Founded India's first defence news and analysis website in 2008. Trained in journalism. Studied law. Pioneered online video to tell stories of defence technologies. Video journalist. Analyst. Reporter. Follow him on Post.News: https://post.news/@/saurabhjoshi and Twitter.
A quiet, hybrid process is underway to buy a reduced number of new fighters for the Indian Navy’s aircraft carriers. But remarkably, some of the fighters being considered can’t operate from aircraft carriers.
According to India’s defence ministry, an order worth INR 5,100 crore (around USD 670 million) has been placed for 6,01,427 AK203 rifles to be manufactured at Amethi in Uttar Pradesh. The 7.62 X 39mm calibre AK203 rifle will replace the INSAS rifle that has been in service for three decades.
The concept is a pilotless jet aircraft with almost the size and range of a conventional fighter that can fly autonomously and deploy a variety of sensors carried in a swappable, modular nose.
INS Visakhapatnam is the lead ship of four Project 15B stealth guided missile Visakhapatnam-class destroyers ‘designed by the Indian Navy’s in-house organisation Directorate of Naval Design and constructed by Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited, Mumbai’.
Airbus went home from the Dubai Air Show 2021 with orders for two A400M aircraft from Indonesia and two A330 MRTT from the UAE, and an order for three aircraft from Spain just before the air show.
The MT30 is a marine gas turbine engine, two of which propel the HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier, forming part of its Integrated Full Electric Propulsion (IFEP) that Rolls-Royce is offering to the Indian Navy.
Boeing confirmed last week that it would offer Conformal Fuel Tanks (CFTs) on the F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter to international customers even though the U.S. Navy has declined the option for their order of the aircraft.
An estimated 80,000 employees have been transferred to the new companies and E.R. Sheikh has been appointed the first Director General of the Ordnance Directorate (Co-ordination and Services), the successor organisation of Ordnance Factory Board.
A wargame conducted last month anticipates higher prices, fewer products and reduced manpower as a result of the corporatisation of process of India’s Ordnance Factory Board that traces its origins to the early 18th century and employs an estimated 80,000-strong workforce.
The acquisition, which has been under consideration since 2010, is expected to be worth an estimated USD 3 billion and will involve the discharge of offset obligations in India. It was approved by the ministry’s Defence Acquisitions Council (DAC) in 2015.
These Contractor Sea Trials will be conducted over the next few months and the Vikrant is expected to be commissioned in the first half of 2022. The navy says the ship’s performance, including hull, main propulsion, PGD and auxiliary equipment would be closely monitored during this maiden sailing.
The training of Indian personnel is underway in Russia, in anticipation of the delivery of the S-400 Triumph air defence missile system that is expected to begin in December without any delays, so far, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.