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III/2014 Saab in Super Mode Life beyond LCA IOC At the Crossroads Powering the Future Depleting Air Assets Helicopter Modernisation Dassault III/2014 III/2014 At the Crossroads Angad Singh traces Saab’s Helicopter 35 Air Marshal Brijesh D Jayal writes success story, with 66 years 80 separating the J-29 of 1948 and Modernisation that there is a choice for Indian With rising prices and shrinking Aeronautics between ‘Reveille the Gripen E of 2014, history in motion ! defence budgets, armed forces and the Last Post’, referring to are looking at alternatives to reports that HAL and the IAF induction of new equipment. Saab in Super Mode Life beyond LCA IOC have worked out joint plans Vijay Matheswaran reviews cost At the Crossroads Powering the Future to deal with military aircraft Depleting Air Assets Helicopter Modernisation effective solutions for operators projects that are underway in of military rotorcraft. the country. New Generation Gripen (photo courtesy Saab) EDITORIAL PANEL MANAGING EDITOR Vikramjit Singh Chopra 70 Lessons from EDITORIAL ADVISOR the Kaveri Admiral Arun Prakash Professor Prodyut Das makes an ‘open source’ assessment of EDITORIAL PANEL Depleting Air Assets the Kaveri engine and attributes 102 A Manner of Pushpindar Singh 44 Considering the declining IAF failures to leadership which is actually, the failure of knowledge. Numbers Air Marshal Brijesh Jayal fighter aircraft strength, Air No.5 Squadron (‘Tuskers’) of the In rebooting the mindset, he Dr. Manoj Joshi Marshal Anil Chopra urges that Indian Air Force are amongst makes some practical suggestions it is ‘Time For Full Throttle’. Fast those formations which are Lt. Gen. Kamal Davar for the future. Lt. Gen. SJS Sehgal track procurements are mooted, spearhead of the IAF’s deep with a ‘Task Force’ approach to Gp Capt JC Malik penetration strike force. The Defence R&D while at the same chequered history of this unique Cdr M Nirmal time recovering the present low squadron is traced, to its present Monica Arora system serviceability. status operating the Jaguar strike Angad Singh fighter. Vijay Matheswaran Richard Gardner (UK) Reuben Johnson (USA) Simon Watson (UK) Bertrand de Boisset (France) Dr Nick Evesenkin (Russia) Tamir Eshel (Israel) Powering the Future 77 Sayan Majumdar examines ADVERTISING & MARKETING MANAGER the new generation EJ 200 Husnal Kaur turbofan engine which was Life beyond the IOC developed for powering the 52 Air Commodore Parvez Khokhar Eurofighter Typhoon and whose BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER analyses the tasks ahead before future variants could well be Premjit Singh the Tejas LCA gets to the full an attractive option for future operational clearance (FOC) Also : Interview with fighters including India’s AMCA stage ; there is a long way ahead Russian Ambassador ; programme. beyond the IOC euphoria which Exercise ‘Sarvada Vijay’ ; was heralded in by the erstwhile Strategy for equipping Defence Minister and CAS in late Indian Army ; Through the Published by: December 2013. Looking Glass ; If Wishes THE SOCIETY FOR AEROSPACE STUDIES Were ‘Planes ; Lessons D-43, Sujan Singh Park, never learnt ; Production New Delhi 110 003 India Blues ; An increasingly Tel: +91 11 24617234 heavy fighter force ; Fax: +91 11 24628615 Dynamics of the Saab e-mail: [email protected] Group ; The RBS 70NG ; e-mail: [email protected] IAI’s Heron ; Eagles Over Visit us at : www.vayuaerospace.in Bangladesh ; Frisian Flag 2014 ; Refuelling Together. Printed at Aegean Offset Printers In Super Mode Regular features : The opinions expressed in the articles 61 published in the Vayu Aerospace and The Swedish Gripen has Commentary, Opinion, Aviation & Defence Review do not necessarily reflect transformed into becoming one Defence in India, World Aviation the views or policies of The Society for of the world’s most potent and & Defence News, Ancient Aviator Aerospace Studies. cost effective combat aircraft. Anecdotes, Vayu 25 Years Back, Tale Spin. Visit us at: www.vayuaerospace.in AIRBUS 2 VAYU AIRBUS III/2014 3 C O M M E N T A R Y Admiral Dhowan will have the major task of improving the Neighbourly assistance morale within the Navy and possibly taking a re-look at training and elhi’s decision to finance Russian arms supplies to Kabul is the quality of manpower while refurbishing the image of a service Da significant new element in India’s efforts to cope with the that has taken a beating following a spate of accidents that occurred consequences of the impending American military withdrawal from in quick succession. The most serious was the sinking of INS Afghanistan by the end of this year. After a decade of strong US Sindhurakshak, another Kilo-Class submarine in August last year military presence in Afghanistan, Kabul will soon be on its own while docked in Mumbai following an on board explosion, which in fending off the growing insurgent threat from Taliban. The is considered unprecedented in the world’s peacetime naval history. Afghan armed forces have already