PLA sends HQ-9 air defense missiles close to Kashmir border

 In preparation for a potential territorial conflict with India, China has deployed HQ-9 air defense missiles to Hetian airfield in the south of the Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region in the country's northwest, according to the Communist Party publication Global Times on July 3.
 Hetian is only 260 kilometers from India- Kashmir. Kanwa Defense Review, a Chinese-language magazine based in Canada, said the radar vehicles of HQ-9 air defense missiles have recently been seen at the base and assessed that they are there to defend China's western border from a potential air strike launched by the Indian Air Force.
Hetian airfield is the staging base of the PLA Air Force's 37th Air Division, from where the unit's JH-7A fighter bombers can carry out airstrikes against targets in India. As such, it is likely to be a target for the Indian Air Force in the event of a war.
Kanwa also said the PLA Air Force made another decision in late June to send another air defense brigade from the Guangzhou Military Region to the Gobi desert.

 wantchinatimes

Russian frigates left without engines prepared for transfer to India

The fourth and fifth Project 11356 frigates, built for the Russian Navy at the Kaliningrad Yantar shipyard, might be sent to India. A source in the Defense Ministry informed Lenta.ru of this. Such a move will make it possible to equip the ships with turbines of Ukrainian manufacture that were previously ordered but which Kiev now refuses to supply since they would be used for equipping Russian warships. The first three ships will be transferred to the Russian Navy on time.
“We have serious problems with the fourth and fifth frigates” (Admiral Butakov andAdmiral Istomin –note by Lenta.ru), said the source. “It is possible that they will be handed over to India. This will make it possible to change the passport of the end customer and receive the Ukrainian turbines for them.” According to the publications interlocutor, the military will resolve the fate of the frigates.
According to sources in the defense manufacturing industry, India expresses interest in the future augmentation of the capacity of a group of Project 11356 frigates, which have recommend themselves as successful ships with good military capabilities, and is now holding talks on the purchase of three more ships of this type as a supplement to the six supplied earlier.
The head of defense procurement at the United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC), Anatoly Shlemov, stated in an interview with Lenta.ru that the first three Project 11356 frigates will be provided to the fleet on time and that the fate of the other two ships is currently being decided jointly with the Navy. He also noted that the rift in military and technical cooperation with Ukraine does not negatively affect the construction of the new Project 22350 frigates which will be also transferred to the Navy on time – seven ships by 2021.
On 1 July at the International Maritime Defense Show IMDS-2015 in Saint Petersburg, the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy, Admiral Viktor Chirkov, stated that in order to compensate for the delays in the construction of the 11356 frigates, the construction of a series of small missile ships of a new type for Project 22800 is being planned.

 Lenta.ru/ rbth

L&T delivers indigenously designed reactor for nuclear plant

L&T Heavy Engineering has delivered its first indigenously designed pressurised heavy water reactor for the nuclear plant being developed by Nuclear Power Corporation in Gujarat.

The first of the two nuclear 700 MWe steam generators was delivered at the Kakrapar nuclear plant on June 16 and another generator will be dispatched on Saturday, the company said in a release on Friday.

A nuclear steam generator is one of the most critical safety class one equipment in a nuclear island. It enables heat transfer from heavy water to generate steam, which drives turbines to generate electricity.

Each steam generator weighs about 215 tonnes and made of special low alloy quenched and tempered steel with nickel-iron-chromium alloy tubes and stainless steel internals.

MV Kotwal, President (Heavy Engineering), Larsen & Toubro said the completion of the steam generator is a major milestone towards ‘Make in India’ vision of the government.

The 3D multi-phase thermal hydraulic analysis and safety analysis including accidental conditions were designed in-house by L&T. The nickel-iron-chromium alloy U-Tubes were manufactured as a joint effort with Nuclear Fuel Complex, Hyderabad.

L&T Special Steel and Heavy Forgings, a 65000 sq. meter integrated facility at Hazira, will supply forgings for future nuclear power plant projects. LTSSHF is a joint venture between L&T and NPCIL.

L&T shares were up 0.60 per cent at 1,808 on the BSE on Friday.

