China unveils ‘loyal wingman’ armed drone concept, Quite similar to our concept says HAL Partner
China on Wednesday revealed a drone concept similar in mission and appearance to the US made Kratos XQ-58A Valkyrie & India’s Cats Warrior as countries race to invest in “loyal wingman” drones to help protect pricier crewed fighter jets.
The long-range FH-97 drone concept unveiled on Wednesday can
carry different types of weapons, and has swarm and electronic warfare
capabilities.
The FH-97 wingman appearance is nearly identical to the Kratos
XQ-58A, which made its first flight in 2019. The XQ-58A has a maximum speed of
Mach 0.85 and a range of about 2,200 nautical miles.
China also used the country’s biggest air show to display the
weapons capability of one of its most advanced stealth attack drone projects,
the GJ-11.
How is India’s indigenous artillery gun ecosystem developing?
The Indian Army’s plans to indigenously acquire over 3,000
howitzers of different types is running in the slow lane. The ‘revised
modernisation plan 2017’ projected the induction of 2,700 new howitzers for Rs
22,000 crore by 2017.
These guns would be acquired in different
configurations—self-propelled, tracked (mounted on a tank chassis), wheeled (on
a wheeled armoured vehicle), towed (pulled by a truck), ultra-light
(air-dropped by helicopters) and a Mounted Gun System (fitted on a 4 into 4 or
6 into 6 vehicle). These guns are to equip the army’s 235 artillery regiments
(each with 18 guns).
From a three decade lull after the Bofors acquisition, there
has been a spurt in artillery acquisitions by the Indian Army. Ultra-light
howitzers have been acquired from the US and tracked guns from South Korea, but
the bulk of the artillery still needs upgrading.
One of the remarkable defence industrial developments over
the last decade has been the huge strides made in indigenous artillery. There
are now four gun production hubs in five states in the country. Firms like L&T,
Tata Advanced Systems and Bharat Forge have set up gun production lines within
the country to compete with the erstwhile monopoly, state owned ordnance
factories. There thus exists the capability to not just build guns within the
country but also an eco-system to refit, upgrade and export them.
Disappointingly, orders have been somewhat slow to come.
The army’s DG Artillery, Lieutenant General TK Chawla,
recently told the media that the army was ‘hand holding’ the domestic industry
to ensure indigenous projects like the Advanced Towed Array Gun System and the
OFB produced Dhanush howitzer meet their requirements.
This year, as part of its defence indigenisation drive, the Ministry
of Defence banned the imports of 155mm howitzers after December 2021. The army
will have no choice but to turn to indigenous gun industry. For the first time
in independent India’s history, it is spoilt for choice.
Boeing’s ‘Cutting Edge’ Block III Variant Of F/A-18 Super
Hornets Gearing-Up For Indian Navy Carriers?
US aerospace giant Boeing has delivered its first Block III
F/A-18 Super Hornet to the US Navy. The defense firm has also pitched the same
fighter jets, the Block III variant, to the Indian Navy.
The F/A-18 Super Hornets have been head to head in
competition with the naval variant of the Dassault Rafale for this deal, which
was set at INR 24,000 crore due to Navy’s twin engine preference.
The F/A-18 Super Hornet Block III on offer to the Indian Navy
is the most advanced, multi role, frontline fighter of the US Navy and is the
workhorse for the fleet, and will remain so for the foreseeable future.
The air superiority role of the Super Hornets is fully
compliant with India’s INS Vikramaditya and INS Vikrant aircraft carriers.
Talking about the two-seat variant of the Super Hornet, it
would provide the Indian Navy with various unique advancements such as
flexibility, higher utilisation of the fleet, and opportunity to develop an
interface between manned & unmanned systems in a carrier environment.
Super Hornet’s lesser costs per flight hour, 10,000 hours
durability along the “world’s most powerful engine”, the GE-F414 engine, make
the aircraft more suitable for the Indian Navy as compared to the Rafales.
After US Big Breakthrough With Hypersonic Technology, North
Korea Stuns The World With Its Own Hypersonic Missile Test
Though some experts have doubts over the success of the test,
North Korea claims that its Academy of Defense Science test fired a newly developed
hypersonic missile of Hwasong 8 type in the morning of September 28.
The hypersonic missile North Korea has reportedly tested has
the potential to be one of the world’s fastest and most accurate weapons with a
nuclear warhead. And because of its high speed, its flight can be very manoeuvrable,
making it extremely difficult to shoot down.
Like ballistic missiles, hypersonic glide weapons are
launched by rockets high into the atmosphere, unlike the former whose warhead
is largely powered by gravity once it begins its descent to its target,
hypersonics dive back to Earth sooner before flattening out their flight path
and then use internal navigation devices to make course corrections and keep it
on target while traveling even up to 12 times the speed of sound.
