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Pak helps find bodies of pilots in Siachen

NEW DELHI: India and Pakistan may still be embroiled in the long-festering Siachen dispute but that did not stop Pakistani troops from aiding Indian soldiers in recovering the bodies of the two IAF pilots who were killed after their Cheetah helicopter crashed in the glacial heights on Wednesday morning.

The pilots, Squadron Leader S Basu and Flight Lieutenant Amit Sharma, had taken off from the Siachen base camp, which is at a height of 12,000 feet, for a "routine air maintenance sortie" at 6.30 am. "But radio contact with them was lost when they were trying to land at the forward Amar post helipad, at around 16,000 feet, on the northern glacier," said an official.

The helicopter apparently crashed across the Pakistani-controlled territory in the Actual Ground Position Line. The AGPL marks the relative positions of the Indian and Pakistani troops on the glacial heights. "It fell into a 1,000-feet deep crevasse, " said an official.

Though Army soldiers launched a rescue operation promptly, it was hampered by the heavy snowfall in the area. Finally, after taking the help of Pakistani authorities in "aerial and ground-based rescue operations", the bodies were found towards the late afternoon.

It then took a herculean effort on the part of the Indian Army soldiers to bring the bodies back to the Amar post helipad for evacuation by another helicopter. Army chief General J J Singh, in fact, expressed his "deep appreciation" for the efforts put in by his soldiers to retrieve the bodies in such forbidding terrain and height.

Helicopter crashes, of course, are nothing new. They have lost almost 50 helicopters, ranging from the ageing Russian 'Mi-8s' and British 'Sea Kings' to the French-origin 'Cheetahs' and 'Chetaks', over last six-seven years. The helicopter fleets in the armed forces are clearly ageing.

The Cheetah light-utility helicopters, based on the design of French "Alouettes" and 'Lama SA-315' choppers, for instance, were inducted in the 1970s. Around 250 of them were subsequently manufactured under licence by Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd till the 1980s.

The Cheetahs continue to be used to service forward locations, including outposts in Ladakh and Kashmir Himalayas, and for "patrol and reconnaissance missions" along the contentious LoC.

URI

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Body of Sea Harrier pilot recovered

PANAJI, APR 14 (PTI)

The body of Sea Harrier pilot Lt Commander Saurav Tiwari was recovered off-Goa coast today, over a week after the aircraft crashed mid-air in the Arabian sea.

Tiwari was piloting the Sea Harrier, along with another pilot, when it crashed mid-air in the Arabian sea on April five. Tiwari was missing since then.

Both the pilots had ejected from the aircraft before it busted into the flames and plunged into the sea.

Lt Commander Vikram Menon, who accompanied Tiwari, was rescued by fishermen few minutes after the crash.

"Lt Commander Tiwari's body was recovered from sea off Grandi island at 11:51 am today," Commandar N V Kesri, Public Relation Officer of the Navy, said here in a statement.

The naval ships Betwa, Nireekshak, Alleppey, Bitra, SDB 55 along with clearance diving unit Goa and National Hydro school took part in the search operation, it said.

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PSLV's first commercial launch successful

Sriharikota, PTI:

India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle(PSLV) successfully launched an Italian astronomical satellite, AGILE, marking India's first fully commercial launch.

PSLV-C8 blasted off into space carrying an Italian astronomical satellite, AGILE, from ISRO's Satish Dhawan Space Centre here today, marking India's first fully commercial launch.

Scientists cheered and loud applause was heard as the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, in its 11th flight, soared into the clear sky in a perfect lift-off around 3.30 pm from this space port, about 100 km north of Chennai.

Besides the 352 kg AGILE, the PSLV is also carrying ISRO's Advanced Avionics Module, weighing 185 kg, to flight-test advanced avionics such as mission computers, navigation and telemetry systems for use in future launch vehicles.

This is also the first time the PSLV is flying without the six strap-AMM and is only about 540 kg.

The 44-metre tall four-stage PSLV will put AGILE into orbit at 550 km above the earth. The satellite will be used to investigate gamma ray bursts, pulsars and supernova remnants.

