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17 Hawk Advanced Jet Trainers for Indian Navy

24th Sep 2013

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The Indian Navy has received the first of 17 Hawk Advanced Jet Trainers, becoming the third naval operator of the Hawk along with the US Navy and the Royal Navy.

The 17 Hawk aircraft ordered by the Indian Navy form part of a contract for 57 aircraft signed in 2010 of which 40 are for the Indian Air Force.

Among its 18 customers worldwide, India is the largest operator of the Hawk Advanced Jet Trainer with 123 aircraft ordered to date, of which over 70 have been delivered to the Indian Air Force. Hawk trainers already in service with the Indian Air Force are performing well.

Adding to the Indian Navy’s fleet of aircraft, the Hawk provides the ideal platform for pilots to transition smoothly to the Navy’s frontline aircraft. Hawk effectively integrates air and ground based elements offering the most efficient and cost-effective method of training pilots.

http://www.defencereviewasia.com/articles/246/17-Hawk-Advanced-Jet-Trainers-for-Indian-Navy
 
India Halts VSHORAD Contest To Weigh Stinger Offer
India Halts VSHORAD Contest To Weigh Stinger Offer | Defense News | defensenews.com

Nov. 12, 2013 - 04:34PM
NEW DELHIIndia has halted the procurement process for a very-short-range air defense (VSHORAD) system while the Defence Ministry considers a Raytheon proposal to sell the Stinger on a government-to-government basis, an Indian Army source said.

The original VSHORAD tender of 2010 has not been shelved, added the source, but if the Raytheon proposal is accepted, it could be canceled.

Saab, MBDA and Rosoboronexport are competing in response to the tender and are awaiting the downselect since completing the requisite trials nearly a year ago. Army sources said Saab is the frontrunner after the trials.

Raytheon’s proposal to supply the Stinger system was received nearly three months ago, the source said, and the Defence Ministry began seriously considering it after Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Washington in September, the source said.

While no Raytheon executive here would comment whether the Stinger offer has been made, the source said Raytheon has even proposed a possible joint development of the Stinger VSHORAD system with India’s state-owned Bharat Dynamics.

The Stinger would also form part of the package for the 22 Apache attack helicopters the Air Force selected. Boeing’s Apache edged out Russia’s Mi-28 for the US $1.2 billion Air Force contract last year.

India is also considering mounting Stinger missiles on the 210 Mi-17 helicopters the Air Force has contracted with Russia, the source said.

Under the government’s existing proposal, the Army plans to buy 5,175 VSHORAD systems with technology transfer expected. Out of these, 2,300 systems would be acquired fully built, 1,260 in a partially constructed condition, and the remaining will be license-produced in India.

The VSHORAD system must be able to engage aerial targets day and night, have an effective range of 6 kilometers and be able to strike targets at an altitude greater than 3,000 meters. The Army wants to replace its aging Russian-made Igla air defense systems and wants a manportable VSHORAD weighing less than 25 kilograms.

An executive with one of the competitors claimed that its system far exceeded the Staff Qualitative Requirements, adding that they are awaiting the results of the downselect after the trials.
 
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India Expected to Approve Barak Missile Buy | Defense News | defensenews.com

Nov. 12, 2013 - 07:56PM

NEW DELHI— India is likely to proceed with the purchase of Barak missiles from Rafael despite a probe of alleged corruption involving prime contractor Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and former Indian Defence Minister, George Fernandes, an Indian Defence Ministry source said.

India’s top weapons purchasing authority, the Defence Acquisition Council, said at a Nov. 11 meeting that it had referred the missile purchase to an internal committee for evaluation.

India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had charged Fernandes in a $326 million deal involving the purchase of Barak anti missile systems from IAI, contracted in 2000. So far, the CBI has not released any findings on the probe.

But the Defence Ministry source said the CBI is likely to close the case against IAI and described the internal inquiry is only a formality.

The Navy has been demanding the purchase of Barak missiles, but the Defence Ministry has been holding back because of the alleged kickback case. Currently, three of the Indian Navy ships that have the Barak air defense system on board have no missiles.

The Navy had given a proposal to the Defence Ministry early this year to procure about 300 Barak missiles for the warships Ranvir, Brahmaputra, Betwa and Beas at a cost of around $100 million.

