SP's Special Suppliment to Aero India 2007

SP’SSPECIALSUPPLEMENT

Exciting Times

A S P G U I D E P U B L I C A T I O N

PLUS Technology: Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Spatial Horizons PG10

INDUSTRY:PATH TO GLOBALISATIONThe Indian aircraft industry is collaborating with leadingworld aerospace companies

.......................PG40

The business aviation market is rapidly growing, taking the world by storm.

AERO INDIA 20076th International Aerospace

& Defence Exhibition

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CONTENTS

SECURITY: US HOMELAND DEFENCE-MASSIVE PROTECTION MACHINE 4Alan Peaford UK

TECHNOLOGY: UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLES SPATIAL HORIZONS 10Lt General (Retd) V K Kapoor

LARGE AIRLINERS: THE BIG FIGHT 17Brendan Gallagher UK

BUSINESS AVIATION: EXCITING TIMES 23Alan Peaford UK

UPGRADES: MILITARY MEAN MACHINES 26Lt General (Retd) Naresh Chand

AIR DEFENCE: YAWNING GAP 30Lt General (Retd) Naresh Chand

INFRASTRUCTURE: EXCITING UPGRADES AND INNOVATIONS 34Philip Nasskau UK

TECHNOLOGY: EW AND PROTECTION SYSTEMS SURVIVING LETHAL FIRE 37Lt General (Retd) Naresh Chand

INDUSTRY: PATH TO GLOBALISATION 40Air Marshal (Retd) B K Pandey Bangalore

EDITORIAL 2

NEWS DIGEST 43

MANAGING EDITOR AND PUBLISHER Jayant Baranwal

SENIOR GROUP EDITOROswald Pereira

SENIOR VISITING EDITORAir Marshal (Retd) V K Bhatia

SENIOR TECHNICAL GROUP EDITORLt General (Retd) Naresh Chand

SUB-EDITORBipasha Roy

CONTRIBUTORSINDIA Air Marshal (Retd) T M Asthana,Air Marshal (Retd) V Patney

EUROPE Alan Peaford, Brendan Gallagher, Philip Nasskau,Justin Wastnage, Rob Coppinger, Andrew Brookes, PaulBeaver, Gunter Endres (UK)

USA & CANADA John E Edwards, David A Brown, David CIsby, Lon Nordeen, Ken E Gause (USA), Anil R Pustam(West Indies)

WEST ASIA/AFRICA Helmoed R Heitman (South Africa), DavidEshel (Israel)

CENTRAL ASIA David Fullbrook (Hong Kong)

CHAIRMAN & MG DIRECTORJayant BaranwalPublished bimonthly by Jayant Baranwal on behalf of SP GuidePublications P Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publicationmay be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted inany form or by any means, photocopying, recording, electronic, orotherwise without prior written permission of the Publishers.

DESIGN SP Guide Publications TeamPrinted in India by Pragati Offset

© SP Guide Publications, 2007

SP GUIDE PUBLICATIONS P LtdPostal address Post Box No 2525,New Delhi 110 005, India.

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p1-3_Contents.qxd 2/1/07 10:24 AM

EDITORIAL

This Special Supplement, being brought out on the occasion of AeroIndia 2007, is a rich repertoire of subjects that give deep insights intoboth civil and military aviation as well as security and defence issues. Ouropening article written by UK-based senior journalist Alan Peaford analy-ses how post 9/11 homeland defence is being taken up on a war foot-

ing by the US that is planning to earmark an expenditure of US $42 billion in fiscal2007 for the purpose. Taking a cue from the US, many countries around the world arein the process of developing their own homeland defence departments.

Forty countries are operating more than 80 types of UAVs. The US alone is operat-ing at least 18 types with 3000 UAVs on its inventory. UAVs are offering new hori-zons for air and space operations. A comprehensive and well-researched article by LtGeneral (Retd) V K Kapoor on worldwide evolution and development of UAVs hasbeen included in this publication. Reporting from UK, Brendan Gallagher gives us avirtual ringside view of the design wars between Airbus and Boeing. Both manufac-turers say publicly that their current products have years of development life left inthem yet. But behind the scenes they are quietly aggregating technologies, looking tothe day when an all-new package will make sense. In another article, Peaforddescribes the boom time in business aviation. But, he says that India and its neigh-bours may hold the key to the rapidly growing business aviation market that is takingthe world by storm.

Lt General (Retd) Naresh Chand, while discussing the current upgrade choicesavailable for military helicopters recommends that the thrust for the ‘mean machines’should be better day and night capability, situational awareness and enhanced sur-vivability. India’s growing civil aviation density needs matching increase in airportinfrastructure. Philip Nasskau suggests that opportunity exists for India’s airports toachieve the highest technological standards in their infrastructure.Articles on Army AirDefence and Army Aviation cover their modernisation plans.An article on EW and pro-tection systems for fighter pilots gives details of a few systems available to increasethe survivability of military aircrafts in the dense and lethal air defence environment.Air Marshal (Retd) B K Pandey reporting from Bangalore, the home of the aviationindustry, concludes optimistically that the Indian aircraft industry is on the path toglobalisation, thanks to collaborations with leading world aerospace companies.

Jayant BaranwalPublisher & Managing Director

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SECURITY

4 / SP’S SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT / AERO INDIA 07

MASSIVEPROTECTIONMACHINE

TAKING A CUE FROMTHE US, MANY COUN-TRIES AROUND THEWORLD ARE IN THEPROCESS OF DEVELOP-ING THEIR OWNHOMELAND DEFENCEDEPARTMENTS

In the aftermath of the events of 9/11, the USspeedily set up the Department of Homelandsecurity (DHS) which has now grown into amassive machine to protect the US. Thebudget request for fiscal 2007 is in the

region of US $42 billion which gives a clear indi-cation of the massive nature of the project.

In the words of the organisation itself: “TheNational Strategy for Homeland Security and theHomeland Security Act of 2002 served tomobilise and organise our nation to secure thehomeland from terrorist attacks. This exceeding-ly complex mission requires a focused effortfrom our entire society if we are to be success-ful. To this end, one primary reason for theestablishment of the Department of Homeland

Security was to provide the unifying core for thevast national network of organisations andinstitutions involved in efforts to secure ournation. In order to better do this and to provideguidance to the 180,000 DHS men and womenwho work every day on this important task, theDepartment developed its own high-level strate-gic plan. The vision and mission statements,strategic goals and objectives provide theframework guiding the actions that make up thedaily operations of the department.”

DHS: The US Version Many countries around the world are in theprocess of developing their own homelanddefence departments; however it is important to

Alan Peaford UK

US HOMELAND DEFENCE

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SPsA_1:Layout 1 20/11/2008 15:31 Page 1

SECURITY


recognise that the original US version of the DHSis distinct from the US Department of Defenceand covers a much wider brief than simplycounter terrorism. The threat from for example,avian flu, comes within the purview of the DHS.

The mission statement of the DHSis as follows: ‘We will lead the unifiednational effort to secure America. We will pre-vent and deter terrorist attacks and protectagainst and respond to threats and hazards tothe nation. We will ensure safe and secure bor-ders, welcome lawful immigrants and visitors,and promote the free-flow of commerce.

Strategic GoalsAwareness: Identify and understand threats,assess vulnerabilities, determine potentialimpacts and disseminate timely information toour homeland security partners and theAmerican public.Prevention: Detect, deter and mitigatethreats to our homeland.Protection: Safeguard our people and theirfreedoms, critical infrastructure, property and theeconomy of our nation from acts of terrorism,natural disasters, or other emergencies.Response: Lead, manage and coordinate thenational response to acts of terrorism, naturaldisasters, or other emergencies.

The sheer size of the DHS covers an extraordi-narily wide gamut of operations including, in no

particular order, screening port workers; evaluatingsecurity of mass transit and passenger rail system;running the US Coast Guard; awarding contractsto support emerging counter MANPADS (manportable air defence systems); rebuilding theFederal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)after the catastrophic Hurricane ‘Katrina’; coordi-nating the pandemic influenza preparedness activ-ities across a number of departments. The DHSplanning scenarios provide ‘all hazards’ scenariosfor nuclear, biological and chemical attack, amongother threats, and allow responsiveness and capa-bility to be analysed across the US.

C4ISR – the DHS versionThe Security Information Network is an interestingexample of the sophisticated nature of one of theongoing programmes. The Homeland SecurityInformation Network initiative is expanding itsinternet-based counter terrorism communicationsnetwork to all 50 states, five territories,Washington DC and 50 major urban areas tostrengthen its real-time, collaborative flow ofthreat information to state and local communities.

Secure Information SystemThe Homeland Security Information Networksignificantly strengthens the real-time, exchangeof secure threat information to state and localbodies at the Sensitive-but-Unclassified level(SBU). Future programme expansion will include

the county level, communication at the classifiedsecret level, and the involvement of the privatesector. The system is encrypted at the mostsecure levels ensuring the safest delivery of real-time interactive connectivity among state andlocal partners, and with the Department’sHomeland Security Operations Centre (HSOC)using the Joint Regional Information ExchangeSystem (JRIES), which consists of a secure net-work and a suite of applications including map-ping and imaging capabilities.

State and Local Information SharingEach state and major urban areas’ participantsinclude, governors, mayors, Homeland SecurityAdvisor, state National Guard offices, EmergencyOperations Centres, First Responder and PublicSafety departments, and other key homelandsecurity partners. Each receives software licens-es, technology, and training to participate incombating terrorism, information sharing tocombat terrorism and increase anti-terrorism sit-uational awareness. Information sharing toreduce vulnerabilities is an essential element ofthe Department's mission, and this real-timeflow of encrypted information between home-land security partners will allow federal, stateand local agencies to better perform their jobs ofprotecting the nation. This increased connectivi-ty will result in more effective communicationsand more efficient responses to terrorist actions.

Alan

Pea

ford

Countries around the world are in the process of developingtheir own homeland defence departments.


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SECURITY


Unique CapabilitiesCommunications • Low-cost, 24/7 connectivity• End-to-end encrypted communications Collaboration/Analysis• Secure e-mail• Interactive collaboration tool (real-time, text,

or voice)• Supports requests for information, exchange,

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map/imagery displays Information• Daily, periodic, and ongoing report sharing• Suspicious incident/pre-incident indicator data• Media studies and analysis• Mapping & imaging (national, state, county, city)• Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) information• Strategic analysis of terrorist threats, tactics

and weapons

Strengthening InteroperabilityCommunications Since 2003, DHS has provided over US $2.1 billionto states for interoperable communications equip-ment, planning, training, and exercises. Throughthe Interoperable Communications TechnicalAssistance Programme, DHS has provided onsiteassistance to improve interoperable capabilities inmore than 75 states, urban areas, and metropoli-tan regions. Through the Department’s RapidCominitiative, first responders and incident command-ers in ten high-threat urban areas now have theability to communicate with each other and theirrespective command centres in the event of alarge emergency incident like a terrorist attack.These cities include: Boston, Chicago, Houston,Jersey City, Los Angeles, Miami, New York,Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Washington DC.To further assess the capacity for communicationsinteroperability among law enforcement, fire, andemergency medical service first responders in all50 States and DC, DHS initiated the NationalInteroperability Baseline Survey which will result ina public score card that will identify gaps and helpin determining improvements needed to be madein the near term. �

SAAB of Sweden – the manufacturer of Gripen, the fourth generation, multi-role combat aircraft (MRCA), are on a hard sell. A bill board advertising theproduct came up as early as on January 27 along the road to Yelahanka air

base at Bangalore – the venue for Aero India 2007. It is rare to see a foreign air-craft being advertised on a roadside bill board in India! Two double-seater Gripenaircraft with serial numbers 824 and 826 and one single seater with serial num-ber 229 landed at the air base just before dusk on January 29 – the first foreignaircraft to reach the air show. At the venue, SAAB has taken up a corner stall atthe new hangar with wide spaces. An empty space is referred to as, ‘for the flightsimulator'.

