Mighty India Power

INS Shivalik fires a 90R missile from her RBU-6000 launcher during weapons trials in late 2009. Antony Calls Upon Industry to Boost Ship Building Programmes of Indian Navy 16:30 GMT, April 29, 2010 The Indian Defence Minister Shri AK Antony today called upon the Indian Industry to give their best in developing the country’s ship building programmes. Commissioning INS Shivalik, the first of three new stealth frigates for the Indian Navy in Mumbai, he said, over the years there has been a distinct shift in our policy from a “Buyer’s Navy’ to a ‘Builder’s Navy”. He said the ship building industry has to modernize itself through indigenous efforts and minimize its dependence on imports. “We must continue with our efforts to transform and modernize our shipyards, so that they can not only meet the domestic demands but also achieve latest international standards in quality construction. We must be able to produce quality ships in a shorter time frame at competitive costs. I stron...

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is planning to launch 10 satellites in a year to better communication network and improve disaster management, the government revealed Wednesday.   "ISRO is planning to launch 10 satellites in a year. The actual number of satellites to be launched will be decided based on national developmental priorities," Science and Technology Minister Prithviraj Chavan said in the Lok Sabha.   "The aims and objectives of these satellites include natural resources management, augmenting the communications infrastructure, satellite navigation, disaster management support, space science research and planetary exploration," the minister added.   He said the action plan of the department in this context will include augmenting the technical infrastructure within ISRO and enhancing the production capabilities in the Indian industry in the 12th Five-Year Plan period (2012-17) to meet projected demand.

Based on the approval of the Government to induct the BrahMos missile into the Indian Air Force (IAF), a contract has recently been signed for the production and induction of one squadron of land attack version of the BrahMos in mobile complex. The Government has also approved development of Air launched version of the BrahMos missile to be fitted with Sukhoi SU-30 MK-1 to be ready in 2012.   BrahMos supersonic cruise missile jointly developed by India and Russia is a world leader in the cruise missile family. The missile has a range of 290 km weighing three tonnes, and flying at a maximum speed of 2.8 times the speed of sound. It is configured for universality for multiple platforms like ship, submarine, road mobile complex. For the air launched version the missile has been modified with a reduced weight of 2.5 tonnes. The missile has been proved in successive successful flight trials from various platforms and proved to be highly reliable, accurate and lethal. The missile syste...

India's advanced, high-resolution remote-sensing satellite Cartosat-2B would be launched on May 9 at 9.23 am from Sriharikota spaceport, ISRO said on Monday. "It will be launched at 9.23 am on May 9 by PSLV-C15," Indian Space Research Organisation spokesperson S Satish told PTI. The highly agile satellite is expected to give a boost to the tasks of infrastructure and urban planning. The on-board camera would provide scene specific spot imageries for cartographic and a host of other civilian applications. Satish said the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle would carry onboard four more satellites along with the Cartosat-2B - an Algerian satellite weighing 117 kg, one nano satellite each from Canada and Switzerland, and StudSat, a pico satellite (under one KG) developed by engineering students from Bangalore and Hyderabad. Weighing around 700 kg, Cartosat-2B is designed for an operational life of five years and would give pictures of 0.8 metre resolution. Meanwhile, IS...

The maiden test flight of the most advanced of the nine 'Tejas' aircraft was today successfully carried out, bringing the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) programme "very close" to the Initial Operations Clearance. It is the ninth test vehicle to join the flight line to undertake development flight trials of the LCA Tejas towards operational clearance for induction in the IAF by the end of the year, Defence Research Development Organisation said. "Successful, copy book maiden test flight of Limited Series Production-3 (LSP-3) is significant on many counts," it said in a statement. "With this successful flight, the LCA (Tejas) programme is very close to the Initial Operations Clearance, which is to be completed by December 2010. The remaining effort is mostly the flight testing and demonstration of sensors and weapon performance," it said.

In a bid to build a blue-water navy capable of operating across oceans, India is all set to commission the first of the Shivalik-class multi-role frigate with stealth features. The hard to detect warships will form a crucial component of the Indian Navy after getting commissioned on April 29. It is equipped with a mix of Indian, Russian, Israeli and Western weapons and sensors. Director-General Naval Design Rear Admiral K N Vaidyanathan said new design features give the ship enhanced operational capabilities in terms of survivability, stealth, sea keeping, ship handling and weapons. The Shivalik-class vessels are being built entirely in India and have Club anti-ship missiles, Shtil surface-to-air missiles, Barak air and missile defence systems and RBU 6000 anti-submarine warfare rockets. "The total indigenous efforts account for over 60 percent of ship cost. It also has stealth features against radar and heat seekers and through technical means its underwater signatures ha...

BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles, which is a joint venture of India and Russia, will be fitted on the Indian Air Force's 40 Su-30MKIs fighter aircraft. CEO and MD of BrahMos Aerospace Dr A S Pillai said: "The inclusion of BrahMos cruise missile will make the aircraft unique in firepower." Dr Pillai was speaking to a Russian news agency at the Defence Services Asia-2010 exhibition here. He also added that the first trials of the air-launched version were set for 2011 and the first test-flight with the missile on-board is scheduled for 2012. The supersonic cruise missile has a range of 290-km and flies at a speed of 2.8 Mach. The BrahMos missile is a successful joint venture of India''s Defence Research and Development Organisation and Russia's NPO Mashinostroeyenia. BrahMos missiles sea and ground-launch versions have already been successfully tested and put into service by the Indian Army and Navy.

