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Indian Air Force Mi-17s and C-130J at AF Day dress rehearsal today
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IAF modernising at fast pace to meet challenges

We have to be wherever India's strategic interests are, says Air Chief Marshal Browne

The process of modernisation [of the IAF] is going on at a fast rate, and I am not aware of any air force doing so in 15 years… We have to be [reaching] wherever the country's strategic interests are,” he said at apress conference, ahead of the Air Force Day that falls on October 8. Its traditional strategic sphere lay between the Gulf of Aden and the Straits of Malacca; but with India's global footprint expanding, the IAF should be ready to serve wherever India's strategic interests rested, he said.

Air Chief Marshal Browne said the IAF would reach its sanctioned strength of 42 squadrons by 2022 — it now has 34 squadrons — and commercial bids for the 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft should be opened by month-end.
 
Rest in Peace, Sqn Ldr (Retd) Baldev Singh

Tarmak007 -- A bold blog on Indian defence: R.I.P. Baldy

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---------- Post added at 05:48 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:46 PM ----------

Livefist: HAL Chief Test Pilot Found Dead. Suicide?

Shocking news. HAL's chief test pilot (fixed wing) and recently made Director (Corporate Planning & Marketing) Squadron Leader (Retd) Baldev Singh was found dead this morning. Possible suicide. He was apparently on holiday in Karnataka's Nandi Hills, where his body was found. More details shortly. R.I.P.

An official profile released recently: Sqn Ldr Singh took over as Director (Corporate Planning & Marketing) at HAL in August. Before that, he was Executive Director Flight Operations and the Chief Test Pilot (Fixed Wing) at HAL's Bangalore Complex.

Singh was involved with the LCA Programme from 1990 onwards and was deputed to the Aeronautical Development Agency for this purpose. On the LCA programme he worked extensively on the development and flight testing of the flight control laws of the Light Combat aircraft. He carried out the flight evaluation of these flight control laws at the Real Time simulator at BAE Wharton in UK followed by the flight evaluation of these control laws on the F-16, Lear Jet and NT-33 aircraft in the US.

Singh had extensive test flying experience on five prototype programmes and carried out the first flights of the HANSA aircraft and the Intermediate Jet Trainer. He has a Total Flight Test Experience of over 6000 hrs on over 55 different types of aircraft. He is a Qualified Flying Instructor and holds a diploma in Aviation Flight Safety from the Naval Post Graduate College, Monterey Bay, California, USA.

He joined the National Defence Academy in 1970 and graduated from the academy in December 1972 and was commissioned into the Indian Air Force in June 1973 as a fighter pilot.

After doing operational flying on Hunter, MiG-21 and MiG-23 aircraft, he qualified as a Flight Instructor in July 1983, and was posted to Air Force Academy at Hyderabad for Instructional Flying Duties on the Kiran Aircraft. In 1984 he did his experimental test pilots course and was deputed to HAL in 1986. He retired from the Indian Air Force in 1989 and joined HAL.

Livefist: Why Did HAL's Veteran Chief Test Pilot Kill Himself?
A question troubling Squadron Leader (Retd) Baldev Singh's many friends in the flying fraternity and air force. There is no information so far on a suicide note. Investigations are currently on, and it's too early to speculate on what happened: was it work pressure (Singh was recently elevated to the position of a Director at HAL), was it something personal. I've interacted with Sqn Ldr Singh on a few occasions since 2004, but I cannot say that I knew him well. I did speak to six people who either knew him well or worked closely with him, and all describe him as a soft-spoken, sober, self-effacing gentleman. My condolences to his family. And I will post, as and when I get more information on this deeply tragic turn of events. R.I.P

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Rest in Peace, Sqn Ldr (Retd) Baldev Singh

Tarmak007 -- A bold blog on Indian defence: R.I.P. Baldy

Baldy1.jpg


---------- Post added at 05:48 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:46 PM ----------

Livefist: HAL Chief Test Pilot Found Dead. Suicide?

Shocking news. HAL's chief test pilot (fixed wing) and recently made Director (Corporate Planning & Marketing) Squadron Leader (Retd) Baldev Singh was found dead this morning. Possible suicide. He was apparently on holiday in Karnataka's Nandi Hills, where his body was found. More details shortly. R.I.P.

An official profile released recently: Sqn Ldr Singh took over as Director (Corporate Planning & Marketing) at HAL in August. Before that, he was Executive Director Flight Operations and the Chief Test Pilot (Fixed Wing) at HAL's Bangalore Complex.

Singh was involved with the LCA Programme from 1990 onwards and was deputed to the Aeronautical Development Agency for this purpose. On the LCA programme he worked extensively on the development and flight testing of the flight control laws of the Light Combat aircraft. He carried out the flight evaluation of these flight control laws at the Real Time simulator at BAE Wharton in UK followed by the flight evaluation of these control laws on the F-16, Lear Jet and NT-33 aircraft in the US.

