Should India look at the Private Sector to fix its subsonic cruise missiles program?
India has achieved “complete self reliance” in missile technology and the most advanced missiles can now be developed in the country had declared DRDO chairman G Satheesh Reddy.
Nribhay that is now called ITCM continues to be plagued by
technical issues and there is still no clarity from the DRDO when it will enter
production even after being in development for the last decade. Private sector
companies are keen to tap Research and Development expertise of the DRDO to
offer its range of subsonic cruise missile range.
Bengaluru based startup NewSpace Research and Technologies &
HAL together is working on the development of a low observable Combat Air
Teaming System CATS Hunter subsonic cruise missile designed to hit targets more
than 200 kilometers.
Former Vice Chief of Indian Air Force, Air Marshal SB Deo
startup JSR Dynamics in collaboration with Bharat Electronics has offered to
develop 4 missiles of different types for Indian armed forces. Vel is a 297 kilometer
strike range subsonic cruise missile. Khagantak is a long-range standoff weapon
with a strike range of 180 kilometers. Waghnak also is a standoff weapon with a
strike range of 154 kilometers.
Kalyani Centre for Technology and Innovation (KCTI) is
working on the development of 1.2 Kilo Newton and 1.56 Kilo Newton jet engines
meant for cruise missiles. KCTI claims to have tested inhouse engine and is
ready to enter production.
India and China’s Carrier Air Wing Development
The Indian Navy carrier procurement plan of the late 19 Nineties
and early 2000 starts with a plan to develop a carrier based naval variant of
the single engine LCA Tejas aircraft that was being pursued by the Indian Air
Force at the time. This variant was aptly named the LCA Navy. Two flying
prototypes of the LCA Navy were ultimately developed, with the lead prototype
making its first flight in early 2012. The LCA Navy was a STOBAR configured
aircraft with reinforced landing gear, tailhook, and additional LEVCON surfaces
to enable the aircraft to operate from a carrier.
In 2018 Indian Navy opted out for a slightly larger aircraft
with rear tails named LCA Navy MK2. In early January 2020, the second LCA Navy
prototype made Indian aviation history by being the first domestically produced
fixed wing aircraft to land and take off from a carrier, INS Vikramaditya.
However, later in April 2020, the Indian Navy formally opted out of the LCA Navy
program, instead seeking to pursue a new, larger twin engine deck-based
fighter, appropriately named TEDBF, that would benefit from technologies and
experience gained in the LCA Navy program.
Not only is the TEDBF equipped with two engines compared to
the LCA Navy’s single engine, but the TEDBF also uses more modern and higher
thrust F-414 engines compared to the F-404 engine equipped aboard the original
LCA Navy. The TEDBF adopts a canard delta configuration, with folding wings,
and a maximum take-off weight of between 24 and 26 tons, nearly double that of
the original LCA Navy, and will be equipped with various indigenous Indian
weapons systems and avionics including a domestic AESA radar.
As a STOBAR fighter, the TED BF is intended to equip the INS
Vikramaditya and INS Vikrant (including a folded footprint small enough to fit
in the elevators of Vikrant) as replacements to the Indian Navy’s current MiG-29K
fleet.
Indian Navy will embark on a program to develop a fifth-generation
carrier borne aircraft. On paper, the IAFs twin engine Advanced Medium Combat
Aircraft (AMCA) project seems like a viable aircraft to develop into a carrier
variant, However, the AMCA is currently not expected to make its first flight
before 2025.
On the other hand, China’s Peoples Liberation Army Navy is
also awaiting the emergence of new types for its future fighter airwing. The
STOBAR J-15 fighter remains in active production for the CV-16 and CV-17 STOBAR
carriers, likely to supplement and replace existing J 15 airframes produced
during the mid-2010s, which would have gained substantial flight hours by now
as part of intensive institutional naval aviation development. As of October
2021, the total J-15 production count is estimated at around 50 airframes and
growing.
200 PLA Soldiers Were Detained By Indian Army, China Released
Galwan Clash Pics In Retaliation – Military Veteran
Failed military negotiations between arch rivals India and
China, Are the Indian Army and Chinese troops headed towards another Galwan like
faceoff?
The failed talks at Moldo and some other developments are a
fallout of the incident at Tawang (Arunachal Pradesh) in the eastern sector of
the India China boundary where a sizable patrol party of Chinese PLA men, somewhere
around 200 soldiers were confronted and many were captured by the Indian Army,
kept in Indian custody for hours and released after negotiations.
The humiliation at Tawang resulted in the release of some
photos of injured Indian men surrounded by Chinese soldiers, probably from the
previous year’s Galwan incident.
Exactly after a week of the release of the photographs
supposedly from the Galwan incident and a failed talk at Moldo, the Chinese
government’s mouthpiece Global times has posted an editorial titled ‘India
Military Learned nothing from last year’s clash: Observers containing highly
provocative and offensive language which is laughingly based on the
strategically released photographs.
