Manoj Ambat's Blog dealing with Defence, Foreign Affairs, Strategic Affairs and Politics

LCA Tejas ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / Attributes- Vishak ) Original source- The Defence News Tejas, India's first indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), which is all set to replace the MiG-21 series, is a result of several years of design and development work from the DRDO. What's special about India's own LCA? How does it rate on the global scale? We take a look at some lesser-known salient facts about the Tejas that set it apart from those in its league.  'Best in its class' :: According to Ravi Kumar Gupta, the Directorate of Public Interface at DRDO, 'Tejas is the best in its class in the world. It is a four plus generation aircraft.' Gupta said that it is 'not appropriate' to make a direct comparison of the Tejas with its global counterparts. 'It is a beautiful machine, designed for our own people,' he reiterated. The technology used to manufacture the aircraft is such, that it 'will not go obsolete&#

INS Arihant ( Pic Courtesy-Wikimedia Commons and DRDO) India as far as the development of weapons are concerned is still at a nascent stage. Now when you compare the development of high end weapon system, naturally the comparison falls between India and China. But in all the articles that is circulated in the net that one reads, when ever these comparisons take place, India is castigated for the shoddy development cycle of weapon platforms while it is always stated that China is miles ahead of us. To a certain extent, it may be true. But are we so bad is the real question?  On a closer look, India has been in recent years making strides in the development of world class  LCA Tejas ( Pic courtesy- Wikimedia Commons and Author) weapons platforms. India has a robust missile development program that has seen the development of a whole family of new generation missiles. The same is the case with other platforms including the LCA "Tejas", ships like the Shivalik cla

Image Courtesy- Wikimedia and the author The Indian fighter jets have begun the process of changing over to desi tyres, probably signalling an end to escalating cost and non-availability concerns. The Indian Air Force sources confirmed to Express that the ‘India shining’ story is being scripted by the MRF, which has got the clearance from the military airworthiness officials to produce the main wheel tyres of frontline fighters Sukhoi (Su-30 MKI). The indigenous tyres named Aeromuscle are 30 per cent cheaper than the imported ones. The IAF started looking within the country after facing difficulties in sourcing tyres from abroad. It was even forced to use tyres from war reserves for some aircraft, after supplies from Russia became an issue. The idea to approach Indian companies was taken up during P V Nayak’s tenure as the IAF chief. “The MRF agreed to do all design, development and quality tests at their own cost in the nation’s interest,” an IAF official s

http://defencenews.in/defence-news-internal.asp?get=new&id=2810

http://defencenews.in/defence-news-internal.asp?get=new&id=2730

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-12-18/bangalore/45336713_1_former-iaf-aircraft-lca-tejas