kakaratPURCHASE OF TRANSPORT WARSHIP FROM USA
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Lok Sabha
Government has approved the acquisition of Landing Platform Dock (LPD), USS Trenton alongwith four Landing Craft Mechanised (LCMs) and associated package for the Indian Navy from the USA at a cost of USD 48.23289 million.
The ship would provide the Indian Navy enhanced amphibious capability. In addition, the LPD can be deployed for disaster relief operations. It can also function as a command and control platform during mishaps at sea like offshore oil installation fires and maritime air accidents.
No technical know how for the construction of such a ship in India is envisaged under the present acquisition. However, the induction of LPD would help in gaining user experience apart from providing essential design inputs for the indigenous construction of LPD.
This information was given by the Defence Minister Shri Pranab Mukherjee in a written reply to Shri Naveen Jindal in Lok Sabha today.
kakaratBrahMos delivered to Navy
Santosh Patnaik
Will be integrated with naval warships
VISAKHAPATNAM: Supersonic cruise missile BrahMos was delivered to the Navy here on Thursday.
The event was celebrated at INS Kalinga on Visakhapatnam-Bhimunipatnam beach road. A. Sivathanu Pillai, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of BrahMos Aerospace Private Limited; Vice-Admiral Sureesh Mehta, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Eastern Naval Command; Rear Admiral (retired) S. Mohapatra, in charge of BrahMos missile delivery; and V. Bhujanga Rao, Director, Naval Science and Technological Laboratory (NSTL) were among those present. A top source in BrahMos Aerospace told The Hindu that for the first time, the missile, mostly produced indigenously in Hyderabad, has several unique features.
Joint venture
The BrahMos Aerospace Private Limited is a joint venture with Russia, in which India has a 50.5 per cent equity. The company designs, produces and markets the missiles.
In the past three years, the missile had been successfully test-fired from Interim Test Range at Chandipur-on-sea in south Orissa.
The missile will be integrated with various naval warships and shore-based complexes.
The NSTL’s efforts to design advance models of stealth ships received a shot in the arm with the launching of work on instrumentation radar centre atop Dolphin hills overlooking the sea here on Thursday.
The centre, being developed at a cost of Rs.10 crores on a site allotted by the Navy, will be an advanced facility for measuring the radar signature of ships by the NSTL. Ships can evade attacks during hostilities if they are undetectable by enemy radars.
The centre will help the NSTL in studying various stealth design features of ships.
The new facility, expected to be ready by May next year, will help reduce radar signature of ships by using newly-developed stealth material.
Laying the stone for the centre, Dr. Sivathanu Pillai said: “I know, a few years back, the NSTL embarked upon an integrated stealth technology programme.
As part of it, it developed a lot of stealth hardware, software and stealth materials.” He said some of the stealth materials developed by the NSTL and Mumbai-based Naval Material Research Laboratory (NMRL) were inducted on first of class stealth ship INS Shivalik.
kakaratAgni-III test fired off Orissa Coast
Dhamra, July. 9 (PTI): India’s most sophisticated intermediate range ballistic missile (IRBM) Agni-III was today test-fired from a range off the Orissa Coast.
The indigenously built surface-to-surface nuclear capable missile, with a range of 3,500 km, was test-fired from a fixed platform at the launch complex of the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at the Wheeler’s Island at about 11.05 am, defence sources said.
Described as the most powerful of India’s missiles developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Agni-III has the capability of carrying a payload of 1000 kg, the sources said.
Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee and his Scientific Advisor M Natarajan, were present at the launch complex located in the Wheeler Island off the Dhamra Coast to witness the launch of the missile.
Eyewitnesses said the sleek missile roared into the overcast sky leaving behind a trail of thick yellow smoke and fire and vanished into the clouds within seconds.
Fitted with an onboard computer, it took off vertically into space and re-entered again to the splash down point near Nicobar island in the Bay of Bengal, the sources said.
Three sophisticated radars, six electro optical tracking systems and three telemetric data stations were engaged in the main land at Dhamra, Chandipur and Andamans apart from a ship anchored close to the splash down point to monitor the entire trajectory of the missile.
The two-stage missile has solid fuel boosters and can carry both conventional and nuclear warheads.
The 16-metre long Agni-III has a diametre of 1.8 metres and was shorter than Agni-II which had a length of 20 metres and diameter of one metre.
Though the DRDO had been technically ready for the test launching of Agni-III its test firing had been put off repeatedly since November 2004.
Part of the country’s Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP), missiles in the Agni series are being test fired since May 22, 1989 from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur-on-sea in Balasore district.
After the action shifted to the Wheeler Island a few years ago, Agni-I and Agni-II had been flight tested from there twice each.