Gripen will be competing with Mirage of France, F-16 and F-18 from LockheedMartin and Boeing and MiG 35. The Deputy Prime Minister of the RussianFederation, Sergey Borisovich Ivanov was confidently promoting MiG 35 on January23 at Bangalore. Asked what incentives Russia was offering to beat the competi-tion, he said, it included maintenance and later gradual manufacturing of jetengines going into the MiG 35 at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited. This would bringdown the cost, he added.

- Squadron Leader (retd) B G Prakash, Bangalore

The competition to offer 126 or possibly 200 MRCAs for the Indian Air Forceis, indeed hotting up. After the air show, evaluation of the contender air-craft is likely to take place at Yelahanka, from February 12 to 15.

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TECHNOLOGYUNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLES


SPATIALHORIZONS

UAVS ARE OFFERINGNEW HORIZONS FORAIR AND SPACE OPER-ATIONS AS THEYBEGIN TO FUNCTIONMORE LIKE VERY LOW-ORBIT, PERSISTENTSATELLITES THAN LIKEAIRCRAFT

Lt General (Retd) V K Kapoor

UAVs are remotely piloted or self-piloted aircraft that can carry cam-eras, sensors, communicationsequipment or other payloads. Theycan be used for reconnaissance,

intelligence-gathering, real time imagery, sur-veillance of a designated area and for attack.More challenging roles have been and are beingenvisioned which include combat missions withspecialised platforms.They can fly autonomouslybased on pre-programmed flight plans or morecomplex dynamic automation systems.

DevelopmentsOver the last few years, the US and Israel, espe-cially the latter, have been largely responsiblefor much of the development that has happenedin the UAV sector. The Hunter and the Pioneer,which are used extensively by the US military,are direct derivatives of Israeli systems. ThePioneer was used in the Gulf War to good effect.

The Predator, an Advanced TechnologyDemonstration Project, demonstrated its worthin the skies over the Balkans. Another popularUAV is the Global Hawk which proved invalu-able in Afghanistan and in Iraq in 2003.

UAV TypesUAVs typically fall into one of five categories(although multi-role airframe platforms arebecoming more prevalent):• Target and Decoy: Providing ground and aeri-

al gunnery a target that simulates an enemyaircraft or missile

• Reconnaissance: Providing battlefield intelli-gence

• Combat: Providing attack capability for high-risk missions (called Unmanned Combat AirVehicle [UCAV] )

• Research and Development: Used to furtherdevelop UAV technologies.

• Civil and Commercial UAVs: UAVs specificallydesigned for civil and commercial applications.

UAV Categorisation Since 1964 the US Defense Department has cre-ated 11 different UAVs, though due to acquisitionand development problems only three enteredproduction. The US Navy has studied the feasibil-ity of operating Vertical Take-off and Landing(VTOL) UAVs since the early 1960s; however, highcost and technological immaturity have preclud-ed acquiring and fielding operational VTOL UAVsystems. By the early 1990s, the DefenceDepartment sought UAVs to satisfy surveillancerequirements in Close Range, Short Range orEndurance categories. Close Range was definedto be within 50 kilometers, Short Range within200 kilometers and Endurance as anythingbeyond. By the late 1990s, the Close and ShortRange categories were combined, and a separateShipboard category emerged. The current classesof these vehicles are the Tactical UAV and theEndurance category.N

ASA

Predator about to land after reconnaissance mission.

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TECHNOLOGY


CHARACTERISTICS OF UAVS OF THE WORLD Sr. No./

Country Name/ Company Wing Span (meters) Length (meters) Height (meters) Max Speed Endurance Ceiling (Meters) Weight (Kilograms)

CANADA1. CL-89/ CANADAIR LTD 0.94 2.6 ? 740 KPH ? ? 1082. CL-289/ CANADAIR LTD 1.32 3.61 ? 720 KPH 40 minutes ? 2203. CL-327/ CANADAIR LTD rotor span4 1.83 ? 157 KPH 6.25 hours 5,500 350CHINA4. WZ-2000 9.8 7.5 ? 800 KPH 3 hours 18,000 17005. ChangKong-1 7.5 8.44 2.96 800 KPH ? 18,000 2000FRANCE6. MART II/ ALTEC 3.4 3.2 ? 195 KPH 4 hours 3,050 1107. CRECERELLE/ SAGEM 3.3 2.4 0.7 240 KPH 5 hours

3,050 1208. SPERWER/ SAGEM 4.3 2.7 ? 240 KPH9. FOX-TX/ CAC SYSTEMES 4 2.75 ? 180 KPH 5 hours 3,000 30 13510. K100/ CAC SYSTEMES 2.6 1.5 ? 234 KPH 30 minutes 5 28 11. HELIOT/ CAC SYSTEMES rotor diameter6.7 6 126 KPH 2 hours 3,000 120 450

12. VIGILANT/ TECHNO-SUD & THALES rotor diameter1.83 2.3 ? 97 KPH 1 hour 1,830 40 GERMANY13. KZO/ EURODRONE 3.4 2.26 0.9 250 KPH 4 hours 4,000 15014. LUNA/ ATN 3.98 2.04 ? 190 KPH 4 hours 2,740 20ITALY15. MIRACH 26/ METEOR 4.73 3.85 1.27 220 KPH > 6 hours 3,500 50 20016. MIRACH 150/ METEOR 2.1 4.7 855 KPH 1.3 hours 9,150 345ISRAEL17. MASTIFF/ MALAT [ IAI] 4.25 3.3 0.89 185 KPH 7.5 hours 4,480 37 13818 SCOUT/ MALAT[ IAI] 4.96 3.68 0.94 176 KPH 7 hours 4,575 38 15919. SEARCHER/ MALAT IAI 7.65 5.1 1.25 200 KPH 12 hours 5,180 68 40020. SEARCHER II MALAT IAI 8.54 5.85 ? 200 KPH 18 hours 6,100 50021. EYE -VIEW/ MALAT IAI 3.96 2.9 ? 185 KPH > 6 hours 1,525 13.6 10422. SNIPER/ SILVER ARROW 5.2 3.8 ? 175 KPH > 6 hours 4,575 25 15523. MICRO –V/ SILVER ARROW 3.7 2.74 ? 185 KPH 5 hours 4,570 8,2 50 24. HERMES 180 / IAI25. HERON 16.60 8.94 207 KPH 52 hours 10,000 200 1,100

PAKISTANEmploys indigenous and Chinese UAVs - Details not known.RUSSIA26. SHMEL-1 /YAKOVLEV 3.23 2.77 140 KPH 2 hours

2,900 12927. KA-137 /KAMOV rotor width: 5.3 body diameter: 175 KPH 4 hours 3,500 280

1.22 meters

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AERO INDIA 07 / SP’S SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT / 13

Miniature and Micro UAVs Smaller, tactical UAVs are being developed to sup-port tactical units with very short range "over thehill" and "around the corner" intelligence, andassist in force protection. While each missionrequires a different profile and capabilities, theman portable Miniature Aerial Vehicles (MAVs)are designed to provide reasonably good perform-ance at an affordable price. To effectively supportthe field troops, smaller UAVs are designed, rang-ing from man portable (back packable) systems toinsect-sized "mesicopters", and miniature "smartdust" sensors. They can be launched by hand,deployed by larger UAVs, or ejected from artilleryor mortar projectiles, as expendable sensors.Thesesystems are broadly designated as MAV. Currentsystems are relatively large for a "micro" designa-tion. However, new electro-opto-mechanical inte-grated micro systems currently in research anddevelopment stage will enable these systems tobe much smaller, so as to monitor and sense thebattlefield, and to engage and defeat a wide vari-ety of hostile targets across the entire spectrum ofconflict.

Some of the missions suggested for MAVsinclude section (squad) level combat, battledamage assessment, air or artillery observation,sensor dispersal, relay communications, anddetection of mines and hazardous substances.MAVs could also be equipped with small jam-ming systems to confuse radar or communica-tions equipment at very short range. MAVs capa-ble of hovering and vertical flight could be usedto scout out buildings for urban combat and forcounter terrorist operations. A MAV could alsobe included in an airman's survival kit, used by a

Endurance Ceiling (Meters) Weight (Kilograms)

(Payload) (Launch Weight)

? ? 10840 minutes ? 2206.25 hours 5,500 350

3 hours 18,000 1700? 18,000 2000

4 hours 3,050 1105 hours

5 hours 5,000 3205 hours 3,000 30 13530 minutes 5 28 2 hours 3,000 120 45030 minutes1 hour 1,830 40

4 hours 4,000 1504 hours 2,740 20

> 6 hours 3,500 50 2001.3 hours 9,150 345

7.5 hours 4,480 37 1387 hours 4,575 38 15912 hours 5,180 68 40018 hours 6,100 500> 6 hours 1,525 13.6 104> 6 hours 4,575 25 1555 hours 4,570 8,2 50 10 hours 4,57552 hours 10,000 200 1,100(demonstrated)

2 hours

4 hours 3,500 280

SP G

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Pub

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Heron demonstrates long endurance.

p10-16_UAV.qxd 1/31/07 7:49 PM Page 13

TECHNOLOGY


Sr. No./

Country Name/ Company Wing Span (meters) Length (meters) Height (meters) Max Speed Endurance Ceiling (Meters) Weight (Kilograms)

SWISS28. RANGER/ OERLIKON 5.7 4.6 1.13 220 KPH 5 hours 4,575 39 270USAEndurance UAVs29. RQ-1 PREDATOR/ GENERAL ATOMICS 12.7 8.14 130 KPH 24 hours 7,600 68630. RQ-4A GLOBAL HAWK/ 35.4 13.5 4.6 650 KPH 34 hours 20,000 3,850 10,400

NORTHROP GRUMMANTactical/ Battlefield UAVs31. PIONEER/ MAZLAT & AAI 5.15 4.26 1 185 KPH > 6 hours 4,575 45 19032. POINTER/ AEROVIRONMENT 2.74 1.83 73 KPH 1 hour 300 4.1

