Frontier India Defence & Strategic News Service

IAF calls for “retiring personnel” for vacancies in Air India Express

Subsequent to a Memorandum of Understanding signed between IAF and Air India on 5th April, 2007 to facilitate a second carrier option to the retiring IAF personnel, IAF has floated an intimated requirement of about one hundred Aircraft technicians from Air Frame, Engine, Radar, Rdo and Instrument trades for Air India Express. Sixty personnel are required for employment in Kerala and South India and forty personnel in Mumbai. Interested personnel who are retiring from IAF till 31 Aug 07 or already retired may contact Air Force Placement Cell, Air Force Record Office, Subroto Park, and New Delhi-10 through telephone, fax or E-mail and register their names, immediately (R) immediately. Serving personnel will be! called on T/D to Delhi for interview and selection by Air India Express.
Contact details: Tele/Fax : 011 – 25696359, Tele : 011- 25697551-56 (Extn -7553), E_mail : afro@vsnl.net & afro@iaf.nic.in ”

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Indigenous defence research - looking through DRDO prism

Indian Armed Forces are used to import Defence systems from abroad and use them mostly for training and during operations whenever necessity rises. Most of these systems are in free flow production in their respective countries and sometimes inducted by their Services. These systems, therefore, have got the maturity in terms of engineering, production and maintenance. This provides the comfort zone for the three Services to induct, operationalise and maintain these weapons.

The most important aspect is that these weapons, are not designed keeping Indian environment, tactics, operational doctrines or user’ preferences in mind. They are not customized for the convenience of the Indian Armed Forces. Even then, they are accepted by the Services based on their maturity level. Even in those cases where partial quantities are produced in the country, mostly in Indian Ordnance factories (OFB) and Defence Public Sector Units (DPSUs), there is hardly any technology transfer taking place. These items would already have been produced in large quantities in their respective countries and would have reached end of production life for their own use. Many times, the tooling will be transferred to Indian production line accordingly. Though the products are subsequently made in India, most of the raw materials and components still have to come from the parent country and the value addition by Indian Industry is very small, varying from 10% to 30%. Even then, this is a preferred route for the OFB’s and DPSUs as there is no risk for them. They have assured product line and order quantities from the Armed Forces. Most of time, the critical high end system’s technology is not passed to India. It is a form of “Technology Apartheid.” India ends up paying exorbitant prices and foreign exchange.

The international arms market runs with political and monetary diplomacy. The arms majors adopt all tricks of trade to push their wares. India is one of the largest importers of arms in the world, hence these issues imply to India too.

With this background, it is natural that the Indian Armed forces hesitate to accept Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) developed items as they know that even after DRDO successfully develops, there would be a reasonable time gap before a smooth free flow production gets established by the Indian Industry. There is also pressure from import lobbies and vested interest which cultivate the sensation seeking mass media for defaming Indian indigenous research.

It is to be noted that all countries which develops a complex defence system has gone through the same pains and problems as DRDO before serial production gets established.

Frontier India Defence and Strategic News Service interacted with Dr. VK Atre who has held the position of Scientific Advisor to Minister of Defence. I covered in depth on the DRDO point of view on the state of indigenous Defence Research.

There are 4 state actors when it comes to indigenization of weapons.

1) The Ministry of Defence (MoD)
2) The Armed Forces
3) The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO)
4) The Public sector defence production units (DPSU)

There are 3 non state actors which influence the outcomes
1) Foreign Vendors
2) The Mass Media.
3) The Import Lobby

The Ministry of Defence

Ideally the MoD should act as the bridge between the scientific & technical community and the armed forces.

On the role of MoD in indigenization Dr. Atre say’s “Variable. There are occasions when MoD has supported DRDO strongly and there are occasions when they have not. It depends on the pressure by the User Service and the projection of Operational Requirement put forward by the User.”

The MoD is the hub for the arms import lobby. One must also study pressure from import lobby; we will deal with this subject later.

The central purchase committee is major contributor of delays too. Dr. Atre says “The laboratories can order equipment once the basic project is cleared. There are set purchase procedures. Our (governmental) procedures themselves cause some delay and require to be seriously looked into to reduce the purchase delays.”

The Armed Forces

Indian Armed Forces have 3 main wings
a)Imported Army or Indian Army (IA)
b)Imported Air Force or Indian Air Force (IAF)
c)Ingenious Navy or Indian Navy (IN)

It is not just the IA, IAF and IN have to work with DRDO. A host of private industries and PSU’s like Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) work with DRDO and are happy. This year, BEL has decided to give research and development projects worth 120 Crores to DRDO.

IA and IAF do not have a positive research attitude. Dr. Atre say’s “In my opinion IN is more interested in indigenous systems than the other two. I do believe this is more of an attitude than the successes DRDO’s achievements in Sonar systems. Even in non-NPOL and sonar projects (for example in EW projects), IN has showed this attitude. DRDO and BEL have very good working relationship; but the latter being a production agency has obviously caters to customer’s demands.”

