First Indian C-17 Arrives Today, June 17

The Indian Air Force's first Boeing C-17 Globemaster III (Tail no. CB-8001) departs Long Beach on its journey to the Hindon Air Force Station outside Delhi, where the squadron will be based. Boeing and Indian Air Force officials will conduct a short ceremony at Long Beach before the aircraft departs. After a ferry flight that will make a list of stops along the way, the C-17 will touch down at Hindon on June 17. 

The first airframe will get a welcome ceremony when it arrives, but a formal induction ceremony is expected to happen in August, by which time two more C-17s will have arrived. The first Indian C-17 arrives in India almost exactly two years after the deal was signed in June 2011. The $4.116-billion deal for 10 aircraft doesn't have a formal options clause, but the IAF is likely to formalise a follow-on order by the end of this year (even with the original order for 10,

India will be the largest operator of the aircraft outside the U.S. Boeing delivered the first Indian C-17 to flight test at Edward's in January this year, and will deliver four more this year, and five next. Indian pilots and loadmasters were trained at Altus, Oklahoma.

Depleting minesweepers fleet worries indian Navy

Indian Navy’s three-decade-old fleet of minesweepers is depleting at a fast rate and yet, a Rs 24,000-crore contract proposal to augment it with eight new Korean-made vessels is entangled in the Defence Ministry’s red tape for nearly three years now. The Mine Counter-Measure Vessels (MCMV)—capable of minesweeping and mine hunting are critical to naval operations. They help in carrying out sweeps at the entry and exit points of dockyards to sanitise these passageways of enemy mines ahead of Indian warships sailing out to the sea. India had, after a decade-long procurement process, zeroed in on the South Korean shipyard, Pusan-based Kangnam Corporation, as the lowest bidder in a tender for construction of MCMVs for the Indian Navy in 2010. It was said then that the Defence Ministry would complete its cost negotiations with Kangnam, which best Italian Intermarine to the contract, and issue the orders for building the vessels within two months.“Three years since, the contract negotiations have not happened and the contract proposal for the MCMV is now buried among files in the defence ministry,” lamented a senior Indian Navy officer, when The Sunday Standard asked him about the progress in the minesweepers procurement.

The Navy had expected the Defence Ministry to conclude the contract as soon as Kangnam was identified as the foreign shipyard to provide the minesweepers in view of the urgency felt in adding these specialist vessels in to the fleet. With a variety of naval mines that are triggered by pressure, acoustic or electro-magnetic signals from a surface warship or a submarine available in the arms bazaar, these are some of the cheapest ways to sink an enemy warship. Laying of these mines are quite easily done and hence the threat perception from these self-contained explosives to warships are quite high, Navy officers pointed out. “Hence the urgency in procuring these specialist vessels and inducting them as early as humanly possible,” they added.

 According to the tenders, the chosen shipyard was to build the first two MCMVs and the rest six were to be constructed at Goa Shipyard Limited under a licence, with technology transfer being part of the contract. This was to create capabilities at GSL to build minesweepers in the future, as a requirement for more of these vessels was envisioned. Navy officers noted that Kangnam’s selection itself was done after crossing hurdles, as its competitors had moved the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) in 2010 against the Indian choice of the Korean firm as the lowest bidder. Detailed explanations to the CVC had settled the issue in favour of Kangnam by April 2011. Since then, no progress has been made in the procurement process, they added.

Just over a decade ago, the Navy was operating 12 of Pondicherry/Karwar class of minesweepers, but had to decommission five of them after completion of their serviceable life. INS Pondicherry, the first of this class of minesweepers, was built by Russia and commissioned in 1978. It was decommissioned in 2007. Since then, four other minesweepers of this class too have been decommissioned at regular intervals. The last of the Karwar class of minesweepers was commissioned in 1988 and this class of warships has completed the serviceable life of 20 years and has entered the obsolescence phase. The Navy, at present, operates seven Pondicherry/Karwar class of minesweepers in its fleet, of which one is based in Mumbai and the rest six in Visakhapatnam. These seven vessels have gone through a midlife upgrade to extend their service life by another decade and for adding latest technologies to boost their capabilities. “Yet, these minesweepers’ hull is still old. How long can the Navy flog these old horses?" wondered another officer. The officers pointed out that even if the MCMV contract was awarded this year, the first two vessels would not be delivered before 2018 and GSL would take another two to four years before completing its part of the contract for rest of the fleet.

Source: The New Indian Express -

By N C Bipindra - NEW DELHI

10th June 2013 

BrahMos missile successfully test-fired from ship

                      BrahMos Missile Successfully Test-Fired|BrahMos Missile|Navy|INS Tarkash

 India on Wednesday successfully test-fired the 290 km range BrahMos supersonic cruise missile from the Navy's latest guided missile frigate INS Tarkash off the coast of Goa.

The missile performed the high-level 'C' manoeuvre in the pre-determined flight path and successfully hit the target.

The missile was launched from the Russian-built warship at 1100 hours, BrahMos Aerospace chief A Sivathanu Pillai said here.

"The launch was carried out by the Navy as part of Acceptance Test Firing (ATF) of the ship," he said.

INS Tarkash, which is an advanced Talwar Class frigate, was commissioned on November 9, last year.

The warship, along with two other frigates of the class - INS Teg and INS Trikand, have been built as part of an over Rs 8,000 crore contract signed between India and Russia in July 2006.

INS Teg was commissioned on April 27, 2012 and the commissioning of INS Trikand is expected soon.

The weapons suite of INS Tarkash includes surface-to-air and surface-to-surface missile systems, 100 mm medium-range gun, close-in weapon system, torpedo tubes and anti-submarine rockets.

All the three ships will be equipped with 8 vertical- launched BrahMos missile systems as the prime strike weapon.

The new missile frigates are designed to accomplish a wide range of maritime missions, primarily hunting down and destroying large surface ships and submarines.

BrahMos officials said the vertical launch configuration of the supersonic missile enhances the stealth capabilities of the ship as the missiles are under the deck and not exposed.

Jointly developed by India and Russia, the BrahMos is capable of carrying a conventional warhead of 300 kg. The missile can cruise at a maximum speed of 2.8 Mach (or 2.8 times the speed of sound).

India is readying several different versions of the missile which includes land attack, anti-ship and submarine- launched versions.