India Air-Force Indian Air Force General Archive

[Nilgiri]

I think its the best available option, with China as prime adversary we need some non-Russian equip[ment and France is the most reliable west country for India

Plus they actually mean what they say when it come to offsets:

French Navy to receive new eyes in the sky from Dassault

The French Ministry of the Armed Forces has ordered from Dassault Aviation seven maritime surveillance and intervention planes for the French Navy, with an option for five others to be confirmed in 2025. The order, valued at €1.3 billion, will be a breath of fresh air for the French manufacturer...

defencehub.live

The manufacture of the Falcon 2000LXS aircraft in India will mark a major gain for the Indian offsets and Make-in-India policy. This will the first time an international company will manufacture the whole aircraft in India for use by the air force of its home country. Eric Trappier also said that a number of countries have shown interest in the Falcon 2000LXS based AVSIMAR aircraft. Should the AVSIMAR be sold internationally, there is a good chance that India's Reliance (which is partnering with Dassault on Rafale offsets) will stand to gain substantially.

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If you ask me personally (though I am francophile so TIFWIW), they are in sweetspot (neither too big, neither too small...but very well versed and credible and with minimal political BS) for India to cooperate further in aerospace and high tech sectors in general....to establish production and supply chains from the intial offset clauses and acquisitions (though India will need to negotiate well, grow its economy better and leverage that all better).

Safran for example can provide a good cooperation to GTRE etc (which later can translate to realisationg of established production into private sector), if you know their R&D heritage for example (if you look at the downstream application in commercial sector especially now)....but it need Indian acumen (esp in front obstacle bureaucracy and funding) to really harness that potential....compared to before.

 

[KKF 2.0]

India is waving at China. Good.

 

[Raptor]

RAFALE’S DEEP-STRIKE CRUISE MISSILE GETS AN UPGRADE FOR TARGETS IN MOUNTAINS
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2020 BY INDIAN DEFENCE NEWS​

Storm Shadow / SCALP can operate in extreme conditions and offers IAF a highly flexible, deep-strike capability based around a sophisticated mission planning system

Faced with the prospect of an adversary on both western and eastern fronts, the Indian Air Force (IAF) has got the French manufacturer to re-calibrate the software of Rafale fighter jet’s SCALP long-range air-launched cruise missile to ensure that the subsonic weapon hits targets up to 4,000 metres above sea level. The subsonic missile with a range in excess of 300 kilometres and a 450-kilogramme warhead is part of the weapon suite on Rafale Omni-Role fighter of the IAF.


In simple terms, it means that the IAF’s Rafale can demolish targets located in mountains and high plateaus at 4,000 metres instead of the previous calibration of 2,000 metres. The tweaking of the software has been done by the missile manufacturer MBDA in consultation with the top brass of IAF.

While the next batch of three Rafale fighters are expected to arrive after 2021 Republic Day, there are plans that the aircraft will be refuelled mid-air by India’s close ally UAE air force using Airbus 330 multi-role transport tankers as they fly towards Ambala air base. As of now, seven Rafales are being used for training IAF pilots in France. The complete fleet of 36 aircraft is scheduled to reach India by the end of 2021. One squadron of this potent fighter will be based at Ambala, the other at Hasimara airbase, which is perched on the Siliguri corridor.

Rafale carries a beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile Meteor with a range of more than 100 kilometres, the potent SCALP or storm shadow cruise missile and the Hammer precision-guided ammunition. The SCALP missile is used to target command, control, communications, air bases, ports, power stations, ammunition storage depots, surface ships, submarines and other strategic high-value targets.

Although both China and Pakistan have developed air-launched cruise missiles, the SCALP is a unique weapon that has a fire-and-forget mechanism. Once launched from the fighter, the cruise missile drops to a terrain-hugging role between 100 to 130 feet from the ground to avoid detection by the enemy radars and jamming systems. Before approaching the target, the missile again goes up to a maximum height of 6,000 metres and then drops perpendicularly on the high-value target. The primary charge first penetrates the target, the secondary charge then blows it to smithereens.

With IAF having to defend on both the fronts and mountainous terrain on either side, airpower will have a very significant role to play in the worst-case scenario. The infantry, apart from the airborne special forces, will be used to defend both the Line of Control (LoC) and the Line of Actual Control (LAC). The SCALP’s range will be crucial to degrade enemy’s fight power

Eye On East Ladakh, IAF Tweaks Rafale's Terrain-Hugging Deep-Strike Missile

Storm Shadow / SCALP can operate in extreme conditions and offers IAF a highly flexible, deep-strike capability based around a sophisticated...

www.indiandefensenews.in

 

[Nilgiri]

India to ink 2 landmark military aircraft deals in next few months | India News - Times of India

India News: India is gearing up for two major long-pending military aircraft deals, together worth over Rs 50K crore. The contracts for 83 indigenous Tejas fighte

timesofindia.indiatimes.com

NEW DELHI: India is gearing up for two major long-pending military aircraft deals, together worth over Rs 50,000 crore, in the new year. The contracts for 83 indigenous Tejas fighters and 56 medium-transport aircraft through a Tata-Airbus joint venture are set to be inked within the next few months.

The over Rs 37,000 crore order for 83 Tejas Mark-1A jets from defence PSU Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd will be the biggest-ever deal in the indigenous military aviation sector. These 83 fighters, the deliveries of which will begin three years after the contract is inked, will have 43 “improvements” over the 40 Tejas Mark-1 already ordered by the IAF.

The Tata-Airbus project to build 56 twin-turboprop C-295 aircraft, which will replace the old Avro-748 aircraft of IAF, in turn, will be the first time an Indian private sector company will enter the defence aerospace arena.

