DRDO and PSU's

[Aaj Ka Hero]

View: https://x.com/Firezstarter1/status/1849208406948589973
@fire starter bro, giving knowledge to people who are not knowledgeable regarding radars.

 

[Aaj Ka Hero]

Project Khusha and S-400 Batteries will talk to each other and Coordinate Interceptions. – Indian Defence Research Wing

idrw.org

I have a bad feeling that this thing too will go into perpetual testing mode without induction but let's hope for best.

 

[Azaad]

But sadly as of now there's no various versions of the proposed Ghatak Sir.
It's all about SWIFT...the 1t, 250km, 100kg payload proof of concept thing.

As of now , yes. The idea would be the explore possibilities of the SWIFT as in upscaled versions & later the Ghatak. At least you've a proof of concept in the SWIFT .

Ya, I can also feel that.
The analogy is the theoretical potential of something Vs the actual reality.
Like having hundreds of Nishant Vs zero.
Or 42 squadrons Vs 32.
Or fight tooth and nail to get Tejas Mk2 as fast as possible Vs still toying with MMRCA/MRFA.
Or integrating ATGMs on Prachand in less than a month as it's based on Rudra architecture which already has proven ATGM capability Vs still having 70mm rockets as the only anti-armour weapon.

Or as in this case; multiple potential variants of "Ghatak" Vs the actual thing; SWIFT...the 1t, 250km, 100kg payload proof of concept thing.

Well in case you haven't noticed much of the discussions on this forum revolves around possibilities exclusively . The others tend to be around venting out. Which one does yours fall under ?

Again, "these models" are just SWIFT...that same 1t, 250km, 100kg payload proof of concept thing.

Akinci!?
Maybe because it was never planned to be stealth as it was always supposed to be used either in COIN or strictly anti-armour/anti-SHORAD in LSCO.

Ice-cream guys have Anka-3
View attachment 13123
They already have a "Ghatak" and above everything, it's already flying

Bingo. So they've done it. We've yet to . However in our case there's a project being developed which may not be the case with many countries out there stuck as they are in the intent phase of which we've already realised a PoC .

Turks on the other hand have a well chalked out program , something we could take lessons from. That's my larger point.

The current configuration of SWIFT...yup, again that 1t, 250km, 100kg payload proof of concept thing is more or less what's the only thing you can have for export.

Right now there are preliminary discussions on how would this platform be deployed to meet certain roles internally. Once that is thrashed out we could go on to discuss other possibilities including exports.

Or otherwise you'd be breaching the 300km/500kg/Mach 0.65 threshold of MTCR.

Could you elaborate on it ?

See, now you're getting my point. FTB
That SWIFT is also just a FTB in its current configuration and as of now there's no mention of any new platform halfway between SWIFT and Ghatak.

As of now ...

 

[Ayan Barat]

Which one does yours fall under ?

Well personally I like to count myself in the third group...

an AR-15 pistol grip I had designed

It's very small here but it exists.

Could you elaborate on it ?

Anything that can fly beyond Mach 0.65 should not have a range more than 300km and payload more than 500kg if it wants to get marketed globally (even in ToT form) otherwise it would violate the terms of Missile Technology Control Regime.

This is the reason why BrahMos had a range of just 290km when the dimensionally same P-800 Oniks has upto 800km range. We got the ToT with smaller fuel tanks to comply with MTCR and later replaced them in-house.

-------------​

Continuing on this SWIFT thing, let me touch a point that has kept intriguing me for a quite a while. This one

The landing gears used on it are bigger and bulkier than they need to be

Compared to all other contemporaries and worth mentioning that all other are full sized as opposed to scaled down, the landing gears on SWIFT feels humongous. Here's a collage for comparison

My leading theory is that it was designed by some Satbir from Gurgaon who wanted to do gedi in it so just slapped some Thar tyres.

The next theory is that they might be using Ghatak's landing gears on it with minimal modifications to certify them so that they can simply plug-n-play as soon as Ghatak gets ready instead of making a scaled-up iteration. If this is indeed true then it reinforces the point that SWIFT is not a "real" UCAV rather just a makeshift FTB to certify things like avionics, landing gears, control logics that we currently have instead of waiting for things like engine, geometrically optimised airframe and RAM to get finalised first.

 

[Azaad]

Well personally I like to count myself in the third group...

It's very small here but it exists.

Anything that can fly beyond Mach 0.65 should not have a range more than 300km and payload more than 500kg if it wants to get marketed globally (even in ToT form) otherwise it would violate the terms of Missile Technology Control Regime.

Which sort of completely explains why all those countries exporting drones like Turkey does the Bayrakhtar & Akinci or China does the Wing Loong 2 to Paxtan.

This is the reason why BrahMos had a range of just 290km when the dimensionally same P-800 Oniks has upto 800km range. We got the ToT with smaller fuel tanks to comply with MTCR and later replaced them in-house.

-------------​

Continuing on this SWIFT thing, let me touch a point that has kept intriguing me for a quite a while. This one

Compared to all other contemporaries and worth mentioning that all other are full sized as opposed to scaled down, the landing gears on SWIFT feels humongous. Here's a collage for comparison
View attachment 13132
My leading theory is that it was designed by some Satbir from Gurgaon who wanted to do gedi in it so just slapped some Thar tyres.

The next theory is that they might be using Ghatak's landing gears on it with minimal modifications to certify them so that they can simply plug-n-play as soon as Ghatak gets ready instead of making a scaled-up iteration. If this is indeed true then it reinforces the point that SWIFT is not a "real" UCAV rather just a makeshift FTB to certify things like avionics, landing gears, control logics that we currently have instead of waiting for things like engine, geometrically optimised airframe and RAM to get finalised first.

Quite obviously it'd be your last theory isn't it.

 

[Anants]

My leading theory is that it was designed by some Satbir from Gurgaon who wanted to do gedi in it so just slapped some Thar tyres.

 

[Ayan Barat]

Which sort of completely explains why all those countries exporting drones like Turkey does the Bayrakhtar & Akinci or China does the Wing Loong 2 to Paxtan.

If you're going that tangent then why not MQ-9 sale to India?

Now coming to actual technicalities
> China is not a member of MTCR so it gives zero Fs
> As for Akinci, yup it definitely crosses the MTCR threshold of 500kg payload (1,300kg) and 300km range (7,500km) but perhaps most importantly it's speed is just 0.3 Mach.
Unless and until a platform crosses 0.6 Mach it's not even considered for MTCR evaluation

 

[Azaad]

If you're going that tangent then why not MQ-9 sale to India?

Both India & the US are members of the MTCR

Now coming to actual technicalities
> China is not a member of MTCR so it gives zero Fs

Not for want of trying . Apparently as of now it's India blocking Chinese attempts at getting in for denying India entry into the NSG.

> As for Akinci, yup it definitely crosses the MTCR threshold of 500kg payload (1,300kg) and 300km range (7,500km) but perhaps most importantly it's speed is just 0.3 Mach.
Unless and until a platform crosses 0.6 Mach it's not even considered for MTCR evaluation

So. , tweak a parameter here or there & Bob's your uncle. With no means to monitor future upgrades , we'd be in the dark till the day of reckoning precisely like how the F-16s have been prescribed a purely defensive role by the US when selling it to Paxtan who've also deployed a full team there to monitor its activities in spite of which it was utilised in Operation Swift Retort.

 

[Aaj Ka Hero]

View: https://x.com/Varun55484761/status/1849303191508197820

 

[jaijaganath]

View: https://x.com/amanroutray7/status/1849164752788005177

Before people start commenting according to AD it is wrt altgs and has no relation with atags orders