BAE Systems' TEMPEST 5th-Gen MRCA Unveilled

At BAE Systems’ Farnborough Airshow pavilion on July 16, the UK’s Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson unveilled a full-scale conceptual model of a fifth-generation MRCA that would be developed through international industrial partnerships. BAE Systems’ CEO Charles Woodburn said that the UK government’s new Combat Air Strategy—released on the same day—“is a powerful statement of intent to invest.” Royal Air Force’s (RAF) Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Hillier said that the RAF is "taking ownership of our next-generation capability.”

The conceptual model was generated by Team Tempest, a partnership between the RAF’s Rapid Capabilities Office (RCO) and the UK-based industry (including BAE Systems, Leonardo UK, MBDA UK and Rolls-Royce). The Tempest comes out as a large, manned twin-engine and twin-tail design with a near-delta wing, except for trailing-edge indentations for stealth alignment. Additional images on display next to the model also showed a scaled-down unmanned version, and industry officials have since cautioned that the model should not be considered definitive, although some wind-tunnel testing has been done already.

According to Williamson, more than US$2.65 billion would be invested in the UK’s Future Combat Air Strategy (FCAS) by 2025. The UK’s industry is contributing up to 50% of this on some of the 60 “national technology demonstrations” that form part of the FCAS. Williamson said that Team Tempest should deliver a business case by the year’s end and take “initial conclusions” on international partners (like Japan( by next summer. Further, he said, the partners could be “nations around the world, including ones that we haven’t worked with before.” He continued: “Early decisions on how to acquire the capability will be confirmed by the end of 2020, before final investment decisions are made by 2025. The aim is to have operational capability by 2035.”

Officials from Team Tempest later clarified that no commitment has yet been made to build a flying demonstrator in the near-term. “We could do some tests on existing platforms,” said BAE Systems’ Air Strategy Director Michael Christie. He added that the size of the model on display had been driven by the need for a large payload bay, whether for weapons, sensors or additional fuel. One accompanying illustration showed four small drones in the bay that could be launched in a "swarm" concept of operations. The MBDA Meteor beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile and Spear-3 air-to-surface PGM was also on display, but an MBDA official said that the definitive MRCA could carry future weapons from the pipeline of developments already projected by MBDA and the UK Ministry of Defence. They will likely include hypersonic and directed-energy weapons.

Conrad Banks, Chief Engineer for Future Defence Programmes at Rolls-Royce, described advanced engine technologies that would be incorporated. These include distortion-tolerant fan systems; two embedded starter-generators that eliminate the accessory gearbox and would provide greatly increased and continued electrical power; advanced composite materials providing a “step-change” in thrust-to-weight ratio; and a fully-integrated thermal management system.  Other characteristics of a future MRCA include a “virtual cockpit”; reconfigurable communications; network-enabled cooperative engagement; artificial intelligence and machine learning; “intrinsic ISR"; multispectral sensors fully integrated at the subsystem-level; and advanced digital manufacturing processes.

But Air Commodore Linc Taylor, Head of the RCO and Team Tempest, noted that a spiral strategy would be employed to leverage existing technologies. “We will re-use what’s good enough already,” he said, adding that this would particularly apply to mission data reprogramming. His boss, Air Vice Marshall "Rocky" Rochelle, Chief of Staff for Capability and instigator of the RCO, said: “We are working at pace, and breaking traditional paradigms.” He added that past lessons about unnecessarily complicated and protracted developments were being learned. While admitting, “We will get some things wrong,” he also accepted, "We should be measured by the outcomes.”

In unveilling its vision for a potential successor to the Eurofighter EF-2000, the UK has thus upped the stakes in an ongoing European dogfight for supremacy in producing a fifth-generation MRCA. Nations including Japan, Sweden and Turkey are among those that the UK would be willing to work with, while the companies behind a separate Franco-German project have called for greater collaboration between European nations, potentially incorporating the UK. “The UK is fully open to international partnership,” said ACM Sir Hillier. “It is an entirely fitting way for the RAF to enter its second century.” Responding to the Tempest concept’s unveilling, Airbus Military Aircraft has said that it “is encouraged to see the UK government’s financial commitment to the project, which supports the goal of sovereign European defence capability”. “A FCAS of utmost importance to Europe’s armed forces and therefore we look forward to continuing collaborative discussions in this area with all relevant European players,” Airbus added.

Japan’s homegrown effort to develop a fifth-generation MRCA are led by the state-owned Technical Research & Development Institute (TRDI) which had, In July 2014, unveilled photographs of its then engineless experimental Advanced Technology Demonstrator (ATD-X) being towed out of a paint shop at the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ (MHI) Komaki South Plant in Nagoya. The ATD-X was born out of a feasibility study programme that was launched in 2007. Originally, what is now the ATD-X was then given the enigmatic codename Shinshin, the two-kanji combination that has the general meaning of mind or spirit, but this appellation is no longer used. In addition to the undertaking of research into flight control systems that would enable super-manoeuvrable flight, a more sinister-looking, full-scale radar cross section (RCS) model was tested at a French government facility in the latter half of 2005 and displayed at the Japan Aerospace Expo in 2008 after the conclusion of that stage of development. The ATD-X’s low RCS-optimised fuselage cross section, described as like that of an abacus bead, arose from that research. The RCS model was followed by flyable, one-fifth scale models, one of which was revealed in 2006. From that year, five years of parallel research were conducted into the so-called smart skin, whereby the external fuselage structure is embedded with self-diagnostic micro-sensors.

Manufacture of the ATD-X and a ground-test airframe commenced in 2009. As its full name implies, the ATD-X will be used as a testbed for research and systems integration. The aircraft is intended to act as a stepping stone on the way toward the possible production of a scaled-up, next-generation MRCA, incorporating what have been dubbed i3 (informed, intelligent, instantaneous) technologies and counter-stealth features. Released by the TRDI, the early examples of digital mock-up (DMU) concept designs from 2011 and 2012 resembled the Lockheed Martin F.A-22 Raptor and Northrop/McDonnell-Douglas YF-23, respectively. Dubbed 25DMU (from the Japanese calendar year Heisei 25, or 2013), the latest known example incorporates some of the design features of its predecessors. Following the RCS model, a combination of a model displayed at a TRDI event in 2007 and a 1/10th scale wind-tunnel model displayed in October 2012 had already provided heavy hints with regard to the direction the ATD-X’s configuration was taking, but closer inspection of the photos from July 2014 revealed more details of the definitive version. Salient points included the four-sided horizontal tail surfaces, which had been five-sided in the full-size mockup, and the rounder air intakes. As tends to be the case in Japan’s aerospace industry, the ATD-X represents a joint effort, with one prime contractor (MHI) mating major assemblies from other companies; the wings and both the horizontal and vertical tail surfaces were supplied by Fuji Heavy Industries (FHI).

