INS Kolkatha test fires Barak 8 soon

INS Kolkatha test fires Barak 8 soon

       The Long Range Surface Air Missile (LR-SAM) will be tested-fired in India, coming October. LRSAM, also known as Barak-8, being co-developed by India and Israel had already been successfully flight-tested against a flying target in Israel in November 2014. Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) have joined hands for developing LRSAM, which has a range of 70 km

       Bharat Dynamics Ltd (BDL) Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) V Udaya Bhaskar told defence journalists on the sidelines of the two-day Aerospace and Defence Manufacturing Summit (ADMS 2015) that the LRSAM project is moving in the ‘right direction.' "The programme has been going on for the last five to six years. The missile will have its Indian leg of trial in October. The current trials are for Navy and we will conduct parallel ground trials for the Air Force and Army variants as well," Udaya Bhaskar said.

        Mass production likely from next year He said BDL hopes to enter into mass production of LRSAMs from next year onwards, depending upon the outcome of the final trials. "There are a lot of tactical weapon requirements coming up. The success of Akash Weapon System (AWS) has given a big boost for indigenization for SAM (Surface to Air Missile) programmes," Udaya Bhaskar said.

       BDL presently has three manufacturing units situated in Hyderabad, Medak district (Telangana) and at Visakhapatnam (AP). The fourth unit is coming up in Amravati district of Maharashtra. "We plan to produce Very Short Range Air Defence Missile (VSHORAD) at the Amravati plant. The fifth unit is coming up in Ibrahimpatnam (Telangana) exclusively for SAM project.





       We are ready to join hands with private partners to take up high-end weapon systems," Udaya Bhaskar added. He said the current orderbook of BDL stood at in excess of Rs Rs 16000 crore. Adding more teeth to Indian Navy.

         DRDO officials had told OneIndia earlier that once cleared for operations, the LRSAMs will be fitted on the P-15 A Kolkata Class guided-missile destroyers of the Indian Navy. The missile's first ballistic flight test (short-range) was successfully conducted in Israel in May 2010. The first control navigation test of the missile was conducted in 2012. As per the original plan, initial short-range tests are to be held in Israel and the long-range ones in India.

The LRSAM project was sanctioned in January 2006 with an initial funding of Rs 2,606.02 crore.

 Article Published in One India

P 15 A Kolkatha Vs Type 52 D Luyang III

P 15 A Kolkatha Vs Type 52 D Luyang III

      

India's most efficient and finest front line Destroyer is the P 15A Kolkatha Class destroyers, under this program Navy will build three Destroyers, China also build such good front line Destroyers under their Type 52 Destroyer Program, lets have a break and discuss about the destroyers line by line about it's performance and fighting capability, since both fall on same Category Comparison become easier to Judge Who is better,

Size and Weight

   Both Type 52D and P 15 A shares same tonnage, both having displacement of about 7500 tonnage, where upto 100 to 500 Tons can be increased are decreased depend upon the Mission package and other accessories fitted/removed in the  Destroyer,

    The Kolkatha has slight bigger in length it's nearly 10 meters more longer than the Type 52 D, because of the sleek design the ship can attain more faster, less visibility in Radar and more maneuverable than the Type 52 D, but that won't give any good scores to the P 15 A,

     Both Ship can attain more than 30 knots, But the P15 A hold 325 crews and Soldiers compared to the 280 crew in the Type 52 D, makes the Kolkatha better, because the Kolkatha can carry good number of Combat Soldiers compared to the Type 52 D.

P 17 A vs Type 52 D = 9.5 vs 9

Propulsion

       The Chinese uses the Upgraded Ukrainian made  Engines GT25000 Gas Turbine, in Chinese It named as QC 280, the Type 52 D has two such engines each produces 28 MW power to run the mega propeller and gives power supply to the Ship, the Engine is re moded Ukrainian Engines but which runs smoothly without making any problems, so the reliability of the Main engine gives Type 52D good in combat deployment, also the Engines installed in previous Destroyer shows no problems, makes the Reliable and more economic to the Chinese Navy.

     The Indian P 15 A uses the imported Ukrainian Zorya Engines each engines deliver 28+28 MW power to the Ship, the Zorya is the modern Ship engine produced by the Ukrainian Company, most Russian and South Asian Navy's using it to powers their Front line warships, 

In comparison Both Engines get good and equal marks.

P 17 A vs Type 52 D = 9.5 vs 9.5

Radar System

     The Chinese uses the upgraded Type 348 AESA Radar as it's primary Fire control Radar in the Ships, the New Radar is completely upgraded from previous Type 348 Radars. with improved cooling features and more Transmitter and receiver array's. actually the Radar is an cloned version of Ukrainian Kvant Radar, the original Radar has the Range of 160 kilometers only, But it's believed the  Chinese upgrade makes the Radar boosted Range of some 50 to 100 Kilometers, So in most Chances the Chinese Type 348 can't exceeds the Range of some 250 kilometers.

