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[CONNAN]

US national security adviser’s visit fuels hope for 126 fighter aircraft deal

US national security adviser’s visit fuels hope for 126 fighter aircraft deal

BY EDITOR AT 15 JULY, 2010, 3:12 PM

BY: TNN

US national security adviser Gen James Jones in his first preparatory talks for US President Barack Obama’s visit here in November spent some quality time with Air Chief Marshal P V Naik in a meeting that has rekindled interest in the humongous 126 fighter aircraft deal.

Jones met the PM and his Indian counterpart Shiv Shankar Menon on Wednesday. On Thursday, he is scheduled to meet home minister P Chidambaram, leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley, defence minister A K Antony and the Army and Navy chiefs. The US is very interested in the fighter deal, but the Air Force is reportedly still working on the report after the trials.

The visit — slated for the first week of November — is expected to sharpen the US and India’s focus on each other, particularly since the bilateral tiesseem to have developed some wrinkles of late.

The Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft is a $10.4-billion deal, and two US firms — Lockheed Martin and Boeing — are among the six foreign contenders to grab the lucrative project to supply 126 fighters to the Indian Air Force

 

[CONNAN]

BY: GRIPEN.COM
International public debut of Gripen NG Demonstrator

Gripen NG Demonstrator will be displayed to the public for the first time outside Sweden. The event will take place in the UK during the Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) in Fairford 17–18 July and the following week at the Farnborough International Airshow.

The fighter will be arriving in Farnborough on Monday, 19 July and will be on static display until Friday 23 July.

Gripen NG Demonstrator is a flying platform for the development of new technologies and features incorporated into the Gripen NG – the next generation fighter with significantly increased combat range and endurance, increased payload and super-cruise capability.

“The extensive flight test programme with Gripen NG Demonstrator aircraft continues successfully and according to plan at the Saab facilities in Linköping, Sweden. This gives us the unique opportunity to bring the aircraft to UK during the Swedish summer holiday break,” says Lennart Sindahl, Senior Vice President Saab AB and Head of Business Area Aeronautics.

Previously, the Gripen NG Demonstrator has only been outside Sweden once. This was in May this year when it flew from Sweden to India, where evaluation trials were conducted by the Indian Air Force. This demanding evaluation phase included operations at the Indian air base Leh, situated 3300 meters above sea level. During this time, the aircraft also passed its 150th flight and to date it has conducted more than 175 sucessful flights.

The Gripen NG Programme offers a completely new avionics systems structure which will guarantee over 100% spare computing capacity and 30% spare capacity in all of the aircraft systems. The new structure makes it very easy and cost-effective to incorporate new functionality or integrate new hardware which in turn ensures that Gripen maintains its world leading capability throughout its service life.

Saab is now testing all the tactical systems, such as the AESA radar and the new communications system.

“The test programme is very extensive, we have finished, and successfully verified, the flight tests of the electro-optical Missile Approach Warning System (MAWS) and the new fuel system with larger internal fuel tanks,” says Mattias Bergström, the Gripen NG Demonstrator project manager.

The results of the Gripen NG Demonstrator Program will be used in both existing and new versions of the Gripen specifically tailored to the needs of specific customers, both nationally and for export.

 

[CONNAN]

Eurofighter nations offered AESA radar enhancement

BY EDITOR AT 16 JULY, 2010, 2:05 AM

By Craig Hoyle / Flight International
The Euroradar consortium has made an offer to provide an active electronically scanned array radar enhancement for Eurofighter partner nations Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK.

“We have tabled a proposal using risk-reduction work that has already been done,” says Steve Mogford, chief executive of Selex Galileo, lead stakeholder in the Euroradar group. “We’re just waiting for them to drop the flag.” The move represents a standalone offer, and is not linked to the proposed Tranche 3B production phase of the Eurofighter programme, he adds.

The Euroradar consortium has proposed retaining as much “back-end” equipment from the Eurofighter’s current mechanically scanned radar as possible as part of delivering the proposed E-Captor system.

http://www.flightglobal.com/assets/getAsset.aspx?ItemID=33823
© Eurofighter

Selex Galileo is already working towards integrating an AESA array with the Eurofighter for the UK under a technology demonstration programme worth around £20 million ($30 million). A modified aircraft is expected to fly in 2013 under the initiative.