Building on earlier research that was also conducted in the 2000s, the ATD-X will be used to investigate axisymmetric engine nozzle thrust-vectoring, achieved by three “paddles” mounted around each tail pipe, similar to the system used on the Rockwell X-31. An axis-symmetric thrust vectoring nozzle is also being developed for the full-scale production model. Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries (IHI) is developing the 33,000lb-thrust XF5-1 low-bypass turbofan using ceramic composites-made turbine blades. The XF5-1 has its origins in basic research carried out by the TRDI from 1991. The first of four test-engines was delivered to the TRDI in 1998, but a full five-year prototype programme began only in 2015. All things considered, the ATD-X marks an important step in Japan’s efforts to retain and build on the expertise accumulated in the production of its own MRCAs. The JASDF’s definitive F-3 fifth-generation MRCA is due to enter service in 2035.

 

Meanwhile, technological challenges encountered in developing the 153kN-thrust Izdeliye 129 turbofan being developed by a consortium comprising Ufa Engine Industrial Association (UMPO), MMPP Salyut Moscow Machine building Production Enterprise and Rybinsk-based NPO Saturn; as well as the unreliability of the transmit-receive modules made of Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) for the Tikhomirov NIIP-developed N0-36 AESA-MMR have forced Russia’s air force to limit its orders for the Su-57 fifth-generation MRCA to only 12 units. All these MRCAs will be powered by 147kN-thrust Saturn/Lyulka 117S/Al-41F-1S turbofans, and be equipped with N0-35 ‘Irbis’ PESA-MMRs.

Here’s the UK government’s new Combat Air Strategy document:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/725600/CombatAirStrategy_Lowres.pdf

PLA Navy Ditches J-15 Carrier-Based H-MRCA, Opts For FC-31 ‘Gryfalcon’ M-MRCA

An industrial consortium led by China’s Shenyang Aircraft Corp (SAC) has been formally entrusted with the task of developing and series-producing the definitive new-generation aircraft carrier-based medium-weight multi-role combat aircraft (M-MRCA) for the People’s Liberation Army’s Navy (PLAN). Nicknamed the ‘Gryfalcon’, this MMRCA will be a navalised derivative of the FC-31 stealthy technology demonstrator (TD) that was unveilled at China's Zhuhai Airshow in November 2014.

A land-based M-MRCA variant is being developed for its launch customer--the Pakistan Air Force—which presently does not possess any twin-engined deep-strike interdictor platforms (its entire fleet of combat aircraft presently comprises single-engined aircraft) and therefore remains deeply interested in procuring about 80 such M-MRCAs.

The SAC-led industrial consortium includes its No.112 Factory, the 601 Research Institute (Shenyang Aircraft Design Institute), 603 Aircraft Design Institute (later named the First Aircraft Institute of AVIC-I) and the 606 Institute (Shenyang Aero-engine Research Institute). The FC-31 TD’s (No.31001) maiden flight took place on October 31, 2012. It has been designed to carry an eight-tonne weapons payload (including four precision-guided munitions totalling two tonnes internally, and 6 tonnes being carried on six external hardpoints). It has a combat radius of 648 nautical miles (1,200km) and a maximum takeoff weight (MTOW) of 25 tonnes. The fuselage length is 16.8 metres, while the wingspan is 11.5 metres, and the height is 4.8 metres. The maximum attainable speed is Mach 1.8, and the powerplant comprises two 85kN thrust-rated Klimov RD-93 turbofans imported off-the-shelf from Russia’s Moscow-based Chernyshev Machine-Building Plant, a division of the United Engines Corp (UEC).

First flight of the FC-31’s definitive prototype took place on December 23, 2016, which revealed that the length of the ‘Gryfalcon’ had been increased from 16.8 metres to 17.5 metres, while the MTOW now stands at 28 tonnes. In addition, the wheel-wells were significantly smaller, allowing for a larger internal weapons bay capable of accommodating up to eight tonnes of armaments.

In addition, a twin nose gear and cropped vertical stabilizers were incorporated, as was a chin-mounted electro-optic targetting sensor (EOTS-86) under the nose. The powerplant comprised twin Klimov RD-93MA turbofans that incorporated full authority digital engine controls (FADEC) and a gearbox locdated at the bottom front-end of the engine casing. The RD-93MA has a service-life of 4,000 hours, and a total thrust rating at 94kN.

The ‘Gryfalcon’ will feature a glass cockpit containing panoramic active-matrix liquid crystal displays, hands-on-throttle-and-stick controls, and a helmet-mounted display system. The principal on-board beyond-the-horizon sensor will be the KLJ-7A multi-mode radar with an active electronically-steered antenna array that is now undergoing developmental flight-tests. The airframe will also accommodate an internally-mounted self-defence suite comprising a self-protection wideband jammer, radar warning receivers and missile-approach warning sensors in a distributed aperture configuration.

Primary armament for air combat will include two types of new-generations beyond-visual range air-to-air missiles—a medium-range variant and a long-range variant now undergoing development, plus PL-10E short-range air-to-air missiles. For maritime strike, a smaller and lighter variant of the YJ-12 warship-/land-launched supersonic anti-ship cruise missile (whose export designation is CM-302 and has a 290km-range) is now being developed, which will have a range of 180km.

The PLAN’s decision to switch to the ‘Gryfalcon’ follows its insurmountable difficulties with operationalising the carrier-based J-15H ‘Flying Shark’ heavy-MRCA, along with the difficulties that continue to be experienced by the state-owned Aviation Industries of China (AVIC) in developing new-generation durable turbofans and their thrust-vectoring nozzles. Therefore, to play safe, the PLAN decided in favour of procuring RD-93MA turbofans that are derived from the RD-33MK ‘Morskaya Osa’ (Sea Wasp) turbofan now powering the MiG-29K and MiG-29KUB M-MRCAs of both the navies of Russia and India.