     The P 15 A uses the most powerful modern advanced MF STAR multi functional AESA Radar, which have range of more than 250 kilometers for  all kind of Aerial and surface Targets, while most Naval and Radar experts compares the MF STAR with the most advanced American AN SPY 1 D Radar, it's believed the MF STAR is one of the modern Radar used in the world except the US Navy.

     India uses the Thales LW 08 Air search radar for Surveillance and providing Target information to the main fire control Radar, The Radar also comes with the IFF - Identification of Friend or Foe algorithms which makes the Operator work faster by assigning friendlies to attack enemy Targets. the Thales LW 08 has a Range of 200 kilometers for big size Targets like Fighter Jets and Bomber planes, and 100 km range to detect low observable cruise and Anti shipping missiles.

     The Chinese uses cloned version of vintage Radar systems for primary uses, makes the reliability and performance of the system during dense electromagnetic situations, the Radar is not completely reliable. thus the P 15 gets more points than the Type 52 D.

      Also the Israeli French Indian Radar and Processing systems completely thwart the Chinese cloned Sensor and processing systems.  

P 17 A vs Type 52 D = 10 vs 4

Weapons

Offensive

     Naval Artillery is not the prime mission of Destroyer, but during peacetime deployments, the Naval Gun is the best options to use, the Indians uses the world class oto melara SRGM which is a 73 mm Gun, while the Chinese uses the bigger caliber of 130mm dual barrel reverse engineered AK 130 Gun, that makes a slight advantage and also slight disadvantage to the Chinese highly effective low rate of power and Short Range, But Indian 73 mm has less effective but improved fire rate and longer range, so one each gets one minus and one plus points.

     The Chinese used combination of Long and Short Range Anti Shipping missiles, the 32 VLS assigned for this role makes the Destroyer perfect armed wagon, the CJ 10 Anti ship cruise missile is a Sub sonic Anti shipping missile, can able to strike both Land and ship Targets. with the Half ton warhead, the Missile scores 100 points by destroying the Target completely, with the Guidance of INS and Satellites the Chinese can strike targets beyond 1000 kilometers without any problems, gives the Type 52 D more score,

     Another Short Range sea skimming Missile the C 803, the Anti ship missile having range of some 200 kilometers, having 200 kg of HE or Armour piercing warhead,

     But India have only 16 VLS cells to launch it's more powerful Brahmos Cruise missile, which is deadlier and the Current and future Chinese Technology have no good interceptors to intercept the Brahmos Cruse missile, thus gives a upper hand, but the Range is capped upto 300kilometers. the Brahmos is a good missile it uses the Sea skimming method to travel, makes the Chinese Radar's blind.

with combination of long and short Range Chinese Type 52 D gets upper hand in this point.

P 17 A vs Type 52 D = 7 vs 8

Defensive

     The Chinese Destroyer comes with variety of good SAM system. the Chinese uses 16 or 32  VLS Cells to launch it's long range HQ 9 SAM missile to intercept long range Targets mostly cruise missiles and Fighter Aircrafts, HQ 9 has the range of more than 100 kilometers , the HQ 9 based on the Russian S 300 SAM,

    Another 16 or 8 VLS cells allocated to launch quad packed QR SAM's. means those 16 VLS can accommodate 16x3 ship launched PL 12 QR SAM's, which can intercept low flying and Sea skimming missiles at closest ranges, 

       It also having 24 ready to fire Rolling Airframe missile type CIWS. thus gives another short Range interception advantage, makes the Type 52 D better in defensive parameters.

    The Chinese have single cannon based CIWS 30mm system, which gives last line of defensive support to the Ship whose Range is 3 kilometers.

      The Four Variety of Air defense system gives the Type 52 D allows to combat Heavily powered enemy flotilla's.

     But for P 15 A, It uses 32 VLS cells to launch the newer generation advanced long Range Barak 8 SAM, which is jointly developed by the Indians and Israeli's, series of Tests shows the missile is more powerful, when engaging targets, also scored good points by Chasing and Intercepting Sea skimming missile, the Primary secondary and all defensive based on the Barak 8 only.   

      India also has four AK 630 30 mm cannon for CIWS, these four situated in well balanced area gives cover to the Destroyer from all sides.

      Both have same kind of Anti torpedo charges like RBU 6000, while the Kolkatha gets more points since it's having longer range and larger quantity.

