A four day joint exercise between the Indian Air Force (IAF) and the Royal Air Force of Oman (RAFO) concluded today at Air Force Station Jamnagar. The exercise, named “Ex Eastern Bridge - 2011” marks the second of the series, the first was held in Oct 2009 wherein six IAF Jaguars had operated at RAFO Thumrait, Oman. It is the first time that the RAFO Jaguars have participated in a Joint exercise held in India.
The RAFO contingent comprised of six Jaguar aircraft and 115 personnel. The IAF’s Jaguars and MiG 29s based at Jamnagar have participated in the exercise.
RAFO Jaguars had ferried in directly from Thumrait and landed at Jamnagar. Two years back when the IAF contingent visited Oman, their Omani counterparts had expressed keen interest and desire to fly over Indian terrain which has a vast variation quite unlike the Omani flatbed desert. After having flown from Air Force Station Jamnagar, they would understand the challenges the IAF routinely encounters flying over the varying Indian landscape with deserts to the North and dense vegetation and hills towards South Gujrat.
After the familiarization of RAFO contingent with local flying operational procedures at the base, the exercise commenced on 17 Oct 2011. The 04 day long exercise involved a variety of flying missions from each other’s best practices in terms of operational, maintenance and administrative procedures. The exercise gave vast exposure to the aircrew of RAFO and IAF, towards missions involving long duration sorties with in flight refueling, large force strike packages, air to ground bombing and maritime strike roles routinely performed by the IAF both independently and in mixed operations.
This exercise did not only enrich the IAF and RAFO professionally but culturally also as the Omani people and Indians share a similar culture. The Ex provided an opportunity of rich interaction between the personnel of both countries. Veterans of EX- Eastern Bridge-I in 2009 also got a chance to meet old friends from RAFO. This has strengthen the bond between the Air Forces, IAF and RAFO.
At the culmination of the exercise an informal social interaction and a friendly football match between the teams of the participating contingents have been played with an aim to enhance mutual understanding and bonhomie. The Omani’s have shown a fondness for Indian cuisine and have especially liked the Khakras, samosas and Dhoklas.
A Joint Exercise christened ‘Eastern Bridge–2011’, second of the series by the Indian Air Force (IAF) and the Royal Air Force of Oman (RAFO), is being conducted at Air Force Station Jamnagar from 17–21 Oct 2011. RAFO contingent of six Jaguar aircrafts & 115 are taking part in the Ex with Jamnagar based Dragon Squadron of Jaguars & First Supersonics of Mig 29s. It is the maiden visit of the RAFO Jaguars to India.
The first Ex between the two Air Forces was held in Oct 2009 at RAFO Thumrait, Oman wherein six Jaguars had operated and then the Omanis had expressed their keen interest and desire to fly over Indian terrain which has a vast variation quite unlike the Omani flatbed desert. As the RAFO pilots take off for various exercises from AF Stn Jamnagar, they would understand the challenges the IAF routinely encounters flying over the varying Indian landscape with deserts to the North and dense vegetation and hills towards South Gujarat.
After the familiarization of RAFO contingent with local flying operational procedures at the base, exercise commenced on 17 Oct 2011. The week long exercise involves a variety of flying missions from each other’s best practices in terms of operational, maintenance and administrative procedures. The exercise will expose the aircrew of RAFO and IAF, to missions involving long duration sorties with in flight refueling, large force strike packages, air to ground bombing and maritime strike roles routinely performed by the IAF both independently and in mixed operations.
The progress of the Ex will be reviewed by the senior officials of both the Air Forces. This exercise will not only enrich the IAF and RAFO professionally but culturally also as the Omani people and Indians share a similar culture. Veterans of Ex ‘Eastern Bridge-I’ held in 2009 also got a chance to meet old friends from RAFO. This has strengthened the bond between the IAF and RAFO. Informal social interaction and a friendly football match between the teams of the participating contingents have been planned with an aim to enhance mutual understanding and bonhomie.
The Indian Air Force (IAF) will induct a total of 214 single and twin-seater variants of the advanced Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) being developed jointly by India and Russia. The fighters are likely to be inducted by 2017.
"We are looking for 166 single seater and 48 twin-seater versions of the aircraft," IAF Chief Air Chief Marshal NAK Browne said in New Delhi.
He was asked to comment on the project which will be reviewed by India and Russia during Defence Minister AK Antony's meeting with his Russian counterpart AE Sardyukov in Moscow.
He said the contract was in the preliminary contract stage and was expected involve more efforts by two sides when it enters design phase next year.
"By 2012, negotiations will start for the design phase of the aircraft," he said.
The IAF Chief said India would also discuss basing air force, Hindustan Aeronautics limited (HAL) and DRDO teams in Russia to monitor the progress of the joint venture project.
He said by 2017 the first lot of the aircraft were expected to join the IAF and that will depend on the progress of tests and trials of the aircraft.
Commenting on the international commitments of the IAF, Browne said it will hold aerial wargames with the Royal Air Force of Oman (RAFO) from October 14 at the Jamnagar air base where the two sides will field their Jaguar deep penetration strike aircraft.
