Indian Air Force - News & Discussion # 12

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Russia optimistic about MIG-35's victory in Indian Air Force tender

MOSCOW: Russia on Thursday expressed optimism that the MiG-35 fighter jets fielded by it in the Indian Air Force's tender for acquisition of 126 Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) will prove an edge over its
Western rivals and ultimately win the contract.

"We hope that our aircraft would be the winner," chief of Rosoboronexport (ROE), Russia's sole state intermediary agency for export-import of defence-related technologies and services, Anatoly Isaikin said.

"Russia is competing with top aircraft manufacturers of the US and Europe. Such tenders are carried out in several stages and takes time. We are in the middle and so far, no one has dropped out," he said.

Isaikin said MiG-35 is an air superiority fighter capable of taking on the current fourth and prospective fifth generation combat aircraft.

"From the point of view of technological inputs it is virtually a fifth generation fighter, unmatched by any of the European fighters," he said.

ROE has fielded the MiG-35 fighter jets developed by RAC MiG against American rivals F-16 of Lockheed Martin and F/A-18 of Boeing, France's Rafale, Swedish JAS-39 Gripen (SAAB) and European Eurofighter Typhoon (EADS).

ROE's exports in 2009 amounted to USD 7.4 billion of which over 50 per cent were related to fighter aircraft, Isaikin told a press conference here today.

"India, Algeria, China, Venezuela, Malaysia and Syria were among the major buyers of Russian fighters," he said.

Under the Sukhoi deal, India is receiving kits and semi-knocked-down Su-30MKI multi-role fighter jets for assembly at HAL factories in the country.

Last year, Russia also shipped four MiG-29K naval fighters for deployment on the INS Vikramaditya (Admiral Gorshkov), which is expected to join the Indian Navy after New Delhi and Moscow settle their dispute over the cost of modernisation of the Soviet-built aircraft carrier.

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EXCLUSIVE: Indian Air Force/DRDO's Laser Guided Bomb Trial

http://i50.tinypic.com/105w6ys.jpg

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Germany "nastily surprised" over non-conclusion of defence deal, alleges political grounds

New Delhi, Jan 29(ANI): On the eve of German President Horst Kohler's India visit, which begins on February 1, Germany has expressed deep disappointment over rejection by India of the contract for the purchase of Airbus A-330 MRTT (multi-role tanker transport) aircraft.

According to German Ambassador to India Thomas Matussek, the contract for Airbus A-330 MRTT aircraft, which was initially approved by the Indian Air force, was rejected for what he alleged ' political reasons'.

Addressing the media in the national capital, Matussek said that the cancellation of tender for the multi-role tanker aircraft for the Indian Air Force for which European consortium EADS was a contender came as a "rude surprise".

"It is little bit of a nasty surprise for us and very disappointing that this choice of Indian Air force, which works on the principle of the best value for money was rejected at political level," Matussek said.

"This rejection was not even explained to us," he added.

Matussek further criticized those involved in the selection, and said: "It appears quality, performance, state of technology and reliability were not exactly the criteria, but selection was only on label price stance."

Earlier in the month, Government of India had turned down a bid made by the Indian Air Force to purchase six new Airbus-330 MRTT refueling aircraft worth 1.5 billion dollars with European aerospace major EADS on the basis of Union Finance Ministry's objection.

Finance Ministry believed that the A-330 MRTT was too costly compared to the Russian IL-78 refuellers.

Germany is also bidding hard for the multi- medium- role combat aircraft and is offering its state of the art Firefighter Typhoon with low life cycle cost and also offering euro jet engines for the euro fighters, which Germany believes would enhance performance of Indian manufactured Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas.

Germany is also ready to alter its end user agreement and exempt India from the monitoring and on location inspection for future deals.

As of now no agreements or MOU's will be signed during the seven-day visit of the German President even though number of agreements between India and Germany are awaiting nod from the Indian side.

It is believed that MOU on cooperation in security sector, anti- terror measures and training, economy and technology are awaiting clearance either from the Cabinet or from the Ministry of External Affairs.

According to the German envoy, none of the MoU s and agreements will be signed during the visit. By Naveen Kapoor (ANI)

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It's either the Russian's or the US that ended up getting that cancelled :D. Has anyone given it a thought that deals involving the Russians or the US NEVER get cancelled????????????????

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Army Article but since it deals with Missiles posting here.

Indian Army to procure quick reaction surface to air missiles

New Delhi: To secure its skies from enemy fighter aircraft and cruise missiles, the Indian Army is planning to procure more quick reaction surface to air missiles (QR-SAMs) from global vendors.

