Mighty India Power

The second ship of the proposed three stealth destroyer ships under the Rs 8,459-crore Project 15-A was launched by Madhulika Verma, wife of Chief of Naval Staff (CNS) Admiral Nirmal Verma, at Mazgaon Docks here on Friday. The 6,500-tonne destroyer ship, which will be named INS Kochi, has been designed indigenously by the Directorate of Naval Design. “Launching the warship is an important milestone in the construction process. Today’s launch has further significance, as this is the first time that a pontoon-assisted launch is being carried out in our country,” Admiral Verma said at the launch ceremony. The ship is a follow-on of the existing indigenously designed ships from the Delhi class guided missile destroyers — INS Delhi, INS Mysore and INS Mumbai. Once launched, the ship will have advanced stealth features that will make it less susceptible to detection by enemy radars.

Soon, very soon, India will add another lethal punch to its growing ‘‘blue-water’’ warfare capabilities by inducting an indigenously-designed and manufactured ‘‘stealth’’ frigate. The 5,300-tonne frigate, INS Shivalik, armed with a deadly mix of foreign and indigenous weapon and sensor systems, is currently undergoing ‘‘advanced’’ pre-commissioning sea trials. Interestingly, apart from Russian Shtil surface-to-air missile systems, Klub anti-ship cruise missiles and other weapons, the multi-role frigate is also armed with the Israeli ‘Barak-I’ anti-missile defence system. Already fitted on 11 frontline warships like aircraft carrier INS Viraat and destroyer INS Mysore, the 10-km range Barak-I can intercept incoming Harpoon and Exocet missiles, launched from platforms like P-3C Orion aircraft and Agosta-90B submarines which Pakistan has acquired from US and France. ‘‘INS Shivalik is the first stealth frigate to be designed and built in India. It’s a matter of great pride for t...

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the American National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) are set to make a major announcement in the coming days related to as discovery made by one of the payloads onboard the immensely successful Chandrayaan-1 mission. The announcement is expected at a media interaction scheduled for Thursday at NASA headquarters in Washington DC. The interaction will also feature Carle Pieters from Brown who was the principal investigator for NASA's Moon Minerology Mapper (M3) payload onboard the Chandrayaan. Brown University have declined to comment about the nature of the announcement, merely saying that it would ''...be a major announcement of a major discovery...'' and would be ''...something great for Chandrayaan. It will mark a major leap for India's space programme." The Thursday interaction has not been denied by ISRO officials. It is being surmised that the announcement may be related t...

After the loss of the Moon mission Chandrayaan, it was a moment of spectacular success for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The country's trusted space workhorse, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), proved its mettle for the 15th consecutive time on Wednesday when it successfully launched the Oceansat-2 spacecraft. Apart from the 960 kg Oceansat, ISRO also launched six other nano satellites -- four from Germany, one from Switzerland and one from Turkey. All satellites have been placed successfully into their prescribed orbits and are meant to help the Indian fishing community. 'It's a fantastic achievement! ISRO has once again done a job precisely," said G Madhavan Nair, Chairman, ISRO. The Rs 70 crore rocket launched the seven satellites in just 20 minutes, its 16th consecutive success. The big brother on the mission was the 960-kilogram ocean and weather monitoring satellite. Also piggybacking were six smaller nano satellites from S...

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is well on course to launch the proposed Chandrayaan-II with an orbiter and lander within the next four years, ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair said here on Wednesday. "Preliminary design has been completed and it is on course. By the end of 2013 or early 2014, we can have the launch, he told reporters here after the successful launch of Oceansat-2 and six nano satellites. "We are going to have an orbiter and lander in Chandrayaan-II so that it will have a soft landing on the surface of the moon" he said. Nair said some instruments that could analyse the moon surface would also be installed in Chandrayaan-II. He said ISRO would use inputs sent from Chandrayaan-I, whose mission was terminated abruptly last month, for a smooth landing. To a question on Chandrayaan-I's performance, he maintained its moon mission had been successful and data sent by the satellite, which worked for 315 days, was "very satisfactory"....

Krishnamurthy, Director of ISRO’s Regional Remote Sensing Service Centre here on Monday. The integration of the satellite, designed to identify potential fishing zones, assists in forecasting marine trends and coastal zone studies will also provide inputs for weather forecasting and climate studies. Krishnamurthy said that all pre-launch tests on the functional aspects of the satellite have been successfully completed. “We are launching a satellite called Oceansat-2 based on the ocean colour and the wind vectors. This scatterometer, which gives us, the wind vectors will provide information on where the fish potential zones are and how these are moving. In a dynamic situation also, the fishermen can get the advisories from the remote sensing information,” he added. Oceansat-2 would blast off on board India’s indigenous workhorse, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) at Sriharikota located on the Indian east coast. This satellite...

The first batch of the indigenously built T-90 Bhishma tanks was on Monday (August 24) flagged off by Minister of State for Defence MM Pallam Raju at the rolling out ceremony held at the Heavy Vehicles Factory, Avadi, in Chennai. The T-90S tank incorporates many new technologies in terms of mobility, protection, fighting capabilities, safety and communication. The tank is equipped with 125mm smooth bore gun stabilised in Elevation and Azimuth, 12.7mm anti-craft machine gun and 7.62mm co-axial machine gun supported with high accuracy sighting systems and Automatic Loader ensuring high rate of fire. A significant feature of this tank is its capability to fire guided missile in addition to conventional ammunition using the same main gun barrel. The integrated fire control system consisting of the gunner’s sight, guided weapon system and ballistic computer facilitates accurate firing of conventional ammunitions as well as the guided missiles. The built in Explosive Reactive Arm...