As threat grows, IAF seeks hand-held, one-man system to shoot down drones

 

Self-contained system should be man portable and be operable by a single person besides having a range greater than 300 metre and capable of repeated use in quick succession
Amidst growing threat posed by unmanned aerial systems (UAS), the Indian Air Force has chalked out a requirement for a hand held, easy to use system that can shoot down rouge drones.The sixth edition of Defence India Startup Challenge (DISC-6), launched by the Defence Minister on April 22, calls upon the industry to develop a hand held, hard kill, counter-UAS system. DISC is a platform under the aegis of the Ministry of Defence that offers specific projects to the industry, particularly start-ups, to develop technological solution and products for the armed forces.

According to parameters listed in the document, the self-contained system should be man portable and be operable by a single person besides having a range greater than 300 metre and capable of repeated use in quick succession.Further, it should not require any special skills and training for neutralizing the drone and the provision of aiming and neutralising should be very simple and achievable with minimum training.

The system is meant to intercept and destroy small low flying drones that have miniscule radar, thermal or acoustic signature and are primarily used for surveillance and cross border smuggling or can be used to carry out a terror strike, as was experienced at the Pathankot airbase in Punjablast year.
Punjab and Jammu regions remain vulnerable. 

According to data available with the Border Security Force, there were 100 drone sightings along the western border in 2021, out of which 67 were in Punjab followed by 24 in the JammuSector. This year there havealready been over half a dozen engagements with drones, with some reports claiming that an IED that exploded nearJammu on the day of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rally is believed to have been dropped by a drone.

While the capability to detect and counter large unmanned aerial vehicles exits, detection of small drones is very difficult and at present depends primarily on visual sightings or audio hearing. Troops engage small drones with standard rifles, which is difficult.Two basic options to neutralize drones are the soft kill, which relies on jamming or hacking the target drone’s radio signals, or the hard kill which requires the drone to be physically destroyed by ordnance or lasers.

The armed forces as well as paramilitary and police organisations are laying great stress on the induction of anti-drone systems. Besides procurement of some foreign systems, several projects are underway to develop different indigenous systems to counter various types to drones.Over the past few years, there have been several reported instances where drones have been used to smuggle arms and ammunition as well as narcotics into India. Employment of drones for surveillance and recce in border areas is also a regular feature. Border guarding forces have been modifying their operating procedures to tackle hostile drones.

 tribuneindia

Boeing plans to fly 2 Super Hornet aircraft to India; All you need to know

 

Boeing is in talks with top Defence officials in the country about F/A-18 Super Hornet, P-8I, F-15EX, KC-46 tanker as India plans to boost its defence capabilities.

 Boeing is planning to fly two Super Hornet fighter aircraft for an operational demonstration to Goa before its potential buyer the Indian Navy this summer. According to the news agency PTI, Boeing's India Business Development Alain Garcia made a strong sales pitch for F/A-18 Super Hornet. Gracia said the Super Hornet aircraft has been specifically designed from its inception for carrier operations, can operate from the Indian Navy aircraft carriers, and will meet or exceed the STOBAR performance requirements of the Indian Navy.

 STOBAR (short take-off but arrested recovery or short take-off, barrier-arrested recovery) is a system used for the launch and recovery of aircraft from the deck of an aircraft carrier.

Boeing is in talks with top Defence officials in the country about F/A-18 Super Hornet, P-8I, F-15EX, KC-46 tanker for aerial refueling and ISR capabilities as India plans to boost its defence capabilities.

 

Boeing's F/A-18 Super Hornet;

1. According to a senior Boeing executive, the Super Hornet is suited to protect India's maritime interests. He said the Super Hornet and P-8I will open up opportunities for greater interoperability between the two navies for a secure Indo-Pacific.

2. The Block III Super Hornet comes with advanced networking and open architecture design that allows it to work jointly with the Indian Navy's P-8I and other US-origin assets and rapidly accept new technology to stay ahead of emerging threats

3. The US Navy operates more than 800 Super Hornets and EA-18 Growlers, the electronic attack version of the F/A-18.

4. Super Hornet F/A-18E weighs 14,552 kg, with a maximum takeoff weight of 9,937 kg. It flies at Mach 1.6 speed, which means 65% faster than the speed of sound. At present, the US, Australia, and Kuwait have F/A-18 Super Hornet customers.

 

The Super Hornet has an affordable acquisition cost and also costs less per flight hour to operate than any other tactical aircraft in the US forces inventory, including single-engine fighters.

Maria Laine, vice president of Boeing's International Business Development, said that India is one of Boeing's enduring partners where "we have made strategic investments and will continue to do so in the future".

The company has 3,500 employees in India and more than 7,000 people working with its supply chain partners.

"We are proud to support the many missions of the Indian armed forces that operate multiple Boeing aircraft...," she said.

“In support of Aatmanirbhar Bharat and Make in India, Boeing sources over USD 1 billion from India, and Boeing's Indian supply chain partners are exporting products made in India for the global aerospace market," the company said.

 Tata Boeing Aerospace Limited (TBAL), the joint venture between Boeing and Tata Advanced Systems, has been producing aero-structures for Boeing's AH-64 Apache helicopter and recently delivered its 140th AH-64 Apache fuselage from its 14,000 square metres state-of-the-art facility in Hyderabad.

