MIG-29 FALCRUM A 4.5 GENERATION FIGHTERJET

MiG-29 FULCRUM

The MiG-29 is a widely exported aircraft, flown by Iraq, Iran, North Korea and Cuba. The MiG-29 has a few advantages over its more electronically advanced American counterparts. At about 40 miles apart, the American planes have the advantage because of avionics. At 10 miles the advantage is turning to the MiG. At five miles out, because of the MiG weapons sight and better maneuverability, the advantage is to the MiG. The weapons sight is a helmet-mounted system that allows the missile to follow the line of sight of the pilot's helmet. Where the pilot looks is where it goes.
The US Department of Defence of the United States of America and the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Moldova reached an agreement to implement the Cooperative Threat Reduction accord signed on June 23, 1997, in Moldova. The Pentagon pounced on the planes after learning Iran had inspected the jets and expressed an interest in adding them to their inventory. Although Iran already flies the less-capable Fulcrum A, it doesn't own any of the more advanced C-models. Of the 21 Fulcrums the United States bought, 14 are the frontline Fulcrum C's, which contain an active radar jammed in its spine, six older A's and one B-model two-seat trainer. This agreement authorized the United States Government to purchase nuclear-capable MiG-29 fighter planes from the Government of Moldova. This is a joint effort by both Governments to ensure that these dual-use military weapons do not fall into the hands of rogue states. From Oct. 20 to Nov. 2, 1997, loadmasters and aerial port experts squeezed two MiGs apiece, sans wings and tails, into the cargo holds of C-17 Globe master III transports from Charleston Air Force Base, S.C. The Charleston air lifters delivered the MiGs to the National Air Intelligence Centre at Wright-Patterson AFB near Dayton, Ohio. If the NAIC can discover how the Fulcrum works, Air Force pilots might gain an edge if they face the Fulcrum in future combat.

The MiG-29K was initiated in 1984 as a Russian Air Force development program for a multi-role fighter, and in 1989 - 1991 the MiG-29K underwent tests aboard the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft-carrying cruiser. The MiG-29K differed from the MiG-29 production model, featuring a new multi-function radar, dubbed Zhukov; a cabin with monochrome display and use of the HOTAS (hands-on-throttle-and-stick) principle; the RVV-AE air-to-air active homing missiles; anti ship and antiradar missiles; as well as air-to-ground precision-guided weapons. The MiG-29K program was revived in response to the decision of the Indian Navy to acquire the Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier. This called for the provision of the ship with a multi-role ship-based arrested- landing fighter of the MiG-29K size. The ship's combat group will include 12 MiG-29K planes. The aircraft has a remote control system, large-area (42 m2 vs 38 m2) folding wing, adjustable center-line air intakes with retractable screens protecting the engines during operation from ground airfields, reinforced landing gear, hook, corrosion- protected reinforced fuselage made specifically for deck-based aircraft.

BRAHMOS SUPERSONIC CRUISE MISSILE

BrahMos

BrahMos is a supersonic cruise missile that can be launched from submarines, ships, aircraft or land. It is a joint venture between India's Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) and Russia's NPO Mashinostroeyenia who have together formed the BrahMos Aerospace Private Limited.

The acronym BrahMos is perceived as the confluence of the two nations represented by two great rivers, the Brahmaputra of India and the Moskva of Russia. At speeds of Mach 2.5 to 2.8, it is one of the world's fastest cruise missiles and is about three and a half times faster than the U.S.A's subsonic Harpoon cruise missile. A hypersonic version of the missile is also presently under development (Lab Tested with 5.26 Mach Speed).

Though India had wanted the BrahMos to be based on a mid range cruise missile, namely P-700 Granit, instead Russia opted for the shorter range sister of the missile, P-800 Oniks, in order to comply with MTCR restrictions, to which Russia is a signatory. Its propulsion is based on the Russian Yakhont missile, and guidance has been developed by BrahMos Corp.

