India, Spain join hands for defence cooperation

India and Spain on Wednesday signed an agreement on 'Mutual Protection of Classified Information' to provide the framework for enhanced cooperation in the defence sector.

The agreement was signed following an hour long meeting between visiting Spanish Defence Minister Pedro Moremes and his Indian counterpart Manohar Parrikar, defence sources said.

The Spanish delegation evinced a clean interest in participating in the `Make in India` initiative of the government in the defence sector, they said.

Explaining the agreement signed, sources said that this is the primary pact that a country agrees to before embarking on deeper talks on defence cooperation.

They said that the Spanish side was interested and "enamoured" by the `Make in India` initiative and raised a number of questions on the opportunity ahead.

Spain has over the years acquired expertise in various fields of the defence sector.

Sources said Spanish companies are interested in being part of the P75I, a project under which India plans to build six conventional submarines.

Both sides also agreed to work on enhancing bilateral defence cooperation.

The Spanish Defence minister had last arrived in India in 2012 as part of the delegation led by the King of Spain. This is his first stand-alone visit as the defence minister to India. However, Moremes has visited India a number of times for trekking and mountaineering.

Indian Navy to acquire 50 drones for intelligence purposes

The navy is planning to acquire 50 shipborne drones for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions as part of its effort to boost maritime security.

"We want to have such a capability and want to know what kind of products are available in the market," defence sources said.

At present, the navy operates two squadrons of Israeli- origin Heron and Searcher Mk-II UAVs which are based in Kochi and Porbandar.

The force, which had recently issued a request for information (RFI) seeking details about naval shipborne unmanned aerial system (NSUAS), feels that with such drones, the range of the machines can be increased.

The sources said NSUAS should have the capabality of operation from ships of size of at least 50 metres (with or without 'helo' deck) and be able to perform during night conditions as well.

The navy wants these drones to be capable of flying either pre­programmed or operator-initiated missions guided by the Global Positioning System and its onboard flight control system.

NSUAS is primarily intended for operations from ship, but should also be capable of operating from ashore, the sources said.

Indian Navy seeks to buy ship-borne UAVs

Seeking to enhance its surveillance capabilities on its warships, the Indian Navy (IN) has now announced a global competition for procuring ‘Ship-Borne Unmanned Aerial Vehicles’ (UAV) that can augment various patrolling and search-related tactics on its vessels. The IN currently operates two squadrons of UAVs, but they are land-based platforms operating from naval air stations in Gujarat and Kerala.

The Request for Information (RFI), issued by the Directorate of Naval Air Staff (DNAS) last month seeks 50 Naval Shipborne Unmanned Aerial System (NSUAS) for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) and monitoring of Sea Lines of Communication (SLOC), Exclusive Economic Zone safety, anti-piracy and anti-terrorism functions along with Search and Rescue (S&R) roles, naval officials said. At present, the IN operates two squadrons of Israeli-origin Heron and Searcher Mk.II UAVs at the Indian Naval Air Station (INAS) 342 at Kochi and INAS 343 at Porbandar in Gujarat.

“However, the smaller UAVs launched from ships increases the vessels’ surveillance range. They also enhance the ship’s communication with other friendly vessels by relaying signals, especially from the Rukmani, the dedicated naval communications satellite. It is part of a larger intertwining communications network in a naval manoeuvre coordinating with other aircraft, ships and satellites.

An important function is also to track the trajectories of friendly missiles towards their targets,” explained an IN source. One such NSUAS was also tested here when the Austrian make Schiebel S-100 Camcopter being launched from an Indian Coast Guard ship a few years ago.

While the RFI does not specify the type of ‘recovery’ provision — whether ‘assisted’ or ‘auto’ for the UAV — it does stipulate that the craft should also be capable of operating from ashore, although it is primarily intended to be controlled from ships. According to defence industry sources, Boeing firm Insitu is one of the interested companies, looking forward to pitch their ScanEagle NSUAS.