P 17 A vs Type 52 D = 8 vs 9.5

SONAR.

    The Kolkatha uses the Desi made HUMSA NG main sonar fitted in the Ship's bow, also having desi made Towed array sonar, used to detect Submarines from Stand off distance, both were designed and developed by BEL with foreign assistance,

     The details about the Type 52 D's sonar informations unavailable, mostly they too uses their own Sonar, and Towed array Sonar, so both shares same Points.

Heli Borne ASW Warfare

     It's believed that China uses the modified Z 9 Ship borne multi purpose Naval Helicopters or Russian Made Ka 27 or the Chinese Z 18 ASW Helicopters, Here the Ka 27 and the Z 18 only have the Heli borne sonar system,

     India plans to use the most advanced US Made  S 70 B Naval ASW Helicopters, on board the P15 A, which is currently the most advanced ASW  Helicopter, the P15 A 's deck can accommodate two medium size Helicopters in It's hanger, so It's possible to use two S 70 B and any other utility Helicopters on board the  P 15 A, which not gives any boost to the P 15 A during combats.

P 17 A vs Type 52 D = 9.5 vs  6

     By overall performance the P 15 A series is best in Radar and processing systems with proven missile systems, while the Type 52 D is best in defensive and offensive fire power.

Overall score P 17 A gets 88 marks and Type 52 D gets 73 Marks out of 100. 

Project 15 Bravo Vishakpatnam Destroyer

Project 15 Bravo Visakhapatnam Destroyer

The Hull of P 15 B INS Vishakapatinam Destroyer

        Apart from the US Navy the Japenese become the second Biggest Navy, but the Chinese Sub merged platforms can give upper edge to the JMSDF, but no one can give good credits to Chinese Sub merged platforms, so the Japanese remains second, to fight against Chinese and Dominate the Indian Ocean Indian Navy need more powerful Destroyers, after the Delhi class and Rajput Class, Government plans to build more advanced Network centric Stealth guided Destroyers, hence the P 15 A the Kolkatha class ships born, by this project Navy would receive one Destroyer in each two years, after some delays the Navy getting those destroyers  now,

       The Indian Navy already receive first of the Kolkatha Class last year and get inducted and the second Ship Kochi is Expected to inducted in the Navy this year, and the final of P15 A the Chennai would be inducted in the coming Year,

    After that Indian Navy has another series more advanced Destroyers compared to the P15 Alpha, The P15 Bravo named Visakhapatnam class and it would be commissioned today, and can finish all trails and be deployed by 2018.

     In P15 B there were four ships planned each would be inducted into the navy with two years cap, Starts 2018 and end by 2024, compared to three ships in P 15.

    The P 15B Displacement mentioned at 7,300 tons lesser than 200 tons by P 15A, due to the more composite materials sleek design and Less Helicopter Facility, P15 A planned to carry two Helicopters but the P15 B will carry a Single SH 70 ASW, search and Rescue Multi role Helicopter.

  The Ships again to carry the More powerful Aegis alternate the Israeli MF STAR Fire Control Radar, which can guide the Ships Offensive and Defensive weapons and gives Target information's, the same MF STAR also the Main FCR in the P 15 A.

     The P 15 B comes with 32 VLS launch of Barak 8 and 16 VLS Launcher of Brahmos, as per Reports, but we can expect more numbers, that means additional 32 VLS Barak and 16 VLS Brahmos or the Nirbhay, and more Number for Maitri QR SAM expected to be 32 systems. also it have to be fitted with four AK 630 or SAM cum CIWS like Phalnx system, the information's not yet released.

   Also the Ship's main gun not yet to be Choose but the Finmccanica OTO Bereda  Naval Gun with Guided Shells may be win the deal, also no information about the RBU 6000 ASW launchers, some roumers also says the Ship can accommodate some Israeli Spike NLOS system for intercepting fast Attack Crafts and Speed Boats, a New method where most western countries are fitting the systems in their Ships.

  The Ship's Torpedo Launching capability is also unknown, but It's sure two or four Torpedo Launching Tubes would be Placed in the Ships, the same P15 A , Delhi class all equipped to launch four 533mm Torpedo's from the Deck.

    The Ships SONAR systems also not described which or what system would be selected the Indigenous Bow Mounted or Navy can import a foreign Bow Mounted SONAR. and no information about the crucial Towed Array SONAR, most of the Indian warships lacks this technology, even the P15 A yet to be receive the Towed Array SONAR. but as per SP's Article the TAS in P15 B comes without any delays, even they don't have the credible sources to prove it,

   The Entire Ship built with advanced Network Centric capabilities to fight in the Modern Battle field and can be work with more modern powerful Aircraft carriers, Nuclear Attack submarines and long range ASW planes like the P 8I.