City students achieved a milestone in Indian space history on Saturday with the handing over of India's first pico-satellite to Isro.   Nitte Meenakshi Institute of Technology (NMIT) played host to the prestigious event on Saturday and a large crowd gathered to witness it. The first of its kind in the country, the satellite was designed by a consortium of seven engineering colleges from Bangalore and Hyderabad.  

India intends to conduct a test launch of its new Agni 5 ICBM by March of next year. Researchers said the weapon is in the final stages of development. It would be intended to carry a conventional or nuclear payload up to approximately 3,000 miles.

Undeterred by the GSLV-D3 mission failure, India is going ahead with the launch of an advanced remote-sensing satellite Cartosat-2B, now tentatively fixed for May 9 from Sriharikota spaceport. The high-resolution spacecraft, designed for an operational life of five years, is slated to be launched from the first launchpad on May 9 around 10 am, ISRO spokesperson S Satish told PTI in Bangalore on Friday.

India will send two astronauts to space by 2017 in its own spacecraft and the Rs12,400 project is likely to be approved before the Independence Day, ISRO chairman Dr K Radhakrishnan has said. With this achievement, India would join the select club of America, Russia and China which have such human space flight capabilities.

India will conduct afresh the trial of its tactical ballistic missile in June to build a credible defence shield for intercepting and destroying incoming missiles, a top defence scientist said today. "We will conduct a flight test of the anti-missile system again in June to build the ballistic missile defence shield against incoming medium- or long-range missiles," Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) director-general VK Saraswat said here. Admitting that the earlier test conducted on March 15 at the integrated test facility on Wheeler Island off Orissa failed when one of the two rockets involved in the trial deviated off the course, Saraswat said investigation into the incident revealed that the system did not work and the target was missed due to fuel leakage. "Analysis of the earlier trial revealed that there was a leakage in the target missile leading to system failure. We are rectifying it to ensure the next flight test in June will hit the target an...

The indigenously developed cryogenic rocket, scheduled to be launched on Thursday, involves the highest level of technology and its success will make India one of the world leaders in rocketry, according to a top space scientist. "It's actually going to be a major milestone, and it's one of the path-breaking development that we have done," former chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation G Madhavan Nair who has been involved in the project said. "Without anybody's assistance, India has really developed the cryogenic technology. We have set our goals and worked for it and we have achieved it. (It's) Not to show about our strength and things like that," he said. The former secretary in the department of space and ex-chairman of the Space Commission said with the select band of countries which had mastered the technology not ready to share technology with India, New Delhi had no option but to go in for indigenous development in the mid-1990s. In th...

India is developing a sub-sonic 1,000-km range cruise missile "Nirbhay" which can be used for a "variety of applications", a top military scientist said today. The 1000-kg "missile is getting into some shape", Dr V K Saraswat, Scientific Advisor to Defence Minister and Chief of Defence Research and Development Organisation said. He also said the flight-trial of air-to-air missile 'Astra', having a range of 45 to 100 km, is on the cards. Saraswat was delivering the keynote address at a national convention on 'The Frontiers of Aeronautical Technologies', organised by the Aeronautical Society of India here. He said India's armed forces are looking for long duration loitering missiles which can enter "enemy territory", search targets such as radars, concentration of assets and "a variety of movements of enemy", "home-on" the targets and "bang" them. "We need to develop (loitering missiles)",...

GSAT-4 is the nineteenth geostationary satellite of India built by ISRO and fourth in the GSAT series. Its three GSAT predecessors were launched by GSLV during 2001, 2003 and 2004 respectively. After its commissioning, GSAT-4 will join the group of India’s eleven operational geostationary satellites. Some of the new Technologies being tested in GSAT-4 include: • Electric Propulsion System • Bus Management Unit • 1553 Bus for Data Communication • Miniaturised Dynamically Tuned Gyros • 36 AH Lithium Ion Battery • 70 V Bus for Ka band TWTAs Besides, the Technology Experiments carried onboard GSAT-4 are: On-board Structural Dynamics Experiment to monitor on-orbit structural dynamic behavior of the satellite during various phases of the mission corresponding to various flight/mission and satellite configurations Velocity Measurement Package to measure the incremental velocity imparted to GSAT-4 during LAM firings and station keeping manoeuvres Thermal Control Coating Experiment to study the...

The project is the Indian counterpart of the Global Positioning system The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) intends to launch the first in a constellation of seven satellites envisaged for the ambitious Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) project, GPS' Indian counterpart, by the end of next year. “The subsystems [of the satellite] are under various stages of fabrication at ISRO's centres. At least four such satellites [each with a life in excess of seven years] are required to make it operational. After launching the first satellite using a PSLV in the last quarter of 2011, periodic launches would take place every six months. Which means by 2014, we would have the IRNSS optimally functional,” said ISRO sources here. Range of applications IRNSS, which will have a range of applications including personal navigation, will be India's answer to the U.S.-operated GPS, Russia's Glonass, European Space Agency's under-development Galileo, and China...

