Indian Air Force News & Discussions

[GuardianRED]

SC says defence procurement and aircraft modernisation not in its purview


CJI TS Thakur says he doesn't want pilots dying due to old aircraft, but refuses to jump into defence upgradation
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has said that defence procurement and aircraft modernisation are not in its purview and acknowledged that the Indian Air Force's fleet needs to be upgraded and pilots should not be put at risk because of aging fighter jets.
"We are not saying that the government should not upgrade or that pilots should die. But let the government and experts decide," Chief Justice of India TS Thakur, sitting alongside Justice DY Chandrachud, observed while dismissing a public interest litigation. "Defence procurement is a subject in executive domain."
The matter should be decided by experts, the CJI said. The bench was dealing with the PIL filed by one Parneet Singh, who said the government had embarked on a self-destructive course of upgrading its Mirage aircraft fleet instead of buying new fighter jets from elsewhere at a cheaper rate.
Singh's lawyer alleged that although the Mirage aircraft had long outlived its utility, the Indian government decided to upgrade them at a cost of Rs 344 crore per plane instead of switching to other aircraft. This, he alleged, was putting the lives of trained fighter pilots at risk and some 170 pilots have died in the past seven years.
In an emotive plea, Singh's lawyer said that buying new aircraft did not involve any expertise and only required common sense. "Defence procurement is being compromised and the defence of the nation is at stake," he charged. Even the Comptroller and Auditor General of India and parliamentary committees had expressed concern over the old fleet of the Indian Air Force, he said.
At one point, the CJI jocularly commented that people in India were either for the Mirage or the Sukhoi. "Which camp are you?" he asked.
The chief justice then said he would rather leave such decisions to the government and experts and dismissed the PIL.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com...n-not-in-its-purview/articleshow/53179860.cms

Only IN INDIA!!!

 

[Local_Legend]

Only IN INDIA!!!

True yaar . I was like while SC did some comments about ladies admission in Sabarimala .

Now this .

 

[Perpendicular]

 

[Perpendicular]

 

[Local_Legend]

Electronic Weapons: India Upgrades Targeting Pods

July 19, 2016: India recently ordered 164 of the latest model (G4) of the LITENING targeting pod, to be used on Su-30KI, Mig-29, Mirage-2000, Jaguar and LCA aircraft. These will augment the hundreds of older LITENING pods India already has. India has been using LITENING since 2001. The G4s India will receive have an improved version of the digital cameras. This makes LITENING suitable for use as a surveillance and reconnaissance system and means you don’t have to buy a separate pod for that.

The LITENING G4 is also easier to upgrade and maintain without going back to the factory or bringing in specialists. The new OpenPod mod changes all that by making it possible to easily remove or install modules that change what a LITENING pod can do. For example, more cameras can be added to turn it into a recon pod, for quickly taking high-resolution photos and videos of a lot of territory. OpenPod capabilities first appeared in the G4 model. There is also a $200,000 upgrade available to bring older LITENING pods up to the G4 standard. The G4 versions cost about $3 million each new and have annual maintenance costs of over $50,000 each. The G4 version entered service in 2008 with improved sensors and software, including the ability to have the software identify many military vehicles and systems automatically. The G4 version also has greater range and higher resolution, enhanced zoom capability and improved tracking software.

Targeting pods, packed with electronics and sensors, are very popular with fighter pilots, mainly because they contain FLIR (video quality night vision infrared radar) and TV cameras that enable pilots flying at 6,200 meters (20,000 feet) to clearly make out what is going on down on the ground. The pods also contain laser designators for laser guided bombs and laser range finders that enable pilots to get coordinates for JDAM (GPS guided) bombs. The 200 kg (440 pound) LITENING G4 pod hangs off a hard point, like a missile, bomb, or fuel tank.

