Monthly Archives: August 2018

110 fighter aircraft are to be overhauled by HAL, project running behind schedule

Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 3

Friday’s Mirage-2000 crash that left its two pilots dead has raised a question mark over future upgrades of the fighter jet being carried out by public sector giant Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.

In all, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) is slated to upgrade 110 Mirage and Jaguar jets. The killed pilots, Squadron leaders Samir Abrol and Sidhharth Negi, were attached to Aircraft and Systems Testing Establishment (ASTE). The two were on a test flight before the plane could be re-allocated to its squadron in the Air Force.

The IAF and the Ministry of Defence are expected to review the progress of the upgrades shortly and new parameters are likely to be introduced on speeding up the programme, running years behind schedule, and also maintaining the quality. A court of inquiry has been launched. Of the 51 Mirage-2000 planes, only 11 have been upgraded so far. Dassault Aviation, the original manufacturer, upgraded four jets—two at its own plant in France and the rest at the HAL headquarters.

The contract with the HAL is to upgrade 47 Mirage-2000s. As of now, the programme is two years behinds schedule. The entire lot was to be upgraded by July 2021 and the deadline was rescheduled to December 2022. So far, the HAL has delivered 9 planes, including the two done by Dassault here. The crashed plane was the 10th upgraded by HAL and the 12th overall if the two done in France are counted. Going by the contract, by now 25 of the planes should have been upgraded and handed over to the IAF.

The upgrade includes new Thales radar, allowing long-range engagement of targets in the air, automatic tracking of targets and mapping of targets on the ground. The pilots now have a display inside their helmets. A clutch of new weapons and beyond visual-range missiles is being added and kits for all the add-ons have been supplied.

In case of Jaguar, a total of 61 are to be upgraded to what in military terminology is called ‘Darin 3’ standard. The contract was signed in 2009 but was largely in cold storage over the choice of its engine. The first plane in its final operational clearance (FOC) version should have been handed over in February this year and has not been handed over. The present pace would mean the upgrade of 61 jets would not be completed by 2024, the scheduled target.

Jaguars are currently powered by Rolls-Royce Adour 811 engines, which are to be replaced with Honeywell’s F-125N. The new engines are supposed to provide almost 1.5 times the power of the existing ones.

Speaking at a seminar in New Delhi last week, Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa noted that a crucial contribution to all the successes of indigenisation was also the “supreme sacrifice of IAF’s pilots in testing these aircraft to battle-worthy standards.” He said the IAF had lost 17 pilots and engineers in air accidents during the testing and evaluation of indigenous-prototyped aircraft.

The Supreme Court’s verdict and Comptroller Auditor General of India (CAG)’s report on the Rafale deal notwithstanding, Prashant Bhushan, eminent lawyer and activist, has moved the SC seeking prosecution of Central government functionaries — responsible for submitting false information to the apex court — under forgery charges.

Apart from Mr. Bhushan, former Ministers Arun Shourie and Yashwant Sinha are petitioners in the fresh applications filed before the SC on Friday. Earlier, the three public figures had filed a review petition against the SC’s verdict on Rafale in January.

“We have pleaded the Supreme Court to find out the government officer who had furnished false information, and he or she should be prosecuted under forgery charges,” said Mr. Bhushan addressing a press conference here.

“The Centre has misled the Supreme Court by furnishing incorrect information. The information provided in sealed cover has been found to be untrue. It stated the government was in negotiation with Anil Ambani in 2012, but actually talks were held with the other Ambani – Mukesh Ambani. Anil Ambani had nothing to do with the negotiations in 2012,” he said.

“The government had said price negotiation was done by a price negotiating team. The recent expose, however, revealed that the Prime Minister’s Office and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval were involved in the negotiation. It was also furnished that the government was able to secure the best price for the fighter jets. What emerges now is that the assertion was baseless,” said Mr. Bhushan.

“The deal was not a mere case of corruption. The decision has broken the backbone of the Indian Air Force (IAF). The IAF had sought seven to eight squadrons consisting of 126 fighter planes. The government, however, brought it down to 36. It was meant to benefit industrialist Anil Ambani. The government has tinkered with national security,” alleged the lawyer-activist.

Stating that the set of information was full of discrepancies, the activist said, “The sovereign guarantee and bank guarantee clauses have been taken out. The escrow account has been done away with. Moreover, the integrity clause has been waived. All this information has been suppressed.”

