The keel of the Indigenous Aircraft Carrier has been laid. Photos from inside the IAC drydock and the INS Viraat refit in the parallel repair dock will be posted here later tonight. Stay tuned.

DRDO's Prahlada gets second extension

The Express has reported today on the government's extension to Dr S Prahlada (in photo), Chief Controller at DRDO looking after the crucial functions of services interactions, international cooperation, foreign offices, extra-mural research, intellectual property rights and business development. DRDO chief M Natarajan's time is also up at the organisation. More on that soon.

DRDO's Medium Combat Aircraft (MCA) brochure

LCA Navy brochure images

INS Vikrant keel-laying ceremony

I will be in Kochi for the keel-laying ceremony of the Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC) INS Vikrant at the Cochin Shipyards. Will post photos and info once I get there.

Artist's impressions of the new INS Vikrant

Astra BVRAAM on Su-30 platform

Why can't they put the damn missile on the wingtips?

Photos by Shiv Aroor / LiveFist

Cochin Shipyard to build 5 aircraft carriers

The keel of India's first indigenous aircraft carrier, to be the second warship christened INS Vikrant, will be laid on February 28 at Kochi. But it is now clear that while Cochin Shipyards will build three aircraft carriers in the current 37,500-ton category (the second and third are to be christened INS Viraat and INS Vishaal apparently), design work has already begun in earnest to develop and build two more aircraft carriers with not only much larger displacements, but possibly nuclear propulsion as well.

Unlike what the model in the photograph depicts, the new INS Vikrant will almost definitely be inaugurated with a flight of MiG-29Ks as its commissioning deck birds rather than the Naval Light Combat Aircraft (the Express has a report about this today). More details soon.

Photo by Shiv Aroor / LiveFist

The Sub-launched BrahMos superonic cruise missile

HAL's Light Utility Helicopter

This is the 3-ton chopper that HAL will develop and build (187 in all) in cooperation with a foreign chopper-maker (quite likely, Eurocopter apparently).

DRDO's lumbering Kaveri jet engine at Aero India 09

The HAL-Irkut Multirole Transport Aircraft (MTA)

The MiG-35's Zhuk-AE radar

Hindustan Times correspondent flies into 9G club!

Hindustan Times  defence correspondent Rahul Singh wrote this superbly evocative piece on his fighter flights at Aero India 09. Rahul flew both the F-16 Block 60 and the F/A-18F Super Hornet, and entered the hallowed 9G club on the former. One of the most vividly written pieces about an experience about something that usually leaves you, well, without words.

Photo Copyright HT

Photos: Flying in the F-16 Block 60!

These are more professional photos, taken by Lockheed-Martin's
in-house photographer.

Photos: MBDA Mistral AAM on Dhruv WSI

All Photos by Shiv Aroor / LiveFist

Photos: Honeywell's pitch for the Jaguar re-engine

The F-125IN engine that Honeywell is pitching for the IAF Jaguar re-engine contract.

Trishul's successor: the DRDO-MBDA Maitri SR-SAM

Here's the Maitri short-range surface to air missile (SR-SAM) on display at the MBDA stall. This is the programme that succeeds the defunct Trishul shipborne point-defence missile programme, and is a joint venture between DRDO and MBDA, with developmental feeds from the VL-MICA and Trishul programmes. (Photos by Shiv Aroor)

Photos: LCA Tejas at Aero India 2009