Asked about its plans to take part in Red Flag exercise held in the US, Browne said participating in such wargames involves a lot of effort as it was a trans-Atlantic affair.
He said the IAF will now go there in 2013 only. Red Flag is a US-led NATO exercise and India had taken part in it in 2008.
Need for tri-service aerospace command
The IAF also said there was a need for having a tri-service aerospace command to look after the military issues related to space.
"Time has come that we look into the realm of an aerospace command. It would be a joint command where all the three services have to put their hands together," IAF Chief said while addressing the annual Air Force Day press conference in Nedw Delhi.
All the three services have been talking about creating a joint command for management and creation of a space command to tackle military threats and utilising space-based capabilities.
Asked about the status of the dedicated satellite programmes for the IAF, Browne said, "Both the GSAT-7 and GSAT-7A satellites are delayed by a year. That is a delay from the ISRO part."
He said the payload and other systems to be launched with the satellite have been finalised.
On the functioning of the IAF space cell, Browne said the Integrated Defence Staff has come up with a Defence Space Vision and was the point of contact for all the three services.
Impressed by early deliveries and the aircraft’s performance in recent operations, the Indian air force (IAF) is actively considering a proposal to acquire more than the 12 Lockheed-Martin C-130J Super Hercules tactical special mission aircraft already expected.
With the last of six C-130Js from an original 2008 contract to be delivered in November, and a follow-on order for six more to be signed shortly, the IAF has lavished unusual praise on the program and indicated it will ultimately need more than a dozen. The IAF has not released an official figure, but Indian sources have said it could be as many as 24 aircraft.
“It is historic,” Air Chief Marshal Norman Browne says of the current order. “This is the first time in history that we have received aircraft earlier than the stipulated date. This has never happened before and is a new experience.” Speaking at his first public press conference since taking office at the end of July, he added that two C-130Js that had been pressed into earthquake relief duties in late September had performed “extremely well.” The C-130Js flew in bad weather typical of India’s northeast, ferrying tons of equipment and supplies to remote, quake-hit areas.
The IAF’s C-130Js operate as part of the 77 Veiled Vipers squadron at the Hindon air force base just outside New Delhi. It was recently decided that the follow-on six aircraft would join a newly formed squadron in Charbatia in the eastern peninsular state of Orissa, giving the IAF reach across the Bay of Bengal to its island territories, chiefly for deployments to the operationally significant Car Nicobar island base. Browne says the new aircraft will have “certain improvements” over the ones currently being delivered, but did not specify what those were.
Interestingly, the IAF chief says Lockheed would pass on certain cost benefits from the original contract, resulting from early execution of the contract, to the follow-on order for six more. This, the IAF chief says, would translate into a discount of $60-$80 million on the follow-on foreign military sales (FMS) contract, scheduled to be signed before January 2012 (Aerospace DAILY, Oct. 4).
For an armed service used to time and cost overruns both from indigenous and foreign military purchases, chiefly from Russia, the IAF hopes that the other aircraft it has contracted for from the U.S. will deliver similar results. In June, the IAF contracted for 10 Boeing C-17 Globemaster III strategic lift aircraft for $4.1 billion.
Still, one defense ministry acquisitions team officer who worked on the C-130J procurement tempers the IAF’s enthusiasm. He suggests that the higher price of U.S.-built equipment, compared to Russian, for instance, more than balances out “perks” like early deliveries, roll-over price benefits and efficient program execution.
Meanwhile, the IAF also is eyeing the expansion and modernization of two crucial forward bases in the north in Nyoma, close to the disputed border with China, and Kargil, where India and Pakistan had a brief but intense border skirmish in 1999. Browne says he wants both bases to be able to operate the C-130J with full payloads, which is critical to high-altitude logistics operations currently undertaken by the IAF’s Antonov-32s. The IAF’s C-17s, which begin delivery in 2013, will also operate at these forward bases when runway extension and base upgrades are complete.
By contrast, things do not seem to be going as well for a related Russian deal. In Russia to attend the 11th Indo-Russian military cooperation meeting this month, Indian Defense Minister A.K. Antony criticized “tardy progress made in the design and development of the Multi-Role Transport Aircraft (MTA).” Ministry sources said Antony was not pleased with the status report of milestones achieved in the development phase since the two countries formally agreed to jointly develop the aircraft in September 2010.
The defence ministry on Friday approved the offset proposals for India’s biggest defence deal to buy 126 fighter planes at an estimate price of Rs 42,000 crore ($ 10.4 billion) paving the way for opening the commercial bids around Diwali.
Two European fighters – French Rafale and Eurofighter Typhoon – are in the fray after the first round of selection overtaking four other competitors including two US fighters. India wants to close the deal before March 31, 2012.
Indian Air Force chief N A K Browne, who attended Friday’s Defence Acquisition Council meeting, stated on Monday that the DAC meet is the last internal defence ministry meeting before the bids are opened by the third or fourth week of October.