In a Request for Information (RFI) issued yesterday, without mentioning the number of systems to be procured, the Army has asked the vendors to provide missile systems which have a range of over nine kilometres and are capable of taking on aircraft or missiles at an altitude of up to six kilometres.

The Army is seeking a QR-SAM capable of being launched within six seconds and taking on hovering helicopters also. It wants the new systems to have the ability of firing two missiles at a time and simultaneously guide them to the desired targets.

The Army has reportedly placed orders for four squadrons of SPYDER QR-SAMs from Israel. The DRDO is also working on the development of a home grown QR-SAM system and planning to co-develop it with a foreign partner.

The RFI states the missile system should be capable of operating in the electronic warfare environment and should be provided with Nuclear, Biological and Chemical warfare protection system.

The Army wants its new systems to be highly mobile and capable of being moved on rail-based platforms besides being mobile in desert and semi-desert terrain.

It also wants the vendors to do a transfer of technology to Indian firms so that the missile system can be later on produced in India also. Global missile manufacturers including MBDA of France and Israeli Rafale are expected to offer their systems to the Army.

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EJ 200 and LCA MK2

Shiv Aroor from LiveFist is actually in Germany, to maken an article about the Eurofighter Typhoon in MMRCA.
But in the first part of his article he was able to talk with Euro Jet officials about thr EJ 200 offer for LCA MK2!

...Discussions between the Indian government and Eurojet are currently at the Q&A phase -- a period post-RFP, where the buyer smoothens out details and calls upon the vendor to explain, clarify or expand anything put forth in their technical bid. A few days ago, Eurojet received a set of 32 such questions from the ADA (Tenter says he is surprised there weren't more), out of which 26 are associated with engineering aspects, while the remaining six pertain to transfer of technology issues. Eurojet faces formidable competition to power the LCA from the American General Electric F-414-400.

OK, now here's the juice. According to Tenter and his team, for the Tejas to be able to take in an EJ200 engine, the engine will need "minor" modifications. These include some changing to the mounting assembly, a different hydraulic pump and an additional generator pack for starters. In addition, engine interfaces might need changes depending on how the LCA is configured. All in all, Eurojet believes its tailor-made EJ200 for the LCA can be ready-- certification tests and all -- in two years flat. Officials at the company point out that one of the biggest downers for their competition is that the F-414-400's intake interface assembly is markedly larger than the F-404 (and, thus, the LCA) and its selection would therefore imply some very serious modifications to the LCA's centre fuselage and intake architecture (in addition to the use of a cone director for airflow). Eurojet insists that the EJ200's installation will require absolutely no airframe and intake changes to the LCA. Both contentions remain unconfirmed at this point.

Even though the LCA new-engine competition and the MMRCA competition are linked for Eurojet (the Eurofighter Typhoon is powered by the EJ200), the company has chosen to keep both campaigns strictly separate.

"When we demonstrated the engine's performance to a team from HAL and DRDO in November last year, they were amazed that there was no thrust droop in the EJ200. The engine is designed to compensate for thrust droop," says Tenter, confident that this and a rapid-fire list of other ostensible unique selling points make the Eurojet a frontrunner in the race.

http://livefist.blogspot.com/2010/01/typhoon-tour-part-1-eurojet-heats-up.html

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Deino, I think you will love this ! ;)

http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/Images/10300-2/KHT2009.jpg

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Deino, I think you will love this ! ;)

http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/Images/10300-2/KHT2009.jpg


well i love that too

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Deino, I think you will love this ! ;)

http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/Images/10300-2/KHT2009.jpg

Ultimate. I really love Naval/Trainer version.

LCH may fly on 2nd February.... Another beast taking shape.... :diablo:

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Ultimate. I really love Naval/Trainer version.

LCH may fly on 2nd February.... Another beast taking shape.... :diablo:

Guess what...its baby boom time...:D

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Deino, I think you will love this ! ;)

http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/Images/10300-2/KHT2009.jpg

Nice pic! I like the dual more then the single. Would be nice to see with fueltanks and BVR. Anyone know what they did with fuel (making a dual requiers more space) quantity?

Is there a ring missing between the engine and body?
Did they change antenna's? And is it smart to have the antenna on the belly where you can have a huge fueltank?

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Thats an awesome picture (wish it was a little more higher resolution and without center watermark).

Do you guys know what the serial number stands for?
KH-T 2009
i guess T is for Trainer and 2009 is for the year it was built. Will this be inducted in the operational service with same number?

The gray scheme on LCA really makes it look better. Perhaps a little lighter would be even better.

Also, i have asked before about this in past, does anyone have specs for twin seater?

