Frontier India Strategic and Defence - News, Analysis, Opinion

IAF Mig-21 crashes drastically reduced

A total number of 10 MiG 21 aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF) have crashed during the last three financial years from 2004-05 to 2007-08 (till 13.8.2007). In these accidents a total number of 7 persons lost their lives.

Besides the loss of aircraft, compensation amounting to Rs.40,49,853/- has also been paid on account of service personnel /civilian killed / injured and loss to the civil property in these accidents.

Each aircraft accident in the IAF is investigated through a Court of Inquiry (CoI) and remedial measures as per the recommendations of the CoI are taken. Besides, a continuous and multifaceted effort is always underway to enhance and upgrade flight safety. Measures to enhance the quality of training to improve the skill levels, ability to exercise sound judgment and situational awareness of pilots are being pursued. Constant interaction with Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), both indigenous and foreign, is also maintained to overcome the technical defects of aircraft. Besides, anti-bird measures are also undertaken.

Human error was determined to have caused major number of crashes. However the term “Human Error” has been misinterpreted as inferior pilot training in IAF. Human error is a broad term used for accidents caused due to pilots. It can include pilot pushing the aircraft beyond its prescribed limits. IAF is one of the handful of the forces which provides this luxury of experimentation. The brighter side of such freedom can be seen in real life when IAF exercised with various foreign air forces. The first Indo-US exercise “COPE India 04″, was an eye opener. USAF was on record saying ” “The outcome of the exercise boils down to [the fact that] they ran tactics that were more advanced than we expected,” Snowden says. “India had developed its own air tactics somewhat in a vacuum. They had done some training with the French that we knew about, but we did not expect them to be a very well-trained air force. That was silly.”

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Popular Uprising in Kashmir - A Pakistani Pipe Dream

A number of independent states were acquired by both India and Pakistan by statecraft or force after the independence from the British. J&K was the only independent state that had common borders with both India and Pakistan. The Maharaja of Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) was Hari Singh.

Kashmir like most Princely States that were assimilated in India or Pakistan, had a political movement in opposition to autocracy. Sheikh Abdullah formed Muslim Conference in 1932 after a mass agitation in 1931 against the Maharaja. In 1934 Muslim Conference was renamed as National Conference. The co-architect of the National Conference, Prem Nath Bazaz who was a Hindu (Kashmiri Pandit) was also former President of Muslim Conference. Muslim Conference was not just a Muslim struggle as the name suggests. Those days in J&K the religion was not as demarcated as Indian Sub Continent had made it to be.

M.A. Jinnah (founder of Muslim Pakistan) visited Kashmir in 1944 (a year before Indian and Pakistani Independence), unsuccessfully tried to sow the seeds of distrust between the Hindus and Muslims in National Conference. A small group did split and called it Muslim Conference; we will talk about it later in Azad Kashmir description. Abdullah publicly called people to not to be influenced by “outsider” in reference to Jinnha. Both Abdullah and Maharaja had a common dislike for Jinnha. In May 1946, Abdullah launched ‘Quit Kashmir’ campaign against the Maharaja. He was jailed on a charge of sedition. Both Muslim and Hindu population stood neutral. The Maharaja triumphed drove in a spectacular motorcade on the main street of Srinagar on his birthday.

After the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947, Abdullah recommended Kashmir’s accession to India. Mahatma Gandhi and first ever Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru who was a Kashmiri Pandit had intervened in favour of Abdullah. Maharaja was more inclined to join India. Abdullah was granted clemency. According to the Independence Act, the rulers of the princely states were given the right to decide on joining one of the dominions or remaining independent.

National Conference and Maharaja had differences against each other but were unanimous on Kashmir joining India. People stood neutral.
Pakistan’s Role

By September 1947, M.A. Jinnha realized that Maharaja of Kashmir and the National Conference did not want to join Pakistan. The fact was relayed by both Jinnah’s secretary Colonel William Birnie and a Pakistani secret agent who went specifically to find out J&K’s intention.

In mid-September, Prime Minister of Pakistan, Liaqat Ali Khan, proposed a war with J&K which was rejected outright, as it meant a war with India. Pakistani army was not prepared for it. The Pakistani army was not ready to start a war over Kashmir that could escalate into a war with India. Two other options were considered. Colonel Akbar Khan, proposed fabrication of terrorist activity in J&K, Pakistan would give training and arms to dissident Muslim population who were in minority. These were the same people whom Jinha had broken from National Conference to form Muslim Conference. The Chief Minister of Northwest Frontier Province proposed raids involving Pakistani tribesmen. The whole affair was kept secret from majority of officers of Pakistani army, civil servants and the British. Major General Douglas Gracey Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistan army on October 1947 came to know of the plan via his secret services personnel. This was conveyed to Governor General Mountbatten. Complete information on raider’s strength, armaments, and their location was available. It was promptly conveyed to Indian Prime Minister Nehru.

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Balochistan-Cruches Of History

Most puzzling problems of history-the inscrutable cruces; are creatures of history, intertwined with political geography, which often transcend to the realms of geostrategic Gordian Knots. Balochistan is such a cruces of history, which lay in the main marching tract of human civilisation, spanning the east, west and central Asian ethnic and civilisational entities. Therefore, writing about present day Balochistan cannot be confined to a few skirmishes between the Pakistani Establishment and the glorious Baloch people and other ethnic and linguistic groups, which have merged edges with their Baloch brethren. The Baloch are an ancient people, perhaps contemporaneous to the inhabitants of Moenjodaro. Before entering into their heroic struggle against the myopic Pakistani leaders and Army Establishment we need to understand about this historic people that bridged various meridians of Asian civilisations.

Historians seek approximation of truth through disagreement, finally settling down on a common minimum parameter. The Baloch riddle is no exception. Some historians guess that they inhabited the northern regions of Elburz and east of Caspian Sea. This tract is now inhabited by Ashkanis, who claim Aryan origin from trans-Caucasian people. This school believe that the Baloch and the Kurds are of Aryan origin, as are the Iranians and certain strains of Indians. Baloch language still treasures certain traits of Indo-Aryan-Iranian roots and applications, akin to Sanskrit. Some proto-Baloch speaking people still live in Turkmenistan and surrounding areas.

Some scholars attribute migration of the Baloch people to their present geographical location around 1200 B.C. Recognition of their existence even during the times of king Cyrus and Combyses have substantiated their route of migration from Caspian Sea region through northern Iran.

Some scholars assert that the Balochs are the indigenous people of Balochistan and they had created the first civilisation of the World around Mehergarh. Some Baloch nationalists prefer to support this theory. Other historians, with a view to support supposed Semitic origin of the Baloch, maintain that they came from Halab, Allepe, and are people of old Sumerian of Mesopotamian stock. The propagators of Pakistan being a saga of the Indus alone subscribe to this theory.

Whatever the pundits say the historical Baloch tract had witnessed admixture of the Scythians, Parthians, Ashkanis, Sakas, Kushans, Huns, Turks and Mongols. Most of the pundits agree that the Baloch have more in common with the Qurdish people and other peoples of Aryan stock and they have basic ethnic differences with the Punjabis, Sindhis and Pathans.

It is also borne out of the fact that the Brahuie Balochs (Kalatis) are ethnically different from the peoples of other provinces of Pakistan. The historians also debate the origin of the Brhuies fervently and agreement amongst them is as rare as conjunction of illuminated cosmic dust bowls. It is more or less agreed that the Brahuie Balochs of Balochistan and Sind are linked to the people who inhabited the Harappan and Moenjodaro civilisational tracts along the Sindhu and Saraswati (running through Gujarat and Sind).

Most pundits however, agree that ‘the word ‘Baloch’ was derived from ‘brza-vaciya, (brza-vak)’, meaning a loud cry, in contrast to ‘namra vak’, polite way of talking. Some writers maintain that etymologically it is made of two Chandas (Vedic Sanskrit) words, ‘Bal’> ‘Och’, meaning powerful and magnificent.

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Slaves of the Middle Kingdom

In a broadcast from Delhi on 1 January 1965, the union home minister Gulzarilal Nanda said “There is a reason to believe that the new party CPI (M) was formed under Peking’s inspiration. It was to serve as Peking’s instrument in creating conditions of instability in the country and to facilitate the promotion of Chinese designs against India in furtherance of her grand strategy of establishing hegemony…. over Asia and her declared aim of world revolution. There is reason to believe that the Left Communist Party has close links with the Chinese from whom it draws ideological inspiration and receives support in other forms.” Sinha, The Red Rebel in India, pp 186-9.