The Eurofighter industrial consortium has cited the availability of an AESA array as a key addition if it is to secure additional export orders with the Typhoon. The type is currently being offered to meet requirements in nations including India, Japan, Oman and Switzerland.

 

[CONNAN]

India may ink MMRCA project of Rs 42K cr by mid-2011
BY EDITOR AT 16 JULY, 2010, 2:23 AM

BY : TNN

Even as the Americans, Europeans and Russians jostle to bag the “mother of all defence deals”, India too is now pressing the throttle to ensure the contract to acquire 126 new fighters under the Rs 42,000-crore medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) project is inked by mid-2011.

IAF, after all, wants to induct the first lot of these 126 fighters by 2014 to retain its combat edge. It is left with just 32 fighter squadrons (each has 12 to 18 jets) at present, down from the “sanctioned” strength of 39.5 squadrons. This when Pakistan is getting new American F-16s and Chinese fighters, while China assiduously builds new airbases in Tibet and south China.

“We are ready with the flight evaluation trials (FET) report of the six foreign fighters in contention. Based on it, we are right now generating the staff evaluation report. Both will be submitted to defence ministry by this month-end,” said IAF chief Air Chief Marshal P V Naik, in an exclusive interview to TOI on Thursday.

The eagerly-awaited reports, which have evaluated the fighters on as many as 643 technical attributes after the gruelling field trials, will be followed by evaluation of offset proposals, opening of commercial bids and the final complex negotiations.

The hotly-contested race to bag the lucrative MMRCA project, the largest such programme around the globe, is among F/A-18 `Super Hornet’ and F-16 `Falcon’ (both US), Gripen (Swedish), Rafale (French), MiG-35 (Russian) and Eurofighter Typhoon jets.

“We definitely need the MMRCA, LCA (the indigenous Tejas light combat aircraft) and FGFA (the fifth-generation fighter aircraft to be developed with Russia) without any delays to retain our combat edge,” said ACM Naik.

“We also have signed deals for 230 Sukhoi-30MKI fighters (over 110 have been inducted) with Russia. Another 42 Sukhois will be ordered soon. We want at least 42 fighter squadrons by 2022,” he added.

All eyes, of course, are on the MMRCA project. “The trials have been conducted in an exemplary, fair and professional manner. We have to be very transparent because the deal is very large,” said the IAF chief.

“The amount of data collated in our voluminous and exhaustive reports is phenomenal. They, in fact, can serve as a template to evaluate aircraft by any country,” he added.

As reported earlier, India is also likely to factor in its geo-strategic interests while deciding the MMRCA winner, with PM Manmohan Singh himself holding large defence deals must be leveraged to serve the country’s larger diplomatic ends.

This will be the first time that India will take into account “life-cycle costs” — the cost of operating the fighters over a 40-year period, with 6,000 hours of flying — rather than just pitching for the lowest bidder in a defence contract. While 18 jets will be bought off-the-shelf, the rest will be manufactured in India under transfer of technology to Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd.

 

[MZUBAIR]

India may ink MMRCA project of Rs 42K cr by mid-2011
BY EDITOR AT 16 JULY, 2010, 2:23 AM

BY : TNN

Even as the Americans, Europeans and Russians jostle to bag the “mother of all defence deals”, India too is now pressing the throttle to ensure the contract to acquire 126 new fighters under the Rs 42,000-crore medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) project is inked by mid-2011.

IAF, after all, wants to induct the first lot of these 126 fighters by 2014 to retain its combat edge. It is left with just 32 fighter squadrons (each has 12 to 18 jets) at present, down from the “sanctioned” strength of 39.5 squadrons. This when Pakistan is getting new American F-16s and Chinese fighters, while China assiduously builds new airbases in Tibet and south China.

“We are ready with the flight evaluation trials (FET) report of the six foreign fighters in contention. Based on it, we are right now generating the staff evaluation report. Both will be submitted to defence ministry by this month-end,” said IAF chief Air Chief Marshal P V Naik, in an exclusive interview to TOI on Thursday.

The eagerly-awaited reports, which have evaluated the fighters on as many as 643 technical attributes after the gruelling field trials, will be followed by evaluation of offset proposals, opening of commercial bids and the final complex negotiations.