 the hindu

80 Rafale-type jets needed: IAF

Facing a crisis of a dwindling fleet of fighter jets, the Indian Air Force (IAF), has formally told the Ministry of Defence (MoD) that it needs at least 80 Rafale-type multi-role combat fighter jets to be battle-ready in the next few years. This is the first time the IAF has put a minimum number to its needs since the government, in April this year, announced a decision to buy 36 Rafale fighter jets from France in a “fly-away” condition. Initially, the IAF had projected the need for 126 such fighter jets and a global tender was floated, which is now in cold storage after the decision to buy Rafale was announced. 
The Tribune, on June 2, had first reported that the IAF was reportedly uneasy with the number of jets ordered. It had prepared a blueprint for the MoD. Sources said the IAF has conveyed the need for five squadrons and estimated a squadron at 16 jets each, instead of the normal number of 18 jets, as the Rafale with its high-end technology is available to fly at short notice and has a shorter maintenance “turn-around”. 
This works out to be 80 jets of Rafale or planes of such a type. The number is more in tune with creating minimum facilities for servicing and training of pilots and on ground technicians. “A decision on this has to be taken by the government,” a senior functionary said. Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar had, in an interview to a news agency on May 31, said buying 126 jets, as proposed by the previous UPA government, was “economically unviable”. Sources said the IAF has said “mere” 36 jets would not meet the shortfall due to the phasing out of fleet of MiG-21 and MiG-27 jets by 2022. There are some 260 obsolete MiG-21s and MiG-27s (Soviet Union-era single-engine fighter jets) in the fleet. 
The force had projected an immediate requirement of 126 Rafale-type medium multi-role combat aircraft, and needs 400 jets over the next 10 years. As of now, the IAF has 35 fighter jet squadrons (having 16-18 planes each) against its projected requirement of 42 squadrons to tackle any simultaneous war with China and Pakistan. A mixed ancestry and level of technology marks the 640-odd fighter jet fleet, largely imported from Russia over the past 30 years. British and French companies have supplied around 150 planes. In October last year, IAF Chief Air Marshall Arup Raha had said: “We are left with a few jets as a majority of our fleet is in a phase-out mode. The drawdown has to be tackled by quick induction of medium multi-role and light combat aircraft.”

 tribuneindia

Govt clears 16 defence licence proposals worth Rs613 crore

The government has issued 73 industrial licences to the defence sector since June 2014, against 50 such licences granted between 2011 and May 2014.

These include 16 proposals with a proposed investment of Rs.613 crore, cleared at a licensing committee meeting chaired by the secretary of the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) on 10 June.

DIPP is a department under the ministry of commerce and industry.

According to a DIPP statement on Friday, the proposals cleared at the meeting include applications from Pipavav Defence and Offshore Engineering Co. Ltd, Tata Group, Samtel Thales Avionics Ltd, Solar Industries India Ltd, Titagarh Wagons Ltd and Premier Explosives Ltd.

The statement said many of these proposals were pending with the government for several years and were for the manufacture of helicopters, aircraft, radars, bulletproof jackets, bulletproof helmets and ammunition.

The other licences cleared by the government are for manufacturing tanks, rockets, missiles, mortar shells, grenades, warships, radar, electronic warfare systems, night-vision devices, howitzers, armoured vehicles, armoured personnel carriers and unmanned aerial vehicles, among other defence equipment.

Recently, the government increased the initial validity of a licence for the defence sector to seven years from three years, further extendable up to three years, in view of the long gestation period of defence contracts.

“In addition to this, the government has taken a series of measures to improve the ease of doing business in India. The government now expects that these measures will give a boost to private participation in the vast opportunities available for defence manufacturing in India,” DIPP said.

In a May report, legal consultancy Khaitan and Co. said the government is attempting to simplify the industrial licence process and its policy initiatives are being followed by swifter decision making, as evidenced by the grant of industrial approvals by DIPP to proposals for defence production by Reliance Aerospace Technologies Ltd, Bharat Forge Ltd, Mahindra Telephonic Integrated Systems Ltd, Punj Lloyd Ltd, Mahindra Aero Structure Ltd and Tata Advanced Materials Ltd.

The Khaitan report said physical registrations are no longer mandatory and applications for an industrial licence can now be made on the government of India’s e-Biz portal

“A number of leading industrial houses have nascent but growing defence industry divisions. These companies need to invest now in order to build capabilities that stretch their technical, operational, research as well as partnering capabilities so that they are considered world-class producers as industry matures,” a December report by industry lobby Assocham and audit firm PricewaterhouseCoopers said.

 

 livemint

BBC report proved wrong by Scotland Yard on MQM-RAW Links

The credibility of claims made in a recent BBC report that the Indian intelligence agency RAW funded Pakistan’s Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), have been seriously weakened following a statement by the Britain’s Metropolitan police.

The BBC story had quoted a senior MQM source as having acknowledged such payments in interrogation sessions with the Met police. The police are investigating charges of money laundering against the London-based MQM leader, Altaf Hussain. India had dismissed the charges as untrue.

Soon after the story broke, however, documents purporting to be “official” and attributed to the Metropolitan police have been circulated on social media sites and in the Pakistan media. The documents allegedly contain the transcripts of the interrogation of senior MQM leader Tariq Mir by the police.

“Documents have been put to the police asking for clarification as to their validity. We have seen one that appears to be a genuine police document and a second we do not recognise as a police document,” the police statement said, in response to a question from a media outlet seeking confirmation.