Safely outside the range of most anti-aircraft fire (five kilometers up and up to fifty kilometers away) pilots can literally see the progress of ground fighting using a targeting pod and have even been acting as aerial observers for ground forces. These capabilities also enable pilots to more easily find targets themselves and hit them with laser guided or JDAM bombs. While bombers still get target information from ground controllers for close (to friendly troops) air support, they can now go searching on their own in areas where there are no friendly ground troops.

In 1990, the first targeting pods (the American two- pod LANTIRN system) were nearly ready for service. These early electronic targeting pods looked like thin bombs and contained laser designators and night vision equipment. LANTIRN got a workout in the 1991 Gulf War, even though the system was still undergoing testing. Israel soon (1992) followed with a cheaper, more reliable, and more capable LITENING system. An American manufacturer then brought out the Sniper XR and XTP pod. All this competition has made the pods (one pod is all that is needed now) more capable, easier to use, more reliable, and cheaper. Over 1,200 LITENING pods are in use by 25 countries. Since 1995 the Israeli firm that designed LITENING has jointly developed and sold LITENING with an American partner (Northrup Grumman).

https://strategypage.com/htmw/htecm/articles/20160719.aspx

 

[PARIKRAMA]

Link to a separate thread
https://defence.pk/threads/recap-military-exercise-–-indian-summer-indradhanush-2015.440399/

 

[Water Car Engineer]

UPG with R77

 

[PARIKRAMA]

https://twitter.com/x/status/758192936605458432

The first recruitment poster of Royal IAF

Truly classic..
@Abingdonboy @MilSpec @AUSTERLITZ @nair @Joe Shearer @hellfire @third eye @Vergennes @Taygibay @Oscar @others

 

[SQ8]

https://twitter.com/x/status/758192936605458432

The first recruitment poster of Royal IAF

Truly classic..
@Abingdonboy @MilSpec @AUSTERLITZ @nair @Joe Shearer @hellfire @third eye @Vergennes @Taygibay @Oscar @others

I have my grandfather's commission signed by Wavell.

 

[Joe Shearer]

I have my grandfather's commission signed by Wavell.

Talking off topic (me? on topic?) let me recommend Raghu Karnad's first book to you.

 

[Taygibay]

How very cute, PariK!
But I can't see the date, is it 1950?

Have a great day, Tay.

 

[randomradio]

How very cute, PariK!
But I can't see the date, is it 1950?

Have a great day, Tay.

IAF got the Royal prefix in 1945 and dropped it in 1950. So it's around that time.

 

[Hellfire]

@Joe Shearer For #3415, there was some tinkering wherein corps would be directly controlling the brigades and effectively doing away with the division in case of a war. But it is on a backburner it seems.

This concept was being evolved for better C3I and battle space management under the something that does not exist - the cold start concept.

Just half hour before IAF's C-17 Globe Master taking very low pass tight turn over sky in Tirupur.
I miss the chance to take clear photo.any idea what happening in IAF Sulur Airbase ?

Circuits most likely. Nothing fun in Sulur

 

[Joe Shearer]

@Joe Shearer For #3415, there was some tinkering wherein corps would be directly controlling the brigades and effectively doing away with the division in case of a war. But it is on a backburner it seems.

This concept was being evolved for better C3I and battle space management under the something that does not exist - the cold start concept.




Circuits most likely. Nothing fun in Sulur

I have some far more fundamental issues. This may or may not be the thread for those. They have to do with our proven success in command and in set piece battles, and our proven failures, and the lessons to be learnt from each.

In brief, that we need brigades and very good brigadiers, much more than we need any other echelon other than an Army Corps planning staff. We don't need divisions or Div. Commanders, we don't need the Corps itself, except for its planning and logistics capabilities, and in order to tack on an independent rotary wing or fixed wing component to it. And we need very focussed all-arms thinking about our possible threats, and even our seemingly unlikely threats. Thinking well above Corps, or even Command, and Air Fleet and Fleet levels.

Sometime, somewhere.

 

[third eye]

I have my grandfather's commission signed by Wavell.

What year was he commissioned ?