Aerospace Diary

Posted by- Neelam Mathews March 18, 2013 Answering a question in Parliament today defense minister said some of the major projects of Defense Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) which are lagging behind schedule are given below:- Project Probable Date of Completion (PDC) Original Revised Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), Phase-ll December 2008 December 2012* Naval Light Combat Aircraft (LCA, Navy) Phase-I March 2010 December 2014 Aero-engine Kaveri December 1996 December 2009# Airborne Early Warning & Control (AEW&C) System October 2011 March 2014 Long Range Surface-to-Air Missile (LR-SAM) May 2011 December 2015              *PDC is likely to be extended up to March 2015.                 #PDC has been extended within the sanctioned cost and scope . ...

AIN NEWS LIVE FROM AEROINDIA  »  2013 by    NEELAM MATHEWS February 4, 2013, 2:42 PM India’s Defense Research Development Organization ( DRDO ) has confirmed that it has abandoned plans to jointly develop and produce the Kaveri military aircraft engine solely with France’s Snecma. The change in plan has come after India ordered 99 of General Electric’s F-414 engines—in preference to the Eurojet 2000 engine—for its indigenous Light Combat Aircraft Mark  II  program, for which the Kaveri is supposed to be an alternative powerplant. “We still need an overseas partner, but it will not be Snecma on a single-vendor basis,”  CP  Ramnarayanan, director of the  DRDO ’s Gas Turbine Research Establishment ( GTRE ) recently told Indian reporters. “We will select our partner through competitive bidding.” A  DRDO  official told  AIN  on condition of anonymity that if the Kaveri partnership is reten...

Neelam Mathews Dec 10, 2012 Defense minister A.K Antony, said in parliament on the progress made by the Kaveri Engine Development Project: (i) So far, 9 prototypes of Kaveri Engine and 4 prototypes of Kabani (Core) Engine have been developed. (ii) 2200 hours of test (ground and altitude conditions) have been   conducted. (iii) The following two major milestones have been achieved: Successful completion    of Official Altitude Testing (OAT) ; and Demonstration of First Block of flight of Kaveri Engine in Flying Test Bed (FTB). Kaveri Engine was integrated with IL-76 Aircraft at Gromov Flight Research Institute (GFRI), Russia and flight test was successfully carried out upto 12 km maximum altitude and maximum forward speed of 0.7 Mach No. Twenty Seven flights for 57 hours duration have been completed. DRDO demonstrated its technological capability in aero-engine technology. This has been a great achievement in the aerospace community of the country, w...

Programs Aerospace Daily & Defense Report Apr 22 , 2010 , p. 13 Neelam Mathews NEW DELHI — India’s Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) is evaluating Indian air force requirements for the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA). The weight of the AMCA will not exceed 25 tons. The twin-engine configured aircraft will have a higher thrust being in the bigger weight category than the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), with an active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar. The Defense Research & Development Organization (DRDO) had announced earlier this year that the AMCA program would be launched in 2010. While unofficially work has started on the design, according to an official, the AMCA will be officially announced in 6-8 months. “There is nothing official about it … It is currently not a sanctioned project from the government. We are looking at the technical requirements submitted by the Indian air force,” the official told Aerospace DAILY. The AMCA was earlier called ...