Tibet
Krishna Menon and K.M.Panikkar who shapped India’s Tibet policy, had strong Communist leanings. So much so that K.M.Panikkar married his daughter to a leading Communist labor leader. Panikkar, when called upon by Nehru, went so far as to fib that there was a “lack of confirmation” of the presence of Chinese troops in Tibet and argued that to protest the Chinese invasion of Tibet would be an “interference to India’s efforts on behalf of China in the UN.” He wrote, “our primary consideration is maintenance of world peace… Recent developments in Korea have not strengthened China’s position, which will be further weakened by any aggressive action [by India] in Tibet.”

Vallabhbhai Patel’s Letter to Jawaharlal Nehru on 7 November 1950 not only deploring Indian Ambassador KM Panikkar’s action “I have carefully gone through the correspondence between the External Affairs Ministry and our Ambassador in Peking and through him the Chinese Government. …… From the latest position, it appears that we shall not be able to rescue the Dalai Lama. Our Ambassador has been at great pains to find an explanation or justification for Chinese policy and actions….”

In 2001 CP I(M) organized a function to observe the “50th anniversary of the peaceful liberation of Tibet” in New Delhi. Sitaram Yechury addressed the gathering then and “pointed out that the Tibetans had improved their standard of living and that the life in Tibet was much easier than it could be otherwise because of the difficult physical conditions there,” according to the CPI (M) weekly newspaper People’s Democracy of June 10, 2001. In 1999 it came out with a statement criticizing Indian Minister George Fernandes for supporting the Tibetan people.

1962 Chinese aggression and boundary problem
In an article “Whitewashing Jyoti Basu in The Daily , M V Kamath (30 March 1997) writes in regard to, the Chinese attack on India, again, the CPI (M)’s record is nothing short of despicable. He quoted Surabhi Banerjee the biographer of Jyoti Basu who said “Indian communists became the targets of public outrage: the flames were fanned by Indian jingoists”. Jingoists? It is a needless slur on Indian patriots who were incensed by the Communists’ sell-out. As during the Quit India movement, once again the comrades were ready to betray their country. Surabhi Banerjee says-that the majority of the Indian Communist Party was in favor of condemning the Chinese aggression, but that “a vocal minority was -not willing to accept that ChinaIndia was motivated by a desire for territory”. More significantly this “vocal minority” stuck to the view “that a socialist country could not commit aggression, nor was it prepared to support a Policy under which would receive arms front western powers even if it paid for them”.

She unsuccessfully tries defending Jyoti Basu’s record during the times “The party supposedly was divided into two camps. According to her, a third camp was formed to mediate between the two opposing groups called the Communist Unity Centre (CUC) and she adds: “Basu worked with the CUC”! The nation was under attack and Jyoti Basu was trying to mediate between two camps on whether or not the invader should he fought and resisted”!

But the fact lies that in those times Jyoti Basu, addressing a meeting said: “It’s being propagated that the country has been attacked by the Chinese. We don’t know what is happening in the snow-clad areas of the Himalayas. The border problem to be solved Peaceably across the table. And if the country has been attacked how is it that this by-election! is being held?” Consider the use of the words like “propagated”. Basu was suggesting that the news that the Chinese were attacking India was false. When he should have been fully aware of what was going on, he was pretending to ignorance, as an excuse. True, a by-election was indeed being held in Calcutta, but that; merely showed India’s inherent democratic strength - something not to be sneezed at.

It was Lal Bahadur Shastri, then Home Minister, who gave an apt reply to Basu’s outpourings. Said Shastri: “How an Indian could make such a statement, I can’t even imagine.” He threatened CPI with legal action. The Congress president and general secretary demanded a ban on the party. “Nehru himself” spoke of the possibility of a ban or curbs on it.

B.T. Ranadive, long-time top leader of the CPI and, later, of the CPI (Marxist), was on overdrive to contain the public outrage. In an article on “India-China Relations” in New Age (which was the monthly organ of the CPI) of December 1959, after the Longju and Kongka Pass incidents wrote that the CPI “had consistently supported the basic principles of our foreign policy — in fact more consistently than the Congress followers themselves”. The article clarified that in a resolution the National Council of the CPI had held “that whatever the origin of the McMahon line may be, the fact cannot be ignored that for several years this has been the frontier of India and the area south of this line has been under Indian administration. It, therefore, held that the area south of the McMahon line was a part of India and should remain in India.” The article stated: “As regards the Western border, the National Council held that the government [of India] was correct in basing itself on the traditional border.” The CPI upheld the demand of the Nehru government that ChinaIndia in their earlier notes.” “should withdraw their personnel 20 kilometres to the east of the international boundary which has been described by the Government of

“The [Indian communist (Read CPI)] party leadership’s action in condemning China for the border fighting and pledging the party’s unqualified support to Nehru can be seen in retrospect as making the final, open split into two parties unavoidable.” Neville Maxwell (Maxwell, op cit, p.380, fn.).

Many of the The pro-Chinese Left (future CPI (M)) elements were jailed. They supported the Chinese claim on the Aksai Chin region.

THE 34th and 35th volumes of the Complete Works of E. M. S. Namboodiripad contain some important documents of the period 1962-66 which have a bearing on the India-China war. Namboodiripad had refused to condemn the 1962 Chinese aggression. He had taken a pro-Beijing stand, stating that it was a conflict between a socialist (China) and a capitalist (Indian) state. To quote him, “Dogmatic assessment of the class character of the Nehru Government as well as the role a socialist country should play in relation to a non-aligned country made the Chinese Communist Party resort to force rather than peaceful negotiation as the means of settling the border problem,”

Mao Tse-tung was raised to sainthood in Calcutta. To this day there is a Mao Tse-tung Sarani in Calcutta. Mao has been practically disowned in his own country but not by the CPI (M).

In November, 2006, The Chinese Ambassador in India declared Arunachal Pradesh as Chinese territory. The CPI (M) has tried to overtly justify China’s position by stating that there were territory disputes.” “These are historical issues, there are disputes, this is why these issues are being discussed,” CPM leader Sitaram Yechuri told mediapersons

CPM general-secretary Prakash Karat said that Arunachal Pradesh was part of Indian territory and that the dispute was about Tawang.

Naxalbari
Naxalbari is located in the narrow corridor between Nepal and East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) which represents India’s only land connection with the state of Assam. Naxalbari had striking similarities to that of the communist-ruled enclaves in China during the 1920’s and 1930’s from which the Chinese Communist movement made its first advances toward dominating the entire Mainland. The peasant uprising in Naxalbari in 1967 was led by some communists (CPI-M) of the Siliguri area after their release from prison. The alleged uprising was led by pro-Maoist elements. A pronunciation by Mao titled “Spring Thunder over India” gave full moral support for the uprising. The Peking radio called on the Indian people to wage “relentless armed struggle” to “overthrow government” and “forcibly size power.” In the Indian parliament it was alleged that the Chinese embassy officials had gone and met CPI (M) leaders in Calcutta.

According to the Chinese version, “a base of peasants armed struggle led by the revolutionaries of the Indian Communist Party has been set up in the countryside in Darjeeling district”. This is, according to the Hsinhua report, “a strong spark of the fire of the revolutionary armed struggle launched by the Indian people under the guidance of Mao Tse-tung’s thought. This represents the general orientation of the Indian revolution at the present time.”

The “red district” which was first established in early March, Hsinhua maintained, “has been standing majestically like a mountain for nearly four months in the encirclement of the white regime.” It is being led by revolutionaries of the Indian Communist Party “who advocate the seizure of political power through armed struggle.” These revolutionaries went to Naxalbari and other villages in early March “to lead and organize the peasants to carry out armed struggle for land, and thus took the road of China’s revolution.”

This armed struggle, however, - the Chinese contend - is not confined to the Naxalbari region alone: “The peasants’ armed struggle in this district has shaken the whole of India and given impetus to the peasants’ struggle throughout West Bengal state for the recovery of their land.” Moreover, the Naxalbari affair only represents the beginning of even greater events. As the Hsinhua report points out: “It forecasts the approach of a great people’s revolution in India with the armed struggle as its major form.”

The CPI(M) original founders found the thunder was stolen from them. To salvage their position, they pronounced that the armed struggle was not the way. This forced a split up in and CPI (Marxist Leninist) was born. Ideologically, the CPI (ML) believed that the Chinese model of guerrilla warfare and liberated zones would work in India as well. Their concept of armed struggle was primarily based on a premise that as soon as they organize and start an armed struggle, the people of India would rise up in revolt. This was to be done by the annihilation of the class enemy.

