Replacing the F16: Will Pakistan’s “Top Fighter Squadron” Transition to Chinese J 10C fighters?
The Pakistani Air Force’s combat jet acquisitions for over a decade have centred around the JF-17 Thunder fighter program, which has been pursued jointly with China and has seen the country acquire fighters both from Chinese production lines and from those located in Pakistan itself.
While the F-16 has a
much smaller engine and much lower operational cost, the JF-17 is not expected
to replace the F-16 itself in service. Pakistan’s F-16 fleet is fast ageing.
The most likely options
are either that Pakistan will wait until its fifth generation Project AZM
program being pursued with China can produce fighters, or that it will purchase
Chinese J-10C fighter jets.
The J-10 is a much more
advanced design boasting advantages in almost all parameters, including a
higher speed, lower radar cross section and much greater manoeuvrability.
The J-10C variant with
AESA Radar and PL-10 and PL-15 missiles would provide Pakistan with by far the
most capable combat jet in its fleet, and benefits from a much lower
operational cost and lower maintenance needs than the ageing F-16A
airframes.
DRDO’s SWiFT UAV starts
Ground Trials
SWiFT, India’s upcoming
Unmanned Stealth Bomber 1 ton UAV has begun its ground level trials on the
first assembled Prototype, that will been involved in series of low, medium,
and high speed taxi testing to ascertain aircraft’s performance and
instrumentation from a ground control station to verify the functionality while
the vehicle reached accelerated speeds.
If ground test data
collected are in the required parameters based on the final test verifications,
then preparation for the flight testing might be carried out in the next few
weeks.
SWiFT will be powered by
a Russian NPO Saturn-36MT turbofan engine, that will be later replaced by
GTRE’s Small Turbo Fan Engine (STFE).
India’s Ghatak stealth
flying wing combat drone powered by a Dry Kaveri engine generating 46kiloNewton
of thrust will be ready for flight trials by 2024-25, once most of the
technologies are validated on the Scale down SWiFT variant.
SWiFT might also go into
production as part of the unmanned wingman bomber program separately as per the
latest speculations.
Indian Army looking for Indigenous
Truck Mounted Gun System
Indian Army recently
issued Request for Information (RFI) to procure 350 Light Tanks on urgent bases
to bring in additional firepower on the Line of Actual Control ( LAC) against
the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, which has been fortifying the border
areas with India with the movement of heavy firepower in last one year, that
included light tanks.
Another critical element
of the PLA’s increased heavy firepower in the region that has been the
deployment are the Truck-Mounted Gun System that will ensure mobility and will
come in handy in destroying Indian forward positions.
Ordnance Factory Board
has developed a Dhanush 155x52mm howitzer that was Truck Mounted Gun System
that has gone internal firing trials in Balasore which has validated the gun
and the integration work carried out on the 8x8 Tatra vehicle on which it is
mounted.
MGS has a range of over
40 kilometers and has been offered to the Army for user trials after several
rounds of internal trials by OFB, but not much has happened on that front
yet.
Indian Army to Get First
Batch of Light Utility Helicopters in 2022
The Army, which is
facing a huge shortage of light utility helicopters with the ageing fleet of
Cheetah and Chetak helicopters along with the Russian KA-226T helicopters, will
receive the first batch of six indigenous Light Utility helicopter (LUH) by the
end of 2022. The LUH was designed and developed by Hindustan Aeronautics
Limited (HAL).
The LUH is a 3 tons
class helicopter with glass cockpit for reconnaissance and surveillance roles
and as a light transport helicopter. It has been extensively test flown at
various geographic conditions, including high altitude.
Following the Initial
Operational Clearance, HAL has moved to the next phase of integrating and
flight testing of mission and role equipment on the LUH. There is a tentative
order of 200 LUH from the Army and the Air Force.
Israel says it is developing
airborne laser to down drones
Israel’s Defence
Ministry and defence contractor Elbit Systems Ltd are developing an airborne
laser weapon to shoot down drones and other flying targets, officials said on
Monday, predicting a prototype would be ready by 2025.
The unnamed laser weapon
could be incorporated in Israel’s multi tier air defences, which include the
Iron Dome system for downing short range rockets and the David’s Sling and
Arrow systems against ballistic missiles.
Preliminary tests of the
laser, flown on a light aircraft, were successful against several drones at
ranges of around 1 km (half a mile) in recent days.
Israel is among the
first country that have tried such a technology and succeeded at such an interception.
Python 5 with SDR will
be a Game Changer for LCA Tejas?
India’s indigenous Light
Combat Aircraft Tejas recently added the capability of firing Israeli origin
Python-5 air to air missile after successful tests that validated full
operational capabilities a few weeks back.
Rafael Advanced Defense
Systems recently has enhanced its fifth generation Python 5 short range air to air
missile with a networked capability, enabling it to acquire targets in a
tactical air to air environment from associate aircraft equipped with the
company’s “Global Link software defined radio (SDR) system”.
Python-5 being an image
infrared homing seeker-based short air to air missile is equipped with “lock on
after launch” capabilities that don’t require direct input from the main fire
control radar when the missile is launched towards its target.
The addition of the Global link Software defined
Radio (SDR) will come as a boom to the LCA-Tejas fleet since no additional transceiver
is required to be installed on the aircraft because the same SDR enables the
uplink functions to the missile.
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