International Aerospace Discussion

Rahul M · Post by **Rahul M** » 20 Dec 2009 23:12

F-5, iran ?

sumshyam · Post by **sumshyam** » 20 Dec 2009 23:29

Rahul M wrote:F-5, iran ?

ya wiki says that...

Iran
* Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force: 60 or 75 F-5E and F operational; 140 originally delivered
* Unknown numbers of HESA Saeqeh and HESA Azarakhsh fighters derived from the F-5 design

Rahul M · Post by **Rahul M** » 21 Dec 2009 00:18

not just the fact that IRIAF has F-5's, that is by no means uncommon in ME. but iran has a need and a past history of getting spares from the black market to keep its US origin a/c in flying condition.

koti · Post by **koti** » 22 Dec 2009 22:19

Is there any Air to Air missile in IAF arsenal that has Lock on after launch capability?
Thanks.

Gerard · Post by **Gerard** » 24 Dec 2009 17:02

Russia to work on new nuclear missiles: Medvedev

sunny y · Post by **sunny y** » 24 Dec 2009 17:52

Is there any Air to Air missile in IAF arsenal that has Lock on after launch capability?

AFAIK, there aren't any yet. Though they are soon getting Spyder SAM. But they were looking for AAM's with LOAL some 4-5 months ago.

http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?i=4152656

Thanks

sumshyam · Post by **sumshyam** » 24 Dec 2009 22:52

Russian Test of Upgraded Voevoda Missile Deemed Success

The RS-20V Voevoda intercontinental ballistic missile - known by the NATO codename Satan - launched about 6:30 a.m. GMT Dec. 24 from Orenburg in the south Urals and hit its hypothetical target on the Kamchatka peninsula, the spokesman said.

The test firing aimed to check the missile's flight and technical characteristics to extend the service life of the Voevoda-type systems up to 23 years, he told ITAR-TASS.

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 31 Dec 2009 02:21

Russia Considers Mission to Stop 'Asteroid Collision'

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/31/world ... eroid.html

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 31 Dec 2009 10:40

DARPA Wants Flying Car

http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2009/ ... r_123009w/

Vinito · Post by **Vinito** » 05 Jan 2010 04:14

NRao wrote:Hmmmmmmm.................... Bakis STILL have hope getting UAV feeds:

Iraq insurgents 'hack into video feeds from US drones'

Now only if they can hijack one of them ..........................

It may not be a surprise if the Pakis must have given them access to review the predator drone that was provide by the amriki's to help them fight the same ppl who are now hacking into the feeds.

after all, u cannot hack into a video feed of a drone if one is not knowledgeable on how it works.

Shameek · Post by **Shameek** » 05 Jan 2010 20:39

Pentagon prepares for a missile attack from 'Iran'

kmkraoind · Post by **kmkraoind** » 11 Jan 2010 22:27

Russia allocates $17 mn for N-powered spaceship

He said the development of Megawatt-class nuclear space power systems (MCNSPS) for manned spacecraft was crucial if Russia wanted to maintain a competitive edge in the space race, including the exploration of the Moon and Mars.

The draft design of a spacecraft powered by a nuclear propulsion system would be finalised by 2012, and would require an investment of at least 17 billion roubles (over USD 580 million) in next nine years.

NRao · Post by **NRao** » 12 Jan 2010 22:53

Airbus statement overshadowed by A400M

Airbus may cancel A400M military plane

VijayKumarSinha · Post by **VijayKumarSinha** » 16 Jan 2010 21:40

Boeing Silent Eagle Completes RCS Testing

.....The trials, which employed various candidate stealthy coatings, took place last August and September, according to Mark Bass, vice president of F-15s for Boeing. Company officials have selected the optimum coating and say that the RCS testing yielded desired performance.

......Company officials distorted the background of the photo to mask the proprietary capabilities of the chamber, but did not alter the image of the aircraft.