TBAL is also manufacturing 737 Vertical Fin structures, a complex structural part, on a new production line that will utilize cutting-edge robotics and automation, said the Boeing official.

themint

Kashmir: Indian forces seal infiltration routes opened due to melting snow

 

 

Braving the harshest winter season on the Line of Control (LoC) in north Kashmir, Indian security forces have been guarding the border facing sub-zero temperatures. And now with the melting of snow on the higher reaches of northern Kashmir, the vigil on the traditional infiltration routes has been increased to foil any infiltration bids. 

The security forces have inputs that more than 350 terrorists are waiting across the border in various terror launch pads to cross over to the Kashmir Valley. Security forces also believe that a lot of 'fanatic warriors' from Afghanistan can be sent to Kashmir, but the forces are ready to tackle any such issue. All the high-ranking officers of Army and BSF are making special visits to LoC to take stock of the situation on ground zero.

"After the snow has started to melt on these higher reaches. We have increased the vigil on those areas which are prone to infiltrations. Our sources say that around 125-150 terrorists are waiting across the border to infiltrate. Army and Border Security Force (BSF) have made sure the terrorists are neutralised and situation is very peaceful in the valley. There is a possibility of fanatic warriors trying to infiltrate from across the border," said Raja Babu Singh, Inspector General (IG0, BSF, Kashmir Frontier. 

The jawans guarding the border have been given all new technology equipment which include sophisticated weapons, surveillance cameras with night vigil, drones and thermal imaging tracers. The patrolling has also been increased across the LoC. 

wion

Indian Army inducts Russian Igla-S MANPADS

 

 The Army, which has for long been looking for new man portable air defence systems, has inducted a small number of Igla-S systems recently bought from Russia under emergency procurement, according to defence sources. However, a much larger contract for Igla-S systems under the Very Short Range Air Defence System (VSHORAD) deal is still pending and under review by the Defence Ministry.
“The contract was signed in December 2020 and the equipment was delivered by December 2021. This includes 24 launchers, 216 missiles and testing equipment,” one of the sources said.

The procurement was done through the Vice Chiefs emergency financial powers given to the Services for the first time after the Balakot air strike in February 2019 and further extended after the standoff with China in Eastern Ladakh in May 2020. Under this, Services can procure weapons systems upto ₹300 crores on an urgent basis without any further clearances.

In the backdrop of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine and the Western sanctions, India and Russia are working out modalities to utilise the Rupee-Rouble route in a large way for trade and payments. The Ministry is also assessing the impact it would have on the timely execution of deals as well as steady supplies of spares and supportThe larger VSHORAD deal which began in 2010 and saw several rounds of trials and re-trials is still pending.

This deal which was close to conclusion is now under review as part of the overall relook at all direct import deals by the Defence Ministry. Deliberations are still continuing on the larger VSHORAD deal, another defence source said.

The Request for Proposal (RFP) for VSHORAD was issued in October 2010 for over 5,000 missiles, 258 single launchers and 258 multi-launchers. Five contenders responded and eventually three made it to the trials - MBDA of France, Rosoboronexport of Russia and SAAB of Sweden. Eventually all three companies were declared technically compliant in 2017 and Igla-S was declared the lowest bidder in November 2018.

While the benchmark price arrived at by the Army was just over $2 bn, Rosoboronexport’s bid was much lower at around $1.47 bn, SAAB at about $2.6 bn, and MBDA at about $3.68 bn. This led to much deliberation within the Ministry as the Russian bid was much lower compared to the benchmark price. The deal also saw several allegations of deviations in procedures with some of the vendors sending protest letters..As per requirements, the VSHORAD should have a maximum range of 6 km, altitude of 3 km along with all-weather capability and will replace the existing Igla in service which is in urgent need of replacement. VSHORAD is the soldier’s last line of defence against enemy combat aircraft and helicopters in the multilayered air defence network.

In addition to the Igla-S, the Army variant of the Medium Range Surface to Air Missile (MRSAM) being jointly developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) completed trials earlier this month and is now ready for induction. The maiden launch of MRSAM Army Version was conducted in December 2020.

Air Defence functions in three levels – gun/missile system, medium range, and high range. Within this the Air Defence guns are of two types, AD Gun Missile system, AD self propelled guns. The Army is looking for AD guns in both the categories. In the medium segment, it has the indigenous Akash SAM while MRSAM fits in the high range.

The Hindu

Rafael Unveils SPIKE ER2 5th Generation Extended Range Missile - Video Footage

 SPIKE ER2 5th Generation Extended Range Missile

 

Russian Foreign Min Lavrov in Delhi, To Call on PM Modi & Meet Jaishankar Today

 

 Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrived in New Delhi on Thursday, 31 March – a day ahead of his interaction and meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Foreign Minister Dr S Jaishankar, respectively.

He is scheduled to meet Modi and Jaishankar today, as per Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.

This is the first high-level visit from Russia since the country went to war with Ukraine.

The foreign minister was received at the airport by an Indian delegation, the Ministry of External Affairs indicated, posting a video on Twitter.
The visit comes even as the United States on Wednesday, 29 March, criticised India for attempting to undermine western sanctions by considering a trade proposal from Moscow. As per a Bloomberg report, which cites sources, Russia is offering huge discounts to India on its oil amid mounting sanctions from West.

Lavrov is expected to discuss Russia's crude oil offer to India, rupee-rouble payments, and arms deals during his visit.

His two-day-long visit will coincide with British foreign secretary Liz Truss's trip to India and US Deputy National Security Advisor for International Economics Daleep Singh's trip to India.

The Russian foreign minister is among the people sanctioned by the United States government.

 Thequint