Indian Defence and Strategic News Thread

[Adux]

SPECIAL FEATURE: DRDO - GOLDEN JUBILEE YEAR

Arming India

T.S. SUBRAMANIAN


The DRDO and its scientists battled embargoes and technology-denial regimes and achieved for India self-reliance in critical technologies.





BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Prithvi-II, launched at the Integrated Test Range in Chandipur on May 23, 2008.
IT was a moment of great joy commingled with a sense of tremendous achievement. The atmosphere had earlier been tense at the Launch Control Centre (LCC) on Wheeler Island, off the coast of Orissa, on December 6, 2007. An “enemy” missile had taken off from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur-on-sea, 80 km across the sea from Wheeler Island. Radars at Konark and Paradip tracked the “enemy” and within five minutes an interceptor missile lifted off from Wheeler Island. As the young missile technologists scanned the computer consoles, which plotted the trajectories of the two missiles, there was tension in the air.
Suddenly, as the interceptor missile smashed into the “enemy” missile and made “a hit to kill” at an altitude of 15 km, applause rang out. The young technologists – men and women – went into a delirium. For a few minutes, the LCC reverberated with their shouts of “DRDO zindabad”, “Long live DRDO”, and “We shall overcome”.
Cut back to New Delhi. As you enter “Darpan”, what strikes you is how tastefully the exhibition has been set up. There are superbly crafted models of various missiles, the main battle tank (MBT) “Arjun”, the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) “Tejas”, infantry combat vehicles, the unmanned aerial vehicle “Nishant”, the pilotless target aircraft “Lakshya”, radars, rifles and baffle firing ranges.
Also on display are bullet-proof jackets; laser guns; parachutes; instruments to detect and measure radiation; a full-sized protective suit against nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) warfare agents; light-weight foldable stretcher; water decontamination kit in case of an NBC fallout, ready-to-eat products; and ayurvedic cream to combat frostbite, suffered by soldiers deployed in Siachen.
Technological prowess

Darpan at once showcases the technological prowess of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and the astonishing range of high-technology products that it has equipped the Indian Army, the Indian Navy and the Indian Air Force (IAF) with. The DRDO, one of the finest models for defence research and development (R&D) organisations in the world, is celebrating its golden jubilee this year. Defence Minister A.K. Antony inaugurated the celebrations on January 9. What began as a small organisation with 10 laboratories on January 1, 1958, has grown into an empire today with 50 laboratories in different parts of India and a workforce of 30,000 that includes 7,000 scientists and 12,000 technical personnel. Its annual budget now is around Rs.7,000 crore.
Be it in the DRDO’s headquarters, Recruitment and Assessment Centre, string of life science laboratories, Laser Science and Technology Centre, Defence Institute of Physiology and Life Sciences (all in New Delhi), missile complex (Hyderabad), Electronics and Radar Development Establishment (LRDE), Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (both in Bangalore), Instruments Research and Development Establishment (Dehra Dun) or Combat Vehicle Research and Development Establishment at Avadi (Chennai), there is a powerful sense of achievement among its scientists and technologists. For they battled embargoes and technology denial regimes aimed at India and achieved self-reliance in critical technologies vital to India’s defence. M. Natarajan, Scientific Advisor to the Defence Minister and Director-General of the DRDO, said, “We have today proven competence to produce strategic and state-of-the-art military hardware and related technologies in diverse disciplines such as aeronautics, missiles, naval systems, combat vehicles and armaments, electronics, life sciences and materials.”
The range of activities of DRDO laboratories is staggering. It includes setting the criteria for the selection of soldiers to the Army or pilots for the IAF, developing yoga packages for troops deployed in Leh or Siachen; formulating nutritious ration scales for submarine crew or pupils of Sainik Schools, achieving cutting-edge technologies in G radars, lasers and carbon nano tubes; building robots that can climb a staircase, enter a room and retrieve a chemical warfare agent; developing the most sophisticated software for interceptor missiles; fabricating autonomous underwater vehicles; and developing bio-diesel, smart materials, stealth technologies, transgenic tomatoes and hybrid milch animals.
The DRDO has equipped the Services with a family of missiles, battle tanks, infantry combat vehicles, bridge-laying tanks, mine-clearing vehicles, armoured ambulances, the Pinaka multi-barrel rocket launching system (MBRLS), propellants, high explosives, NBC defence systems, life-support technologies, underground shelters for use in NBC warfare, desalination plants, parachutes, carbogen kits for combating noise-induced hearing loss and so on.
W. Selvamurthy, Chief Controller, R&D (Life Sciences and Human Resources), DRDO, said, “We enter the golden jubilee year with the satisfaction of having delivered different systems to the armed forces and with the commitment that we will provide more equipment to the Services in the years to come. The vision of the DRDO is to empower India with cutting-edge defence technologies and equip our Services with internationally competitive systems.”
According to Selvamurthy, the value of production orders placed on DRDO-developed systems stood at more than Rs.30,000 crore in the past 10 years. “If we had imported, it would have cost three times more. This is our technology and we can upgrade it any time. It is our industries which have produced them,” he added. Of the Rs.30,000 crore worth of orders, about Rs.12,500 crore worth of production was executed by public sector defence undertakings, ordnance factories and other industries and the systems have been inducted into the armed forces.
The DRDO has three missions: to design, develop and lead to production state-of-the-art defence systems and technologies; to provide technological solutions to the armed forces in order to optimise their combat readiness; to build a strong, indigenous technology base; and to foster quality workforce.