......First flight is slated for July with a demonstration of the conformal fuel tank, which is converted to a weapons bay, to follow by late August. During this test, company officials will fire an Amraam at 20,000 ft flying .6 Mach to ensure that the bay doors and ejection mechanisms function as needed.

VinodTK · Post by **VinodTK** » 17 Jan 2010 20:25

Russia grounds Sukhoi fighters

shiv · Post by **shiv** » 18 Jan 2010 20:00

I realise I can ask search engine unkils - but am feeling lazy.

Could someone summarize what's up with the A 380 and the A 400 - with someone saying that latter may be cancelled?

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 18 Jan 2010 20:48

A400M see Nrao's post above
A380 - doing fine. being delivered to customers. SIA & Quantas among others
are using it
B787 - just took its first flight last month. delayed 2 yrs.

Surya · Post by **Surya** » 18 Jan 2010 21:00

Minor correction

A 380 going OK but has teething problems - bunch of flights got stuck on tarmac and got cancelled

Reportedly over sensitive software.

since these are launch customers an array of Airbus techs are on site to respond quickly

Flightglobal has an article on it

svinayak · Post by **svinayak** » 20 Jan 2010 06:28

http://www.scientificamerican.com/artic ... alth-plane

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhpPhvWvLgk

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 20 Jan 2010 06:58

the PRC has already stolen the design and is preparing to launch a 1000 plane attack on CVNs in the taiwan strait.

VijayKumarSinha · Post by **VijayKumarSinha** » 21 Jan 2010 22:31

Eurofighter boasts USAF F-15 kills by Spanish Typhoons

In an interview on the exercise, Major Juan Balesta, the 41-year old Commander of the 111 Squadron stressed that a two-ship formation of Eurofighters involved in a dogfight simulation "against" the F-15s enjoyed full control of the engagement. The Typhoons managed to smash a formation of eight F-15s which had the role of the attacker with the first Eurofighter jet managing to "shoot down" four F-15 fighter jets. The second Eurofighter managed to disable three F-15 jets.

Gerard · Post by **Gerard** » 24 Jan 2010 18:34

RAF urged to cut ‘Cold War’ new jets for cheap propeller aircraft

General Richards, Chief of the General Staff, believes that the Super Tucano offers a cost-effective alternative to fast jets such as the Cold War-era Eurofighter Typhoon in counter-insurgency operations such as those in Afghanistan. Resembling something from the Second World War, a Super Tucano costs about £5 million, a fraction of the £60 million estimated cost of the F35 Joint Strike Fighter ordered for the Royal Navy’s new aircraft carriers or the £67 million of a Typhoon.

VinodTK · Post by **VinodTK** » 26 Jan 2010 07:36

Drone surge: Today, tomorrow and 2047

The Pentagon plans a 40-year surge to create fleets of ultra-advanced, heavily-armed, increasingly autonomous, all-seeing, hypersonic unmanned aerial systems. These badder, faster drones will be armed to the teeth and have the capability to loiter overhead for days waiting for human targets. For United States air chiefs, it's the stuff of dreams, for others, the stuff of waking nightmares.

Craig Alpert · Post by **Craig Alpert** » 26 Jan 2010 08:48

France Upgrading Their E-3F AWACS

The French Armee de l’Air is upgrading its E-3F AWACS radar aircraft, with a $300+ million order.

The E-3 Sentry AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System) aircraft is based on an airframe that’s closely related to the Boeing 707. It remains the world’s most widely used large-jet AWACS platform, in service with the USAF, Britain, France, NATO, and Saudi Arabia. Over the years, the world’s E-3 fleet has required improvements to keep its radars and electronics current with advances in technology.

France received its 4 E-3F aircraft between 1991-1992, and undertook its own RSIP improvement program from 2002-2006. Now, they have set their E-3F fleet’s upgrade path to Block 40/45 capability…

The most current variant is the E-3 Block 40/45, which is the largest enhancement in the history of the U.S. Air Force E-3 AWACS fleet. It includes new mission computing hardware and software, upgraded radar equipment, and improved navigation and communications systems. Airworthiness testing began in June 2006, mission system testing began in April 2007, and finished in September 2008.
......