Various technical queries in the RFI the interested bidders are expected to answer also includes questions on whether the system’s control can be handed over from one ship to the other and whether the control station can be miniaturised into a ‘stand alone laptop control’, indicating the IN’s needs for a versatile platform.

India now puts 3rd Aircraft Carrier plan on fast track

India is trying to fast-track finalization of its long-pending ambitious plan to launch indigenous construction of its largest-ever aircraft carrier. Though the propulsion system for the proposed 65,000-tonne warship is yet to be decided, the plan is veering towards nuclear power for greater operational endurance.

The ongoing "detailed" naval study for this indigenous aircraft carrier-II (IAC-II) project has gained urgency since the ageing 56-year-old INS Viraat -- quite toothless now with just 11 Sea Harrier jump-jets left to operate from its deck -- will be retired next year.

India has to plan ahead since it will take at least 10-12 years to construct IAC-II, which will be christened INS Vishal, if it wants to systematically build military capabilities to counter China's expanding long-range naval deployments in the Indian Ocean Region, say officials.

China, after inducting its first 65,000-tonne aircraft carrier Liaoning in September 2012, already has a second one under construction and two more are in the pipeline to further bolster its expanding maritime power. Aircraft carriers, with their accompanying warships and aircraft, after all, are the ultimate symbols of military power projection around the globe.

"INS Viraat will be decommissioned after the International Fleet Review in Vizag in February 2016. It will not be cost-effective to go in for another major refit of INS Viraat, which was inducted from the UK in May 1987," said an officer.

This will leave the Navy with just one aircraft carrier, the 44,400-tonne INS Vikramaditya, the refurbished Admiral Gorshkov inducted from Russia at a cost of $2.33 billion in November 2013. The 40,000-tonne IAC-I or INS Vikrant being built at Cochin Shipyard will be ready for induction only by 2018-2019 after a long delay.

The construction of INS Vishal will also not be an easy task. It will take a few more months to "finalize the exact tonnage and the type of propulsion, aircraft and other parameters" for IAC-II. "The government will then have to take the final call," said another officer.

But the carrier will definitely have CATOBAR (catapult assisted take-off but arrested recovery) configuration for launching fighters as well as heavier aircraft from its deck. Towards this end, India has already asked the US to share technology for EMALS (electromagnetic aircraft launch systems), developed by General Atomics, under the bilateral Defence Trade and Technology Initiative, as reported by TOI earlier.

INS Viraat, INS Vikramaditya and INS Vikrant all have angled ski-jumps for fighters to take off under their own power in STOBAR (short take-off but arrested recovery) operations. "This limits the carrier operations to only fighters like MiG-29Ks. With CATOBAR, IAC-II will also be able handle more as well as heavier aircraft for surveillance, early-warning, electronic warfare and other operations," he said.

The importance of carrier battle-groups can be gauged from the fact that one such task-force can "control" around 200,000 square nautical miles of ocean area, and is capable of moving over 600 nautical miles a day. "The self-contained CBGs are the most versatile platforms of military power available," he said.

12 minesweepers to be Made In India by GSL Shipyard - Goa

Coinciding with a modest 7.74% hike in defence spending, the ministry of defence (MoD) on Saturday awarded a major contract to the state-run Goa Shipyard Limited (GSL), to manufacture 12 mine counter-measure vessels (MCMVs) at the cost of nearly Rs 32,000 crore. Besides, with the finance minister Arun Jaitley allocating Rs 94,588 crore for procuring armaments, the ministry also moved to procure 38 Pilatus basic trainer aircraft for the Indian Air Force from Switzerland.

Both the decisions were taken at a meeting of the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) chaired by defence minister Manohar Parrikar, that lasted nearly three hours. Sources said the government has also approved the purchase of a C-130J Super Hercules aircraft at a cost of Rs 533 crore. This purchase will be a replacement of one of these aircraft that crashed in Gwalior in March last year.

The IAF has set its requirement at 181 trainer aircraft out of which 59 Pilatus PC-7 aircraft have already been inducted. A source said besides buying Pilatus , the remaining requirement of training aircraft for the IAF will be met disingenuously by the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) by redeveloping the Hindustan Turbo Trainer (HTT)-40 aircraft. “Adequate orders will have to be given to HAL to make this a commercially viable project. Also this project will be monitored by a committee that will give periodic reports to DAC,” said the source.