The Barak under purchase is ananti-aircraft, anti-missile system with a range of 70 kilometers, a warhead of 52 kilograms and speed of Mach 2.
 
In defense, India is a sleeping giant: EADS Global Chief Tom Enders


Tom Enders, a German paratrooper in his youth, has been trooping into India every year for the past seven years. The chief executive of European defence and aerospace giant EADS, which has in its fold entities such as Airbus, Eurocopter, Cassidian and Astrium, was in Delhi to meet several top government officials. Enders says the 56.5-billion EADS - the first foreign company to strike a joint venture in defence with an Indian private company (Larsen & Toubro) - is excited about local engineering talent. In an exclusive interview with ET the 54-year-old also talks about the opportunities and challenges in civil and military aviation in the country, lessons from a failed merger with BAE Systems, the ongoing re-structuring exercise, which includes renaming of the company as the Airbus Group, and the hazards of doing business in democracies. Edited excerpts:

How do you expect the ongoing re-structuring and re-branding exercise at EADS to help boost presence in markets such as India?

Our defence business is now scattered over four of our divisions - from aerospace to military and space. So, we decided that this was not the optimal way of organising business, particularly at a time when the business is shrinking in Europe and flattening in North America. There was a clear need for consolidating our defence business with the space business because we have some overlaps within segments.

To give you an example, when a customer has a need for wide-area surveillance, our space guys offer low-flying satellites and defence guys high-flying UAVs, separately. That is not the way to drive competitiveness. You consolidate because you think that way you can save costs, can be more efficient, and you can focus much better on customers.

This consolidation should help us a lot in countries like India to have greater focus on the customer. (Following re-structuring and rebranding, EADS will have three core units: Cassidian and Astrium will be combined with Airbus Military and called Airbus Defense & Space; Eurocopter, the world's largest commercial helicopter maker, will be renamed Airbus Helicopters. Passenger aircraft, Airbus, will form the third core unit)

Are you looking at investing morin R&D in India?

I am a big fan of crawl, walk and run strategy. If you look where we were 5-6 years ago, we were almost nothing in India, but now we already have two engineering centres in Bangalore, one working for the commercial side for Airbus and the other working for Cassidian (which will soon be part of the core defence unit, Airbus Defence and Space).

We have a couple of hundred people working for us and have two additional offshore development centres with partners here. All in all, we have more than 2,500 people working for us, employed by but also in subcontracting. Our business units in Europe are very positive about the work done here. We are looking forward to actively utilising these capabilities to grow in India, which we no longer see as a market. This is a place where we want to build our own Indian identity.

Our sourcing business in India is 10 times more than it was six years ago. We are now around 250 million euros per year. Our own employee population has gone up 10 times during the period.

What are your business growth expectations in the country?

We have something called general market forecast for 20 years. The numbers for India, I believe, are very conservative: sale of 1,200 commercial aircraft.

How bullish are you about India? Could you explain it in numbers?

From now to 2020, we expect to grow in sourcing to a billion euros, a quadruple growth from now. As I said, India certainly is one of the key countries where we think we need to take steps to be Indian. It is easy for us to do so because we are a truly international aerospace and defence company because we have pooled in resources from four different countries to make it happen.

I don't think it was easy to get the Germans and the French together in one company. We also have overcome the historical baggage that separates the British and the French. But once you integrate, you are far more sensitive to other cultures and histories. We expect to become a household name in India soon, under the future name, Airbus.


Read more at:
In defense, India is a sleeping giant: EADS Global Chief Tom Enders - Economic Times
 
Fraud Charges May Scuttle Indian Helo | Defense News | defensenews.com

NEW DELHI The Indian Ministry of Defence has ordered state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) to accelerate development of its indigenous Light Utility Helicopter (LUH) program because fraud charges may derail the procurement of 197 helos from overseas, said an MoD source.

While no decision has yet been taken on canceling the 2009 tender, in which Eurocopter (Now Airbus Helicopters) and Kamov of Russia are competing, the source said, India’s anti-fraud agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), formally leveled charges against a serving Indian Army officer for alleged involvement in manipulating the trial report of the LUH procurement. Charges were made last week.

The officer’s alleged involvement came to light last year when an investigating team traveled to Italy to probe alleged corrupt practices by AgustaWestland to win a contract to provide 12 AW101 helicopters. The team discovered a document in which the Indian Army officer had allegedly offered AgustaWestland to turn the LUH contract in their favor. However, AgustaWestland was eliminated in the first round of procurement in the technical evaluation stage.

