Latest Mi-17 V5 choppers formally inducted into IAF

India formally inducted its latest Mi-17 V5 armed helicopters from Russia to enhance its
operational capabilities including carrying troops and cargo to high altitude areas.

Marking the formal commissioning of the choppers in the Indian Air Force (IAF), Defence
Minister A K Antony on Friday symbolically handed over its keys to the Commanding Officer of one of the units operating the machines.

“The new Mi-17 helicopters will help in adding muscle to IAF's capabilities to carry out operations assigned to it,” the Defence Minister said while addressing the gathering of senior IAF officials.

India has placed orders for 80 such choppers from Russia and the first batch was inducted in the last week of September last year.

The first three units of the helicopters will be raised at Bhatinda (Punjab), Srinagar (J-K) and Bagdogra (West Bengal).

Over 20 such flying machines have already arrived and are deployed at various locations in the northern sector, Air Force officials said.

The Mi-17 V5 falls in armed helicopter category, with substantial and effective firepower. It has the latest and more powerful engines that will enhance its payload carrying capability at higher altitudes.

“The Mi-17 V5 is an upgrade of Mi-17 choppers in the medium-lift category and is equipped
with state-of-the-art avionics and on board navigation nystems,” IAF officials said.

On the machine's capabilities, they said, “It has on-board weather radar, state-of-the-art autopilot and is compatible with the latest generation night vision goggles.”

The Mi-17 variants have operated in various types of terrain, including Siachen Glacier, and have also proven their mettle in UN missions.

AAD-05 Interceptor Successfully Tested

DRDO air defence missile AAD-05 has successfully hit ballistic missile and destroys the ballistic missile at a height of 15 kms off the coast of Orissa near the wheelers island. a modified prithvi missile mimicking the ballistic missile was launched at 1010hrs today from ITR Chandipur. radars located at deferent locations have tracked incoming ballistic missile. interceptor missile was completely ready to take off at wheelers island. guidance computers have continuously computed the trajectory of ballistic missile and launched AAD05 interceptor missile at a precisely calculated time. AAD-05 interceptor missile initially guided by the inertial navigation system with the target trajectory continuously updated by the radar, the on board guidance computer guided the aad-05 interceptor missile towards the target missile. the onboard radio frequency seeker identified the target missile and guided the aad-05 interceptor missile close to the target missile and hit the target missile directly and destroyed it. warhead also exploded and destroyed the target missile into pieces.

Radar and eots systems have tracked the missile and also recorded the fragments of target missile falling into the bay of bengal. it is one of the finest missions where the interceptor has hit the incoming ballistic missile directly and destroyed at a 15 kms altitude. india has joined a very few advanced countries, who have these ballistic missile defence capabilities.

India is the fifth nation to have these capabilities in the world. the mission was carried out in the final deliverable user configuration mode.

Scientific Advisor VK Saraswat has reviewed the total configuration and mission and also witnessed the launch. shri avinash chander chief controller r&d (mss) and P Venugopalan director drdl carried out the flight readiness review of both the target missile and interceptor missile. D S Reddy, programme director air defence system alongwith his team have carried out all the preparations for the launch successfully. shri sp dash director itr, dr sk chaudhuri director rci and shri satish kumar director spic and other top drdo scientists were present during the mission. the mission was also witnessed by the senior officials of tri-services.

A K Antony has congratulated all the scientists for the successful demonstration of ballistic missile defence.

The Mission Control Centre for the AAD interceptor trial held on 10th February 2012 was deployed in Master-Slave configuration at DRDO Hyderabad and Wheeler Island, Orissa to ensure high availability with built in fault tolerance at each location.

The Mission Control Centre of the Indian BMD programme is one of the most advanced, automated net-centric Command and Control systems in the world.

The Master MCC located more than a thousand kilometer away at Hyderabad from the Missile test range, received the target data in real time from multiple weapon system radars. The complete Air Situation Picture during the BMD trial was provided to the MCC commander using advanced data fusion and target classification techniques.

After the classification of the target as an enemy Ballistic missile, Mission Control Centre issued engagement orders to the AAD Launch Centre located at Wheeler island in Dhamra.

The complete engagement sequence from target detection to destruction was controlled by Mission Control Centre in net-centric mode of operation. The interceptor missile lifted off from Wheeler island destroying the target at an altitude of 15 km.

The AAD Trial has successfully demonstrated complete functionality in deployment configuration of Mission Control Centre for the Ballistic Missile Defence Programme.

F-35B Joint Strike Fighter test aircraft BF-3 with a 1,000-lb inert test GBU-32 in an open internal weapons bay for loads testing.

