Indian Air Force News & Discussions

[Sine Nomine]

Moonlighted Su-30MKI

 

[Major Shaitan Singh]

Here's an exclusive grab of India's Prying Plane AEW&C now undergoing integration trials

 

[sudhir007]

HAL conducts successful first flight of Jaguar
DARIN-III upgraded strike aircraft

 

[Abingdonboy]

HAL conducts successful first flight of Jaguar
DARIN-III upgraded strike aircraft

The first DARIN III flew in 2012:

HAL's Jaguar Darin III Makes Maiden Flight


This must be the latest IAF Jag to be brought to DARIN III standard

 

[anant_s]

General VK Singh, on board IAF C-17 military aircraft, returning with 180 Indians from Yemen, who were stranded there due to violence and chaos.

Night shot of IAF's C-17 Globemaster-III at Kochi airport today early morning with Indians evacuated from Yemen.

https://twitter.com/x/status/583591708253786112

 

[migflug]

SOURCE: TNN

The Rs 9,000 crore project to acquire six Airbus-330 mid-air refuelling aircraft or tankers has received another jolt, with the almost finalized deal now being referred to the defence ministry’s vigilance department for clearance.

Sources say the procurement case has been “put on hold” till the vigilance wing vets the allegations raised about old pending CBI inquiries against European consortium Airbus. “The work of the contract negotiations committee (CNC) had been stopped till the vigilance wing ascertains the status of the old cases,” said a source.

This comes just before PM Narendra Modi embarks on next week’s visit to France and Germany, the main centres for the Airbus Group. The defence ministry on Saturday had also cleared the long-term DRDO project to build advanced AWACS (airborne warning and control systems), which will include mounting indigenous 360-degree coverage AESA (active electronically scanned array) radars on A-330s, at an initial cost of Rs 5,113 crore.

IAF’s critical operational requirement for tanker aircraft, which by mid-air refuelling can virtually double the strike range of fighters and bombers, to bolster its strategic reach has had a tortured past. The latest project, which was initiated in 2010, has been hanging fire since January 2013 when the two-engine Airbus-330 MRTT (multi-role tanker transport) aircraft was selected over the four-engine Russian Ilyushin-78.

While both had passed the extensive technical field trials, the A-330 MRTT was selected as the cheaper option in terms of “life-cycle costs”, which is a relatively new methodology adopted for defence deals. The IL-78, in turn, was apparently less expensive in the off-the-shelf price.

But since then, the inking of the contract with Airbus has been delayed due to the pending inquiries against the European consortium dating back to the mid-1970s. Last year, as was then reported by TOI, the procurement case was sent to the law ministry for an opinion after a MP wrote to the MoD against it. “But at least one of the CBI cases was found to have been closed due to lack of evidence,” said a source.

Then, it took several months for the legal hitch over the change in name of the company from EADS Cassidian to Airbus Group to be resolved in line consonance with the MoD’s convoluted procurement procedures. “The original tender, trials and negotiations were done with Cassadian. The manufacturer then rebranded itself as the Airbus Defence & Space. This name change was cleared by our legal advisors this January but the CNC has again been put on hold now for vigilance vetting,” he added.

IAF had selected A-330 over IL-78 even under an earlier tender for tankers in 2006 but the deal was scrapped in 2010 after the finance ministry expressed “reservations relating to the competitiveness of the bids and the reasonableness of the price”

 

[Abingdonboy]

SOURCE: TNN

The Rs 9,000 crore project to acquire six Airbus-330 mid-air refuelling aircraft or tankers has received another jolt, with the almost finalized deal now being referred to the defence ministry’s vigilance department for clearance.

Sources say the procurement case has been “put on hold” till the vigilance wing vets the allegations raised about old pending CBI inquiries against European consortium Airbus. “The work of the contract negotiations committee (CNC) had been stopped till the vigilance wing ascertains the status of the old cases,” said a source.

This comes just before PM Narendra Modi embarks on next week’s visit to France and Germany, the main centres for the Airbus Group. The defence ministry on Saturday had also cleared the long-term DRDO project to build advanced AWACS (airborne warning and control systems), which will include mounting indigenous 360-degree coverage AESA (active electronically scanned array) radars on A-330s, at an initial cost of Rs 5,113 crore.