Incorporated33. AQUILA/ LOCKHEED 3.88 2.08 210 KPH 3 hours 4,500 52 15034. HUNTER/ IAI & TRW 8.9 7 1.7 200 KPH 12 hours 4,570 590 72535. SKYEYE/ DEVELOPMENTAL 7.32 4.1 200 KPH > 8 hours 4,570 82 567

SCIENCES CORPORATION36. OUTRIDER/ ALLIANT TECHSYSTEMS 3.38 2.84 220 KPH 4.5 hours 4,570 63.5 19337. SHADOW 200/ AAI 3.89 3.41 225 KPH > 5 hours 4,575 27.2 14938. SHADOW 600/ AAI 6.83 4.70 1.22 210 KPH 14 hours 5,180 163 27239. DRAGON DRONE/ BAIA AEROSYSTEMS 2.44 1.52 130 KPH 3 hours 3,000 25 43 40. EAGLE EYE/ BELL 4.63 5.46 322 KPH 8 hours 6,100 91041. SENTRY/ S-TEC 3.35 2.24 175 KPH 8 hours 4,880 59 10942. SENTRY HP/ S-TEC 3.90 2.57 185 KPH 8 hours 4,880 81.6 14743. SENTRY (Neptune)/ S-TEC 2.13 1.83 155 KPH 4 hours 4,880 9.1 36.3 44. SCARAB/ RYAN AIRCRAFT CORPORATION 3.35 6.12 970 KPH 13,100 1,130 45. BQM-145A/ RYAN 3.2 5.6 1,115 KPH 12,200 135 90046. GOLDENEYE/ AURORA 3.0 1.7 295 KPH Hover 48 68

47. SCORPION/ FREEWING 4.9 3.60 235 KPH 5 hours 4,570 23 48. INSITU AEROSONDE/ AEROSONDE 2.9 1.74 103 KPH 4,880 2UK49. PHOENIX/ BAE SYSTEMS 5.6 166 KPH

downed pilot to keep track of approachingenemy search parties, or relay communicationsto search and rescue units. US has conductedtests with many types of MAVs (less than 15cms). However these types of UAVs do not seemto have been deployed operationally at present.

The maximum flight duration of UAVs varieswidely. Internal combustion engine aircraftendurance depends strongly on the percentage offuel burned as a fraction of total weight and islargely independent of aircraft size. Solar electric

UAVs hold the potential for unlimited flight, a con-cept championed by the Helios Prototype, whichunfortunately was destroyed in a 2003 crash.

Civil and Commercial ApplicationsUnmanned aircraft are slowly finding their wayinto civil and commercial applications.Governments are looking into using UAVs for sur-veillance over high crime areas, in order to pre-vent crimes from happening and for counter ter-rorist operations by police and paramilitary forces.

They could also be used to control ‘hot spots’,where violence takes place habitually. Some ofthe areas for commercial use include mineralexploration, telecommunications, news broad-casting, air traffic/ground traffic control, cropmonitoring, weather research, among others.

Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle The Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV) or"combat drones" is the name of a new class ofUAVs that have been designed to carry out air

p10-16_UAV.qxd 1/31/07 7:49 PM Page 14


Endurance Ceiling (Meters) Weight (Kilograms)

(Payload) (Launch Weight)

5 hours 4,575 39 270

24 hours 7,600 68634 hours 20,000 3,850 10,400

> 6 hours 4,575 45 1901 hour 300 4.1

3 hours 4,500 52 15012 hours 4,570 590 725> 8 hours 4,570 82 567

4.5 hours 4,570 63.5 193> 5 hours 4,575 27.2 14914 hours 5,180 163 2723 hours 3,000 25 43 8 hours 6,100 9108 hours 4,880 59 1098 hours 4,880 81.6 1474 hours 4,880 9.1 36.3

13,100 1,130 12,200 135 900

Hover 48 68 endurance:1 hourcruise endurance:4hours5 hours 4,570 23

4,880 2

5 hours 2,750 50 175

of 26 meters and a take-off weight of fourtons. The state-owned Israel Aircraft Industrieshas developed the Eitan, which would be amulti-purpose UCAV with automatic take-offand landing. It will be able to locate anddestroy mobile ballistic missile launchers inreconnaissance and attack missions.

Modern US Endurance UAVs The Predator The US dominates the Endurance UAV field.Endurance UAVs are now an important militaryasset. The first endurance UAV to be widely usedin combat was the General Atomics "RQ-1Predator", a derivative of the Gnat 750. ThePredator can carry a laser target designator, andhas provisions for stores pylons under the wings.The Predator is fitted with a number of data linkantennas, for control or data download via a directRF or satellite link. The UAV can provide real-timedata to other platforms, such as the J-STARS bat-tlefield surveillance aircraft or submarines. ThePredator is designed to keep watch over a battle-field area for a long period of time. It can monitora 185x185 kilometer grid. The Predator is almostcompletely silent, and is invisible to the eye at arange of about 4 kilometers. Cost for an early pro-duction Predator was about US $3.2 million.

The WarriorThe usefulness of Predator drove the US Army, inthe summer of 2005 to award a contract toGeneral Atomics for the Warrior, a Predator witha heavy fuel (diesel/jet fuel) engine, a slightlyincreased wingspan, and increased systemredundancy. The Warrior will carry surveillance,communications relay, and strike payloads andwill feature a Tactical Common Data Link (TCDL)along with its satellite communication link.Operational endurance will be up to 36 hours.

The Global Hawk The Northrop Grumman Global Hawk is notparticularly stealthy, but it has sophisticatedlong-range sensors to allow it to operate out-side of hostile air defences, and can survey asmuch as 100,000 square kilometers of terrain aday. In comparison to the Predator, a GlobalHawk can observe a 370x370 kilometer gridand stay airborne for 24 hours. A Global Hawk

strikes. Current UCAV concepts envisage an air-craft which would be able to operate virtuallyautonomously. It will be programmed with routeand target details, and conduct the missionwithout help from human controllers on theground. For various reasons, however, currentdesigns incorporate a "man in the loop," mean-ing that a ground controller must authoriseweapons release. Some examples of UCAVsinclude the Boeing X-45, a concept demonstra-tor, developed by Boeing's Phantom Works and

the Northrop Grumman X-47A Pegasus.The USAF has shifted its UCAV program

from medium-range tactical strike aircraft tolong-range strategic bombers. The technologyof the Long Range Strike programme is basedon the Lockheed Martin Polecat demonstrator.The French Air Force is also expected to startfielding the Dassault Neuron by 2010. TheIsraeli Air Force plans to procure a large long-range UCAV that resembles a fighter-jet. TheIsraeli UCAV, named Eitan, sports a wingspan

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costs about US $10 million and is powered byan Allison Rolls-Royce AE3007H turbofanengine; it carries a payload of 900 kilograms(2,000 pounds).

Sensor Craft Northrop Grumman has conducted preliminaryinvestigations for the USAF Research Laboratoryof a follow-on HALE vehicle, known as the"Sensor Craft", which would have greaterendurance and payload. Sensor Craft appears tobe a purely experimental programme, but theconfrontation between the US and China overthe EP-3 SIGINT aircraft in the spring of 2001helped increase interest in a new, large surveil-lance UAV.Future of UAVs The next century of flight will see the roles offuture unmanned vehicles merging with those ofspace-based assets as technology allows themto fly higher, longer, and with more capable sen-sor packages. Typical capabilities of these next-generation unmanned observation vehicles willinclude continuous 360-degree sensor coverageflying from altitudes exceeding 60,000 feet,increased survivability gained from improvedlow-observable technologies, and mission dura-tion times exceeding 40 hours per sortie. Furtherdevelopment of solar-electric propulsion and fuelcells may lead to mission duration times meas-ured in weeks rather than hours. UAV technolo-gy may narrow the differences between air andspace vehicles, as they begin to function morelike very low-orbit, persistent satellites than likeaircraft. However, unmanned vehicles will offerincreased mission flexibility over space-basedplatforms that have their locations fixed in anorbit over the earth. �

Israel: Leader in UAVsThe Israelis were the prime movers in estab-lishing the battlefield UAV as a standard mili-tary weapon. Israel owes its early developmentof UAVs to Alvin Ellis and his colleague YehudaManor. Their efforts produced the first opera-tional system called “Mastiff”. It was intro-duced in 1975. By the early 80s, the Israeli mil-itary began to buy more Mastiffs, while IAIcame up with a competitor with the appropri-ate name of "Scout". In June 1982, the Israelisused their UAVs innovatively to destroy all mis-sile sites in Bekaa Valley. Israeli battlefieldUAVs had proven a great success and sooncame to the attention of the US military. TheMastiff and Scout remained in service with theIsraeli Army until theearly 1990s, when theywere replaced by theMalat Searcher. TheIsraelis are now usingthe further improvedSearcher II, yet anotherscale-up of the basicScout design withimproved endurance.

While Malat has been moving towards biggerand bigger battlefield UAVs, the company hasalso been exploring the lower end of the range,with an interesting aircraft known as the Eye-View. IAI sells another UAV, the Harpy, an anti-radar loitering attack drone that patrols over abattlefield, waiting for somebody to turn on aradar and then dives into it, destroying it with ablast-fragmentation warhead. The Harpy is inservice with the Israeli Defence Forces, as well asTurkey, India, China, Taiwan, and the Republic ofKorea. Another Israeli firm, Silver Arrow focuseson selling large UAVs, but also sells two smallbattlefield UAVs, including the Sniper and theMicro-V. In 2002, Silver Arrow introduced a new"high-end" tactical UAV, the Hermes 180 withan endurance of more than 10 hours. TheHermes 450 is the latest generation and mostadvanced UAV that supplies real time battlefield

data and meets the intelligence requirements forground forces.

India-Israel UAV PartnershipAero India 2005 witnessed the development ofIndia-Israel partnership in the UAV sector. Theyentered into a new partnership under whichIsrael will help India in its development of UAVs.Under this deal, IAI will assist the state-ownedAeronautical Development Establishment (ADE)in Bangalore to develop three new UAVs: theRustam medium-altitude long-endurance(MALE) UAV, the Pawan short-range UAV andthe Gagan tactical UAV. IAI and ADE havebegun preparatory work that involves testing

major subsystems on amanned aircraft. TheRustam, a 1.1 ton UAV,is being built to remainaloft for more than 24hours with a range ofup to 300 kilometresand a maximum alti-tude of 10,000 meters.

It will be able to use satellite links to transmitdata, thereby extending its surveillance rangebeyond 1,000 kilometres. It will also beequipped with maritime patrol radar and elec-tro-optic sensors from Israel, with an indigenouselectronic warfare and communications system.This UAV will be used by India’s three servicesand will not be exported.The Rustam program islikely to be completed in 48 months, duringwhich four prototypes will be produced. Meantto equip Indian army divisions, the Pawan will becomparable in size and capabilities to Israel’s EyeView, Hermes 180 and Silver Arrow drones. The120-kilogram Pawan will have day-and-nightsurveillance capability, an endurance of fivehours with a range of 150 kilometers.The GaganUAV programme will feature development of anadvanced version of India’s Nishant UAV. TheGagan UAV will have a range of 250 kilometersand an altitude of 6,000 meters.