K. ANANTHAN

W. Selvamurthy: "We will provide more equipment to the services in the years to come."
The 50 laboratories and their disciplines, which aim at achieving these missions, can be categorised into six clusters: aeronautics, missiles, electronics, armaments and naval systems, strategic systems, materials and life sciences.
The DRDO had its genesis as a small agency to advise the Services on the technologies they might require, the weapons they had to buy, the strategic planning they should do and the imports they might go in for. In the 1970s, the organisation’s activities widened to include reverse engineering – its engineers studied how weapon systems such as battle tanks, fighter aircraft or missiles had been built. “The 1980s was an important period when we launched into major R&D activities such as the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP), the Light Combat Aircraft, the main battle tank, electronic warfare systems and so on,” said Selvamurthy. It was also the period when a powerful triumvirate with a vision was at the helm: Indira Gandhi as Prime Minister, R. Venkataraman as Defence Minister and V.S. Arunachalam as the Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister. All these projects were approved in the 1980s itself and the DRDO busied itself with intense activity. From then on, the organisation grew exponentially.
In the 1990s, DRDO laboratories developed technologies and subsystems. Integration of systems took place after evaluation of prototypes and field trials. Today, the LCA has been flown about 800 times; Arjun has been inducted into the Army; the IGMDP has come to fruition and the electronic warfare systems have been delivered to the armed forces.
A series of recent successes have boosted the DRDO’s stock. The launch of a missile from Tejas was the first step in the weaponisation of this state-of-the-art combat aircraft. It has an additional fuel tank now, which will increase its endurance. It has crossed several milestones on its way to initial operational clearance in 2010. Natarajan called the LCA project “a truly national endeavour” in which a number of agencies, including Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, were involved. Agni-III, India’s intermediate range ballistic missile, was successfully launched from Wheeler Island on April 12, 2007.
Two other big successes were the launches of the interceptor missiles, first in November 2006 and again in December 2007. These events constitute India’s first step towards setting up a defence shield. On February 26, the DRDO launched a missile fired from a pontoon, which simulated the conditions of a submarine, off the coast of Visakhapatnam. “These achievements have propelled India into an elite club of technologically advanced countries,” said Natarajan. The DRDO laboratories involved in the development of these missiles were the Advanced Systems Laboratory, the Research Centre Imarat and the Defence Research and Development Laboratory, all located in Hyderabad.
The Aerial Delivery Research and Development Establishment (ADRDE) in Agra has designed and developed a number of parachutes, aerostat systems, aircraft arrester barrier systems and floatation devices for military and civilian applications. These parachutes can be used to drop soldiers, tanks, vehicles and food in combat zones. The ADRDE’s parachutes and floatation system helped in bringing back the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) recoverable satellite, the Space Capsule Recovery Experiment, in January 2007. With three parachutes opening one after another and the floatation device coming into action, the satellite landed in ship-shape condition in the Bay of Bengal, off the Chennai coast.
Family of radars