NAVAL AIR SYSTEMS COMMAND, PATUXENT RIVER, Md. – Marine Corps Maj. C. R. “Jimi” Clift flies F-35B Joint Strike Fighter test aircraft BF-3 Dec. 19, 2011 with a 1,000-lb inert test GBU-32 in an open internal weapons bay for loads testing. Significant weapons testing for the F-35B and F-35C variants is scheduled for 2012, including fit checks, captive carriage, pit drop and aerial drop tests.

What is French fighter Rafale?

The Dassault Rafale is a French twin-engine delta-wing multi-role jet fighter aircraft designed and built by Dassault Aviation. It is called an "omnirole" fighter by its manufacturer.

Development of the Rafale began in the late 1970s when the French Air Force and Navy were seeking replacements for its aircraft. France tied up with four other countries to produce an air dominance fighter. However, due to disagreements, the venture failed.

To satisfy the Ministry of Defense's stringent criteria, Dassault built a technology demonstrator to prove the viability of its new product. Once approved, further developments led to the current Rafale variants.

Introduced in 2000, the Rafale is being produced both for land-based use with the French Air Force and for carrier-based operations with the French Navy.

Once the price negotiations with Dassault Aviation are finalised, the Rafale will fulfil the Indian Air Force's requirement for a Medium Multirole Combat Aircraft (MMRCA).

Dassault Rafale deal: New fighter is good but price is worrying

At one level, there is nothing surprising about the decision of the government to begin price negotiations with the Dassault company to purchase their Rafale to fulfill the Indian Air Force's requirement a Medium Multirole Combat Aircraft (MMRCA).

Once the IAF decided that it wanted the best fighter, not necessarily the most economical, it was clear that choice would be between Eurofighter Typhoon and Rafale.

According to analysts, it is the better multi-role fighter than its nearest competitor, the Eurofighter, and slightly cheaper. So following the "L1" criterion that the government usually follows, of accepting the lowest bid, the Rafale has been chosen.

Given the stringent technical criteria that the IAF insisted on, there should be no doubt that the Rafale will be a first-class fighter and that it is as good as the Eurofighter in the air-to-air role, and somewhat superior to it in the air-to-ground role. The issue, rather, will relate to costs.

Already the original MMRCA deal, which was supposed to be for $ 10.4 billion, has ballooned to $ 20 billion- plus for 126 aircrafts. The final bill will only be known after the price negotiation process is done.

The MMRCA competition was a somewhat peculiar one. How do you reconcile putting aircraft like the small single engined Jas 39 Gripen and the F-16 against the heavy twin engined Eurofighter and Rafale? Initially, the requirement seemed to be to meet the needs of the Light Combat Aircraft, which had been delayed.

But clearly, including the heavy multi-role fighters changed that mission. From the outset, the air force had been talking about the need to worry about 'life cycle costs' (LCC) of the fighter they were going to buy.

But how could they compare the LCC of the light fighters with that of the heavy ones? Only in the end did the IAF decide that they wanted a heavy, twin-engined fighter and they shortlisted the latter two aircraft last year. And now they have decided in favour of the Rafale.

The issue of life cycle costs will not go away even now. When the Rafale comes in, it will be in addition to an existing fleet of Su-30MKIs, MiG-29s, Mirage 2000s, Jaguars and other aircraft. Over the years, the IAF has realised the high price they have had to pay for this multiplicity of types.

This is an era when air forces have been sharply reducing their aircraft types to keep costs down.

It is no secret that India will be the first country, after France, to have decided to operate this fighter. This means that a substantial part of the development costs of the aircraft will be borne by us. The Rafale is still in the beginning stage of its development cycle.

Three countries have considered acquiring the Rafale, come close to it, and then backed out - Brazil, UAE and Switzerland. The parsimonious Swiss decided that the Rafale was too expensive and are looking for a cheaper alternative.

As for the UAE, last November, Sheikh Mohammed, deputy of the UAE's armed forces, said that the Dassault offer was "uncompetitive and unworkable [in] commercial terms". The UAE was angered by the French demands of Euro 2 billion to develop the fighter.

Now, the French have the rich Indians to do what the poor Arabs and the Swiss could not afford.

What India needs to worry about is the cost of running its air force. It already has a large number of twin engine fighters and will get more in the form of the Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) from Russia.

Indeed, with the Rafale joining squadron service, the air force will be top- heavy because there will not be enough light fighters which can carry out combat air patrols on the cheap.

The air force is making its bed, but it is the taxpayer of the country that has to sleep on it.

Photos of Rafale