INS Sandhayak, Boeing to get Apache fuselage from India, Army to procure 50k bulletproof jackets

Boeing debunks Korean report, says will continue to get Apache helo fuselage from India

After Korea Aerospace Industries in an agreement with Boeing decided to resume production of AH 64E Apache Guardian attack helicopter fuselages in South Korea last month, a Korean media report later went on to claim that Boeing is not happy with the Quality of the Apache helicopter, including fuselages, secondary structures, and vertical spar boxes supplied by the Tata Boeing Aerospace Limited joint venture in Hyderabad as one of the reasons why production in South Korea was restarted.

Boeing in Press Release has said that both Tata Boeing Aerospace Limited and Korea Aerospace Industries will continue to produce the fuselages. Korea Aerospace Industries production is to meet current production and delivery contract milestones for the AH 64E Apache helicopter. South Korea had ordered 36 AH 64Es in 2013 after which local production was started that went till 2017 and it has been restarted after fresh orders for 36 more AH 64E for the Republic of Korea Army was announced.  

Fuselages supplied by the Tata Boeing Aerospace Limited will be used to manufacture the first 6 Indian Army bound AH 64E Apache attack helicopters that were ordered in separate follow up contracts for 22 helicopters ordered by the Indian Air Force in 2015. It is expected that deliveries of the apache helicopters for the Indian Army would begin in 2023.

Army to procure 50,000 bulletproof jackets for its frontline troops

The Indian Army has projected a requirement of 50,000 new bulletproof jackets for its frontline troops, the procurement process for which is expected to commence in the next couple of months.

The Ministry of Defence is expected to issue a request for proposal to vendors in June and the procurement would be done in phases over a 12 to 24 month period after all the modalities have been finalised and user trials concluded.

The specifications listed by the Army state that the bullet proof jackets should be able to protect a soldier against 7.62 mm armour piercing rifle ammunition as well as hard steel core bullets fired from a distance of 10 metre.

The bullet proof jackets required for protection against armour piercing ammunition, whose velocity is higher than that of other bullets, should weigh less than 10 kg, while the weight of those meant for use against steel core rounds should not exceed 8 kg.

The jacket’s outer tactical vest should have the capacity to carry three magazines of the newly inducted SIG 716 rifle and the proposed AK 203 assault rifle along with other items like hand grenades, hand held radio sets, tools, or attach additional pouches.

INS Sandhayak – 20 year long journey almost to an end

After having served the Indian Navy for two decades, finally INS Sandhayak will be relieved of her service. Built by Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers and commissioned into the Indian Navy’s Eastern naval Command  at Visakhapatnam in 2001, INS Sandhayak (J18) is the lead ship of its class. She is the Indian Navy’s fifth hydrographic survey ship in that series which was indigenously designed and constructed with her wide range of surveying equipment she was able to meet the ISO 9002 digital survey standards.

A hydrographic survey vessel of displacement 1929 long tons, she is 87.8 m long and 12.8 m wide. Operating at the design draft of 3.3 m, she could hit decent speeds of 16 knots. At a speed of 10 knots, she has a range of about 26000 km. She is home to 18 officers and 160 enlisted crew. She has a 40 mm Bofors gun for self defence and also has a deck helipad for HAL Chetak. She is also equipped with four survey motor boats and two small boats. She is powered by two diesel engines

Equipped with a range of surveying equipment she is capable of carrying out both shallow coastal and deep oceanic hydrographic survey to collect oceanographic and geophysical data. The surveying systems provided onboard include:

• Multi-beam swath echo sounding system
• Differential GPS
• Motion sensors
• Sea gravimeter
• Magnetometer
• Side scan SONARs
• Oceanographic sensors
• Automated data logging system
• Digital Survey and processing system
• Sound velocity profiling system

She is also equipped with ROV, AUV and USVs to carry out surveys.

I N S Sandhayak key services

Using these systems, she carried out hydrographic surveys, nautical chart preparation, with cartography and training. In 2013, she updated the charts of the islands of Andaman & Nicobar island after the drastic hydrological changes post 2004 tsunami.

The search for the missing Dornier

She was also successful in detecting the beacon signals and locating the missing Dornier 228 aircraft. Her survey in 2016 off the coast of Rameshwaram helped find a new seaway that allows larger ships to traverse the narrow Palk strait.