The J-15, with a MTOW of 33 tonnes, is the heaviest active carrier-based MRCA in the world, while its empty weight is 17.5 tonnes. Until 2016, China was confident about its homegrown electromagnetic aircraft launch system (EMALS) technology capable of launching the J-15 from ski ramp-equipped aircraft carriers like the PLAN’s Liaoning CV-16, since it was able to produce its own insulated-gate bipolar transistor chips, a key component of the high-efficiency electrical energy conversion systems used in variable-speed drives, railway trains, electric and hybrid electric vehicles, power grids and renewable energy plants. The technology was developed by China’s first semiconductor manufacturer, Hunan-based Zhuzhou CSR Times Electric, and British subsidiary Dynex Semiconductor after the former acquired 75 per cent of Dynex’s shares in the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis.

Updates From SBC Vizag, Project Varsha NAOB & When & How PNS Zulfiquar Was To Be Hijacked

S-3/Arighat SSBN (above) was launched on on November 19, 2017.

Information on the above-shown vessel can be obtained here: http://trishul-trident.blogspot.com/2017/07/drdo-owned-navy-operated-mris-vessels.html

Civil engineering work on NAOB (above) began in 2011 and thus far the construction of underground SSBN parking pens have been completed, while work continues on the construction of SLBM storage-cum-loading/unloading facilities.

As narrated by Steve Coll in his book DIRECTORATE S

Zeeshan Rafiq joined the Pakistan Navy as a lieutenant in 2008. He first went to sea two years later, as part of Combined Task Force 150, a 25-nation sea patrol operation that deployed ships from Karachi into the Arabian Sea on counterterrorism and antipiracy missions. The coalition’s participants included Pakistan, the United States, and NATO navies. Rafiq chose his country’s navy after “listening to patriotic songs,” and he was motivated to serve. But after a few years, he came to think that the Pakistani military had become “the right hand of these infidel forces” and that his country’s generals and admirals “follow American diktats. One signal from America and the entire Pakistan Army prostrates before them,” he reflected. Rafiq once watched an American soldier board a Pakistan Navy ship. Everyone addressed him as “sir” and he was accorded the protocol of an officer even though he was just an enlisted man. In the war between the Muslim faithful and the infidels, Rafiq wondered, “Which side is Pakistan’s army on?” The generals who ran his country assisted in the “carpet bombing” of Afghanistan. They turned air bases over to the CIA for drone attacks against Muslims. Rafiq read Inspire, Anwar Al-Awlaki’s English-language Internet magazine. He studied the biographies of Faisal Shahzad, the would-be Times Square bomber, and Nidal Hasan, the Major who went on a shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas. He wanted to do something to remind “mujahids around the world” that it was important to “break the grip of infidels over our seas.”

Rafiq discovered that another serving Pakistan Navy Lieutenant based in Karachi, Owais Jakhrani, who was from Baluchistan, felt similarly. Jakhrani’s father was a senior Police officer. The son nonetheless came to believe that his country had become a slave state of America. Jakhrani’s radicalization manifested itself as complaints to navy officers that the service was insufficiently Islamic; an internal investigation of him led to his dismissal. Sometime during 2014, Jakhrani and Rafiq made contact with Al Qaeda in Waziristan. After Osama Bin Laden’s death, his longtime Egyptian deputy, Ayman Al Zawahiri, succeeded him. Zawahiri issued occasional pronouncements but kept a low profile, to avoid Bin Laden’s fate. Al Qaeda’s local network increasingly consisted of Pakistani militants who had drifted toward the organization and its brand name from other violent groups based in Punjab and Kashmir. One of the leaders of this less Arab, more subcontinent-focused Al Qaeda fought under the name Asim Umar. His real name, according to the investigations of Indian intelligence agencies, was Asim Sanaullah Haq, originally an Indian citizen in the state of Uttar Pradesh. He left there in the mid-1990s and ended up in Pakistan, where he joined Harkat-ul-Mujaheddin before moving toward Al Qaeda. During 2014, Rafiq and Jakhrani met him and explained that they could mobilize a sizable group of sympathizers and seize control of a Pakistan Navy warship, and then use it to attack the enemies of Islam.

The Pakistan Navy was not merely a conventional surface fleet; it was part of the country’s systems of nuclear deterrence. In 2012, Pakistan launched a Naval Strategic Forces Command, meaning a command focused on the deployment of nuclear weapons at sea. The country’s military leadership sought to develop a nuclear “triad,” akin to that deployed by the United States: that is, systems that would allow the firing of nuclear arms from aircraft, from land bases, or from the sea. The advantage of a triad is that it makes it difficult for an adversary that also has nuclear arms to launch a preemptive strike, because at least some of the targeted country’s dispersed nukes and delivery systems would likely survive and could be used in retaliation. While developing their triads, the United States, Russia, Britain, and France placed special emphasis on submarines armed with nuclear missiles because these stealthy undersea vessels would be particularly hard for an enemy to locate and destroy during a first strike. Pakistan had not yet acquired and deployed enough high-quality submarines to place the sea leg of its nuclear triad only with those vessels. Analysts assumed that Pakistan would also consider placing nuclear weapons aboard navy ships that carried cruise missiles with enough range to reach India, which of course was by far the most likely adversary to enter into a nuclear war with Pakistan.

PNS Zulfiquar, a China-built seven-storey guided-missile frigate, which typically had 250 to 300 sailors and officers on board, was one such warship. On December 19 and 21, 2012, the frigate reportedly test-fired China-made C-802A anti-ship cruise missiles, which have a range of about 180km. The C-802As can fly as low as 25 metres above the surface of the ocean, making them difficult to detect by radar. The missiles can also be fitted with a small nuclear warhead with a yield of two to four kilotons, or about 15 to 25 percent of the explosive force of the atomic bomb the United States dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945. Around the time that it launched its Naval Strategic Forces Command, Pakistan also accelerated its development of small, or “tactical,” nuclear weapons like the ones that might fit on C-802A missiles. During the first decade after the invention of the atomic bomb, the United States, too, had built and deployed small nuclear bombs that could be dropped from planes or even fired from special artillery guns. The United States sent the small bombs to Europe and planned to use them on the battlefield against Soviet troops and tanks if a land war erupted across the Iron Curtain. It was only later in the Cold War that the idea of using atomic bombs on a battlefield as if they were just a more potent artillery shell became anathema in most nuclear strategy circles. Nuclear deterrence between the United States and the Soviet Union evolved into an all-or-nothing proposition under the rubric of Mutually Assured Destruction, or MAD. At the peak of MAD, each side had more than 20,000 nuclear bombs that were so powerful that any full-on nuclear exchange would have ended human civilization. The effects of nuclear war became so dramatic and unthinkable that it made such a war—or any conventional war that might go nuclear—less likely. That was the theory, at least.