The hotly-contested race to bag the lucrative MMRCA project, the largest such programme around the globe, is among F/A-18 `Super Hornet’ and F-16 `Falcon’ (both US), Gripen (Swedish), Rafale (French), MiG-35 (Russian) and Eurofighter Typhoon jets.

“We definitely need the MMRCA, LCA (the indigenous Tejas light combat aircraft) and FGFA (the fifth-generation fighter aircraft to be developed with Russia) without any delays to retain our combat edge,” said ACM Naik.

“We also have signed deals for 230 Sukhoi-30MKI fighters (over 110 have been inducted) with Russia. Another 42 Sukhois will be ordered soon. We want at least 42 fighter squadrons by 2022,” he added.

All eyes, of course, are on the MMRCA project. “The trials have been conducted in an exemplary, fair and professional manner. We have to be very transparent because the deal is very large,” said the IAF chief.

“The amount of data collated in our voluminous and exhaustive reports is phenomenal. They, in fact, can serve as a template to evaluate aircraft by any country,” he added.

As reported earlier, India is also likely to factor in its geo-strategic interests while deciding the MMRCA winner, with PM Manmohan Singh himself holding large defence deals must be leveraged to serve the country’s larger diplomatic ends.

This will be the first time that India will take into account “life-cycle costs” — the cost of operating the fighters over a 40-year period, with 6,000 hours of flying — rather than just pitching for the lowest bidder in a defence contract. While 18 jets will be bought off-the-shelf, the rest will be manufactured in India under transfer of technology to Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd.

Y so delay...
It was first expected in 2007 then 09 then in 10 and now in 2011.
Any ways best of luck India may be this time they will descide.

 

[CONNAN]

Y so delay...
It was first expected in 2007 then 09 then in 10 and now in 2011.
Any ways best of luck India may be this time they will descide.

well some of our poltical baboons are in deep slumber cant help it buddy

 

[anoopsaxena76]

Any big defence deal overshoots the originally proposed timeline. That is true of any deal anywhere in the world, even internally.

What I do not understand seriously though is why is the IAF looking at these planes? They are looking at 4th Gen planes with some cosmetic changes done to call them 4+. This is going to be prohibitively costly in the long run.

Regards,
Anoop.

 

[Archie]

Any big defence deal overshoots the originally proposed timeline. That is true of any deal anywhere in the world, even internally.

What I do not understand seriously though is why is the IAF looking at these planes? They are looking at 4th Gen planes with some cosmetic changes done to call them 4+. This is going to be prohibitively costly in the long run.

Regards,
Anoop.

Well u have a valid point up there ,
However india cannot wait till 2018 for the induction of PAKFA ,
You must be knowing that india operates 32-33 fighter squadron against a sanctioned strength of 39.5
So we are already down by about 7
Another thing is that it will be stupid to believe that mmrca will replace the mig21 , thats bogus
Out of the 450 migs which were inducted between 1970-1984 , only 210 remain in service , the rest having been retired or lost in crashes.
These aircraft have been in part replaced by the Su30mki ,120 of which are currently in service .
We have a deficit of 6-7 squadrons becoz out of the 240 mig21 which have been retired or lost , only 120 have been replaced by Su30mki , the rest of the migs will be replaced by 150 Su30mki and 140 Tejas .
THATS 410 AIRCRAFTS REPLACING 450 WHICH IS NOT BAD

The mmrca will replace , firstly the 100 Odd Mig27 curently in service , and to some extend the Jaguar .
India currently operate around 139 Jaguars which include 102 IS ,12 IM and 24 trainers , out of this 100 jaguar IS and 20 trainers will be Upgraded and will remain in service till 2022 , the sole IM squadron will retire
India has also ordered 47 Jaguars including 40 IS and 7 Trainers , of the same spec as the upgraded JaguarsN
These are meant to replace 43 Mig27 ie 32 upg fighters and 11 trainers which were supposed to operate till 2022 , and now will be retired along with the rest of mig 27s in a phased manner starting 2012
Now if i have made myself clear then u would understand the real reason behind acquiring mmrca , that is to the bulk of our ground attack fighters instead of just the mig21 interceptors
These being replaced by Su30mki for Airsuperiority , and LCA as interceptor
If india were to just wait and acquire PAKFA in 2018 , then we would have been left with a fleet of just 67 Jaguars and 51 Mirage 2000 ie 118 ground attack aircraft by 2022 as against a present fleet of 288 AIR TO GROUND AIRCRAFT
Even the PAKFA is primarily an air superiority fighter , and you require a good mix of both air superiority and ground attack for an air force
as far as india is concerned , i expect them to operate 500 air superiority , 200 ground attack and 140 interceptors in 2025 , making a squadron strength of 42

