News: Chinese-PAK JF-17 is selected by SriLanka to form a Squadron. Lessons for IAF!!

Chinese-Pak JF-17 fighter ordered by SriLanka
Image credits: Shimin Gu;

Today there is a news that the JF-17 fighter jointly developed by China and Pakistan was selected by Srilanka to form an fighter squadron. The JF-17 which is basically an vintage soviet MiG design sold to Chinese. And they developed it as an full blown fighter with Russian engines and Pakistan was their first export customer. Although Pakistan says its an joint venture it essentially got a license to manufacture the jet in their country nothing more than that. Chinese have done most of the development work on the fighter and sold it to Pakistan. As China is fully occupied with their own fighter programs like 5th generation J-20, J-31 , J-15 etc... they wanted to have the manufacturing base for JF-17 in Pakistan. So according to Pakistan air force the delivery will start from 2017 to srilanka.

Here is a lesson that IAF should learn from the PAF. when JF-17 was first introduced in to Pakistan air force in good numbers. At that time it lacked many capabilities for even to become a basic fighter. But still they accepted JF-17 in to their service and regular PAF flights flown them. This numbers of the flying aircraft and the feedback from the PAF helped the developers to a great extent to refine the aircraft and add additional features. Also PAF at anytime didn't reject the JF-17 on any grounds and they readily accepted the present version of the aircraft with what ever capability it offered and this helped the program in many ways and also motivated the development team. Now JF-17 is in good shape although it is lagging technologically in many ways.

When it comes to LCA program of India, From the starting of the program on multiple occasions IAF keep on changing its requirements!! Initially it agreed with the GE-F404 engines later when it came to know that Navy version is going to get a powerful engine because of carrier take and landing requirement, IAF also changed it requirement to have powerful engine. The same applies for range of weapons it carries and its range. LCA Tejas is going to replace MiG-21 in Indian service. Although a versatile aircraft MiG-21 can carry a limited types of weapons and also in limited quantity. But IAF wanted LCA Tejas should carry most of the weapons that Indian Air force is possessing and also everything should be tested before the Aircraft is officially inducted in to the Airforce. As the Aircraft is not accepted by the airforce and produced as prototypes and limited series production aircraft that may not see regular Airforce service, it increased the development cost. 

Instead of this kind of approach, if the Airforce accepted the LCA Tejas- MK-I in its present state and ordered more number of aircraft and have each trench of the aircraft delivered with additional capabilities means, that would have provided an much needed boost to the program and motivated the LCA Tejas development team to a greater extent. But most of the time IAF came with negative view about the aircraft!! If the LCA is accepted in to IAF and regular IAF pilots started to flying in the aircraft type in large numbers, Team Tejas would have got invaluable feedback to improve on the aircraft aerodynamic control, avionic upgrades, weapon carriage and firing etc... But IAF always needed an fully finished aircraft with all the capabilities fully tested without thinking that this is India's first attempt in developing a modern Jet fighter. If IAF is not motivating this program who else will???

IAF should remember the following facts:  when accepted in to service Mirage fighter came with some basic fighting capabilities missing, MiG-29 was not fully developed when soviet union sold them to India, Su-30 was not a Multi role fighter when it was inducted in 1997!!

IAF should have a look at Indian Navy which gives an greater importance to indigenous efforts and with full heart supports LCA-Tejas navy-program where IAF at one point threatened the development team that it will pull out of the program!! Now almost all of the Ships ordered by Indian navy are built at Indian Shipyards!! Finally the IAF should accept LCA-TEJAS-MK1 in greater numbers compare to present 20 aircraft on order and should closely help various development agencies to develop TEJAS-MK-II in short duration. If this is not happening induction of Tejas MK-II will be decades away instead of proposed 2022!!!

LCA Tejas MK I vs MiG 21.

Tejas MK I vs MiG 21.

Two MiG 21s and a Tejas MK I (center) flying in formation
Image credits: http://www.tejas.gov.in/

Here we are  comparing Tejas with  MiG 21 because Tejas is the actual aircraft that is going to replace MiG21 in Indian air force.

Compare to MiG21 Tejas is an very good all rounder except in two key aspects. One is combat radius and second one is the menuvarability.

MiG 21 has a combat radius of 1000+ kms where Tejas has only 300+ kms which limits the number of tactical messions it can undertake with out air to air refuelling and this is one of the main reason IAF is not happy to have Tejas in its fleets. Also this may be the reason the government is looking for some other single engine fighters like mirage 2000 and JAS Gripen to complement along with Tejas to replace MiG 21 in to the IAF!

When it is coming to high angle of attacks Tejas still needed to be improved compare to MiG21 and the development is still going on. Also as of now Tejas is not as menuvarable as MiG 21 and flight testing & development on that front is going on.

Now Tejas is very important to India to validate its fighter jet designing skills. It is very tough to design an aircraft with negative aerodynamic coefficient and with fly by wire technology. India has demonstrated its capabilities in this two technologies to the world by incorporating them in Tejas!!