PSLV had earlier launched six small foreign satellites into 550-800 km high polar sun synchronous orbits (SSO) from abroad for a nominal fee. This is the first fully commercial launch by the ISRO.

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29,000 dollars per kg

DH News Service Sriharikota:

Addressing a press conference after PSLV-C8 successfully put AGILE in a 549-km circular orbit at an angle of 2.47 deg to the equator, Mr Nair said the premium was charged because the launcher had to be stripped down and the orbit had to be precise.

Antrix Corporation, the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), has got a premium rate of US $29,000 a kg for the launch of the 352-kg Italian satellite AGILE from here, ISRO chairman Madhavan Nair said on Monday.

Addressing a press conference after PSLV-C8 successfully put AGILE in a 549-km circular orbit at an angle of 2.47 deg to the equator, Mr Nair said the premium was charged because the launcher had to be stripped down and the orbit had to be precise. The reconfigured PSLV with no strap-on motors had shown how perfect the trajectory was.

Prof Giovani Bignami of the Italian space agency said they agreed to the premium rate as they wanted the satellite to be put in an “equatorial orbit of less than 2.5 deg”.

Mr Nair said with the successful commercial launch of the satellite in a highly competitive environment, ISRO hoped to get at least two per cent of the $2-billion global market in the next few years. It had to compete with major players like Russia, the US and the European Space Agency.

Prof Bignami, who is a renowned astronomer himself, said the new satellite would study the “end stage of the evolution of neutron stars” first predicted in the 1980s by Indian astro-physicist and Nobel laureate S Chandrasekhar.

Mr Nair said the Indian payload, Advanced Avionics Module, had successfully tested in space the new generation computer, advanced inertial navigation system as well as the optical sensors.DH News Service

Sriharikota: Antrix Corporation, the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), has got a premium rate of US $29,000 a kg for the launch of the 352-kg Italian satellite AGILE from here, ISRO chairman Madhavan Nair said on Monday.

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AGILE, seventh foreign satellite launched by PSLV

SRIHARIKOTA, APR 23 (PTI)

Italy's AGILE satellite launched by Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C8) today is the seventh foreign satellite launched by the ISRO's workhorse launch vehicle.

List of other satellites:

Satellite Date Vehicle

1) KITSAT-3 (Korea) &

2) DLR-TUBSAT (Germany) May 26, 1999 PSLV-C2

3) BIRD (Germany) &

4) PROBA (Belgium) OCT 22, 2001 PSLV-C3

5) LAPAN-TUBSAT (Indonesia) &

6) PEHUENSAT-1 (Argentina) Jan 10,2007 PSLV-C7

7) AGILE (ITALY) April 23, 2007 PSLV-C8

However, today's launch holds more significance for India as it is ISRO's first "commercial" launch carrying Italy's Agile which weighs 352 kg.

The marketing for getting this project was done by Antrix Corporation, commercial arm of the Department of Space, Government of India.

ICBM

(30-Jun-05)Tejas-LCA

The First Production Aircraft LSP1 touched the skies and had a flawless flight for approximately 45 minutes. The First Production Aircraft piloted by Group Captain AP Singh.

At last, a long awaited flight

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Good news; thanks for sharing

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Hawk Mk 132 completes first flight in Indian markings

The sixth Hawk Mk 132 for the Indian Air Force is seen touching down after its first flight of 1h 2min at BAE Systems Warton on 17 April. The aircraft was flown solo by project pilot Nat Makepeace. Although five aircraft preceded it, the first Mk 132 flight having been made on 11 Dec 2006, the airframe was production number four. It is the first aircraft to bear Indian Air Force markings, but also carries RAF markings for flying in the UK.

Attached Images

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Work for building RLV in initial stages: Nair

Pune, Feb 25: The work to build a Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) for putting satellites into orbit is in its initial stages of configuration, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman G Madhavan Nair said.

As the first step towards RLV concept, a fully reusable two-stage orbit vehicle has been conceived, with a capability to launch 10 tonne into lower earth orbit, he said delivering the Swatantraryaveer Savarkar memorial lecture at the University of Pune here yesterday.

The first stage is configured as a winged body system, which will attain an altitude of around 100 km and deliver nearly half the orbital velocity. After burnout, the vehicle will re-enter the earth's atmosphere and will be made to land horizontally on a runway, like an aircraft.