The rebel CPI (ML) members accused the CPI (M) leadership of ‘neo-revisionism’. This debate continued for about two years and ultimately a new party was floated on the May Day of 1969. The new party CPI (Marxist-Leninist) started replicating the Naxalbari experience elsewhere.

However, the naxalite movement disintegrated in various splits. China withdrew its political support and turned non-committal towards the various Indian groups (but the support continued), China realized the strength of the Indian democratic system through an articles in its mouthpiece newspaper. At present, there are at least forty Naxalite factions. Among these, the Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) in Bihar and the People’s War Group (PWG) in Andhra Pradesh, formed in 1975 by Kondapalli Seetharamaih, still adhere to the concept of annihilation of class enemies though they have combined armed struggle with mass front activities as well.

CPI (M)’s Failed Indian Path
CPI (M) in public they did not fully embrace the political line of Mao Zedong because of the Naxalbari incident. The CPI (M) was confronted with a situation in which their own masters turned on them. This was for the reason that the CPI (M) was trying to create “the Indian path” of communism in answer to the Russian and Chinese paths. When they failed they toed the Chinese way. Classic example of CPI (M) failure can be seen in the states of West Bengal and Kerala. Both states have been mismanaged and do not contribute much to the national growth. CPI (M) made all possible attempts to remain in power which included including East Bangladeshi migrants in voters list, terrorizing, falsely implicating leaders of principal opposition leaders of Trinamul Congress etc. The CPI (M) leaders were involved in mass rape in Nadia of women passengers traveling in two buses only recently.

Shakti Nuclear Explosions
Indian jingoist slur was going to be repeated in 1998 Indian Shakti (Nuclear) test. CPI (M) did not condemn the Chinese nuclear test or the interpretation of Kashmir issue as it did not wanted to contribute to “nationalistic” hostility towards China.

The whole of Indian nation was elated and jubilated in 1998 when India conducted the Shakti Nuclear tests. But CPI (M) in an article in the communist mouth piece “New Approach” titled “Perils of the BJP bomb,” Jyoti Basu repeated the CPI (M) accuses “ We have to keep in mind that the BJP’s attempts to create a nuclear India has adversely affected our relationship with China. The BJP and the RSS are offering the justification that the bomb is necessary to contain China and its hegemonistic plans. The realities, however, do not suggest that China can be held responsible for India’s stepped-up nuclear activity. After the India-China war in 1962, various quarters in India and China have been working steadily towards improving relations between the two countries. They have achieved a degree of success in the past two decades. The Vajpayee Government has been trying to base the justification on charges that China has set up a naval base in Myanmar and a helipad inside India in pursuit of its so-called plan for expansion and that it is overtly helping PakistanIndia emerging as a nuclear power. in its nuclear programme”. CPI (M) organized mass rallies and street corner meetings to launch a tirade against Indian nuclear test.

Economic Subversion
China is desperate to compete with India in service sector. Yechuri referring to the 18th congress discussions on the Political-Organisational Report on “Certain Policy Matters” said “The Chinese economic model, which is showing a steady 9 per cent growth in GDP for several years and does not allow FDI in the stock market but only in the manufacture sector, merit serious consideration.” There is serious effort to subvert the services sector in India by CPI (M). The latest being creating trade union for Indian golden goose sector “IT and BPO.” Another issue is, “CITU” a CPI (M) trade union has been systematically subverting all manufacturing in the country. The worst hit is West Bengal. The other CPI (M) dominated state Kerala is an importing state.

Yechury stated “We will soon start a mass movement demanding regulation of industrial capital on the conditions- that it must augment existing productive capacities, enhance the existing technology and lead to employment generation.”

CITU the CPI (M) backed trade union is supposed to be formed for protecting workers right. If a house has to be constructed in Kerala, a Tamilian labour cannot be used who is cheaper to employ compared to his CITU backed militant Kerala labor. But CPI (M) has actively lobbied for visas for Chinese laborers to be brought into IndiaUSA, to protest against Indo-US joint exercises for days together. as they are cheaper to employ. Lack of labor must be the defense of CPI (M). It’s the same CPI (M) which can organize a hundred thousand and more farmers and laborers who have no clue who George Bush is or where is

In West Bengal the Chinese company Dong Fang was favored over BHEL for a power plant in Sagardighi and for adding capacity to a plant in Durgapur. That decision came even though the BHEL union is affiliated to CPI (M)’s trade union wing CITU. But, the Left Front government defended the decision saying the Chinese were the lowest bidders.

Intelligence agencies such as the IB and RAW have expressed reservations in engaging Chinese firms in telecom sector and the construction of ports. Left sources said Chinese companies are interested in building as many as 13 ports across the country at a cost of Rs60,000 crore. Airing deep differences with the Congress-led government, on economic issues, Yechuri said the MNCs could not be allowed to enter our economic sphere “only to make profits and endanger our independent government and the sovereignty of the states.” While Indian/US/ European MNC’s have a reputation of localizing the operations in the country of operations, Chinese companies operate as traders. The western MNC’s are bringing in cutting edge practices in China; Chinese MNC’s have no such practices.

The CPI (M) favors the Chinese model of economy. Briefing the newspersons on the fifth day of the 18thChinaChina.” “Why can’t we learn this thing from China?” CPI (M) is quite on the fact that Hutch is a Chinese company which is a major telecom operator in India. congress, party politburo member Sitaram Yechuri said the CPI (M) had differences with the UPA government on economic issues in the telecom and insurance sectors, reminding the government that opened its economy only in the hardware and manufacture sectors. Yechuri asserted that “no private cellphone company is there in

He said the party was opposed to the use of finance capital for speculative economy and recalled how the economy of the Asian countries was destroyed in the process only recently. This is another sector Chinese would love to subvert in India, while they build up their stock markets.

The CPI (M) backed the Chinese envoy in India Sun Yuxi’s allegation of unequal treatment for Chinese businessmen. The CPM leader echoing the Chinese envoy says, “What are these security considerations? We would like to know why this old mind-set. George Fernandes had called China enemy number one. I am sure the Congress does not think on these lines. Then why are Chinese companies being blacklisted?”

CPI (M) deplores the western MNC’s using Indian natural resources. It actively lobbies for Indian iron ore to be exported to China and for import of finished Chinese goods into India. Talveen Singh a columnist in Indian Express has termed it as “Chinese East India Company.”

The CPI (M) strike on 14 December 2004 is another form of slowing down of India. CPI (M) talks about increase in provident fund. West Bengal, which is the home of CPI (M) is one of the biggest defaulters of Provident Fund. The report `Labour in West Bengal 2001′, which was tabled in the State Assembly on Jul 03, 2002, mentioned that as on December 31, 2001, PF arrears in exempted establishments stood at Rs 223.12 crore and in unexempted establishments the figure was Rs 13.07 crore. Burn Standard Company Ltd and the State-run North Bengal State Transport Corporation were among the biggest defaulters, aside from the jute sector.

Diplomatic Subversion
“The UPA government has so far refused to face to the fact that Israel is an outlaw state which is illegally occupying and oppressing the Palestinian people,” the CPM polit bureau said in a statement here. It said the least the UPA government can do at this juncture was to “sever military and security co-operation ties” with Israel, which has become immune to criticism about the atrocities committed on Palestinians. Keeping up the pressure on the UPA to stop buying arms from Israel, the CPM sees New Delhi’s strategy on Israel to be in line with the government’s ‘getting closer’ to the US. The CPM had alleged there was a hidden US agenda in the attack on Lebanon and said Israeli aggression was threatening peace in West Asia. China has a history of buying arms with China. Israel is the only country in western hemisphere which has covertly sold high end technology to China. China has diplomatic ties with Israel.

On Iran nuclear issue, CPI (M) toes the Chinese line. Iran has been in forefront of Indian NPT woes. Iran took the lead time and again to create UN resolutions against Indian Nuclear programme.

The top Chinese leaders during meetings with members of a visiting CPI (M) delegation in Beijing were told that India won’t be joining US in containing China. The CPI (M) behaved like uncivilized ruffians during democratic US President Bush visit to India. The CPI (M) was found lobbying in secret for autocratic Chinese President Hu’s address to the Indian parliament.

While Chinese have taken economic and diplomatic advantages from US in order to toe US line at UN, CPI (M) hasn’t learnt this lesson from their masters.

