Bharat Rakshak

After the LCA , HAL will be busy with LOH, Med Heli, MCA, MRCA and MRTA

Kartik, thanks for the enlightenment.

Now, BAE knows that we dont have any other option but to purchase the HAWKs. Bad situation to be in!

Lets hope for some miracles, like in the case of HAL LOH.

Why is the Dhruvs ceiling quoted as 4500m?
http://www.hal-india.com/helicopter/products.asp#alh

I was under the impression it is 6500m with the shakti engine.

The AJT as a derivitive of the IJT MAY be canned. But an AJT derived from the LCA still lives. And, IF I may, with a proper engine to power a LCA "II", I would think it is a done deal. With the exception of a dual engine, a LCA AJT, would be a good entry level AC. One that has crossed the minds of HAL/IAF.

NRao, if that materialises, it will be much more than an AJT.

I take it you are talking about the Lead in Fighter Trainer (LIFT). if IAF does go for the tejas in LIFT role, we would see the mig-21s at MOFTU being replaced by Tejas and may be even the mig-21s from TACDE will go the same way.
All in all we are talking of about 100 additional full fledged fighters !
such an order may also mean that it becomes economical for HAL to expand annual capacity.

in the first pictures of ijt mfd ,you can see Tejas parked near it with drop tanks ,first time the color of the drop tank is different then the usual white

I was not, but you are right, that is IIRC the upgraded name for the AJT.

Whatever, I feel that the Indian industry is going through a rough phase - where if given the right components they can deliver, but have to "wait" for the right components to be built and tested.

I don't believe it is LIFT but rather CAT. LIFT was the upgraded AJT which was supposedly canned.

HAL had an AJT design which they called "CAT".
ADA had ideas for its own AJT version (based on LCA) and they called it "LIFT" (it was never clear though, how different it would be from LCA trainer.. )

Dont know how far ADA had gone on LIFT effort; they would have been pretty much tied-up with LCA work.. But. HAL had done lot of inhouse preliminary design in ARDC on the CAT - which was to be a twin-engined (AL-55I) plane with better performance than Hawk etc. They had put the preliminary proposal to IAF to get ASR. But when the Hawk deal went through - IAF/MOD just decided to order more Hawks, rather than develop an indigenous AJT with an eye on the future.
You see.. some people never learn from their past mistakes..

I have seen a photo of Mr Birajdar taken from his launch a/c over the matanchery
channel in Kochi. his suit has a cloth flap between the legs and hands making
it look like a large bat.

http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=40044

From the above link:



So much for the Army's reputation and credibility for fairness. Wonder what they will say in their defense...

French order Damocles pod for the Mirage-2000D

The brochure on the Thales website mentions the Damocles Pod is in service on the SU-30/Mirage 2005. (download pdf here)

I would appreciate is some guru/s clarify if the Damocles Targetting Pod is in use in the IAF? I know we are using the Litening Pod from Rafael. I checked on the BR SU30 page but did not find any mention of the Damocles.

Also, how do the two compare?

Many thanks for your replies.

added later : The image of the SU30 underwing weapons area appears to be badly edited in the brochure.


Regds, Clay

In China, this corrupt army officer would have been disgraced publicly and executed. <EDITED> . No wonder, their "ijjat" is going down every year. It seems men of straw have taken over the institution once headed by giants such as Sam Manekshaw.

clay i think Malaysian flankers have them since they donot use Israeli pods or avionics which was substituted by french systems

Jagan jee, proofs are required if allegations are against named individuals. You cannot ask for proof for statements such as top army brass is trying to scuttle the Arjun or there is a lot of corruption in the government or that we live in terrible times or most politicans of India have nexus with business houses to benefit them.

Sanjay

Sorry, standards are tightening up.

Specifics are needed. If some specific general is bending the rules or someone is corrupt, I am sure sources are there. I remember reading an article from ajai shukla (or was it FI) that was very specific as to who exactly was creating the hurdles in arjun acceptance and causing these delays. Those links would help but at the same time restrict all allegations to those people named or identified and lets not paint everyone with the same broad brush

Supporting Links like those go a long way rather than blanket accusations against the "whole of top brass" etc

-Jagan

I met a person from the armed fores who has something to do with choppers. Army is generally happy with ALH - although maintenance and spares issues still need some sorting.

The Eurocopter, now cancelled had a smaller payload than our existing Cheetahs. I was unable to find out why it was chosen. But there seems to be some news about that on this page

I believe you are correct. Rkhanna confirmed the same in the SU30 thread. Thank you.