The LRDE, Bangalore and other laboratories have developed a family of radars for various applications. They include the Indra PC radar, the Rajendra phased array radar, the battlefield surveillance radar (BFSR), the weapon-locating radar, the maritime patrol radar, the 2-D surveillance radar for mountain terrain “Bharani”, and the 3-D surveillance radar “Aslesha”.
N. Sitaram, Chief Controller, R&D Electronics and Computer Sciences, said: “Bharani can look at flying aircraft. It can track unmanned aerial vehicles up to a range of 50 km. The Army is happy with Bharani. It is designed for mountainous terrain. Aslesha is for the IAF. The BFSR can be used by the Army and the IAF. It can also be used by big industrial complexes to protect their perimeter.”
Sitaram called the Rajendra radar “revolutionary” because its development helped the DRDO get into the phased array concept. Rajendra, used as part of the Akash system, can track targets and guide the surface-to-air missile to its target. For use in electronic warfare, the DRDO has developed two important systems (radars): “Samyukta” for the Army and “Sangraha” for the Navy. In naval systems, the DRDO deals primarily in three areas: sonars, torpedoes and new materials. It has developed an array of sonars – Nagan, Humsa, Ushus and Mihir – to be used in underwater acoustics. A major power programme for fuel-cell driven power for submarines is to be launched.

V.V. KRISHNAN

Minister of State for Defence Pallam Raju with an INSAS rifle after inaugurating an exhibition on March 24 in New Delhi, highlighting the DRDO’s achievements.
In combat vehicles and engineering (CV and E) cluster, DRDO laboratories have built a family of combat vehicles, with the production of Arjun being one of the most important developments in the field. Fourteen Arjuns have already been handed over to the Army and 35 more are ready at the Heavy Vehicles Factory at Avadi to be given to the Army. The Ajeya battle tank is an improvement over the T-72 tank.
The CV and E group has built armoured ambulances, bullet-proof vehicles, infantry combat vehicles, armoured amphibious vehicles, bridge-laying tanks, self-propelled mine-layers, mine-clearing vehicles and so on.
R. Shankar, Director, CV and E, said: “We have developed stabilised platforms for launching Prithvi, Agni, Akash and BrahMos missiles. We fabricated the ground support system for fuel-filling for missiles. We did the tracked vehicle for Akash. All vehicles of all missiles have been developed by us. There is no missile that is fired without our involvement…. Our group has given the target number of equipment to the Army.” DRDO has developed several materials, including Kanchan armour, among the strongest in the world, for Arjun; AB steel for building weapon platforms in ships; composites for use in the nose-cone of Agni ballistic missiles, and titanium sponge.
The DRDO has fostered capability at the national level, working with more than 800 private industries, ordnance factories and public sector defence undertakings in manufacturing products and developing prototypes, components and subsystems. It is also partnering with the Indian Institutes of Technologies and the National Institutes of Technologies in several projects. Besides promoting basic and applied research in universities, it has helped several of them set up schools of excellence.
The areas in which DRDO laboratories will now focus include multi-role fifth generation fighter aircraft, unmanned combat air vehicles, air-to-air missiles, hypersonic vehicles, airborne electronic warfare, precision-guided munitions, unmanned ground vehicles, and autonomous underwater vehicles.
Selvamurthy said, “We will strengthen further our core competence in battle tanks, aeronautics, missiles and life sciences. In defence technology, we have been able to change the scenario of India being an importer to a developer, and we will become an exporter in the coming years.”

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/storie...9251704000.htm

[Adux]

SPECIAL FEATURE: DRDO - GOLDEN JUBILEE YEAR

Wonderful range

T.S. SUBRAMANIAN


Interview with M. Natarajan, Director General, DRDO, and Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister.




