Indian Military

New Delhi — The state-owned Goa Shipyard Limited (GSL) will be embarking on a major modernisation drive and has requested the state government for additional land to pursue its project. GSL will initiate its infrastructure modernisation project in four phases at an estimated cost of $178 million. This modernisation drive will triple the capacity of GSL in terms of shipbuilding.

According to GSL officials, the first two phases of the project costing Rs.400 crore are at an advanced stage and are expected to be complete by this year end. The completion of the two phases will make GSL the first shipbuilding yard in the country to be equipped with a modern ship-lift facility for launching and docking of ships.

As for the remaining two phases of modernisation, it involves infrastructure for the Mine Counter Measure Vessel (MCMV) project of the Indian Navy. GSL is expecting this to progress as and when the Indian Navy finalises the MCMV project.

GSL has major plans up its sleeves including an upcoming shore-based training facility project at the INS Hansa, Goa.

Images of China's new Jin-class SSBN. The Pentagon says there are significant problems with its Julang-2 missiles






(This is the concluding article of a four-part series on India's critical, yet significantly delayed, submarine programme)
by Ajai ShuklaBusiness Standard, 2nd Sept 10
An increasingly apparent reason for the Ministry of Defence’s slow decision-making on a second submarine production line for the Indian Navy is: the deep divisions within the navy over India’s submarine force. A debate rages between the submarine arm and the surface navy — particularly the dominant aviation wing — on whether the future lies in submarines or aircraft carriers.

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.

Photo: Courtesy The New York Times: China's Jiaolong submersible, which planted China's flag recently at the bottom of the South China Sea

Article reproduced from: The New York Times
By WILLIAM J. BROADPublished: September 11, 2010
When three Chinese scientists plunged to the bottom of the South China Sea in a tiny submarine early this summer, they did more than simply plant their nation’s flag on the dark seabed
The men, who descended more than two miles in a craft the size of a small truck, also signaled Beijing’s intention to take the lead in exploring remote and inaccessible parts of the ocean floor, which are rich in oil, minerals and other resources that the Chinese would like to mine. And many of those resources happen to lie in areas where China has clashed repeatedly with its neighbors over territorial claims.

NEW DELHI: An Indian navy ship thwarted three piracy attacks while escorting cargo vessels in the Gulf of Aden this week.

The Defense Ministry says Indian Marine commandos disarmed pirates Wednesday who approached six merchant ships they were protecting nearly 70 miles (110 kilometers) south of the Yemeni coast.

In a statement Thursday, the ministry said the commandos, who boarded the pirates' boat, recovered weapons and ammunition.

The ministry said that was one of three attempted attacks the Indian ship fended off this week.

The Gulf of Aden, which connects the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean, is one of the world's busiest shipping lanes and a prime target for Somali pirates. An international flotilla of warships patrol the vast area.

[Stratpost]

The Indian Naval Ship (INS) Delhi has put down a third piracy attempt in the last four days.

The latest attempt took place on Wednesday when the guided missile destroyer was tasked with escorting six merchant vessels with an assortment of 40 Indians among the 147 crew aboard the ships.

A dhow was detected approaching the convoy in the International Recommended Transit Corridor (IRTC) around 58 nautical miles (108 kilometers) south of the Yemeni coast in the Gulf of Aden. Marine Commandos (MARCOS) from the INS Delhi boarded the dhow after it was intercepted and recovered ‘a cache of arms including a 7.62 mm rifle, 06 Rocket Propelled Grenades (RPGs) and ammunition’, subsequently disarming the pirates, according to a statement issued by the Indian Navy.

The navy had earlier reported the INS Delhi to have thwarted piracy attempts last Monday and on the previous two Sundays. On September 12th, the warship had neutralized a pirate vessel while escorting nine merchant vessels in the Gulf of Aden, 70 nautical miles south of the coast of Yemen.

New Delhi – India’s ‘Tejas’ Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) is undergoing sea trials in Goa which is a part of the out-of-station flight-test plan for the LCA. Five prototypes of indigenously developed and manufactured ‘Tejas’ LCA will be put to rough sea trials at the Hansa Naval Air Station (NAS) at Dabolim in Goa.

The ‘Tejas’ LCA requires a host of system integration checks and various weapon modes still need to be tested. Officials pointed out that the ‘Tejas’ LCA needs to be checked for some more sea-level performance points in high-angle-of-attack (AOA) mode.

During the sea trials, the ‘Tejas’ LCA will be subjected to parameter identification (PID) and sea-level flutter vibration tests, with an all-external stores (bombs, fuel tanks, missiles) configuration. The PID is conducted with the latest software version of the digital flight control computer (DFCC) being developed by the Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE).

The 650-metre dry dock at the Pipavav shipyard in Gujarat. This dry dock can take two aircraft carriers simultaneously and still have space left over for the odd destroyer

by Ajai ShuklaBusiness Standard, 21st Sept 10
I was taken aback last week to receive an invitation from BAE Systems, the world’s third-richest arms corporation, for a four-day media tour to the UK. What surprised me was not the invitation. The rate at which India is buying up foreign weaponry, global arms merchants, eager for publicity, would happily pay for our small defence journalist community to globetrot through the year. What was remarkable in the BAE invitation was the company’s proposal to fly us to Glasgow for the launch of a new Royal Navy destroyer and a tour of other warships. Why, I wondered, was British shipbuilding being showcased to India in the absence of a plan to buy a warship from the UK?
A few phone calls later I had my answer! A cash-strapped UK defence ministry, unable to pay for the two aircraft carriers on order with BAE Systems, had offered one of them to New Delhi.

New Delhi — The Indian Navy is currently participating in a trilateral naval exercise as part of the India-Brazil-South Africa Maritime (IBSAMAR 2010) exercise being conducted in the Indian Ocean region off Durban. IBSAMAR is conceptualised by the Joint Work Group for Defence, which is one of 16 Joint Working Groups of the three nations looking into various cooperation initiatives.

This second edition of the IBSAMAR is a two-week nautical exercise which will conclude on September 27th. IBSAMAR is being held around the South African coast and there would be visits to Durban, Cape Town, Simon’s Town and Port Elizabeth as part of the nautical exercise. This maritime exercise involves 11 ships of the navies of South Africa, which is the host country, India which is the lead country and Brazil which is the support country. Four warships including a destroyer and two frigates from the Indian Navy’s Western Fleet are participating in the biennial India-Brazil-South Africa Maritime (IBSAMAR) exercise.