The Military Issues & History Forum is a venue to discuss issues relating to the military aspects of the Indian Armed Forces, whether the past, present or future. We request members to kindly stay within the mandate of this forum and keep their exchanges of views, on a civilised level, however vehemently any disagreement may be felt. All feedback regarding forum usage may be sent to the moderators using the Feedback Form or by clicking the Report Post Icon in any objectionable post for proper action. Please note that the views expressed by the Members and Moderators on these discussion boards are that of the individuals only and do not reflect the official policy or view of the Bharat-Rakshak.com Website. Copyright Violation is strictly prohibited and may result in revocation of your posting rights - please read the FAQ for full details. Users must also abide by the Forum Guidelines at all times.
Rakesh wrote:..
So the French are looking to international Rafale customers to fund the development of the F5 variant. The French are truly wily!
Come now, Sir. this is standard business 101. Be it automobile, pharma or defense - a good portion of the customers monies (from sales) is used to fund the R&D of the next iteration or the next model of the product.
and some amount on promotions - direct and via 'influencers'
Here's an eyewitness account given yesterday by former US Marine Michael Herrera at the National Press Club in Washington, DC.
According to him, these events transpired on September 30, 2009 and he has recently given his testimony to the US Congress on them:
His account is peppered with all sorts of small details, which makes it sound more authentic to me. And yet the physics sounds impossible - at first glance.
He describes a vehicle as large as a football field, having unprecedented aerodynamic capabilities, protected by black ops types (unidentified special forces operators). And this was about a year-and-a-half before the Abbottabad raid that killed Bin Laden, where they would have presumably used their most advanced stealth helicopter.
My wild speculation: could it be some sort of ultra-sleek blimp/dirigible? Because he described a vehicle that was as big as a football field and was just quietly floating above the ground there. So only a blimp/dirigible/airship is known to have those characteristics.
Yet this large vehicle he described wasn't spherical or conventionally blimp-shaped. He said it was continually rotating -- could continuous rotation help to distort buoyant sphere into lenticular/pancake shape while maintaining overall displacement volume?
Or could rotation be a way to generate negative-lift to lower the craft against buoyancy, in place of using ballast?
He said they had American dialect, and apparently American weapons & equipment, armored F-350 pickups, etc
He also said they were hostile/aggressive/upset, and that this was happening in Indonesia which was a hotbed for terrorist training camps.
He also spoke of special containers with oxygen cylinders, and said he'd later learned from fellow UFO-activist that such containers could be used to transport live human cargo.
So that makes me think these special operators and their extraordinary flying machine were there to carry out:
He said the date of these events was September 30, 2009 which was about 20 months before the raid that killed Bin Laden. So the War on Terror was still ongoing as of that time.
Independence Day anyone ? Lets all sit in front of Taj Mahal and lift folded hands to sky for prayer until the yankees save the day and rescue humanity.
https://twitter.com/ReviewVayu/status/1 ... 66466?s=20 ---> Nexter will soon deliver the 300th gun for the Rafale fighter. The M791 cannon is manufactured at the Bourges site (including for IAF Rafales). Rate of fire is the highest in the world: 2500 rounds/minute. It fires 42 shells in 1 second, equivalent to 1.5kg of explosive.
sanman wrote: ↑19 Jun 2023 17:09
So the immediate ancestor of the F-18 is the YF-17 Cobra?
And how do our Tejas and MRCA fit this "energy maneuverability theory"?
F18 history is old news. Keep in mind that current F18 is a completely different airframe from the legacy F18, with some of the same design principles and at one time the same avionics fit. In other words you are talking about the history of the legacy bug F18A-D, while the F18E-F superhornet (and also the growler) is a larger plane, with a bigger engine, and currently, more modern avionics. Though there are some familial resemblances.
E-M theory was used to help push through acquisition of F-16 and helped formulate requirements for it. The key advance was relaxed static stability, requiring fly by wire, (computer control of control surfaces ), This allowed for quicker instantaneous turn and pitch rates. Henry Hillaker, the designer of the F16 was also obsessed with low drag and this combined with a good engine and reduced weight allowed the F16 to retain energy and regain it. Helpful for basic flight maneuvers.
Nowadays warfare has evolved to BVR where energy management is still important , but it's like 3D chess being played in split second decision. E-M theory still has a place, as does WVR, but also HOBS missiles have made planes more likely to kill each other in a 1v1 wvr.
