Tejas LSP-5 ready for first flight

India’s fifth limited-series production (LSP-5) Tejas Light Combat Aircraft is ready for its first flight. Indian sources confirm to AVIATION WEEK that a flight readiness review meeting was held recently and the LSP-5 will fly “soon,” weather permitting. LSP-4 had its first flight in June.

“Two more high-speed taxi trials are remaining and after that we will be ready for the first flight,” says a senior official associated with the program. “It will have internal cockpit lighting for enabling night flying, with all corrections being done. We are also testing a new communication set, similar to that on the Dhruv chopper. This would again ensure commonality of inventory in the country.”

 

By-Youngster (Weapon and Technology)

Army to get unmanned ground vehicles

Bharat Rakshak (The Hindu)

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is preparing a road map for induction of unmanned ground vehicles into the Army, S. Sundaresh, Chief Controller Research and Development, Armament and Combat Engineering, DRDO, said. 

Inaugurating the “Driving Innovation - DRDO Student Robot Competition 2010” at the Combat Vehicles Research and Development Establishment (CVRDE) at Avadi near here, Mr. Sundaresh said the Army had agreed to induct 20 Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs), developed by the DRDO's R&D establishment in Pune. 

Daksh, the ROV, would locate, handle and destroy hazardous objects safely. Designed to operate remotely from a range of 500 metres, it was capable of handling improvised explosive devices. 

Another version to monitor the contamination level in a Nuclear Biological Chemical-affected environment through its Radiation Measurement and Automatic Control Unit and Portable Gas Chromatograph was ready and the Army had to come up with its requirement, he said. 

DRDO officials held a meeting with the Army's Director-General (Perspective Planning) a few weeks ago and the road map for induction of unmanned ground vehicles would be ready in the next few months.

About 240 colleges had applied for the student robot competition and 14 teams were selected for the finals.

 

Netra demonstration

 

A demonstration of Netra, a fully autonomous, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), designed for anti-terrorist and counter-insurgency operations was held. “It can be deployed 1.5 km away. Flying at a height of 200 metres, it could send live video to the base. Four high-speed propellers allow the vertical take-off and landing of the portable Netra, which was expected be ready for induction into the Army by year-end,” said Alok Mukherjee, chief designer.

Nishant UAV tests breakthrough technology

The DRDO has successfully test flown the indigenous Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Nishant, which was used to try out the breakthrough technology of monitoring the UAV's health in-flight. 

The trial was held yesterday at the Kolar airfield by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), the country's premier defence R&D agency. 

The DRDO said in a press note here that the Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), a laboratory under it, had used the Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) technology developed by it along with the National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), a CSIR establishment. 

"The SHM monitors the structural health parameters online while the UAV is in flight and help take corrective action.
 

This enables the UAV to be flown without unnecessarily grounding them for inspection," the release added. 

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Here's why Chinese blogs must be monitored

Source : Bharat Rakshak (Rediff)

 

The blogosphere in China is expanding fast; thousands of new individual blogs are appearing every day, conveying opinions on a variety of topics.

On quite a few occasions, they are critical of the performance of local governments, with focus on condemning corruption at leadership levels and commenting on development issues.

Apparently the government is allowing such discussions. The comparative freedom being enjoyed by the bloggers in expressing their views is indeed notable. A question however arises as to how to assess the contents of these blogs and correlate them to a larger picture?

What follows is an attempt to find an answer from Indian point of view. Two sample blogs in Chinese language, both critical of India have been examined -- under the premise that the blogs in China, like those in India, belong to individuals and that they do not represent the party or government; as such, their contents are unofficial, having no relevance to state-to-state relations between India and China.

Indian Ocean becomes battleground for India and China

BY: csmonitor.com

Source: IDRW

Let’s play connect the dots. After the US midterm elections, President Obama will visit India, Indonesia, South Korea, and Japan. Trace a line between the nations, noting how it loops down through the Indian Ocean and back up through the South China Sea and East China Sea, forming a semicircle around China.

The route underscores the importance of these nations and bodies of water as the United States seeks to check the growing assertiveness of China, says Robert Kaplan, author of newly published “Monsoon: The Indian Ocean and the Future of American Power.”

“It’s not a war I’m predicting, but what I am alluding toward is a very complex, Metternichian arrangement of power from the Horn of Africa all the way up through the Sea of Japan,” Mr. Kaplan told a small crowd Monday at the Harvard Book Store in Cambridge. “We don’t have to interfere everywhere, we just have to move closer to our democratic allies in the region so they can do more of the heavy lifting.”