taken the lead in securing the The Navy is paramount to India’s security, power projection and country and their performance has been impressive. But questions international diplomacy alike. Moreover, in the event of a nuclear remain on whether they will be able sustain themselves for long, war, the Indian Navy would be banked upon to launch counter- amid the declining Western support and Pakistan’s continuing strikes from indigenously made nuclear-powered submarines that, sanctuary and assistance to the Taliban and other forces seeking to however, are yet to be inducted. destabilise Afghanistan. But the morale and image of the Navy cannot possibly be the It is no surprise, then, that Kabul is mobilising all the support responsibility of the Navy Chief alone. The government, notably the it can from its friends in the region, including India. Under Ministry of Defence (MoD), too has a major role to play. The key the strategic partnership agreement signed in 2011, Delhi had issues afflicting the Navy are still at play - antiquated submarines, promised to supply arms and provide military assistance to Kabul. ships and other equipment, delays in induction and shortfall in As Afghanistan sought the translation of this commitment into the officer cadre to name a few. Admiral Dhowan has a major task reality, the UPA government was torn between keeping its word ahead and a lot will depend on his leadership, contribution and his to Kabul and the potential risks of provoking Pakistan, which has relationship with the political executive and the civilian bureaucracy. long been nervous about India’s military footprint in Afghanistan. The Tribune Delhi’s turn to Moscow for organising arms supplies to Kabul helps From overcome two of India’s significant limitations in Afghanistan — the absence of exportable surpluses of heavy weapons that Kabul is seeking and the lack of easy physical access to Afghanistan. Selling arms to Kabul is a big and necessary step forward in India’s military cooperation with Afghanistan, which until now had been focused on training its military and police officers. The next government in New Delhi must build on the current military initiatives in Afghanistan. For one, it can be bolder than the UPA in agreeing to train Kabul’s security forces on Afghan soil. It could also assist Kabul in building the much-needed Afghan air force. The successor to UPA2 should, however, be acutely conscious of two important realities—that Delhi is not in a position to replace the American military assistance to Afghanistan and that its pockets will never be deep enough to finance large- scale arms imports by Kabul. Working closely with others in Afghanistan, then, becomes critical for the pursuit of Indian objectives. India must complement its strategic collaboration with Russia by deepening military cooperation with Afghanistan’s From The Economic Times neighbours—Iran to the west and Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan in the north. Damning indictment From The Indian Express hroughout the ten years of UPA rule Congress president TSonia Gandhi heaped praise on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for his vision, leadership qualities and personal integrity. New Navy Chief The latter, in turn, sometimes went to an embarrassing extent fter much deliberation and dilly-dallying lasting almost two to return the compliment. But in Delhi’s incestuous circle of Amonths (50 days to be precise), the government appointed Vice senior politicians, bureaucrats and media persons, hardly anyone Chief of Naval Staff Vice Admiral Rabinder Kumar Dhowan as the doubted that this mutual back-scratching was an elaborate charade. next Chief of Naval Staff. Dhowan had been officiating as the Navy What Sanjaya Baru — who served as media adviser to Manmohan Chief ever since his predecessor, Admiral Devender Kumar Joshi, Singh in the UPA-I regime — has done in his book ‘The resigned on February 26 in the wake of an accident on board INS Accidental Prime Minister’ is to say aloud what many others Sindhuratna, a Russian-made Kilo-Class submarine, in the Arabian have been murmuring beneath their breath. Namely that the Sea. Joshi’s resignation, the first by a Service chief, on the ground of Congress president used her political secretary, Ahmed Patel, and moral responsibility had been hailed as an act of honour in keeping her chosen loyalists in the Prime Minister’s Office and Cabinet with the finest traditions of the military. to call the shots in matters ranging from the appointment of 4 VAYU C O M M E N T A R Y Pilatus III/2014 5 C O M M E N T A R Y individuals to positions of power and influence to interference in the formulation and implementation of government policies. Learning the lessons If Sonia Gandhi emerges in Baru’s memoirs as a suave if hen people criticise Britain’s mission to Afghanistan as having manipulative figure behind the scenes, Manmohan Singh comes Wbeen a costly failure they rarely mean the original decision to out as a victim.

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