India and Pakistan tested nuclear weapons in May 1998. As their version of mutual nuclear deterrence evolved, it displayed some parallels to the position of the United States in Europe during the 1950s. The United States feared a massive conventional blitzkrieg by Soviet forces and saw small nuclear weapons as a way to counter such an invasion. In South Asia, a similar factor was Pakistan’s fear of a conventional armoured invasion by India. Because India has a much larger military than Pakistan, as well as a larger economy and population, it might be expected to prevail in a long war. Pakistan acquired nuclear warheads to deter India from considering a conventional tank-and-infantry invasion, no matter how provoked India might feel from time to time by Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. For this defence to work, Pakistani Generals had to plant doubt in the minds of Indian leaders about whether the Generals were really rash enough to be the first to use nuclear weapons in anger since 1945. The development of small or tactical nuclear weapons aided Pakistan in this respect. Small atomic bombs might be dropped on a desert battlefield against Indian troops, away from population centers. Or they might be fired on cruise missiles against an isolated Indian military base. The use of even a small nuclear weapon on a battlefield would likely shock the world and provoke international intervention to end the war, perhaps before India could achieve its war aims. Overall, the existence and deployment of small nukes by Pakistan made it more likely that its Generals would actually use them, which in turn deepened doubts in the minds of Indian leaders about how costly a war with Pakistan might become. That is, in Pakistan’s twisted and dangerous logic, small nuclear weapons strengthened deterrence. Yet there were obvious downsides. One was that building and spreading out so many small, loose bombs exacerbated the threat that terrorists might try to steal them—or might come across them inadvertently.

Lieutenant Zeeshan Rafiq and former Lieutenant Owais Jakhrani knew all about the PNS Zulfiquar’s internal security systems. After they made contact with Al Qaeda in 2014, they developed elaborate plans, seemingly derived from Hollywood thrillers, to defeat that security in order to seize control of the warship and its weapons, including its 76mm gun and its C-802A missiles. One part of their plan was to exploit “a particular weakness of the security system,” as Rafiq put it, namely, that “the lockers and rooms of officers are not checked.” Rafiq and other officers successfully smuggled weapons aboard the PNS Zulfiquar “in batches, in their backpacks,” and stowed them in lockers. The next part of their plan was to make duplicate keys to the doors of the operations room (CIC) and the naval gunnery compartment “so that these rooms could be accessed without the knowledge” of the ship’s commanding officers. Here, too, the insider knowledge of the two Lieutenants offered an advantage. They planned to sneak into the magazine room of the 76mm gun to load its shells before they moved to seize control of the warship. They also understood that it was possible to prime and operate both the gun and the C-802As outside of the main operations room, in an alternate area below, on the second deck. The C-802As could be operated manually from the second deck when the missiles’ automated system was off—with their duplicate keys, they could accomplish this.

The conspirators also scoped out the armed security guards they expected to find on the PNS Zulfiquar. These were elite commandos from the Naval Special Service Group. There were typically five Pakistani commandos aboard when the frigate sailed to join NATO for operations of Combined Task Force 150. The commandos were deployed in part to protect the warship in case Somali or other pirates attacked. Rafiq, Jakhrani, and their co-conspirators devised a plan to kill them or hold them at bay. First, they would bring two dozen or so co-conspirators aboard—some after the warship was at sea. They would try to avoid any confrontation with the crew as the PNS Zulfiquar sailed toward American and other vessels operating in the coalition. Their target was the USS Supply, a lightly defended American supply and refuelling vessel. According to Rafiq, the American logistics ship’s defence was assigned to a US Navy frigate that always shadowed it, no more than a few miles away. When the PNS Zulfiquar got close, they would use their duplicate keys to arm and fire its big artillery gun and its cruise missiles, to “secretly attack the US warship,” as one of the conspirators put it, before the Pakistani crew aboard realized what was happening. They would use the 76mm gun to “destroy” USS Supply and then turn the C-802As on whatever American warship came to its defence. After they launched their attack on the US Navy, they expected the crew of the PNS Zulfiquar to try to stop them, but “since it doesn’t take much time to fire missiles” they would already have done a lot of damage. At that point, they planned to defend the frigate’s armoury so the Pakistani crew could not arm themselves. They also would lock all the doors and hatches between the second and third decks, to barricade themselves below. They would take the frigate’s commanding officer as a hostage and force him to order the crew to abandon ship, by donning life jackets and jumping into the sea. Once in full control of the PNS Zulfiquar, the conspirators planned to use all of the frigate’s weapons—the 76mm gun, “torpedoes, anti-aircraft gun, and C-802As” to attack “any US Navy ship.” They would continue to fight until “the PNS Zulfiquar was destroyed” or until the mutineers themselves were “killed in action.” They hoped to use the ship’s communication systems to reach “the media and tell the world about this entire operation.”

Early in September 2014, Al Qaeda publicly announced a new branch, Al Qaeda in the Indian subcontinent, under the leadership of Asim Umar, the Indian from Uttar Pradesh. Al Qaeda’s leaders explained that they had worked for some time to recruit and unite militants from disparate Pakistani groups. The announcement seemed designed to provide Al Qaeda with new visibility and relevance at a time when the Islamic State had risen to prominence in Syria and Iraq and had started to recruit local allies in Afghanistan and Pakistan. An Al Qaeda member, Hasan Yusuf, explained that the group’s main motivation in forming the new branch came “in the wake of the American defeat and withdrawal from Afghanistan. . . . This jihad will not end; America’s defeat is only the prelude.” A withdrawal that was seen in Washington as an intelligent winding down of an unsustainable war was inevitably understood by jihadists worldwide as a historic victory and a source of new momentum. On September 6, 2014, in Karachi, at dawn, Rafiq and Jakhrani boarded the PNS Zulfiquar in navy uniforms, with their service cards displayed. A number of co-conspirators, in marine uniforms, approached through the harbour in a dinghy. An alert Pakistan Navy gunner noticed that the “Marines” were carrying AK-47s, which are not normally issued in the Navy. He fired a warning shot. A full-on gun battle erupted. SSG commandos on-board joined the fray to defend the warship. When it was over, by one count, eleven attackers died, including Rafiq and Jakhrani. They never had a chance to access the weapons they had smuggled  on board or to use the duplicate keys they had made to the C-802A missile room.

