Indian Air Force: News & Discussions (18 Viewers)

[ArjunMK1A]

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Hopefully

It will be developed for trials, development trials will go on followed by User trials, for may be 3 years. At that time, project may raked up some 250 Million dollars in value.

Then we order Predator. Since it is criminal to junk an project without wasting Taxpayer money.

 

[Nutcracker]

How about investing in the basic equipment needed to develop and test engines and fighter aircraft? Other countries have.

What do you think we discuss day n night here.

 

[randombully]

LoL they have no other option either, without a gas turbine propelling the drone it won't be cruising for 30 hours above 35000 feet. This requirement has been tailor made for buying MQ-9s.

This spec is between MALE and HALE, do tell me which Indian company can offer an indigenous or license made UAV that can mach these specs? None, other than the Reaper.
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Neither Archer-NG nor Hermes. One is yet to complete testing, other is not reliable, and both don't qualify the requirements set.

Found it, the drone that fit perfectly, this requirement is for Heron TP.

https://www.iai.co.il/p/heron-tp

Highlights
Operational with the Israeli Air Force
Multi mission/multi payload configurations
Operation above commercial traffic (up to 45,000 ft.)
All weather capability
Satellite Communications (SATCOM) for Beyond Line of Sight (BLOS) range
Triple redundant avionics
Automatic Taxi-takeoff and Landing (ATOL)
Certified to STANAG 4671
Compatible with NATO standards
Large internal volume for a variety of payloads
Mission endurance above 30 hours

Max. Take-off Weight5,670 kg
Max Payload Weight2,700 kg
Overall Length14 m
Wingspan26 m
Powerplant1,200 hp PT6 Turbo Prop

Performance​

Endurance> 30 h
RangeBLOS > 1000 km
Altitude> 45,000 ft
Max speed220 KTAS

 

[ArjunMK1A]

Which aircrafts in the fleet apart from the jag and mig 21 were finished ages ago and need to be finally put out their misery.

We have following fleet.

1. Mig 21
2. Jaguar
3. Mirage 2000
4. Mig 29 UPG
5. Su30 MKI
6. Rafale
7. Tejas MK1.

Out of this except 5,6 and 7. All the others were officially Museum pieces.

Mirage 2000 - 40 year old (Inducted in 1985). French removed them from service by 2005. We are basically started trying cannibalizing the fleet from foreign countries
Mig 29 UPG - 38 Years old (Inducted in 1987). One of the worst offender in IAF in terms of usefulness. This was supposed to CAP for Soviet fleet but it is hangar queen and we use Mig 21 for CAP.

Now you can say we are upgrading it. But consider it like an Tata Indica 1st gen. Yes, we can produce even today, but the chassis, architecture is archaic and will not support modern systems like GDI engine, ADAS systems, modern dashboard etc.

 

[concard]

If you really want to see where we are cockblocked. It is on Semiconductor. India is practically banned to access nodes like 14nm and below. The equipments required is blocked at various levels.

Not true. We have access to Lithographic machines which can etch until 14nm chips from ASML, Canon, and Nikon. No one has banned us yet. We have not even started making 28nm chips. There is not a single DUV machine within the country. Both Japanese Lithographic machines gives us the capability to go upto 14nm. Let us get there and see what awaits us when we ask ASML to sell us EUV.

 

[ArjunMK1A]

Not true. We have access to Lithographic machines which can etch until 14nm chips from ASML, Canon, and Nikon. No one has banned us yet. We have not even started making 28nm chips. There is not a single DUV machine within the country. Both Japanese Lithographic machines gives us the capability to go upto 14nm. Let us get there and see what awaits us when we ask ASML to sell us EUV.

China man is banned for accessing these lower nm chips machines. This technology is now concentrated with selective powers, we are not going to get them.

 

[Aditya 98]

We have following fleet.

1. Mig 21
2. Jaguar
3. Mirage 2000
4. Mig 29 UPG
5. Su30 MKI
6. Rafale
7. Tejas MK1.

Out of this except 5,6 and 7. All the others were officially Museum pieces.

Mirage 2000 - 40 year old (Inducted in 1985). French removed them from service by 2005. We are basically started trying cannibalizing the fleet from foreign countries
Mig 29 UPG - 38 Years old (Inducted in 1987). One of the worst offender in IAF in terms of usefulness. This was supposed to CAP for Soviet fleet but it is hangar queen and we use Mig 21 for CAP.

Now you can say we are upgrading it. But consider it like an Tata Indica 1st gen. Yes, we can produce even today, but the chassis, architecture is archaic and will not support modern systems like GDI engine, ADAS systems, modern dashboard etc.

Yes the first 4 are by past their user dates the 5th the way the super sukhoi update has been dragging on will also be let to basically become a flying coffin soon. So basically only rafale and tejas are in a way upto date if you look at it that way.

