India may be looking at further purchases of the Phalanx Close-In Weapon System, which is mounted on the carrier USS Trenton that was sold to the Indian navy.
Since renamed INS Jalashva, the Trenton arrived in India with two Phalanx weapons systems onboard. Raytheon Missile Systems is talking to India about purchasing more Phalanx systems for other ships in the Indian navy.
French defence and aerospace major Thales and the city-based Samtel group Wednesday announced a joint venture to design, manufacture and sell avionics systems in the Indian market.
Samtel and Thales will hold 74:26 in the venture that was started with a capital of $12.5 million with more investments to be pumped in as the joint development efforts progress, officials of the two firms said at a press conference here.
Helmet-mounted sight and display, for use in defence and civilian aircraft, helicopters and fighters, will be the one of the main areas of operations for the new venture - named Samtel Thales Avionics.
Agni-III, the country’s long distance surface-to-surface missile, with capability to hit targets as far away as 3,000 km, with both conventional and nuclear warheads is ready for induction into the Defence forces.
The second consecutive flight success of the country’s most ambitious missile today has led confident missile scientists of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), to declare that Agni-III was ready for the users to test and induct.
India on Wednesday successfully test-fired its 3000 km range surface-to-surface nuclear capable Agni-III missile for the second time giving the country a capability to hit targets as far as deep inside China.
The all solid fuel missile took off from Wheelers Island off Orissa coast at 09:56 hrs and achieved its full range and accuracy by reaching its pre-designated target in 800 seconds.
"The missile is now ready for induction," jubilant DRDO scientists told reporters after
India's launch of first China-specific missile Agni-III on May 7 and China's reported building up of a strategic nuclear submarine base in India's neighbouring Hainan Island near South China Sea have all the trappings of an arms race between the two countries building up.
Indian Navy recently tracked, through high resolution satellite images, deployment of a number of nuclear submirines by china, including its new Jin class submarine, in India's neighbourhood. India has voiced its apprehensions over the build-up of Chinese submarines, with Naval Chief Admiral Suresh Mehta saying it was a "cause for concern."
A cutting-edge technology radar will give the Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet a crucial edge over its competitors in the race for an Indian Air Force (IAF) order for 126 combat jets but India will not receive the complete technology for it, its manufacturer said."Our response has been fully compliant with the IAF request for proposal (RFP). However, the extent of technology transfer would be dependent on the permission we receive from the US government," avionics major Raytheon Company's Dave Goold told a group of visiting journalists here Monday.
The equipment in question is the APG-79 Advanced Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar that enables the F/A-18 to seamlessly shift into an AWACS (airborne warning and control system) mode while flying on a combat mission.
The long-range nuclear-capable, surface-to-surface Agni-III ballistic missile is scheduled to be launched on May 7 from the Integrated Test Range on Wheeler Island, off the Orissa coast.
This will be the third test of the missile having a range of more than 3,500 km. The first conducted on July 9, 2006 failed to meet the mission objectives, while the second trial held on April 12, 2007 ended in a roaring success.
Top DRDO sources told The Hindu on Sunday that the proposed launch would be a “validation test” for higher performance in terms of weight and payload capacity. Apart from new software for navigation and guidance controls to achieve better accuracy, an improved re-entry material would be tested.
The country's indigenous main battle tank Arjun was found to have low accuracy, frequent break down of power packs and problems with its gun barrel in the recent accelerated user-cum-reliability trials, the Lok Sabha was informed on Monday.
The tanks also had problems with consistency, recorded failure of hydropenumatic suspension units and shearing of top rolls, the Minister of State for Defence Production Rao Inderjit Singh said in a written reply.
"The rectification of these defects and performance of the tanks was being closely monitored," he said.
The minister's findings to the House came in the wake of his recent comments that Army sabotaging the tanks' final pre-induction trials could not be ruled out.
India’s light combat aircraft Tejas will fly over the deserts of Rajasthan later this month for hot weather trials. The trials, in which the airplane and its systems will be tested in the summer heat, begin a crucial phase for the fighter before the Indian Air Force (IAF) inducts it into its fleet. “Because we are doing it for the first time, we are very very careful,” says P. S. Subramanyam, head of the Tejas programme at Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) the aircraft development arm of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). The designers of Tejas have till 2010—four years behind schedule—to achieve initial operational clearance, a milestone it has to cross before meeting IAF standards. These two years will be the toughest because the aircraft will be stretched to the limits of its performance, and any mistake could endanger the project. ADA has appointed Boeing Co., which makes the F-18 fighter, as a consultant to help in flight trials till the certification.
The Hawk crash at Bidar air force station on Wednesday has grounded Hindustan Aeronautics Limited’s ceremony to showcase its first licence-built Hawk aircraft.
HAL, which has already started production of the Hawk, an advanced jet trainer, was set to unveil the first of the 42 aircraft to be manufactured at its Bangalore complex.
“The induction ceremony, which was to have been held in the first week of May, has been postponed to the third week. The new dates depend on the guests, including defence minister A.K. Antony and the chief of air staff, who are yet to confirm the
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