Future
Now that Congress party and its leaders dynastic ambitions rest on the CPI(M), CPI(M) has acquired unprecedented position in Indian capitals corridors of power. The CPI(M) has been using this leverage to push Chinese interests. In past the British used this opportunity to colonize India. CPI (M) also happens to have tremendous clout in Delhi University and JNU , which produce a quite a lot of Indian intellectuals. Prakash Karat is a JNU graduate. It’s a cause of concern. A lot of Indian parties are looking towards forging a Third Front with CPI (M) leadership. This will also help CPI (M) gain foothold in the Hindi belt which is already wrecked with the Red Terror. A red government with a red terror in the economic heartland will be a night mare situation. Chinese can destroy it without firing a single nuclear missile positioned in Chinese occupied Tibet. The first betrayal of India started from Bengal. In Delhi, the British were invited to take over as one Indian king couldn’t see another Indian king prospering. History repeats itself? The brazenness with which China manipulates communist parties in India to pursue its diplomatic objectives, leading to the apprehension that China will fish deeply in Indian domestic politics.

Chinese communist had charisma and had a practical approach. That’s how Chinese provided an alternative to Russian communism. CPI (M) is non-charismatic and idealist. Past five decades have been spent on evolving an Indian alternative to communism which has been a failure. Chinese know it only too well and CPI (M) needs to survive. The Chinese Communists have time and again managed to subvert the CPI(M). A possible explanation of sudden Chinese pragmatism in CPI (M)? Another pitfall is CPI (M) looks at India from its failed “Indian Path” mentality. It refuses to recognize the Indian growing power status. CPI (M) talks about not aligning India with imperialist America and India needs China for saving itself from America. Prakash Karat in 18th Congress of the CPI(M) states that “China, the biggest socialist country has been steadily developing its economy and making all-round progress. For more than a decade China has registered above 9 per cent growth of GDP. The growing strength of China will have a determining effect on international relations in the coming days and strengthen the trends towards multipolarity”. Then he goes on to state “ US also strategically sees India as counter-weight to China is a target of imperialism’s attention given the sheer size of its market and the immense possibilities for the forays of international finance capital. The whose growing power, it wishes to contain”.

One can understand this as CPI (M) needs China to save itself. CPI (M) will never see India as equal to China. Today, the word communist has become a slur in India and CPI (M) has earned it.

CPI (M) is one of the instruments that China usses for Língchí on India. Língchí is a form of execution used in China before the modern era and is usually known in English as “slicing” or “death by a thousand cuts”.

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Enabling Technologies: Mig-21 & F-16

Written by Commodore Prem Kumar, VSM (Retd.) in 2005 for Aerospace and Marine International.

MiG-21 accidents being encountered in the sub-continent need to be examined with the background of aerospace developments in the West and in Russia, predominantly during the Cold War era, spanning a period of four decades from 1950 onwards. In the mid-50s, when MiG-21 arrived on the combat scene it was designed to be a simple, clear weather interceptor. After nearly two decades of service with the Russian Air Forces, it came to be inducted into the Indian Air Force as a frontline fighter. Gradually the military needs of IAF transformed the interceptor into an all weather fighter with ground attack capabilities, enhancing the range and payload since its induction into the combat ranks.
MiG-21 variants are in service with Zambia, Cambodia, Romania, Syria, China and Pakistan. Barring the last two nations, who have their own joint plans, the aircraft has been undergoing a modernization program involving Russians and with participation of two companies from Israel….ELBIT Defense Systems and Israel Aircraft Industries…to give the MiG-21 a true all weather capability, reduced pilot workload and ‘dramatically enhance combat potential of the complete weapons system’. Pakistan has a fleet of 95 F-7s which are a derivative of the MiG-21 F incorporating a mix of Chinese and Western systems. China after years of operating MiGs has developed Shenyang J8II-FINBACK, which is a MiG-21 incorporating twin engines, longer fuselage and a slightly longer delta wing. By virtue of the dedicated modernization program undertaken by the Chinese, the MiG-21 is bound to prosper with our neighbours…….in addition the conclusion of a License agreement between the Chinese and the Russian manufacturer Vympel NPO, to locally produce latest air-to- air missile R 77, will provide the teeth to the J 7 and J 8 variants of the MiG-21. Strangely among the global fraternity of MiG users, only the workhorse of the Indian Air force has been conferred the label — FLYING COFFIN — due to a series of MiG accidents numbering 245, and killing over 100 pilots between 1991-2004. (Between 1971 and 2003, the IAF inventory has in all lost 454 aircraft, with 165 attributed to Pilot error).

Normally, “pilot error” helps to close inquiries, but does not clearly explain how the fault was initiated. It merely tells where the buck stops. The error chain in an accident could start with the aircraft designer and continue through draughtsman, factory worker, quality controller, assembly-line worker, test-pilots, technicians, MET forecasters, operations officers, air traffic controllers, airport authorities, computer engineers, and finally the pilots. Thus a design short coming or an assembly line blunder or an aggressive operational exploitation of an aircraft could lead all the way to ‘pilot error’. The man-in-the-loop can only resolve issues that are measurable and clearly identifiable using the eyeball technique or custom built equipment. Unfortunately, a combat aircraft during its service-life gets subjected to repeated stress cycles either due to latent design flaw which surfaces when it is exploited outside the designed flight profile or when exposed to thermal and acoustic flight stresses compelling the airframe to lose its stiffness integrity….which lead to undesirable and indescribable consequences associated with crack propagation due to flutter, vibration, buffeting, gust response and dynamic transformation in the geometrical characteristic of the airfoil. Information about the origin and fatal effect of these hidden initiators of flight stresses gained the deserved importance in aerospace circles only in the 70s as aircraft SURVIVABILITY became the number one priority. Prior to this, the trend adapted by western designers between 1950 and 1970 was merely to define the role of a combat aircraft and produce them in a cost effective manner. The combat-derived criteria involved:

(a) SURPRISE
(b) OUTNUMBERING THE ENEMY IN THE SKY
(c) MANEUVERABILITY
(d) LETHALITY

It was only during the mid-70s that the aerospace designers were tasked to improve aircraft survivability during ‘long’ combat operations and spread the life cycle costs over a ‘longer’ service life of the combat aircraft. Since these requirements involved ‘longer’ training periods, designers opted for twin engine fighters. Studies reveal survivability of an aircraft is doubled, if an engine fails in a twin-engine design, especially when major portions of the flying hours are expected to occur in peace time.

During combat operations, twin engine fighters double the probability of engine failure and consequent loss of mission. It was around this period the West managed to get hold of half a dozen MiG aircraft to evaluate their performance.

Studies revealed that the MiGs were designed for short and intense combat life and also required 80-90 per cent fewer maintenance man hours per flight hour than its comparable F-100/F-101 US aircraft.

It was concluded that the Russian aircraft design demonstrated high reliability for short combat periods, in addition to being less expensive to operate and to maintain……..justifying a necessity that seems to have prevailed during the Cold War period as the Russian Air Force had a very large inventory focussed on faster turnaround of fighter aircraft with a rigorous schedule of take offs and landings. In a study taken by aerospace agencies in the US to examine the structural integrity of aeronautical systems that are classified as mission critical, it was revealed that the aircraft with rigorous schedule of take offs and landings will age faster than an identical aircraft with fewer touchdowns. Increased operations tempo has been observed to wear out combat aircraft as observed in F/A18Cs/Ds HORNETS….which logged more than 73,000 missions enforcing the no fly zone over Iraq, in addition to the 3,000 sorties during Kosovo operations. Each Hornet is expected to handle 6,000 flight hours and 2,000 catapult takeoffs and arrested landings. The average age of the planes is 8.5 years with the oldest in the fleet being 13 years. The US goal is to add 700 more catapult takeoffs and landings to each aircraft, or about seven more years of use. Thus by ensuring a close monitoring of aircraft health, its serviceability can be extended without relevance to its vintage.

In the West, Dakotas are still flying even after 6 decades. Boeing 747 continue to operate safely since induction with thousands of modifications, repairs, engine changes and millions of maintenance hours. These aircraft are examples of operating within the designed flight profile which is generally not encountered by combat aircraft due to military needs. When combat aircraft enters squadron service, it comes with its maintenance procedures, inspection points and various test/ calibration equipment. These do not change dramatically when the flight profile changes from interceptor to ground attack. Over a period of time as the redefined role takes a toll of the airframe by ageing it faster and introducing flaws rapidly….the established maintenance and inspection do not highlight the emergence of unseen/ undetectable flaws which gradually migrate to cause fatal accidents. It would be worthwhile undertaking a study to evaluate the evolution of maintenance and inspection points in the life of an ageing aircraft in order to emphasize the importance of changes in this sphere. This issue would have been addressed scientifically in MiGs had there been a NATIONAL AEROSPACE INITIATIVE in place.