TECHNOLOGYN

orth

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Global Hawk ready to take-off

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LARGE AIRLINERS

THE BIG FIGHT

THE AIRBUS-BOEINGDESIGN WARS ARE FARFROM OVER AS THEWORLD’S TWOLEADING AIRCRAFTMAKERS PLOT NEWCAMPAIGNS IN SEATTLEAND TOULOUSE

Brendan Gallagher UK

For most of the 20th century airlinergenerations were defined by increasesin speed – from the early ‘draggy’biplanes to stressed-skin monoplanes,from turboprops to swept-wing jets fly-

ing at just below the speed of sound. In theearly 1970s it was believed that the next steplay in supersonics. But cost and sonic boomturned the Mach 2 Concorde into a white ele-phant, and the dream of a step up in speedfinally died when Boeing abandoned its SonicCruiser in 2002.

Now – and for as long as anyone can see –the emphasis is squarely on operating aircraftthat are economical but provide a more com-fortable ride for passengers, with a reducedenvironmental impact. These are the imperativesunderlying the design of the flagship projects ofthe world’s Big Two airliner manufacturers – theAirbus A380 and the Boeing 787.

Differing/Converging ViewsThe giant Airbus and the medium-sized Boeingarose originally from two opposing views ofhow long-haul air transport would evolve over

the coming decades. The European manufactur-er believed that the present international hub-and-spoke system would continue to be thenorm, and that bigger and bigger aircraft will beneeded to carry more passengers at a time intoairports like Chicago O’Hare, London Heathrowand Tokyo Narita. Boeing’s bet was on fragmen-tation – increasing demand for direct flightsbetween second-ranking destinations.

The two airframers were united in their con-viction that the new aircraft should be signifi-cantly more economical, clean, quiet and pas-senger-friendly than their predecessors. But theirconflicting market analyses led them to developtwo quite different aircraft – one a four-enginedouble-decker initially seating a nominal 555passengers but capable of being stretched to800 or more, the other a twin with a maximumcapacity of around 300.

Present plans call for the two to enter rev-enue service within 12 months of each other –the A380 next autumn, the 787 in mid-2008.But in the three years since development of theBoeing type was launched, the manufacturershave quietly moderated their all-or-nothing,

Boei

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hub-versus-fragmentation views. Now Airbus iscommitted to taking on the 787 directly with itsA350XWB, while Boeing is fighting for a slice ofthe very large aircraft (VLA) market with theupdated 747-8 Intercontinental.

The fact that like is once again competingwith like was highlighted at the beginning ofthis year, when British Airways announced it wasevaluating the A350XWB against a mix of 787sand current-generation 777-300ERs to replaceits long-haul twinjets, and the A380 against the747-8 to meet its VLA requirement.

The BA selection neatly sums up the broadchoices now confronting the world’s leadinginternational airlines. At the top end the A380offers a nominal 555 seats, though most of theearly operators plan to settle at around 500 anduse the extra space to attract premium passen-gers. The 747-8, embodying the 787’s flight-deck and cabin technology and fuel-saving newengines, is currently sized at 467 seats but couldcome out closer to 500.

On that basis there seems little to choosebetween the two big jets. Look again, though,and it is clear that the 747-8 is on the limits ofits stretchability while the A380 hasn’t even gotstarted yet. The first stretch version to be

defined, the A380-900, would seat around 650passengers in three classes, and over 800 in ahigh-density layout. If the airlines ever decidethey need that much capacity in a single air-frame, the A380 will be in a class of its own.

With the 787, Boeing stole an early marketingmarch by portraying it as offering unbeatableoperating economics, along with radically newinternal and external styling. But as the designfirmed up, the rakish nose and fin profiles of thefirst brochures quietly gave way to more conven-tional lines. At the same time, it emerged that itsmuch trumpeted new cabin features – includinga lower cabin altitude, larger windows andimproved air quality for increased passengercomfort – would also be found in the A350XWB.

When it comes to the fundamental operating

economies afforded by their new engines andlighter structures, both the 787 and theA350XWB will represent a major advance onthe preceding generation and it could provehard to tell which is superior. Instead, their ulti-mate success in the marketplace could well bedecided by other factors – the 787’s five-yearhead start, the Airbus type’s wider fuselage andability to compete also with the larger Boeing777.

Airbus A380Despite a torrid recent history that has seen itsproduction schedule slip by nearly two years, theA380 will be the first of the new quartet to carryfare-paying passengers when launch customerSingapore Airlines (SIA) finally takes delivery ofits first example in October. SIA should haveintroduced the super-jumbo already, but 2006was an annus horribilis (horrible year) for Airbusthat saw production problems threaten the veryviability of the A380 programme. The schedulefirst came into question in 2005, when Airbusnegotiated new delivery dates with key cus-tomers, citing a slip in the flight-test programmeand delays in finalising cabin configurations.SIA, for instance, agreed to receive its first air-craft in the second half of 2006 rather than thesecond quarter.

But the ground really began to shake lastJune, when Airbus said unspecified ‘industrialissues’ meant that production ramp-up wouldbe postponed for another six months. At thatpoint the company still aimed to certificate anddeliver the first aircraft by end-2006, but todeliver only nine in 2007 against the previoustarget of 20-25. The first clue to the problemcame shortly afterwards, when Airbus said it wasworking to eliminate bottlenecks in the installa-tion of the 300km of wiring and 100,000 elec-trical links to be found on each aircraft.

From then on things went from bad to muchworse. Another delay warning came inSeptember, and the following month the sheerscale of the catastrophe was revealed. Despitethe fact that fully 15 airframes were structurallycomplete and work had begun on a further 21,

A380 orders currentlystand at 166 plus 49on option, and therecould be more tocome before long.

Jet Airways could be one of the immediate buyer of Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

Boei

ng



only the single SIA aircraft would be delivered in2007, to be followed by 13 to SIA, Qantas andEmirates in 2008. Industrial ramp-up would notbe complete until 2010, and the estimated costto Airbus was put at Euro 2.8 billion (US $3.7billion) over 2006-10.

Still the bad news rolled in. Prime customerEmirates, with 43 A380s on order, declaredominously that it was reviewing its options.Virgin Atlantic deferred first deliveries of its sixaircraft from 2009 to 2013, and Fedex Expresscancelled its order for ten A380-800Ffreighters. And a crestfallen Airbus announcedthat it would now have to sell 420 A380sworth a massive US $78 billion, compared withits estimate of 270 a year earlier, before break-ing even on the programme.

It wasn’t all misery for the A380, however. Thesmooth and impressive last stages of flight test-ing that led to FAA and EASA certification inDecember inspired SIA and Qantas to expresstheir confidence in the technical design.Singapore Airlines went on to confirm its previ-ously announced intention to increase its orderfrom ten to 19 aircraft, while Qantas placed abrand new order for another eight, bringing itstotal to 20.

A380 orders currently stand at 166 plus 49

on option, and there could be more to comebefore long. At the beginning of the year Airbuschief executive Louis Gallois said he expectedfurther orders from existing customers.Lufthansa and Thai Airways International areseen as the likeliest candidates.

Boeing 787Compared with Airbus’ beleaguered behemoth,the Boeing 787 seems to be cruising serenelytowards first flight and service introduction. Thelatest all-new design from the Seattle Company,the 787 was launched in April 2004 after a longperiod of indecision during which Boeingseemed to have lost its way as a builder of airtransport aircraft.

In the 1990s and early years of this centuryseveral abortive attempts to define an A380competitor under the 747X label were followedby the Mach 0.96-0.98 Sonic Cruiser, whichproved too exotic for the airlines to swallow. Butnow the 787, originally labelled ‘7E7’ to signalthat it would set a new standard for operatingefficiency, bears all the hallmarks of a runawaysuccess.

At the turn of the year Boeing announced aten-aircraft order from Indian carrier Jet Airwaysthat brought the total to date to 471, including

157 in the previous 12 months and worth morethan US $70 billion at current list prices. Boeingsays this tally makes the 787 launch the mostsuccessful ever for a commercial aircraft. Butthere are signs that it won’t necessarily be allplain sailing over the next couple of years.

One of the keys to the 787’s fuel economy isa light structure featuring a high proportion ofcomposite materials. Last summer Boeing con-firmed that a sample 787 fuselage barrel hadfailed in tests when the composite skin showedsigns of bubbling. The company blamed a newmanufacturing method and pledged to fullymaster composites, tooling and productionprocesses before starting production.

There is also the question of hitting weighttargets. At the end of the year Boeing admittedthat the aircraft was about 2% overweight,equal to 5,000lb of extra bulk, and upped itsresearch and development budget by over US$200 million to cope with what chief executiveJim McNerney described as ‘a dogged issue’. Athird area of concern was the supply chain, witha number of system vendors behind scheduleand under pressure to implement recovery plans.

Even so, Boeing continues to radiate confi-dence that the 787 will take to the air in the sec-ond half of this year and enter commercial serv-ice around 12 months later. If that time tableholds, it will be a double-milestone year for thecompany, which is aiming for a 747-8 first flightas early as the end of 2008.

Boeing 747-8First deliveries of the 747-8F freighter are set forthe second half of 2009, while launch customerLufthansa will get its first Intercontinental pas-senger aircraft the following year. With ordersnow standing at 49 freighters and 24Intercontinentals, the 747-8 programme hasbreathed new life into the original jumbo jet,whose production days seemed to be numberedas recently as mid-2005.

Airbus A350XWBLast of the four new types into service will be theA350XWB. If Boeing’s plans for the 787 and

The A380, now certificated but delivery tofirst customer Singapore Airlines is delayed

Billy

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LARGE AIRLINERS


747-8 look ambitious, then Airbus faces aHerculean task in bringing its competing prod-ucts to market. Not only does it have to slash theGordian knot of A380 production but in theA350XWB it must also design, develop, buildand introduce a brand new aircraft in time towin a worthwhile share of the long-range twin-jet market.

At the beginning of last year the A350seemed to be well within the compass of anAirbus that was still riding high. To be based ona combination of the A330 fuselage cross-sec-tion with new engines, a modified wing and acomparatively modest proportion of new struc-tural materials, it looked straightforwardenough, amounting to not much more than amid-life upgrade of the company’s existing long-range twin.

But some of Airbus’ key customers – amongthem Singapore Airlines and influential lessorsILFC and GECAS – thought otherwise, dismiss-ing the scheme as a ‘band-aid’ response to the787 and calling for an all-new design that wouldbe competitive in the long term. Airbus listened,gritted its teeth and last summer announced theA350XWB.