Regds, Clay

I believe there was a news report posted here saying the same (at high altitude), same was the case with Bell too. Dhruv on the otherhand has almost double the payload at the same altitude as that of Cheetah.

oops I meant to say even Bell had low payload at high altitude than Cheetah..damn that disappearing edit button is a @#$$^^

G-550 or even a A-320 would have been a better platform.

If it was meant to be a conformal design then one could understand, but when the radar is mounted above the plane why would it matter?

The Israelis have a G-550 with something similar to what IAF is getting in the Phalcon. These (two) are side mounted (and a canoe?)

The 145 is OK for what DRDO is doing. They have been after it for some years now.

if this project goes thru', the CABS will in all probability work for one
with improved capability requiring a/c with more endurance. there were
a few signals in this direction.
considering the commonality with the VIP fleet, EMB is the right choice
for this particular project. horses for courses.

With respect, may I ask what you know that the designers of the system do not know?

Nice one, Shiv. I was about to answer that one liner comment about this platform being better than that etc etc in detail before I looked at your question. I realized it was better that what I was busy typing. So now I will wait to hear what the above one liner yields. Who knows, we might even learn something new...

-Vivek

Shiv saab! i am also of the same opinion of Ghosh ! why cant it be A320 kind of aircraft.Aircraft is a like a pet dog . Any foreign object externall mounted or internally mounted and whose weight is comparable with the aircraft weight,makes the faithful dog to go rabid! How much our half baked designers know? ppl will spit fire if i say this. What happened to the ASP programme! It ended up in a horrific crash in the turbulent sea weather conditions at arakkonam. The rotodome was mounted on a teeny weeny HS-748 AVRO, which is only designed to ferry ppl. Its like the pillion rider practising kung-fu on the back seat of a moving two wheeler.The rotodome had a huge aerodynamic impact on the AVRO and ultimately ended up in crash, killing a very key signal processing person Dr.NRU of LRDE. Along with him, the MMR signal processing programme too nose dived. i was told ,the crash was so intense, that ppl died in the accident got crushed like chappatis! They should have chosen IL-76 or any of the A300, Boeing series. There would have been no necessity of PHALCONS. i am too small to give you gyan on this, but couldnt help remembering Dr.NRU,with whome everybody had good rapport.

Do you realize the difference between 'knowing your requirements' and 'availability'? I suggest you read up more on why the HS-748 was chosen for the ASP before you comment. Pay more attention to the contemporary structural and manufacturing aspects of things when you do the above.

IAF’s first ever Participation in Exercise ‘Red Flag’ CONTINGENT READY TO DEPART ON 07 JUL 08
16:7 IST
The Indian Air Force would be participating in a multinational Air Exercise, ‘Ex - Red Flag 08’ at the invitation of United States Air Force (USAF), scheduled to be held at Nellis Air Force Base in the US from 09-23 Aug 08.

The IAF would be participating in the exercise with eight SU-30 MK-I aircraft, two IL-78 air to air refuellers and one IL-76 transport aircraft. The contingent would comprise 156 personnel below officers rank and 91 officers (inclusive of 10 members of ‘Garud’ IAF Special Force team). The contingent is being led by Gp Capt D Chaudhury and Exercise Coordinator would be Gp Capt Ajay Rathore.

Exercise Red Flag is a multinational air exercise that is held thrice a year at Nellis Air Force base, USA. The IAF would be participating in the Exercise alongside South Korean Air Force with F-15K and the French Air Force with their latest Rafale aircraft, apart from the USAF. Red Flag was originally conceived in 1975 by USAF with an advanced aerial combat training format - the purpose being to ensure that pilots are trained well enough to survive in air combat and win air battles. The exercise holds tremendous learning opportunity for all the participating Air Forces.

Prior to the main Exercise Red Flag 08 at Nellis, the IAF’s contingent would be working up at Mountain Home Air Base in Idaho, US from 17 Jul 08 till 07 Aug 08. At Mountain Home, the IAF contingent would be flying with the F-16s & F-15s of USAF. The purpose of the work up phase is to streamline the procedures and have a clear understanding of the new flying environment.

The IAF contingent with its aircraft are scheduled to depart from Pune on 07 Jul 08 and transit via Doha (Qatar), Chorlu (Turkey), Mont de Marsan (France) and Lages (Portugal) before reaching land main USA and Mountain Home airbase on 17 Jul 08.

MU/MKR