By virtue of continuous and sustained evolution, the aerospace industry in developed countries consistently institute improved inspection techniques and retrofitment of superior parts with a view to enhance service life of an aircraft. However it has been noted that factors which affect an aircraft life are onset of microscopic corrosion alongwith metal and acoustic fatigue. Sikorsky’s UH-60 Black Hawks main and tail rotor blades, hub, and windshields have worn more than expected due to corrosive nature of sand in Iraq. Brown-outs, due to sand and snowstorms have caused 33 out of 176 major helicopter crashes in Iraq (Mar 2005). Corrosion affects aircraft operating in a damp climate more than those operating in desert conditions, unlike metal/acoustic fatigue which occur depending on the payloads during each mission; number and duration of flights in which violent turbulence was encountered; number of take-offs and landings, with specific reference to severe impactive landings; exposure to sonic booms, etc. Such information need to be recorded and a database created to aid life-extension and investigations into accidents.

It is generally accepted that in the absence of a trusted technique, metal loss due to corrosion in combat aircraft cannot be reliably quantified as conventional detection methods assume that corrosion takes place uniformly. Localized pitting corrosion acts as a crack nucleii and causes early crack nucleation and the onset of fatigue crack growth irrespective of aircraft vintage. In aerospace circles it has been concluded that ‘age’ has little to do with safety, but continuous monitoring to detect fatigue crack initiation and growth in an aging fleet was essential to prevent accidents, especially when the aircraft have encountered aggressive deployment both in times of training and whilst participating in sorties involving carriage of high drag weapons/ launchers/ fuel tanks on the external pylons…….….. all indicative of changes to originally planned flight profile. External stores like missiles, bombs, fuel tanks, rocket launchers, various pods…all increase cruise drag (range and endurance, both functions of cruise efficiency, relate to low cruise drag). In Iraq, onset of metal fatigue and corrosion are hampering availability of F-15 fighters, C-130 transport aircraft, P-3 Orion maritime aircraft, E-3B Hawkeye jammer, KC-135aerial tanker and various helicopters.
(more…)

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Light Combat Aircraft-Tejas Testing

Written by Air Marshal P. Rajkumar, PVSM, AVSM, VM (Retd.) in 2005 for Aerospace and Marine International.

Introduction
Since completion of the technology demonstration phase on March 31, 2004 the LCA program has commenced the Full Scale Engineering Development (FSED) phase in right earnest. The aim of the program now is to achieve Initial Operational Clearance (IOC) with the Multi Mode Radar (MMR) integrated with a weapons suite which will give the aircraft limited operational capability by the end of 2007 i.e. in about three years time. This article will give the reader an insight into the current status of the program while also tracing the evolution of the two Technology Demonstrator aircraft TD-1 and TD-2, and the two Prototype Vehicles PV-1 and PV-2.

TD-1
The first aircraft to be built, TD-1, suffered from all the ills that could beset any aircraft attempting to make a technology leap spanning two decades. It must be remembered that the aircraft industry in Bangalore had not attempted to design and develop a state of the art fighter since the Marut program in the early 60’s of the last century. Almost the entire workforce had their first exposure to new technologies like the fly by wire system, the glass cockpit and the composite structure while manufacturing this aircraft. There was a learning curve involved because most of the workers had to learn on the job. Numerous mistakes were made and the fuselage wing integration had to be done more than once to get things right. It was therefore not very surprising that the aircraft tipped the scales at 6,780 kg with Flight Test Instrumentation (FTI) against a targeted weight of around 6,300kg. Program managers very wisely decided to launch a weight reduction exercise.

TD-1 has the first generation glass cockpit configuration based on an Intel 80386 processor based mission computer and a dedicated display processor to drive the two Active Matrix Liquid Crystal Multi Function Displays (MFD’s) and an imported Sextant Head Up Display (HUD). Redundancy has been provided with a Control and Coding Unit (CCU) and a second display processor. Bharat Electronics designed and developed Multi Function Keyboard (MFK), a Get You Home (GUH) panel which provides the pilot with essential flight information in case of an emergency, a Multi Function Rotary (MFR) switch which enables the pilot to select radio frequencies, set altimeter settings on the HUD, select IFF frequencies, time display etc, a digital fuel and rpm strip gauge, a Function Selection Panel (FSP), a Sensor Selection Panel (SSP) and a BAE Systems SCR-300 Crash Data Recorder (CDR) make up the major part of the avionics suite. Two units developed by the Electronics and Radar Development Establishment (LRDE), the Mission Preparation and Retrieval Unit (MPRU) and the Centralised Warning Panel (CWP) complete the avionics suite.
Communication is provided by a HAL Hyderabad developed INCOM V/UHF R/T set and a standby UHF set.

Four LRUs, the Environmental Control System Controller (ECSC) electronic unit (EU), Digital Fuel Monitoring System (DFM) EU, Engine and Electrical Monitoring System (EEMS) EU and the Digital Hydraulic (DH) EU which also has a brake management computer perform the utilities system monitoring function.

For the first block of flights it was decided to fly the aircraft with a fixed gain control law for the fly by wire system. This meant the control column to control surface deflection law had a fixed linear ratio .The leading edge slats and air brakes were non functional and the aircraft wing tanks were partially refuelled giving a total of 1,800 kg of fuel. Partial fuel in the wing tanks and approximately 140 kg of ballast weight in the nose kept the CG in the mid range. This was done to give the fixed gain control law an adequate margin of safety while stabilising the unstable aerodynamic configuration. The flight envelope was restricted to Mach 0.7,610 kmph Calibrated Air Speed (CAS), 8km altitude and normal acceleration +2g.The GUH was removed and round dial pressure instruments and an angle of attack indicator were fitted to give the pilot unprocessed air data to act as a cross check for the processed information put out by the mission computer. A calibrated chase Mirage 2000 aircraft provided the pilot with a completely independent check of air data and gave him the option of a shepherded landing in case of air data problems .The Mirage 2000 chase aircraft was used for all the 12 flights of the first block.

The almost trouble free completion of the first block flights flown by Wg Cdrs Rajiv Kothiyal and Raghunathan Nambiar between January 4, 2001 and June 2, 2001 did much to boost the confidence of both the designers and the flight test team.

The aircraft was extensively reworked after this phase to make the leading edge slats and airbrakes operational. Some fuel system modifications were also carried out to increase the amount of usable fuel to as high a figure as possible. The full scheduled gain control law wherein the control column to control surface deflection is made dependent on the flight condition of the aircraft was invoked and the aircraft flew again with Gp Capt Rakesh Bhaduria at the controls on February 3, 2003 just in time to be put on static display at Aero India 2003. HAL’s preoccupation with the Intermediate Jet Trainer programme had much to do with this protracted grounding of TD-1.A golden opportunity to fast track the program was thus lost forever.

Once scheduled gains were invoked for the flight control system, envelope expansion was commenced .The flutter envelope was cautiously explored and Wg Cdr Vikram Singh went supersonic in TD-1 for the first time on August 1, 2001.The aircraft has flown 120 flights to date.

TD-2
The air intake duct was redesigned for this aircraft to make it easy to manufacture. Some weight reduction was also attempted which resulted in a weight saving of 110 kg. The airframe weighed 6,670 kg when manufactured.

The other significant change in the aircraft was the installation of the Central Scientific Instruments Organisation (CSIO) Chandigarh designed and developed HUD with 25 x 20 degrees field of view (FOV). The display processor was developed by the Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE). The HUD is Night Vision Goggles (NVG) compatible. All the round dialled instruments were removed and the GUH was brought into operation. The aircraft originally scheduled to fly by the end of 2001 finally flew on June 2, 2002 with Wg Cdr Tarun Banerjee at the controls. The aircraft flew 61 flights with the fixed gain control law before it was grounded to make the slats and airbrakes operational. The aircraft flew with scheduled gains for the flight control system in October 2003 and has flown 150 flights to date.

PV-1
Major weight reduction was attempted during the manufacture of this aircraft’s airframe. Carbon fibre composites were extensively used in the fuselage taking the overall composite content to 45 per cent by weight and 95 per cent by surface area. The part count, which was 10,000 for TD-1’s airframe, was reduced to 7,000 in this case. The airframe weighed 6,430kg when complete which meant the weight reduction exercise had reduced 350kg of weight, a praise worthy achievement.