The IA and IAF representatives are not helpful too. Dr. Atre say’s “IA and IAF representatives are indeed participating in some of the projects. But, in my opinion, most of them remain as representatives and not an integral part of the development team. Naval reps were indeed active participants in the design, development, testing and trails of the equipment and hence were deeply emotionally involved with the systems.”

The main project of IA with DRDO is Arjun MBT. The representatives of IA were not helpful. A recent parliamentary committee told “once these officers are posted to the DRDO units, they forget their uniform.” Now these representatives have to report to Indian Army every 3 months.

On being asked on IA representative’s role in Arjun Tank development, Dr. Atre said “I do not know the answer to this question as I was not involved with Arjun during its developmental phase. Lot has already been written about Arjun.”

The other service which has a major project with DRDO is IAF. Let us take a look at the IAF’s representative in the project. Dr. Atre say’s “Most of the times I felt that they were genuinely interested in seeing the most important and major technology of designing combat aircrafts in India. But at times I felt that they were not genuinely interested in LCA and acted as auditors rather than players. This ambivalent attitude reflected somewhat in the interest shown by HAL. If IAFs attitude was more positive and proactive, the project would (in my opinion) have gained more momentum.”

By now it is general knowledge that IA and IAF are partial towards equipment import. It lowers GSQR standards for import equipment while it does not do the same for DRDO. Another issue is IA drags its feet for giving dates for trials for months resulting in project delays.

Say’s Dr. Atre “I honestly believe that all our services are partial to ‘equipment import’ – some are more so. This seems to be a general problem in India. As I indicated earlier, Navy is more ready to be a part of DRDO and look for indigenous equipment while the others are less so. When one import’s any equipment, one perhaps has to identify the equipment that nearly meets the GSQR, as otherwise even the foreign companies have to get into R&D mode, which costs time and money. Hence it some times happens that the GSQRs given to DRDO are more demanding than those given to the foreign vendors. This is OK. However, what used to bother me were the acceptance criterion and trials of the imported equipment to verify the same. We at DRDO always felt that the DRDO equipments went through much more demanding User trials than the imported ones. This was generally true and certainly caused further delays. Our scientists often felt that the imported equipment did not perform all that well in the trials and later on in use also. There is some truth in this.”

DRDO

For a self assessment of DRDO, I asked Dr. Atre the success rate of DRDO projects, he said “Difficult to put a number. Sonar programs for Navy have the best success rate. Navy accepted the equipment in spite of PDC slippages. EW programs success rate is also high - all the three Services have accepted the equipment designed by DRDO (again in spite of slippages in PDC). Of late, success rate in Radar systems is also high. There are several radars, which have gone into production. The problems of PDC slippages in these have been reduced. (All in all in highly electronic oriented projects we have technologically done well). There have been several successes in Armaments, including torpedoes. For example Pinaka is a success but there was delay in meeting the specifications in user trials. Prithvi and Agni are clearly successes. So you see there are many successes in DRDO development and that is why I had initially indicated basing it only on Arjun and LCA (which I consider as successes looking at the complexity of the platforms), Akash, Trishul and Nag is not just right.”

That is modest statement by Dr. Atre. The fact is the country has achieved 40 percent indigenisation using DRDO products. DRDO. The 70 percent target is not for DRDO to achieve alone. The users too need to co-operate. All major powers in the world use or strive to induct indigenous product when ever available. These products pass through mark 1, mark 2 … stages in service of these countries before the product matures.

On a rough estimate DRDO has produced more than 1000 critical products and technologies in just 20 years which has brought us on par with the developed countries.

The Public sector defence production units (DPSU)

As mentioned earlier, the OFB and DPSU’s have a comfort level when producing an imported system which has a maturity in production cycle. There is very high resistance in technology transfer, when it comes from DRDO, as these systems need to be absorbed, machinery bought, processes created, fine tuned and updated as per the user feed back. Most of the quality problems that has arisen in INSAS, Arjun Tank etc have been due to the OFB and DPSU’s.

Say’s Dr. Atre “No DRDO should not be blamed for the production in efficiency. I want to elaborate on this so that you understand the scenario correctly and in the right perspective. Our Public Sector Undertakings are much more used to and comfortable with licensed production (most industries in India are, though the scenario is fast changing) which they called technology transfer. No technological know-how comes through such production except production processes. Of course, we can and did learn from this also. What is interesting to note is that under licensed production, technology transfer takes place from industry to industry on processes already well established in the other country. As the technology transfer from DRDO to PSU is based on lab models and prototypes, the amount of work that has to be put in by the PSUs is much more. This not only adds to the delay but demands much more (conversion) effort from them. When they do not invest this time and effort, clearly there would be quality problems.”

Foreign Vendors

The foreign vendors were critical when India achieved independence. They are still critical in terms of key technology or off the shelf product imports. Even DRDO imports from them in order to speed up a project or bring down the project cost. However, these foreign vendors play dirty tricks when the order value is huge. They are represented by Indian agents. These agents have their positive and negative aspects. There have been times, when these agents have supported the imported equipments in critical times. But these agents are too responsible for attacks on the Indian indigenous research as it stops their line of business.

There have been non deliveries and wrong deliveries by these foreign vendors. But due to good relationship with media and the yellow journalist, this news does not get reported.

Due to non delivery by these foreign vendors, DRDO projects get delayed. Foreign vendors are subject to laws of their own country. These government’s have policies where in they can hold the exports to India at will.

The Media

The media has been vociferous in criticizing DRDO. Media did the same when ISRO was struggling to launch SLV’s in 1980’s. Today ISRO successes have put the media on the back foot. As of today most budding journalist, retired armed forces personnel has found it convenient to bash DRDO , as they do not expect the DRDO to retort back. Imagine if the budding journalists write on the mafias or the retired armed forces officers report on their own organisations. It is not just convenience in attacking DRDO, a large number of the officials have openly spoken about the deliberate attempt to malign DRDO. Yellow journalism is naturally at play on behest of foreign agencies and vested interests in India.

Dr. Atre quips “The media stories cover the same theme: ARJUN, LCA, Akash and Trishul. The main attack in on the delays and resulting effect on the operational and staff requirements. There is some truth in this. There have been delays of several years, from the original PDCs, in some these projects. This is some thing none of us can deny. But picking on only the delays not talking about DRDO’s successes is what bothers me most.”

On being asked on the recent attack by media on DRDO, Dr. Atre say’s “I am not sure what triggered the most recent attacks on DRDO. As far as I can gather, the situation on Arjun has improved and several tanks were ready (the problem of weight and import content haven’t changed in the last several years), Akash had cleared some of its technical problems and several prototypes of LCA were flying and getting ready for the IOC (404 engines were cleared for the first two squadrons and most recent status of MMR is not known to me).”

Import Lobby

This is the bane of Indian defence procurements and detrimental to Indian indigenous research. They are in the Government departments, they are in the armed forces, they are in the Indian import agents and of course the yellow journalist who are apologists for imports. A lot of retired armed forces personnel are found hobnobbing with serving officers, as the serving officers are not supposed to interact with the vendors. These corrupt personnel try to influence the results of the arms tests. The Indian media often quotes them for bashing DRDO.
The controversies over arms deals, that now are normal in India, has led to frustration not only in the defence force but also the general public. The main problem is corruption. The corruption percolates from the middle men to political bosses/ bureaucrats and uniformed personnel.

Endgame

Indigenisation has same connotations as gaining independence. Look at what history has taught us. India has been time and again attacked by the outsiders as we lacked advanced arms and ammunition. The situation is no different today. The physical colonization has been replaced with mental colonization.

It is clear that total Indigenisation cannot happen without firm user commitment. Barring The Indian Navy, other services are not willing to go through the process. A thought that passes is if the imported systems are better than indigenous system, then, the country should import military officers too. Why do we need Indian officers who cannot make their own weapons and doctrines?

Posted in Defence Research and Development, General Indian Armed Forces News, Opinions and Articles | No Comments »

Presentation on “e-psy ops”

As requested by some readers of FIDSNS, We have uploaded the presentation of the e-psy ops. This presentation has been edited so as to not divulge the critical content.

Please download it here

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IAF arrives at Waddington for Indo-UK air exercise - Indra Dhanush-07

The first of the two IL-76’s ferrying 50 IAF air warriors, comprising ground crew and technicians Of the Indian Air Force arrived at the RAF airbase around midday (1630 hrs IST) 27 June, 2007.

The planes flew via Doha in Qatar and Tanagra in Greece. “This is the first time-ever that an IL-76 has landed at any RAF airbase”, informed Wing Commander PS Arora, the Leader of the first IL-76 that landed at RAF Waddington yesterday.

The ten-day joint Indo-UK air exercise - ‘Indra Dhanush-07′, gets underway from July 2 to 12.

The six Su-30 MKI’s and two IL-78 MKI fuel-tankers, together with the second IL-76 ferrying the remaining complement of the IAF personnel arrived on 28 June 2007.

Three Su-30 MKI’s will participate in the Waddington International Air Show. They will be put up for static display on June 30 and July 1, preceding the exercise. A fly-past by one IL-78 MKI Fuel-Tanker flanked by two Su-30 MKI’s in patrol formation on either side is also on the cards.

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Hawks “made for India” to train Indian pilots

Indian Air Force pilots have, for the first time, got their hands on the Hawk aircraft that will train the next generation of Indian pilots.

As part of the contract to supply a total training solution, which includes 66 Hawk Advanced Jet Trainer (AJT) aircraft, BAE Systems and the RAF will deliver a ‘Convex Flying Programme’ converting Indian Air Force (IAF) qualified flying instructors and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) test pilots onto the new Indian Hawk. Two courses of six IAF flying instructors will undergo training on the Indian Hawk between June and September this year.

Once the first Hawks have been delivered to the Indian Air Force later this year, these instructors will be responsible for training pilots who will be the IAF’s frontline pilots.

The first stage of the programme is ground school training, carried out at RAF Valley by BAE Systems specialists. The IAF instructors will also carry out five UK orientation simulator sorties on the Hawk Synthetic Training Facility (HSTF) located at the RAF base, delivered in partnership by BAE Systems and the RAF.

Following this stage the instructors return to the BAE Systems Warton site to carry out sea survival training and the BAE Systems Brough site for avionics training before commencing their flying training at Warton. Each IAF instructor will fly 15 training sorties on the new Indian Hawks before qualifying.

Rod Harrison, Hawk India Flying Training Manager, said: “We have been training 75 IAF student pilots throughout the course of the India Interim Flying Training programme, which concludes in May 2008. These pilots have been training on the RAF TMk1 Hawks. This next stage of flying training sees experienced instructors introduced to their new Indian Hawk AJTs.

“It’s an exciting step forward for the pilots and by training on the world’s leading advanced jet trainer the pilots couldn’t be better prepared for frontline aircraft.”

Three aircraft are being used in the training programme out of the 66 new Hawk Advanced Jet Trainers for the IAF. The first 24 aircraft are being built at BAE Systems’ facilities in Brough, East Yorkshire, with flight-testing taking place at Warton in Lancashire. The remaining 42 aircraft are being manufactured under licence in India through a partnership with India’s Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, based in Bangalore.

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USS Nimitz (CVN 68) to visit Chennai

USS Nimitz (CVN 68) will make the first-ever visit to the Indian port of Chennai. This will be also a first by a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier visiting the Chennai port.

In a e-mail communication to FIDSNS, LCDR Kim Marks, APR (NIMITZ Strike Group Public Affairs Officer) wrote “I can confirm that the Nimitz is scheduled to visit Chennai the first week in July. While we are visiting, there will be leisure activities scheduled for the crew, and more than 700 Sailors will be participating in community relations projects throughout the city. There will be an official reception for civilian and military leaders on board Nimitz and USS Pinckney (DDG 91) will host a group of Indian naval officers on board for dinner one night. U.S. Naval officers have also been invited to a reception on the Navy installation and the Indian ship SAVITRI will be hosting a group of Sailors on board for lunch. Unfortunately neither of the ships will be open for general public tours while in port.”

In past Nimitz participated in Exercise Malabar 2005. The multi-national training exercise was conducted Sept 26 – Oct. 5, 2005 off the coast of India. Malabar is an ongoing exercise that has been conducted for the last 8 years.

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Indian combat rations

Pre World War I, the British troops serving in India were provided with rations in kind along with some allowances. However, the Indian troops under the British Army received only cash allowance with which each person was required to procure his own rations. Thus, no control was exercised by the authorities on the nutritive intake of Indian troops. During the Mesopotamian campaign in 1916, the Indian troops suffered a very high incidence (142 admissions per 1000 troops) of Scurvy, while the British troops were unaffected. However, it may be added that the later did suffer from Beri-Beri because while flour was issued to them in the rations on staple food. The experience of World War I led to the evolution of a new system comprising issuence of certain items of food in kind together with cash allowance amounting to 10 annas per man to Indian troops. It may be pertinent to mention that both the scales of rations and cash allowances given to the Indian troops were much less compared to those provided to the British troops.

Two scales of ration one each for peace and field were authorized for the first time for the Indian troops. These scales of ration and cash allowance were followed between the two World Wars and until 1942. During World War II, the British troops in peace were authorized field scale of rations, however the Indian troops continued to get separate field and peace scales of rations. The messing allowance for Indian troops was raised from 10 annas per month to Rs.3/- together with peace scale. As the World War II continued a rise in the cost of living and difficulties in obtaining terms of food created problems in maintaining supplies of rations. In some places there was no food available for purchase. Then DMS (Army) produced evidence of malnutrition among Indian troops and recommended that they should be authorized field scales of ration both in peace and field. However, a modified field scale was introduced in early 1943 to replace the existing peace scale for the Indian troops. Just after independence the troops had to subsist on traditionally preserved foods or depend on adhoc cooking arrangements, which rendered their logistic support cumbersome and less effective.

The development of pack rations for service forces is very critical. Because, protecting food items from physical and chemical deterioration during storage, transport and handling, the packaging and packing of any operational ration used during logistic period, should involve considerations such as (i) operational limitations on meals pattern (ii) operational limitations on weight and volume (iii) availability of materials.

The Defence Food Research Laboratory (DFRL) was established at Mysore in December 1961 under the Defence Research and Development Organization to meet the R&D needs in the area of Food Science and Technology and to design light weight pack ration for Army, Navy, Air Force and para military forces. In, India, since, 1960 a large contingent of troops is being maintained in north eastern mountainous region having inadequate transportation, communication and agricultural base. Over the years, DFRL with its sustained efforts has developed process technologies for the preservation and packaging of large number of popular food items of Indian culinary having a minimum shelf-life of raw materials to one year under all weather conditions. These products are either in ready-to-eat or ready-to-reconstitute form and provide excellent convenience to the consumers.

Many of the technologies utilized for preserving these products are state-of- the art technologies in the field of food processing and have been developed from indigenous sources. Some of the products which have been processed and stabilized through the use of these technologies include chapaties, parathas, puris, fruit juice powders, dehydrated vegetables, quick cooking convenience mixes i.e. Halwa, Upma, Rava idli, Pulav, Khichadi, Instant dals, Instant rice, Whole legumes, shelf stable ready to eat fruits like pineapple and banana. Apart from these, there is shelf stable ready to eat products like khichadi, besibele bath, kheer, peas-potato curry, fish curry, mutton and chicken curry etc.

DFRL, Mysore has developed various rations, such as one man compo pack ration, modified (mini) compo pack ration, meals ready to eat ration, MBT ration, sub marine ration and survival ration for PSP to meet the operational requirements of Army, Navy and Air Force. Among these rations, meals ready to eat ration have been specially developed to meet the operational needs of the Army and Navy. Apart from these rations DFRL has also designed emergency ration for Army, emergency flying ration for air crew, survival ration for Navy and Commandos and the same have been successfully tried and accepted.

Meals–Ready-To-Eat [MRE] ration for Indian Army
The ration does not require any cooking since the contents are thermally processed and can be consumed readily after little warming if required. The ration consists of Indian dishes namely Chapaties (preserved), Sooji halwa (300g), Vegetable pulav (300g), Potato Peas Curry (300g), Chocolate bar and Tea (3 servings). Besides this, items like spoon, tissue paper, matchbox, specially designed foldable stove and fuel tablets for warming the food items are also included. The products such as sooji halwa, vegetable pulav and potato pea’s curry are processed in a specially designed bulk sterilizer. Each batch is carefully monitored for Fo at 121 degree Centigrade to ensure microbiological as well as chemical quality.

The technology used is highly scientific accepted at international level. The packaging material consists of multilayer structure of Polyester / Aluminum foil / cast Polypropylene designed and manufactured to withstand high temperatures and internal pressure during heating, cooling, storage and transport. The outer cover of the ration is a Linear Low-Density Polyethylene polymer with high tear and puncture resistance and olive green in color.

The food products are processed in a special retort to internationally accepted food standards of Fo-value of more than 7. This is a general standard and safe value for most of the food items. After processing samples are tested for microbiological quality.

The Indian MRE compares very well with well-known international rations like MRE of USA and GP-24 of UK in nutritional quality and hygienic standards.

The shelf-life of the ration is 12 months. The total calorific value of the ration is 3150 K Cal. and meets the immediate nutritional requirements during operation.

Recently, 6 types of meals-ready-to-eat rations having both vegetarian and non-vegetarian products have been developed in order to introduce multi entrée menu in the existing single entrée ration. The contents of the rations are Sooji halwa, Chapaties, Tea mix, Chicken biryani, Chicken curry, Mutton biryani, Mutton curry, Vegetable biryani, Rajma curry, Dal fry, Jeera rice, Dal makhani, Vegetable pulav and mixed Vegetable curry. Pickle is also introduced along with each menu. The user acceptability field trials were conducted as per AHQ guidelines and were well accepted and recommended for induction in the regular supply.

Rations for Marine Commandos of Indian Navy
Marine Commandos of the Indian Navy have certain specialized roles and functions. They are expected to land in unknown and hostile territories to carry out specific duties, assigned to them. The nature of duties and the performance expected from them are of very high order and important for the operations. Hence, the Marine Commandos unlike other sailors of the Navy require specialized rations which are adequate to give them the required calories, easy to carry and consume without compromising the quality, safety and the palatability. Such rations have been developed elsewhere in the world and the most popular and well known of them is the ration used by the U.S. Navy. This ration is highly sophisticated and popularly known as Meals-Ready-to-Eat or MRE. The items are either retort processed so that they can be consumed with slight warming or ready to eat like biscuits, cookies etc.

DFRL, Mysore at the specific request of the NHQ developed a similar ration based on Indian cuisine. Unlike the foreign rations which are based mostly on pork, ham or beef, the Indian rations are based on mutton, chicken and a vegetarian ration for non meat eaters.

The retort processing technology has been specially developed at DFRL using indigenous food as well as packaging materials. The ration provides approximately 3300 – 3800 calories / day. The rations have a shelf life of one year.

For security reasons, the rations are coded with specific colors to escape identification after consumption.

One Man Compo Pack Ration (Dehydrated Foods Based)
DFRL, Mysore has also developed one man compo pack ration based on dehydrated products. It consists of early morning tea, breakfast, mid morning tea, lunch, evening tea and dinner. The contents are pre cooked dehydrated and ready-to-eat products. It is easy to reconstitute in a short time by using hexamine fuel tablets. A simple foldable stove is also provided with the ration for this purpose. The total weight of the ration is 880grams. It is easy to carry and handle. The calorific value of this ration is 4100 kilocalories, meeting the calorific requirements under various conditions of use. The technology involved in the processing and manufacturing is simple and quite easy to adopt by any food industry. The packaging of the ration is based on flexible packaging materials, which can be easily accommodated in the hoversack of the solider. The packaging is easy to open and dispose.