Gerard · Post by **Gerard** » 28 Jan 2010 20:11

Obama's budget slashes moon mission, new rockets

When the White House releases his budget proposal Monday, there will be no money for the Constellation program that was supposed to return humans to the moon by 2020. The troubled and expensive Ares I rocket that was to replace the space shuttle to ferry humans to space will be gone, along with money for its big brother, the Ares V cargo rocket that was to launch the fuel and supplies needed to take humans back to the moon.

There will be no lunar landers, no moon bases, no Constellation program at all.

kmkraoind · Post by **kmkraoind** » 28 Jan 2010 21:37

Germany: at Most euro2 Billion Extra for Airbus Plane

The seven nations that have ordered the Airbus A400M military transporter would be willing to contribute a maximum of euro2 billion ($2.81 billion) in extra funding for the troubled project, German officials say.

A German defense ministry official involved in the negotiations was quoted as saying that the nations — Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain and Turkey — "expect an offer from EADS."

Omar · Post by **Omar** » 31 Jan 2010 12:19

Photochor is working for the PAF now:

http://sitelife.aviationweek.com/ver1.0 ... 0.Full.jpg

The image above was taken from this blogpost on AviationWeek: http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/blogs/de ... d=blogDest

Here is the IAF IL-76 tanker that was probably used for the PAFs website:
http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/Image ... 1.jpg.html

pgbhat · Post by **pgbhat** » 31 Jan 2010 12:27

Omar wrote:Photochor is working for the PAF now:

http://sitelife.aviationweek.com/ver1.0 ... 0.Full.jpg

http://forums.bharat-rakshak.com/viewto ... 31#p797131

Gerard · Post by **Gerard** » 04 Feb 2010 02:03

U.S. Warns of N.Korean Missile Technology

The U.S. Defense Department considers North Korea's ballistic missile technology a greater danger than previously believed, a report Wednesday said.

The report predicts the North will have technology to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the U.S. mainland over the Pacific and mounting nuclear warheads by 2020.

Gerard · Post by **Gerard** » 04 Feb 2010 02:04

Iran satellite launch puts rat, turtles in space

Iranian state television said the Kavoshgar 3 (Explorer) rocket carried a capsule containing "live animals" -- marking Iran's first experiment in sending living creatures into space.

Ameet · Post by **Ameet** » 04 Feb 2010 07:03

Pentagon's latest budget buster - F35 Program

http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budget ... -on-course

....rather than being the Chevrolet of the skies, as it was once billed, the fighter plane, also called the F-35, has turned into the Pentagon’s biggest budget-buster. And with worries growing that the rise in costs could overwhelm other programs, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates fired the general in charge this week and said he would withhold $614 million in fees from the prime contractor, Lockheed Martin.

The Air Force, the Navy and the Marines are planning to buy more than 2,400 of the planes. But any delays could force them to spend billions of dollars on less advanced fighters to avoid a shortfall. That, in turn, would reduce their orders for the F-35, driving up the price for each plane and forcing them to cut orders further.

At the Pentagon’s behest, Lockheed Martin has already started building production models of the F-35, even though only 2 percent of the flight test program has been completed. “Unless they convert the program to a fly-before-you-buy approach, they will continue to have pain,” said Winslow T. Wheeler, an analyst for the Center for Defense Information in Washington.

The program, which is by far the Pentagon’s largest, is expected to cost nearly $300 billion if all of the 2,456 planes are purchased in the next 25 years. Eight allied nations have also invested in the program and could buy hundreds of additional planes.

That study found that the development of the plane could be delayed by two and a half years and cost an extra $16.6 billion if no changes were made.

When the Pentagon began thinking about the F-35 in the mid-1990s, the Pentagon was building the F-22, the world’s stealthiest fighter, for aerial dogfights, and it expected to buy 650 to 750 of them. The F-35, which also has stealth features to avoid radar, was meant to focus more on attacking ground targets. Creating three versions with a similar core — one each for the Air Force, the Navy and the Marines — was supposed to make it more affordable.