The Pakistani defence of the PNS Zulfiquar was professional and successful. Yet there was a disturbing postscript to Al Qaeda’s strike. About six weeks after the attack, India’s principal external intelligence service, the Research and Analysis Wing (R & AW), citing agent reporting from Karachi, informed India’s national security adviser Ajit Doval that a nuclear warhead had been on board the PNS Zulfiquar at the time of the attack. If their plan had succeeded, Rafiq and Jakhrani would have had more on their hands than they expected, by this account. It is possible that India put a false story out to stir up global alarm about terrorism and nuclear security in Pakistan. Yet if the Indian report is accurate, September 6, 2014, would mark the first known armed terrorist attack in history against a facility holding nuclear weapons. Judging by Pakistan’s trajectory, it is unlikely to be the last.

Global Pointers For FMBTs

Given below are the weblinks of the show dailies published during this expo.

http://www.janes.com/article/search?query=%5BES18D1%5D

http://www.janes.com/article/search?query=%5BES18D2%5D

http://www.janes.com/article/search?query=%5BES18D3%5D

http://www.janes.com/article/search?query=%5BES18D4%5D

http://www.janes.com/article/search?query=%5BES18D5%5D

http://www.eurosatory.com/wp-content/uploads/Eurosatory-2018_SHOW-DAILY-Jour-3_13.06.2018-PDF.pdf

http://www.eurosatory.com/wp-content/uploads/Eurosatory-2018_SHOW-DAILY-Jour-4_14.06.2018-PDF.pdf

http://www.eurosatory.com/wp-content/uploads/Eurosatory-2018_SHOW-DAILY-Jour-5_15.06.2018-PDF.pdf

Germany’s Krauss-Maffei Wegmann and France’s Nexter Defense Systems (KNDS) pitched a cross between a Leopard 2A7 chassis and a AMX-56 Leclerc turret at the Eurosatory 2018 expo in Paris on June 11. Officially dubbed the European Main Battle Tank, or EMBT, the vehicle is meant to showcase that German and French companies can work together on the path toward an envisioned Main Ground Combat System pursued by both nations, which is slated to see the light of day in the mid-2030s. Additionally, the developers believe that this “Frankentank” meets a real-life demand, and they hope a paying customer might take the idea and run with it. For now, the EMBT is a demonstrator project funded by the two companies’ joint venture, KNDS.

The benefit of the hybrid machine lies in the Leopard 2 MBT’s “very-high capability” chassis, which can carry up to 68 tonnes, and merging it with the lightness of the Leclerc’s turret, which needs only a crew of two to operate. As a result, potential customers get 10% of the weight, or 6 tonnes, to install additional kit on the EMBT as they see fit. In essence, the EMBT is a 62-tonne hybrid comprising a modified fuselage, a 7-axle chassis, a Leopard-2A7V propulsion unit and a twin, lighter version of the Leclerc’s turret with an ammunition autoloader and a 120mm CN1120-26 smoothbore cannon.

The crew thus comprises three members (commander, gunner and driver). The biggest challenge for the constructors was the foundation of the French turret on the German hull. Engineers struggled not only with incompatible drives, but also had to meet the requirements of German legislation that limit the transfer of military technologies abroad. The next stage in the EMBT project is to develop a prototype and launch pre-series production. To date, raction and firing tests of the EMBT demonstrator have been successfully carried out in the south of France.

KNDS was founded on December 15, 2015 in Amsterdam. It is worth noting that the German and French governments are intensely eyeing the concept disclosed by Rheinmetall in February 2016, named MGCS 2030+ (Main Ground Combat System) with a new 130mm gun. In turn, Nexter is working on a modernised AMX-56 Leclerc MBT as part of a wider Scorpion programme.

In terms of new revolutionary trends, MBT developers worldwide are now gravitating towards the construction of MBTs with weight-saving High-Nitrogen Steel (HNS), and the adoption of turret-bustles containing ammunition stored in autoloaders. In terms of both trends, the pioneer was Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which has since developed the HNS-built 48-tonne Type 10 MBT, which is powered by a four-strike V8 diesel engine developing 1,200hp, thereby offering a power-to-weight ratio of 27hp/tonne.

The 57.4 tonne AMX-56 Leclerc from Nexter Systems comes powered by a 1,500hp V8X SACM 8-cylinder diesel engine that offers a power-to-weight ratio of 27.52 hp/tonne.

To date, the French Army has acquired 406 Leclercs of which 320 of them make up four armoured regiments each with 80 Leclercs.

The UAE has ordered 390 Leclercs and 46 ARVs. These are all powered by 1,500hp MTU 883 V-12 diesel engines, coupled with the Renk HSWL295 TM automatic transmission. All Leclercs have autoloaders in the turret-bustles.

Even Russia has abandoned the hull-mounted horizontal carousal autoloader and by the mid-1990s the Omsk-based KBTM OKB and Omsktransmash JSC developed the Ob'yekt 640 Black Eagle MBT, whose turret rear contained the horizontal autoloader-cum-ammunition stowage compartment withblow-out panels.

Russia’s Uralvagonzavod JSC-built 48-tonne Ob’yekt 148 Armata MBT, however, has rejected the turret-mounted autoloader-cum-ammunition stowage compartment and has instead gone for a hull-mounted vertical autoloader.

The Armata, powered by a 1,350hp A85-3AX-diesel engine, has a power-to-weight ratio of 31hp/tonne (the highest among all present-day MBTs) and its 125mm 2A82-1M smoothbore cannon fires the Vacuum-1 APFSDS round that has a 900mm-long KE penetrator, which is said to be capable of penetrating 1 metre of RHA at a distance of 2km.