PV-1 represents the production standard airframe. Of the structural material used the proportion of carbon composites account for 45 per cent by weight, aluminium alloys 43 per cent, titanium alloys 5 per cent, steels 4.5per cent and other materials 2.5 per cent.
The avionics suite is the same as that of the two TD aircraft. The aircraft first flew on November 25, 2003 with Sqn Ldr Sunit Krishna at the controls and has completed 80 flights to date.

PV-2
There is a big difference between the avionics suite of the first three aircraft and the prototypes from the fourth aircraft PV-2 onwards. The distributed, integrated avionics suite in this aircraft is configured around three dual redundant MIL-STD-1553B data and two dedicated weapons buses. Central data processing is done by the open architecture computer (OAC) which is Power PC/VME64 based. It has a mezzanine card based MIL-STD-1553B, RS422 master and cursive graphics modules. Dual redundant OACs combine the functions of the mission computer, the two display processors, the CCU and the video switching unit replacing five of the LRUs on the Technology Demonstrator aircraft. The OAC has modular software written in the ADA language complying with MIL-STD-1521 and 2167A standards and will be able to generate digital maps without a separate module.

The production standard cockpit has no electro mechanical standby instruments. The cockpit is dominated by three 5”x 5” AMLCD MFD’s, two Smart Standby Display Units (SSDU) and the indigenous HUD. The HUD has an Up Front Control Panel (UFCP) which is a significant man machine interface (MMI) enhancement which allows the pilot to program, initialize the avionics and enter mission and system critical data through an interactive soft touch keyboard. Although the FOV of this HUD is slightly less than that of contemporary units on other aircraft of this generation it is not considered significant because the ELBIT, Israel furnished DASH helmet mounted display and sight (HMDS) will form an integral part of the avionics suite.

The four utilities system monitoring LRUs have been reduced to two dual redundant units. These units perform the control, monitoring, data logging for fault diagnosis and maintenance functions.

A HAL Korwa developed Crash Data Recorder will be fitted after the initial flights.
The Multi Mode Radar (MMR) jointly developed by LRDE and HAL Hyderabad will be fitted in the nose after redistributing the FTI carried in the first three aircraft. The MMR features LPRF, MPRF and HPRF modes, platform motion compensation, MTI and Doppler filtering, CFAR detection, range-Doppler ambiguity resolution, scan conversion, display of target and ground map data on MFDs and on line diagnostics to identify faulty processor modules.

The aircraft has the ADA developed Stores Management System (SMS) which will provide fully integrated control of weapon systems, external stores and fuel tanks. The SMS is based on a 32 bit, single chip micro controller with dual redundant architecture .Its main components include the single Stores Interface Box (SIB) and multiple pylon interface boxes(PIB) for each hard point.

A state of the art EW suite will be integrated and tested later in the program. Primary responsibility for development of the EW suite is that of the Defence Avionics Research Establishment (DARE), Bangalore

The aircraft is undergoing final integration checks and is expected to fly by the end of May 2005.

Program Update

The flight test program has logged 350 flights without encountering any major design deficiency. Due the complexities of the quadruplex digital fly by wire system it is clear that the flight test team and program managers are opening the flight envelope cautiously. At the time of writing(February 8, 2005) the flight envelope has been expanded to Mach 1.4,1150 kmph CAS,15 km altitude, +4.5 g, and an angle of attack of 23.

Conclusion

A host of daunting tasks like full envelope expansion after flutter testing, MMR tests, weapons integration, weapon delivery and environmental tests of the full aircraft have yet to be attempted by Team LCA They certainly have the nation’s good wishes to back them while they go about their onerous task.

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The Prithvi Story

The first flight trial of Prithvi missile was in Feb 1988, designated as PE-01.

A chart was pinned, showing the marks awarded for the first flight trial. Missiles cleared and ready at Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL) earned 10 marks, Missile on launch pad at SHAR was 20 marks, countdown OK up to T-0 was given 30 marks, Missile lift off vertically was 50 marks, takes a predetermined turn to move out of the safety zone was 75 marks, follow the trajectory was 90 marks and reach the terminal area was 100 marks. Prithvi Team earned all those points. But the PE-01 marked the entry of India as a missile power when PE-01 impact point was right on the dot.

Project Prithvi

When Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP) started, a new team was formed to design, develop and productionise the Prithvi weapon system at DRDL. Lt Gen VJ Sundaram was the project director. The General Staff Qualitative Requirement (GSQR) specification was A reliable, mobile, short range, surface to surface missile with contemporary performance and indigenous design.

The Prithvi Project team interacted with a dozen ordinance factories, ten public sector undertakings (PSU), six academic institutions, fifteen scientific laboratories, and 40 industrial houses. That amounted to nearly 400 engineers and managers.

Navigation

The Strap Down Inertial Guidance System was under development in the laboratory since early 1980’s. The system was rigged up and a number of sorties were carried out using an aircraft. The size of the system was quite big and weighed more than the Prithvi could accommodate.

A flight worthy package was ready in January 1988. It was a midnight drama at DRDL integration hangar. Phase test were over by 1’O Clock in the morning. The missile was ready for its journey to Sriharikota.

Warhead Test Vehicle and Balloon Testing

The Prithvi missile itself was being in development phases hence the concept of warhead test vehicle (WHTV) cropped up. After a number of experiments in the lab and conducting static ground tests, a system was developed which was flight worthy.

The sub system’s had to be tested as well. It should work at 50 meters or 1500 meters and so on. The Meteorological Dept stepped in with it s balloon.

Time 00130 hrs. Chilly winds and isolated stretch of grass field at Charlapally. “Charge and go” was heard. A balloon inflated in the midnight. The project team conducted the experiment to test the performance of switching mechanism. The balloon could be controlled to go up and down. The balloon dance went on till early hours to fine tune the mechanism.

Change of Guard

After the success of PE-01, medals were pinned. Lt Gen Sundaram was promoted and Dr. Saraswat who was the No 2 , became the new Project Director.

Army Marches in

An army unit for Prithvi was posted in Hyderabad. Col Kumar was the officer commanding. The premises of Bharat Dynamics Ltd (the production agency) was used for initial training, documentation readiness etc. Saraswat and his company was the nodal point.

Institute of Armament Training, Pune gave them a brush up Guided missile course. Golkonda venue was used for class room lectures. Kanchanbagh and Immarat Kancha was used for hands on training.

The result of successful of training was practically witnessed at Balassore when the Army team launched few Prithvi missiles from ITR as a part of user trials in June 1994.

Prithvi Weapon System

Prithvi missile is a Battle Field Support, Tactical, surface to surface missile which can accurately hit targets. Prithvi has field changeable warheads for different types of targets, such as defence installations, airfields, C3 installations, POL installations, bottleneck and bridges. The single stage Mk1 missile had a range of 40 kilometers to 150 kms. With a CEP of 150m.

Enter Air Force

Having delivered to the Army, the Prithvi team dug in to develop derivatives and innovative concepts. The Liquid engine of Prithvi could lot more. HAL delivered the extra long tanks for experiments in 1992.

Since 1988, the Indian Air Force (IAF) was toying with ideas with respect to Prithvi project. The “Project Devil” SAM project had instilled IAF’s faith in DRDL.

Without much fanfare an experimental missile with improved range and electronics was tested in 1992-93. All missions were satisfactory.

IAF decided to make a firm commitment. Prithvi-II was born. The missile had new gadgets including GPS.

Once again medals were pinned.

Prithvi Four and Prithvi strap on

Having done the P-II, Four engined Prithvi was conceived. A four engine test was statc test fired at LPD test bed. P4 still rumbles on. PSLV had strap on’s why not Pritvi? However the idea is in cold storage now.

Navy Sails in

Indian Navy, examined Prithvi as a force multiplier. Prithvi, Naval Avatar “Dhanush” was a grand success.

Range redefined

The 2002-2003 war scenarios in Afghanistan and Iraq had churned the Prithvi designers to go beyond the Prithvi’s set range. The composites were introduced and a number of changes introduced. In April 2003, a extended range Prithvi flew beyond the barrier milestone. This is one more variant of the Prithvi Missile.

Prithvi development goes on.

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First ever IAF CASVAC using night vision devices

Indian Air Force successfully completed a casualty evacuation at night using Night Vision Goggles through a narrow valley close to the border for the first time in the history of the Indian Air Force.

Headquarters Eastern Air Command of Indian Air Force was approached by an operational division of the Indian Army with an emergency request at 1630 hrs on 20 Aug 07 for evacuating two casualties, one with a serious head injury. The helipad being located in the narrow valley close to the international border, the late hours of the day, marginal weather conditions and the deteriorating health of the casualty necessitated a prompt decision to undertake the evacuation in a helicopter using Night Vision Goggles.

