It's Sukhoi vs Eurofighter as IAF 'takes on' RAF

NEW DELHI: Top-notch fighters and other aircraft from India and UK will match their combat skills in the `Indra-Dhanush' joint exercise at Kalaikunda airbase in West Bengal later this month.

While the British Royal Air Force will deploy their spanking new Eurofighter jets for the exercise slated to begin from October 20, the IAF fleet will be led by the `air dominance' Sukhoi-30MKI fighters.

"The exercise will be held in an AWACS (airborne warning and control systems) environment, with air defence being a major thrust area. We will be fielding different types of our fighters," said a senior official.

Both the Indian and British forces are also expected to use their mid-air refuelling aircraft, like the IL-78 and VC-10 tankers, during the combat manoeuvres.

"The aim of the joint exercise is to learn from each other and enhance mutual operational understanding. With every exercise, IAF has gained valuable experience and gained respect as a highly-professional and motivated force," the official added.

The exercise comes at a time when the $10.4 billion project to acquire 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) for IAF is in the final stages of selection process.

Apart from Eurofighter, the other five contenders in the hotly-contested race to bag the lucrative MMRCA project are the F/A-18 `Super Hornet' and F-16 `Falcon' (both US), Gripen (Swedish), Rafale (French) and MiG-35 (Russian).

A major Indo-UK defence deal has been the `Hawk' AJT (advanced jet trainer) project. As reported earlier, India is going in for another 57 Hawks as a "follow-on" order to the ongoing Rs 8,000 crore AJT project, finalised in March 2004 with BAE Systems, under which IAF is already getting 66 Hawks.

India jets order boosts ailing Russian defence industry

MOSCOW: Russia's ailing defence industry has received one of its biggest boosts in years with a huge fighter jet deal with India, but much of the sector remains stuck in a Soviet-era time warp, analysts said.

India announced Wednesday it planned to buy up to 300 fifth-generation stealth fighters that would be jointly developed with Russia in a deal that may be worth up to USD 30 billion (22 billion euros).

Last year's record arms sales helped mask systemic troubles in Russia's defence industry that have pushed even the Russian military to seek hardware abroad in its drive to overhaul outdated weaponry.

"Russia needs the Indian money like it needs air to accelerate the production of fighter jets for its own military," said Ruslan Pukhov, head of Moscow-based Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies ( CAST).

"It's not only good but revolutionary news." The deal is the biggest ever for India -- one of Russia's top three arms buyers -- and crowned two years of growing defence bookings for Russia that will ensure a steady revenue in the coming years.

But Russia has struggled to innovate technologies to meet the needs of modern warfare and is relying excessively on a few high-performing refurbished Soviet-era models, which form the bulk of its arms sales.

President Dmitry Medvedev lashed out at the "poor" state of the industry last month, as the defence ministry announced it was tripling its procurements budget over the next decade, bucking global trends.

Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov stressed Russia would not hesitate to spend the allotted 19 trillion rubles (USD 613 billion) on imported arms where Russian makes "did not meet the required standards."

"Our producers want to issue outdated models, but we don't want to buy them," Serdyukov told the weekly Russian Newsweek.

The world's second-largest arms supplier has been in talks with France to buy its Mistral-class warships in what would be its first ever purchase of hardware from a NATO member.

The planned procurements are part of a massive military reform that gained speed after Russia's 2008 war with Georgia showed the need to drop its Cold War-style structure to ready for modern-day, irregular warfare.

"Overall the situation in the defence industry is very negative and not consistent: It needs to be diversified," military expert Konstantin Makienko said.

Exclusive picture of Indian Air force C-130J Super Hercules first flight

Indian Air force C-130J Super Hercules first flight

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Exclusive Latest picture of Indian Air force C-130J Super Hercules Engine starts

India Eyes Su-30 AESA Upgrade

NEW DELHI: India is looking at fitting its Sukhoi Su-30MKI fighters with Russian Phazotron Zhuk-AE active, electronically scanned array (AESA) radars.

The X-band radar can track 30 aerial targets in the track-while-scan mode and engage six targets simultaneously in attack mode. By 2018, the Indian air force inventory is expected to comprise around 300 Su-30MKIs.