“We are concerned as to the possible prejudicial effect release of these documents could have to an ongoing police investigations. We are not investigating a possible leak in relation to this matter and will not be drawn into discussing any further documents that may be given to the media by third parties,” the statement adds.

thehindu/defencenews

Airbus, Mahindra Announce Joint Venture To Make Helicopters For India's Armed Forces

Airbus Helicopters said on Friday that it will partner with Mahindra Defence, a unit of the $16.9 billion Mahindra Group, to produce helicopters in India.
The joint venture will be the first private manufacturer of military helicopters under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Make in India' initiative. Airbus Helicopters is a unit of Europe's Airbus Group.
“We have extensive expertise in engineering, automotive and fixed-wing sectors and have made substantial investments in aero components manufacturing, while Airbus Helicopters offers best-in-class rotorcraft platforms," said S. P. Shukla, Group President, Aerospace and Defence Sector and Chairman, Mahindra Defence Systems Ltd. in a statement.
Mahindra Aerospace is also in the process of manufacturing a 10-seat turboprop Airvan 10, which is scheduled for certification this year.
“The tie-up is in line with our intent to develop an indigenous industrial ecosystem dedicated to helicopters. The joint venture will be dedicated to supplying the Indian Armed Forces with made-in-India, state-of-the-art helicopters of high reliability, quality and safety standard based on combat-proven platforms," said said Guillaume Faury, President and CEO, Airbus Helicopters in the statement.
The Indian government will spend $620 billion between 2014-2022, of which half will be capital expenditure said a February report by industry association FICCI and financial services company Centrum Capital Ltd. That represents a huge opportunity for Indian firms and major companies such as Mahindra Group, Reliance Group, Adani Group, Bharat Forge Ltd, Reliance Industries Ltd, the Tata Group, Larsen and Toubro Ltd., and the Godrej Group have announced their forays in the defence sector.

 huffingtonpost

India to renew hunt for assault rifles after scrapping 4-yr-old tender

India will now re-launch the hunt for new-generation assault rifles for its 1.18-million strong Army, following the scrapping its four-year-old tender for the guns worth around Rs 4,850 crore.

TOI on May 20 had reported that the proposed mega project for the assault rifles, with interchangeable barrels for conventional warfare and counter-insurgency operations, was on the verge of being scrapped since it had run into major problems.
Now, the armament firms that had participated in the extensive trials -- Colt (US), Beretta (Italy), Ceska (Czech) and Israel Weapon Industries (IWI) - have been told that the proposed contract was being retracted. This is a serious blow to the long-standing demand for new rifles to replace the 5.56mm indigenous INSAS (Indian small arms system) guns, which have suffered from technical bugs since their induction in 1994-95.
As per the now-cancelled project, 65,000 rifles were to be directly acquired from the selected foreign vendor to equip the 120 infantry battalions deployed on the western and eastern fronts. The Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) was to then subsequently manufacture over 1,13,000 such rifles after getting transfer of technology from the foreign company.

But the proposal for the new rifles -- with a 5.56x45mm primary barrel for conventional warfare and a 7.62x39mm secondary one for counter-terror operations - was found to be "impractical" both in terms of high costs and technical requirements, said sources.

The plan now is to either get a foreign arms company to shift some of its manufacturing facilities to India or task the OFB to manufacture the new assault rifles with foreign collaboration.

Weighing around 3.5-kg, the new rifle will need to have a 1-km range, advanced night-vision devices, holographic reflex sights, laser designators, detachable under-barrel grenade launchers and the like.

The INSAS rifles, with an effective range of just 450-metre and weighing over 4.25-kg, had replaced the even more cumbersome 7.62mm self-loading rifles. The Army also uses over one lakh AK-47s, known the world over for their sheer ruggedness and fail-safe nature, for counter-insurgency operations in J&K and northeast. 

 

timesofindia

MiG 29K simulator commissioned

A state-of-the-art cockpit simulator of MiG 29K fighter aircraft was commissioned at the Southern Naval Command, the force’s training command, on Wednesday.

Chief of the Command Vice Admiral Sunil Lanba set the simulator to work at the Naval Institute of Aeronautical Technology (NIAT).

The simulator, which offers a real-life flying experience on the fourth generation Russian-origin naval combat plane, would be used to train budding naval pilots, aircrew and maintenance personnel on the dynamics of cockpit operation from a maintenance point of view. “Such a simulator is a real boon, as it exposes the maintenance crew to the technical characteristics and behaviour of the cockpit in different flying conditions which they would not get otherwise,” said a naval officer. “Further, it would familiarise ab initio flyers to the technical aspects of cockpit operations.”

This is the second MiG 29K simulator of the Navy. The first was commissioned two years ago at naval air station INS Hansa in Goa — home to the ‘Black Panther’ squadron comprising MiG 29K fighters.

