Indo-Russian Fifth generation fighter crosses milestone

India and Russia have crossed the first milestone towards the development of the fifth generation fighter aircraft (FGFA), completing the preliminary design of the plane.

“The preliminary design contract (PDC) for the Russian-Indian fifth generation aircraft has been executed,” Russia’s Sukhoi aircraft company announced on Wednesday. 

The Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) signed the $295-million PDC contract in December 2010 with the Sukhoi company, which is responsible in Russia for developing the PAK-FA (perspective aviation complex-frontline aircraft), as the FGFA is called in Russia.

“The aircraft design has been fully developed,” Sukhoi said in a press release. “Both parties have agreed upon on the amount and division of work during the research and development (R&D) stage. A contract for the R&D is being prepared. It is to be signed this year.”Under the PDC contract Sukhoi has also trained Indian engineers and provided HAL with the data and software needed to create a single working environment. A team of HAL engineers and IAF experts has been working at Sukhoi’s design bureau in Moscow, while Russian engineers have been assigned to HAL.

Four T-50 aircraft, the Russian prototype of the fifth generation fighter, have already performed more than 200 test flights since January 2010. 

 

The customised FGFA version will have “some differences” from the Russian prototype to meet “specific requirements of the Indian Air Force,” the Sukhoi announcement said. 

Russian experts said the FGFA will differ in “mission hardware and software,” as well as weapons. India has dropped its initial plan to redesign the single-seat T-50 into a twin-seat version.

Air Chief Marshal N.A.K. Browne told reporters at Aero India-2013 that India is to receive from Russia the first prototype of the fifth-generation fighter in 2014, followed by two more in 2017 and 2018. The FGFA is expected to go into series production by 2022.This is India’s biggest-ever defence project and its largest defence deal with Russia. It is expected to cost India more than $30 billion. However, last year India scaled down its original plan to acquire 214 planes by one-third, to 144 aircraft, citing time and cost factors. Russia plans to induct 60 planes at an estimated price tag of $100 million per aircraft.

India’s final Talwar-class frigate completes contractor sea trials

INS Tarikand (F50), the Indian Navy's third Talwar-classs warship, has successfully completed sea trials in the Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad, Russia, Yantar shipyard spokesman Sergei Mikhailov said.
Mikhailov was quoted by RIA Novosti as saying that the frigate sailed in the Baltic Sea on 5 February and completed five voyages that lasted for a number of days until 14 March, as a part of the sea trails.

Launched in May 2011, the frigate is scheduled to undergo state sea trials at the Baltiisk port, Russia, before being delivered to the Indian Navy in the summer of 2013.
The delivery follows a $1.6bn contract awarded to Russia in July 2006 to build three additional project 1135.6 Talwar-class frigates, INS Teg (F45), INS Tarkash (F46) and INS Trikand (F50).
INS Trikand is armed with eight BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles, Kashtan Air Defence close-in weapon systems and twin 533mm DTA-53-11356 fixed torpedo tube launchers firing SET-65E / 53-65KE torpedoes.

The Yantar Shipyard-built frigate is also fitted with an AK-190 100mm naval gun, Shtil-1 medium-range surface-to-air missile system and 12 barrel RBU-6000 anti-submarine warfare (ASW) rocket to fire 212mm 90R ASW rocket or RGB-60 depth charges.
Powered by combined gas turbine propulsion systems, the modified version of the Krivak III-class frigates are 126m-long, capable of cruising at a maximum speed of 30k and can accommodate a crew of 313. INS Teg, the first frigate of the class, was deployed in June 2012 while the second ship, INS Tarkash, arrived at the port of Mumbai, India, on 30 December 2012.
The three additional frigates will be deployed with existing warships of the same class, INS Talwar (sword), INS Trishul (trident) and INS Tabar (axe), to support Indian Navy operations.

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India's news Agni-VI all set to take shape

Agni-VI with multiple nuclear warheads, which can reach targets 6,000 km away, is all set to be developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). 

Only in April last, it carried out the maiden launch of Agni-V, which has a range of more than 5,000 km.So far, all the strategic missiles developed by the DRDO — Agni-I, II, III, IV and V, and the submarine-launched K-15 and its land-based version Shourya — can carry only single nuclear warhead. The DRDO’s tactical missiles and supersonic cruise missile BrahMos can carry one conventional warhead each. 

