Indian Air Force : News, Pics and Discussion thread

Originally posted by Stealth Spy
With so many carriers and airplanes based on them lining up to enter service this is not surprising.

The T-45 is essentially a modified BAe Hawk, right ?. I was wondering if the deal for Hawks to be license produced at HAL could be extended and these goshawks can be made out of the additional ones

Does BAe have a stake in selling the gosHawk as well ? What aircrafts do the the Russians & French use to train their pilots for carrier based operations with more lethal airplanes ?

Don't know about the French (but it could be the Hawks, my guess) but the Russians use the Yak trainers. The latest version is the Yak 130.

www.airforce-technology.com...

Originally posted by Stealth Spy
This was as outrageous as the original estimate to make the LCA Tajas @ 8 million per unit.

Its no surprise that the estimate for the MKI has been exceeded massively. These IMHO are gimmicks to secure funding for these projects. Hopefully HAL will learn to give out more realistic estimates in the future.

It could depend on two things why the figures are so different.

1) Quite a bit has changed in 20 years in terms of technology so that might have added to it.

2) Cost escalations (read inflation/currency strength) over 20 years

NEW DELHI, AUGUST 3 :A team from Russia’s Sukhoi Design Bureau and Irkut gave a detailed classified presentation to the Defence Ministry on Thursday on its fifth generation fighter concept, but discrepancies have already begun to surface between New Delhi and Moscow over the proposed multi-billion dollar joint programme to develop and produce advanced stealth fighters for both countries in the next decade.

In essence, South Block has communicated to Moscow that the Russian fifth generation fighter programme, designated PAK-FA, is already at an advanced stage of design, which effectively negates the aspect of ‘‘joint-development’’ and has asked it to come up with a more ‘‘equal’’ proposal. The Sukhoi-led consortium’s concept, based on the PAK-FA, is being pitched vigorously to India as part of a protocol signed by the two countries in 2004 to build a fifth generation fighter.

In fact, the government plans to tell Moscow in December at the sixth meeting of the India-Russia Inter-Government Commission that if billions of dollars are to flow from the Indian side for the joint project, Moscow needs a partner because its budget will not allow it to develop alone, then the IAF and HAL must be on board from scratch, so that the aircraft platform incorporates IAF operational needs as well.

At the most basic level, the wish-list that the IAF has for a fifth generation fighter, which should ideally begin flying operationally between 2015-2020, includes comprehensive stealth, a single engine

, supercruise capabilities, an active electronically scanned array (AESA) combat radar and swing-role capabilities.

Full Article >>

Although this news is particularly rosy for the proposed joint development, it atleast confirms that India is involved in the PAK-FA programme.

It is also interesting how this programme would interfere with the MCA project. The same article also reads ...

The fifth generation joint project is still a futuristic one, though it was clear from Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s comments in Parliament today, that the government is taking strong note of lessons learnt from the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) programme for its other proposed project, the Medium Combat Aircraft (MCA).

‘‘For expediting development work on MCA, government may consider collaboration with friendly countries,’’ he said. The Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) in Bangalore has already begun to conceptualise the MCA, possibly as India’s fifth-generation platform.

Perhaps this indicates that the MCA and the PAK-FA are both on and equivalents of the F-35 and the F-22 respectively.

[edit on 5/8/06 by Stealth Spy]

This article probaly kills the speculation befoe abou the joint-project

Joint name, russian project

not really..
articles say a lot of things which never come through..
who knows..
Whats bothering me is the delay in the 120-200 MRCA fighter contract..
why in blazes is it taking an epoch?

Just come across this Nat Geo's video in YouTube about the Indian Tejas. Interesting. www.youtube.com...

Hope these guys are doing good work. This will boost both India civil and defence avionics

Any comments?

Search YouTube and you will find a whole lot of videos

I already heared that their Wind-tunnel technologies are one of the best in the world. Now the commentator is telling the digital FBW, multipurpose carbon composite, simulator, etc too. mmhm what else ??

With the new color, it looks awesome, but strangely too small (funny looking too).

Hope when it reaches production stage it will be near 5th generation AC.

The ADA's director tips off the new generation ACs too.

Could you provide me with a link regarding the wind tunnel technologies?

The LCA program seems to be finally reaching its conclusion. Most capabilities of the Tejas have been tested.

