Aerospace Diary

Posted by- Neelam Mathews         Monday, December 9, 2013 Add caption During the last three years and current year, 35 aircraft/helicopters including 3 MiG-29 aircraft of Indian Air Force have crashed as below: 2010-2011                   -           12 2011-2012                   -           13 (01 MiG-29) 2012-2013                   -           06 2013-2014                   -         ...

Neelam Mathews April 16, 2013   While I have no love lost for politicians –no matter what their affiliations are- one would have expected the likes of Yashwant Sinha to have bothered to understand the value of life cycle costs (LCC) before turning his verbal rocket on the concept in Parliament and elsewhere. For a change, the Congress has done something right by including LCC in RFPs and adding post contractual maintenance, and we must applaud it. Unless ofcourse, we want to continue moving as we did in the days of yore and be held ransom to OEMs that charge the earth for spares and maintenance- something that continues to happen with legacy fighters even today. The proof is apparent. Of the five recent crashes of the IAF, three were due to technical faults related to maintenance and spares, AerospaceDiary learns, but could not confirm. One hopes the presentation given by Air Chief NAK Browne in parliament over a week ago, will have opened the eyes and ears of...

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 . ...

Neelam Mathews March 15, 2013 As news broke that India had been put under the ICAO ‘Significant Safety Concerns’ (SSCs) list for lack of adherence to proper licen s ing practices and airworthiness following I CAO s Continuous Monitoring Approach (CMA), (akin to an audit), conducted end- December last year, there was pandemonium. Today, DGCA Arun Misra confirmed: "ICAO has not made the draft report available to us ....., so there is no question of misleading the Parliament on the issue."   He added; "ICAO makes the draft report available after 90 days of audit, "which will be March-end, after which we are given 45 days for comments on the draft report. Then the report is finalized by ICAO." ICAO, stringent on physical surveillance of safety, will be a tough customer to satisfy. So, what we might be overlooking, is that the DGCA has its hands tied because of lack of manpower. “(The process of recruitment (is complicated)) because it has to follow...

Neelam Mathews Tunnel at Zozila Pass The contract for feasibility study of a tunnel at Zozila Pass was awarded to iBilt Technology, on 29.4.2009. Survey is under progress for the feasibility of tunnel at the Zozila Pass and other locations along this axis to Leh and is in advanced stage. It is likely to be completed by March 2012. Decision about construction of tunnel would depend on the outcome of the feasibility study. Permanent base of Indian Coast Guard There is no proposal before the government to set up a permanent base of Indian Coast Guard at Nerul in Navi Mumbai. Government has already initiated several measures for strengthening the maritime security of the entire coast in the country including the Navi Mumbai area. Besides increasing the assets and manpower of Coast Guard and Navy, Joint Operation Centres (JOCs) have been established and intelligence mechanism has been strengthened. Further joint operational exercises are taking place on regular basis among the Nav...

Posted by- Neelam Mathews Nov 23, 2011 On Upgradation- Mid-life upgradation of the fleet is a continuous process and is undertaken to retain the combat relevance of the aircraft, said Defense minister A.K Antony. Contracts have been signed with RAC MiG Russia for upgrade of the MiG-29 aircraft, with Spets Techno Export, Ukraine, for upgrade of the AN-32 aircraft and with Thales, France, along with HAL, India, for upgrade of the Mirage 2000 aircraft. These contracts are under implementation. There is no proposal before the government to buy Mirage 2000 V aircraft, said Antony. Delays- MDL There have been initial delays in modernization, program of Mazagon Docks Limited (MDL). However, the delay in Modernization has not contributed directly to the delay in ongoing warship construction projects. According to the Minister of State for Defense MM Pallam Raju, the major reasons for delay are-. (i)                ...

Posted by- Neelam Mathews Aug 30, 2011 Defense Minister AK Antony in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha acknowledged delays sometimes occued in defense procurement projects “due to several reasons such as insufficient and limited vendor base, non conformity of the offers to the Request for Proposal (RFP) conditions, field trials, complexities in contract negotiations, limited indigenous capability and long lead time for indigenization.” Antony said the market for state-of-the-art defense equipment and platforms “being circumscribed by denial regimes, limited availability of required type of material, complexities in construction and manufacturing involving integration of large number of systems, assemblies and sub-assemblies also cause delays. To counter systemic and institutional delays, procedures and process are continuously refined on the basis of experience gained during the procurement process. All procurements are guided by the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP) a...