In order to maintain the effectiveness of their respective MBT fleets until 2040, both France and Germany have embarked on stepped life-extension programmes (SLEP). Nexter Systems had unveilled its Leclerc XLR variant at the Eurosatory 2016 expo. This “Scorpionisation” provides for the delivery of 200 Leclerc XLRs and 18 Leclerc DCL armoured recovery vehicles between 2020 and 2028m which will allow the Leclerc to remain operational beyond 2040.

The Leclerc XLR project has three main objectives: to integrate the Leclerc into the “Scorpion bubble”, adapt it for operations in urban environments, and improve its ability to attack. The first two prototypes will be delivered later this year and will be directly followed by the notification of production tranches. Destined to operate in a joint tactical “Scorpion” group, the Leclerc will get a new open vetronics architecture, the CONTACT radio being developed by THALES, the future Scorpion information and communication system (SICS), and an upgraded AZUR (urban environment) kit both on the hull and turret.

The chassis receives new side protection blocks in composite armour, which run from the front tip of the glaze turret. Propulsion block and the back are covered with slat-armour grids. These shields protect against infantry-fired RPGs and LAWs. The rear of the turret undergoes the same treatment. Nexter’s engineers have taken advantage of grid supports to add two integral horizontal plates of the turret of the neck to cover the propulsion block ventilation louvres. These plates prevent Molotov cocktails from breaking the propulsion compartment at the most vulnerable spot. The same type of plate protects the air-conditioner, which is located on the turret roof. The rest of the MBT’s frontal arc and turret side is already protected against other forms of projectiles. The Leclerc’s ‘Azur’ kit will thus be a difficult beast to touch and neutralize in complex areas. The armour is the ultimate bulwark behind which the crewtake refuge after all other forms of protection have failed, especially the most basic form of active protection. The AZUR sees its DRI suit (detection, recognition, identification) completed by a panoramic vision device mounted on the turret roof. The Israel-born ODR system gives a 360-degree picture of the situation around the MBT. With this panoramic view, the crew can detect the presence of hostiles by eliminating many blind spots that typically exist on any MBT. The thus-detected enemy infantry can be neutralised using either launchers firing the Galix 4, or the new 7.62mm remote-controlled machine gun (RCWS) mounted on the turret roof.

This is an adapted version of one that equips the UAE’s Leclercs. The machine gun is equipped with a CCD camera that allows shooting via a video screen in the delousing mode. Delousing means shooting at a friendly MBT to remove enemy infantry which would have climbed on it. The 7.62mm rounds wouldn’t cause damage to the structure of the MBT in question, unlike other larger calibres. The choice of the cupola was made for practical reasons (time reduction and availability). For the production version, Nexter has sought better alternatives from various suppliers. The RCWS also allows shooting at high targets (roof tops). It should be recalled that the Leclerc now has 120mm HE explosive shells with parametrizable fuse (impact/delay), which enables the destruction of fortifications, trenches and buildings.

The last function of the French configuration is communications, in particular with dismounted infantry. MBTs of the previous generation were usually provided with an infantry phone in the form of a box attached to the back of the MBT and containing a handset connected to the MBT intercom system by a wire. This allowed an infantry group leader to communicate with the crew to designate, for example, a target to destroy. But this solution had three major drawbacks. First, the infantryman had to activate the handset while the MBT was stopped. This could be very dangerous for humans because of the movements of a MBT, which ignores his presence nearby. Second, the soldier would have to leave cover to reach the MBTs. Finally, the operating range gets limited by the length of the telephone wire.

For all these reasons, Nexter’s engineers simply adapted WiFi technology, which allows establishing communications with the infantry-carried FELIN digital soldier system, while maintaining great freedom of action with the MBT that supports them. One of the most interesting features is undoubtedly the fuelling baskets attached to the back of the MBT. The trick is to use the fuel cage door for hanging boxes where the infantrymen find ammunition, water, food and miscellaneous small equipment. Supply is thus delivered without the MBT crew having to dismount, and this also allows supplies to be delivered  closer to the line of contact, where other less protected armoured vehicles will never venture.

In Germany, Krauss-Maffei Wegmann and Rheinmetal have co-developed the Leopard Advanced Technology Demonstrator that contains both appliqué armour panels as well as active protection systems. In addition, Rheinmetall has developed a new 130mm L-51 tank cannon that should be in production by 2025. The 130mm/L51 weighs (without mounting components) 3,000kg, while the current barrel length is 6,630mm.

As the standard NATO smoothbore gun for MBTs like Leopard 2 and M-1 Abrams, Rheinmetall’s L-44 cannon had proved its superiority to all its rivals in the 120mm arena. This smoothbore cannon was also the precursor of Rheinmetall’s L-55 and L-47 cannons. In the L 55 cannon barrel, a larger share of the energy resulting from a round being fired is converted into greater velocity.

From the above, it emerges that existing MBTs worldwide that are to remain in service right up to or beyond 2040 will:

A) Retain their 1,500hp diesel engines/gas turbines.

B) Increase the barrel-diameter of cannons from 120mm and 125mm to 152mm. While Rheinmetall has to date worked on developing both 130mm and 140mm smoothbore cannons, the US Army too has worked on a 140mm smoothbore cannon gun (developing about 22 mega Joules of energy, versus 11 mega Joules of a 120mm smoothbore cannon). Russia, on the other hand, is expected to replace the Armata’s existing 2A82 125mm cannon with the 2A83 152mm cannon. The 2A83 latter has a muzzle velocity of 1,980 metres/second, only dropping to 1,900 metres/second at 2km. In addition, Russia is expected to increase the power output of the A85-3AX diesel engine from 1,500hp to 2,000hp.

C) Not increase the barrel-calibre, but will increase the barrels’ chamber-pressure.

D) Incorporate turret-mounted bustles containing not only the entire ammunition stowage section, but also the autoloader (the T-14 Armata being the sole exception).

E) Henceforth use the space earlier used in the hull for ammunition stowage for accommodating the ever-increasing quantum of mission-specific vectronics like various radar-based and optronic situational awareness sensors, hard-kill active protection systems, and battlefield management systems (BMS).

F) Use unitary and heavier APFSDS rounds, thanks to the turret-mounted ammunition stowage section and autoloader.