V.V. KRISHNAN

M. Natarajan: "For the country to progress the DRDO and the industry have to sing a duet."
ON the occasion of the golden jubilee celebrations of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), which began on January 9, Frontline met M. Natarajan, Director General, DRDO, and Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister.
Natarajan, who joined the DRDO in 1970, has worked on several important projects including the design and development of tracked vehicles. He was associated with the development of the main battle tank Arjun from its inception and became its Programme Director in 1987. Hard work from him and his team led to India having the self-propelled gun system Bhim.
Before becoming the Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister, Natarajan was Chief Controller, Research and Development (Armaments and Combat Engineering), at DRDO headquarters in New Delhi.
During this period, he ensured the acceptance of Pinaka, the multi-barrel rocket launcher system, by the Army after exhaustive field trials. He also contributed to the mechanical systems of the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas. Natarajan was earlier the Director of the Combat Vehicles Research and Development Establishment (CVRDE), which developed Arjun, at Avadi in Chennai.
A mechanical engineer, Natarajan has a B.Tech from Indian Institute of Technology Madras and an M.Tech from IIT Bombay. He also has an M.S. in military vehicle technology from the Royal Military College of Science in the United Kingdom. Excerpts from the interview:
The DRDO is celebrating its golden jubilee this year. What is its road map, say, for the next 25 years?

The DRDO is one arm of the Ministry of Defence devoted to science and technology development. We get a small portion of the defence budget, which is at present around 6.13 per cent. What is not known to many is that 40 per cent of the DRDO’s budget goes towards the development of strategic systems, essential for the country to maintain the requisite balance in defence preparedness. Close to a third of our budget goes towards salaries, infrastructure and training. So what most people know about the DRDO is based either on an appreciation or depreciation of one-third of our budget, spent on the development of the tactical systems for our armed forces.
The DRDO, with its chain of 50 laboratories, is specialising in a wide range of disciplines from life sciences to aerospace. When you list them in terms of sciences, engineering and technology, they may number more than the DRDO laboratories. However, the number of DRDO scientists and technical staff is too meagre to cater for the entire spectrum of products required by the armed forces.
This must be appreciated because this is not understood even by those in authority. We are a small team. Therefore, we have to stay focussed on select areas and this is what we are trying to define to the government that the remaining has to be acquired by industries or through other channels. There are many good defence public sector undertakings and ordnance factories, which have matured over the years, and they could supply certain products to the armed forces either through their own development or in collaboration with others. This will supplement DRDO laboratories as well.
This puts DRDO in a tight spot as to how it should strike a balance between what it wants to develop, its aspirations for carrying technology forward in niche areas, and how to network with the industry.
Take for example, aeronautics. We are into a programme for the LCA. What started off as one project has become three: LCA for the Indian Air Force [IAF] and the Navy and a trainer version of the LCA. This trainer will be far superior to the Hawk, with the kind of advanced features that it will have, especially in avionics….
Naturally, when we draw a road map, we see the fructification of these three taking us to a medium combat aircraft, a multi-role combat aircraft with fifth generation technologies, where there can be commonality of parts with LCA in avionics or radar, and eventually, 15 years from now, building an unmanned aerial combat vehicle [UACV].
Range of vehicles

So, if one looks at just this spectrum of vehicles, five in number, I see a good potential to build all together, about 1,000 aircraft, over a period of time. The LCA could be 400 in number for the IAF, 100 for the Navy; the trainer could be 150; the medium combat aircraft 250; and 100-150 for the UACVs.
Since the design is ours, with a largely open architecture system, we have the comfort of adding values in avionics, radar systems, control and guidance systems as we go along, besides making improvements in the materials for construction, particularly in composites and the manufacturing processes thereof.
With the limited team we have today, including our partners in the industry, even to accomplish this will be an achievement. I, therefore, do not see any conflict between what the HAL [Hindustan Aeronautics Limited] and the private industries will have to do in jointly developing military transport aircraft, helicopters, cargo-lifters and heavy combat aircraft such as Sukhoi because these are the spectrum of aircraft that the IAF will need.
Likewise, we have taken airborne early warning and control [AEW&C] system on a smaller platform such as the Embraer aircraft. [The AEW&C system will be integrated to the EMB-145 aircraft for India by 2011.] It has got limited range, may be 250-300 km. But we will stay focussed in building the AEW&C radar indigenously, including its essential systems such as transmitter-receiver modules, antennae and the entire processing apart from its navigation, communication and intelligence mechanisms, including electronic warfare systems that it may feature.
Is the DRDO attempting to build all this capability?