Agni-I, with a range of 700 to 800 kg, and Agni-II with a range of 2000 km, had already been inducted into the army. Boosters for the two missiles had been provided by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
But Agni-III is a totally different system with an entirely new booster vehicle, the sources said.
kakarat AWACS prototype by 2007
Sunday, Jul 09, 2006
Staff Reporter
Future wars will be fought from space with extensive use of space technology
# Only through indigenous design and development of defence capabilities could India gain a competitive edge
# The AWACS will fly by 2010
BANGALORE: The Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS), being indigenously developed by the Centre for Air Borne Systems (CABS) here, will fly by 2010, and its prototype is expected next year, according to CABS Director K. Tamilmani.
In a talk on “Aerospace Technology and National Security” at the 29th Annual Science Festival, organised by the Bangalore Science Forum here on Friday, Dr. Tamilmani said developing AWACS was the most challenging task taken up by the DRDO and the Arakkonam setback had been left behind.
He said procuring such an advanced defence system was both cumbersome and very expensive as a United States-made AWACS mounted on a Boeing would cost Rs. 1,600 crore. The DRDO had been entrusted with developing the systems.
Dr. Tamilmani said the future wars would be fought from space with extensive use of space technology where the AWACS would play a major role. The war room strategies would be worked out using AWACS and satellites, which would beam vital information from space to the earth stations. The defence systems — air, land and sea — would be mainly depending on AWACS. Unmanned air vehicles such as Nishant would also play a vital role. The present day war was not fought between two countries but two groups of nations.
He said that only through indigenous design and development of defence capabilities could India gain a competitive edge over other countries. Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) are necessary but they are not enough to protect the country. Defence capabilities of a high order were required to command respect in the world, he said.
India’s defence-based aerospace industry had been making major strides in various fields such as multiple design, prototype development and testing. About 700 aircraft, both defence and civilian, were being manufactured in the country, including the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) to be inducted in the Indian Air Force in 2008, and Nishant.
The development and production of the Kaveri engine was in the final stages. The jet engines based on gas turbine technology would be fitted in the LCA in two years, he said.
On the highly successful missile technology development by the DRDO, Dr. Tamilmani said that after the success of Agni I and II, which had a range of 800 and 2000 km, the Government’s nod was awaited for the induction of Agni III with a range of 3000 km.
The country had also taken major strides in the short range Trishul, with a range of 500 metres to nine km, and Akash, with a range of 25 km. Nag, the “fire and forget” missile, was in the final stages of evolution and its production would begin next year.
Under development was the Air Force version of BrahMos, the world’s only supersonic missile, produced by the Indo-Russian joint venture BrahMos Corporation. The Army and naval versions were already inducted. A lighter version had to be made to be fitted on a fighter aircraft, as land or sea-based missile weighed 1.2 tonnes, he explained.
kakaratIndia to test fire Agni III missile
NDTV Correspondent
Friday, July 7, 2006 (New Delhi):
Scientists at the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) are all set to launch the long-range Agni III ballistic missile.
The missile, which can strike targets as far away as China, is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.
There are indicators that the missile will be tested from the Wheeler Island test facility off the coast of Orissa on Sunday.
The test, however, is dependent on weather conditions and should go ahead barring any last second pressure from the United States.
kakarat Russia may lease nuclear submarine to India
Saturday, Jul 01, 2006
Vladimir Radyuhin
The Nerpa nuclear submarine was launched at the Amur shipyard
MOSCOW: A nuclear-powered submarine that will reportedly be leased to India was launched at a shipyard in the Russian Far East, a news agency report said.
The Nerpa nuclear submarine was launched at the Amur shipyard and will join Russia’s Pacific Fleet in 2007 after undergoing sea trials, the RIA Novosti news agency quoted Vice-Admiral Anatoly Shlemov on Friday.
However, earlier reports said the Nerpa submarine was to be leased for 10 years to India under a 2004 secret deal. Indian and Russian officials have denied the reports.
Nerpa is the Project 971 third-generation submarine (NATO code name Akula-II), the most advanced Russian nuclear attack submarine. The Russian Navy’s Akula-II submarines are equipped with 28 nuclear-capable cruise missiles with a striking range of 3,000 km. The Indian version is expected to be armed with the 300-km Club nuclear-capable missiles.
Russia test-fired a ballistic missile Friday. The RSM-54 missile (Skiff SSN-23 in NATO codification), launched from the Tula nuclear submarine in the Barents Sea, hit a target on the Kura test range some 3,000 miles away, in the Kamchatka peninsula in Russia’s far east, defence officials said.
kakaratkakaratTejas prototype makes supersonic flight
BANGALORE, MAY 13 (PTI)
A prototype of India’s indigenous Tejas light combat aircraft made a supersonic flight here today.