Designed to confront not only the 787 butalso the larger and increasingly successful

777, the A350XWB is a new aircraft and majoradvance on the previous concept. It features awider, completely new fuselage, a larger wing,a choice of more powerful engines – a newversion of the Rolls-Royce Trent, plus theGeneral Electric GEnx, which will also powerthe 787 – and a structure that is more than50% composite.

After some anxious times during which it hadto watch as much of the original A350 orderbook showed signs of evaporating, Airbus isnow reaping its reward for doing the right thing.

In October, China Aviation Supplies Importand Export Group Corporation signed a letter ofintent covering 20 XWBs. Formal industrial

launch of the programme came at the beginningof December, along with confirmation of aFinnair order for nine aircraft. At the beginningof this year, Singapore Airlines said it plannedsoon to confirm an order for 20, plus 20 onoption, and shortly afterwards US lessor PegasusAviation Finance signed for two.

Many of the pre-redesign customers – theyinclude Air Europa (10), US Airways (20), QatarAirways (60), GECAS (10) and ILFC (6) – havestill to reconfirm. But at least Airbus has takenits first steps up one of the two mountains itmust scale before it can once again challengeBoeing across the board.

ConclusionHow effectively it will do that will probably notbe clear until 2010, when the A380 should atlast have reached full production tempo andA350XWB development should be in full swingtowards service entry in 2013. But anyone whobelieves the Airbus-Boeing design wars are nowover for the next decade or two needs to thinkagain. Though the gun smoke is beginning todrift away from the long-range twin and VLAbattlefields, new campaigns are being plotted inSeattle and Toulouse.

At stake is the enormous market for all-newaircraft to succeed the A320 family and737NG short/medium-haul narrow bodies.Both manufacturers say publicly that their cur-rent products have years of development lifeleft in them yet. But behind the scenes they arequietly aggregating technologies, looking tothe day when an all-new package will makesense. Boeing, which last year formed a 737replacement study team, says that won’t beuntil 2012 at the earliest. Airbus owns up tostudying composites for narrow body fuse-lages but insists that it has no plans for anA320 successor.

Whatever the truth of these claims, one thingseems certain, the moment Boeing makes amove on a 737 follow-on, the men fromToulouse will pull the trigger on a programme oftheir own. Caught napping by the 787, theywon’t make the same mistake twice. �

If Boeing’s plans forthe 787 and 747-8 lookambitious, then Airbusfaces a Herculean taskin bringing itscompeting products to market.

Airb

us

At the third time of asking, Airbus is chasing the market withthe latest version of its A350 concept


BUSINESS AVIATION

EXCITING TIMESINDIA AND ITS NEIGH-BOURS HOLD THE KEYTO THE RAPIDLYGROWING BUSINESSAVIATION MARKETTHAT IS TAKING THEWORLD BY STORM

Alan Peaford UK

Jim Schuster is the architect of one thebiggest deals in the business aviation sec-tor. As chairman of Raytheon AircraftCompany (RAC) he was instrumental infinding and working with prospective

owners who would move one of the greatbrands in the sector into new territory. The resultwas the US $3.3 billion deal that will seeSchuster becoming chief executive of the newHawker Beechcraft Corporation under the own-ership of global finance house Goldman Sachsand Canadian investment company OnexPartners.

The sale should finally be closed by the mid-dle of this year and Schuster is confident thatthe strategy that has seen RAC achieve all of itsfinancial targets over the past five years willnow see further growth – thanks primarily to

the new markets of India and the Middle East.“We’re going to have experienced partners thatare really committed to the growth and successof this business” Schuster said. “They (our part-ners) are investing in all of the RAC people andnot just buying a business. They are investing ina team they have confidence in, and the timingcouldn’t be better,” he said. He added:“Markets both in North America and the rest ofthe world are as strong as, or even strongerthan they have ever been. The markets in theMiddle East and India are particularly exciting.We look at those markets as areas we are com-mitted to and will expand our presence in. Thisnew ownership structure is not the end of aprocess but the beginning. Our success will bein terms of growth. If we grow then we createopportunities.”

Rayt

heon

The newly certificated Hawker 4000with its all-composite fuselage is leading the way for business aircraftdesign going forward. Inset: JimSchuster–excited by the prospects forbusiness aviation in India


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Looking EastSchuster explained just why so many of the pri-marily US-based manufacturers are turning theirattentions eastwards. “If you look at the growthof the international markets, it is not inconceiv-able that we will avoid the dramatic downturnswe’ve seen in the past since these markets oper-ate differently,” he said. He pointed out: “Lookat percentage of sales from OEMs outside of thetraditional North American market. We are atabout 40% now but across the industry you’llsee a balance of 50%. That changes things. Thegeneral aviation industry is not then so depend-ent on one economy or set of conditions.”

The quid pro quo as far as the developing mar-kets are concerned will be greater presence in themarket place. Encouraging US manufacturers tocreate facilities away from the North Americancontinent has proved to be nigh on impossible inthe past, but while committing to remain inWichita, Schuster sees possibilities ahead. “Amajor part of investment is in our people,” heemphasised. “You can build a building and buyequipment to put in it, but putting together theculture, talent and commitment that we have hereis not something you can easily put together,” heexplained. Laying down the mantra for competi-tiveness, he said, “In order to remain cost compet-itive we will continue to evaluate what we makewhere we make it, what we buy where we buy it.And we’ll keep tweaking that to make certain wekeep cost structure in line.” He added: “We are allpretty much in the same boat throughout theindustry. With growth comes some stresses andstrains on resources whether it is the supply chain,or engineers or skilled folk who build airplanes.AllOEMS are affected in one or all of those ways;these are realities that do make you distribute thework. Move around the work where there areample supplies around the world. Every day weare looking for people with different skill sets –our competitors are doing the same.”

New HorizonsThe Hawker Beechcraft Corporation will be look-ing for investment from its new owners toincrease the product line – which already

includes the world’s best selling business jet theHawker 800. The introduction of new modelshas proved a successful driver for growth forRAC’s biggest competitor Cessna who have pro-duced more airplanes than any other manufac-turer in the world. “Growth drivers are consis-tent priorities for us,” said Schuster. Elaborating,he said: “We have six clear drivers. Being costcompetitive remains very important. We need todrive the cost pressure particularly in the inter-national market place with new competitorsentering the market.

We need to deliver highest quality products inthe industry and put a stronger emphasis onsupport and customer services. We have madewonderful progress in this area over the lastthree years. We know so because our customersare telling us so.” Schuster stressed the need tointroduce new products into the market placewith great reliability, on time and on budget. Atthe same time, the company had to expand itsinternational footprint in terms of landed pres-ence in important international markets.

RAC has recently seen the Hawker 4000 cer-tificated, ten years after it was first announced.The aircraft features an all-composite fuselageand has utilised the latest Honeywell PrimusEpic avionics. The aircraft is the first of its kind touse the composite technology and the weightsavings have led to a much larger cabin yet stillhaving 3,341nm (6,188km) range. Compositesalso feature on the entry-level jet the BeechcraftPremier1A which Schuster’s team sees as beinga mainstay for the burgeoning charter operatorsthroughout India.

The other manufacturers also see India as vitalto their plans and will be at Aero India in

All business aircraftmanufacturers seeIndia as vital to theirplans and will be atthe Aero India 2007 tomake their respectivecases.

BUSINESS AVIATION

The interior of the Gulfstream G550, the chance to fly abovethe weather and the airline traffic to the city of your choice.

Gul

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Bangalore to make their respective cases.According to Judith Moreton, MD ofBombardier’s Skyjet International, the growth inthe market will be evolutionary rather than revo-lutionary. “There has to be a lot of work done oninfrastructure and agreements between countriesin the region,” she said. As well as producingbusiness jets that range from the Learjet light jetaircraft right through to the ultra long rangeGlobal Express XRS that can fly some 6,500nm,Bombardier has invested heavily in its charteroperation business. Skyjet offers a jet card systemthat allows customers to buy the use of as littleof 25 hours of a business jet a year. Currentlyworking in the US, the Middle East and Europe,the concept is rolling out around the world. “Theuse of these cards stimulates interest in businessaviation,” Moreton says. “People begin by ad-hoc charter, then get the cards for more frequentuse and then opt for either fractional or full-own-ership of a business aircraft.”

Bombardier has recently introduced theLearjet 60XR which features the new Pratt &Whitney Canada PW305A engines and theRockwell Collins ProLine 21 avionics. It cruisesat Mach 0.81 at 51,000 feet and has a range of2,450nm (4,540km). “Like the Learjet 45XR, wecan see a lot of interest from charter operatorsand at Skyjet we know how much our customersare looking forward to using this aircraft”Moreton said.

Gulfstream, whose name is synonymous withluxury in the business aviation market, sees thewhole Asian market as a stronghold. With some50% of all business jets operating in the MiddleEast for example, the Savannah based companyrecognises the need to increase awareness of thebenefits of business aviation so that VIPs and highworth individuals see the advantages as morethan just status. “A business jet gives you greatflexibility with the ability to fly direct betweencities. It is important to match the range capabil-ity of the jet to your key city pair requirements.Our fleet provides ranges from 2,950 nm to 6,750nm,” said Robert Baugniet, Gulfstream’s directorof corporate communications. Listing the advan-tages of business jets, he said: “The speed of the

aircraft equates to less flying time. The ability tofly direct between city pairs and high cruisespeeds (typically 530 mph – 560 mph) can leadto significant time savings – 30 to 60 minutes onlong trips. Many airliners typically fly 50 mphslower. On top of this the high initial and finalcruise altitudes of business jets provides manyadvantages to the passengers, including the abil-ity to fly above the weather and the ability to flyabove slower airline traffic.”

Gulfstream’s flagship is the G550 which canfly from New York to Tokyo non-stop in 14.5hours. The company is adding significantupgrades including synthetic vision for the pilotsthat will allow for even safer operation in areasof high terrain or poor visibility.

Cessna is growing its product line. Already inthe last six months the company has announcedtwo new aircraft – a Citation CJ4 and theupgraded Citation XLS+ – and is carrying out amarket study to look at a large cabin aircraft

which will feature in the super-mid-size catego-ry with a cabin, the manufacturer suggests, thatcould rival the G550 for space.

The biggest competition is at the very lightend of the market where Cessna was first tomarket with the Citation Mustang which themanufacturers describe as an entry-level busi-ness jet. This aircraft will carry four passengersand has a range of 1,150nm (2,130km). At US$2.54 million the aircraft looks good value, butthe market has been shaken up with the intro-duction of the Eclipse 500 and the Adam Aircraft700. Both are ultra light jets with the Eclipsehaving its first delivery on the last day of 2006and a sale price of just over US $1.5 million.

Eclipse 500 is the brainchild of formerMicrosoft executive Vern Raburn who wasbacked by his former partner Bill Gates in devel-oping this four seater. With a range of 1,125nm(2,084km) Raburn believes this concept willchange the world of business jet travel. Alreadyair taxi operators in the US are queuing up totake delivery and with the ability to operate frompaved, grass or dirt runways, Raburn is adamantthat the aircraft will be popular in the develop-ing business aviation world.