BrahMos claims to have the capability of attacking surface targets as low as 10 meters in altitude. It can gain a speed of Mach 2.8, and has a maximum range of 290 km. The ship-launched and land-based missiles can carry a 200 kg warhead, whereas the aircraft-launched variant (BrahMos A) can carry a 300 kg warhead. It has a two-stage propulsion system, with a solid-propellant rocket for initial acceleration and a liquid-fueled ramjet responsible for sustained supersonic cruise. Air-breathing ramjet propulsion is much more fuel-efficient than rocket propulsion, giving the BrahMos a longer range than a pure rocket-powered missile would achieve.[citation needed]
The high speed of the BrahMos likely gives it better target-penetration characteristics than lighter subsonic cruise-missiles such as the Tomahawk. Being twice as heavy and almost four times faster than the Tomahawk, the BrahMos has almost 32 times the initial kinetic energy of a Tomahawk missile (although it pays for this by having only 3/5 the payload and a fraction of the range despite weighing twice as much, suggesting a different tactical paradigm to achieve the objective).
Although BrahMos is primarily an anti-ship missile, it can also engage land based targets. It can be launched either in a vertical or inclined position and is capable of covering targets over a 360 degree horizon. The BrahMos missile has an identical configuration for land, sea, and sub-sea platforms. The air-launched version has a smaller booster and additional tail fins for added stability during launch. The BrahMos is currently being configured for aerial deployment with the Su-30MKI as its carrier.

SUPERCRUISE

Supercruise

Supercruise is sustained supersonic flight of an aircraft with a useful cargo, passenger, or weapons load performed efficiently and without the use of afterburners.

Due to its combination of decades long scheduled service and length of time spent at supersonic speeds, the main user of supercruise has been Concorde, with more time spent in supercruise flight than all of the other aircraft put together.

Advantages

Most military aircraft use Afterburners (reheat) to travel at supersonic speeds. Afterburners are inefficient compared to conventional jet engine operation due to the low pressures typically found in the exhaust section. Therefore an aircraft that can supercruise has generally greater endurance at supersonic speeds than one which cannot. Furthermore, without a requirement to carry such a large quantity of fuel, a supercruise-capable aircraft can have a more favorable fuel fraction, the proportion of the plane's overall mass which is devoted to fuel. Supercruise also increases the aircraft's stealth, as an afterburner plume reflects radar signals and creates a significant infra-red signature.

Aircraft with supercruise

JAS 39 Gripen, F-4 'Super' Phantom II,F-14D Super Tomcat[citation needed] F-22 Raptor F-104 Starfighter,YF-23 Black Widow II XB-70 Valkyrie

INS VIRRAT INDIA'S ONLY ONE AIRCRAFT CARRIAR

INS Viraat is a Centaur-class aircraft carrier currently in service with the Indian Navy. INS Viraat is the flagship of the Indian Navy and also the only Aircraft Carrier in the Indian Ocean Region.
INS Viraat was originally commissioned in the Royal Navy as HMS Hermes on 18 November 1959. During her career as Hermes, she served as the flagship of the Royal Navy's task force in the Falkland Islands campaign. She would serve the Royal Navy another three years until she was struck from active duty in 1985.After evaluating vessels from several countries, particularly the Garibaldi class of Italian ships,the Indian Navy purchased the vessel in April 1986 and gave it an extensive refit at Devonport Dockyard to allow for continued operability into the next decade. New fire control equipment, navigation radars, improved NBC protection, and deck landing aids were installed in this refit. Boilers were converted to operate on distillate fuel. In September 1993, the engine room of Viraat flooded, temporarily putting the vessel out of service for several months. By 1995, the vessel was back in service and had a new search radar.Between July 1999 and April 2001, INS Viraat completed another life-extension refit which is expected to extend her serviceability till 2010. This refit upgraded propulsion systems, added a package of sensors to sound emergency alerts, and introduced modern communication systems. In addition, long-range surveillance radar, weapon systems, and new hangar with fire curtains was installed. The lift system was revamped to reduce reaction time in the event of an attack and a new flood alarm system was installed. In early June 2001 Viraat returned to service after nearly two years of refit.The vessel also took part in the International Fleet Review in Mumbai in February 2001. Wing commander Ashoka Padmanabhan flew the Tigermoth-B970 past its deck anchored at 1.5 nautical km from the Gateway of India. The vessel had to be towed back to dry dock for another refit in mid-2003 and returned to service only in November 2004, during which the vessel was fitted with the Barak SAM.In a wartime scenario, the INS Viraat can embark up to 18 combat aircraft. INS Viraat is ideally suited for two missions: supporting amphibious operations and conducting ASW operations. Despite its age and range considerations, INS Viraat can quite effectively project naval and air power anywhere in the South Asia region. In 2004, India bought the aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov from Russia for US$1.5 billion including compliment of aircraft.It is expected to enter service in 2012 as INS Vikramaditya. The Viraat is expected to be replaced by 2011–2012 by a new Vikrant class carrier that the Vikramaditya represents.
Structure Viraat is fitted with a 12° ski jump to operate the Sea Harrier, a reinforced flight deck, 1.2 inches (3 cm) of armour over magazines and machinery spaces. The magazine capacity includes 80+ lightweight torpedoes. The vessel retains commando transport capability, for around 750 troops and carries four LCVP landing craft aft.