But while delays and overruns pushed the cost of the F-22 so high that only 187 are being built, the projected costs of the F-35 program have also risen to $298.8 billion from an early estimate of about $200 billion.

Counting all the development costs, each F-35 is now projected to cost about $122 million compared with about $350 million for each F-22. Another concern is that additional problems often appear in flight testing. And a recent Navy study concluded that the F-35 could be significantly more expensive to operate than older fighters.

sumshyam · Post by **sumshyam** » 04 Feb 2010 07:11

Ameet wrote:Pentagon's latest budget buster - F35 Program

http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budget ... -on-course

The Air Force, the Navy and the Marines are planning to buy more than 2,400 of the planes.

That study found that the development of the plane could be delayed by two and a half years and cost an extra $16.6 billion if no changes were made.

But while delays and overruns pushed the cost of the F-22 so high that only 187 are being built, the projected costs of the F-35 program have also risen to $298.8 billion from an early estimate of about $200 billion.

2400....that is great number....!

and 298.8 billions...Yes...I always heard about cost over runs...but never expected that it can be this much...!

Craig Alpert · Post by **Craig Alpert** » 05 Feb 2010 05:22

The LAAR Lightweight Combat Aircraft Is Coming to the Air Force
LAAR

A small, nimble warplane – an economical featherweight compared to robust combat aircraft like the 40-ton F-15E Strike Eagle – now enjoys a high priority on the Air Force’s shopping list as the service remakes itself for counter-insurgency conflicts.
........
One observer, given a glimpse of ACC’s capabilities-based assessment conducted in 2009, made the comment that, “this looks a lot like World War II.” That was a reference to the likely airframe and the guns and bombs it will carry, not to the 21st century digital avionics ACC expects to pack inside. An ACC official responded: “Yeah. We get that a lot.”
.............

Kartik · Post by **Kartik** » 05 Feb 2010 12:28

Check out the timeline for the proposed KAH attack helicopter and compare with the LCH. And if HAL had taken help from a foreign partner, we'd have seen a flurry of articles and comments about how we can't do anything on our own.

This after South Korea already has the Surion which is basically an interior re-design of the Puma.

South Korea eyes development of indigenous fighter and attack helicopter
By Leithen Francis

The South Korean government has decided to fund a two-year study into the development of an indigenous KFX fighter and a Korea Attack Helicopter (KAH), according to the nation's Defence Acquisition Programme Administration (DAPA).

The defence ministry will spearhead the initiative and later this year is expected to submit cost projections, the DAPA says. Seoul will decide at the end of 2012 whether to proceed with full-scale development of the types, it adds.

If the government gives the go-ahead, the timeframe for completing the KAH light attack helicopter would be 2018, with a KFX fighter to follow in 2021, the DAPA says.

Either Korean Air's aerospace company or Korea Aerospace Industries will develop the KAH, with assistance from a foreign partner. Potential partners include AgustaWestland, Boeing, Eurocopter and Sikorsky.

As for the KFX programme, South Korea will foot 60% of the development costs, the DAPA says, adding that the remainder will come from overseas. Some local news reports have cited the Eurofighter consortium and Boeing as potential partners.

To meet its more immediate needs, South Korea plans to call for bids next year on new fighter aircraft, say reports citing unnamed military sources. Seoul also plans to acquire Boeing AH-64 Apache attack helicopters.

kulhari · Post by **kulhari** » 05 Feb 2010 21:49

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg2 ... light.html

NOT so long ago, people in space were either astronauts or cosmonauts. Then the Chinese gave us taikonauts. Now, another billion-strong nation with an ambitious space programme - India - is seeking a new breed of spacefarers: vyomanauts, according to Indian media.