This ration is specially designed to meet the Indian palate and is made of foods with which Indian soldiers are familiar. Thus, it provides maximum satiation and psychological satisfaction. The shelf life of the ration is one year under ambient condition. It is easy to prepare and found to be very popular with troops and particularly useful for short duration patrol duties.
Mini Compo Pack Ration (Dehydrated Foods Based)

It is a simplified version of one man compo pack ration to provide 1520 calories of energy with two items namely Sooji Halwa mix (100g), Pre cooked Dehydrated Vegetable Pulav (125g) and 3 times tea. It weighs about 400g. It is also provided with foldable stove, fuel tablets (100g), match box, spoon for reconstitution / preparation of tea. The packaging is of food grade polymeric materials namely Polypropylene (75 microns) as primary packaging material and 45GSM Paper / 20 micron aluminum foil / 37 micron Low density polyethylene to ensure optimum protection against the loss of moisture and flavor as well as to protect against chemical and microbiological deterioration. The outer packaging is made out of co-extruded film of HDPE / LDPE / HDPE of 90 micron which provides adequate protection from mechanical stress and gives easy handling and distribution. In terms of convenience, cost and nutritional adequacy, the mini compo pack ration is equal to similar rations. But the Indian ration is specially designed to meet the Indian palate and is made of foods with which Indian soldiers are familiar. Thus, it provides maximum satiation and psychological satisfaction. The shelf life of the ration is one year under ambient condition. It is easy to prepare and found to be very popular with troops and particularly useful for short duration patrol duties.

Survival Ration
The survival ration consists of soft bar and chikki. The per diem per man survival ration consists of Soft bar 100 g x 2, Chikki (sugar base) 50 g x 3, Chikki (Jaggery base) 50 g x 3.

The total calories are around 2400 Kcal, which is more than the normal survival ration used world wide by different armies. The requirement generally expected is at the level of BMR which is around 1400-1500 Kcal.

Main Battle Tank (MBT) Ration
DFRL has developed a suitable operational ration pack for Main Battle Tank (MBT) and other Armoured vehicles. Operational ration packs are designed for sustaining of soldier for 72 hrs in closed in conditions. First and second day ration packs weigh 2 kg each and provide 4000 calories and third day ration weigh 1.5 kg and gives 3000 Calories. Operational ration packs are based on instant/ready to eat food and survival bar as per the palate of soldiers.

Role of DFRL during Operation Vijay
The ration developed by DFRL was tried extensively and liked by troops both under actual battle as well as mock warfare conditions. Some of these rations have also been supplied under Kargil operation. The laboratory had geared itself without an advance notice to produce and supply 50,000 survival rations and 30,000 MRE rations to the Army for Kargil operation at a very short notice of only 48 hrs. These rations were processed in the laboratory and supplied to Army. Besides, the laboratory has supplied 1,000 MRE rations to Navy during this phase for their preparedness and 125 MRE rations to Air Force station, Pune. These rations have been found highly acceptable, palatable and stable. The troops participating in operation Vijay have highly liked these rations. In addition, based on laboratory process, Indian Army was able to procure 1.5 lakh supplementary compo pack rations from industry during Kargil operation. One of the major lesson learnt from the Kargil operation is that even if the production technology of these ration is transferred to the industry, a minimum period of one to one and a half month is necessary for the industry to actually meet these supplies because these rations have limited demand in civilian sector and industry is not in a position to keep a ready stock of these ration with it.

During the last four and half decades of its existence, DFRL has emerged as one of the leading institution in the area of convenience foods, pack ration development, nutritional and safety evaluation of foods under various environmental conditions. The laboratory has also emerged as a pioneer in the field of food preservation, packaging, product specification development and training in the area of food analysis and quality assurance.

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Arjun MBT weight implications

The weight of the Arjun MBT is incidental to the Indian Army General Staff Qualitative Requirement (GSQR). Arjun Tank weight arises due to the systems and protection levels as monitored by the Vice Chiefs of Army Staff right from the project inception. Since Arjun Tank project was initiated to match the current western MBT’s, naturally, the Arjun MBT weight will also match them.

Some senior Indian army officers have the opinion that the Arjun is too heavy for bridges on Indian western border and for the bridging equipment held by the Indian Army Corps of Engineers. We need to look at the Arjun MBT weight issue in a broader perspective, at the entirety of reasons and implications. It has to be analyzed based on tactical and strategic mobility of the Arjun Tank.

India busted the myth of the Patton’s in 1965, with Centurions Mk VII which weighed close to 52t. In 35 years gone by, Indian infrastructural woes has caught up with Arjun Tanks too, in addition to not being able to run heavier cost efficient big trucks on the roads and bridges. In comparission to Centurions Mk VII, the Arjun Tank is a mere 7 ton heavier. As the China builds “otherwise” impossible rail and road networks on Indian border to counter a future threat, India has not bothered to make infrastructural improvements to take on current threats.