 

[KEETARP]

BY: GRIPEN.COM
International public debut of Gripen NG Demonstrator

The Gripen NG Programme offers a completely new avionics systems structure which will guarantee over 100% spare computing capacity and 30% spare capacity in all of the aircraft systems. The new structure makes it very easy and cost-effective to incorporate new functionality or integrate new hardware which in turn ensures that Gripen maintains its world leading capability throughout its service life.


“The test programme is very extensive, we have finished, and successfully verified, the flight tests of the electro-optical Missile Approach Warning System (MAWS) and the new fuel system with larger internal fuel tanks,” says Mattias Bergström, the Gripen NG Demonstrator project manager.

Red part of above article is interesting ,
Electro-optical MAWS ........
Meaning Enhanced Situational awareness with passive detection.
\ (NG-DDM now available with Gripen )

 

[hal-fgfa]

Y so delay...
It was first expected in 2007 then 09 then in 10 and now in 2011.
Any ways best of luck India may be this time they will descide.

We need MRCA fighter to counter Chinese J10B and thats still in development phase so dont wary till then our MKIs are enough for all .

 

[Dash]

We need MRCA fighter to counter Chinese J10B and thats still in development phase so dont wary till then our MKIs are enough for all .

All of us...

Can we please go beyond China??, it sometimes sucks when some of us say that our progress in any term is in race with China, towards China all of that.

So please dont compare our things with China, we are not in race with them.

 

[jha]

Tests over, IAF set to pick one out of 6 contenders for mega jet deal


NEW DELHI: Even as the Americans, Europeans and Russians jostle to bag the "mother of all defence deals'', India too is now pressing the throttle to ensure the contract to acquire 126 new fighters under the Rs 42,000-crore medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) project is inked by mid-2011.

IAF, after all, wants to induct the first lot of these 126 fighters by 2014 to retain its combat edge. It is left with just 32 fighter squadrons (each has 12 to 18 jets) at present, down from the "sanctioned'' strength of 39.5 squadrons. This when Pakistan is getting new American F-16s and Chinese fighters, while China assiduously builds new airbases in Tibet and south China.

"We are ready with the flight evaluation trials (FET) report of the six foreign fighters in contention. Based on it, we are right now generating the staff evaluation report. Both will be submitted to defence ministry by this month-end,'' said IAF chief Air Chief Marshal P V Naik, in an exclusive interview to TOI on Thursday.

The eagerly-awaited reports, which have evaluated the fighters on as many as 643 technical attributes after the gruelling field trials, will be followed by evaluation of offset proposals, opening of commercial bids and the final complex negotiations.

The hotly-contested race to bag the lucrative MMRCA project, the largest such programme around the globe, is among F/A-18 `Super Hornet' and F-16 `Falcon' (both US), Gripen (Swedish), Rafale (French), MiG-35 (Russian) and Eurofighter Typhoon jets.

"We definitely need the MMRCA, LCA (the indigenous Tejas light combat aircraft) and FGFA (the fifth-generation fighter aircraft to be developed with Russia) without any delays to retain our combat edge,'' said ACM Naik.

"We also have signed deals for 230 Sukhoi-30MKI fighters (over 110 have been inducted) with Russia. Another 42 Sukhois will be ordered soon. We want at least 42 fighter squadrons by 2022,'' he added.

All eyes, of course, are on the MMRCA project. "The trials have been conducted in an exemplary, fair and professional manner. We have to be very transparent because the deal is very large,'' said the IAF chief.

"The amount of data collated in our voluminous and exhaustive reports is phenomenal. They, in fact, can serve as a template to evaluate aircraft by any country,'' he added.