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15 years 11 months

Posts: 3,442

Thats an awesome picture (wish it was a little more higher resolution and without center watermark).

Do you guys know what the serial number stands for?
KH-T 2009
i guess T is for Trainer and 2009 is for the year it was built. Will this be inducted in the operational service with same number?

The gray scheme on LCA really makes it look better. Perhaps a little lighter would be even better.

Also, i have asked before about this in past, does anyone have specs for twin seater?

i agree with you. the Tejas was just okay, kinda like the look of the JF-17 better, but I think this two seater is the best of the three in looks. hope we will see a two seat JF-17 soon.

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14 years 7 months

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The NLCA will be an even better looker :p:p:p

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Eurojet for LCA story

TYPHOON TOUR Part 1: Eurojet Heats Up For Tejas

HALLBERGAMOOS, GERMANY: Emerging from the airport into a desperately snowblown bit of country, I am taken in a small Daimler hatchback to this little commercial spread just outside Munich, southern Germany. On the many slightly deserted buildings, there are no signboards, and everything is covered in fresh powdered snow. My host finally steers his auto into a cavernous subterranean parking lot, where he inserts the vehicle into a slot marked "EJ Visitor". This is the headquarters of Eurojet Turbo GmbH, a four-way partnership of engine-makers from the UK, Italy, France and Germany, that makes the EJ200 turbofan engine, a hunk of metal wizardry that competes hard to power the Indian Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas. For an organisation that will have some very important visitors in a few weeks, the offices of Eurojet are surprisingly empty. But then it's clear -- most staff are at test sites and development centers making absolutely sure that everything is spot-on for the gentlemen scheduled to touch down this March.

A team comprising India's Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) and the Center for Military Airworthiness & Certification (CEMILAC) are booked to arrive in Munich early March for what will be their most crucial visit. In what is giving the people at Eurojet, particularly Managing Director Hartmut Tenter great hopes for their product, is the knowledge that the Indian visitors want to discuss certification of the EJ200 for the Tejas. The team has asked to visit test-beds, manufacturing facilities and development centers during their stay.

Discussions between the Indian government and Eurojet are currently at the Q&A phase -- a period post-RFP, where the buyer smoothens out details and calls upon the vendor to explain, clarify or expand anything put forth in their technical bid. A few days ago, Eurojet received a set of 32 such questions from the ADA (Tenter says he is surprised there weren't more), out of which 26 are associated with engineering aspects, while the remaining six pertain to transfer of technology issues. Eurojet faces formidable competition to power the LCA from the American General Electric F-414-400.

OK, now here's the juice. According to Tenter and his team, for the Tejas to be able to take in an EJ200 engine, the engine will need "minor" modifications. These include some changing to the mounting assembly, a different hydraulic pump and an additional generator pack for starters. In addition, engine interfaces might need changes depending on how the LCA is configured. All in all, Eurojet believes its tailor-made EJ200 for the LCA can be ready -- certification tests and all -- in two years flat. Officials at the company point out that one of the biggest downers for their competition is that the F-414-400's intake interface assembly is markedly larger than the F-404 (and, thus, the LCA) and its selection would therefore imply some very serious modifications to the LCA's centre fuselage and intake architecture (in addition to the use of a cone director for airflow). Eurojet insists that the EJ200's installation will require absolutely no airframe and intake changes to the LCA. Both contentions remain unconfirmed at this point.

Even though the LCA new-engine competition and the MMRCA competition are linked for Eurojet (the Eurofighter Typhoon is powered by the EJ200), the company has chosen to keep both campaigns strictly separate.

"When we demonstrated the engine's performance to a team from HAL and DRDO in November last year, they were amazed that there was no thrust droop in the EJ200. The engine is designed to compensate for thrust droop," says Tenter, confident that this and a rapid-fire list of other ostensible unique selling points make the Eurojet a frontrunner in the race.

From Livefist

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15 years 1 month

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"It is little bit of a nasty surprise for us and very disappointing that this choice of Indian Air force, which works on the principle of the best value for money was rejected at political level," Matussek said.

Yes, what a shock! Political criteria on defence deals? Who would ever imagine that! :rolleyes:

I am sure for example that Austria bought Typhoon without BVR missiles without politics being the main reason.

The Indian Airforce may work on the principle of best value for money. The Indian goverment though, works on the principle of best political choice and best possible value for money. The 2 must go together, as do 90% of the countries out there.

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whats the likelihood of seeing both the F-35 (IN) and Pak-fa (IAF) together in service of the same country :diablo:

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both without brahmos.

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whats the likelihood of seeing both the F-35 (IN) and Pak-fa (IAF) together in service of the same country :diablo:

Very Very Likely :diablo: