Archive for May, 2007
Friday, May 18th, 2007
18 May, 2007 (FIDSNS)
Chief of Naval Staff (CNS), Indian Navy, Admiral Sureesh Mehta called on Singapore Minister for Defence Teo Chee Hean on 17 May,2007.
CNS arrived in Singapore to attend the International Maritime Defence Exhibition (IMDEX) Asia 2007. IMDEX is being held in Singapore from 15 to 18 May 07.
The Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN) hosted a ship display by 22 warships, including Indian navy and Indian Coast guard ships, at Changi Naval Base on 15 May,2007, as part of the International Maritime Defence Exhibition (IMDEX) Asia 2007.
INS MYSORE (D60) a DELHI Class DDGHM, INS KUTHAR (P46) a KHUKRI Class FSGHM and ICGS SANGRAM (43) a SAMAR Class Advanced Offshore Patrol Vessel (WPSOH) are participating in IMDEX 2007.
Posted in Indian Navy News | No Comments »
Friday, May 18th, 2007
May 18, 2007 (FIDSNS)
The twenty-seventh meeting of the Kendriya Sainik Board (KSB) will begin on May 19, 2007.
The KSB functions under the chairmanship of the Defence Minister. The Chief Ministers/Lt Governors of States/ UTs and Service Chiefs are its members. The board meets annually to review policy, achievements and deliberate on pending issues concerning Ex-Servicemen (ESM) welfare.
There exists a vast reserve of skilled, disciplined and committed Human Resource available in the country in the form of ESM. The Government of India has declared the year 2007 as the year of the placement of ESM with a view to achieve the dual task of offering veterans a meaningful second career, while also harnessing this invaluable resource towards nation building.
Approximately 60,000 Armed Forces personnel retire from their active service every year. These are retired only metaphorically, they are otherwise young, enthusiastic, disciplined and skilled, and who can be utilized for the benefit of the Nation on the one hand and a dignified life through meaningful second career options will also motivate the future generation, towards the Armed Forces on the other.
The centre and state governments have accepted the joint responsibility for resettlement of Ex-servicemen and to provide them rehabilitation through provision of employment in the organized sector or through self employment. At the Centre, the Ex-Servicemen Welfare (ESW) department of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) is responsible for formulation of the policy guidelines and schemes for resettlement of the ESM. Working under the same banner, the Directorate General of Resettlement (DGR) and Kendriya Sainik Board (KSB) function conjointly towards the welfare and resetltment of ESM. In the states and Union Territories, The Rajya Sainik Boards, and at the District level the Zila Sainik Boards attend to the problems of ESM and assist in executing various schemes. The KSB which looks after the Armed Forces Flag Day Fund, functions under the DGR for implementing all schemes. This fund is utilized for various welfare measures for ESM, widows and their dependents besides giving grants to Paraplegic Rehabilitation Centre, located at Khadki and Mohali, St. Dunstan’s Blind Institute at Dehradun, Cheshire Homes and Red Cross Old Age home at Bangalore.
The DGR lays down the policies and schemes for resettlement of retiring and retired ESM fraternity, widows of martyrs and their dependents. The present ESM population in the country today is 24 Lakh in which widows population is over 4.2 Lakh. The bulk of Personnel below Officers Rank (PBOR) retire between the age group of 35-45 years and officers between 52-55 years depending on the rank held. Besides, a large number of short service commissioned officers are released from service after having served from 5 years to 14 years of contractual service. The early release / retirement of Armed Forces Personnel is resorted to in order to maintain youthful profile of the Armed Forces. Majority of the Armed Forces personnel have to leave the service at a time when their family liability is at its peak. There is, therefore, a dire need to provide them with a second career in the civil. They are real achievers and with a little orientation for life in corporate sector they can do wonders. With the opening up of economy the organizations are more and more technology driven. Thus the downsizing is the order of the day. The Govt Sector is also not untouched with this transformation.
The DGR lays emphasis on more and more self employment ventures to be undertaken by ESM by way of entrepreneurship both in cottage industry as well as in agricultural sector. The SEMFEX schemes and National Equity Funds offer soft loans to the ESM population to start their own ventures. More emphasis is now being given to ‘Herbal Farming for which DGR arranges for specialized training and availability of technical support and quality seed. DGR also assist in marketing of the produce at reasonable price. The DGR is equipping officers and PBOR for civil vocations through DGR sponsored training which is free for PBOR and Officers have to pay only 40% of the training expenditure. These trainings are held in Institutes of repute throughout the country and the duration of training is treated as temporary duty. The ESM training is arranged through Rajya Sainik Board. The officers from DGR have also been visiting various Regimental Centres spread throughout the country and briefing the PBOR on various employment / self-employment avenues opened for them. Leading corporate houses have taken a large number of personnel in their folds recently and short-listed many more in different trades. 5,000 constables have been recruited in the Special Auxiliary Police (SAP) in Bihar from amongst retiring and retired Army Personnel. The recruitment of ex-army men for policing is being undertaken on such a scale for the first time in the country. The DGR has also recently started a career transition programme for PBOR.
The recently introduced six months certificate course for officers at IIMs, MDI Gurgaon and XLRI, Jamshedpur have proved very useful and the participants are being sought after by the corporate sector. The course has been introduced for Armed Forces personnel at IIMs Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Indore, and Bangalore, at MDI, Gurgaon, Narsimonjee Institute of Management, Mumbai and XLRI Jamshedpur.
Based on the recommendations of the JJ Irani Committee appointed by Ministry of Company Affairs on amendments to Companies Act 1956, the SEBI has revised clause 49 to stipulate that from Jan 2006 at least one third of the Board of a company with non-executive Chairman should comprise ‘Independent Directors’ and at least 50% for those companies that have executive Chairmen. Accordingly an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 Directors would be required to comply with SEBI’s requirement. Keeping in view the above requirement of the environment three Independent Director’s Courses have been held for Senior Officers of the rank of Brigadier and above at SP Jain Institute of Management & Research, Mumbai and MDI, Gurgaon. A similar course of one-week duration was organized under the aegis of ASSOCHAM at ASSOCHAM HOUSE, New Delhi in the first week of this month.
The officers from DGR have also been visiting various Regimental Centres spread throughout the country and briefing the PBOR on various employment / self-employment avenues opened for them. Leading corporate houses have taken a large number of personnel in their folds recently and short-listed many more in different trades. 5,000 constables have been recruited in the Special Auxiliary Police (SAP) in Bihar from amongst retiring and retired Army Personnel. The recruitment of ex-army men for policing is being undertaken on such a scale for the first time in the country.
The booming IT sector, Insurance sector, Service sector including hospitability industry in the country are also being tapped for providing much needed succour by way of second career to the Armed Forces Personnel. The officers and PBOR are being given specialized training through DGR sponsored training Institute in the country.
Coal Transport Companies, Mother Dairy Milk Booths and Safal Fruits/Vegetable stalls (in Delhi only) are managed entirely by the ESM as also the Toll Plazas on the National Highways and CNG stations in Delhi.
DGR is holding seminars in various metros and industrial townships in association with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), FICCI and ASSOCHAM to create awareness in the corporate sector about the vast reservoir of trained and multi discipline Human Resource available in the form of ex-service personnel who could be gainfully employed in civil sector for mutual benefit with an aim of closing down the existing gap between the Defence Services and the industry for mutual benefit.
Posted in General Indian Armed Forces News | No Comments »
Friday, May 18th, 2007
May 17, 2007 (FIDSNS)
The Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) Dhruv tail rotor blades problems have been fixed and the ALH has been flying since February, 2006.
The tail rotor blade of the helicopter, which crashed, belonged to a particular batch and the accident was not related to any design deficiency. The tail rotor blade of the helicopter is of sound design and extensively tested by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) which is the manufacturer.
HAL had advised its customers to withhold flying of Dhruv helicopters till the cause of the incident is investigated by a Board of Inquiry (BoI) as a precautionary step. In Jan 20, 2006, HAL had cleared Dhruv for flying again. There have been no more issues reported on Dhruv helicopter pertaining to tail rotor blades.
Posted in Defence Products Manufacturing Companies, Defence Research and Development | No Comments »
Friday, May 18th, 2007
May 17, 2007 (FIDSNS)
In a written reply to the parliament the defence minister has categorically denied that the Trishul SAM missile project is a failure. He wrote “Technically it has met the performance objectives as per original Qualitative Requirements (QRs) though delayed. The main reason for this delay are technical problems in achieving perfect 3-beam guidance and obtaining millimetric wave components from abroad.”
He also mentioned “As the realization of Trishul missile system got delayed, Users (Army, Air Force, and Navy) resorted to acquisition from abroad as the QRs and operational requirements got modified over time.” This is consistent with 3rd May,2007 FIDSNS report stating that the Qualitative Requirements of Trishul for the three Services have gone through substantial change which has lead to entirely different class of short range surface to air missile system. Having put in maximum effort to realize the Air Froce version, Air Force is considering induction in small quantity to meet their partial requirement of such class of surface to air missile systems.