Read up on ooda loop, another Boyd framework. Observe , orient, decide , act.
Today, the ability to get situational awareness, to know what's going on, what's around, is king. Sensor fusion (various levels), a good display and UI concepts , good radar, datalink all help. This is probably the best power of the F35.
Stealth aka VLO/LO observability, especially in radar but also other regimes is also prized.
The Tejas is a small, delta wing plane with relaxed static stability. It has fly by wire. It does not have VLO shaping, but as a small plane with lots of composites, and some ram, it likely isn't a very bad visibility to naked eye or radar. Probably decent for a 4/4.5 gen fighter. It's a bit draggy in some regimes (small size hurts wave drag, delta too), but has a good engine. Simply never going to be as fast as a Mig 21 or mig 29 with it's top speed. It does have relaxed static stability , fly by wire and fadec . But honestly you can figure a lot of performance curves will be classified and some things like AoA , turn rates, you may get some info about.
Iow don't obsess about E-M theory, it has some relevance still, but isn't the only theory or even the most important driver of a fighter jets competitiveness
But IAF is happy with only 248 Astra Mk1 missiles.
No news of follow up orders.
Perhaps it's a question of expiring inventory...non-expiring AAM authorized holdings may be ~ 4000, and (today) might include a variety of R-77, R-27, Mica, Astra, Meteor, I-Derby, etc. Once they start expiring, Astra Mk-I/II/III will backfill the expiring Russian and Israeli AAMs. The French inventory will still persist
@ 4:37 Mark he talks about jamming
WTF is this "tictac" thingie?
40feet wide.
Moves erratically
Reaches supersonic and hypersonic velocities instantly (from standstill)
Tracked by Aegis systems on Nimitz and Princeton
Tracked by f18e/f flir and EO
Jams Shornets Apg 73 mesa radar
Congressional testimony by Commander of the Black Aces stationed on the USS Nimitz!
NASA & DARPA are collaborating to develop DRACO (Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations), a spacecraft powered by a nuclear thermal engine, which uses hydrogen as propellant.
(first 6.5min are the relevant part)
DRACO is an updated version of NERVA, which was America's old nuclear thermal rocket idea pursued back in the 1950s-1960s.
What would it take for India to develop a nuclear thermal rocket?
Let's first imagine we develop a reusable launcher (NGLV), and then on top of that we integrated an upper stage powered by a nuclear-thermal engine which could initially operate as an orbital space tug and then later be upgraded to function as an Earth Departure Stage.
Imagine eventually using such a nuclear thermal rocket stage to dock with a spacecraft in LEO and carry it all the way to a landing on the Moon's surface, and then later return back to LEO again. Hydrogen propellant could be manufactured from lunar water ice to support such operations.
BARC is now developing RTGs (Radioisotope Thermal Generators) for ISRO, which can be used to power electric ion-propulsion thrusters.
But these devices derive energy from radioactive decay, and are still not quite at the energy level of nuclear power reactors.
India had already developed a Compact High-Temperature Reactor, which could possibly be operated on submarines and used to efficiently break down water into hydrogen and oxygen. If India could adapt this reactor design for use in the lunar environment, perhaps it could be used on the Moon to manufacture hydrogen propellant from lunar water ice.
Note that India's Compact High Temperature Reactor (CHTR) uses the Thorium fuel cycle. Also note that Thorium is abundantly available in the surface regolith of the Moon and Mars.
NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey mission had detected large amounts of Thorium in the Martian surface soil:
Russia's Luna-25 mission will launch this Friday, and will travel to the Moon on a more direct path, thus enabling it to land at the lunar South Pole just ahead of India's Chandrayaan-3:
csaurabh wrote: ↑11 Aug 2023 11:06
I don't want to get into a debate of Stainless steel vs Carbon Fibre Composites. Both are good, depending on the application.
Rather my problem is with Elon Musk in general and Starship in Particular.
Elon Musk has made a list of extraordinary claims regarding Starship, such as
-Starship will be operational by 2022
-Starship can transport 100 people to Mars
-Starship can do orbital refueling
-Starship can do in-situ refueling on Mars
-Starship can transport cargoes to anywhere in the world
-Starship will make commercial airliners obsolete
-etc.
Elon is known to make ambitious promises on timelines which don't pan out. These timelines are seen as aspirational.
The vehicle's diameter was originally 12m, but was shrunk to 9m, so its potential crew capacity had to reduce too.