IAF’s critical operational requirement for tanker aircraft, which by mid-air refuelling can virtually double the strike range of fighters and bombers, to bolster its strategic reach has had a tortured past. The latest project, which was initiated in 2010, has been hanging fire since January 2013 when the two-engine Airbus-330 MRTT (multi-role tanker transport) aircraft was selected over the four-engine Russian Ilyushin-78.

While both had passed the extensive technical field trials, the A-330 MRTT was selected as the cheaper option in terms of “life-cycle costs”, which is a relatively new methodology adopted for defence deals. The IL-78, in turn, was apparently less expensive in the off-the-shelf price.

But since then, the inking of the contract with Airbus has been delayed due to the pending inquiries against the European consortium dating back to the mid-1970s. Last year, as was then reported by TOI, the procurement case was sent to the law ministry for an opinion after a MP wrote to the MoD against it. “But at least one of the CBI cases was found to have been closed due to lack of evidence,” said a source.

Then, it took several months for the legal hitch over the change in name of the company from EADS Cassidian to Airbus Group to be resolved in line consonance with the MoD’s convoluted procurement procedures. “The original tender, trials and negotiations were done with Cassadian. The manufacturer then rebranded itself as the Airbus Defence & Space. This name change was cleared by our legal advisors this January but the CNC has again been put on hold now for vigilance vetting,” he added.

IAF had selected A-330 over IL-78 even under an earlier tender for tankers in 2006 but the deal was scrapped in 2010 after the finance ministry expressed “reservations relating to the competitiveness of the bids and the reasonableness of the price”

Due diligence is one thing but this sort of bureaucratic run around is utterly absurd.

 

[#hydra#]

Pakistan is going to receive new SAM.Chinese made HQ9,an s300 copy.I think its a very dangerous situation for IAF.can anybody tell pls how to counter this?

 

[The_Sidewinder]

Pakistan is going to receive new SAM.Chinese made HQ9,an s300 copy.I think its a very dangerous situation for IAF.can anybody tell pls how to counter this?

Yeah situation is dangerous indeed. Way to counter will be difficult.
1. IAF has to find holes in enemy radar coverage to deploy their aircrafts in SEAD role.
2. Upgrading weapons locating radars so that enemy SAMs can be spotted thus enabling IAF to plan counter SAM operations effectively.

3. Making strike fleet more stealthy.

4. Constant gathering intelligence on enemy SAM deployment through satalite navigation.

5. Creating diversons like launching cruise missiles via same root & while SAM batteries are used for engaging them, use IAF aircraft & their anti radar missiles to attack those batteries thus giving them less time to react.

6. Preparing to take losses is another key element here. You cNt just live in fear.

That being said HQ9s aesa rathers thus gives Pakistan huge advantage.

i mean Radar. Typo

 

[#hydra#]

Yeah situation is dangerous indeed. Way to counter will be difficult.
1. IAF has to find holes in enemy radar coverage to deploy their aircrafts in SEAD role.
2. Upgrading weapons locating radars so that enemy SAMs can be spotted thus enabling IAF to plan counter SAM operations effectively.

3. Making strike fleet more stealthy.

4. Constant gathering intelligence on enemy SAM deployment through satalite navigation.

5. Creating diversons like launching cruise missiles via same root & while SAM batteries are used for engaging them, use IAF aircraft & their anti radar missiles to attack those batteries thus giving them less time to react.

6. Preparing to take losses is another key element here. You cNt just live in fear.

That being said HQ9s aesa rathers thus gives Pakistan huge advantage.

i mean Radar. Typo

At present we have only one weapon to neutralize s300 type SAM, shourya missiles. But that is not sufficient I think,and any launch of shourya may misinterprets as a nuclear launch and pakis may retaliate with nuclear missiles.

So what we require is a very potent electronic warfare attack plat form like EA-18 Growler which is not for sale, so we have to develop such plat form (a flanker based).(heard that SU#$ electronic warfare capability is also on par with growler,but I am not sure about this, we can go for this as a stop gap measurement if it is really capable like growler)

we should accelerate the development for stealth AURA UCAV.