The PV 2 prototype is the “definitve” operational version of the Tejas jet for induction into the Indian Air Force (IAF). It first made a supersonic flight yesterday, the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) here said.
It made another supersonic flight today, for the first time carrying two state-of-the-art air-to-air missiles. This indicated the jet’s entry into the operational flight test phase, it said.
The test flight was flown by Wing Commander Vikram Singh and lasted 24 minutes, the ADA said.
The Tejas is meant to replace the IAF’s ageing fleet of Russian-made MiG jets.
kakaratINS TILLANCHANG NAMED HURAWEE HANDED OVER TO MALDIVIAN COAST GUARD
Sunday, April 16, 2006 20:0 IST
The Defence Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, handed over a fast patrol craft, INS Tillanchang, rechristened ‘HURAWEE’, to the Coast Guard of Maldivian Security Service. The formal transfer took place today, at a glittering ceremony held in the port city of Male – the Maldivian capital.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr Mukherjee stressed the “deep and enduring “relationship” that the two countries have enjoyed and that is growing from strength to strength over the years. The Defence Minister said, “the two countries have common perception on global issues of mutual concern. The prompt transfer of the patrol vessel, after the request was received from the Maldivian government, is just another manifestation of how much we value our relationship with them. “India was willing to extend any assistance that would promote peace and security in the Indian Ocean region, a prime prerequisite for ushering development and prosperity in this part of the world”, Mr. Mukherjee added.
INS Tillanchang, named after an island in the Nicobar group, has been built by Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers, Kolkata. The ship was commissioned in 2001 and has rendered yeoman service to the Indian Navy, while based at Port Blair in the tri-services Andaman and Nicobar command. The craft is capable of attaining a top speed of 26 knots and has an endurance of over 7 days, covering a distance of approximately 2000 nautical miles. The ship will primarily be used for patrolling, policing and search and rescue missions in the vast areas of sea around the Maldivian chain of islands, considerably enhancing their capability against illegal poaching and drug trafficking.
The handing over ceremony was attended by a host of dignitaries, which included the President of Maldives Mr Abdul Gayoom, the Defence Minister Mr Ismail Shaifeeu, the Foreign Minister Mr Abdul Shaheed, top officials from the Indian Ministry of Defence and Indian Navy and members of the diplomatic corps.
The Defence Minister of Maldives lauded the role of Indian government in despatching ships with relief supplies with “promptness and alacrity” to provide immediate succour to the affected people in the aftermath of the devastating tsunami in December 2004. ‘The role of the Indian government in launching Operation Cactus in December 1988 was a defining moment in the relationship between the two countries and a landmark event in the history of their nation’, he said.
After the ceremony, Mr Mukherjee called on the President of Maldives and held high- level interactions with the Defence and Foreign Ministers of Maldives, which “reiterated firm commitment of both the countries to the development of privileged partnership”.
Later, at a joint press conference with the Indian Defence Minister, the Maldivian Foreign Minister, Dr. Shaheed said that Maldives had a ‘very, very strong friendship with India’. In fact, cooperation with India is the lynchpin of our external relationship,” he added. Maldives is an important member and partner of the Indian Ocean region and strategically located astride the vital sea-lanes of communication in this part of the world. India’s mutually beneficial relationship with the Republic of Maldives will not only secure its vital interests in the region, but also reinvigorate ties with a key member of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).
kakaratIAF’s spyplanes to be phased out on May one
NEW DELHI, APR 5 (PTI)
Twenty five years after its induction and kept under wraps for its entire service tenure, the IAF’s most secretive air platform the MiG-25 Foxbats, used for spying from near outer space is being bid adieu.
However, the Foxbats are not exiting the way they came in, with the Air Force organising a public farewell giving them exposure for the first time on May one. It will be the last day the fighters, which have the capability of reaching heights upto 100,000 feet, will fly.
“It is going to be an emotional experience” said Air Vice Marshal Sumit Mukherjee Assitant Chief of the Air Staff, who has had a rare privilege of commanding the squadron.
“All the commanding officers of the squadron as well as pilots who flew them are going to be there to bid final farewell to the Foxbats”, he said.
MiG-25, along with the US Air Force’s SR-71, are the only two fighters in the world which can fly upto such heights and at speeds almost two and half times of sound.