Additionally, existing medium battle tanks like the T-72M1 and T-90S that are earmarked for deep upgrades can in the near future be equipped with diesel-engines rated at 1,350hp as well as with new-build turrets containing ammunition stowage section and autoloader, while the removal of their hull-mounted autoloader carousels can henceforth be used for housing mission-specific vectronics.

So, what impact will all these have on India’s MBT projects like the Arjun Mk.2 and the Tank EX technology demonstrator?

As far as the former goes, contrary to widespread speculation, the Indian Army (IA) has not forsaken or given up on the Arjun MBT. Instead, for the past five years, the IA’s Directorate General of Mechanised Warfare has been overseeing a collective developmental effort involving the DRDO, and the MoD-owned defence public-sector undertakings and private-sector OEMs that will in the near future result in a fully-loaded 62-tonne MBT armed with a 120mm smoothbore cannon of slightly larger calibre, while being powered by a  1,500hp powerpack that uses the Cummins QST-30 diesel engine. Cummins has already conducted integration and mobility trials of the QST-30 on a pre-production Arjun Mk.1 MBT owned by the CVRDE.

This followed the total failure by the DRDO to develop the indigenous ‘Bharat Powerpack’ after it failed from 2007 till 2012 to elicit any industrial interest from both global and Indian engine manufacturers for the co-development effort. Adoption of the QST-30 engine will give the 62-tonne Arjun Mk.2 a power-to-weight ratio of 25hp/tonne. In contrast, the 118 68.6-tonne Arjun Mk.1As are each powered by a 1,400hp MTU-838KA 501 diesel engine that give a power-to-weight ratio of 18hp/tonne. The 58.5-tonne Arjun Mk.1 MBTs (124 in service), each powered by a 1,400hp MTU-838KA 501 diesel engine, have a power-to-weight ratio of 23.6hp/tonne.

Under the supervision and guidance of the DRDO’s Avadi-based Combat Vehicles Research & Development Establishment (CVRDE), and with the help of the MoD’s Directorate General of Quality Assurance (DGQA) and the IA’s Corps of Electronics & Mechanical Engineers (EME), a number of key decisions have been taken to achieve a weight reduction of 8 tonnes in the existing design of the 68-tonne Arjun Mk.1A MBTs, 118 of which are now in delivery. For starters, the baseline hull of the definitive Arjun Mk.2 will no longer be built with imported low-carbon, nickel-chromium-molybdenum rolled homogeneous armour (RHA) steel, but with lighter high-nitrogen steel (HNS) whose production technology has been mastered by the DRDO’s Hyderabad-based Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory (DMRL) and has been transferred to Jindal Stainless Steel Ltd (Hisar). HNS will also be used by TATA Motors Ltd for producing the 83 Kestrel 8 x 8 armoured personnel carriers already on order.

HNS is produced in a four-step process: primary melting of the steel can carried out in either induction furnace or electric arc furnace by using appropriate raw materials; secondary melting can be carryout in by nitrogen gas-purging in to the metal; under ladle refining, ferro-nitrates are added to molten metal for obtaining final nitrogen content in the alloy if it is required and hot-rolling is carried out in a single heat, without reheating. Minimum percentage of reduction should not be less than 75% of the slab thickness. To be placed in strategic locations in both the hull and turret will be the DRDO-developed ‘Kanchan’ ceramics-based composite laminate armour tiles as well as indigenously-built explosive reactive armour (ERA) tiles developed by HEMRL on the front and sides of the hull and turret sections.

To ensure optimal weight budgeting during the production engineering stage, the CVRDE has contracted Dynamatic Technologies Ltd, which specialises in complex, five-axis robotic machining, as well as in converting two-dimension paper blueprints into three-dimensional computer model that are more precise, and have tighter tolerances. Digitising the drawings creates a baseline configuration for greater accuracy. This in turn streamlines manufacturing, since conventional manufacturing based on two-dimensional paper blueprints tend to leave tiny gaps between the different components of an assembly that were filled with shims, leading to increased weight. But by digitising blueprints, those tiny gaps can be entirely eliminated during the manufacturing process. Under another weight-reduction exercise, the CVRDE has contracted the Alicon Group for building all-aluminium road-wheels and ventilators for not only the Arjun Mk.2, but also for the IA’s existing T-72M family of  medium battle tanks. They will replace the all-steel road-wheels built by Sundaram Industries for the Arjun Mk.1A. Similarly, TATA Power SED has been contracted for producing all-electric turret stabilisation/traverse systems (ELEGANT), in place of the existing electro-hydraulic system.

In addition, the Pune-based HEMRL, in association with CVRDE and DMRL, has developed the add-on ERA Mk.2 panels since 2011, While HEMRL has developed the reactive elements, DMRL carried out development of armour materials for the panels, and CVRDE finalised the layout and fitment of panels on both T-72Ms and Arjun Mk.2s. User-trials of ERA Mk.2 were carried out in four phases from November 2015 till January 2016. During these trials, ERA Mk.2 was evaluated against 84mm HEAT, 125mm HEAT, Milan-2T tandem shaped-charge warhead and AMK-339 APFSDS rounds.

ERA Mk.2 has an integral-type configuration on the hull glacis, in which the panels have been welded to the MBTs’ surfaces with a provision for positioning of the reactive elements, using a window. This type of arrangement has significantly reduced the time for uparming the MBTs. The size of panels is larger than ERA Mk.I (fitted on T-72CIAs) and the reactive elements inside the panel are separated by metallic barriers to avoid sympathetic detonation. The design has minimised blind zones (distance between the reactive elements) and the larger size of the panels results in longer interaction with inbound projectiles. With improved explosive properties and armour materials, the performance of ERA Mk.2 against shaped-charge warheads and KE projectiles has been significantly enhanced. The panels on the turret front have been mounted at an angle to get the desired angle-of-attack for optimum performance. The turret-top panels are designed to take care of top-attack submunitions. Though the size of panels is different on different locations, the size of reactive elements is the same in all the panels.

