Indian Military

New Delhi — The Indian Navy continues to suffer delays in acquiring multi-role helicopters (MRH) as bids from international manufacturers have expired. The Indian Defence Ministry has indicated that the commercial bids from US firm Sikorsky and British-Italian firm Agusta Westland for the MRH have expired last month.

The Request for Proposal (RFP) for the 16 MRH worth $1 billion was issued in August 2008 and since the commercial bids are valid for two years only, they stand expired. The Indian Defence Ministry now intends to request the firms to revise their offers. While the technical evaluation has been wrapped up, Indian Navy is yet to pursue the Flight Evaluation Trials for the two contenders.

The two contenders for the MRH for the Indian Navy are the US firm Sikorsky’s S-70B Sea Hawk and British-Italian Agusta Westland’s NH-90 helicopters. Once the contract is decided and awarded, the Indian Navy would get the delivery of the MRH within 46 months in three phases and the RFP provides an option of placing follow-on orders for another 44 helicopters.

New Delhi — Indo-Russian military ties are set to grow stronger as India will soon order an additional 59 Russian Mi-17 helicopters from Russia. This decision to acquire 59 helicopters on top of the 80 helicopters ordered earlier has been taken by the Indian Air Force (IAF). The defence acquisition council has cleared the proposal and the request will be forwarded to the cabinet committee on security clearance soon.

The IAF has been trying to augment its fleet of medium-lift helicopters and the acquisition of an additional 59 Mi-17 helicopters aims to fulfil that mission. The existing fleet of medium-lift helicopters will be phased out soon. The Mi-17 helicopters will enhance the IAFs capability to carry out missions in high-altitude areas and relief operations. India had signed a deal with Russia in 2008 to supply 80 Mi-17s to augment its existing fleet of around 150 Mi-8 and Mi-17 medium-lift choppers. These helicopters have over five tonne load carrying capability and are also used to ferry troops.

New Delhi – India’s prestigious medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) deal, worth almost $11 billion, is making a slow progress since the contenders are yet to be shortlisted. At present, the Offset Technical Committee has the process of evaluating the offset proposals of the six contenders.

The Indian Defence Ministry will take the decision to shortlist the contenders only when the Offset Technical Committee’s report and the report on the field trials have been completed and submitted. Once the contenders receive the evaluation of the Offset technical Committee, the contenders for the MMRCA will give fresh offset proposals. After that, fresh recommendations will be sent to the Defence Ministry. Once the Cabinet Committee on Security gives the nod, negotiations between governments will begin.

Sources said that the six contenders are presently being invited to furnish their offset plans and the Indian Air Force (IAF) will meet different contenders to discuss flight evaluation reports once the field trials are complete.

[PIB] Next week, the Indian Air Force (IAF) would usher in a modern, state-of-the-art digital information grid by dedicating Air Force Network (AFNET), a fully secure and reliable network to the nation making it a true net-centric combat force. The AFNET replaces the IAF’s old communication network set-up using the tropo-scatter technology of the 1950s.

This monumental achievement also marks the successful clearance of one milestone for release of radio spectrum, a very valuable but finite resource. Defence Minister, Shri AK Antony will launch the AFNET services of the IAF at a special function to be held at New Delhi, on Tuesday. Union Telecom Minister, Shri A Raja will also be present at the function.

The IAF project is part of the overall mission to network all three services. The mission comes in the backdrop of an IT Roadmap document of the Defence Ministry stipulating automation, simulated training and mandatory computer proficiency in the services.

IAF has taken up a mandate to create and maintain an assured, dedicated, secure and inter-operable communication network along with associated services to provide real time, instantaneous transfer of information between Sensors, Command and Control (C2) centres and Shooters.

New Delhi — The training programme for new pilots in the Indian Air Force (IAF) has been adversely affected ever since the grounding of the fleet of HPT-32 “Deepak” aircraft, after a mishap that claimed the lives of two IAF pilots in 2009.

However, things have started looking up for the IAF as it is about to begin trials for the new trainer aircraft wherein six competitors will showcase their trainer aircraft. The flight trials will begin this month in the western state of Gujarat.