In the second stage, after delivering the payload, the vehicle will be made to re-enter the atmosphere and will be recovered using airbags either in sea or land.

"However, this is only in its conceptual stage and we will have to develop a host of technologies related to advanced material, propulsion control etc, before it can be realised", he said.

To prove the technology for RLV, a small-scale flight test bed vehicle for demonstration is being conceived.

Some of the technologies that would be addressed through the demonstrator missions would be in the area of Aero Thermodynamic characterisation of wing body configuration at hypersonic speeds, use of reusable thermal protection systems, advanced light weight materials, autonomous navigation, guidance and control systems landing mechanisms etc, Nair said.

URI

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Indian Pilots Divert To Display Rarities

A pair of legendary Indian Air Force fighters taking part in a military exercise in the UK this summer will make a small diversion on their way back to the sub-continent in order to appear at the Royal International Air Tattoo.

Two Sukhoi Su-30MKIs Flankers, supported by an IL-78, will make a rare public appearance in the West when they attend the Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire on July 14-15 to mark the Indian Air Force’s 75th anniversary.

The Sukhoi Su-30MKI - a variant of the Sukhoi Su-30 - is a heavy class, long-range, multi-role, air superiority fighter and strike fighter which has been jointly-developed by Russia's Sukhoi Corporation and India’s Hindustan Aeronautics Limited for the Indian Air Force.

The appearance of the aircraft co-incides with the participation of around six IAF Su-30 Flankers in a joint exercise in July involving RAF Tornado F-3s from RAF Leeming and the RAF E-3 component based at RAF Waddington. It follows on from last year’s joint exercise in India, the first major exercise between the two air forces for more than 40 years.

Last year’s exercise, named Exercise Indra Dhanush (which means ‘rainbow’ in Hindi), was held at IAF Gwalior and IAF Agra and saw Tornado F-3s, the E-3D Sentry and a VC-10 make up the bulk of the RAF air presence. Among the IAF aircraft involved were Sukhoi-30 MKIs, Mirage 2000, MiG-21 'Bison' and the MiG-27.

Air Tattoo Director Tim Prince said he was delighted and honoured to have the Indian Air Force take part in this summer’s Air Tattoo. “We were fortunate that the date scheduled for the joint exercise co-incided with the Air Tattoo. Whilst we are hugely grateful for the continuous support of all the air arms that take part each year, it is the rare and exotic aircraft that are the lifeblood of the Air Tattoo. It is what sets us apart from many other airshows.

“We make it our business to extend the hand of friendship to every international air arm whether they are our neighbours or located halfway around the world because we believe the more countries that take part the more successful the Air Tattoo is in performing its very important international diplomacy role.”

URI

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Submarine version of BrahMos test next month
Thursday April 26 2007 12:35 IST

BALASORE: After the successful test-firing of the `Army' version of surface-to-surface missile BrahMos, Defence scientists are planning to conduct the first-ever test of its submarine version shortly.

According to a top Defence scientist, the success of the test will be a watershed in Indian Defence programme. �The submarine version of BrahMos is ready to be tested, but we are actually waiting for the platform,� A Sivathanu Pillai, CEO and MD of BrahMos Aerospace Limited, said.

Pillai was here to witness the successful test of the Army version of the supersonic cruise missile.

Reliable source told this paper that the missile would be tested as early as next month from Visakhapatnam. Scientists are on a high after tasting success in the test-firing of `Asta' and Dhanush missiles in March and April. While the test of Astra missile in two rounds had successfully met all mission parameters, the successful trial of Dhanush from a naval ship was a great experience for the scientists.

India's most powerful intermediate range Agni-III missile also was successfully tested earlier this month.

The sources said BrahMos Aerospace has already started talks with Indian Navy to get a kilo-class submarine on loan to launch the missile from under the sea. �The submarine variants alternatively could be tested in Russian waters from a Russian submarine,� sources revealed.

For the air-launch version, the missile would be integrated with Sukhoi MKI multi-role fighter aircraft. BrahMos is currently being configured for aerial deployment with the Su-30 MKI as its carrier.