Even though defence ministry officials are tight-lipped about the details of the DAC decisions, the panel headed by Defence Minister A K Antony is understood to have taken the final decision on the controversial offset issues associated with the medium multi-role combat aircraft deal.
Procurement norms
According to Indian defence procurement norms, 30 per cent of all foreign military purchases worth more than Rs 300 crore are reinvested in Indian defence industry to spur growth in domestic military industry. For the MMRCA deal, the offset was fixed at 50 per cent, which sparked resentment among the competitors.
This means the winning firm has to reinvest more than Rs 21000 crore in India, either alone or in partnership with an Indian company, in military, homeland security and civil aviation.
The offset proposals from Dassault Aviation (Rafale) and the Eurofighter consortium (Typhoon) were presented before the DAC by director general acquisition Vivek Rae.
Asked about the falling values of rupees on the MMRCA deal, Brown stated that availability of funds would not be a problem in realising the contract. Once a contract is signed, it will come under the category of “committed liability” of the government, for which provisions are made in the budget.
Subsequent to the DAC approval, the deal has to be cleared by the Finance Ministry and the Cabinet Committee on Security.
Together with Su-30 MKI, indigenous Light Combat Aircraft Tejas, Indo-Russian fifth generation fighter, the 126 MMRCA will be the mainstay of Indian Air Force in the coming decades.
The winning company is also likely to receive a follow-on order of 80 odd MMRCA.
The addition is to replace the vintage Kiran Mark II trainer aircraft and help SKAT fly faster.
The Indian Air Force’s vaunted aerobatics display team, the Surya Kiran Aerobatics Team (SKAT), could soon be enthralling spectators with cutting-edge aircraft. The IAF has initiated the procurement of 21 additional Hawk aircraft, built by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), Bangalore. Hawk advanced jet trainers would allow SKAT to fly faster, turn tighter and manoeuvre more spectacularly, than was possible with the vintage Kiran Mark II trainer aircraft that they have flown since 1996.
With the additional Hawk procurement underway, HAL chief, Ashok Nayak told Business Standard that HAL would build another 21 Hawks as soon as it completes the 123 aircraft, ordered by the IAF and the Indian Navy. “The IAF has initiated the follow-on procurement of 21 additional Hawks from BAE Systems. These are mainly for its aerobatics team, but also to replace the couple of Hawks that have been lost in crashes,” says Ashok Nayak, the HAL Chairman. The SKAT, highly regarded despite the old aircraft it performs in, is one of the few aerobatics teams that fly nine aircraft in close formation. To stage its heavy and technically demanding routine of nine-aircraft performances, the SKAT is authorised 18-19 aircraft.
The only other military aerobatics teams that fly nine-aircraft formations are the UK Royal Air Force’s Red Arrows, which also fly the Hawk; and the Snowbirds, from the Royal Canadian Air Force. Other aerobatics teams perform with fewer aircraft. The Thunder Birds (US Air Force), with six aircraft; Blue Angels (US Navy), with six aircraft; the August 1st Aerobatics Team (China’s People’s Liberation Army Air Force, or PLAAF), with six aircraft; and the Patrouille de France (French Air Force), with eight aircraft. The Russian Knights (Russian Air Force) have flown varying numbers of aircraft, but never nine.
For the pilots of SKAT, the transition to Hawks represents a generational shift. Before SKAT was formed with the Kiran Mark II in 1996, another IAF aerobatics team, “The Thunderbolts”, flew the Hawker Hunter fighter. The Thunderbolts, too, performed nine-aircraft routines. Besides the advantages of switching to the Hawk, the withdrawal of the Kiran Mark II from SKAT is driven by another pressing reason: the IAF’s shortage of trainer aircraft. The entire IAF fleet of HPT-32 Deepak basic trainers has been grounded since July 09, after 19 pilots died in 17 Deepak crashes over the years. Today, IAF rookies are herded for their first flying lessons into the relatively complex Kiran Mark I aircraft. For the next stage of intermediate training the IAF requires all the Kiran Mark IIs that it can muster. In the circumstances, maintaining an entire squadron (the SKAT team comprises the IAF’s No 52 squadron) for aerobatics seemed unjustifiable.
But, given SKAT’s glamour quotient, the IAF is keen to get it back in the air. Air Chief Marshal NAK Browne has demanded the team starts performing again in their new Hawks within three years.
Going by HAL’s projections, that seems unachievable. HAL is projected to finish building IAF’s first order of 66 Hawks (contracted in 2004 for Rs 6,600 crore) by mid-2012. Thereafter, 57 more Hawks have to be manufactured for the IAF and the Indian Navy as per a Rs 5,500 crore contract signed last year.
“Next year we will build 13-14 Hawks; and then step up production to 19 Hawks from 2013 onwards. That means 57 Hawks will be delivered by late 2015. Then we can build 21 more Hawks by the end of 2016,” says Nayak.
For the struggling UK aerospace industry, that opens an intriguing prospect: will the IAF insist on building its latest order of 21 Hawks in the UK, arguing a pressing need to get the SKAT performing again? Industry sources say, given the recent budget cuts in the British aerospace industry, this would be a welcome proposal.
