BY : TNN

In keeping with its policy to build maritime bridges with countries in the region, India will be hosting two Saudi Arabian warships in its waters from July 28 to 31.

Al Dammam, a modified French La Fayette-class stealth frigate, and Yanbou, a modified American Durance-class warship, will dock at Mumbai next week, in what will be the first-ever such naval visit to India by Saudi Arabian warships.

Apart from their crew, the two warships will be ferrying 76 cadets from Saudi Arabia’s prestigious Al Fahd Naval College.

BY : Radhakrishna Rao for INFA


With India's defence relations with Russia, a one-time trusted ally running into rough weather over the Russian insistence on a higher price tag for its defence hardware as well as the tough time New Delhi has had in getting timely supply of reliable spares and components from this former Communist giant, the country has been on the outlook for alternate supply sources for defence hardware and allied services. In particular, India 's defense establishment is quite disturbed over the cost escalation and delay in retrofitting the aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov now known as INS Chandragupta.

Though the USA has been "overeager" to enter the action-packed, lucrative Indian defence market in a big way, the Indian defence set-up has been treading cautiously in so far as clinching defence deals with American defence contractors is concerned. Given the deeply rooted penchant of the American political leadership, cutting across the ideological barriers, to come out with "sanctions and trade embargos "plainly, implying the annulment of the arrangement for the supply of "spares and services' at the most critical juncture.

BY : VINAY SHETTI FOR IDRW.ORG NEW SERVICE



Gripen Ng and Tejas flying together in a same mission over green fields of Punjab, or doing combat patrolling over the skies of capital city, might actually become a real time event in future, Gripen NG which is one of the front runners for supplying the 126 jets to Indian air force, it now seems to have impressed the Top guns in the Indian air force also, the new Gripen which the Saab Aerospace calls Gripen NG (Next Generation) which was recently rolled out on 23 April 2008 in the Saab Aerospace facility , it does not have an entirely new brand new look nor does it have any look of stealthy aircrafts like F-22 or F-35 but it does have some major improvements over its previous model (Gripen C/D) .

New features which are the hard to ignore are the new massive General Electric F414G Engines which also powers the F/A-18E/F super hornets and which may also power India’s very own Tejas Block-2 fighter aircraft in future ,with 25% more thrust and new AESA radar, more weapons payload and more increase in range, aircraft had to go through very minimum change as the its landing gear had to be

BY : RIA Novosti

Russia could put in place an orbital ballistic missile system in response to U.S. missile defense plans for Central Europe, a senior Russian military expert said on Thursday.

The U.S. plans to deploy a radar in the Czech Republic and 10 interceptor missiles in northern Poland as part of a U.S. missile shield for Europe and North America against possible attacks from "rogue states," including Iran. Russia strongly opposes the possible deployment of the U.S. missile shield, viewing it as a threat to its national security.

"A program could be implemented to create orbital ballistic missiles capable of reaching U.S. territory via the South Pole, skirting U.S. air defense bases," said Col. Gen. Viktor Yesin, former chief of staff of the Russian Strategic Missile Forces, now

BY : TNN

India will take another step towards developing a ballistic missile defence (BMD) system in the next few days when it tests an "interceptor" missile against an "incoming enemy" missile over the Bay of Bengal.

The fledgling two-tier BMD system being developed by DRDO, capable of tracking and destroying hostile missiles both inside (endo) and outside (exo) the earth's atmosphere, has already been tested two times.

The impending third test from the Wheeler Island off Orissa's coast will be that of an "exo-atmospheric" hypersonic interceptor missile, which will take on "a longer range enemy" missile, in the 2,000-km class, at an altitude of around 80-km this time.

BY : The Hindu

The U.S. is set to bag a multi-billion dollar Indian Navy contract for maritime surveillance planes, with both sides deciding to put the contentious issue of signing an end user agreement on the backburner.

A Boeing-led consortium had concluded all technical and price negotiations for the $ 2.2 billon contract and the proposal would now be taken to the Cabinet Committee on Security for approval, said Ministry of Defence sources.

This would be the second major military aviation contract signed with the U.S. this year. Both were in areas, once the preserve of the Russians. The first contract was for six all-weather all-terrain C-130 J military transport planes with Lockheed Martin.

BY : Msnbc

Sorry “Top Gun” fans, it appears Tom Cruise returning to the franchise has not been cleared for take off.

Earlier this week, reports surfaced suggesting Cruise was in line to reprise his role as Maverick in the fighter jet film, 22 years after the original.

However, “Access Hollywood” has confirmed those reports are false.When contacted by “Access,” a spokesperson for Paramount (which released “Top Gun” in 1986) said there was “no way” Cruise would be returning to the role.

BY : vivek raghuvanshi For Defensenews

Even as the first Russian engine arrived in India the first week of June to power the homegrown Intermediate Jet Trainer (IJT), the delivery schedule of the trainers to the Indian Air Force is still unclear, as the AL-551 engine has to be flight-tested further in Russia. The delivery of the engines is already behind schedule by more than two years.

A senior official of Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL), which is developing the homegrown IJT, admitted that the trainer program is behind schedule mainly because of the delay in the supply of the AL-551 engine.The engine developed by Russia's NPO Saturn is still in the certification stage and has to undergo testing on a Russian aircraft, said the HAL official, adding that HAL will receive three AL-551 engines by August, after which IJT's flight trials will begin using the Russian engine. So far, the two prototypes of the IJT are being powered by French-made Snecma Larzac 04H20 engines.

BY : K. Raghu For HT Media





Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), the state-owned military plane maker, will upgrade 68 so-called “deep penetration” Jaguar fighters of the Indian Air Force (IAF) with modern avionics in a contract valued more Rs2,400 crore that will increase the life and efficacy of the fighter planes.HAL will upgrade these British-designed planes with a new version of the avionics, called display attack ranging inertial navigation (Darin-3), replacing the initial version of the system, Darin-1, for the lo-ng range ground attack fighter.
“These (68) planes were built in late 1980s to early 1990s, (and since then) aircraft

BY : Chris Pocock For AINonline



This columnist never did discover why the U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor that displayed at this month’s Farnborough airshow, needed an escort from an F-15 fighter. The top-of-the-line stealth fighter flew from RAF Fairford, only 50 miles away, where it was due to make its international debut at the Royal International Air Tattoo.

When that show was abandoned due to heavy rain, the Raptor’s one scheduled appearance on the opening day of the Farnborough show became, by default, its international debut instead. A UK-based F-15C interceptor joined up with the F-22 after it took off from Fairford, and the pair flew in loose formation to and from Farnborough.