India to Integrate Brahmos With Sukhoi by March

India will integrate the air version of Brahmos supersonic cruise missile with Sukhoi fighters of the Indian Air Force (IAF) by March, an official said Wednesday.

“Integration of Brahmos with Sukhois of the IAF is on and will be completed by March, as two of them are being integrated at our Nashik complex,” state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd’s (HAL) outgoing chairman R.K. Tyagi told reporters here.

BrahMos Aerospace, an India-Russia joint venture, developed and test-fired the cruise missile July 8, 2014 from the integrated test range at Chandipur in Balasore district of Odisha.

“We have also recently conducted the critical ground vibration test (GVT) on a Sukhoi to modify it for carrying the missile under its fuselage for combat role,” Tyagi said.

The missile, named after the Brahmaputra river in India and Moscow river in Russia, has a top speed of Mach 2.8, with a range of 290 km and can carry a 300 kg conventional warhead.

“The vibration tests were conducted in nine configurations to assess the dynamic behaviour of the modified Sukhoi platform,” Tyagi said.

The missile can be launched from submarines, ships and aircraft. Its sea and ground versions were tested and deployed in service with the Indian Army and Indian Navy.

According to test range director M.V.K.V. Prasad, Brahmos is three times faster than the Tomahawk cruise missile of the US.

Defence behemoth HAL manufactures the fourth generation Sukhois (SU-30 MKI) under licensed production from Russian aerospace major Rosoboronexport for the IAF’s frontline combat fleet.

HAL signed a contract with the Russian firm Dec 24, 2012 for producing an additional 42 Su-30 multirole aircraft, taking the total number to 222, including the 119 it delivered to the air force.

As a two-seater, highly manoeuverable, supersonic aircraft for day and night operations in all-weather conditions, Sukhoi is fitted with two turbojet AL-31FP engines and is equipped with state-of-the-art avionics from Russian, western and indigenous sources.

HAL plans to get listed; to restructure board by April 1

As part of the government’s disinvestment programme, state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) plans to get listed as one of the Maharatna companies, for which it will restructure its board by April 1.

Besides, the company is looking to enhance its focus on aeronautical technology segment, rather than being only a manufacturing firm, HAL’s outgoing Chairman R K Tyagi said today.

“In last almost three years, we have tried to convert HALfrom a manufacturing company into a technology company… we have made efforts… For the preparedness for tomorrow,” Tyagi told reporters here as he prepares to demit office on January 31.

“HAL board in the last two years has given us approval for more than Rs 7,000 crore of investment where an aggressive modernisation is taking place,” said Tyagi who joined HAL as its Chairman in March 2012.

“We have prepared the company externally and internally … The company is planning for the future, reinvesting for the future, and I’m sure the valuation of the company is going to be very relevant,” he added.

Tyagi said “our dream is to see the company as a Maharatna company which have more than 5,000 patents, a company which will be fully responsive to any of the leads of the defence sector and also in the exports.”

Responding to a question on disinvestment Ashok Tandon, Company Secretary & Executive Director of HAL, said: “Disinvestment process is in progress, there were couple of issues… One was the restructuring of the board for which we have got approval from the competent authority in the government, it will be in place by April 1, 2015, and the other was sharing of confidential information with the book running lead manager which we have to sort out….”

In reply to a question on restructuring of the board, he said, “Now we have nine whole time directors, six independent and two government directors; the revised structure provides for five whole time directors including CMD, two government nominee directors and seven independent directors.”

To a question on exports, Tyagi said “if you look at the export market 60 per cent of the formal exports of the Defence PSUs is accounted by HAL; if you have to export products in the international market you must have certification….”

“Last two years we have started this exercise, those certifications are now in advanced stage and hopefully by the end of this year we will have both these certifications and then we will be able to establish good export market to our products.”

In addition to this, he said a presentation had been made to Minister for External Affairs and “we have put forward that our neighbouring countries will be a very good markets to start with, as far as our products are concerned.” He noted the handing over of Dhruv Helicopter to Nepal last November and contract from Mauritius for Dornier Aircraft.

US to help India design jet engines

Washington has agreed to assist Delhi in sharing, designing and developing jet engines for aircraft—a critical technology that is exclusively owned by a handful of countries—in what is being considered a big step forward in Indo-US defence collaboration.

The assistance comes within months of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) winding up a Russia-backed project to develop Kaveri jet engines after losing more than Rs 2,000 crore and almost three decades.

New Delhi and Washington negotiated the text of the bilateral Defence Framework Agreement for the next 10 years as the existing framework signed in 2005 by then defence minister Pranab Mukherjee and his US counterpart Donald Rumsfeld expired in 2014. The new pact, however, is yet to be signed.

“We have decided to take our growing defence cooperation to a new level. We have agreed, in principle, to pursue co-development and co-production of specific advanced defence projects. These will help upgrade our domestic defence industry, and expand the manufacturing sector in India,” said Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the joint press conference with US President Barack Obama here on Sunday.

The big takeaway is the collaboration on jet engines, to be used in home-grown aircraft. “India and the US have agreed to explore development of jet engine in the country. It would be broader than the Kaveri programme,” said S Jaishankar, Indian Ambassador to the US.

Originally meant for use in indigenous light combat aircraft, the Kaveri jet engine was being developed with support from Russia. But the engine developed by the Gas Turbine Research Establishment in Bengaluru could fly only for 73 hours on the IL-76 Flying Test Bed (FTB) in Russia.

Because of the delay, DRDO picked up the US-made GE 404 engine for the Tejas Mk-1 and GE 414 for the Tejas Mk-II aircraft.