12 minutes after the request was received the most qualified aircrew from Air Force Station Mohanbari were launched using a Mi-17 helicopter, after a meticulous planning and co-ordination. Surmounting low visibility conditions and turbulent weather during monsoons, the attempt was made to evacuate the patient from Kibitoo helipad to Jorhat Air Force Hospital. The professional flying which involved about four hours of flight time was courageously undertaken. This enabled the saving of the lives of two critically injured soldiers. This type of casualty evacuation at night using Night Vision Goggles through a narrow valley close to the border was undertaken for the first time in the history of the Indian Air Force.

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Project Devil

A very enthusiastic IAF officer, Gp. Capt V.S Narayanan, a Technical Signals Officer, single handedly produced a project report for possibility of developing guided weapons in India. He had indicated that all guided weapon systems in different classes and types then available were logically composed of various sub systems of a limited number of technological variants. In principle, by developing only a limited number of variants of each type of sub-system, the country would be able to evolve a great number of missiles systems by employing appropriate permutations.

As a fall out of this study, he had already examined the possibility of “indigenising” SA-75, a surface-to air (SAM) system, which was a recent acquisition by IAF. Gp. Capt V.S Narayanan, was involved in the acquisition and deployment of the system.

He had examined the possibility of different sub-systems being manufactured by different industries in the country, so that eventually the whole system could be indigenised.

While, Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL), Hyderabad, was excited about the new project, it had reservations on “one to one” copy (those days’s “reverse engineering” phrase was not in existence). They argued that the information and system available with IAF can be used as reference and not “one to one” copy. However, IAF argued that they wanted “one to one” copy for cost savings in training and deployments and they were satisfied by the system itself. Also, the sub-system can be uprated if IAF wanted.

The IAF had projected, 432 missiles would be needed from 1981 – 1986. A sum of Rs 16 crores (Cr) was earmarked that included 4 cr in foreign exchange and the build up of labs.

The Devil Program

Newly promoted, Air Commodore VS Narayanan arrived at DRDL as the new director, in 1971. Two scientists Mr. AV Rangarao and Mr. S Krishnan, who were from the Anti-Tank-Missile project earlier, already knew him earlier. In September, 1971, the final CCPA paper on the “Devil Program” was published.

The SA-75 was of cruciform configuration with wing, tail control surfaces. It was capable of maximum acceleration of 16 G. There were small stabilizers near the nose. The booster has cruciform fins for stability of missile during the booster stage. The missile had 2 stages. The first stage of the missile used solid propellant and had a thrust of 50 tons for a period of 4 seconds. During this stage the missile control was locked and Roll – Stabilized. The second stage was liquid with gasoline as fuel and nitric acid as stabilizer.

First suggestion from DRDL scientist that the RCRS was old and the vacuum tubes could be replaced by solid state design, which occupied less space, had less weight and more reliability. Mr Surya Kanth Rao redesigned RCRS in flat 4 weeks and then onwards a host of sub-systems were redesigned. Mr. Rangarao produced a 5 volume opus for roll on plan. All laboratories had contributed their own plans to this master plan. Hosts of young blood were recruited from prestigious universities. These recruits include Pahlada, Saraswat, Avinash Chander … etc.

The first INS

Shri SD Burman, who looked after the telemetry and instrumentation, formed a young team to develop an Inertial Navigation System (INS), from the sensors available then “Ferranti Accelerometers and Gyros.” A 12 Bit hardwired computer was developed to implementing leveling, gyro compassing and navigational algorithms. The system was powered by a huge Aplab power supply weighing 4 times more that of the actual system. The system was tried out in AVRO HS-748 aircraft with reasonable success.

Airframe, motor and propellants

The Devils missile frame was primarily made of Magnesium Alloy. Very little was known about harnessing the alloy. Devils propulsion system consists of booster sustainer combination where solid propellant booster constituted the first stage, propelled by liquid engine. The solid motor was design of several grains totaling about ½ ton. The liquid engine was a sophisticated piece of engineering during its time as it was regeneratively cooled by the propellant. The propellant was fed into combustion chamber by power driven turbine pumps. This turbo pump itself was driven by a separate monopropellant gas generator. The construction of the engine was entirely by stainless steel corresponding to AISI 304. The Devil was powered by 26 volts, 60 Ampere battery.

The first Devil missile was launched on 25 September, 1978. The test flights were done in air force station Suryalanka, which is a sea station in the Bay of Bengal, overnight drive from Hyderabad. They still test SAM’s regularly at Suryalanka. The Devil was tough missile, capable of withstanding tropical climatic conditions, all weather servicing and operation with surface head wind of nearly 30 knots and prevailing ambient temperature. The missile itself could be held on launchers for up to many months (with periodical “load up” checks) before it had to be returned for complete check up.

The warhead was of controlled fragmentation type yielding thousands of fragments. The fragments were heavier than optimum weight in anti aircraft role. The weight of the explosive was 100 Kgs, ensuring sure kill of aircraft. The Single Shot Kill Probability (SSKP) was in excess of 0.9. The entire system had a SSKP varied with number of missiles and distance, but, on an average the knock out average was 7 out 10 targets that it engages at the rate of one missile per target.

The Devil missile met its all targets; however, the project was closed as the IAF no longer wanted this missile type.

The Devil missile project laid foundation for the future Integrated Guided missile Development Program (IGDMP).

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Around the world in 80 days

The Indian Air Force’s microlight aircraft flown by Wg Cdr Rahul Monga and Wg Cdr Anil Kumar arrived at Air Force Station Hindon today creating a ‘New World Record’ of fastest round the world trip. The expedition was flagged in by the Chief of Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal FH Major.

Round the World microlight expedition was flagged off on 01 Jun 07 by Chief of the Air Staff from Air Force Station Hindon as a part of Platinum Jubilee Celebrations of the Indian Air Force. The aim was to circumnavigate the earth (Minimum distance of 36889 kms) in the shortest period of time. The Air Chief in his address at the time of Flag-Off ceremony had directed them to go “Around the World in eighty days”.

The expedition has covered a total distance 40,497 kms in 80 days flying over 19 countries. Wg Cdr Rahul Monga and Wg Cdr Anil Kumar have achieved a speed of 21.092 km/h, which is far better than the existing record of 16.53 km set by Mr. Colin Bodil of UK in 2001.

The crew comprising two pilots, were all by themselves during the entire expedition and carried out all the necessary maintenance and servicing on the microlight. The crew faced many challenges while flying over various kinds of terrain ranging from plains, dense forests, deserts and seas including the harsh terrain of Siberia, lofty Rockies, Alps and even over frozen waters of the North Atlantic.

The expedition experienced their share of bad weather on route. At times they had to fly longer duration sorties to avoid weather. In Russia Wg Cdr Rahul Monga flew along with a Russian navigator as per the regulations of that country. The crew crossed the International date line over Bering Strait on 06 Jul 07. In USA, the situation with respect to weather was no different. The expedition got stuck at Anchorage in Alaska for Six days. Not withstanding the weather, the crew maintained their josh and entered Canada and then to Iceland often making quick alterations to the original planned routes. The crossing of the formidable North Atlantic was done solo by Wg Cdr Rahul Monga where he negotiated inclement weather flying over frozen land and sea of icebergs for a considerable period of time.

From Iceland, they reached Germany through UK. The weather kept them on ground for four days in Germany. The crew then crossed the icy peaks of Alps and entered Italy. This expedition never had a dull movement with a minor unserviceability occurring in Italy, causing them to do an unplanned landing. The crew handled each and every situation in very professional manner.

The next challenge was the encountering of High temperatures and consequent high Density altitudes (a condition of reduced air density) which pose difficulties in flying. The hot weather coupled with mountainous terrain also led to excessive turbulence which made the flying conditions uncomfortable.

The brief stop over for refueling at Karachi in Pakistan was an unique experience for the crew prior to arriving at Ahmedabad. The last leg was flown from Ahmedabad to Hindon, to complete the arduous journey, which was required to terminate at the same location from where the aircraft was flagged off 80 days earlier, to qualify for the Record.

The pilots have under taken the task with courage and fortitude. Enroute they interacted with civil and military personnel from 19 countries and have been Goodwill ambassadors of India in general, and the Indian Air Force in particular.

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The first ATM

In 1959, when India was setting up Special Weapons Development Team (SWDT), parallel to it, a study on feasibility study project on a First Generation Anti Tank Missile (ATM) was proposed at a budget cost of Rs. 6 lakhs. Preliminary studies commenced and wind testing was to be done with the help of Department of Aeronautics and Institute of Science, Bangalore.