Singh had extensive test flying experience on five prototype programmes and carried out the first flights of the HANSA aircraft and the Intermediate Jet Trainer. He has a Total Flight Test Experience of over 6000 hrs on over 55 different types of aircraft. He is a Qualified Flying Instructor and holds a diploma in Aviation Flight Safety from the Naval Post Graduate College, Monterey Bay, California, USA.

He joined the National Defence Academy in 1970 and graduated from the academy in December 1972 and was commissioned into the Indian Air Force in June 1973 as a fighter pilot.

After doing operational flying on Hunter, MiG-21 and MiG-23 aircraft, he qualified as a Flight Instructor in July 1983, and was posted to Air Force Academy at Hyderabad for Instructional Flying Duties on the Kiran Aircraft. In 1984 he did his experimental test pilots course and was deputed to HAL in 1986. He retired from the Indian Air Force in 1989 and joined HAL.

Such a shame, a true pioneer who had done much for his country.

RIP sir

A vid of him doing what he loved:

Watch from 4.30-
 
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^^^ Something is not right...Investigation should be done..
 
The Needless IJT Incident of February 8
If reports suggesting that the accident involving an indigenous Intermediate Jet Trainer (IJT) on February 8 at Yelahanka were caused by the pilot’s carelessness – he reportedly forgot to safely secure the aircraft’s canopy – are correct, then this has to stand as the most needless and unfortunate upset to budding aspirations of Indian defence export.

And for Sqn Ldr (retd) Baldev “Baldy” Singh, HAL’s chief fixed wing test pilot and the man who was behind the stick on the IJT’s first flight on March 7, 2003, it’s a little worse. But to understand just how inopportune February 8 was for HAL, things have to be wound back just a little bit.

In 1999, six years after the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) got its first programme extension, HAL made an inspired proposition to the air force. It said it could build a fine stage-two trainer to replace the HJT-16 Kiran. And those lessons from the LCA programme had emboldened HAL into suggesting that it could deliver results rapidly. From project sanction in July 1999 to a first flight in March 2003, the IJT made all promises a lush reality, much to the credit of HAL’s Aircraft Research & Design Center (ARDC).

In August 2005, HAL signed on Russia’s NPO Saturn to license build Al-551 jet engines for the IJT that will be commissioned into the IAF. These would give the IJT a markedly higher thrust to weight ratio than the French Lazarc engines that power the two prototypes. Reports suggest HAL intends to build at least 1,000 of the Russian powerplants at its Koraput, Orissa factory. HAL chairman Ashok Baweja wants to sell the IJT in West Asia, South East Asia and East Africa as a far cheaper proposition than European, American and Brazilian products.

Since the certainly worthy first-flight, the two IJT prototypes (PT-1 and PT-2) have logged about 300 flights so far and are gunning toward inductions into the IAF by early 2008. That’s an intended induction target of less than ten years from project sanction, and it cannot be ignored. And if one were to momentarily – fleetingly – set aside the initial consultations with Snecma and Smiths Aerospace, the IJT can be safely described as a true-blue Indian machine.

And that’s precisely why February 8 will go down as one of the most unneeded, redundant accidents in the history of HAL. The IJT’s canopy flew open, and pushed the jet careening to one side, exploding the starboard tyre and coming to a stop on its side, in front of thousands of spectators, potential foreign buyers and, probably most immediately importantly, our very armed forces.

How difficult will it be for HAL to convince them that the accident was caused by human oversight rather than any technological flaw? Very. Remember how the near-closed deal to sell ALH Dhruv helicopters to Chile dive-bombed after the November 2005 crash in Andhra Pradesh?

This is no elegy to shoddy technology. If there’s one thing that’s marked the IJT out, it is the aircraft’s incongruously clean development trajectory. And to destroy that by forgetting to close the canopy, while finally only human, is as near unforgivable as it can possibly get.

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/197139/hal-director-baldev-singh-commits.html
 
IAF commanders to review security situation

NEW DELHI (PTI): Top commanders of the Indian Air Force (IAF) will review the security situation and take stock of the operational preparedness of the Force at a conference beginning here Wednesday.

The three-day conference will be chaired by IAF Chief ACM N A K Browne and will be attended by the Vice Chief, Commander-in-Chiefs of IAF's seven commands and the Principal Staff Officer (PSOs).

"The conference will take stock of the operational preparedness of the Force and will review the data base concerning maintenance, administration and other aspects," IAF officials said here.

Besides reviewing the security situation and preparedness of the force, the Conference will dwell upon the issue of maintenance and safety of its air assets, they said.

The conference comes in the backdrop of the Air Chief's statement that the security situation in the immediate neighbourhood is "extremely fragile and warrants close monitoring."
 
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