India’s Sukhois currently use N011M passive array technology, which delivers less peak power than an AESA. The N011M also has limitations in its back-end processing and requires more maintenance.

Defense Minister A.K. Antony recently told the Indian parliament about a proposal to upgrade the Indian air force’s Su-30 fleet. The upgrade is be carried out by Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. and Russia’s Irkutsk, the original equipment manufacturer, starting in 2012. It is likely that the order for the AESA also will be made simultaneously, as the radar will have to be integrated into most parts of the aircraft, including the navigation systems and engines.

The Su-30 entered service in India in 2000 — the purchase was approved in 1997 — and the aircraft have not been upgraded since.

AESA technology offers improved performance and reliability compared with traditional mechanically scanned array radars. India also has made it clear that having an AESA will be critical in the competition for 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA). For instance, the F-16IN is being proposed with the Northrop Grumman APG-80, while the F/A-18E/F is being bid with the Raytheon APG-78. All the other contenders have offered an AESA road map,

During the April trials for the MiG-35, the Zhuk AE test radar had a slightly smaller array than the production version would feature. The MiG-35 also is a contender in the MMRCA competition.

India would also expect to field an AESA on the fifth-generation fighter — the co-development and production effort with Russia built around the Sukhoi T-50.

New Indian Airborne Early Warning Aircraft Nears Trials

NEW DELHI: India’s domestically developed airborne early warning and control system is taking a big step forward with the first of three modified Brazilian EMB-145s headed for flight trials.

The preliminary testing, due to kick off in the next two months, will be carried out in Brazil by Embraer and a team from the Indian air force’s Aircraft & Systems Testing Establishment (ASTE) in association with Brazil’s Agência Nacional de Aviação Civil and its Indian counterpart, the Center for Military Airthworthiness and Certification (Cemilac).

Defense Research and Development Organization sources reveal that the first platform will be equipped with a dorsal radar unit containing dummy electronics, an in-flight refueling probe, environmental controls, auxiliary power units, internal fuel tanks, satellite communications and antennae.

India’s Bangalore-based Center for Airborne Systems (CABS) — the laboratory spearheading the AEW&C sensor program — already has supplied Embraer with a dorsal unit (with dummy electronics) and a Ku-band SATCOM dome, while the Defense Avionics Research Establishment (DARE), CABS and the Defense Electronics Research Laboratory (DLRL) have shipped in antenna units for electronic support measures, communications support measures (CSM) and U/VHF. The aircraft will undergo flight tests until July 2011.

While the EMB-145 in the AEW&C configuration undergoes flight tests in Brazil, the configuration to be ferried to India in August 2011 will include only the aircraft with the dorsal pylon but not the antenna unit or other features, such as the extra auxiliary power unit or internal fuel tanks. Once the first aircraft reaches India, it will undergo a flight testing regime with CABS, ASTE and Cemilac in association with an embedded Embraer team.

After a series of checkout flights in India, the aircraft will be integrated with a dorsal unit containing real electronics and other mission system equipment, including five operator workstations, avionics racks, crew rest seating, seats and cabling. Program sources indicate that the aircraft will be tested in three different locations in the country, Yelahanka in the South, Bareilly in the North and either Bagdogra or Tezpur in the East.

On June 23, EADS Cassidian (the former Defense & Security unit) announced that it has been awarded a contract to supply consultancy services to CABS for developing the AEW&C’s system architecture with particular regard to certification and mission equipment optimization, giving the European company its third big aerospace consultancy in India, following advisory contracts in the Tejas Light Combat Aircraft program.

The first Indian AEW&C aircraft is slated to achieve full operational capability in 2014, with inductions of three aircraft the same year. While numbers remain unofficial, the Indian air force has hinted at a need for at least eight of the indigenous AEW&C aircraft.

The air force also recently decided to exercise options with Israel for two more Phalcon AWACS, though the platform is likely to be a business jet rather than the Ilyushin-76, a platform that remains plagued by maintainability, availability and spares problems at its home base in Agra. The air force will achieve final operational capability on the Phalcon in November of this year, with the third aircraft to arrive shortly thereafter.