After Arjun Mk1A, Will the focus shift to Next Generation Main Battle Tank NGMBT program?
Indian Army recently placed orders for 118 Arjun Mk1A Main
Battle Tanks, which will create two armoured regiments by 2025-26 of the
indigenous tank. Mk1A MBT has 72 improvements, including 14 major ones, over
the Mk1 model, Mk1A was supposed to bridge the gap between Mk1 and Mk2 that was
in the design stage and required considerable design changes to its turret to
make the tank lighter by 4.5 tons from present 68.5 tons that of Mk1A.
Arjun Mk1A orders came after nearly a decade of in operation of the production line that lasts delivered previous orders way back in 2012 and came as a relief to the advocators of the Arjun tank but so came the news that the Arjun Mk2 might never enter production due to weight reservations from the Indian Army and DRDO instead has been told to focus on the Next Generation Main Battle Tank NGMBT program that will eventually replace all the Soviet era T-72 MBTs in the Indian Army.
A report prepared by the Parliamentary committee on defense
has called for the allocation of the additional funds to DRDO for projects like
AMCA and NGMBT, which shows some movement has happened in the development of a
50 tons Medium weight tank that will be powered by an Indigenous 1500 HP Bharat
Power Pack engine backed by a new Indigenous 120 mm smoothbore gun.
The program was earlier known as Future main battle tank FMBT
and Various specifications for the FMBT were finalized as way back as in 2010,
but little movement happened on this front due to hesitancies of the Indian
Army’s top brass that was eyeing and leaning towards next generation Russian
main battle tank called as T-14 Armata. The ultimate demise of the Arjun Mk2
means that the NGMBT Program will be back in focus and hopefully, the Indian
Army will come aboard the program and realize the long waited General Staff
Qualitative Requirements for the development of the Next Gen Main battle tank
that will replace nearly 1700 T-72 Tanks in the Indian Army.
As India Awaits More F3 Standard Rafale Jets, Dassault Starts
Testing The Latest F4 Variant
The tests of F4-1 were conducted between April 26 and 29,
involving test crews from the French Air Force, the French Navy, and Dassault
Aviation, under the stewardship of the Director General of Armament DGA.
During the trials, two Rafale F4-1 flew as part of a wider
aerial component of eight combat aircraft (two Rafale M, two Mirage 2000, and
two Alpha Jets) that performed realistic
combat scenarios. Eight complex missions representing 50 aircraft sorties were
carried out by test crews.
The pilots of F4-1 Rafales wore new SCORPION helmets and were
able to implement “new collaborative combat features of the aircraft. These new
helmet mounted sights are a part of the F4 upgrade program, which includes a
new OSF (long range optoelectronics system adding enhancements to the IRST
(Infrared Search and Track) for detecting and identifying airborne stealth
targets at long range.
The new Rafales will also integrate more lethal weapons in
its arsenal: the MICA NG short to medium range air to air missile with an
improved range and matrix sensor for greater sensitivity.
Additionally, a new 1,000 kg version of the AASM Hammer
precision guided munition would enable the Rafale pilots to strike ground
targets with a lot more firepower. As of now, the munition comes with a 250 kg
guided bomb.
Upgrades will be made to its RBE2 AESA radar, the Thales
TALIOS long range targeting pod, communications suite, and a new engine control
unit.
All the French Rafales would be upgraded to the F4 standard
by 2030.
US Air Force’s newest refuelling tanker to get gear allowing
F 35 and F 22 to share data
The KC-46 will be the first aircraft to be outfitted with
equipment that will make it a node in the U.S. Air Force’s new battle
management system.
As part of the first capability release of the Air Force’s
Advanced Battle Management System program, the service plans to outfit a
portion of its Boeing KC 46 aerial refuelling tankers with “an open
architecture communications subsystem and edge processing” equipment that will
allow it to pass data between the F 35 and F 22 stealth fighters.
The F 35 and F 22 were both made by Lockheed Martin, but they
use different data links, each with a low probability of intercept: the
Multifunctional Advanced Data Link for the F 35 and the Intra-Flight Data Link
onboard the F 22. Those links are incompatible and do not allow the fighters to
share information while retaining stealth.
To solve that issue, a number of KC-46 will be equipped with
a pod filled with communications equipment that translates between the two
waveforms.
No comments:
Post a Comment