“We have started working on the multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles [MIRV] version [Agni-VI]. It will carry four or six warheads depending upon their weight,” DRDO missile technologists said. “The constraint is the vehicle’s mass.”

DRDO has done all the enabling studies, finalised the missile’s design and started working on the engineering part. It had also figured out how to anchor four or six warheads in the vehicle, how to disperse them and the pattern of their dispersal. The warheads could be released in an order, one after another. If one warhead were to hit a place, another could fall 100 km away from it, the technologists said.Both Agni-V and Agni-VI have three stages, all powered by solid propellants, and their diameter is two metres. And the comparison ends there. 

While Agni-V weighs 50 tonnes and is 17.5 metres long, Agni-VI belongs to the 65-70-tonne class and will be 20 metres long. “Agni-VI will be a massive vehicle,” the technologists said. It was too early to say when its first launch would take place. It would be road-mobile and blast off from trucks with launching platforms.

India test fires missile from under sea, completes nuclear triad

Sea trials for nuke submarine INS Arihant set to begin soon

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Indian Navy's nuclear submarine INS Arihant (destroyer of enemy) appears to be caught up in a significant development after a delay that led to the extension of sea trial timeline set for the boat.

It is believed that the reactor will go critical, setting the stage for sea trial sometime in the first half of next year. Admiral Joshi said harbour acceptance trials for the under development boat have been completed.

With the reactor going critical, Arihant would be taken to the sea for elaborate trials. Joshi's predecessor Nirmal Verma had earlier hinted that India's strategic ambition of having a credible nuclear triad would be in place by the end of this year.

But there has been a delay and the sea trials are expected to begin only next year. The reactor's performance will be tested in various stages, including firing of weapons and operations in the depth of the ocean. If everything remained in place, the submarine is expected to be ready for induction by 2014.

It will be one of the most significant achievements of India's submarine building capability.The submarine will be fitted with K-15 submarine launched ballistic missile which is under development. The trials of 700 km K-15 missile have already been carried out. While Arihant's induction is being eagerly awaited, the navy has fully integrated recently acquired Akula class submarine from Russia.

 Indian navy had earlier inducted INS Chakra nuclear powered submarine

Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/sea-trials-for-nuke-submarine-set-to-begin-soon-ins-arihant/1/236252.html

Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/sea-trials-for-nuke-submarine-set-to-begin-soon-ins-arihant/1/236252.html

Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/sea-trials-for-nuke-submarine-set-to-begin-soon-ins-arihant/1/236252.html

Indian Navy : After successful launch, K-15 missile ready to join Arihant nuclear submarine

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) ends 2012 on an upbeat note, successfully launching the underwater missile K-15 off the Visakhapatnam coast on Wednesday. The missile darted 20 km into the air, after a gas generator ejected it from the pontoon that lay submerged a few scores of metres in the Bay of Bengal, and sped 650 km before splashing into the sea in its 11th flight trial. 

After one more flight, the two-stage missile will be integrated with Arihant, India’s nuclear-powered submarine, and test-fired from the ship. “It is a fantastic system. It is a very powerful and accurate system,” said A.K. Chakrabarti, Programme Director, K-15, and Director of the Hyderabad-based Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL), which designed and developed the missile.

“India is the fifth country to have an underwater launch system. The other countries are the U.S., Russia, France and China,” he said. 

Avinash Chander, Chief Controller (Missiles and Strategic Systems), DRDO, termed it “a good flight” and said the test “formed part of the pre-production clearance.” Twelve K-15 missiles, each 10 metres long and weighing six tonnes and capable of carrying nuclear warheads, will form part of the deadly arsenal of Arihant, which is powered by an 80-MWt reactor that uses enriched uranium as fuel and light water as coolant and moderator. 

Informed sources said the reactor had already been integrated with the Arihant at Visakhapatnam. “The commissioning process is on,” they said. The reactor would reach criticality within the first few months of 2013. The harbour trials of the ship have been completed, and it is ready for sea trials.

India has been developing the K-4 missile, to be launched from submarines. It will be more powerful than K-15, with a range of 3,000 km.