The air-launch version has a smaller booster and additional tail-fins for stability during launch.

Sources further said the missile had already been inducted into the Navy. After the Navy, which has procured the missile for its warships, the Army will be the second major customer to add the missile to its arsenal.

�The BrahMos, with a range of 290 km and Mach 3 speed, will be inducted into the Army this year,� Pillai said. �We are going to deliver the missile to the Army this year as orders have been placed with us,� the CEO said.

Many countries have also evinced interest in the missile, which has no equivalent in the world in terms of precision, speed and power, he added.

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Russian craft delivery to India delayed

New Delhi: Russia will not be able to deliver the refitted aircraft carrier Gorshokov next year as scheduled.

The delivery has now been pushed to 2010 and it's going to cost $113 million extra.

This cost is over and above the $ 1 billion that India is paying for its refit and upgrade.

The delay is apparently because Russian builders underestimated the length of cabling required - it's not 700 km but 2,400 km, they have told the Indian Navy.

Naval Headquarters is sending a senior officer to Moscow to assess the situation.

The Navy's only other carrier the Viraat was due to be retired from service in 2012.

URI

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Next space capsule recovery test in two years

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: India would be conducting another round of Space capsule Recovery Experiment (SRE) in two years to consolidate its position among a select group of countries which have capabilities not only to launch a satellite into a specified space orbit but also to recover it undamaged after the completion of its mission.

This was disclosed at a news conference here on Saturday by the Director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), B.N. Suresh, after inaugurating the maiden public exhibition of the first Indian SRE module which was successfully recovered from the Bay of Bengal on January 22 after its 12 days of sojourn in the outer space.

"We have already obtained sanction for the next SRE. We are waiting for a `co-passenger' in the launch. In the maiden launch also we had a `co-passenger'."

"We have planned three launches this year and they include two Polar Satellite Launch Vehicles (PSLVs) and one Geo-Stationary Launch Vehicle (GSLV). The GSLV launch has been scheduled for August and the PSLV schedules are being finalised. We will be busy with these three launches this year. We will take up the next SRE after those launches," Dr Suresh said.

Replying to questions, he said the SRE II would be a repeat design of the SRE I with some minor changes based on `lessons we had learnt from the first experiment.'

He said the successful completion of SRE I had given sufficient confidence to the Indian scientists in the development of technologies needed for re-entry and recovery of an orbiting module.

"We did not have any data with us on vital issues like the recovery of a module from the space orbit, its navigation, velocity control and temperature regulation and other related issues. We had to make several assumptions. But everything went off as per our calculations. Barring some minor changes even the surface of the capsule was intact. The electronic systems inside it were working perfectly well."

This was a significant milestone in the development of reusable launch vehicles and satellites.

Answering a query, he however said the modules in the SREs would not be reused as they were meant for experiments.

Project Director of the SRE, A. Subramanian, and several other senior scientists were present at the Press conference.

URI

sujan

The Telegraph - Calcutta : Frontpage

It’s the done thing: lady officers bypassing bosses (From The Telegraph, April 30)
- Report says 60 per cent women flout military chain of command to wangle undue privileges
SUJAN DUTTA

New Delhi, April 29: Most women officers in the armed forces bypass the chain of command and seek undue privileges from superiors, an inter- services committee has told the ministry of defence.

Nearly 60 per cent of lady officers seek to access commanders bypassing their immediate seniors — a strict no-no in the military where hierarchy is rigid and deemed necessary for discipline. They want special privileges such as comfort postings, the report has noted and quoted figures from a survey among the armed forces’ officer cadre.

A total of 46 per cent of the respondents from among 674 officers said: “Yes, women seek preferential treatment for leave, appointment and absence.”

“A majority of women officers are in favour of permanent commission,” the inter-services committee has noted in its 98-page report submitted to the defence ministry.

“On the other hand, senior officers and officers associated with women have indicated that women officers do not measure up to the standard needed for grant of permanent commission,” the committee comprising officers of the three services has said in the report titled “Women in the Armed Forces”.

“Once women officers have children, it is difficult for them to balance between service needs and demands of family,” it said.

