Indian Build Up

[ejaz007]

India Looking for Additional Submarines

Infodefensa relays a Negocios newspaper report [Espanol] that Navantia has submitted its S-80 Class currently under development for Spain, in response to an Indian Navy RFP for a follow-on submarine purchase. The purchase would follow India’s 2005 contract for 6 Scorpene Class submarines, and is expected to allocate almost EUR 3 million (about $4.5 billion) to buy another 6submarines.

Infodefensa adds that bids for the follow-on contract have also been submitted by France’s DCNS (likely the Scorpene AIM-2000, or possibly the in-development Marlin Class), Russia’s Rubin (Advanced Kilo Class, note the recently returned Kilo refit, though), and Germany’s HDW (likely the Type 214).

Thanks to DID subscriber Pedro Lucio for his tip and translation assistance. Interestingly, the Negocios article also says that the Government of India had asked Navantia for a proposal to supply up to 7 modern frigates, but Navantia’s leadership decided not to respond after carefully analyzing the requirements, and taking into account its order book for the next few years. See “India Issues RFI for “Stealth Frigates” for more background on that topic. Navantia is currently building frigates for Spain, Norway, and Australia.

India Looking for Additional Submarines

 

[Malang]

India's "official/visible" defence budget is slated to be over 26bn$ for this annum...

 

[mujahideen]

Indian women to guard borders

OUR STAFF REPORTER

MIRPUR (AJK)- Breaking another male domain, women will soon guard the borders of India with the government deciding to recruit 750 female constables for the country’s Border Security Force (BSF), says a report reaching here Friday from across the Line of Control.
The Union Home Ministry has sanctioned the recruitment of 750 female constables for the 210,261 strong BSF and a notification in this regard was issued Thursday evening. Out of the 750 personnel, 650 will be deployed in Punjab while the remaining will be put on duty in West Bengal, BSF Director General AK Mitra told reporters in New Delhi late Thursday.
‘The sanction is against normal vacancies and the Home Ministry has decided to recruit women constables. No officers will be recruited this time,’ he said. The ministry will also ask the CRPF to depute some female officers to BSF, Mitra added. The report said that though BSF has women in ministerial staff, this would be the first time that constables will be recruited to constabulary. A senior BSF official said women will be deployed in border areas and this move is being perceived as very important in the wake of movement of women across borders.
These women will assist those already deployed in border areas. They will help in screening the women who are crossing the borders and so on, he added. However, he said, unlike CRPF, BSF has no plans to raise an exclusive battalion of women as of now. Among para-military forces, CRPF has two exclusive battalions of women and a 100-member strong company is in Liberia to assist the UN Peacekeeping Force there.
Home Minister has hoped that their number will constitute 10 per cent of the total manpower within a decade, the report added.

The Nation

 

[Malang]

New Delhi, Feb 29 (IANS) After “prolonged and untiring efforts”, the indigenously developed Pinaka rocket was formally handed over to the Indian Army Friday. Pinaka, which is fired from a multi-barrel rocket launcher (MBRL), has an ideal range of 38 km.

Sudipta Ghosh, chairman of the Ordnance Factories Board (OFB), handed over the system to the Indian Army vice chief, Lt. Gen. Milan Lalitkumar Naidu, at a function at Ordnance Factory Chanda in Maharashtra’s Chandrapur district.

The ordnance factory will supply 300 Pinaka rockets to the army this year and 1,000 rockets next year, a defence ministry statement said.

Speaking on the occasion, Ghosh described the Pinaka deliveries as “another milestone in the OFB’s history of more than 200 years”.

Ghosh also said the ordnance factories have started offering warranty on their products, including small ammunition, bombs, rockets and weapon systems.

Refuting concerns about the quality of OFB products, Ghosh said the malfunctions, if any, were attended to by experts or the product was replaced to the customers’ satisfaction.

He said the ordnance factories were open to the idea of joint ventures as foreign vendors scout for partners to fulfil the offset clause in defence purchases which mandates that 30 percent of all deals valued at more than Rs.3 billion ($75 million) be reinvested in the country.

All the 40 ordnance factories spread across the country have recently earned the ISO-9002 certificate, the OFB chairman pointed out, and said this made them the ideal route for fulfilling the offset obligations.

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) had begun developing the Pinaka system in 1983 and it was tested in action during the 1999 Kargil conflict in Jammu and Kashmir where it proved its effectiveness.

Mounted on a heavy-duty truck for mobility, Pinaka’s multi-barrel rocket launcher can fire a salvo of 12 high explosive rockets in under 40 seconds, saturating an area of four square kilometres.

A Pinaka battery consists of six launchers, six loader-cum-replenishment vehicles, three replenishment vehicles, a command post vehicle with a fire control computer (FCC) and a meteorological radar.

» Indian Army receives indigenous Pinaka rockets - Thaindian News

 

[mujahideen]

India allocates more funds to induct hi-tech surveillance on border with Pakistan

NEW DELHI, March 1 APP: India has allocated more funds to induct hi-tech surveillance on border with Pakistan and Line of Control in budget 2008-9.The budgetary allocation has been increased from Rs. 25.33 crores to 124 crores for works on Indo-Pak border including erection of barbed wire fencing.
The funds will be used to build roads and other infra-structure, including induction of hi-tech instruments to check “infiltration and flow of arms and ammunition across the border.”

An amount of Rs. 403.78 crores has been set aside for hi-tech surveillance and construction of infrastructure on Indian borders and coastal security.

A huge amount has been earmarked to acquire ships, vessels and aircraft for the coast guards.

