After living for 14 years without helicopter-launched anti-ship cruise missiles, the Indian Navy (IN) will this June re-equip itself with such missiles with the arrival of about 100 Kongsberg HSMs that will arm the 24 Lockheed Martin/Sikorsky MH-60R shipborne naval multi-role helicopters that are on order for the IN.
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Wednesday, May 18, 2022
Indian Navy's New Helicopter-Launched Missiles
Friday, April 15, 2022
Mapping SS-BSM & Cruise Missile Storage Sites of India & Pakistan
Indian Army SS-BSM Storage Sites
Thursday, March 31, 2022
ANI Peddles FAKE NEWS About IAF Ordering JDAMs For Tejas LCA
It all began with a poster (below) displayed by Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) in the India pavilion at the 17th Defence Services Asia (DSA-2022) exhibition, underway between March 28 and 31, at the Malaysian International Trade & Exhibition Centre (MITEC), Kuala Lumpur.
That the poster contained several inaccuracies is self-evident, especially when compared to another poster (below) that was designed and publicised by the DRDO last January.
ANI’s ‘Desi Patrakaars’ WRONGLY ASSUMED that since the HAL poster showed Boeing-built JDAMs, therefore the Indian Air Force (IAF) would be arming its Tejas Mk.1 and Mk.2 L-MRCAs with JDAMs.
However, a quick check at the US Defense & Security Cooperation
Agency’s (DSCA) website reveals that the export of JDAMs to India was never
proposed (see https://www.dsca.mil/tags/india).
Instead, the HAL booth at the DSA-2022 expo hosts a
full-scale mock-up of the SAFRAN-built AASM Hammer precision-guided munition
(PGM).
To give the benefit of doubt to HAL, it can well be that HAL showed the JDAM in its poster to assure the Royal Malaysian Air Force (TUDM) that in case it ordered the Tejas Mk.1A L-MRCA, then HAL would be able to integrate the JDAM (which the TUDM already has for its eight Boeing F/A-18D Night Attack Hornets) with the aircraft’s weapons management avionics suite.
The IAF on its part will be procuring NOT the JDAMs, but the PG-HSLD PGMs.
Sunday, February 27, 2022
AVANI To Begin Upgrading T-90S MBTs From 2023
India’s state-owned Armoured Vehicles Nigam Ltd’s (AVANI) Avadi-based Heavy Vehicles Factory (HVF) will from next year begin undertaking deep upgrades of the Indian Army’s (IA) Russia-supplied T-90S MBTs. The total number of 46-tonne T-90S MBTs planned for procurement is 1,657—a figure that was firmed up way back in 2007. To date, 640 units have been procured from Russia (both as off-the-shelf units and those in semi-knocked-down condition, while another 600 have been built under licence, with the final tranche of 417 now being built (for equipping 10 Armoured Regiments).
The IA now wants to upgrade its 640 T-90S (that came from Russia) through the installation of a new digital hunter-killer fire-control system developed by TATA Power SED, which will include an autotracker correction-input device and a related muzzle reference system. In addition, a locally-developed auxiliary power unit (APU) will be installed, as will laser warning receivers, new commander’s panoramic sight with thermal imager, an uprated powerpack, a thermal imager-equipped driver’s sight, and four see-through-armour situational awareness optronic sensors. But the IA has decided not to opt for active protection systems.
On November 9, 2020 the IA had awarded New Delhi-based premier defence start up OshoCorp Global a Rs.1.325 crore contract for the development and supply of APUs under the Make-II guidelines of the Ministry of Defence (MoD). Initially, OshoCorp Global is required to develop four APUs (two each for T-90S and T-72M) for trials and approval and subsequently produce 3,257 APUs.
The commander’s panoramic sight has been developed by
the DRDO’s IRDE laboratory and it will be built by state-owned Bharat
Electronics Ltd. The MoD has just inked a Rs.1,075 crore contract with BEL for supplying
such sights for 957 T-90S MBTs. The IRDE has also developed the driver’s night
sight, which will be bulk-produced by MKU Ltd as the Netro TD-5100.
The 1PM-96MT ESSA-3 gunner’s sight (containing the THALES-supplied Catherine-FC thermal imager) will be retained on the T-90S.
The
uprated powerpack for the T-90S will be the A85-3AX-diesel engine capable of
producing up to 1,500hp (although it is presently dowrated at 1,350hp) that
will be ordered off-the-shelf from Russia’s Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant, located
about 350km south of Nizhny Tagil. This in turn will result in the T-90S’ power-to-weight
ratio being hiked to 24hp/tonne. The 46-tonne T-90S (Ob’yekt 188S) are
each powered by a 1,000hp V-92S2 diesel engine that deliver a power-to-weight
ratio of 21.5hp/tonne.
What Goes Out Of The T-90S