The Arjun MBT is the heaviest tank in our inventory, but that is not a reflection of its agility and gradability. Being powered with a 1400 HP engine, its HP / t ratio is 23.9 which is substantially better than 20.4 of the BMP which is its combat support.

Arjun MBT has a bigger track-print, hence, its Nominal Ground Pressure is only 0.84 kg/cm2 which compares well with other MBTs of the world . Further, with a combination of low NGP and high power / weight ratio, it has commendable going ability. The proof being Arjun MBT crossing the Ravi at Lassian, without any engineer support, whatsoever and it has crossed numerous patches of marshy terrain which are marked ‘non-tankable’ in going maps of the Gurdaspur-Pathankot sector.

MBT Arjun is broader and heavier than other tanks in our fleet, resulting in special, but not insurmountable, difficulties in transportation. During the last 15 years, various prototypes of Arjun MBT has been moved for trials to various sectors, by both, rail and road, by existing means of transportation, albeit with adhoc expedients, but without facing any serious difficulties.

The existing BWTA wagons have pay load capacity of 60+ tons ; the Arjun weighs 58.5 tons. The only issue is that the width of the tank is more than that of the flat and so, the tracks protrude on both sides. A six inch wooden sleepers when placed on the floor of the wagons before loading the Arjun MBT ensures that the tank tracks move over adjacent platforms without fouling with them. With this arrangement Arjun MBT’s were moved as class ‘A’ ODC on Chennai-Delhi, Delhi-Suratgarh, Delhi-Jaiselmer, Chennai-Balasore and Balasore-Delhi lines, on several occasions.

In addition, Ministry of Railways, RDSO, Lucknow were approached in 1992 to conduct a feasibility study for rail transportation of MBT Arjun. The study was based on a two pronged approach i.e. design of a new wagon and modification of existing BWTA wagon. The feasibility report was submitted along with all-India broad gauge railway maps showing sectors where the loaded wagon could move as class ‘A’ ODC and the empty wagon could be run as non-ODC. In consonance, the Army HQ, Q Move (Rail) approved both proposals. The RITES / Texmaco team has delivered prototypes of the new wagon for field trials in 2006, it has been proposed that the case for modification to existing BWTA wagons be foreclosed because the population of the new rail wagons can comfortably match the production schedule of the Arjun MBT.

On a number of occasions, the Arjuns has been ferried over long distances, on BEML P-80 trailers towed by Tatra Tractors. Of course, in this case also, the tracks of the tank protrude on either side of the P-80 mount, but that is so with even other tanks like T-90S and T-72’s in Indian Army fleet.

In December 1994 the DGST sent a copy of their Draft GSQR 636 for a 65 ton trailer to BEML Bangalore who, in turn, have issued their specification for the new trailer which is to be towed by BEML-Tatra T815 VTI 8×8 tractor which is already in service.

CVRDE has successfully designed and proven a scissors type 20m, cl 60 BLT (christened Kartik) on the Vijayanta chassis. Another scissors type bridge layer of MLC 70 has been built on the T-72 hull and this also spans 20m. The latest on the anvil is the Arjun BLT with a sliding MLC 70 bridge and a span of 24m. That constitutes substantial initiative and homework on the part of DRDO for trafficability of the Arjun and any other heavy vehicles / equipment.

It is true that assault bridging equipment are scarce but are a number of bridging equipment over which Arjuns can traverse without risk. These include the PMP / PMS, MGB, MLAB, Sarvatra, CEASE (60) and the KM (wet type).

The issue of “Civil Bridges Over Defence Oriented Canals” is a painfull episode for the simple reason that, when India built ‘defence oriented canals’, we ought to have also planned ‘defence oriented bridges’ on them. Alternatively, we should have upgraded them in requisite sectors which, in any case, is imperative now. It would be quixotic to propose a solution by seeking reduction of the weight of the Arjun to suit vintage bridges!

There have been proposals of purning the Arjun MBT weight. Even Indian Army’s opinion is divided over this new, trivial issue which may be referred, perhaps more aptly, as a ‘non-issue’. Yet, in the din which accrues from the gambit of dissent and the consequent ‘unfounded fear of non-acceptance’, panic-driven designers and a section of supporting Users have jointly undertaken a weight reduction exercise !

Several areas of the tank have been identified and targeted for reductions ranging from a couple of hundred kgs to just a few hundred grams! In ultimate judgement, if the cumulative loss is not going to change the bridge classification of the Arjun, the whole effort will have been rendered futile. All attempts at weight reduction must be made conditional, in that, there will be no trade-offs with some other parameters such as levels of protection, structural strength, life expectancy of alternate materials and the ease of handling and maintenance.

The Arjun excels the specifics for self-propulsion stated in the GSQR. As for transportation and bridging are concerned, no one in the world designs tanks to suit these means. Instead, civil and military bridges, and the means of rail / road transportation are upgraded to suit new tanks. If Indian Army has problems with the bridges on the defensive canals or assault bridging equipment, its Indian Army’s fault.