While Airbus will supply the first 16 aircraft in two years after the contract is inked, the rest 40 will thereafter be built in India within eight years, in the project which was initially valued at Rs 11,929 crore.

Both the projects have been sent to the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) for the final approval. “The Tejas contract will be the first to be approved by the CCS. It is likely to be inked in early-February. The C-295 project, with the participation of Tata as the Indian production agency will follow subsequently,” said an official on Tuesday.

(More at link)

 

[Paro]

On Rafale and deadly Panther choppers, India gets a huge offer from France

France has accepted the Indian request that defence technologies shared with the Indian military should not be given to New Delhi’s adversaries. France’s relationship has already reached a new low with Pakistan after PM Imran Khan attacked President Macron.

www.hindustantimes.com

@Nilgiri I fell in love with panthers since I watched George Clooney’s peacemaker movie 2 decades ago.

 

[Nilgiri]

 

[Zapper]

After Tejas, India moves ahead to procure more MiG-29s & Sukhois​

India is now formally moving ahead to procure 21 MiG-29 and 12 Sukhoi-30MKI fighters from Russia, along with upgrades of their existing fleets, after the Cabinet Committee on Security approved the production of 83 indigenous Tejas jets last week.

For starters, the RFP (request for proposal) for the 21 MiG-29 fighters, whose bare airframes are lying in a mothballed condition in Russia since the later-1980s, will soon be issued to Russian state-run defence export arm Rosoboronexport and will be assembled in India, said defence sources on Sunday.

The acquisition of these MiG-29s at “relatively lower prices” will add to 59 such jets already with IAF. The 12 Sukhoi-30MKIs, in turn, will add to the 272 such jets already contracted from Russia for about $15 billion, with the bulk of them being licensed produced by Hindustan Aeronautics. IAF has so far inducted 268 of the original 272 Sukhois, with at least nine of them being lost in crashes over the years.


Along with the 83 new Tejas, which will be inducted in the January 2024-December 2028 timeframe under the Rs 46,898 crore deal cleared by the CCS, the additional MiG-29s and Sukhois are meant to stem the freefall in the number of IAF fighter squadrons.

With the progressive phasing out of the obsolete MiG-21s, MiG-23s and MiG-27s, the force is down to just about 30 squadrons (each has 16-18 jets) when at least 42 are required to tackle the “collusive” threat from China and Pakistan. The remaining four MiG-21 “Bisons” squadrons are also slated to retire by 2024.

The defence ministry in July last year gave the initial nod for the acquisition of the 21 MiG-29s with the latest avionics and electronic warfare suites, and further upgrade of the 59 existing jets to “ensure commonality across the fleet”, at a cost of Rs 7,418 crore.

The cost of 12 new twin-seat Sukhois, along with advanced electronic warfare capabilities as well as additional supplies and spares, in turn, was estimated to be Rs 10,730 crore.

While 42 Sukhois are now being modified to carry the precision-strike BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles, the entire fleet will also subsequently be “fully enhanced” with more advanced avionics, radars and weapons to further bolster their combat capabilities.

IAF also plans to get the “acceptance of necessity” by this April-May for its long-term mega “Make in India” project for 114 new fighters for over $20 billion under the “strategic partnership” policy.

The French Rafale fighter will obviously be the frontrunner if India goes ahead with this project, having already bought 36 of them under the Rs 59,000 crore deal inked in September 2016. The other six contenders are F/A-18 and F-21 (US), Gripen-E (Sweden), Sukhoi-35 and MiG-35 (Russia) and the Eurofighter Typhoon.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/after-tejas-india-moves-ahead-to-procure-more-mig-29s-sukhois/articleshow/80320199.cms#:~:text=NEW DELHI: India is now,indigenous Tejas jets last week.

 

[Blog Before Flight]

In a big boost to the indigenous Hawk-i program, HAL successfully test fired a Smart Anti Airfield Weapon (SAAW) from the Hawk-i aircraft off the coast of Odisha, Jan. 21, 2021. The indigenous stand-off weapon developed by Research Centre Imarat (RCI), DRDO is the first smart weapon fired from an Indian Hawk-Mk132. Read more here

 

[Gautam]

 

[Nilgiri]

Indian Air Force General Archive

I think its the best available option, with China as prime adversary we need some non-Russian equip[ment and France is the most reliable west country for India Plus they actually mean what they say when it come to offsets...

defencehub.live

 

[Nilgiri]

Behind the scenes look at Hawk-i including the software, integration etc for the SAAW weapon and other payloads:

.

 

[Paro]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1356467382869401601

 

[Paro]

How China is fast catching up with the West in the race for air-to-air missile superiority

Recent AAM advancements in China, elevating it as a near peer competitor to the Western and Russian philosophies, has unlocked a new race to own the longest reach in the skies.

theprint.in

 

[Nilgiri]

Aussies operate MRTT as well @Vergennes :

 

[Paro]

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[Paro]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1362423661731270662

. I did know a chetak was modified as a drone a few years back. I'm guessing Rudra. You can take it as a pinch of salt.

 

[Paro]

Self reliance: 1-in-2 Tejas fighters to have desi radar | India News - Times of India

India News: In a major boost to indigenous defence technologies, at least 51% of the 123 LCA Tejas fighters that will be inducted into the Indian Air Force will h

m.timesofindia.com

 

[Nilgiri]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1366590314065125380

 

[Nilgiri]

Credit to original owner.

 

[Nilgiri]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1371552178238787585

@Vergennes