IAF has now only four such aircraft and all of them after their last flight on may one are going to be presented for exhibitions to various armed forces edcuational institutions like IAF Academy and Air Force museum at Palam.
kakaratCCS clears manufacture 20 more Jaguar aircraft
NEW DELHI, MAR 31 (PTI)
Deciding to keep its deep penetration strike aircraft Jaguar assembly lines open, the Cabinet Committee on Security(CCS) today gave the nod to manufacture of 20 more upgraded version of the planes by Hindustan Aeronautics limited.
Jaguars, which are being utilized by the Air Force for deeper interdiction as well as for maritime role, would be built at a cost of Rs 2,340 crores, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee told newsmen after a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security held for the second day in succession.
The meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan singh and attended by Home Minister Shivraj Patil, Finance Minister P Chidambaram besides Mukherjee, also gave sanction to full scale development of 20 Tejas Light Combat Aircraft at the HAL at a cost of Rs 2,439 crores.
The CCS also gave approval for manfucature of Five Inland Patrol vessels for the Coast Guard at a cost of Rs 235 crores at the Hindustan Shipyard Limited.
kakarat
P15A launch picture frm The Hindu
kakarat IAF first bomber jet Canberra turns 50
Pune, Mar 30: Completing 50 years of service with the Indian Air Force (IAF), the country’s first bomber jets — Canberra– have not only helped in defending national honour but also have played a stellar role in civil aviation by fulfilling the initial requirement for pilots.
To mark the 50th year of its induction into the IAF, the city-based Canberra bomber old boys’ association is celebrating golden jubilee reunion of veterans at the Air Force station here tomorrow.
“For over 150 retired IAF personnel in Pune, there is a personal link with the Canberra as its first squadron was raised here. This was because Pune has been traditionally a bomber base,” association President Wing Commander (Retd) Walter H Marshall said here.
Starting from Congo to Goa liberation, to Indo-Pak wars of 1965 and 1971 to Kargil, the Canberra has participated in all the major actions and has emerged victorious.
In fact it was even hit by a missile during ‘operation Vijay’ in Kargil — only the third IAF aircraft to survive a missile hit.
“It has carried out multiple roles like strategic reconnaissance, bombing, electronic warfare, mine laying, aerial photo survey and target towing without any hitch,” Marshall said.
Better known as English electric Canberras, the IAF had then inducted little over 100 such twin-engine jets due to its known versatility, Association Secretary Wing Commander (Retd) Hari Sakhon said.
Apart from it being a multi-purpose aircraft, it is safer to operate than many other aircraft in the IAF including the MIGs, said group Captain (Retd) C Dalton, the association treasurer.
“Being a twin-engine aircraft, it was very sturdy. If one engine failed, the other would take over and return to base safely. This has enabled the Canberras to maintain a high safety record,” Dalton said.
About the crash of one Canberra Jet near Agra in December last which killed two experienced pilots, Marshal said “the deaths occurred as the pilots tried to navigate the bomber out of the civilian area to avoid casualties. This demonstrated lot of courage by the pilots.”
Describing its role in the civil aviation sector during the 1950s he said “the pilots of Canberra provided the backbone for the Indian Airlines and Air India starting 1957 during the transition of these airlines from turbo-props (propellers) to Jets”.
“This was because only a few pilots had twin-jet flying experience in such rapid time. This enabled them to operate the aircraft better during the transition period. They are still serving the civil aviation sector.”
The golden jubilee event would include paying homage to the martyrs who died during operations on the bomber and also those pilots who have died in air accidents.
In his message to the association, Chief of air staff Air Chief Marshall S P Tyagi has said “many aircraft in the IAF have been inducted, served their life and called it a day. But the grand old Canberra still reigns strong.”
kakaratFirst ship of Project-15A launched
Mumbai | March 30, 2006 6:32:11 PM IST
The first ship (missile destroyer) of Project-15A – ‘Kolkata’ was launched at Mazagon dock here today.
The ship was formally launched by Mrs Roopa Byce, wife of Vice Admiral Sangram Singh Byce, Flag Officer Commanding in Chief, Western Naval Command.
Chief of the Army Staff General J J Singh and a number of senior Army and Naval officers were present on the occasion.
‘Kolkata’ is the first of three ships in the class presently under construction at Mazagon dock and is scheduled to join the Navy in 2010. The second and third ships will follow in 2011 and 2012, respectively.
The Project-15A ships are follow-on ships of the Project-15 destroyers, namely I N ships, Delhi, Mysore and Mumbai – the front line combatants of Indian Navy.
‘Kolkata’ has a length of 163 metres, width of 17.4 meters and displacement of 6,800 tons and will carry two helicopters on board.
Propelled by four gas turbines, the indigenously designed ship will have modern weapons and sensors, advanced action information system, total atmospheric control system and a host of other advanced features.
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