Tejas is tailored made for IAF with even inputs taken from IAF pilots for cockpit layout and ease of use of various controls in cockpit.

IAF is free to integrate any weapon in to Tejas which is not the case with Mirage or any other foreign aircrafts!

Also the Tejas MK II which is under developement will overcome most of the disadvantages of Tejas MK I I including its combat radius!

India's Very Own Cruise Missile: Nirbhay .

Image Credits: DRDO

Image Credits: DRDO

India was taken in to surprise during the gulf war and other american led war compaigs on seeing a particular weapon system that is cheap to own,cheap to operate, highly versatile, smart enough to change its target during the flight,smart enough to loiter in the war zone just waiting for the right target, have the capability to beam back the live high quality video footage until its target is hit,capable of doing autonomous manoeuvre to evade enemy air defences , capable of flying in subsonic speeds with out any trails and can cover a range of more than 1000 kms!!!,can be launched from land and sea(ships and submarines) and the smart weapon is called Tomahawk Cruise Missile.

On seeing the advantages and flexibility of the weapon system Indian government ordered DRDO to develop an similar system for Indian armed forces. The answer is Nirbhay Cruise missile!!

Before getting in to the details about the Nirbhay a short introduction about a cruise missile. Unlike a Ballistic missile which travels in a ballistic flight path, an Cruise missile will cruise to its target just like an Jet aircraft cruising to the intended airport. The only difference is unlike an conventional aircraft an Cruise missile will take-off vertically like an Rocket, using its first stage rocket booster and by using thrust vectoring technology positions itself in to Horizontal flight path. Once in horizontal trajectory its second stage will take over after that its wings will be automatically deployed and making it an conventional aircraft. Unlike its first stage which is powered by a rocket booster its second stage will be powered by a turbofan engine similar to an passenger jet aircraft. This Engine is more fuel efficient, less noisy and more reliable. Once in cruising altitude the missile's endurance is decided only by its on-board fuel. The missile can have its own guidance or can take occasional course correction from the ground stations or can hook onto satellite based navigational systems to pinpoint its target!

Generally there are different kinds of Cruise missiles which depends up on the type of the second stage used. if it is a turbofan engine chances are high that it can be a subsonic(speed that is less than the speed of sound) cruise missile, if it is an RAM jet engine the missile can be supersonic cruise missile(eg. Brahmose cruise missile and some Russian cruise missiles), finally if the missile has SCRAM jet powered second stage means it can be a hypersonic cruise missile.At present there is no known hypersonic missile in any country's arsenal.India and Russia are in preliminary talks to develop such an missile. Already India had a supersonic cruise missile called Brahmose which can be fired from land,sea and under water. 

But there are some disadvantages of Brahmose. Although it is pitted as  a joint venture between India and Russia, the propulsion stage of the missile is a Russian design which is adapted for Indian requirements and the Guidance and control is Indian designed. Because of this Russian companies have a greater say in any future modifications. 

Also because of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) the range of the Brahmose cannot be extended beyond 300 kms. Although its supersonic and packs a great surprise and punch during attacks, its weighs twice as that of other subsonic cruise missiles like Tomahawk which reduces the no of missiles carried by a ship or submarine. Lower range means ship has to venture near the enemy lines to launch the missile. because of its highly complex second stage RAM jet propulsion, the missiles are costlier to build!!

To strike a balance between all this a new requirement was developed for a subsonic cruise missile and DRDO started working on this project. Finally the product of the project was named as Nirbhay. As this missile was completely developed by India, We can incorporate any modification in to the missile unlike Brahmose which needs an approval from Russian companies. Some of the advantages of Nirbhay are its cheaper to build, weighs less, its all-weather capable and can be launched day and night,can carry more and different types of pay loads based on the individual mission and has the capability to loiter around the target area waiting for the right time to strike and many more via future upgrades.

In the latest test the missile demonstrated its capability of continuously flying for more than one hour at subsonic speeds and successfully crossed more-than 15 way points set by the testing agency. The entire testing mission was recorded by a fighter jet that travelled along with the cruise missile. As the size of the missile is so small it will be very tough to detect it on the radar.

Long way ahead:

This is just a starting of a family of Indian cruise missiles! There is long way to go. At present the turbofan engine deployed in Nirbhay was imported from Russia.Already there is effort going on to develop this engine in India. And then there is the Air force(air launched), Army(Land based) and Navy (Ship and Submarine launched)  version of the missile proposed . So the DRDO team should make this missile a potent platform and also pull considerable private players to reduce the development time.

A small Comparison between LCA TEJAS and Pakistan's Chinese developed JF-17.

LCA TEJAS MK I
Image credit: http://i.imgur.com/

Image credits: Wikipedia commons    JF-17

JF 17 is a Chinese developed fighter based on a old soviet MIG design. Its an all metallic war plane with no fly by wire controls means the pilot will have more work load to fly the aircraft. 