The aerodynamic design of the configuration was completed and full scale model of the complete configuration for the wind tunnel testing at IISc Bangalore was initiated. A full set of force and momentum tests were completed in Bangalore on this model, during 1961. These tests were conducted with vibrating spoilers to determine control effectiveness. The ATM was suppose to have a subsonic flight speed of about 250-300 fps.

In view of upgrading this project a General Staff Qualitative Requirements (GSQR) was floated. The entire system was reworked in 1963 for accommodating HEAT 106 mm warhead.

The SWDT moved to Defence research and Development laboratory (DRDL), Hydrabad and the work commenced from there. In 1963-64, a Low-speed pilot tunnel had been built in DRDL. Flow visualization studies were undertaken in this on wing panels, to evolve suitable box design for the spoilers in 1964-65. Stability studies were conducted in 1965-66. In 1966, the facility was used to study roll characteristics of the configuration and to finalise the roll device required.

Propulsion

The propulsion motor requirement and the propulsion system design were done by DRDL. Explosives Research & Development Laboratory (ERDL) was tasked to make the propellant compositions and the development of propulsion grains (SUK black). Molybdenum inserts were used as sustainer. The motor body was made of aluminum alloy. Had 2 compartments, one for sustainer and the other for booster. The booster grain had star type hole for very fast burn and the sustainer was cigarette burning type for constant thrust.

Control & Guidance

The main components of the ATM control and guidance were the actuator and gyroscope. The team produced spoiler type actuator (similar to Mosquito ATM) which gave a response of 10 Mz with a stay time varying from 80-20 and 20-80 mili seconds. A three degree freedom gyro was also developed.

Simulator

A training simulator was made. This simulator could be adapted to similar weapons too.

Fourteen out of sixteen

The high watermark of the project was firing demonstration conducted before Gen Bewoor, then Dy Chief of Army Staff. On that occasion a total of 16 missiles were fired and 14 hit the target.

Around the same time two teams of Army Men, who had been given training on European ATM’s, Cobra and Entac, were given the opportunity of carrying out the trials on indigenous ATM. The two teams did not find any significant difference between firing the ATM in comparison to European ATM’s.

The ATM still had to be worked upon, mostly in the inhibition of the sustainer motor, which held the reliability order of 65%.

ATM Short Closed

Army again revised GSQR which led to purchase and license production of SS11B1.

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The Kaoboys of R&AW: Down Memory Lane

I put the book down in disgust. Not disgusted with the book or With B Raman. I had read B Raman’s articles on Chinese; I expectantly purchased the book in order to find what Raman and R&AW managed to get on Chinese. Instead what I found that R&AW is unimportant, they just did what normally IB could have done. Nothing on US, nothing on China, nothing on Russia,…. All that Raman writes is the R&AW and its whine stories.

Raman is politically correct on all subjects.

Often P V Narasimha Rao, ex Indian Prime Minister, is criticized about China policy. When Narasimha Rao had invited the Tibetan Head Dalai Lama, R&AW faxed a permission letter from China. How can a leader conduct a foreign policy when its instruments of foreign policy like R&AW have nothing to show on China? This subject will be dealt in a paragraphs below. In spite of Raman’s political correctness, P V Narasimha Rao and Indira Gandhi seem to be only prime ministers who ran foreign policy as a strategy; using the instruments in a manner it should be used.

R&AW seem to be has misplaced priorities. CIA did not give cooperation on Pakistan. CIA was all for joint operations with India on China, North Korea and countries of same region. R&AW decided to not bite it. R&AW missed significant opportunity for utilizing the CIA resources to penetrate these countries. This is relevant especially today when North Korea has supplied long range missile technology to Pakistan.

Raman description of R&AW’s cooperation with the Chinese intelligence agency called Ministry of State Security (MSS) is disturbing. R&AW dutifully reminded them that China was supplying weapons to Pakistan and when MSS told them that Chinese were supplying weapons that would not harm India, R&AW dutifully reported back. R&AW had nothing substantial to report on China. Bulk of it was from open source. As Raman mentions it, that R&AW was asked not to report on China any more. R&AW couldn’t even estimate the total deployments of China against India. Local Army commanders did better job on assessing the realistic China scenario. R&AW should have considered CIA offer on South East and Eastern Asia. One wonders what would be the cooperation with the Chinese agency Raman talks about. Chinese are all over the neighborhood and internationally trying to contain India. What has R&AW achieved with cooperating with MSS? While China has direct and indirect destabilization activities in India, there is no evidence that India has similar activities for Chinese mainland. A little bit what R&AW does in Tibet and Xingjian region has only irritating value to Beijing with no direct threat to the Chinese Mainland.

Not withstanding Raman’s clouded emotional claims on the relevance of R&AW, R&AW is effectively a south Asian intelligence agency with a marginal role of liaison and listening post in other countries. By Raman’s writing, there is a clear need for a external intelligence agency which has far reach, whether R&AW should be merged with IB or retained as South Asian agency is political decision, based on the budgets. Another point is R&AW takes research and analysis too seriously but lacks on action. 1971 is more of IB influence on R&AW.

“The Kaboys of R&AW – Down the Memory lane” by B. Raman is a good read. It does manage to capture most of events of its time in Raman’s perspective. Most of it is generally know, just that we get to know about R&AW’s role in it.

An area of disappointment in the book is the Sri Lankan description. The 1971, Indian intervention in the island state needed to be better expanded. Raman has clearly avoided mentioning if R&AW aided LTTE against IPKF or why the IPKF was supplied with poor intelligence. Or was it the colossal failure of R&AW. Another important area where Raman has avoided is fate of Netaji Subash chandra Bose or Raman does not know about it.

The book gives good insight of the life of a field agent of R&AW.

The book is intended to bring out Raman’s experiences in R&AW or a clever way to bring to notice of R&AW’s maladies to open debate or justification of existence of R&AW, only B Raman can tell.

However the book is highly recommended for reading.

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Dhruvs with Shakti engine and weapons make maiden flight

The Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) Dhruv, the technology showpiece of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), soared to greater heights with the more powerful Shakti engine and in weaponised role.

The inaugural flights of Dhruv powered by Shakti engine and loaded with weapons took place at HAL’s Helicopter Division in Bangalore on Thursday.

Addressing the media after impressive maiden flights, HAL Chairman Mr Ashok K. Baweja said that a simulator school will be set up by next September along with CAE, Canada with common modules of training, though primarily for ALH.

The ALH has the utility and weaponised variants, and while conceptualizing the latter, there was a need for a more powerful engine for the additional payload of weapons, especially while operating at high altitude. “The Shakti engine, developed jointly by Turbomeca (French) and HAL, develops almost 30 per cent more power compared to the TM 333-2B2 engine, with 19 per cent content of Indian development,” Mr Baweja said.

The new engine is likely to get the certification by January next year, after carriage trials, butt firing and air firing besides various other trials. “The weapons are being integrated on the variant. We are doing everything to make it (weaponised Dhruv) a lethal platform for the military services,’’ he said, adding that the ALH would provide the right solution for the forces’ strategy.

After introducing the ALH in 2002, phenomenal improvements have been made after incorporating feedback from the users – Army, Air Force, Navy and Coast Guard, who have operationalised the aircraft and flown it over the desert, sea and high mountains. “The ALH today is different from when it was introduced in 2002,’’ the Chairman added. Improvements include the glass cockpit, weapons and new engine.

“The current order book for the ALH is large and the number of helicopters required is clearly indicative of its excellent performance,” Mr Baweja added.

On the Light Combat Helicopter (LCH), Mr Baweja said that the copter will be of tandem seating and capable of operating at very high altitudes. The LCH is likely to make its inaugural flight sometime in August next year. On the LCA Tejas project, Mr Baweja said that the LSP began in March and HAL was committed to deliver the aircraft on time.

The Hawk production would start shortly and the first batch of the Advanced Jet Trainers would be handed over to the customer early April 2008. “Existing infrastructure will be used for Hawk production after winding up Jaguar operations and the LCA manufacture too will pick up full steam. There will also be new hangars for the Hawks and LCA. The order book is firm and the Company is moving ahead with a clear vision for the next 5 to 10 years,” the Chairman said.

New programmes like the heavy cargo lift and new generation fighter coming up, HAL too has changed its strategy of business, keeping in mind the multiplicity of tasks involved. Four divisions will be dedicated to helicopters.

Replying to a query on Dhruv’s export potential, Mr Baweja said that the primary focus would be to set up maintenance facilities and cater to the domestic market first, taking into account the huge requirements.

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