The tongue-twisting term comes from the Sanskrit for sky or space (vyoma, pronounced veeohma). The closest Sanskrit word to astronaut would have been vyomagami, for something that passes in the sky. The other word for an Indian spacefarer that had been bandied about was gaganaut (gagan is also Sanskrit for sky). But, "vyoma is very good", says Choudury Upender Rao, a professor of Sanskrit studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. "It's an appropriate choice."

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is now in the process of choosing four vyomanauts from a pool of 200 fighter pilots, P. Madhusoodanan of the Indian Air Force told DNA, a daily newspaper, this week.

Craig Alpert · Post by **Craig Alpert** » 07 Feb 2010 00:56

IAI Conducts Successful Firing Trial of LAHAT Missiles from IAF COBRA Helicopter

06 Feb 2010 8ak: Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) has conducted a successful firing trial of two Laser Homing Attack (LAHAT) laser- guided missiles from an Israel Air Force (IAF) COBRA helicopter. The missiles were fired from the helicopter at ranges of 3.5 km and 7 km, resulting in direct impact on the targets.

"The LAHAT missile system was based on the company's long history of advanced laser weapon systems for air and ground forces," said Itzhak Nissan, President and CEO of IAI. "For more then 30 years, IAI's MBT Division has been the main Israeli supplier for laser guided munitions for the Israel Defence Forces, as well as for many other satisfied customers worldwide. We are very satisfied with this latest round of firing trials."

The LAHAT is a multi-mission missile fired from wide variety of Land Vehicles, Helicopters, and Tanks. LAHAT, with a length of just one meter and weight of less than 13 kg, is very well suited for use on light-weight helicopters. A LAHAT launcher fully loaded with four missiles weight less than 80 kg.

Despite its small size and light weight, LAHAT is highly effective against a variety of target types, including tanks, at ranges well over 8 km. LAHAT can accurately hit moving targets, including enemy helicopters LAHAT's long range enable helicopters to engage and destroy enemy forces while avoiding the enemy's air defenses.

In its tank version LAHAT is handled by the 105mm or 120mm gunner, as a standard gun round. The missile performs precision homing on a laser-designated target, ensuring first shot, tank-kill at ranges over 6Km. The missile hits the target at an accuracy of 0.7 meter CEP and an angle of over 30 degrees, providing effective penetration of up to 800 mm of armor steel with its tandem warhead to deal with add-on reactive armour.

Gerard · Post by **Gerard** » 07 Feb 2010 18:57

M51 test launch

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26C0dQJ8E-Q

French submarine test-fires M51 missile for first time

sumshyam · Post by **sumshyam** » 08 Feb 2010 17:12

Iran says home-made stealth drone tested

Iran has successfully tested the prototype of its first domestically-built stealth drone, a senior Air Force commander said Sunday.

"The drone, due to its physical attributes and the material used in its body, cannot be detected by any radar," Air Force Brigadier General Aziz Nasirzadeh, the force's coordination deputy, told reporters.

He said data from the test-flight had been favorable and the Air Force will move forward with its plans for the drone, called Sofreh Mahi, meaning Manta Ray in English, Fars News Agency reported.

Brig. Gen. Nasirzadeh, however, explained that the production process will not be rushed as such complex systems need thorough analysis and exhaustive testing.

I am just wondering....how they get so smart..so soon....!

Brando · Post by **Brando** » 08 Feb 2010 19:34

^^

One part propaganda and one part ignorance and lies. The Iranians practice a sad Soviet/Communist philosophy of "show the best and hide the rest". Much like China.

If we are to believe the Iranians they are also have two indigenous fighters programs based on the F-5 platform called the Azaraksh and the Saeqeh; both of which have taken to the air numerous times and are allegedly in low rate production! And they began their program in the early 90s while DRDO has been struggling since time immemorial on a single program the LCA. Obviously, their ambitions exceed their ability.

Venu · Post by **Venu** » 08 Feb 2010 20:02

I heard that they are even able to manage all the american weapons including the venerable F-14s on their own from decades.

May be its time we work with them!!