But it is at the luxury end of the market that thebusiness aviation world will be focusing its atten-tion this year.The French manufacturer Dassault isset to deliver its latest gem, the Dassault Falcon7X. First deliveries should begin in April. Thethree-engine Falcon has fly-by-wire controls, awhole new avionics suite (Falcon EASy) and willfly at a remarkable Mach 0.92 – way faster thanany commercial aircraft and only marginally slow-er than Cessna’s Citation X – for nearly 6,000nm(11,019km). With its ability to reach marketsaround the world with virtually a single hop, theFrench company sees Asia as a vital part of itssales strategy for the top corporations, govern-ments and high worth individuals.

The last word goes to Raytheon’s Schuster.“These are exciting times for all of us – we areall going into this with a willingness to remainfor the long haul. We are excited by the fact thatthe prospects for a strong market to continueremain very good right now.” �

Business jets providemany advantages tothe passengers,including the abilityto fly above theweather and the abili-ty to fly above slowerairline traffic.

Cessna’s Citation Mustang was thefirst to market in the VLJ category.

Cessna


UPGRADES


MILITARY MEANMACHINES

THE THRUST FOR MILI-TARY HELICOPTERUPGRADES SHOULD BEBETTER DAY ANDNIGHT CAPABILITY, SIT-UATIONAL AWARENESSAND ENHANCED SUR-VIVABILITY

Lt General (Retd) NareshChand

Military helicopters are designedand fitted with weapons andelectro-optical devices to carryout reconnaissance, attack, util-ity and transport missions. As it

is expensive to develop new helicopters for spe-cific roles it makes economic sense to upgradetheir capabilities in aeronautics, avionics andweapons periodically. This article describes someof the available capabilities and upgrades.

EuropeEurocopter is one of leading companies inEurope. A large number of their helicopters areon the inventory of European countries – from asingle multipurpose helicopter to Tiger which isan attack helicopter.Tiger: This is a conventional helicopter with a

gunship configuration with the crew sitting in tan-dem. Both the cockpits have twin colour multi-function displays (MFDs). They show sensorimagery, flight and system status and a euro-gridmoving map display. It is fitted with a GPS-INSnavigator system with long range gyros. It has acontinuous wave doppler radar for low altitudeoperations and a set of low speed air data probes.Several processors support the display and navi-gation systems.Avionic systems are linked by MIL-STD 1553B databus. A self defence suite featuresradar, missile and laser warning system as well aschaff flare dispenser. It also has a German multi-role version and a French escort version.

USMH-53 J/M PaveLow III: The Sikorsky S-65family are in military service as H-53 which is

Rayt

heon

AH-1 Super Cobra of US Marine is fitted with HMOSP.

p26-29_Military MeanMachines.qxd 1/31/07 8:12 PM Page 26


the largest and heaviest helicopter in Americanmilitary service. It has many versions. MH-53JPave Low III is a modified version of the HH-53Super Jolly Green Giant whose mission is to per-form low-level, long-range, undetected penetra-tion into enemy areas by day or night and inadverse conditions. It is meant to in-filter andex-filter special forces with stealth. To carry outits role it is fitted with three gun stations for amix of 7.62 mm mini-guns and calibre 0.50machine guns. It has forward looking infra-red,inertial global positioning system, doppler navi-gation systems, terrain following and terrainavoidance radar, and an on board computer andintegrated avionics. MH-53 Pave Low IV is a J-model that has been modified with theInteractive Defensive Avionics System/Multi-Mission Advanced Tactical Terminal orIDAS/MATT.

The IDAS/MATT is a modification to the MH-53J Pave Low III (PL-III) aircraft and is now des-ignated as PV-IV. Manufactured by LockheedMartin, the IDAS/MATT enhanced the defensivecapabilities of the Pave Low by providinginstant access to the total battlefield situationthrough near real-time Electronic Order ofBattle updates through digital connectivity anda digital map display. This modification hasintegrated several new avionic systems into theaircraft including a MATT receiver and a mov-ing digital map. The heart of the systemincludes an integrated electronic warfare sys-tem, infra-red countermeasure controls, missilewarning, radar warning and jammer inputs aswell as chaff and flare countermeasures. Threatdetection, evaluation and countermeasures arealso provided. A colour, multifunctional, nightvision compatible digital map screen is themost visible hardware in the system. The MH-53 with IDAS/MATT is claimed to be theworld’s most software intensive and technolog-ically sophisticated helicopter.

RussiaMI-35 Hind Helicopter: The original ver-sion carried eight troops which was later onconfigured in the gunship role (Hind-D). Later

versions (M-24P and MI-35P) are also armedwith anti-tank missile systems for engagementof moving armoured targets, weapon emplace-ments and slow moving air targets. The laterupgrade packages include new avionics andthermal imager. Other upgrade packagesincluded Denel/Kentron of SA which haveeloptro infra-red sighting systems and KentronMocopa anti-tank missiles. IAI Tamam hasHMOSP (helicopter multi mission optronic sta-bilised payload) with FLIR, TV and auto track-er, embedded GPS and cockpit multi functiondisplays.Avionics: MI-24 D is equipped with KPS-53A

EO sighting pod. The most recent MI-24V and Pvariant have a digitised PNK-24 avionics suite,multifunction LCD cockpit display, GeofizikaOnvi night-vision goggles, along with NVG com-patible cockpit lighting. They are fitted withURALS optical and mechanical plan GOES-34ZTV/FLIR sighting system and a laser range finder.Counter measures include infra-red jammers,radar warner and flare dispenser.IsraelTamam: a division of IAI This company offers excellent helicopterupgrades packages which include rapid integra-tion of observation/sighting, navigation, selfdefence and self-protection equipment provenin actual war conditions. Tamam’s electro-opticalpackage for MI-24 is built around 1553 digitaldatabus. The heart of the upgrade is a singlemission computer developed with IAI MLM,which is a derivative of the model used in the USAir Force T-38 upgrade programme where IAI isthe main contractor. It uses HMOSP of Tamamwhich is a proven system. The HMOSP has twotypes of FLIR, one operating in the low-wave-length band and the second one functioning inthe middle wavelength. Monochrome or colourCCD TV cameras are included with a laser range

The MH-53 withIDAS/MATT is claimedto be the world’smost software inten-sive and technologi-cally sophisticatedhelicopter.

UPGRADES

US A

ir Fo

rce

MH-53 Pavelow III can infilter andexfilter Special Forces stealth.



finder, designator, pointer and a built in auto-tracking unit that uses centroid and edge-track-ing techniques.

The cockpits are NVG compatible with bothcrew members having the option to use IAI’sadvanced NVG. Both cockpits have a singlemulti-function display (MFD) for TV, FLIR and tar-geting information in addition to a separate dis-play unit for navigation and communication con-trol. The HMOSP has been integrated with theShturn V ATGM SLOC guidance system.Navigation improvements included by IAI have aGPS receiver integrated into the DISS-15DDoppler sensor and a 3D digital map display.Both the HMOSP and YAK B-12.7 gun are slavedto the pilot’s line of sight through the use of ahelmet-mounted sensor. It can also be slaved toHMOSP. IAI chaff/flare dispenser units and Eltaradar/laser/missile warning systems have provid-ed a self-defence capability. It is understood thatthe Indian Air Force has opted for IAI-Tamamupgrade package.

Elbit Systems: Elbit has achieved new safe-ty and performance peaks with Elbit Systems’helicopter upgrades. They equip reconnaissance,transport, utility or attack helicopters withsophisticated weapons, sensors, navigationsand targeting capabilities that turn them intomultiple platforms for day and night missions.Some examples are Puma-330, CH-53/2000and Black Hawk.Puma-330: In a large scale upgrade pro-gramme, Elbit Systems have converted thePuma-330 utility platform into a fully mod-ernised multi-role attack helicopter for theRomanian Air Force. The upgrade incorporatesday/night all weather capabilities. The integrated"SOCAT" System includes: Improved navigationwith an integrated Inertial NavigationSystem/GPS (INS/GPS); digital moving map andCockpit interface unit for in-flight editing of nav-igation points.CH-53/2000: The CH-53/2000 upgrade per-formed for the Israel Air Force (IAF) is designed

to meet the complex demands of combat pilots,reducing workload and allowing them to focusmore on the mission. It has an enhanced avion-ics system.Black Hawk: Elbit Systems enhanced BlackHawks are currently in operational service. Asthe Weapon Management System (WMS) suppli-er and weapons integrator for Sikorsky, ElbitSystems WMS has provided these systems withArmament Control System with aiming andstores management; observation and targetingsystem and display and sight helmet with line ofsight cueing.

ConclusionThere are multiple options for helicopterupgrades in any role. The thrust has been toprovide improved protection, better day andnight capability, quick and in-depth situationalawareness, superior navigation and targetingcapability, enhanced survivability, and nearstealth profile. �

Euro

copt

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Tiger-conventional helicopter with a gunship configuration.



AIR DEFENCE

YAWNING GAP

MODERNISATION OFARMY AIR DEFENCE ISLAGGING BEHIND BYAT LEAST A DECADEWITH NO IMMEDIATESOLUTION IN SIGHT

Lt General (Retd) Naresh Chand

Modernisation of Army AirDefence has been on the anvilfor a long time. However, noconcrete solutions are in sight.A look at the current not-to-

happy scenario will prove that the problem isserious and calls for out-of-box solutions.

Gun SystemsThe mainstays of the Indian Army are 40 mmL/70 and ZU-23-2 guns. But the 40 mm L/70 isfour decades old and has a low rate of fire. Itis manpower intensive and too heavy for amobile role. DRDO’s efforts to develop a futuregun system had to be abandoned owing totardy progress. A fresh developmental projectwas sanctioned a couple of years ago and anoptimistic estimate is that it may fructify with-in a decade. At best, one can visualise anotional time-frame where the system is readyby 2015. But another five years for trials andtransfer of technology takes it to 2020. If theordnance factory has a capacity of convertingtwo regiments per year then it may take almost

a decade to convert twenty regiments, takingthe induction period to 2030. The system willhave to remain current for at least threedecades – up to 2060. The time-frame ismind–boggling. Such gaps in national securityseem inconceivable. The crying need for India isto adopt certain innovative measures to fill thevoids as well as to improve the quality of airdefence.

The ZU-23-2 twin gun system is in a bettersituation as it has a high rate of fire of 2000rounds per minute. But it cannot be coupledwith a fire control radar. An additional glitch isits rudimentary sighting system.

Shilka is a tank based four barrelled gunsystem with a fire control radar; it was induct-ed into service during the early 70s. The gunsystem has a high rate of fire of 3,400 roundsper minute and will remain current for thefuture. However, the radar is of the valve ver-sion and the computer is analogue; thus bothare outdated. The problem gets further com-pounded by acute shortage of spares. Themain engine needs replacement, the gas tur-

Phto

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P G

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Skyshield of Oerlikon Contraves is in the race to succeed four decades old Bofors L/70 gun.

p30-33_Yawning Gap.qxd 1/31/07 8:15 PM Page 30

Trusted Partner

www.raytheon.com

At Raytheon, we’re proud of our reputation as the world’s leading developer of technologies in air and missile defense, government electronics, space, information technology, business aviation and special mission aircraft. And we’re proud that this reputation rests upon a foundation of trust with customers,employees, suppliers and communities. It’s a combination that delivers a distinct operational advantage and information superiority for our customers, anywhere in the world.