AFP

A soldier in Siachen. The DRDO has developed various technologies to help soldiers face extreme conditions.
Yes. At the moment, we are building only two or three AEW&Cs. But we see a good potential for this to be used by the Navy and the Coast Guard, besides the IAF, and may be later by the Army aviation along the coast and the borders. The technology elements that will be learnt through this process will enable us to integrate or network this in the bigger systems obtained from abroad. This is the second type of capability we are generating. [The first type is the spectrum of vehicles.]
The third is Nishant, the unmanned aerial vehicle we have built. It has done very well. But we are struggling to produce it in numbers because the production partner is not yet identified. The [DRDO] laboratory is doing the production. We are looking forward to encouraging greater private participation so that more Nishants can be produced in a shorter span of time.
As we graduate, we are going to take up a project, the medium altitude long-endurance aircraft [version] of the UAV, in which we would like to bring in an Indian company, either private or public or a consortium, in the design phase itself so that it can become the builder of this system and pick up the domain knowledge associated with such equipment. There are good prospects for doing this today.
If this experiment succeeds, and I am sure it will, given the efforts that the DRDO is taking, we can build high-altitude UAVs, which will be required in reasonable numbers by the country. If all these are to succeed, technologies in distinct areas such as control and guidance, flight control systems, avionics systems, electronic warfare systems, airborne radars and so on will have to be concurrently developed. Efforts are on in most of these technologies and they are in different stages of development.
Are efforts under way in these areas in the DRDO?

In DRDO. If you build and test your own systems, you will be on a much stronger wicket in future to seek a meaningful collaboration for joint development. From what I have described, you can see what wonderful opportunities will open up for Indian industry, if only it has the patience and perseverance to get into domain knowledge and demonstrate its initiative and business acumen to carry forward these tasks. For the country to progress, the DRDO and industry have to sing a duet. I am hopeful it will happen.
What do you have to say to the criticism of time and cost overruns in several projects?

Let me be frank. If you look at most of our developmental programmes, I agree that we have taken two or three-fold more time than envisaged. But during the same period, there has been a continual upgrading of technology. The difficulty was that because of the delay, there was a moving goalpost. But while trying to reach the moving goalpost, we tried to upgrade the technology.
The problem was that for these first-off systems, the technology readiness level was inadequate and certain technologies had to be concurrently developed. This is true of any country that ventures to build systems for the first time.
Most people take note of a numerically quoted figure of the project value and the start date, a closing figure and a closing date, and try to decode a multiplication factor thereof, and say that the project cost had gone up by so many times. This is a simplistic way of passing judgement that does not speak the truth.
Financial pundits will say that the time-delay is a cost-escalation even if all other things are perfect. I agree, but the way to judge these projects is not this. When you manufacture a product, you have a production run over a period of time. If you can justify the amortisation of the development [of the product] and it comes to a reasonable figure, consistent with the product of that type, there is every reason to be satisfied with it.
We have reasons to believe that our amortisations are pitifully low compared to many countries in the development arena. For example, if you take the INSAS [Indian National Small Arms System] rifle developed by the DRDO, about a million rifles have been produced until now. We spent less than Rs.20 crore to perfect it.
Rs.20 crore in modifying it?

