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Towards homemade science

PUNE: Top scientists from the defence research and development organisation (DRDO) and key public sector undertakings (PSUs) converged in the city on Friday to discuss India’s ongoing effort at indigenously developing air breathing engines like the supersonic combustion ramjet (SCRAMJET).

The meet, hosted by the Defence Institute of Advanced Technology (DIAT), assumes significance against the backdrop of India’s ambitious plans for lunar mission, besides the need for developing air breathing propulsions for supersonic cruise missiles like the BrahMos.

Indian space research organisation (ISRO) is already working on a revolutionary, ‘reusable launch vehicle’ (RLV) that will use a scramjet hyperplane for the lunar mission.

Air breathing rocket systems are the ones which use the atmospheric oxygen from their surroundings and burn it with the stored on-board fuel for producing the forward thrust in contrast to the conventional chemical rocket systems, which carry both the oxygen and the fuel on-board. As a result, the air breathing systems become much lighter and more efficient leading to reduced overall costs.

The scramjet propulsion is seen by the scientific community as a viable technology to overcome the high-costs involved in the existing space transport system that use conventional chemical rocket systems for propulsion. Scramjet provides the advantage of operating at speeds in excess of Mach 10, which is higher than Mach 3 attained by aircraft turbojets.

While the United States is regarded as having gained an upper hand in the development of scramjet, countries like India, Japan, China, Russia and Australia, among others, have launched efforts of their own on this front.

“There are issues that need a wider discussion in the ongoing effort for development of scramjet systems,” G.C. Pant, dean (academics) at the DIAT, told TOI. “Issues such as identification and use of specific materials, instrumentation, utility of computational fluid dynamics and tests, among others, require apt deliberations,” said Pant. “We are not far behind the US in terms of materials technology. Be it titanium alloy, carbon or carbon metal technologies,” he pointed out.

Last year, the National committee for air breathing engines (NCABE) had organised an international meet at the DIAT to bring out the developments in air breathing propulsions used for powering aircraft and missile systems.

“In all, 68 papers were presented by leading scientists,” Pant said and added that Friday’s national workshop was a follow up action of the international meet. The attendance read a virtual who’s who of the Indian DRDO establishment as well as PSUs.

They were: Valliappan Chockalingam from the BrahMos; G. Malkondaiah from the Defence materials research laboratory (DMERL); P. Mustafa from Hindustan Aeronautical Limited; J.J. Isaac from the National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL); R. Ramanujachari from the DRDL; T. Mohana Rao from the Gas Turbine Research Laboratory (GTRL); and DIAT vice-chancellor Air Vice Marshal Rajiv Sharma, among others.

Apart from scramjet and BrahMos, the discussions focused on materials development, modern measurement techniques for gas turbine engines, interface of research and development (R&D) with production agencies, societal benefits and testing and maintenance.

US aims to edge out Russia in big arms sales to India

WASHINGTON, Dec 26 (Reuters) – The United States is gearing up to battle Russia and Europe for sales of billions of dollars in jet fighters, cargo aircraft and other arms to India.

U.S. officials regard sales to India, with a potential $40 billion arms market including missile-defense systems, as a way to cement strategic ties and boost bilateral military cooperation as a hedge against China’s growing clout.
“By reaching out to India, we have made the bet that the planet’s future lies in pluralism, democracy and market economics,” said Nicholas Burns, the State Department’s No. 3 official, “rather than in intolerance, despotism and state planning,” an apparent reference to communist-ruled China

“A significant Indian defense purchase from the United States … would be a great leap forward and signal a real commitment to long-term military partnership,” he added in the November/December issue of the journal Foreign Affairs.

Burns, undersecretary of state for political affairs, cited as an example the 126 new multirole fighter aircraft sought by the Indian air force, a potential $10.2 billion deal coveted by Washington as a key to stepped-up military ties.
Six fighter suppliers from Europe, Russia and the United States are to submit detailed bids by March 3. The U.S. competitors, Lockheed Martin Corp and Boeing Co, are striving to unseat suppliers from Russia, India’s chief arms source during decades of Cold War U.S.-Indian distrust.