Eurocopter and Kamov executives were unavailable for comments.

Politics is also playing a role because general elections are slotted for May and the ruling United Progressive Alliance government will not want to be viewed as ignoring corruption, said Nitin Mehta, new Delhi based defense analyst.

The $500 million LUH tender was issued in 2009 to Eurocopter for its Fennec AS550 C3 helicopter, to AgustaWestland for the AW119 and Kamov for the 226T helicopter.

The MoD source said that if the tender is canceled, the order for 197 helicopters will be given to HAL, which is developing an LUH for the Indian Army and Air Force.

HAL’s LUH, however, is still in initial development and the Army urgently needs the aircraft to ferry troops and material to battlefields at high altitudes in northern India bordering Pakistan and China. Currently, the Army and Air Force are using Cheetah and Chetak helicopters license-produced by HAL for logistic support at altitudes of more than 20,000 feet, where the military needs to operate at the Siachen glacier and the upper reaches of the Himalayas bordering China.

The Cheetahs and Chetaks have outlived their life expectancy and the Army and Air Force have been demanding replacements for more than a decade.

An Army official said cancellation of the LUH tender would be a severe blow to Army logistics operations, but added that HAL’s record in delivering equipment is unsatisfactory and should not be counted on as the sole supplier of LUH resources. The LUH should be procured as quickly as possible on a government-to-government basis if the tender is canceled, the official said.

Status of LUH

HAL officials said they will achieve initial operational clearance of the LUH by the end of 2015 and begin serial production by mid-2017. A contract for 187 light utility helicopters is expected from MoD by the end of the month, a HAL official said, and the official claimed the company’s LUH would be 10 percent cheaper than that of Eurocopter or Kamov.

The single-engine LUH would be powered by a French-made Turbomecca engine. Of those 187 helicopters, 127 would go to the Army and 61 for the Air Force.

“The development of LUH has progressed with the completion of three milestones, including the configuration freeze, design freeze, and transmission and rotor design. And currently, the detail design and analysis milestone and ground test vehicle run milestones are in progress,” said an official of HAL.

The helicopters will be used for multiple missions for both services, including reconnaissance and surveillance; directing artillery fire; transporting small numbers of troops; nuclear, biological and chemical monitoring; casualty evacuation; and airborne forward air control.

LUH Tender

If canceled, this would mark the second time the program was halted. In 2007, Eurocopter, with its Fennec helicopter, was on the verge of being declared the winner when US-based Bell Helicopters complained to the MoD about a lack of transparency in the procurement process and that tender was canceled in 2008.

In the recent competition, an Army source said there have been issues with the trials of the two competitors. The Airbus Helicopters candidate has had some problems operating at high altitudes, and the Army wants it to be able to accommodate a second stretcher, which will require structural modifications, added the source.

Kamov has offered a choice of two Western engines, but the engines will require re-certification.

 
HAL Marut
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Wow I didn't know that Marut had inlet cones, many say that they are the predecessors of the diverterless supersonic inlet; DSIs are practically based on ramps and cones like those.
Any ways won't say much or I may invoke the ire of some Pakistani member who wholeheartedly believes that they were the 'first' to implement DSIs.
 
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India Signs Contract for Ukrainian Anti-Aircraft Artillery | Defense | RIA Novosti

MOSCOW, February 10 (RIA Novosti) – An Indian company has signed a contract with a Ukraine weapons exporter to buy up to 138 anti-aircraft vehicles, the Ukrainian defense conglomerate Ukroboronprom said on its website Monday.

According to the statement, one anti-aircraft gun and one command vehicle will be sent to India’s Larsen & Toubro for evaluation, and the company will then have the right to purchase up to 138 of the systems under the contract.

The vehicles, which were not named, would be produced by three Ukrainian firms, according to the statement.

Ukraine has earlier produced an upgraded version of the Soviet Shilka self-propelled anti-aircraft gun, which can engage low-flying targets with radar-guided rapid-fire cannons.

The ZSU-23-4 Shilka, which resembles a tank with four short cannons in place of a long gun, has seen combat in numerous conflicts, including in the Soviet war in Afghanistan and the ongoing civil war in Syria, where it has been used in an improvised fashion against elevated ground targets.
 

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