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US to hand over first C-130J plane to India in December

IBN Live

The US will hand over the first of the six C-130Js ordered by India to its Air Force in December and it is expected to reach its base near here by February next year. The C-130J made for India by American aerospace major Lockheed Martin at its Marietta facility had recently carried out its first flight successfully after it was painted in IAF colours.

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Indian Army Conducts Trials of BAE Systems M777 Howitzers reports Press Trust of India

Press Trust of India quotes unnamed American government officials saying that India was keen on buying 145 M777 howitzers from the United States and the guns were put on trial in India last week. With India's artillery procurements getting delayed, New Delhi had expressed its interest to the US to buy the guns for which US Congress approval had been sought. 

"We are now moving towards more military sales" they added. The officials also noted that the Indo-U.S. military relationship was "matured and well evolved," and not based on one transaction. "It is based on exchanges. This is not a relationship, it is partnership," they said, pointing out that U.S. military exercises with India was the "biggest" the Americans held. India's Army, Navy, Air Force and Special Forces hold frequent exercises with the US counterparts.

The M777 howitzer is a towed artillery piece manufactured by BAE Systems' Global Combat Systems division. Prime contract management is based in Barrow-in-Furness in the UK as well as manufacture and assembly of the titanium structures and associated recoil components. Final integration and testing of the weapon is undertaken at BAE's facility in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

News Source and Photos : Indian Defence

AURA: New Dawn of New Age

SECURITY : Security and Defence News Magazine

 

Scenario

Year 2022 major infiltration is taking place on the Line of Control in Uri Sector of north Kashmir, small pack of 10 to 12 Pakistani Terrorists are trying to sneak into Kashmir. but they have little idea that Two Hunter Killer UCAV developed under India’s prestigious AURA (Autonomous Unmanned Research Aircraft) have tracked their movement using infrared and motion sensors and are losing altitude fast, this new breed of Stealthy UCAV hunt in pairs and can be on CAP (Combat Air Patrol) 24 hours a day, powered by a modified Kaveri K10 engine armed with four Air to Surface missiles and 2 Air to Air missiles for their own self protection.

UCAV have already alerted movement of intruders to the zonal head quarters and soon go head confirmation comes from Head quarters , both UCAV fire ASM at the intruders and terrorist have no idea what hit them , half of them are killed near loc and others run and hide in a abandoned concrete shelter UCAV is able to track their movement and sends a video feed to the Zonal Army Head quarter for reinforcement , well reinforcement comes in shape of Bomber UCAV again derivate from AURA program , bomber UCAV is able to carry large LGB or joint direct attack munitions ,powered by two modified Kaveri K10 engine , it is much bigger then Hunter UCAV but is able to carry more payloads .As soon it arrived at the scene of action Hunter UCAV starts moving out area of operation, Terrorist seeing UCAV move have a sign of relief but they have no idea that soon whole complex where they are hiding will be brought to ground in seconds. This is just a possible scenario where future UCAV of India will operate.

Why a UCAV?

Longer CAP: Fully Autonomous Unmanned Combat aircraft will have longer endurance in war or in conflict zone since everything is controlled by on board computers level of efficiency from take off to landing will be same ,fatigue and stress factors will be negligible since pilot is absent .

Design of UCAV: it has been openly discussed and told by Aviation community that design of aircrafts is limited to “Human endurance “ UCAV will always have design advantages over manned aircrafts even if they are stealthy in nature, risk to pilots live in combat zone is also reduced since UCAV will not need one, another major advantage will weight since UCAV will not require any pilot-support systems this will reduce weight in the aircraft and will enable it to better utilizes space for other purpose , which in turn can reduce size of the airframe of the aircraft , with same payload that a manned aircraft might have .

Lower R&D Cost: Why many of the European Countries are engaged in development of UCAV on other hand same countries are cutting down their own defense budgets in time of recession in their Economy? that Simple, development of new 5 Gen Fighter aircraft will be tremendous pressure on already shaky economic of this countries and since many of them will be operating American –European Jointly developed F-35 soon, need for a
new manned 5th Gen aircraft have disappeared and many of them have been actively working on UCAV which will have half the cost for development of a stealthy Fighter or Bomber aircraft, but also be cheaper to operate in future since it will also reduce training of pilots and support crew.

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