As reported earlier, India is also likely to factor in its geo-strategic interests while deciding the MMRCA winner, with PM Manmohan Singh himself holding large defence deals must be leveraged to serve the country's larger diplomatic ends.

This will be the first time that India will take into account "life-cycle costs'' -- the cost of operating the fighters over a 40-year period, with 6,000 hours of flying -- rather than just pitching for the lowest bidder in a defence contract. While 18 jets will be bought off-the-shelf, the rest will be manufactured in India under transfer of technology to Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd.

 

[KEETARP]

Ministry of Defence, Govt of India

Note part is important

17. Transfer of Technology (TOT)(If applicable). The Govt of India, Ministry of Defence is desirous of license production of (generic name of equipment) under TOT. Aspects of TOT which are to be fulfilled by the vendor are given at Appendix ‘L’. Govt reserves the right to negotiate TOT terms subsequently but the availability of TOT would be a pre-condition for any further procurements. If negotiations for TOT are not held as a part of the negotiations for equipment, then subsequent and separate TOT negotiations would continue from the stage where the equipment has been selected.

Note:-
(The RFP in such cases would spell out the requirements of TOT depending upon the depth of the technology which is required, and whose range could cover technology for repair and overhaul; production from CKD/SKD kits and production from raw material and components level. Aspects which are to be included in the RFP in case production from CKD/SKD/IM kits are given at Appendix ‘L’ to Schedule I. Care should be taken to spell out the selection criteria clearly. The nominated Production Agency (PA) for the receipt of technology will be closely associated in the preparation of RFP).

Full TOT for the following systems for overhaul and repair is mandatory:
(i) Air Frame including metallic and composite structures,
empennage,
(ii) Canopy, Radome, Special process, Casting & Forgings
(iii) Flight Control Systems including FBW hardware and software
(iv) Landing Gear system including all castings and forgings
(v) Electrical and Avionics systems including Cockpit display systems
(vi) Instruments, Communication and Navigation equipment, Power
generation and distribution systems.
(vii) Power Plant System including FADEC, Engine accessories,
Turbine, NGV and compressor blades
(viii) Hydraulic System including pumps, servo actuators along with its
spool & sleeve
(ix) Wheels and brakes system
(x) Fuel System including in flight refuelling
(xi) Environment system including OBOX, Pneumatic system
(xii) Ejection Seat
(xiii) Weapon Systems Integration, hardware and software.

......................................

(c) The TOT shall be for “D” level maintenance to cover Airframe, Engines,
Avionics and other aggregates. . It shall be comprehensive and shall cover all aspects of maintenance up to the lowest level which will enable the Maintenance Agency to, repair, overhaul, support and maintain the license product. TOT shall include the details that are needed to give disposition during the maintenance on deviation/ concession; modify/ upgrade the licence product and substitute parts and systems of the licence product as required by the certifying agency and the maintenance agency.

(a) The TOT Documentation to be provided by the OEM shall be in English
language in Electronic and hardcopy formats, and include documentation under the following heads:-


(i) “D” level Maintenance documentation in ATA100/ATA iSpec
2200.
(ii) Engineering documentation including special process.
(iii) Software documentation including source code, build
environment and utilities.
(iv) Details of Special tools and Test equipments, Jigs & Fixtures.
(v) OEM’s Standard Technical Manuals.
(vi) Illustrated parts catalogue with price list.
(vii) Source identification for BOIs and subcontracted items; standard
parts consumables etc.
(viii) Mandatory spares replacement lists and price catalogue for O,I,
and D level maintenances.

 

[Dash]

Hi Prateek -

xiii) Weapon Systems Integration, hardware and software.

This one actually includes all. have we mentioned any level of TOT in this case or we want full?. iam sure no body had agreed to this. Have they?

 

[KEETARP]

Software Part -
Source code we keep talking of

2. Software Documentation.
(As per IEE 12207/MIL-STD-498)
(a) Software Requirement Specification.
(b) Interface design document.
(c) Software change proposals.
(d) Firmware support manual for embedded software.
(e) Software environment/tools including third party procurements.
(f) Software test procedure.
(g) Software User Manual.
(h) Software installation procedure including user settings of pass words, site
specific data and any customization code/ key or encryption.
(j) IV & V details (independent verification & validation).

Point no "h"