Aerospace Diary

FYI Land and Warfare K9 gives boost to India-Korea partnerships 24th April 2017 - 3:18 by  Neelam Mathews  in Delhi  Engineering giant Larsen & Toubro (L&T) and South Korea's Hanwha Techwin signed a contract for  co-development and co-production of the K9 Vajra-T  155mm self-propelled howitzer for the Indian Army on 21 April. However, this could be just the start of their relationship. While the  K9  'is a programme for a specific relationship , we have a choice to grow beyond the project,' Jayant Patil, head of defence and aerospace at L&T, said. For example, the two companies could partner ....more on Shephardmedia.com

Neelam Mathews Apr 24, 2016 Pix-Neelam Mathews As the Indian Air Force (IAF) squadrons hit a low of around 33 against the 42 projected and India has come closer to signing 36 Rafales for its Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft requirement, it is now looking at a second line of fighters to be produced in the country.  Given that the IAF has a varied fleet with spares inventory management getting tedious and more expensive, what happens to commonality we asked Chief Arup Raha. It is no secret that lack of commonality in aircraft models has made inventory management a grueling task for the IAF in the past. “Commonality in the IAF fleet is very important. We have too many inventories, and each aircraft requires spares., " confessed CAS to AerospaceDiary. In an exclusive, he added that "while it was best is to have lesser inventories, we have so many Su-30s. We cannot keep expanding one particular fleet (as) there are vulnerabilities and (so) we (must keep) balance....