Nearly two decades after defence scientists began work on an indigenous fighter engine Kaveri , officials said Kaveri will be tested on a Russian aircraft in the next two months. Scientists of Gas Turbine and Research Establishment or GTRE, the DRDO unit have integrated the engine, developed in Bengalurum on an Illyushin 78 transport aircraft in Russia. "In the next one and half months, it will fly," said T Mohana Rao, director of GTRE. "In ground trials, the engine has performed more than expectations.All issues have been addressed, including the after burner," Rao said. Kaveri was first conceived as an engine for Tejas, the light combat aircraft developed by Aeronautical Development Agency based in Bengaluru. Tejas is now being powered by General Electric-404 engines due to delays in development of Kaveri. India has floated a tender to decide on either an upgraded GE engine on Eurofighter engine for Tejas. Kaveri be used for future version...

The Defence Research and Development Organisation has launched a Rs 100 crore initiative to fund R&D projects in the area of gas turbines, a senior DRDO official said here on Wednesday. Under this initiative of DRDO's Aeronautics Research and Development Board, R&D projects which need investment of Rs 50 lakh to Rs 5 crore would be considered for funding, Director of Gas Turbine Research Establishment (GTRE), T Mohana Rao, told reporters here. Bangalore-headquartered GTRE, a DRDO lab, is the nodal agency to spearhead this venture, named GATET and Rao would be the administrative head. "Rs 78 crore has already been sanctioned. We have already shortlisted some projects. We hope to fund 40 to 45 projects", he said. The initiative is expected to fuel "coherent directed research" in the area of gas turbines, DRDO officials said. Under the venture, a top-down approach, DRDO, taking into account futuristic national programmes, would support, encourage...

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is known to be taking space tourism very seriously. With the new chief Dr K Radhakrishnan in position, the organization is exploring new strategies and technologies for low cost space tourism. Thus far space tourism has been very expensive. The Russian Space Agency is providing space tourism. A flight on the Soyuz to the International Space Station is known to have been costing $20-35 million. The space tourists also conduct research for third parties. “Space tourism is something where India can play a niche role with its affordable solutions. However, this will take some time. India’s Chandrayaan programme was less costly than the private jet gifted by Mukesh Ambani to his wife.” says Ajey Lele from the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA). A space tourism operator called Virgin Galactic has been charging $200,000 for a few minutes of space experience.

Success of the indigenous cryogenic engine technology will bolster India's attempts to become a full-fledged competitor in the $4 billion global satellite launch services market. Until now, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has used Russian-made cryogenic engines for putting its satellite launch vehicles into space. The polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV) is used for launching remote sensing satellites into polar orbits and geosynchronous satellite launch vehicle (GSLV) for launching communication and meteorological satellites into geosynchronous transfer orbit. But later this month, if the Indian space agency's attempt to launch its largest rocket, the GSLV-D3 with an indigenous cryogenic engine succeeds, then India will join the elite club of five nations in the world to have successfully developed such technology. For the country's rocket scientists, the yet-to-be-achieved breakthrough is significant on two fronts--one, they will achieve self reliance and c...

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is exploring low-cost access to space and has begun taking various measures, ISRO Chairman K. Radhakrishnan has said. He was delivering the inaugural lecture under the Popular Lecture Series organised by the Indian Institute of Science Alumni Association Science Forum here on Saturday. Dr. Radhakrishnan said that by 2012, low-cost access to space would be made possible by ISRO's GSLV Mk3 with indigenous cryogenic technology. “Right now, the cost per kg is $20,000. With GSLV Mk3, the cost can be reduced by half,” he added. India had been applauded for its shoestring budget for space programmes, which was three per cent of NASA's budget, 12 per cent of Europe and one-third of China's, he said. He stressed the need to develop innovative technologies for low-cost access to space. Dr. Radhakrishnan said that the human space flight was the next logical step for India. “We have a human space flight programme and ISRO is going to put tw...

Project 15A (15 Alpha) Kolkata Class destroyers are a follow-on of the Type 15 Delhi Class destroyers. The P15A guided missile destroyer possess enhanced stealth features and land-attack capabilities and is expected to add a new dimension in naval warfare for the Indian Navy, along with the Talwar (Krivak III) Class destroyer and the 'new' Nilgiri (Project 17) Class frigate. The concept and function for Project 15A was framed by the Navy's Directorate of Naval Design, while the detailed design was developed by Mazagon Dock Limited (MDL). Project 15A has advanced weapons and sensors and is technologically far more superior than its predecessor Delhi-class destroyers. INS Chennai INS Chennai is one of the largest and most lethal multi-role destroyer of the Indian Navy. It is the third indigenous destroyer under Project 15 Alpha and has been built by Mazagon Dock Limited (MDL). The destroyer's keel was laid in September 2003 and it was launched by India in April 2010. The ...