“The opinion of three domain experts was not taken into account. They had said the benchmark price of the Rafale fighter planes cannot be arbitrarily hiked from Euro 5 bn to Euro 8 bn, which is a 60% increase. The government has bypassed the tender route. The tender was issued for 126 planes, but not for 36 Rafale jets,” he alleged.

Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 16

A terrorist who learnt the method of carrying out big blasts during his stint in Afghanistan is suspected to have assembled the huge cache of explosives planted in a vehicle that hit a CRPF bus in Pulwama, killing its 40 personnel.

Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) has claimed responsibility for the attack, the worst ever on security forces in Jammu and Kashmir.

Sources said security forces were looking for Abdul Rasheed Ghani, alias Kamran, a close associate of JeM chief Masood Azhar. He is learnt to have been sent to India in December last and is stated to be a JeM expert on making improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

Adil Ahmed Dar, the driver of the explosive-laden vehicle that rammed the CRPF convoy, was a Class XI dropout and had been into terror operations for only 11 months. Sources said in such a short period, he could not have learnt enough to assemble around 200-kg explosives. Dar, a labourer, had joined the terror group led by Zakir Musa and was among the lower-rung ultras.

The fact that someone collected such huge quantity of explosives, rigged it with a trigger to explode it and placed it in a vehicle before launching points to the involvement of more people. Dar could not have pulled it off solely and his role in the operation is now suspected to be of only a driver.

Ghazi is hiding somewhere in southern Kashmir — Pulwama, Awantipora or Tral. Intelligence agencies had picked up inputs of his having entered India and he narrowly escaped in an encounter with the Army. Security agencies are still trying to find out who owned the vehicle used in the attack.

In the deadliest attack of the last 30 years of militancy in Kashmir, Dar, acting as suicide bomber, rammed his vehicle into the CRPF bus at 3.15 pm on Thursday, killing 40 jawans and injuring a dozen others along the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway in Awantipora, Pulwama.

Youth booked for ‘derogatory’ post

• Bengaluru: A Kashmiri youth was booked on Saturday for allegedly posting derogatory remarks on a social networking site in the wake of the Pulwama terror attack. Following a complaint by VHP, a case was registered against Abid Malik, who allegedly shared some images posted by a news channel after the attack and captioned it ‘The real surgical attack’ on his FB page, police said. PTI

Lt Gen Ranbir Singh, General Officer Commanding-in-Chief Northern Command on Tuesday visited Ladakh sector and reviewed the operational preparedness.

“Lt Gen Ranbir Singh visited HQ Fire & Fury Corps today, where he reviewed the operational preparedness in the Ladakh sector. He was briefed by Lt Gen YK Joshi, GOC Fire & Fury Corps,” a defence spokesman said in a statement.

Lt Gen Ranbir Singh also met and interacted with officers and men of Fire & Fury Corps and appreciated their commitment and steadfastness in service of the nation, even in extreme terrain and weather conditions, he said.

He urged them to continue to uphold Indian Army’s cherished motto of “Nation First” at all times, he said. (GNS)

• A Bengali translation of Guru Granth Sahib was released by former President Pranab Mukherjee on Friday.
• The book in five volumes was released at a programme held at the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Kolkata.
• It took four years for Chayon Ghosh & Jhuma Ghosh to translate Guru Granth Sahib. The event also marks the 550th birth centenary celebrations of Guru Nanak. PTI

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 30

Over three years after Pakistan-sponsored terrorists attacked the Air Force station at Pathankot, a couple of senior IAF officers might face a probe and could be served a show-cause notice asking them to explain how the attack happened despite an alert about specific threat.

Sources confirmed the IAF had initiated legal action against Air Commodore JS Dhamoon. The Ministry of Defence is expected to ratify the same before the notice is served. The IAF had, following an internal enquiry, prepared the notice for the officer and sent it to the MoD.

Sources said the IAF was also considering action against another senior officer. The government was livid when the attack happened on the intervening night of January 1-2, 2016. A day before the attack, there was a clear alert about a terror attack in Pathankot.

The terrorists had even abducted a Punjab Police official and his vehicle. The official had alerted his hierarchy and the alert was shared. The vehicle was found abandoned near the air base, but it failed to raise sufficient alarm within the IAF. The action against the officers could be taken for not responding appropriately to the specific alert, sources said.

Heavily armed Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) militants had sneaked into the air base through a gap in the fencing. Six soldiers had died during the attack. The counter-terror operations lasted three days and it pushed India and Pakistan to the brink of another conflict. Spread across 24 sq km, the Pathankot base houses attack helicopters, long-range radars and air defence missiles. Air Commodore Dhamoon resigned last year and was scheduled to leave the force by November (2018), but the government did not accept his resignation and instead asked the IAF to ascertain if action could be taken against him.

