JaiBrahMos launch from Rajput.
JaiFinal series of captured images from that video.
kakarat, on DRDO’s AeroIndia website.
JaiA news article from AeroIndia-2003.
Watch it yaw, catch it spin: With Sukhoi it’s always win-win
BANGALORE: “It’s awesome,” gushes the man about his mighty machine. Other pilots would give anything to get strapped into the cockpit of the Sukhoi-30 MKI fighter, and Wing Commander Nirmal Singh Jamwar, the pilot flying them at Aero India 2003, worships the complex machine.
“I have flown the Su-30 earlier. The MKI version is entirely different. This craft has thrust-vectoring, is more complicated and has more tasks to perform,” the ace pilot says.
Thrust-vectoring gives the aircraft its ability to manoeuvre. While Jamwar gives the 39-tonne machine _ even the AN-32 weighs just 27 tonnes _ full points, the fighter’s multi-role capability gives it the edge in every type of engagement.
Over Yelahanka, Jamwar does a complex manoeuvre, climbing up to 1.3 km after a roll-out. A small semi-loop later, he takes a 180 degree yaw turn. He rolls the machine on its back, does tight box turns and takes a turn at 650 km per hour exerting hard G-forces on himself and the co-pilot. The aircraft behaves superbly _ these manoeuvres make it superior during a dog fight.
Jamwar is among the first batch of pilots flying the Sukhoi 30 MKIs and this is the first time that the IAF is showing off the newly-raised squadron at an air show.
The mighty machine needs two pilots, but can be flown singly too. While the pilot in front flies the craft, the co-pilot in the rear can train.
Back in their Pune-based squadron, the pilots are on training and fly every day. “All pilots are trained for missions on what is called consolidation. Flying in an operational squadron is like a realistic simulator,” says Jamwar.
JaiU.S.N. Band – Tsunami in India
PACFLT, Indian Navy Bands Share Culture, Traditions
CHENNAI, India – Building trust and friendship as well as exchanging cultures and traditions were the goals of eight Navy musicians from the U.S. Pacific Fleet rock band as they toured through southern India from Sept. 10 to Sept. 15.
Musician 3rd Class Jesse Carmona helped bring India and the U.S. closer as he sat on a woven mat, playing his saxophone next to a young Indian professor at the Kalakshetra Foundation, Rukmini Devi College of Fine Arts in Chennai, India.
The young professor wore a loose white tunic and sat behind a colorful and intricately decorated veena and began to improvise on the traditional Indian string instrument with Carmona.
The eclectic duo grew stronger with the addition of another professor, who gave the melody rhythm with his traditional Indian percussion instrument, and MU2 Scott Shepherd and MU1 Guy Gregg, tossing in their trombone and trumpet for a robust sound.
When MU2 Mallory McKendry started singing in an Indian-inspired style, the spontaneous band reached its capacity and played their song, an impromptu meld of European and Indian instruments for the students at the college.
The spur-of-the moment song was worldly, and the students, professors and Sailors expanded that musical experience by watching each other play instruments not normally in their repertoire or culture.
The Navy musicians are a part of Tsunami, the Pacific Fleet rock band, and were in Southern India as part of a 19-day tour of the country that is not only exposing the Sailors to Indian culture, but is bringing a piece of America to many Indians.
The Sailors were invited to Kalakshetra during their stay in Chennai and were able to watch Bharathantyam (traditional Indian dance) theory classes.
“It was really amazing to watch the dance classes when they were in class chanting,” said Shepherd. “It reminded me of Hawaii how they tell a story with their hands. It was really cool to see different cultures with the same concepts.”
In addition to the dance classes, Tsunami witnessed a morning prayer before classes began.
The prayer was actually the first music that Tsunami heard at the school as the student body sang through a melodic Hindu prayer. In a country where religion is diverse, the school and students embrace each other’s religion and, together, said prayers for a multitude of religions practiced by the student body – Buddhist, Muslim, Christian, and others, in addition to Hindu.
Tsunami spent the morning at Kalakshetra, a quiet woodsy oasis tucked inside a bustling city of seven million people. That evening, Tsunami played for students, again, at the extensive campus of the Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai. Playing for such a young crowd, the band pulled out an energetic set of rock, pop and disco that only increased in energy when the power went out in the auditorium. With the band’s sound equipment on generator, Tsunami pressed forward to the cheers of the students who lit the darkened auditorium with illuminated cell phones.
While in Chennai, the band also met Commodore T. Hari, Naval Officer-in-Charge, TN and Pondicherry, over tea and performed for Hari, United States Consul General for South India Richard D. Haynes and guests at the Taj Connemara Hotel.
The band played at another Taj Hotel, the Taj Residency, during their two days in the port city of Visakhapatnam. The approximately 300 guests included several Indian naval officers and Sailors as well as guests of the United States Consulate who ended up dancing throughout the evening.
The band was in Visakhapatnam for two days and spent Sept. 9, their second day, with the Indian Navy Band based in Visakhapatnam. At a morning rehearsal, Carmona, Gregg, Shepherd and MU3 Tony Hamilton, the drummer for Tsunami, sat in with the Indian Navy Band on several songs including Stars and Stripes Forever and the Indian and American national anthems.
The bands came together again that evening for a joint concert at the open-air auditorium, Nao Sena Baug, between the two navies’ bands, but before the crowd of 1,500 officers, Sailors and their wives were able to hear more than the few songs the Indian Navy Band played with members of Tsunami and a handful of songs Tsunami performed alone, large drops of water began to fall on the crowd.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I have good and I have bad news,” said a member of the Indian Navy Band, who rushed up to the microphone as Tsunami cut a tune short. “The good news is, for once the weather office was right, and the bad news is we’re going to have to end the concert immediately.”