The main question now is how many will actually be inducted into the IAF

One a side note, this is the first vid of the Tejas i have seen in this particular colour scheme. Must say it looks quite good

[edit on 28/9/2006 by puneetsg]

PV-3 flies in under a month..
Insider information
I saw the nat geo thing as well..
That jet looks sweet in low observable camo..
sports jet!

Hey DD3, you live near an IAF base right. What's the word on the Tejas as of now? In terms of manouverability etc. Any idea what the test pilots are saying about the plane.

To put it simply, how good is it to fly?

On a side note, i would really like to see some vids of the Chinese infratsructure and a/c

Check this link www.worthey.net... and compare yourself. Their facilities are good (Why China and Japan are missing in the list? Is this an old list or incomplete? Someone care explaining?) And their hypersonic WT is also missing.

I thought their hyper thing is a very recent activity (June 2005: India's VSSC has begun work on its first hypersonic wind tunnel (HWT), India's maiden hypersonic wind tunnel under construction ). But, it goes way back to early 90's. Check the résumé of this guy (activities on 1992). IMO, it may go well back to 80's. Of course, one cann't start things just like that.

Check out this column as well Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore

Most of my [other] refs are from scientific community (they don't boast), not mainly from media.

[edit on 28-9-2006 by CosmicScorpion]

Relax Cosmic, i aint trying to say you are wrong. I just wanted some links from you cause i was too lazy to google myself

Ill look over them. Thanks

Check this out

As I suspected, early work on HWT has been started on 1986, as per the above site.
Their FM Re (Reynold's #) and Mach range are quite interesting, comparing to these. Quite impressive for a developing nation

Originally posted by puneetsg
Hey DD3, you live near an IAF base right. What's the word on the Tejas as of now? In terms of manouverability etc. Any idea what the test pilots are saying about the plane.

To put it simply, how good is it to fly?

On a side note, i would really like to see some vids of the Chinese infratsructure and a/c

I don't live near the the base which tests the LCA. Stealth Spy lives in that city if I'm not mistaken.
My proximity is to the Su30K/MK/MKI and the Jaguar-IM. Anyways I don't know/have spoken to any pilots who have flown the LCA, but the general buzz is that the a/c is of the likes of the Mirage 2000, but better.

hmmmm.... SS is not as regular as he used to be. The only time he seems to be regular is when he gets into an argument with CW

You readin this SS, let us know some insider info

And good work on the Wind-Tunnels Cosmic

Can someone tell me what's going on with Pak-FA? Is it Russia-India co-development projet? Or just Russia? I can't find any single word India in Pak-FA wiki page. Any latest news? (Some reliable source, please )

And, what does Su-30 mean in Indian context? Just MKIs, or all Ks and MKs?

Thanks.

[edit on 5-11-2006 by CosmicScorpion]

Originally posted by CosmicScorpion
Any latest news? (Some reliable source, please

)

The lastest news was that india wanted a smaller aircraft like a MiG-2000 and the russians wanted a larger twin engined F-22 style fighter

Russia had recently invited china to join the PAK-FA though

And, what does Su-30 mean in Indian context? Just MKIs, or all Ks and MKs?

In the future, it would mean just the MKI

The K's are being sold to an russian republic and being replaced by 18 new MKIs and the MKs are being upgraded to the MKI standard

IAF pondering on getting C-130s:
This article is a little old but there's been a bit of a buzz on the local networks about this recently, so maybe its more of a possibility now..

I'm back after many months and with some new news :

5th LCA prototype takes to the skies

The prototype aircraft of Tejas, PV3, had its flawless maiden flight today.

It is the fifth light combat aircraft to take to the skies, joining the fleet of two technology Demonstrators (TD1 and TD2) and two proto vehicles (PV1 and PV2), according to the Aeronautical Development Agency, which comes under the Ministry of Defence.

"The perfect maiden flight is a result of maturity gained in development of various systems, building of the aircraft to better and better quality, and thorough ground testing," an ADA statement said.

The LCA programme, in spite of all the setbacks it had due to US sanctions, has moved forward and has completed more than 570 flights, ADA said. Eleven Test Pilots from IAF who have flown and evaluated these aircraft have adjudged the handling qualities as one of the best in its class.

The aircraft, having proved as a good flying platform, is now getting converted into a good weapon platform, with the integration and testing of various weapons and sensors planned over the next 18 months, the statement said.

www.outlookindia.com...


Painfully slow...but progress neverthelss

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