Aerospace Diary

Asian Defence and Diplomacy Neelam Mathews March 2011 Indian Air Chief Marshal Pradeep Vasant Naik addressing a press conference in Bengaluru at Aero India summed up the India Air Force plans for increasing numbers, replacement and capabilities upgrade under what he termed as “four pillars.” These include ‘See’ (surveillance through satellites and Airborne Early Warning Systems), ‘Reach’ (air-to-air refuelling), ‘Hit’ (air-to-surface missiles) and ‘Protection’ (protection of these assets with surface-toair missiles). The Indian Air Force has repeatedly voiced concerns on the depletion of its squadrons with the shortage of aircraft in the fleet expected to last through till 2014. Naik created a flutter when he said the mother of all contracts, the 126 Medium Multi Range Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) order would be announced by September this year. The six contenders for the MMRCA programme include the MiG-35 from Russia, the Lockheed Martin F-16IN and Boeing F/A-18E/F fr...

Aerospace Daily Oct 5, 2010 FUNDING & POLICY NEW DELHI — Lack of commonality in aircraft models has made inventory management a grueling task for the Indian Air Force, Air Chief Marshal P.V. Naik tells AVIATION WEEK here on the IAF’s 78th anniversary. Steps are being taken to bring obsolescence levels (50% of equipment is outdated) down to 20% by 2014-15. “Air defense is the most critical,” he says. Financial constraints hampered this effort in the past, Naik says. “We can now spend more money and buy what we need. In a few years, the IAF will have the medium multi-role combat aircraft, light combat aircraft, fifth-generation combat aircraft and the Su-30s with a reduced diversity.” Naik acknowledges that accident prevention is a key driver. “With older aircraft the mean time between failures changes…. That is why older aircraft have more accidents. We’ve had a lot of engine-related problems on the MiG-27s recently. Some are related to design, some to production and to hu...