The six competitors and their respective aircraft in the fray include GROB 120 TP of Germany, Embraer EMB 312 ‘Super Tucano’ of Brazil, Korean Aerospace Industries KT-1, Finmeccanica M-311 of Italy and Pilatus PC-7 of Switzerland. The Indian government has cleared an off-the-shelf acquisition of 75 and 106 will be built by state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). The main contractor will have to deliver the first 12 aircraft within 24 months of the contract and the remaining trainers will follow in batches.

NEW DELHI: Aiming to strengthen its medium-lift helicopter fleet, the IAF is planning to procure 59 more Mi-17 IV choppers in addition to the 80 ordered earlier from Russia.

The 80 choppers ordered in 2008 will be for enhancing the medium-lift helicopter fleet of the IAF whereas the next 59 would be used for replacing the older ones in the existing fleet which will be phased out in coming years, defence ministry officials said here.

The proposal for acquiring the 59 choppers has already been cleared by the defence acquisition council and will be put up for cabinet committee on security clearance soon, they said.

India will start receiving the first of 80 Mi-17 transport helicopters from Russia by the end of this year which will help in augmenting its capability to carry out missions in high-altitude areas and relief operations.

The remaining choppers are likely to be inducted in phased manner in next four years.

In 2008, India had signed a deal with Russia to supply 80 Mi-17s to augment its existing fleet of around 150 Mi-8 and Mi-17 medium-lift choppers, which have over five tonne load carrying capability and are also used to ferry troops and VIPs.

ADEN: Five al-Qaida members were killed in clashes on Sunday with the Yemeni army in the south of the country after an ultimatum for the militants to surrender expired, a local official said.

"The army raided the house of a local al-Qaida leader, killing three of his supporters" in the southern city of Loder, the official said on condition of anonymity.

Two other al-Qaida operatives "who were preparing to fire an RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) at the headquarters of the security services were killed by soldiers," the official added.

The latest violence erupted at 5:00 pm (1400 GMT), two hours after a government ultimatum for suspected al-Qaida militants in Loder to surrender expired and two days after 21 people were killed in fighting in the city.

Earlier another local official told AFP the authorities had issued an ultimatum to the militants to surrender by 3:00 pm (noon GMT) on Sunday.

"If the wanted militants do not leave the city's streets and neighbourhoods and hand themselves over to the authorities then we will carry out another raid until the area is free from Qaida elements and their allies," he said.

New Delhi — In a crucial turnaround of events, the Indian private shipbuilders have been sidelined from India’s submarine programme. This is due to the fact that the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), part of the Indian Defence Ministry, has decided to exclude private participation in the construction of submarines.

According to sources, two submarines that were to be built under the Project-75I by private shipbuilders will now be built at international shipyards. This move has been substantiated by the Indian Navy who feels that a constant delay in indigenous submarine production has caused lot of harm to the Indian Navy’s plans.

The initial plan of the Project 75I involved all the six submarines to be built in India. Three submarines were to be made by state-owned Mazagon Dock Limited (MDL), one by state-owned Hindustan Shipyard Limited (HSL) and Indian private sector shipyards Larsen & Toubro and Pipavav were to compete for building two submarines.

As of now, the Indian Navy has insisted that the first two submarines must be built abroad.

NEW DELHI: The IAF has got the government's permission to fire back at Naxals in extremist-hit areas in self-defence, highly-placed Air Force sources said on Thursday.

The government's nod to the IAF's request made in September last year comes at a time when a debate is raging on whether India should use its armed forces against left-wing extremists, whom Prime MinisterManmohan Singh has described as the gravest internal security threat.

The IAF currently deploys two of its Mi-17s and two Dhruv helicopters in anti-Naxal operations. It had lost one of its personnel when a helicopter ferrying election officials and material during the Chattisgarh assembly polls was fired at by suspected Naxals a couple of years ago.

The government had given permission to the IAF to defend itself from the extremists' fire and had laid out conditions on the use of small arms in self-defence sometime in October-November last year.

Consequently, the IAF has fitted sideward-mounted machine guns on its helicopters flying in Naxal-affected areas basically for logistics, personnel transport and casualty evacuation of paramilitary forces engaged in fighting the Maoists, the sources said.