Starship is still intended to be used for orbital refueling, as there will be a tanker variant produced, including for SpaceX's contractual obligations under the Artemis program. SpaceX is supposed to supply a lunar variant of Starship that will function as a giant lunar lander (dwarfing the much smaller Lockheed-made Orion crew capsule that would carry astronauts to lunar orbit). As part of this contract, SpaceX also has to create a tanker-version of Starship in order to dock with and refuel the Lunar Starship variant, so that it can get to the Moon. The deadlines for getting this done are coming up very quickly in 2024, so SpaceX had better hurry on this.
Regarding refueling on Mars, that's still supposed to be the long-term plan, in order to provide return capability from Mars.
The use of Starship for Point-to-Point travel was an impractical idea that's been abandoned. It was originally proposed in order to help finance the Mars flights. But now that Musk & SpaceX have pivoted to satellite constellations, those will be used to fund Starship development.
Elon Musk just changed the logo of Twitter to an X. I think it's safe to say that he isn't a very stable personality and hasn't been for years.
That's why when he says anything about Starship, I can't separate fact from fiction.
It is just how Abhijith Iyer Mitra talks about Indian Defence Industry and Armed Forces. He talks so much nonsense, that I don't believe a word he says.
Hah, well so far Musk is making things work financially. He has in the past talked about creating "X Holdings" as a financial holding company to bind together SpaceX, Tesla, and Musk's other ventures into a single conglomerate.
SpaceX isn't publicly traded, of course. Musk intends to keep the company private, so that he can continue to tightly control its objectives and its operations.
I personally really hope that ISRO chief S Somnath succeeds in his goal of getting reusable NGLV build with private partners. That would truly be a game-changer for India in space.
We should watch for the upcoming TDV-1 test flight in the coming weeks of September, as part of the Gaganyaan program. That test flight is meant to test out some reusability technology under the Gaganyaan funding (another nice hat trick from frugal ISRO)
But NASA has said it's considering whether or not to change the mission type in order to meet that deadline
(meaning that instead of landing on the Moon as previously promised, they might just do a circum-lunar flight around the Moon and back)
The plane that crashed during a Michigan air show, requiring its pilots to eject as it crashed into a Belleville apartment complex was identified as a MiG-23UB. It was part of the Yankee Air Museum's Thunder over Michigan air show before something went wrong and it burst into flames around 4 p.m. Sunday. Both people in the plane that ejected were hospitalized. The pilot suffered severe but non-life-threatening injuries.
Pratyush wrote: ↑15 Aug 2023 09:00
Why do you want to place a synthetic aperture radar in such an orbit?
What are the real advantages of doing this?
What kind of power the radar is going to be generating that it will generate useful returns from such an orbit?
If Chinese have done it, then they didn't do so without some basis or merit.
As for radar power requirements from the high geosynchronous orbit, maybe they have some workarounds.
I always keep reading how Chinese are ahead in use of Quantum technology in satellite communication.
Could they be using Quantum Radar technology to reduce power requirements through quantum correlation?
China also claims to have some kind of Quantum Infrared sensing technology which can defeat stealth:
vow - so a USAF marking on the wingtip will cause this much differential in heat signature ? maybe the yankees can paint the entire plane with that thing.
1) Today there are very dependable technologies to "detect" 5th gen objects. The problem is locking (at detectable ranges), not tracking.
So, the US has determined that it is not worth investing in quantum radar - yet. Pvt company research is fine, but the DoD - to my knowledge - has not invested any substantial funds in this area
2) The question I have for these YT videoers (above) is, has China designed and built quantum sensors or quantum radars?
Two totally different items.
IF "sensors" then it is highly likely.
IF China claims "radar" then, IMO, highly unlikely. Based on what I know a Q radar is another 15-25 years out.
However, China is the leader in quantum technologies, no two ways about that.
3) Even if China has a Q radar, WRT to the SCS, it is not an issue. This chess board has more than 32 chess-persons at any given time. A Q radar is just one (granted a very potent one). It can tackle a 5th gen object, but not 30 submerged objects OR 100s of other autonomous objects. A Q radar cannot deal with flooding - which is a component of the 6th Gen architecture.
It will be the 13th and 15th launches and landings for the Falcon 9s flying on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively, according to SpaceX. Those are impressive numbers, but they aren't reuse records: Two different Falcon 9 first stages have 16 flights under their belts.