As reported in same FIDSN report on the possibility of Indian Air Force inducting Trishul SAM, the minister stated ” Dialogue is still on with Air Force to accept the system developed and produced for deploying in certain locations and for training/fire control/air defence practices.”
DRDO has already developed Trishul combat vehicle (Dev and user version) and Airforce launch, Airforce Radar vehicle.
The ever changing qualitative requirements by the Indian armed forces, during the development phases of the research projects, is one of the major cause of slippages on the product delivery schedules. Even late import of critical technology and sanctions have led to project slippages. The foreign OEM supplies for such projects have been marred by late deliveries, defective deliveries and lack of support. These imports are necessary as it cuts the development cost and time. Some of these technologies like millimetric wave components are not avaliable off the shelf and it took time to develop even in developed countries. So these products are sourced from the foreign suppliers untill a indigenous alternative is made avaliable.
Posted in Defence Research and Development, Indian Air Force News | No Comments »
Friday, May 18th, 2007
18 May, 2007 (FIDSNS)
The Arjun MBT NBC filtration system has been integrated with roentgenometer cum flash sensor alongwith a chemical sensor. These products have been developed by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). A roentgenometer is used to measure of dose rates recieved by the crew of Arjun Tank or other armoured vehicles which have similar systems in Indian Army. It has energy compensated GM tube sensor (80 keV to 1.3 MeV) with an analog display. It meets all JSS 55555-L 3 test series specifications. It displays 0 to 1000 R/h in 4 ranges with an accuracy of plus or minus 2%. It weighs approximately 2.5Kg and is powered by 18-32 V DC tank batteries.
The gamma flash sensor usses silicon PIN photodiode with a trigger level of 4 R/s (+2/-1) with a response time of less than 100 miliseconds and hold time of more than 100 miliseconds.
The shielding efficacy of Arjun MBT against INR and fallout radiation in nuclear envirinment and high strength radioactive sources has been determined using a pocket dosimeter. Pocket dosimeter has been developed by DRDO too.
A total protection factors of MBT Arjun have been determined by creating a nuclear field in the environment.
Successful completion of the sensor task in MBT Arjun has prompted Indian Army to request DRDO to integrate the system in its other armoured vehicles.
Posted in Defence Research and Development | No Comments »
Thursday, May 17th, 2007
May 17, 2007 (FIDSNS)
A two-day conference of the General Managers of Ordnance Factories will be held New Delhi on Friday, May, 18, 2007.
Indian Ordnance Factories Organisation, a conglomerate of 39 Ordnance Factories, set up to produce land based military hardware exclusively for Defence use started its journey in 1802 when the British established the first factory on the bank of Hooghly near Kolkata to repair wooden gun carriages. The expansion of the organization thereafter was need based and concentrated in the years immediately after war for manufacture of products whose need was felt during the war. Since Indian Industry was at the infant stage when most of the Ordnance Factories came up, in-house manufacture of military products was planned from virgin metal. This fully integrative production approach was subsequently dispensed with when Indian Industry matured and today creation of capacity in Ordnance Factories is restricted either in strategic area or for the inputs that Indian trade cannot meet qualitative and quantitative requirement. The share of Indian trade now has risen to 46% of turnover.
Indigenous content in Ordnance factories products is about 98% for established items. Even when new items under productionisation are counted, import content varies at best between 5 to 6%. This high order of indigenisation helped Ordnance Factories to exploit surge capacity at a very short notice to meet increased requirement during war despite sanction imposed by overseas states.
Today Ordnance Factories manufacture wide range of products starting from troop comfort items including small arms, ammunitions, weapons artillery guns transport and armoured vehicle, optical equipments required by Artillery Infantry Air Defence and Mechanised Forces. The organization is around the first 20 of Defence Industry contractors of the world with turnover of around 1.5 billion US $ per annum.
Production capacity in Ordnance Factories was created to meet war time requirement. Exploitation of installed capacity in full always poses a challenge requirement, during peace time being less. Notwithstanding the limitation of product centric manufacturing capacity, constant endeavour made to assess and develop products for non Defence sector has led to develop market for almost 20% of turnover in other than Defence sector.
Though Ordnance Factories supply to Defence Forces most of the products (except products manufactured in unorganized sector) at a price less than market price, Ordnance Factories do not have any scope to make profit from Defence sector as supply to Defence sector is on cost as per policy. However the price for products meant for non Defence sector is market driven. As such Ordnance Factories earn profit from supply to civil sector including export and pass on the benefit to Defence sector by calibrating price.