    The sources also mentioned that the ship can sustain any kind of Nuclear Biological and Chemical Attacks, even most of the Ships designed to survive such attacks, but noting to say about this, but can these ships can survive when a Large scale EMP attack hit the Ships. Questions Remains.

      Also some sources said that Navy gets Help from Thales and IAI about the CMS (Combat Management Systems) Network centric Attack and co ordination also setting up the Radars to work even affected by the EMP.

  With long Questions yet to be answered which will be out in the Media's in coming Days. 

 

A Artistic Representation of Advanced Destroyer

A Delhi Class Destroyer

Rajput class Destroyer

INS Kolkatha a Kolkatha Class Destroyer

Indo French Naval Exercise Varuna

Indo French Naval Exercise Varuna

Indian Navy Carrier Destroyer Group

India traditionally has enjoyed a close and friendly relationship with France. France was the first country with which India signed an agreement regarding the nuclear energy following the relaxation of sanctions which has enabled India to steam up its civil nuclear programs. The partnership and cooperation in the field of defense among the countries dates backs to the era of Carnatic wars. Notably Indian forces took part in the Bastille Day parade in 2009 for which the Prime Minister of India was the Guest of Honour.

 India and France have maintained a steady stream of bilateral exercises. This move has enabled both the forces to work simultaneously in the same theater against a threat in a more matured way. Indian and French ground forces have been involved in ‘Exercise Shakthi ‘which is hosted either by India or French on a yearly basis, ‘Exercise Garud’ has been helping the crucial Indian and French Air forces work in an effective manner. 

Indian Navy has played an important role in maintaining peace for India on the maritime front and has been of assistance to various neighboring countries when in distress be it a natural calamity or a socio-political situation. The French navy is one of the oldest naval forces and its roles have been defined as maintaining intelligence, protecting populations, preventing crises, intervening wherever necessary to re-establish peace, and dissuading any threats against vital French interests. Operating on the common are of threat the relationship between these forces have evolved overtime. To boost up operational readiness and to integrate the technological factors, nations have agreed on involving naval wing of the countries under ‘Excercise Varuna’ which has been staged either in the Indian Ocean or the Mediterranean Sea. The 14th Edition ‘Exercise Varuna ‘will be staged in Indian Ocean and is scheduled from April 23 to May 3.

The main aspects of the joint maritime exercise involves co-operation on major aspects which includes cross deck operations, under which CBG ( Carrier Battle Group ) would be put to work. The nuclear powered CATOBAR carrier ‘Charles De Gaulle’ from the French Navy will be the French fielded Air craft carrier and INS Viraat will be countering the French carrier.  The Naval air arm Rafale M, Super Etenrd, E 2C, Super Harriers, Seaking 42B and Chetak will conduct operations abroad both carriers. Due to design changes of both the Carriers the fighters won’t be making a cross deck landing but will be involved in giving assistance to the rotary wings which will conduct cross deck operations.

The Naval Air warfare will involve live combat and attack drills, Anti Submarine Warfare through aircraft's and Anti Shipping mission profiles. Another crucial mission would be the replenishing of ships at high seas, during these replenishment missions the ships will be replenished with fuel, fresh water, food items and most important logistics supplies. This increases the bilateral relationship which is more important in peacetime Patrolling over EEZ and International waters and also during International assisted Search and Reconnaissance Missions.

Anti Submarine warfare is also going to be drilled, earlier this year a French SSN suffered damage to its periscope when the submarine was involved in a regular practice which involved acquiring a periscope lock over an US Navy Aircraft Carrier. The French navy would be deploying a SSN for the Exercise and India will be deploying a SSK under the operation. The ASW operation is a rare opportunity to test the operational readiness and the level of effectiveness each force enjoys. 

The French navy will be deploying it’s nuclear powered aircraft carrier ‘Charles De Gaulle’ being closely guarded by the two destroyers Chevalier Paul and Jean de Vienne, the replenishment tanker Meuse and the maritime aircraft Atlantique-2 will be operating along side the Indian Navy.  INS Viraat will be closely guarded by the destroyer INS Mumbai and the frigate INS Tarkash, which have returned from the Yemen waters after a successful evacuation operation. INS Gomati, fleet replenishment tanker INS Deepak and  SSK INS Shankul will  form India's CBG.

India will also field its long range maritime recon aircraft the Boeing P8I which will be supplemented by the Dornier's.  

The Indian Navy Carrier Battle Group

French Navy Carrier Battle Group

French Nuclear Powered Carrier Charles De Gaulle

  
Editor Karthik Kakoor