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Global solutions tailored to local needs.

RTN237_SPAviaAeroIndia_Feb 12/21/06 3:13 PM Page 1

AIR DEFENCE


bine based power supply solution is very cost-ly and needs to be replaced with simpler andcost effective solutions. Addition of air condi-tioning and optronic sights will add to the effi-ciency of the system as well as the crew.Tunguska is the successor to Shilka and is anall-weather gun system with a fair weathermissile system mounted on the same platform.After induction of a regiment worth of sys-tems, there seems to have been no furtherprogress.

Missile SystemsA large number of missile systems were induct-ed in the eighties and most of them are due forreplacement. The scenario is as disconcertingas the guns. Kvadrat is a medium range, all-weather, mobile missile system which wasinducted in the late 70s and along with Shilka,was the mainstay during the Yom Kippur War of1973. It is now vintage and should have beenreplaced many years back. The quick reactionshort range missile OSA-AK is more than twodecades old and it is high time that the processto identify its successor is initiated. The succes-sors to both the systems are Akash (mediumrange) and Trishul (short range) being devel-oped by DRDO for almost two decades as partof the Integrated Guided Missile Programme;but the eternal wait continues. Trishul was fore-closed a few years back and Akash is waybehind. Shoulder fired missile like Igla is cur-rent; but since it is in service with the Army,Navy and the Air Force, finding a common suc-cessor involves multiple agencies.

Non-Communication Electronic Warfare isanother critical area where the DRDO is devel-oping the system. But there have been majorslippages in this area as well and in such a sen-sitive area no outside agency can be involved.

Battle Management Systems Air defence is a system which apart fromweapons includes surveillance, warning,weapon selection and clearance to fire on hos-tile aircraft, all in real time. Such a battle man-agement system should have seamless integra-

tion with the C3I of the army as well as C4I2 ofthe nation.

Possible solutionsThe most cost effective strategy for changing alarge inventory includes:• Maintain current systems as long as possible

or till replaced.• Upgrade systems wherever possible in order

to improve their effectiveness.• Introduce new systems developed by DRDO

and if they are delayed for some reason, optfor ‘buy and make’ as an interim solution.

• Finally, replace the complete inventory withDRDO developed systems, and if that does notseem likely then make the ‘interim solution’ asthe final solution.

Gun SystemsSuch a strategy is being followed for L/70, ZU-23-Twin and Shilka as far as the upgrades are

concerned. The development of a gun system, byDRDO, has been foreclosed twice in the last twodecades. Technology options for gun systemshave almost reached a plateau except foroptronic sights such as a combination of laserrange finder, day TV, thermal imager and betterammunition like proximity fused pre-fragment-ed(PFPF). At such a juncture, for DRDO to devel-op a new system ab-initio is like reinventing thewheel.

For L/70, the approach should be to upgradea certain percentage and buy and make to fillthe critical voids. There are good guns availablein the market like 35 mm Skyshield of OerlikonContraves, which can engage very small targets.

Upgrade of ZU-23-2 twin gun is similar to L-70 and will be more effective than L-70 due toits high rate of fire. Later on the situation can bereviewed, and if feasible, both L-70 and ZU-23-2 can be replaced by a common successor.Shilka should continue, subject to successfulupgrade, until replaced by Tunguska.

In case of missiles, the picture is somewhatblurred with DRDO neither delivering nor allow-ing deliverance through imports. Medium rangemissile system SAM-6 is obsolete and its main-tenance is giving nightmares to army repairagencies. The system is of the 60s vintage; bulkyand unwieldy. It is high time that it is retiredgracefully and a successor selected. Buk-1M ofRussian origin, Aster-15 and PAC-3 could beconsidered. Short range, quick reaction, allweather SAM-8 has almost reached retiringage. The initiative to look for its successorshould start now, especially when the Trishuloption is foreclosed. Tor-M1 of Russia andSpyder of Rafael could be considered. Spyder isquite an attractive proposition.

ConclusionIt is amply clear that modernisation of army airdefence is lagging behind by at least a decadewith no immediate solution in sight. The processof acquisition of equipment has become morecomplex, especially as the Defence ProcurementProcedure 2006 has made things even morestringent. �

In case of missiles, thepicture is somewhatblurred with DRDOneither delivering norallowing deliverancethrough imports.

Tunguska has guns and missiles on the sameplatform and is a front line weapon.

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INFRASTRUCTURE

EXCITINGUPGRADES ANDINNOVATIONS

INDIA IS PREPARING FORA TECHNOLOGICALREVOLUTION IN ITS AIR-PORT INFRASTRUCTURETO MATCH WORLDDEVELOPMENTS

Philip Nasskau UK

Just across the Arabian Gulf in the busy trad-ing port city of Dubai an American is look-ing closely towards India. In his mind arethe 454 airports in the country some areabandoned or disused, while others are still

operational and managed by the DefenceDepartment or by the Airports Authority of India(AAI). For Bob Johnson, the chief executive ofDubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE) each one is anopportunity for the aerospace giant to invest itsbillions into a sector that needs to sustain itself toenable the projected growth of aviation through-out Asia to expand to its true potential.

Airports the world over are expanding as theindustry sees year-on-year growth and vastsums of money being set aside for infrastructuredevelopment and technological advancement.DAE Airports has assembled a winning consor-tium of companies under its umbrella and is

projecting itself as the global leader in airportdevelopment and operations. “There is a fore-casted cumulative investment of more than US$120 billion in airports in Africa, the Middle Eastand the Indian sub-continent by the end of2014”, Johnson says. India is very high on thatpriority list.

Improving InfrastructureIncreased passenger and cargo traffic requiresimprovements to the existing infrastructure withthe country facing the need for capacity expan-sions at existing airports, upgrading/modernisa-tion of its metro and non-metro airports, devel-opments of new greenfield airports, introductionof modern technology to improve efficiency andupgrading its CNS/ATM (Communication,Navigation and Surveillance/Airspace and TrafficManagement) facilities.

Frap

ortLondon Heathrow’s Terminal 5 which is incorporating many technological innovations

including faster fuelling systems, speedy check-in and environmental advantages.

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AAI manages 127 airports of which 86 areoperational and it forecasts an investment of Rs40,000 crore (US $9.3 billion) for infrastructureimprovements by 2010. This entails restructuringand modernisation of the major hubs at Delhi,Mumbai and Chennai. The total developmentplan also outlines plans for new terminal build-ings at seven airports, new runways atMangalore and Visakhapatnam, strengtheningand extensions of existing runways at 14 air-ports and construction of taxiways and parkingstands at 26 airports.

The opportunity exists for India’s airports toachieve the highest technological standards ininfrastructure currently being rolled out aroundthe world, matching the developments of thekind being outlined for Frankfurt (Main) airportin Germany. Frankfurt is Europe’s second busiestairport and is Germany’s main hub. Fraport AGowners and operators of Frankfurt Main formpart of the private consortium with GMR Group,MAPL and IDF who have taken a 74% equityshare in Delhi airport.

It has many innovations in the pipeline includ-ing ETNA (Electronic Taxiway Navigation Array),a taxi and control system that focuses on taxi-way management processes. Continuouslygrowing traffic volumes at airports place higherdemands on safe and efficient handling of taxi-ing traffic, especially in poor visibility conditions.ETNA was brought to life to develop a naviga-tion and control system for airport vehicles thatroutinely operate on runways and taxiways, suchas fire vehicles and fuel bowsers.

The underlying principle utilises an on-boarddisplay in the vehicle, whose position is detectedwith the help of D-GPS (differential satellite navi-gation) and various other sensors. This informa-tion is displayed in the vehicle and passed onto acentral server via wireless-LAN or radio so that itcan be distributed further. The taxiway controlsystem SMGCS (Surface Movement Guidance andControl System) fitted to aircraft, delivers the air-craft position to ETNA, which can then pass theinformation to all ETNA-equipped vehicles.

ETNA helps prevent runway incursions andvehicle collisions through the use of optical and

audio warning signals in the vehicle. In additionto the increased physical safety of the vehicles,there is a substantial reduction in response timebecause of situational displays and precise con-trol of emergency vehicles and the integration ofexisting and future on-board applications. ETNAis a universal platform for vehicle applicationsand is simple to adapt to operational builds as itis a modular system. It has been in use since2001 with the collaboration of Honeywell andDarmstadt Technical University.

Capacity and Environmental IssuesCapacity is an issue, even at Frankfurt. Fraport isutilising several approaches to increase move-ment capacity. Among them is the addition of afourth runway which has a centreline separationfrom the existing runways of approximately4,620 ft (1,400 m) and allows simultaneous use.The runway should be in service by 2009. Witha requirement to increase capacity as soon aspossible, Frankfurt is developing a PrecisionApproach Monitor (PAM).

PAM aims to allow capacity increase byreducing the diagonal separation required byradar of 2.5nm between two aircraft by utilisinga multilateration system. Multilateration usesthe signals of on-board Mode-S transponders.By measuring and comparing the time taken byincoming Mode-S signals to reach the five sen-sors distributed within a radius of up to 45 kmaround the airport, the position of an aircraftcan be identified. Apart from fixing the positionof an aircraft, multilateration permits their reli-able identification. The greatest advantage ver-sus conventional radar systems, however, is thehigh refresh rate of once per second. The systemis relatively inexpensive and places only minorburdens on existing radar frequencies.

Issues over the environment with regard tonoise and pollution surround all plans for newairports. The airport authorities are developingsystems and processes for noise reduction andpollution caused by passenger flow to and fromthe airport. Emirates Airlines’ new terminal atDubai International Airport Terminal 3 solvedsome of that by building a lot of the terminalunderground. Located beneath the taxiway areathe terminal incorporates an innovative designthat promotes simplified, easy passenger flow(inbound and outbound) and decreases walkingdistances. The design of the terminal byAeroports de Paris is in the shape of an airplanewing and is a kilometre long. Terminal 3's fea-tures include a multi-level underground struc-ture measuring 300m x 350m, first class loungesand dedicated counters, restaurants, 180 check-in counters and 2,600 underground parkingspaces. The departures and arrivals halls withinthe terminal will be located 10 m below theapron and taxiways.

Ground VehiclesGround vehicles are also an area for new tech-nologies. Oil company BP has been developingtechnologies for fuelling vehicles with hydrogenand testing their everyday practicality. At MunichAirport robots fuel cars with liquid hydrogen andbuses are fuelled manually with gaseous hydro-gen. The oil company sees hydrogen as most

Opportunity exists forIndia’s airports toachieve the highesttechnological stan-dards in infrastructure.

