwhelming superiority already…that is exponentially growing in the next few years.

Fact is what we are getting tired off is repeated ranting and trolling when we’ve continually posted information ad nauseum, only to have trolls coming around saying FC-1 armed with baktar shikan will take out Arjun tank…and other astounding scenarios…

The LCA Tejas has already reached the weapons testing stage and logged hundreds of flights. Its characteristics and flight envelope are updated daily on the HAL, ADA and DRDO sites…and info is abound for those who search for it.
Yet we continually have to deal with can Thundaaar with Sd-10 take on Tejas…
Please let us know when a radar, engine and avionics fit might be plausible for the FC-1 and visit the above sites to make your own comparsions…or stick around and read about the Tejas here and do the same before trying to Hijack another IAF NEWS thread with the same….

MODS….How much of this of KARGIL, SIACHEN and FC1 do we have to continually put up with on an IAF NEWS THREAD…….

So reposting off top of my head :

IAF is set to expand in the next few years by :

a) 10 mirage m2ks to be joined by Jan 2005
b) 2 IL-78 MKI to join by Dec 2004
c) 37 New Jags17 twin seater IB and 18 single seater IS ~2006
d) first 2 of HAL built Sukhoi 30 MKI to join Jan 2005 (total 140)
e) delivery of final batch of Sukhoi 30 MKI from russia ~ 2005 (total 50)
f) Initial squadron of 11 LSP Tejas LCA to go operational from ~2006
g) delivery of 3 Phalcon AWACS, 1st ~ 2006
h) INS Vikramaditya, Admiral Gorshkov with complement of 24+ Mig 29K ~ 2007 and Tejas LCA naval prototypes
i) 66 Hawk AJT to be delivered by ~2007
j) 200+ IJTs Total of which 1st 12 IJT Sitara to replace Surya Kirans ~ late 2005
k) deliveries of DHRUV ~ 17? annually?? (confirm please)

Project upgrades :

a) 125 Bisons to be ready by ~ 2005
b) ~50 Mig 27 upgrade to be PGM/night capable
c) ~125 Jaguars upgrade PGM/night capable

Project development :

a) Indian AWACS
b) MTA transport carrier
c) LTA Saras
d) Weaponised Dhruv (Army) LAH light attack heli (air force)
e) Tender for 126 Multirole aircraft ongoing

😀 😀

Corrections to list please…

Eurofighter hat in air force ring :

New Delhi, Sept. 28: Buoyed by the contract to supply Advanced Jet Trainers to the Indian Air Force, a team from a British military equipment export organisation that is in New Delhi is offering to sell the Eurofighter Typhoon.

The Eurofighter Typhoon is a four-nation — the UK, Italy, Germany and Spain — effort and still in the development stage but the offer signals that global companies are trying to prise open the race to bag a contract that could be in the region of Rs 30,000 crore to replace India’s ageing and casualty-ridden MiG-21 fighters.

The team led by the head of the Defence Export Service Organisation, Alan Garwood, met officials in the ministry of defence here today. It is scheduled to meet the chief of air staff, Air Chief Marshal S. Krishnaswamy, tomorrow.

It is but expected that with signals going out that the race to bag the contract for about 120 fighters for the IAF could be open, other companies will throw their hats into the ring.

The US’ Lockheed Martin, the Russian MiG Corporation and the Swedes would also be interested. Lockheed Martin’s F-15K fighter is understood to be competing with the Eurofighter for a contract from South Korea.

The Indian Air Force is looking to replace about six squadrons of its MiG-21 air defence fighter aircraft. The French Dassault Aviation’s Mirage 2000-V is said to be the frontrunner in the race. The contract for an estimated 120 aircraft to be delivered — part off-the-shelf and mostly through co-production with the public sector Hindustan Aeronautics Limited — over a five- to seven-year period could run into many thousands of crores.

The Mirage 2000-V, if it is negotiated, could be in the region of $30 million each. The IAF is familiar with the Mirage 2000 — of which it has two squadrons (about 40 aircraft) and which have been operationally proven. But the British team is understood to be making the point that the Eurofighter Typhoon will have a “generational difference” with the Mirage. The Mirage 2000 was first inducted into the IAF in 1985.

The development of the Eurofighter Typhoon has been dogged by political problems. But it is claimed that the first of 620 Eurofighters have been delivered to air forces of the partner nations for about $33 million each.

Sources said they were negotiating a sale of eight Eurofighters to Singapore and were trying to ensure that Greece’s decision to buy about 60 Eurofighters does not change with its change in government.

Indian defence ministry officials say that purchases of military equipment as a matter of policy now will seek to ensure that they are not confronted with a monopoly situation.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1040929/asp/nation/story_3817316.asp