The committee has recommended to the Centre that lady officers in the army, navy and air force not be granted permanent commission for another 10 years at least. “There is a gestation period of 10 years before we reconsider the demand to grant permanent commission to lady officers,” a senior official in the defence ministry told The Telegraph.

The committee has also emphasised in the report that there is a gender bias in the armed forces. “There is a need for training (against gender bias) at all levels,” and not only among personnel below officer rank. It said that even instructors in training academies needed to be sensitised.

There needs to be a gender-sensitisation campaign initiated by army headquarters and commands from formation-level downwards, the report has said. This includes all corps, brigades and battalions in the army and corresponding units in the navy and the air force.

Surprising for a military study, the report does not comment on how lady officers have impacted fighting ability. But it has ruled out putting women in units that go into combat. Women have been taken into the armed forces on short service commission since 1993 — 14 years ago.

The report also does not dwell on discrimination in jobs for women within the services. For example, lady officers in the Indian Air Force fly helicopters but they are not permitted to do so in the Army Aviation Corps although many of the machines flown are the same.

For its study, the inter-services committee interviewed 674 officers, including 291 women. Among the interviewees were 355 officers from the army, 76 from the navy and 243 from the air force. A total of 274 men were from the “peer group” (of or around the same ranks) as the women interviewed.

The report was prepared after former defence minister Pranab Mukherjee instructed the chiefs of staff committee in June last year to study if lady officers can be put on a par with the men and given a full length of service.

It followed a furore following the suicide by a lady lieutenant, Susmita Chakraborty, and remarks attributed to former army vice-chief Lt Gen. S. Pattabhiraman. The vice-chief purportedly said the army could do without women. He later apologised.

But without using the same words, the inter-services committee is in favour of keeping women out of the cutting edge of military service.

The committee has written that it has “felt the necessity for a scope to utilise women in non-combat areas like the Directorate General of Quality Assurance, Defence Research and Development Organisation and the Military Engineering Services (MES), where so far the women are not there”.

The chiefs of staff committee instructed the Integrated Defence Staff to conduct the study. The report was prepared by the assistant chief of Integrated Defence Staff (training and doctrines), Air Vice-Marshal T.S Randhawa. In the committee were four officers from the army, two from the navy and three from the air force.

The committee asked its interviewees 14 questions on aspects relating to selection of officers, training standards, grant of permanent commission, employment conditions and cadre management.

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Forty new ships to be commissioned in coming years: Mehta

MUMBAI, MAY 1 (PTI)

Asserting that its objective is to "get smarter and not merely larger in terms of numbers", the Indian Navy today announced that it would commission 40 new ships, most of them to be built indigeneously, in the coming years.

"We are currently in the process of acquiring 34 new ships and have asked for funds for 40 more ships as part of ongoing process in the next three five-year plans," Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Sureesh Mehta told reporters here.

"This is an ongoing process and we need to scrap certain ageing ships in the fleet to make way for the new ones. The objective is not to get bigger in terms of numbers but smarter in terms of our capabilities," he said.

Mehta also said that a majority of the 40 new ships will be built indigeneously itself and said it is his "vision" to have a strong ship building industry in the country which includes both warship building as well as merchant navy ships.

The Naval chief also said that "assymetric threats" emanating from smaller vessels, mostly used by terrorist elements, were the next big challenge for the Indian Navy and welcomed US navy chief Admiral Mike Mullen's concept of "1,000-ship international navy".

"We are concerned that the economic assets of the country can come under the scanner of certain groups (terrorists) and we must be prepared to tackle them," Mehta said.

Regarding cooperation between countries, which is the key in Mullen's concept, Mehta said India is already strengthening relations with countries in the Indian Ocean and South East Asia like Mauritius, Myanmar and Thailand.

Mehta said maritime threats emanating from the terrorists would increase with time and asked the Navy to be more professional to meet the challenges while addressing the personnel of the Western Naval Command at INS Kunjali here today.

According to Mehta, the Indian Navy is being globally recognised during its participation in the joint exercises across the world and advocated an increase in such programmes which helps it in "shaping the maritime battlefield".

Mehta was at INS Kunjali to preside over the investiture ceremony commemorating naval officers and men for meritorious services and gallantry in the last year.

URI