It was expected that DAC will take a decision on the bid by Airbus-TATA consortium to replace the ageing Avro transport aircraft fleet of the IAF with C-295 transport carriers. However, the council couldn’t reach any final decision.

The meeting also failed to take decision on US-2i amphibious aircraft purchase from Japan. “This will need further discussion and the defence minister has asked for more information over this,” the source added.

Where Is India’s Carrier Fleet Going?

India is pushing hard on its carrier fleet, but does it have a good sense of where it’s going?

Reports have emerged that India’s second indigenously built carrier, expected to be the third carrier to enter service in the next two decades, may utilize nuclear propulsion. This is alongside a set of other innovations that the Vishal might adopt, including EMALS catapult technology (possibly developed in association with the United States). India has taken strides on nuclear propulsion recently, with the launch of INS Arihant, its first domestically constructed nuclear submarine.

Why would India need a nuclear powered aircraft carrier? Nuclear power doesn’t eliminate the need for local basing (even the all-nuclear task forces the USN assembled in the 1970s and 1980s required support vessels for repair and munitions), although it does reduce a task force’s overall requirements. Countries that build nuclear aircraft carriers (a group that currently includes only the United States and France) typically have either worldwide military responsibilities or worldwide military ambitions. By decreasing fueling requirements, nuclear power increases range and improves operational tempo.

But that’s only particularly useful if India expects to conduct high intensity carrier operations at some distance from its home waters. And as of the moment, it’s hard to envision missions in which nuclear power would prove decisive. The most plausible contingency might involve some kind of extended deployment in the Pacific, but it’s a struggle to figure out why the Indian Navy would seek to decisively engage the PLAN (or whomever else it might want to fight) in the Pacific, rather than astride China’s maritime supply lines in the Indian Ocean.

It also means that the maintenance, training, and operational requirements of India’s three carriers will diverge even more. India is effectively pursuing a naval aviation program that will struggle to share aircraft, pilots, and sailors. And until India’s second nuclear carrier comes on line (some sources suggest interest in an overall fleet of five flattops), INS Vishal will be the only of the three ships capable of conducting the missions that nuclear propulsion allows.

None of this is to say that the Indian Navy should eschew nuclear propulsion. But it should do so for good strategic and operational reasons. Even the United Kingdom, a country which does understand itself to have global military responsibilities, has decided against nuclear power for its carriers. If India is considering nuclear propulsion, it will need to think very hard about the kind of long-distance logistics that are necessary to support a CVN.

Russia asked to prove single engine landing of MiG-29K on INS Vikramaditya

The Indian Navy has reportedly asked Russia to prove single engine landing of the MiG-29K on the INS Vikramaditya aircraft carrier as a safety measure in case one of the two engine fails on India’s only carrier based fighter.

The Hindu newspaper reported last week that the Russian side will be carrying out the proving trials on its own carrier in Russia, Admiral Kuznetsov.

Quoting an unnamed Indian official, the report said, “The aircraft is just too good and has a very powerful engine. To allay the fears of pilots, we have asked Russian Aircraft Corporation MiG to prove single-engine landing of MiG-29 K on board the Russian carrier Admiral Kuznetsov. This will happen in a fortnight.”

India has received some 23 MiG29K and MiG29KUB fighters from Russia so far. The latter are the two seater trainer versions. A further six are to be delivered this year followed by an equal number next year, sources from RAC MiG said.

Speaking to Defenseworld.net on the sidelines of the Aero India airshow in Bangalore last week, General Director of RAC MiG Sergei Korotkov said that the expanding carrier based operations of the Indian Navy will mean an increase in the requirements for the MiG-39 in future.

These aircraft need to be based on a shore facility and flown to the aircraft carrier and back. With the Indian Navy announcing a new air base on the east coast of India, a need may arise for additional fighters, he added.