As for ammunition improvements, it is imperative for the CVRDE to re-design and re-engineer the Arjun Mk.1A’s turret in order to accommodate the slightly larger calibre 120mm smoothbore cannon, as well as host a turret-bustle housing ALL kinds of 120mm rounds like APFSDS projectiles equipped with longer and thicker kinetic energy penetrators, penetration-cum-blast (PCB) rounds and thermobaric (TB) rounds. To this end, the best option is to import proven autoloaders and turret-bustles from either Nexter Systems or Mitsubishi. And the additional internal volume obtained (by transferring the ammunition stowage are from the hull to the turret-bustle) will leave enough room for housing additional vectronics, especially elements of an active protection system (for which the Iron Fist from ELBIT Systems, Trophy from RAFAEL and LEDS-150 from SaabTech/TATA Aerospace & Defence are on offer) and BMS suite.

Presently, there are 71 Armoured Regiments of the IA that are equipped with 2,418 T-72s (comprising 754 Ob’yekt 172M-E4 T-72Ms and 1,664 Ob’yekt 172M-E6 T-72M-1982s), close to 800 Ob'yekt 188S T-90S and 124 Arjun Mk.1s. The 37-tonne T-72Ms (Ob’yekt 172M-E4) are each powered by a V-46-6 780hp diesel engine that offer a power-to-weight ratio of 20hp/tonne. The 41.5-tonne T-72M-1982 (Ob’yekt 172M-E6) are each powered by a 840hp V-84MS diesel engine, has a power-to-weight ratio of 21hp/tonne. The upgraded T-72Ms—43.5-tonne T-72 Combat Improved Ajeya—have a power-to-weight ratio of 17.80hp/tonne. The 46-tonne T-90S (Ob’yekt 188S) is powered by a 1,000hp V-92S2 diesel engine that delivers a power-to-weight ratio of 21.5hp/tonne. The 47-tonne Tank EX, when powered by a 1,000hp V-92S2 diesel engine, has a power-to-weight ratio of 20.5hp/tonne.

The Pakistan Army’s 47-tonne Al Khalid MBT is powered by a 1,200hp 6TD-2 diesel engine that delivers a power-to-weight ratio is 25hp/tonne. The 46-tonne Ob'yekt 478BE T-80UD MBTs, each powered by a 1,000hp 6TD-1 diesel engine, has a power-to-weight ratio is 21.7hp/tonme. The 42.7-tonne Al Zarrar, powered by a 730hp diesel engine, has a power-to-weight ratio is 17.1hp/tonne. The 41.5-tonne Type 85IIAP comes powered by a 730hp diesel engine that offers a power-to-weight ratio is 17.8hp/tonne. The 36.7-tonne Type 69IIAP, powered by a 580hp diesel engine, has a power-to-weight ratio is 15.8hp/tonne.

The PLA Army’s 42.8-tonne Type 96A MBTs are each powered by a 800hp engine that deliver a power-to-weight ratio of 18.7hp/tonne, while the 52-tonne Type 96Bs are each powered by a 900hp engine that deliver a power-to-weight ratio of 25hp/tonne.

The Indian Army plans to upgrade 1,000 T-72s (each costing Rs.9 crore) with the following: 

A) Installation of V92S2 engine at a per-unit cost of Rs.3.5 crore. 

B) Fitment of ERA Mk.2 ERA tiles on the hull and turret of each upgraded T-72.

C) Thermal Imaging Fire Control Systems (TIFCS) imported from Israel’s ELBIT Systems at a per-unit cost of Rs.2 crore.

D) Panoramic thermal imaging sights each costing Rs.0.8 crore to provide tank commanders with night vision, plus a thermal imaging driver’s night-sight.

E) An APU costing Rs.0.20 crore to generate power for the on-board electrical systems.

Similarly, the first 310 Ob’yekt 188S T-90S MBTs are up for a mid-life upgrade as well, with the principal fitments being a new-generation active protection system and an uprated powerpack for which the A85-3AX-diesel engine capable of producing up to 1,500hp (although it is presently dowrated at 1,350hp) is likely to be ordered 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.

In my view, however, the proposals drawn up for the deep upgrades of the Ob’yekt 172M-E4 T-72Ms, Ob’yekt 172M-E6 T-72M-1982s and 800 Ob'yekt 188S T-90S are flawed (with regard to the retention of existing turrets, 125mm smoothbore cannons fed by hull-mounted autoloading carousels, and hull-mounted ammo stowage compartments) and lack the application of common-sense. Instead, the optimum alternative that will also create several business opportunities for India’s military-industrial complex must involve the following:

A) Standardising the powerpacks of all T-series medium battle tanks by installing the 1,350hp A85-3AX-diesel engine (which in future can be upgraded to 1,500hp) that will increase the power-to-weight ratio of such MBTs closer to 25hp/tonne.

B) Integrating the turret of the definitive Arjun Mk.2 MBT (containing the 120mm smoothbore cannon, autoloader and the turret-bustle containing ammunition reloads).

Adoption of these two critical options will result in greatly improved mobility, survivability and firepower parameters, with the latter assuming greater importance than ever, since only Russia and China to date have claimed that their two-piece 125mm APFSDS rounds can attain a muzzle velocity of 1,700 metres/second. Neither Israel Military Industries nor India’s MoD-owned OFB have to date succeeded in developing APFSDS rounds that travel at speeds greater than 1,660 metres/second. A unitary 120mm APFSDS round, on the other hand, holds out the promise of not only achieving speeds of 1,700 metres/second, but also containing longer and thicker KE penetrator with far greater penetrating power. In addition, the turret housing the 120mm smoothbore cannon can also accommodate a 130mm smoothbore cannon in future—this applying to all members of the IA’s T-series and Arjun family of MBTs. Furthermore, doing away with hull-mounted autoloading carousels and hull-mounted ammo stowage compartments on the T-series MBTs will offer the internal volume required for housing additional vectronics LRUs of the active porotection system and BMS.

And most importantly, doing away with the existing turrets of the T-series MBTs (by adopting the definitive Arjun Mk.2’s re-engineered turret) will also permanently do away with the IA’s nightmare scenario of blue-on-blue engagements, since the MBT designs of both China and Pakistan are derived from the T-series MBTs and will therefore be indistinguishable from those of the IA’s T-series MBTs when viewed by either a daylight TV camera or a thermal imager at nighttime. That the IA’s nightmare scenario is an undeniable fact-of-life is borne out by the IA’s requirement for a MMW identification friend-or-foe vectronics suite, which continues to be developed by the DRDO’s DEAL laboratory.

(Concluded)