Modernisation of infrastructure is another thrust area pursued continuously to upgrade technology to undertake manufacture of futuristic products in minimum response time. The organization has invested Rs. 2505 Cr. during IXth and Xth Plan for procurement of plant and machinery with upgraded technology. The modernization plan is regularly fine tuned matching with change in product mix brought about by Defence Forces at the time of induction of new products and funded through internal resources without taking any budgetary support from Govt. of India.
Improved productivity, modernization and optimum capacity utilization has resulted in generation of surplus/profit. Since Ordnance Factories cannot retain surplus/profit, the profit earned from issues to non-Defence sector is passed on to Defence sector by calibrating price. Consequently average weighted price of products supplied to Indian Army has increased by 8.18% between 2000-01 and 2006-07 compared to 28% increase in MPI during the same period.
Though India imported military hardware and software worth 10.5 billion US $ in last 3 years, hardly any product falling in core activity area of Ordnance Factories figures in the import basket. However, the organization is aware of the requirement of Defence Forces to acquire smart weapons and ammunitions to manage modern warfare. The technology for the product manufactured in Ordnance Factories used to flow either from DRDO, the designated Defence R&D organization or from overseas Defence industries chosen by the user. The R&D infrastructure in Ordnance Factories was limited to production technology leading to process improvement. Since Defence business management doctrine has undergone change and today Ordnance Factories have to secure order even from Defence Forces through competition, development of new products and upgrades has become a matter of paramount importance for sustained growth. Graduation from present miniscule scope on R&D to product development is an arduous task and requires specialists as well as infrastructure. Ordnance Factories are aware that this cannot be accomplished over night and delay in development will affect growth. A two-fold approach has therefore been taken, viz, develop through (i) in-house R&D wherever possible and build infrastructure for future and (ii) collaboration with advanced technology provider. This has started yielding result. During last 3 years Ordnance Factories have supplied products worth Rs. 814 Cr. developed through in-house R&D. Further supply of products developed through collaboration is likely to commence in 2007-08.
The above efforts are the fruits of the strategy adopted in last GM Conference. These now need further tuning based on experience gained and change in Defence acquisition process. Moreover today Ordnance Factories are expected to function like a commercial entity and yet to remain committed to meet planned objective of Govt., like meeting requirement of Defence Forces without considering whether production of such items is economically viable, social obligation to develop backward areas (as Ordnance Factories are mostly set up in backward/remote areas). These issues are slated to be deliberated in ensuing GM Conference to evolve a strategy for managing changes.
Posted in Defence Products Manufacturing Companies | No Comments »
Thursday, May 17th, 2007
17 May, 2007 (FIDSNS)
The first AL-55I engine was assembled by NPO-Saturn in March 2006. The engine was built in 8 months-record time since the signing of a contract.
In August 2005, The Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. had signed a contract with the Russian state arms export company Rosoboronexport for licence production of a Al-55I Russian engine for for its intermediate jet trainer Hindustan Jet Trainer - 36 (HJT-36).
The value of the deal was $350-million and it will enable India to manufacture 250 Al-55I engines and an option for subsequent production of another 1000 engines.
Russian aircraft engine developer NPO Saturn is planning to begin deliveries of Al-55I engine this year and will organize of licensed production engine AL-55I in India.
Posted in Defence Research and Development | No Comments »
Thursday, May 17th, 2007
18 May, 2007 (FIDSNS)
NPO “Saturn” temporarily suspended the work on developing engine for the fifth generation fighter aircraft.
“without the support of Defense Ministry the creation of promising engine is impossible”, said the company official Kuzmenko.
The trigger for the development is the replacement of Air Force Chief Commander Vladimir Mikhailov with Alexander Zelin. Mikhailov had lobbied for the engine design proposed by Salyut Moscow Heavy-Industry Production Enterprise. Salyut is a comptetior of NPO Saturn. Salyut is working on an engine with thurst of 15.3 tons and NPO Saturn’s engine has 14.5-ton thrust. NPO-Saturn is the official engine developement partner for the Russian 5th generation fighter.
India is finalizing terms and condition for its participation with Russia for the fifth generation aircraft. NPO Saturn sells engines to both arch rivals India and China while Salyut sells only to China.
Posted in Military News - Russia | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 16th, 2007
May 16, 2007 (FIDSNS)
A modernization plan for the para-military forces which includes providing them superior arms and ammunition, strategic equipment, effective transport vehicles, state-of-the-art communication, surveillance and body guarding systems, is under implementation. The latest and modern technologies with respect to these items are being introduced for the modernization process.
The expenditure on modernization is met out of the regular provisioning budget provided to the para-military forces. During the last 3 years, the total budget allocated for provisioning was Rs. 4654.72 crore and out of this an amount of Rs. 1292.34 crore was spent on modernization.