Unlike Tejas  JF-17 is not all weather  capable and also not fully developed by Pakistan. Where as Tejas is fully developed in india although some vital parts like Engine are imported. 

When it comes to Radar detection JF-17 will have larger radar foot print where as Tejas will have less because of the carbon composites body structures!!

Tejas have modern glass cockpit and continuously evolving according to air-force needs. The FOC standard Tejas will have in-flight refuelling,BVRs,capability to carry stand-off missiles,all kind of conventional and smart bombs which IAF posses. 

The FOC standard Tejas will be a Multi Role all weather 4.5++ aircraft. But JF-17 doesn't have this kind of all round capabilities.

INS VIKRANT!! Starting of a new era in Indian military ship building!!

Image credit: Livefist

India's first indigenously built Aircraft carrier the lead Vikrant class ship was undocked from the shipyard after successfully completing its second construction phase!! Now it will enter the third and final phase of the construction where all the war fighting weapons,radars and other equipments will be outfitted!! this development marks an new era in Indian ship building. Vikrant is the largest ever Navy ship built in India! Now India is capable of building  all kind of boats in its defence shipyards!!

When it comes to Vikrant it includes stae of the art new technologies like a AESA radar, it may equipped with Barak - 8 area defence system and latest version of MiG-29 KUB multirole fighters along with TEJAS Navy!! Also this is the first Indian aircraft carrier which features gas turbine propulsion which requires lot less maintenance compare to stean driven propulsion present in Vikramaditya and Viraat India's other two operational carriers. The gas turbine engines are provided by General Electric of united states and license manufactured by HAL in India.

Vikrant should be ready for sea trials by 2017 and should complete its sea trials and inducted in to Navy by 2018!!

India's First indigenously built aircraft carrier undocked in cochi shipyard!!! Stunning Images!!!

Image credits: https://twitter.com/livefist and  https://twitter.com/S_Anandan76

Sukhoi-30 MKI and Brahmos deadly combination!!!

Image credits: http://airheadsfly.com

Image credits: globalaviationreport.files.wordpress.com

Without refuelling the range of SU-30MKI is 3000 KM and it can be extended up to 8000 KM with air to air refuelling! Add a additional 300 KM to that as the range of Brahmos missile.  With its range of 300 km brahmos allows SU-30MKI to be in safe standoff distance and launch the missile and return to its base with out waiting for the missile to hit the target as Brahmos has it own guidance system!

This makes the combination deadly lethal!!

But when Su-30MKI is carrying Brahmos, it has to sacrify some of its menuvaring capability because of the weight of the cruise missile. Also it cannot carry the full array of air defence weapons to counter enemy fighters. So some sort of escort by other SU-30MKI may be needed!

IAF MiG-21s cannot be replaced with advanced Dassault Rafales!! And it will be replaced by Light fighters like LCA Tejas and possibly SAAB Gripen NG!!

LCA TEJAS MK I

Mig-21

Swedish SAAB JAS Gripen

The logical thing according to our defence minister is that Rafale fighter cannot replace MiG-21 on a 1 to 1 basis. Also at present form LCA tejas is not there to fully replace the supersonic and versatile MiG-21 . so the following startegy will be adapted.

1. LCA MK I will be inducted in limited numbers both in IoC-2 and FoC configuration- because it has less than half of the combat radius compare to MiG-21  although it brings lot of capablities to the table!
2. Work will be accelarated on LCA tejas MK II with an uprated GE engine (F-414) and the first prototype may be ready by 2020 or sooner and then the serial production will start!!
3. Given the production capabilities of HAL, it cannot take for granted to produce the 600+ numbers(may be a bit less) of LCAs required by IAF, so a different single engine fighter will be considered which will have ToT to India along with the complete assembly line.
4. This will accelerate the induction of light fighter in to IAF.
5. The additional light fighter being considered here is latest version of Gripen-NG which sweden is very keen to manufacture in india!!
6. Some of the matured technologies in this light fighter will be carry forwaded to LCA-MK II developement!!
7. This is the reason only 36 Rafale fighters are inducted for strategic purpose!!
8. This will dramatically increase the number of light fighters with IAF and will be a perfect replacement to MiG-21s!!

Renewed Swedish SAAB's Gripen NG offer to India!!

         Image courtesy: http://airheadsfly.com/

Nobody will come and fasten LCA tejas project with their hard earned technologies.... We cannot dictate here...how much ever you pay they may sell what ever they want and also there is a limit what and all you will get for money!!! IAF is in dire need of light fighters to replace might 21 and Tejas is not even there...Also expensive Rafale cannot replace Mig-21 nor match its manoeuvrability with its heavier pay load!!  so a fully developed light fighter is the need of the hour!! So Gripen NG is a good fit both technologically and strategically....because the same engine as Gripen NG is going to be used in LCA Tejas mk 2...also India already have a contract with GE to import and license manufacture! Also Saab is fully ready for "maximum" ToT!!!.......so again we cannot dictate...but can have a level playing fielding while negotiating the deal....