Section 17 of the IAF Act allows the Air Force Chief to sack someone if he is “satisfied” with the probe report. The government, on the recommendation of the IAF Chief, “may remove or compulsorily retire the officer from service,” the Act says. The IAF has already punished two junior officers for laxity during the Pathankot attack. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had, while speaking to top commanders of the three forces, referred to the Pathankot attack and expressed his displeasure over how terrorists breached security despite the alert.

Azhar Qadri

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, February 24

A series of emergency orders issued by the state, arrival of paramilitary troops and the mass arrests of separatists and religious preachers in last two days has sparked wild speculations in Kashmir and enveloped the region in an unusual fear of war.

The unusually high tension in the Valley has come in the backdrop of the Pulwama attack.

The series of measures ordered by various government departments, either deliberate or coincidentally taking place in a brief span, has generated intense anxiety among residents who rushed to markets to ration large quantities of food and fuel.

The orders included a health department circular ordering Chief Medical Officers to collect supplies of medicines and surgical disposables, a food department circular ordering complete sale of foodgrains and a circular of the Home Ministry ordering urgent deployment of 100 companies of the paramilitary forces.

The panic and rumours were first sparked two days ago when hundreds of residents reported an unusual night-time aerial activity as the sound of fighter planes and helicopters kept them awake through most of the night.

The fears were further strengthened as a massive crackdown was simultaneously launched against the leaders and activists of the Jamaat-e-Islami, a socio-political organisation.

“Whoever is the architect of the fear psychosis in Kashmir, whoever did it to test Kashmiris, whoever took sadistic pleasure out of our suffering, may you go through the same pain that we underwent in the last two days,” a north Kashmir resident wrote on Twitter.

The panic was not only limited to commoners as the political elite joined the bandwagon, inducing more panic and leading to fears that either Article 35A will be revoked in the next hearing in the Supreme Court or a war was imminent.

Former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said his father and National Conference president Farooq Abdullah spoke to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and briefed him about “the sense of panic” in Kashmir, urging the minister to step in with a statement and steps that reassure people.

“People in the Valley, especially in cities and towns, are taking everything said or done as a sign that some big trouble is just around the corner. People are hoarding food and fuel. Some government orders are adding to the sense of panic,” Omar said.

Mehbooba Mufti, former Chief Minister, said there was a “sense of unease and panic in Kashmir”. “Nobody has a clue about what is to come but an ominous feeling of impending doom hangs in the air,” she said.

Mass arrests have spread panic: Sajad

• Jammu: Urging the Governor’s administration and Central government to take immediate measures to deal with tense situation in the Kashmir valley, the People’s Conference (PC) on Sunday said mass arrests and troop deployment have created a “fearful situation” in the region. Interacting with mediapersons after a party meeting, PC chairman Sajad Gani Lone said the PC apex forum expressed its serious concern over the prevailing atmosphere of insecurity, fear and anxiety in the state. The meeting called on the Central government and the Governor’s administration to clear the air about various rumours in the state. “The party has also reiterated that both Articles 35A and 370 are sacred provisions of faith and any attempt to tinker with the state’s special status would be intolerable and unacceptable,” party general secretary Imran Reza Ansari said. tns

Drills simulating rescue and evacuation operations were conducted by personnel belonging to the Indian Army, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), the Rapid Action Force, police and other entities at the Rajasthan Armed Constabulary (RAC) Ground in Kota yesterday (12 February 2019), reports Business Standard.

For the drills, conditions arising in a hybrid disaster, that of dams across the Chambal river leaking in the aftermath of an earthquake, were mimicked. The simulation was part of the two-day ‘rahat’ exercise organised by the Sapta Shakti Command.

The objective of the exercise was to outline the significance of a collaborative response by multiple entities during disaster relief.

The simulation lasted for an hour and was conducted at six to seven different spots of the RAC ground. The simulation involved rescuing persons trapped under debris, saving people stuck on rooftops during floods, putting out fires, rapidly building emergency structures such as bridges and shifting the injured to hospitals.

Lt Gen Cherish Mathson, Kota District Collector Muktanand Agrawal, Kota (city) SP Deepak Bhargav were some of the political dignitaries present on the occasions.

“By the order of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a series of exercises for relief operations have been started,” Mathson stated. He added that a lot had been learnt by Indian disaster agencies from the experiences in the Bhuj disaster and the Indian Ocean disaster.