Posted in Para Military and Coast Guard News | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 16th, 2007
16 May, 2007 (FIDSNS)
As an intreme measure to speed up operationalizing the Light Combat Aircraft “Tejas,” India might consider Israeli Multimode radar and weapons. In an exclusive to FIDSNS the sources said that the last series of Limited Series Production (LSP) will be experimented for weaponisation.
In a written reply to parliament on May 16, 2007, the defence minister mentioned “M/s ELTA, Israel is the lowest bidder in response to a Request for Proposal (RFP) issued for procurement of some radars for the Indian Air Force. However, no contract has been signed with the firm.”
FIDSNS was informed that the Tejas LSP 2 is expected to be ready by October or November, 2007.
Meanwhile the Indian Multimode radar is to be miniaturised and the radar has already achieved its expected performance. A international partner is to be finalized shortly for the development of Tejas Engine.
Posted in Defence Research and Development | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, May 16th, 2007
16 May, 2007 (FIDSNS)
T-90S torsion bar problems were in spotlight again during the “Exercise Ashwamedha” conducted by Indian Army in May 2007.
Ironically the Indian media had reported that Arjun Tank had torsion bar broken which proved to be wrong as Arjun Tank has Hydro pneumatic suspension which had no problems.
The press had also reported leakage in the hydro pneumatic suspension system of Arjun Tank which proved to be baseless.
Another point on cause for concern on the Arjun Tanks’ German MTU 838 Ka-501 engine was also proved wrong. The newspapers failed to give any overheating reports or breakdown reports.
The price negotiation committee had forced Indian Army to evaluate the T-90S in Indian conditions. Subsequently T-90S was found insuitable for desert conditions, but Indian Army still went ahead and recommended the purchase of T-90S.
Posted in Indian Army News | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, May 16th, 2007
May 15, 2007 (FIDSNS)
The seminar was organized by the Department of Defence Production and was attended by the Secretary (Defence Production) Shri KP Singh, Scientific Adviser to Defence Minister Shri M. Natrajan, heads of Defence PSUs and representatives of top industry and business chambers.
Participating in the seminar, some speakers welcomed the idea of offset banking and encouragement to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). They also opined that the strong IT base of the nation must get a good push for software outsourcing. Representatives of CII and FICCI, while complimenting the government for encouraging SMEs, suggested that a review of the Offset Policy might be attempted after about two years from now.
Posted in General Indian Armed Forces News | No Comments »
Tuesday, May 15th, 2007
May 15, 2007 (FIDSNS)
Six members of Indian Army Mountaineering Expedition reached the summit of Mt Everest at 0545h (IST) this morning. The six summiteers are Capt DJ Singh, Sub Maruti Khandagle, Hav Balwant Singh Negi, Hav Tshering Angchok, Hav Amardev Bhatt and Sep Sachin Patil. The expedition team is being led by Lt Col IS Thapa of the 4 MARATHA LIGHT Regiment. With this unprecedented feat, the Indian Army has furthered its formidable reputation in the international mountaineering fraternity having summitted Mt Everest four times. Infact in last seven years, Army mountaineers have scaled a 8000 Mtr peak every year to include Mt Everest (8848m) in 2001, 2003 & 2005 and Annapurna – I (8096m) in 2004, which is a remarkable achievement.
The Army Everest Expedition team was flagged off by Gen JJ Singh, Chief of the Army Staff on 20 Mar 07. Gen JJ Singh being a mountaineer himself, evinced keen interest in planning and conduct of the expedition at every stage and personally monitored the progress of the team during the expedition. It had left Delhi for Lhasa via Kathmandu on 28 Mar 07 and reached Base Camp at 16,990 ft on 07 Apr 07. It established Advance Base Camp at 21,190 ft on 16 Apr 07 and Camp – 1 (23,120 ft ) on 18 Apr 07. Stocking of Summit Camp at a height of 27,220 ft was carried out on 21 Apr 07, after which the team was forced to return to Base Camp due to inclement weather conditions. The team recommenced its move upwards from Base Camp on 10 May 07 and reached Summit Camp on Monday 14 May 07. On the night of 14 May 07 the team started from Summit Camp towards the summit. Walking in pitch dark night with the help of headlamps, the team made steady progress and stood on summit of Mt Everest at 29,028 feet – literally on top of the world, at break of the dawn today.
The expedition is being conducting and coordinated by Army Adventure Wing of Directorate General of Military Training at Army Headquarters.
Posted in Indian Army News | No Comments »
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