No. It was the project cost. That is all. But we gave a production worth more than Rs.2,500 crore. What was amortisation [in this]? Just 1 per cent. Even if you take Arjun – I am deliberately quoting two extreme-end projects – we spent less than Rs.400 crore on its development. In a country that ends up building just 300 of these tanks – not a big number – you are talking of a production turnover close to Rs.5,000 crore. For a product [Arjun] of such complexity, its amortisation was ridiculously low.
Likewise, take the LCA, its project cost today is close to Rs.6,000 crore. Even if you spend another Rs.1,000 crore for adding some developmental entities, it will be Rs.7,000 crore. If you build 400 aircraft, – an aircraft today costs Rs.150 crore – it equals Rs.60,000 crore. The amortisation is just about 10 per cent. Worldwide, it is more than 25-30 per cent. Besides, the unit cost of any indigenously developed product is invariably favourable compared with the cost of any individual, imported equipment.
I want to assure you that while the DRDO will take its share of blame – it is not the only entity to be blamed – there are others in the decision-making process. Yet, I would not wish to pass on the blame to them. I take the blame for the delay but we are giving products at a reasonable cost and they can be sourced at economical prices.
Those in the industry and those who have had exposure to the DRDO know this well and there is no surprise that all big industries want to jump on to the defence bandwagon. I am sure Indian industries are now maturing through greater exposure to opportunities opening up for them and are seeing opportunities for capitalising on the DRDO’s knowledge and technology.
What the government spends on the DRDO is nothing but a subsidy to Indian industry, be it private, public or an ordnance factory. So DRDO sincerely looks forward to the day when industry, with its business acumen, knows how to capitalise on the DRDO.
The DRDO has come of age in missile development. How do you assess the success of the underwater missile Sagarika, the interceptor missile, Agni-II, Agni-I and Agni-III, Prithvi, Akash, Nag and BrahMos?

To the outside world, they may look like sudden successes. But there are no instant successes in a scientific activity. It is sustained effort and commitment in different disciplines that go into the integration of a missile, which has culminated in the success of a number of missile systems.
Elemental Technologies

Many elemental technologies that go into missiles, such as propulsion systems, airframe design, navigation, command and control systems, guidance systems, warheads and re-entry where applicable – all have reached a maturity for a given design and for the level of technology that we have planned so far. They have been integrated into successful systems. It is like a perfect meal…. It is difficult to describe whether these missions are entirely scientific or partly art.
The challenge now will be to take forward the technological gains by making improvements in each elemental technology, which will cumulatively give us advantages in terms of longer-range, lesser-weight, more-efficient propulsion, compact and reliable margins and so on. I am sure that all this will happen in the coming decade with newer seekers, fibre optics, ring-laser gyros, light-weight, high-strength materials, and polymeric materials in propulsion systems.

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/storie...9251704400.htm

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SPECIAL FEATURE: DRDO - GOLDEN JUBILEE YEAR

