Bharat Rakshak

The OFB one shows a brand new 125mm APFSDS round

we have the potential to create the best products in most fields, only the attitude and commitment is lacking.

Khalsa,

The wolfpacks converted to mirages in 2004 end. Their first appearance was in Aero India 2005. However this is the first single seater seen from their stable.

When folks who are at AeroIndia have free time on their hands, please arrange the following aircrafts according to 'Build Quality', in descending order. - TIA

LCA- Tejas
F-18
F-16
Mig-29 OVT
Mig-35
Gripen
Jaguar
Su-30 MKI
Mirage 2K

I'm guessing the 'OVT' will come last, according to Harry.
But am interested where the Mig-35 and Tejas will land. Please be brutally honest.

- many many Thanks in Advance.

There are a few in the pipelines, but dont get your hopes all up - There is no JaiS this time .. unless joey decides he can outdo the previous performance.

Well, the ch***** there didn't even know that Arjun needs a 120mm APFSDS and kept insisting that it needed a 125mm round. And kept insisting that Vijayanta had a 120mm gun. After that I left the OFB stall. There was no other "knowledgeable" person around. I have observed over the last AI and this one, that quite a few people from PSUs manning the stalls are people filled with a sense of self-importance, while knowing very little. In stark contrast with people from DRDO stalls - with very, very few exceptions, all of them know their stuff and are very willing to share their knowledge and information.

Once you speak to a DRDO guy, you better appreciate the enormous difficulties they go through while creating products from scratch. The biggest sense I got from the stalls I visited (the vast majority were Indian stalls as I didn't care about the snooty attitude of the western goras) was that we have the potential to create the best products in most fields, only the attitude and commitment is lacking.

The OFB incident deserves to be amongst one of those desi "heights of stupidity" kind of jokes..if the jerks dont even know what they have on display, whats the point of displaying it?

The conference took off to an entertaining start when one of the world's oldest living aviators and Marshal of the IAF, Arjan Singh, regaled them with stories of the quaint aircraft during World War I. The engine of the plane was uncovered and placed in front of the pilot who could see all the pistons working. "Another advantage of having the engine upfront was that it took the brunt whenever we crashed into a hill, and the pilot could walk away from the debris,'' he said.

February 6 was the day to visit the Taj Mahal with Air Chief Marshal Tyagi giving them no options: "If you have already seen the Taj, tough luck. You will have to see it again.''

There was a blanket of secrecy again as the IAF was taking a huge security gamble by taking almost the entire top brass of world's air forces together to the Taj and then on to Bangalore for the air show.

Ultimate safety for Indian troops
Deepa Balakrishnan
CNN-IBN


Bangalore: Flying a plane can give one a major thrill in life - especially when it zooms, rolls, spins, flies upside down, swoops down and travels at a speed higher than sound.

But, if one wants to do all that, one has to be dressed for the occasion and there is more to the attire than just goggles, helmets and a special jacket.

The Defence Bio Engineering and Electromedical Lab in Bangalore is now ready with its latest gear for paratroopers - a jacket and accessories that can keep you alive if you jump from a height of 30,000 feet.

Says the Director of the lab, Dr V C Padaki, "For combat operations, paratroopers are dropped behind enemy lines and glide there for specific operations. When they dive from 30,000 feet they are exposed to rarefied atmosphere, where there is very little oxygen and temperatures drop to -50 degrees. The paratrooper then needs protection from the hazardous environment."

The scientists here have been working on a jacket which will keep a paratrooper safe come what may - high pressure, minus temperatures and no oxygen.

It's a jacket that's been on trials for a year now. It will arm India's soldiers to fly into enemy territory from a height where enemy radars cannot reach, and jump in for specific operations.

Says Dr Padaki, "More than 150 live jumps have been tried out at various altitudes and all have been successful."

The jacket could be the ultimate in safety gear that India has and promises to keep paratroopers safe in the most extreme of circumstances.

air launched brahmos ! my GOD, it's BIG.

Pauldevis:

Build quality is *REALLY* hard to compare. The MiG-35 is not up for static display anyway, and for the LCA it is the TD-1 which was the fist of the lot so things have changed since then. You would need to be up close and personal to find any differences between the LCA, Gripen, MKI and Falcon. These are not things that the public - even hardened jingos - can figure out from leaning over the barrier.

The russian guys were extremely friendly,

we have the potential to create the best products in most fields, only the attitude and commitment is lacking.

Not something we could complain of at the Brahmos display. The people there were very upbeat about their product and its capabilities. The confidence evident was in marked contrast to the PSUs and even the DRDO . Everyone believed they had a proven world beater (which they do) and speaking to them was like dealing with an aggressive (in the +ve sense) private sector company ready to take on the world.

Typically - my attitude to a situation like this is "OK - I know that I know more about what's here than you do - so if your answer is rubbish - I will let you off and try and probe you for what you know, rather than worry about what you obviously don't know"

Russian guys, or ...?

Can anyone go to the Rafael stall and ask about AGM-142/Crystal Maze missile, when the delivery is going to start or if it has started.
Thank you