Start a program to develop stealth cruise missiles like AGM-129 type missiles, but with lesser range and improved stealth characteristic.

Here's an exclusive grab of India's Prying Plane AEW&C now undergoing integration trials

when we are going to induct this platform? its said that this contains 160×8 TRMM(1280 trm in total) per panel.is that sufficient for such a aew&cs or what? even small fighter's AESA radars have similar number of TRM or more, pardon me for this type of lay man query....

 

[The_Sidewinder]

At present we have only one weapon to neutralize s300 type SAM, shourya missiles. But that is not sufficient I think,and any launch of shourya may misinterprets as a nuclear launch and pakis may retaliate with nuclear missiles.

So what we require is a very potent electronic warfare attack plat form like EA-18 Growler which is not for sale, so we have to develop such plat form (a flanker based).(heard that SU#$ electronic warfare capability is also on par with growler,but I am not sure about this, we can go for this as a stop gap measurement if it is really capable like growler)

we should accelerate the development for stealth AURA UCAV.

Start a program to develop stealth cruise missiles like AGM-129 type missiles, but with lesser range and improved stealth characteristic.

Yeah. We need to invest heavily on anti radiation Anti SAM missiles. And we need to induct Rafale's sopner. Their EW capabilities are second to only F18 Growlers. Thats why IAF is so keen on acquiring those birds. They will be perfact for sead role.
Even miniture brahmos can be used as Anti SAM missiles i guess. With a 290 km range, they can easily target HQ9 SAM even staying our side of the boarder.

 

[#hydra#]

Yeah. We need to invest heavily on anti radiation Anti SAM missiles. And we need to induct Rafale's sopner. Their EW capabilities are second to only F18 Growlers. Thats why IAF is so keen on acquiring those birds. They will be perfact for sead role.
Even miniture brahmos can be used as Anti SAM missiles i guess. With a 290 km range, they can easily target HQ9 SAM even staying our side of the boarder.

That's the claim of dassault the sukhoi claim that su34 is on par with growler, only god knows who is second to growler. But i am sure that both the aircrafts are miles behind growler, first of all EW suit have limited capability when compared to that of growler, rafales EW is mainly for defensive purpose where as growler is dedicated EW attack aircraft for offencive purpose. We need growler type ac to deal effectively HQ9.
Brahmos is a very potent plat form, but again against a capable SAM its doubt full. The main draw back is its range 290 km,so launching platform has to go very near to HQ9 batteries, which is capable of launching a 200+ SAM( like our akash,HQ9 is for a area defense system I think, missile batteries will be encircled around the tracking radar). also its not stealthy and doesn't have TERCOM capability,HQ9 radar can easily track this mach 3 missile and engage (the claimed speed of HQ is 4.5 mach).what I am telling is that apart from brahmos we should develop another class of air launched cruise missile(600+ range) which is having high level stealth character with TERCOM navigation.

 

[SajeevJino]

Yeah. We need to invest heavily on anti radiation Anti SAM missiles. And we need to induct Rafale's sopner. Their EW capabilities are second to only F18 Growlers. Thats why IAF is so keen on acquiring those birds. They will be perfact for sead role.
Even miniture brahmos can be used as Anti SAM missiles i guess. With a 290 km range, they can easily target HQ9 SAM even staying our side of the boarder.

FGFA is coming there for Taking out Any kind of Early warning Radars with it's new Generation Anti Radiation Missile Kh 58

and Rafale comes with SCLAP EG + Spectra EW for SEAD Role..!!

Brahmos is needed to be Takeout High value Command and Control centers

 

[The_Sidewinder]

@#hydra# @SajeevJino

I agree to both of your statements. My suggesions were stop gap solutions for current threat scenario.

 

[#hydra#]

@#hydra# @sanjeevjino

I agree to both of your statements. My suggesions were stop gap solutions for current threat scenario.

Shourya missile, unfortunately that's the only option what we have left with,air launched brahmos is due for first test,rafale deal yet to be signed ....