Ready responses





ONE key area where the Defence Research and Development Organisation has achieved success is threat from nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) weapons.
The stockpile of nuclear weapons/warheads in the world is around 3,150. There is the threat of NBC weapons falling into the hands of terrorists or accidents taking place in storage complexes or during the transportation of radioactive material. Given this scenario, the DRDO has given a thrust to developing technologies to defend the civilian population and the armed forces. The DRDO has developed about 40 systems and products to counter NBC threats and they relate to detection, protection, decontamination and medical management. The Directorate of Materials has been the nodal agency for the NBC defence programmes since 1986.
The Defence Laboratory (D.L.) has developed instruments to detect nuclear radiation. They include the radiac personal locket dosimeter for measuring gamma and neutron doses received by a soldier; the pocket dosimeter; the portable dose rate meter; and roentgenometer for measuring the radiation received by the crew of an armoured vehicle. The Quick Reaction Teams (QRTs) would carry sensors and a circular slide to help them decide how far they can go into an NBC-contaminated environment and how long they can stay there to rescue people.
W. Selvamurthy, Chief Controller, R&D (Life Sciences and Human Resources), said, “We have developed a solid state anemometer, which will indicate whether the aerosol particles of nuclear radiation are spreading, the wind direction in which they are spreading and the wind’s velocity.” D.L. has developed a sensor for detecting the flash of light by nuclear explosion.
A tracked reconnaissance vehicle with gamma sensors will travel inside the contaminated zone, demarcate it, and communicate with commanders 20 km away for decisions about troop deployment. A mobile nuclear field laboratory will detect radiation in food.
A portable gas chromotograph can detect 20 chemical warfare agents such as sarin, tabun, sonum, sulphur mustard and nitrogen mustard. A three-coloured detector paper stuck on one’s dress, by change of colour, will indicate the presence of chemical warfare agents.
The DRDO has come up with vector control agents to combat biological agents transmitted through mosquitoes. A long-acting mosquito-repellent has been useful to soldiers in the North-East, where malaria is widespread. Two other products are a kit to detect water poisoning and a water purification system. Using reverse osmosis, but with a different filtering mechanism, the portable system can purify 5,000 litres of water in an hour.
The DMSRDE has developed NBC impermeable suits, over boots, face-let, haversacks, casualty bags and so on for QRTs and soldiers. The suits are under mass production at the Ordnance Factory, Kanpur. There are orders for 40,000 units, valued at Rs.40 crore.
The DRDO has devised collective shelters too. Thirty soldiers can go underground for four days in these integrated field shelters, which are self-contained. These have modules for living and servicing. The latter will have toilets, generators, air-handling units and so on. Also in the DRDO stable are unmanned ground and aerial vehicles to measure nuclear radiation.
T.S. Subramanian

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/storie...9251704300.htm

[Adux]

http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=3WKNXMlqBfQ

http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=Pjm37Ps1BxM

http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=HKK4Yvfaylo

[Adux]

Special Thanks to Kedar, from Fencecheck

Tanker callsign was Sword-21Heavy, and the Su-s which went out had Sword21, 22, and 23, and there was another Su with Raider-1.





F-15


C-130 which was the first to go out for tonight -


- Kedar

[Adux]

Indian Sub in Norway

Storfint ubåtbesøk

Her anløper den indiske ubåten Ins Sindhuvijay Tromsø.
MMS-foto: Charles Garden
Indisk ubåt gjester Tromsø.

[signatory]

Cool night pics there Adux.

BTW, that's Norway not Finland

[Adux]

Cool night pics there Adux.

BTW, that's Norway not Finland

A bit rusty after two days in the slammer by the Dark lords. My apologies.

[Adux]

Signatory,

Check out the Youtube links, Pretty darn nice.

[hapazard]

^^Well, eh....

[signatory]

Signatory,

Check out the Youtube links, Pretty darn nice.

Yeah I subscribe to his videos

[Adux]

From Indian Perspective, where the Armed Forces are inside some closed door, and the local enthusiast are not privy to their workings, pictures and others etc. All these 'opening up' by Indian Armed Forces lately and not to mention the internet is nothing less than amazing!

[perdurabo]

Indian Sub in Norway

Storfint ubåtbesøk

Her anløper den indiske ubåten Ins Sindhuvijay Tromsø.
MMS-foto: Charles Garden
Indisk ubåt gjester Tromsø.

Kilo proj. 877EKM?

[Adux]

Yes, On its way back from Russia, after upgrade, it is capable now of firing Land Attack Cruise Missiles, Klub.

[Adux]

Hawks Built in India Cost Less: Defence Ministry

NEW DELHI - India has built the British Hawk Advanced Jet Trainer (AJT) at facilities of state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) at rates nearly 20 percent less than those built by BAE Systems, said a senior Indian Defence Ministry official.

The first HAL-built Hawk is ready for delivery to the Indian Air Force on Aug. 14, the official said, adding that the cost of the HAL-built Hawk is about $14.2 million per aircraft while the Hawks built by BAE cost more than $20.2 million.

So far, BAE Systems has flown in 12 Hawks to India. The aircraft are stationed at Air Force Station Bidar, in the southern state of Karnataka. All 24 Hawks were to have been delivered by June, but that schedule has been delayed.