25 Years Back

From Vayu Aerospace Review Issue VI/ 1995

BJP’s Defence Manifesto

The BJP will initiate a nuclear weapons programme and not give in to foreign pressure to freeze the country’s missile production and development projects “if it comes to power at the Centre.” A resolution to this effect was adopted by the party at the concluding day of its national executive meeting at Poona on 8 November, 1995.

Stressing that the country was facing a hostile and unstable geopolitical environment, the BJP resolution said the emerging defence scenario called for urgent action to redress the deteriorating military balance in the region. The BJP later adopted a resolution stating that it would give priority to upgradation of weapons systems and structure a phased induction programme for new weapons, ships and aircraft from both indigenous and foreign sources. Pakistan’s defence expenditure accounted for 6.88 per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP) as against India’s 2.39 percent. India in the past eight years had not inducted any major weapon systems, the resolution said.

Parliament Committee criticises LCA project

In a severe criticism of the DRDO, Parliament’s Standing ` Committee on Defence has called for a “review” of the Light Combat Aircraft ( LCA) project which, according to it, was taken up without proper ground work. The Committee noted that despite India undertaking aircraft design and development since the early ‘60s, the LCA project was taken up without ascertaining the (DRDO) organisation’s competence and expertise in the field. The relentless criticism of the project cannot but have far reaching implications: The Committee feels that the LCA, which was a monumental project to develop state-ofthe-art combat aircraft, should have been undertaken with proper ground work and attainment of requisite technology levels.

India-Russia close to Su-30MK deal?

According to usually reliable “inside Government” sources in New Delhi, India is close to formalising a major defence deal with Russia which involves the purchase of 40 Sukhoi Su-30MK tandem-seating multi-role combat aircraft and six Type 636 submarines. However, no agreement has been reached on the purchase/lease of the 38,000 ton aircraft carrier. Admiral Gorshkov which is presently under refit and has been offered to the Indian Navy as an “interim” replacement for the 19,000-ton light fleet carrier INS Vikrant.

The induction of Sukhoi Su-30MKs by the Indian Air Force will represent a major departure from the IAF’s operational plans which had envisaged the expansion of its MiG-29 and Mirage 2000 fleet by another two and one squadrons respectively IAF test pilots and engineers have evaluated the Su30MK in Russia, the last team being led by Air Vice Marshal S Krishnaswamy,

First IAF Women helicopter pilots

The Indian Air Force has notched another “Asian first” when the first batch of women helicopter pilots were commissioned at a ceremony at the Air Force Academy on 16 December 1995. The IAF had created a history of sorts when the first batch of women short service commissioned officers were inducted in June 1993. So far, two batches of women pilots have been commissioned into the transport wing of the IAF.

Indian participation in Asian 100-seater airliner?

According to reports from China, India plans to be the third partner (along with China and South Korea) for development of the 100 plusseater ‘Asian Express’ jetliner. On 27 August 1995, at a ceremony in Shanghai the Chairman of HAL signed a MoU with President of the Aviation Industries of China (AVIC) on the US $ 2 billion project with India likely to invest $ 200-500 million as its share. China and South Korea already have a MoU and these three Asian countries would seek a western partner for appropriate technology, with decisions to be taken in the next few months. Though the equity sharing details were not immediately available, indications are that India would be a minority partner while China would assume the leadership role for the project.

10 more MiG-29s

An additional batch of 10 such fighters are scheduled to arrive from Russia in January 1996 and will be among the last Russian military hardware to be bought under the $830 million credit terms extended to India by Russia for the purchase of military equipment and spares. The terms of the MiG-29 deal were finalised in November 1994. The MiG-29s will come with a complete set of spares support and will augment the inventory of IAF’s MiG-29 squadrons.

Insat- 2C in Geo- Synchronous Orbit

Insat- 2C, the first Indian satellite to offer Asia-wide television coverage and two- way business communication was launched on 7 December 1995 aboard an Ariane launcher from Kourou in French Guyana. The satellite was put into a geosynchronous transfer orbit 27 minutes after lift off and the master control facility (MCF) at Hassan in Karnataka acquired the telemetry signal two minutes later.

Pakistan considers ex-Spanish Mirage F.1s

The purchase of 22 ex-Spanish Air Force Dassault Mirage F.1 fighters by Pakistan is awaiting tacit ‘clearance’ by the French Government, according to official sources in Madrid. The Mirage F.1s have been stored at the Spanish Air Force’s Torrejon de Arjorzair air base, near Madrid, and a total price of $ 29 million has been mentioned for the lot. Simultaneously, a contract with Thomson-CSF and Sagem for major upgradation of the avionics has been negotiated, the additional cost being quoted at $ 148 million, making it just over US $ 8 million-per aircraft for the Pakistan Air Force.