Similarly, the allocation to Border Security Force has been enhanced from Rs. 34.49 billion to Rs. 38.33 billion.

app - India allocates more funds to induct hi-tech surveillance on border with Pakistan

 

[Neo]

IAF Phalcon ​

On the 20th of January, 2008 "EI" airborne early warning aircraft was ferried from Taganrog to Israel to undergo further activities on the installation and testing of the mission system. As planned, the aircraft shall be delivered to the End User this year.

AEW aircraft ("EI") is built for a foreign Customer pursuant to a contract awarded by the Federal State Unitary Enterprise "Rosoboronexport".
Currently Beriev Aircraft Company continues the activities under the Contract.

Link: Press release

 

[Malang]

DRDO To Test Agni 3 Later In April 2008

After the successful firing of Agni-1 missile on Sunday, the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile on March 5 and the K-15 (Sagarika) missile from a submerged pontoon on February 26, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has set its sights on launching the Agni-III ballistic missile in April 2008.

Agni-III is the most powerful, surface-to-surface missile built by India, which can carry nuclear warheads. It has a range of more than 3,500 km. It has been described as not just “a missile, but a system for the future with which various configurations can be developed.”

It will be the third launch of Agni-III, which will take place from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) on the Wheeler Island off the Orissa coast.

Agni, Agni-II, Agni-I and Agni-III form the group of India’s surface-to-surface, ballistic missiles that can carry nuclear warheads. Agni-III is a two-stage, long-range missile that weighs 48.3 tonnes and is 16.7 metres long. It can carry warheads weighing 1.5 tonnes over a distance of more than 3,500 km.

Celebrations broke out at the Launch Control Centre on Sunday on the Wheeler Island after the successful launch of Agni-1 missile that reached a distance of more than 700 km. A release from the DRDO from New Delhi said the missile had a textbook performance in terms of range, accuracy and lethality.

Agni-I missile was developed by the Advanced Systems Laboratory (ASL), the premier missile development centre of the DRDO, in collaboration with its neighbours, that is, the Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL), the Research Centre, Imarat, all of which form the missile complex at Hyderabad.

It was integrated by the Bharat Dynamics Limited, also located in Hyderabad. The ASL is headed by Avinash Chander, who was the Mission Director for the launch. The Vehicle Research and Development Establishment at Ahmednagar, Maharashtra, the ITR and public and private sector industries contributed to the launch.

V.K. Saraswat, Chief Controller, R&D (Missiles and Strategic Systems), DRDO, said the success of Agni-1 gave a tremendous boost to India’s strategic defence. The terminal event of the flight was recorded by a downrange ship and the results validated the entire technology of the strategic defence, he added.

Dr. V.G. Sekaran, Project Director, ASL, was present during the launch.

Defence Minister A.K. Antony and Minister of State for Defence Pallam Raju congratulated the scientists and the operational team of the Strategic Force Command.

DRDO To Test Agni 3 Later In April 2008 | India Defence

 

[Malang]

Air Force's Air To Air Missiles - LRAAM, Python 5 - Industry Rumors

'Janes Defense Weekly' reports that India is likely to join in the air-to-air missile (AAM) development agreement between Brazil and South Africa. The issue of co-operation in research-and-development (R&D) had been discussed during recent high-level Brazilian military delegation visits to India. Brazil and South Africa had announced their AAM co-operation efforts in 2005.

India also has an indegineous AAM programme - Astra - which is being developed by DRDO and is said to have looked promising in the trials conducted thus far. Keeping in light of the Indian defence establishments recent "foreign collaboration" mantra, it could be possible that DRDO might jointly develop AAMs with Brazil & South Africa. The new tri-national agreement is reported to involve India's Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Bharat Dynamics Ltd (BDL) working in a risk-sharing R&D programme dealing with two projects: a short-range imaging infrared (IIR) missile derived from the South African U-Darter and the Long Range Air-to-Air Missile (LRAAM).

The LRAAM programme would reportedly build on South African design efforts dating back to the 1980s for a 100 km range-class weapon referred to as LRAAAM or Darter-S. A second variant known as T-Darter and incorporating a datalink was also reported. For the collaborative venture, a configuration with a 180 mm diameter airframe powered by a solid-fuel ramjet fed by four air intakes is reported to have been selected. Maximum range would be about 120 km.

A dual-mode RF/IIR seeker was being considered for S-Darter. This remains a possibility for LRAAM, but a scheme involving alternative seekers has been reported: a passive IIR seeker with lock-on after-launch capability and pulse-Doppler radar using an active phased-array antenna. The missile would also have inertial mid-course guidance and a two-way datalink. LRAAM would be fitted with a 20 kg warhead and a laser proximity fuze. It would probably be integrated with the Indian Air Force's Su-30MKI fighters providing a beyond-visual-range capability greater than that associated with the 60 km-range R-77 (AA-12 'Adder') currently used.

However there have also been industry rumors that the Indian Air Force is interested in acquiring the Israeli Python 5 missile, this however is yet to be confirmed from official sources. The Python 5 is currently the most capable short-range AAM in Israel's inventory. It has BVR (beyond visual range), LOAL (lock-on after launch), and all-aspect, all-direction (including backward) attack capability. The missile has an advanced electro-optical imaging seeker that scans the target area for hostile aircraft, then locks-on for terminal chase.
Air Force's Air To Air Missiles - LRAAM, Python 5 - Industry Rumors | India Defence

 

[beetel]

self deleted

 

[nair]

What was the point in reviving a 9 year old thread?,

 

[PARIKRAMA]

is it return of a zombie thread?? but i agree sheer waste to open an old thread with nothing new.
Mods- Could you kindly closed this thread. thx