The rain fell slowly as the bands played the two countries’ national anthems and at the conclusion of the songs and 45-minute concert, the sky opened up and poured down on the musicians. The two bands worked together to get both band’s equipment out of the downpour, keeping the gear dry, but little else.
When the equipment was secure, the bands drove over to the base’s Sailors Venue where stories and addresses were exchanged as new friendships were formed through their common bond of music.
“It’s nice to now have friends from all over the world,” said Hamilton after hanging out with Rajeev Kala, a percussionist for the Indian Navy Band. “I have a friend in India – I can say that now.”
As the Sailors joked about changing Tsunami’s name to Dry Spell, the weather cleared up, and it was time for Tsunami to roll out of town and hit the next area on their tour – Eastern India.
The Band spent Sept. 11 through 15 in Kolkata and Kharagpur before heading to the west coast of India, Mumbai and the port city of Goa, where several ships will be in port next month for Exercise Malabar, a joint Indian-American naval exercise.
“While our two navies have interacted at length on the operational side, this is the first time we have had the United States Navy Band representing,” said Hari, referencing the 10 exercises the two navies have participated in the past two years. “To this end, I’d like to wish the U.S. Navy Band all the very best in their tour of India.”
JaiTiconderoga’s departure sad day’ for crew
PASCAGOULA — Butch Newell worked on its power plant.
Perry Walley loaded the electronics equipment.
Buddy Fuller worked in several areas, installing panels and other heavy equipment.
The three men were a part of history. They worked on the USS Ticonderoga when it was built more than 20 years ago at then Ingalls Shipbuilding. Thursday, the ship they helped build and test for the U.S. Navy will be decommissioned and struck from the Navy’s list of active warships.
And when it leaves on its last voyage, the Ticonderoga will take a piece of them with it.
“It’s kind of sad,” Newell said. “I watched it come back (from its last deployment) knowing that it’s not going to be there anymore. I know it’ll be a sad day for the crew members.”
When the Ticonderoga was built, it was a pace setter, the first ship to have the Aegis Weapons System, a new radar system designed to locate and track multiple hostile missiles and aircraft long before they reached their target.
“It was the first of its class,” said Newell, who lives in Gautier. “It was built piece by piece of steel, and turned into what you see over there now. It still looks good.”
Newell worked on several different areas of the ship’s power plant, “anything that pertains to the engine room.”
“We had just finished 30 of the Spruance class destroyers and we then we started on the CG 47 class, the Ticonderoga class of cruisers,” he said.
“It was basically the same; the equipment was the same, engineer rooms and auxiliaries were the same. But it was a bit different. It was a new class of ships; a little bit more advanced the whole different type of radar system. You knew you were building something new.”
“It was going into a different perspective.” Walley, who lives in Moss Point, added.
Walley was a rigger on the ship and helped install the ship’s electronic equipment. He said the workers knew they were working in a highly technically advanced ship form the Spruance class destroyers they had been building.
“It was an adventure, it was something new, exciting,” he said. “Everybody was looking forward to it. We had been reading about this new Aegis-type ship with Spy Radar that could pickup everything, 360 degrees. We were just looking forward to building the ship and taking it to sea. It had new weapons on it, too. That made it more exciting.”
Fuller, of Mobile, was a rigger working to install heavy equipment such as the electronic panels and worked in the engine room.
“I was the lead rigger and worked with the shipfitters,” he said. “I worked the bulkheads, worked all over the ship. I was involved with the anchors, too.”*
And looking back at building the Ticonderoga brought back some memories.
When they worked on the ship, Walley remembers, the riggers wore red coveralls and their gear was marked in red “we could only use the red gear to handle the Aegis equipment. It was specialized.”
At that time, he said, two rigging crews worked on the ship, one crew working on electronics and another working in other areas.
Newell remembered when the ship went dead in the water during acceptance trials at sea “and everything went black. We had a few problems and everything went down and it stopped.”
The problem, which occurred the ship’s electrical system, was corrected quickly, he said.
“We had one breaker that wouldn’t close and it was some kind of a little interlock,” he said. “The generator was still running and the breaker wouldn’t close and one breaker opened, which threw the load onto one generator, so that’s the reason that breaker opened, so when the generator’s breakers open, it kind of goes dark.”
Walley said he was glad when the Ticonderoga returned to Pascagoula to be homeported at the naval station across from the shipyard.
But the thought of it being decommissioned, he said, “it just seems like it’s too early. I know ships only have so many years after they’re put into service.”
“They were built for a 30-year life, but it’s only been 21 years,” Newell said. “I guess we’re going on to new and better things now.”
“I hate to see it being taken out of commission,” Fuller said. “I don’t think it’s really old and done for yet; I think there still some life in it. It’s been a fine ship and I enjoyed working on it. Of course, I had a chance to work on some more.”
He said he felt good about working on the Ticonderoga “because I enjoy my job. It was quality work and we could sit over here and look at it.”
Fuller said knowing the ship will be decommissioned is saddening.
“I hate to see it,” he said. “I would like to be there when it leaves.”
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JaiThanks to Ashutosh from BR. These are video captures from a BrahMos video, showing the loading of BrahMos onto the INS-Rajput.
JaiProbably like this.
JaiWill this have any effect on the IAF Mirages in South Africa or will there display go ahead on Saturday?
No changes have been reported so far and it is unlikely that there will be any changes in the display schedule.
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JaiMore photos.
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