 

[FalconSlayers]

Found it, the drone that fit perfectly, this requirement is for Heron TP.

https://www.iai.co.il/p/heron-tp

Highlights
Operational with the Israeli Air Force
Multi mission/multi payload configurations
Operation above commercial traffic (up to 45,000 ft.)
All weather capability
Satellite Communications (SATCOM) for Beyond Line of Sight (BLOS) range
Triple redundant avionics
Automatic Taxi-takeoff and Landing (ATOL)
Certified to STANAG 4671
Compatible with NATO standards
Large internal volume for a variety of payloads
Mission endurance above 30 hours

Max. Take-off Weight5,670 kg
Max Payload Weight2,700 kg
Overall Length14 m
Wingspan26 m
Powerplant1,200 hp PT6 Turbo Prop

Performance​

Endurance> 30 h
RangeBLOS > 1000 km
Altitude> 45,000 ft
Max speed220 KTAS

HAL Will Provide MRO Support for GA-ASI MQ-9B Turbo-Prop Engines

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) have jointly announced that turbo-propeller engines, which power GA-ASI’s state-of-art MQ-9B Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS), will be supported by the HAL Engine Division at Bengaluru for the...

www.ga.com

 

[snakeeyes07]

View: https://x.com/zone5aviation/status/1942978025693593870

 

[ArjunMK1A]

Yes the first 4 are by past their user dates the 5th the way the super sukhoi update has been dragging on will also be let to basically become a flying coffin soon. So basically only rafale and tejas are in a way upto date if you look at it that way.

Don't know how well SU 30 fares when it gets old. But by 2040 we may start retiring the platform. Technically it should be replace by an AHCA project, which we don't have yet.

 

[randombully]

View attachment 42785View attachment 42786
View attachment 42788

HAL Will Provide MRO Support for GA-ASI MQ-9B Turbo-Prop Engines

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) have jointly announced that turbo-propeller engines, which power GA-ASI’s state-of-art MQ-9B Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS), will be supported by the HAL Engine Division at Bengaluru for the...

www.ga.com

Are you saying Israelis will not transfer technology to Adani?

 

[liberalredditor]

sunne me aya hai import marshals/genrols ne drone procurement me tagda masterstroke lagaya hai

 

[randombully]

sunne me aya hai import marshals/genrols ne drone procurement me tagda masterstroke lagaya hai

It's either mq9 or heron tp, given the requirements of over 30 hour endurance and over 35k feet flight altitude.

My bet is on maal, domestically by Adani.

 

[FalconSlayers]

Are you saying Israelis will not transfer technology to Adani?

Do they have control over propulsion? You can't go >60% indigenous without propulsion. And after the Hermes-900 saga, I doubt we'd be trusting IAI drones, they just crash too frequently and specs are over-exaggerated. This is tailor made for MQ-9B UAVs, plus the fact that these can be armed heavily even though armed UCAVs are highly vulnerable to enemy air defences make them a frontrunner.

 

[randombully]

Do they have control over propulsion? And after the Hermes-900 saga, I doubt we'd be trusting IAI drones, they just crash too frequently and specs are over-exaggerated.

The clause is 60+% indegenious content, doesn't specify what parts needs to be indegenious.

 

[liberalredditor]

It's either mq9 or heron tp, given the requirements of over 30 hour endurance and over 35k feet flight altitude.

My bet is on maal, domestically by Adani.

but what about xhinis control over israeli drone? i think it happened in arunachal last year with indigenous drishti 10 drone

 

[FalconSlayers]

The clause is 60+% indegenious content, doesn't specify what parts needs to be indegenious.

60%+ is for the overall aircraft, and with propulsion being a major component in terms of cost, it becomes more likely to help achieve the requirement, unlike Heron-TP where the company will assemble CKD kits.

Also, the 31 SkyGuardians cost only $1.7bn, rest $2.3 bn were for services including long term maintenance support, training, ToT, infra etc and weapons of course, some of which like the Hellfire is also fired from our Apache helicopters as well. So we have already paid for a lot of services.

As I said, only MQ-9B makes sense for all practical purposes. It largely qualifies every criteria. In fact a vanilla Heron-TP costs nearly just as much as a SkyGuardian.

 

[randombully]

but what about xhinis control over israeli drone? i think it happened in arunachal last year with indigenous drishti 10 drone

Na, it was old searcher drone.
Nothing to do with it being israeli, it's an old drone with a non secure data link.
Remember how Iran hacked an rq170 drone of America?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93U.S._RQ-170_incident.

Even with secured data link and other modern features, it's very hard, but not "impossible".

 

[randombully]

60%+ is for the overall aircraft, and with propulsion being a major component in terms of cost, it becomes more likely to help achieve the requirement, unlike Heron-TP where the company will assemble CKD kits.

Also, the 31 SkyGuardians cost only $1.7bn, rest $2.3 bn were for services including long term maintenance support, training, ToT, infra etc and weapons of course, some of which like the Hellfire is also fired from our Apache helicopters as well. So we have already paid for a lot of services.

As I said, only MQ-9B makes sense for all practical purposes. It largely qualifies every criteria.

I'm betting on heron tp.

 

[liberalredditor]

20 drones costed us 3 billion, calculate 87 drones. first p75i, then mrfa, now this. our defence budget for the whole decade will be sucked out. happy atmanirbharta to old chap at pmo and kadi ninda at south block