HAL TEJAS

The HAL Tejas is a lightweight multirole jet fighter developed by India. It is a tailless, compound delta wing design powered by a single engine. Originally known as the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA)—a designation which continues in popular usage—the aircraft was officially named "Tejas". by then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on 4 May 2003.
Limited series production of the Tejas commenced in 2007; it is currently projected to achieve limited initial operational clearance (IOC) with the Indian Air Force (IAF) by 2008, followed by full operational clearance (FOC) by the end of 2010. A two-seat trainer variant is also in development (exited the production line as of November 2008), as is a naval variant capable of operating from the Indian Navy's aircraft carriers. The IAF is reported to have a requirement for 200 single-seat and 20 two-seat conversion trainers, while the Indian Navy may order up to 40 single-seaters to replace its Sea Harrier FRS.51 and Harrier T.60.The LCA naval variant is expected to take to the skies by 2009.
The LCA programme was launched in 1983 for two primary purposes. The principal and most obvious goal was the development of a replacement aircraft for India's ageing Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 (NATO reporting name 'Fishbed') fighters. The MiG-21 has been the mainstay of the Indian Air Force since the 1970s, but the initial examples were nearly 20 years old by 1983. The "Long Term Re-Equipment Plan 1981" noted that the MiG-21's would be approaching the end of their service lives by the mid-1990s, and that by 1995 the IAF would lack 40% of the aircraft needed to fill its projected force structure requirements.The LCA programme's other main objective was to serve as the vehicle for an across-the-board advancement of India's domestic aerospace industry.Soon after gaining independence in 1947, Indian leaders established an ambitious national objective of attaining self-reliance in aviation and other strategic industries. The value of the aerospace "self-reliance" initiative is not simply the production of an aircraft, but also the building of a local industry capable of creating state-of-the-art products with commercial spin-offs for a global market. The LCA program was intended in part to further expand and advance India's indigenous aerospace capabilities across the broadest range of modern aviation technologies.To better accomplish these goals, the government chose to take a different management approach, and in 1984 established the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) to manage the LCA programme. Although the Tejas is most often described as a product of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), responsibility for the development of the Tejas actually belongs to ADA, a national consortium of over 100 defence laboratories, industrial organisations, and academic institutions with HAL being the principal contractor. The ADA formally falls under the auspices of the Indian Defence Ministry's Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).The Indian government's "self-reliance" goals for the LCA include indigenous development of the three most sophisticated — and hence most challenging — systems: the fly-by-wire (FBW) flight control system (FCS), multi-mode pulse-doppler radar, and afterburning turbofan engine. Although India has had a policy of strictly limiting foreign participation in the LCA programme, these are the only major LCA systems on which the ADA has had to invite significant foreign technological assistance and consultancy. Moreover, the engine and radar are also the only major systems for which the ADA has seriously considered substituting foreign equipment, albeit as an interim measure on the initial LCA aircraft where needed to allow more time for the full development of the indigenous versions — as has been the case with the LCA's Kaveri powerplant.The ambitiousness of the LCA programme in terms of pursuing self-reliance in aviation technologies is illustrated by the fact that out of a total of 35 major avionics components and line-replaceable units (LRUs), only three involve foreign systems. These are the multi-function displays (MFDs) by Sextant (France) and Elbit (Israel), the helmet-mounted display and sight (HMDS) cueing system by Elbit, and the laser pod supplied by Rafael (Israel). However, even among these three, when the LCA reaches the production stage, the MFDs are expected to be supplied by Indian companies. A few other important items of equipment (such as the Martin-Baker ejection seat) have been imported. As a consequence of the embargo imposed on India after its nuclear weapons tests in May 1998, many items originally planned to be imported — like the landing gear — were instead developed indigenously .Of the five critical technologies the ADA identified at the beginning of the LCA programme as needing to be mastered for India to be able to design and build a "completely indigenous" fighter, two have been entirely successful: the development and manufacture of advanced carbon-fibre composite (CFC) structures and skins (especially on the order of the size of a wing) and a modern "glass cockpit." In fact, ADA has had a profitable commercial spin-off in its Autolay integrated automated software system for the design and development of 3-D laminated composite elements (which has been licensed to both Airbus and Infosys).These successes have gone mostly unnoticed in the shadow of the problems encountered with the other three key technology initiatives. Nonetheless, as a result of the accomplishments of India's domestic industries, it is anticipated that, overall, about 70% of the LCA is to be manufactured in India.

Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) built its first Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) in the early 90s. The 45 m tall PSLV with a lift-off mass of 295 tonne, had its maiden success on October 15, 1994, when it launched India's IRS-P2 remote sensing satellite into a Polar Sun Synchronous Orbit (SSO) of 820 km altitude. Since its first successful launch in 1994, PSLV has launched nine Indian Remote Sensing satellites as well as two micro satellites HAMSAT and IMS-1 built by ISRO, a recoverable space capsule SRE-1, and fourteen small satellites for foreign customers into polar Sun Synchronous Orbits. Besides, it has launched one Indian meteorological satellite Kalpana-1 into Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO). PSLV has emerged as ISRO's workhorse launch vehicle and proved its reliability and versatility by scoring continuous successes in launching multiple payloads to both SSO as well as GTO.Considering the maturity of Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) demonstrated through various performances, PSLV is chosen for the first lunar mission. The upgraded version of PSLV viz., PSLV-XL (PSLV-C11) is used to inject the 1380 kg mass spacecraft into a 255 x 22860 km orbit. PSLV has four stages, using solid and liquid propulsion systems alternately. Six strap-on motors augment the first stage thrust. PSLV-XL is the upgraded version of PSLV. In PSLV-XL, the six strap-on motors carry 4 tonne more propellant compared to PSLV; There is also an increase in the length of each strap-on.

F/A-18E/F Super Hornet

The Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet is a supersonic carrier-capable fighter/ground-attack aircraft. The F/A-18E single seater and F/A-18F two-seater are larger and more advanced derivative of the F/A-18C and D Hornet. The Super Hornet entered service with the United States Navy in 1999, replacing the F-14 Tomcat since 2006 and will serve alongside the original Hornet. In 2007, the Royal Australian Air Force ordered Super Hornets to replace its aging F-111 fleet.

The Super Hornet is a larger and more advanced variant of the F/A-18C/D Hornet. An early version was marketed by McDonnell Douglas as Hornet 2000 in the 1980s. The Hornet 2000 concept was an advanced version of the F/A-18 with a larger wing, longer fuselage to carry more fuel and more powerful engines.
US Naval Aviation faced a number of problems in the early 1990s. The A-12 Avenger II program, intended to replace the obsolete A-6 Intruders and A-7 Corsair IIs, had run into serious problems and was canceled. During this time the end of the Cold War resulted in military restructuring and budget cuts. The Gulf War revealed that the US Navy's strike capability lagged behind that of the U.S. Air Force in certain respects.[citation needed]With no clean-sheet program in the works, the Navy considered updating an existing design a more attractive approach. As an alternative to the A-12, McDonnell Douglas proposed the "Super Hornet" (initially "Hornet II" in the 1980s) to improve early F/A-18 models and serve as an alternate replacement for the A-6 Intruder. At the same time, the Navy needed a fleet defense fighter to replace the canceled NATF, which was a proposed navalized variant of the F-22 Raptor