The facility, set up as part of the MiG 29K aircraft contract, would provide a platform for smooth transition of air crew and maintenance personnel from training environment to actual maintenance and operation scenario, said a defence statement. It would be used to impart real-time training to air crew and technical personnel on all systems of the aircraft. 

thehindu

India to Develop New Tank, Use Russian Armata as Prototype

 

India confirmed plans to design and build a new main battle tank (MBT) that is intended to replace the Soviet-made T-72 tanks, used by the Indian Army, Gazeta.ru reported.

Soviet and Russian military hardware makes up around 40 percent of all hardware in the Indian ground forces (it is even more in India's Air Force — 80 percent, and  Navy — 75 percent). In total, there are around 600 T-55 tanks, almost 2,000 T-72M1 and 640 T-90C tanks.

The new tank the Indian Army plans to design and manufacture is known as the Future Ready Combat Vehicle (FRCV). The new generation MBT will form the base platform for other armored vehicles, similar to the Russian-made Armata platform. The Indian army wants to use the platform for as many as 11 different tracked vehicles, including light tracked, wheeled, bridge layer and trawl tanks, self-propelled howitzers, air defense guns, artillery observation post and engineering reconnaissance vehicles, and armored ambulances, the Diplomat said.

India might likely use Russia's new Armata tank as a prototype for its own armored vehicle, Gazeta.ru reported. Earlier this month, defense expert Samir Patil from India's Gateway House analytical center said his country was willing to buy the Armata platform or some of its elements for future development of their own tank.

"I think India would like to purchase such a combat platform for its armed forces," Samir Patil said. What makes the Armata tank stand out from its domestic and foreign counterparts is that the crew is securely enclosed in a multi-layer armored capsule separated from the ammunition container. The vehicle is fully computerized and only needs three servicemen to operate it.
The tank has an unmanned, remotely controlled turret, digitally controlled by a crew-member located in a separate compartment. It is believed that this would eventually lead to the development of a fully robotic tank.
sputniknews

Navy Launches 3 Follow-on Water Jet Fast Attack Craft

The Navy on Tuesday launched three follow-on Water Jet Fast Attack Craft (WJFAC) at Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers here. They were launched by Medha Murugesan, wife of Vice Admiral P Murugesan, Vice Chief of the Naval Staff.
The three Naval Ships –  Tarmugli, Tillanchang, Tihayu – are named after different islands in Andaman and Nicobar group of islands, and are among the four such warships being built by GRSE presently. Two of these ships are scheduled to be delivered to the Navy this year and are also among ‘follow-on’ series of 10 WJFACs delivered by GRSE to the Indian Navy during 2009 to 2011.  Vice Admiral Murugesan asserted that Indian Navy had been the torch-bearer in the drive for indigenous construction of warships. 
He acknowledged the role of GRSE as a reliable partner in pursuing the national goal of ‘Make in India’. The Vice Admiral commended the GRSE team for their significant contribution towards meeting the Navy’s growing requirement of state-of-the-art warships. They are designed for a maximum speed of 35 knots with an endurance of nearly 2,000 nautical miles at 12-14 knots.
The WJFAC are powered by the latest 4000-series MTU engines with advanced machinery control system. The craft would have the latest communication equipment and radars to enable effective surveillance.

 newindianexpress

Navy's 48 warships being built indigenously: Vice chief

Hailing the country's indigenous shipbuilding capabilities, Vice Admiral P. Murugesan, vice chief of the navy, on Tuesday said that 48 warships were currently under construction in Indian shipyards. These 48 ships being manufactured for the Indian Navy include aircraft carriers, frigates, destroyers, submarines, corvettes and fast attack crafts.
The vice admiral was speaking at the simultaneous launch of three Water Jet Fast Attack Crafts (WJFAC) at the Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Ltd. (GRSE) here. "It is a proud reflection of our indigenous capabilities that we are building all kinds of warships. GRSE has so far built 94 ships for the navy," added Murugesan.
The three WJFAC - Tarmugli, Tillanchang, Tihayu - are named after Andaman and Nicobar group of islands, and are among the four such warships being built by GRSE.
GRSE chairman and managing director Rear Admiral A.K. Verma (retd) said two of the three WJFACs will be delivered for commissioning in the last quarter of the year. With a displacement of around 315 tonnes, the ships are designed for a maximum speed of 35 knots with an endurance of nearly 2,000 nautical miles at 12-14 knots.
Powered by the latest 4,000-series MTU engines with advanced machinery control system, the ships will be fitted with CRN-91 indigenous 30mm gun with optronic pedestal and have the latest communication equipment and radars to enable effective surveillance.
The WJFACs are ideally suited for interception of fast-moving surface craft and will perform anti-smuggling, fishery protection and search and rescue operations.

 indiatoday