Russia is offering its MiG-35 to replace the earlier-model MiGs the Indians now fly. Also in the race are France’s Dassault Rafale, Sweden’s Saab AB JAS-39 Gripen and the Eurofighter Typhoon, made by a consortium of British, German, Italian and Spanish companies.

Last week, Chicago-based Boeing agreed in principle to send as much as $1 billion in aerospace manufacturing work to India’s state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, or HAL, over the next 10 years.

Under a pact signed Thursday in New Delhi, the mostly weapons-related work would start at $10 million to $20 million annually, “increasing in size and complexity as business opportunities develop,” a Boeing statement said.

UPHILL FIGHT TO SUPPLANT RUSSIA

Boeing hopes this may help meet what would be its need to produce goods worth half the fighter contract’s value if its F/A-18 Super Hornet strike aircraft wins over rivals.

But Boeing, the largest U.S. exporter, struck the deal because it made good business sense and because it wants to be part of India’s aerospace industry, Jim Albaugh, president and chief executive of Boeing Integrated Defense Systems business unit, said in an email interview with Reuters.

HAL’s projects for Boeing, Albaugh added, may include subsystems of the F/A-18, C-17 cargo aircraft, P-8 Multimission Maritime Aircraft and heavy-lift Chinook helicopters.

Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed, which is offering India its widely sold F-16 fighter, is close to a deal on six C-130J “Super Hercules” cargo planes valued at up to $1 billion. This would mark India’s biggest U.S. military purchase so far.

Longer term, Lockheed says it is expecting opportunities to sell command and control systems, Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missile interceptors plus Hellfire and Longbow anti-tank guided missile systems, among other advanced weapons.

Earlier this month, a high-level U.S. government working group cleared the way for Lockheed and Boeing — the Pentagon’s No. 1 and No. 2 suppliers by prime-contract value — to offer India cutting-edge radar technology as part of their fighter bids.

“The relationship has matured faster than many anticipated,” said retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kohler, until August the Pentagon’s top arms-sale official and now an advisor to the private U.S.-India Business Council.
Northrop Grumman Corp, General Dynamics Corp and Raytheon Co — the three next-largest U.S. military contactors — all have announced moves of their own recently designed to tap into lucrative Indian markets.
But U.S. companies face an uphill fight to supplant Russia, which has many manufacturing deals in place and deep ties to the Indian defense establishment.

Partly as a result of such tie-ins, “Washington will be extremely cautious about release of sensitive technology,” said Joel Johnson, an expert in international military trade at Teal Group, a Fairfax, Virginia consultancy.

Crossposting from BR, thanks to NRao.

News Breaks

F-16 Refueling

Aviation Week & Space Technology
11/19/2007, page 22

Lockheed Martin is reviving work on fitting its F-16 strike fighter with a probe-and-drogue refueling system. Earlier designs included carrying a special pod for the mission. But now the aircraft maker is looking at a more integrated system. Why? It’s part of the company’s campaign to try and win the Indian Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) fighter competition. Lockheed Martin hopes to build its F-16 backlog to run into 2012. Even without India, the company believes there’s still a market for around another 100 aircraft.

From RoyFC.com

Radar Reconnaissance Airplane to Be Transferred to Indian Air Force before Year’s End – TANTK Beriev

Source: 10.12.07, Gudok

The first of three long-range radar detection EhI (DRLO) airplanes which are being built for an Indian air force order, will be sent for further tests in Israel before year’s end, the chief of the Beriev Taganrog Aviation Scientific and Engineering Complex (TANTK) OKB, Ivan Gavrilov, has reported.

“The first EhI airplane which was created based on the Il-76, was lifted into the air for the first time on 26 November. Right now it is being finished. After that, it has to make eight test flights. At the end of the year it is supposed to fly to Israel where tests will continue,” I. Gavrilov said, who on Friday took part in the presentation in Moscow of a book which is devoted to the well known designer of hydroplanes, Georgiy Beriev (Beriashvili).

I. Gavrilov reported that work on the EhI airplanes is being carried out jointly by the Beriev TANTK and the Israeli firm Elta.

RIP

Le capitaine Emmanuel MORIUSER