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JCO Chunni Lal martyred, kills 5 Pakistan trained jihadi terrorists

In a fierce firefight with Pakistani trained jihadi militants in Kupwara Sector of J&K, a brave Indian Kashmiri who is a Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) decorated twice earlier for gallantry, was martyred yesterday in Kupwara Sector of Jammu and Kashmir.

The troops of a Jammu & Kashmir Light Infantry (JAK LI) battalion observed some suspicious move near the line of control (LC) during the intervening night of 23/24 June in Keran sector of Kupwara district. Due to low clouds and poor visibility the movement of the jihadi terrorists could not be tracked very effectively at night. A search party led by Naib Subedar Chunni Lal was launched in the morning hours of Sunday to ascertain facts. The JCO led his troops from the front, though with caution. The troops were fired upon by a group of terrorists hiding near LC. The JCO retaliated immediately with heavy volume of fire.

The young JCO putting his acumen into act maneuvered his troops to block all escape routes of the terrorists. This led to elimination of two fleeing terrorists at the outset, the remaining jihadi terrorists finding themselves surrounded and out maneuvered made a suicidal bid to escape, injuring two soldiers. Sensing the criticality of the situation and threat to life of his fellow soldiers Naib Subedar Chunni Lal, with total disregard to personal safety not witnessed very often, charged at the terrorists. This act of daredevilry took the remaining three terrorists by total surprise. The JCO though wounded and profusely bleeding, continued to fire at the terrorists till all the remaining three terrorists were killed. This act of great bravery, leadership and supreme sacrifice by a Naib Subedar Chunni Lal not only resulted in elimination of five Pakistan trained jihadi terrorists but also saved the lives of his fellow soldiers under his command.

Late Naib Subedar Chunni Lal was born in the year 1968 in Baderwah. He joined the JAK LI in 1984. During the course of training he excelled in military subjects, displayed courage and camaraderie, displaying the potentials of making of a great soldier from the very beginning.

On joining his unit, young Chunni Lal lived up to the promise of an ideal soldier when in the year 1987, he volunteered and played an important role in capturing the now famous ‘BANA Post’ located at 21153 feet in the Siachen Glacier, the highest battle filed in the world. For this act of Gallantry he was awarded the SENA MEDAL.

Not letting past glories and laurels dull his basic soldierly instincts, zeal and determination to excel, he set for him even higher goals and continued to display a high degree of devotion to duty. He became an example to emulate when in the year 1999 while serving with his unit in the Poonch Sector in ‘OPERATION RAKSHAK’ he fought an attempted intrusion by Pakistan Army and was instrumental in beating back the Pakistan attack on the post. For this act of gallantry he was awarded the VIR CHAKRA.

An asset to Indian Army and the nation, Naib Subedar Chunni Lal, VIR CHAKRA, SENA MEDAL yet again displayed his utility and unflinching devotion to duty when serving in the difficult operating situation of Sudan as a peacekeeper with the United Nations. Here too he was at the forefront in the operations at Malakal. For this action, the Battalion received the United Nations Citation for valour.

The valiant JCO belongs to Village Bhaar, Malothi of Bhadarwah tehsil in Doda District of J&K. He will be cremated with full military honours on Wednesday. He is survived by his wife, Mrs Chinta Devi and two children – a 16 year old son and a eight years old daughter.

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NBC Collective field Protection System

R & DE, Pune has developed an Integrated field shelter, which, when buried about 1 meter underground, provides collective protection against NBC hazards for up to 30 persons for 96 hours.

This shelter can be used as command or observation post or for storage in a NBC environment. The protection system includes gen-set, filtration/ ventilation system, waste disposal system and power supplies. The shelter is pre fabricated galvanized steel structure comprising right angled corner entrance and exit, decontamination unit, two main living modules and utility modules connected together by vestibules.

The shelter can withstand a circular pressure of 7.5 tonne/square meter and longitudinal pressure of 15 tonne/square meter on non earth covered portions. The shelter has special fasteners for quick components man-portable and dismantling.

The over all diameter is 28 meter long and 2.5 meter width. One system is approximately 3 tonnes in weight. The ventilation / filtration system (3 numbers) is a blower filter of 200 meter cube per hour with pre filter and composite HEPA filter integrated with flash sensor. The shelter is powered by two DG sets of 5KVA each. It has two thousand liter water tanks and for sewage disposal it uses chemical toilets and pumps.

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Tejas pulls G’s

Tejas Prototype Vehicles 2 and 3 (PV-2 and PV-3) are in Arakkonam Air base for sea level flight testing and opening operational flight envelope. Air cmde RKS Bhaduria, Wg Cdr RR. Tyagi and Group Captain N.Harish are spearheading the flight envelope opening tests. Captain JA. Maolankar of Indian Navy too is involved in the sea level flight testing.

One of the LCA prototype Vehicle’s has pulled 6 G’s.

Meanwhile, since the LCA Tejas has already achieved 1.2 mach, the flight testing team is gunning for 1.8 mach speed. It is not clear if it has to be achieved in Arakkonam Air base of back at home in Bangalore.

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