SITA

Common use self service kiosks will be a familiarsite in the future airports.


INFRASTRUCTURE


promising for three main reasons. First, there isa large potential of renewable primary energyfor hydrogen production. Second, there is a highpotential for CO2 reductions. Third, hydrogencan be used in both internal combustion andfuel-cell engines.

BP has been involved with several major air-port designs. Air BP has been involved in airportdesign at London’s Heathrow since 1960 andthis experience has already paid dividends in thedesign of the fuel facilities at the newGuangzhou Airport in China, where Air BP pro-vided engineering expertise. The oil companyhas developed the underground fuel distributionsystem for Heathrow’s Terminal 5 where Boeing747s will be able to re-fuel at 7,500 litres aminute, while the new Airbus A380 will fill up at8,000 litres a minute.

Airport IT SystemsInside the terminal buildings there are many otherdevelopments.Airport IT systems are a large focusfor development and upgrades. The airport indus-try ploughed around US $3 billion into IT andtelecommunications in 2006. Investments areexpected to be even higher this year.

On the back of managed networks, airportsthe world over are already offering a host oftechnologies. Voice over internet protocol (VoIP)is becoming more readily available. Web servicesfor passengers are already being provided by70% of airports. Although only 7% of airportsprovide web check-in for common-use kiosks,this will rise to 59% within two years. Wirelesslocal area networking (WiFi) for tenant or oper-ational use has been implemented by 71% ofairports, with another 23% due on board in thenext two years; and 57% have implementeddigital land mobile radio or trunk radio, rising to83% by the end of 2008.

Technologies yet to arrive are mobile com-merce for purchase at the airport and mobilepassenger check-in, as well as WiMax, the next-generation WiFi. Uptake of technology is clearlybeing driven by the operational needs of cus-tomers. New aircraft innovations such asBoeing’s 787 will run updates when it arrives at

an airport – and can have its systems updatedvia a WiFi network.

Common-use self-service kiosks are increas-ing in presence – London Heathrow’s Terminal 5will house the British Airways operation which isdue to open mid-2008 and will feature 96 self-service kiosks and fast bag drops with a selec-tion of classic check-in desks for those that needassistance. In a world where more and morethings can be done online, IT will continue toplay a significant role in increasing efficiencyand overall services at airports worldwide.

Other InnovationsProgress is also being made on a Lidar-basedwake vortex detection system which could giveair traffic controllers the ability to increase air-port capacity by decreasing wake vortex-drivenseparations. It is a laser-acoustic and pulsedLidar (laser radar) based system dubbed AWSM– Aircraft Wake Safety Management – and isbeing developed by NASA, the US Departmentof Transport and Flight Safety Technology (FST).The system is designed to advise air traffic con-trollers when it is safe to use minimum trafficseparation on approaching aircraft. AWSM usesa combination of sensors, real-time weatherdata and predictive algorithms to test for thepresence or likelihood of wake vortices at criticalpositions along the flight path to or from the air-port. By using real-time weather input, AWSMgenerates vortex predictions and backs up theestimates with real-time measurements with theLidar and a laser-acoustic sensor.

Vortices pose the biggest problems when aheavy aircraft is flying low and slow in thelanding configuration. It can result in anuncontrolled roll motion when downstream air-craft cross the path of the rotating airflowbefore it dissipates, descends or driftsdownwind.

The two technologies are complementary: theLidar system built by Lockheed Martin, deter-mines turbulence by measuring laser lightreflected by moving air particles. The laser-acoustic sensor built by FST is a listening devicethat captures the sound generated by the vortexvia changes in the index of refraction of the aircaused by the sound as it passes through thelaser beam. This system could help reduce delaysand its usefulness is likely to be amplified withthe introduction of new aircraft at both ends ofthe spectrum.

From developments in ground security sys-tems to protect the assets at the airports, to indi-vidual passenger checks, from ground move-ment and final approach control technologiesthrough to apron, runway and taxiway design,there has never been a more exciting time forairport infrastructure. �

The airport industryploughed around US$3 billion into IT andtelecommunicationsin 2006. Investmentsare expected to beeven higher this year.

Aircraft Wake Safety Management AWSM are theoutside sensors and the workstations that will givedeparting and arriving aircraft better avoidance ofanother aircraft’s wake vortex.

Airli

ne B

usin

ess


TECHNOLOGY

EW AND PROTECTION SYSTEMS

SURVIVINGLETHAL FIRE

EW HAS BECOME ANIMPORTANT COMPO-NENT OF MILITARY AIROPERATIONS AND COU-PLED WITH STEALTHHAS EVOLVED OVER APERIOD OF TIME TOPROVIDE SURVIVABILITYAND EFFECTIVENESS TOAIRBORNE PLATFORMS

Lt General (Retd) Naresh Chand

Faced with dense and lethal air defence,the modern fighter pilot needs to beequipped with warning devices to taketimely evasive action. Since the adventof radar in UK and Germany in the for-

ties, techniques have been developed to count-er the radar. The first such system was chaff,code-named Window. Chaff comprised of thou-sands of small strands of aluminium foil whichhad been cut to suitable proportion of the emit-ted wave length of the radars. When droppedfrom the aircraft, chaff created false signals onhostile radars. However, modern radarsequipped with digital signal processing are noteasily fooled by chaff, giving rise to electroniccounter measures (ECM) in which radio frequen-cy is emitted to saturate the hostile radar withnoise (noise jamming) or cause false echoes toappear (repeater jamming). On the other hand,radars have developed electronic counter count-

er measures (ECCM) to avoid being jammed.However, radar is not the only threat which a

modern aircraft faces in air combat. Threats alsoemanate from infra-red (IR) guided missilesagainst which a very simple counter measure isused in the form of a pyrotechnic flare tuned toemit radiation similar to the jet exhaust of a fight-er. But as in the case of chaff, modern IR missilesare less likely to be fooled by pyrotechnic.

Electronic Warfare (EW)EW has become an important component ofmilitary air operations and coupled with stealthhas evolved over a period of time to provide sur-vivability and effectiveness to airborne plat-forms. EW has three components: ElectronicSupport Measures (ESM – also called EW sup-port), ECM (also called electronic protection)and ECCM (also called electronic attack). Radarwarning receivers (RWR) coupled with suitable

US N

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EA-6B Prowler takes off from Aircraftcarrier Dwight D Eisenhower


p37-39_warfare.qxd 1/31/07 8:25 PM Page 37

TECHNOLOGY


ECM suites can provide effective ECM andECCM. EW supported by suppression of enemyair defences (SEAD) with bombs and missiles,contributes significantly to the survivability ofairborne platforms.

RWR The basic RWR system has many antennas fittedon the aircraft and immediately identifies thatthe aircraft has been hit by an emission. Moreadvance systems cover 360 degrees around theaircraft so that the emitter is not masked fromthe RWR even when the aircraft is manoeuvring.This coverage is only in azimuth. It can also givethe range to the emitter, recognise it by compar-ing its radar signature with the help of an ESMsuite, using high speed digital processing tech-niques; it gives out the threat evaluation as‘threat’, ‘no threat’, and ‘immediate threat’. Thecrew then takes action to evade detection orbreak the lock. One of the weaknesses of thecurrent systems is the difficulty in countering lowprobability of intercept enabled emissions whichuse various techniques to hide the emitted sig-nal. It is understood that Marconi (now BAESystems) has been working in this field to detectand classify such emissions.

Radar Homing and Warning Systems(RHAWS)RHAWS is a RWR connected with the ECM suiteand operates automatically. As soon as thethreat is detected and analysed, the ECM suitetakes action to jam the threat with a variety ofmodes available today. ECM emits radio energydirectly at the source of the threat, either to sat-urate the hostile emitter or mislead it with falsetargets. An efficient system should be able tocounter all types of radars like continuous wave,pulse and pulse doppler. An interesting system,developed by Elettronica of Italy, is called CrossEye which uses two widely spaced emitterswhich generate two identical jamming beamswhich when aimed at an approaching missile oran aircraft, causes aiming errors. This results inmisleading the hostile systems regarding thelocation of their target.

Towed Radar Decoy (TRD) This system has been developed by BAESystems and has been successfully tried on UK’sTornado and Nimrod aircraft. The unit isdeployed from a pod using a 100m cable whichcontains a fibre optic link and a separate powerdistribution line. Commands can be sentthrough the fibre optic cable to the decoy basedemitter. The TRD then produces a range of jam-ming techniques to counter the threat. The sys-tem deploys a unit externally with the help of a

cable and can be recovered or jettisoned asrequired.

Laser Warning Receiver (LWR)Many aircrafts are fitted with laser range findingsystems and there are beam riding laser guidedweapons. To counter such a threat, a LWR canbe fitted under the nose of the aircraft which willdetect and warn of any incoming laser radiation.It is learnt that such a system is fitted onTyphoon.

Missile Approach Warning Systems(MAWS)The radar threats finally culminate into thelaunch of missiles on the aircraft. There thus aris-es a need to develop a system for warning thepilot of approaching missiles. Many air-to-airand surface-to-air missiles use IR guidance.MAWS typically use IR, ultraviolet/electro-opticalor radar to detect missiles. Earlier, such systemswere fitted only on helicopters and transport air-

Detection and Protection Systems• AN/AAR-47: It is a MAWS system devel-

oped by Lockheed Martin. It detects IRthreat and controls an automatic responsefor countermeasures through AN/ALE-47.

• AN/ALR-56M: This is an advanced RWRof Lockheed Martin, designed for speed,selectivity and sensitivity to operate inchanging, high density signal environment.It is integrated with self protection suite ofSpar Aerospace Limited to provide timelyand accurate radar threat identification andresponse via communications with AN/ALE-47(V).

• AN/AAR-54-(V): It is developed byNorthrop Grumman. It is an imaging sensorsystem that passively detects ultravioletenergy, tracks multiple sources and classifieseach source as lethal/non-lethal missile orclutter. It can operate independently or canbe integrated into a self protection suite. It is

designed for use in fighters and wide bodiedaircraft, helicopters and combat vehicles.

• MAW-200: Developed by Avitronics, itoperates in the solar blind UV spectralregion. When combined with a good direc-tion finder and neural net based software, itprovides very low false alarm rates. It cantrack at least eight targets simultaneously ata detection range of more than 5 kms.

• ALE-39,ALQ-126, ALQ131 andALQ184 of the US Airforce: They areself protection jammers and will bereplaced with better systems like ALQ- 214radar jammer.

• ALQ126 radio frequency countermeasures(RFCM) of the US Navy:This will be replaced by ALQ214RFCM.

• AN/ALQ-199: It is a pulse DopplerMAWS, based on EL/M-2160 of Elisra andused in F-16D

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Growler–the next-generation electronic attackaircraft, for the US Navy.



craft. Now they are fitted on fighter aircrafts aswell. The missile is detected by picking up radia-tion from the rocket motor and automaticallyreleases flares. Another method for detection isthrough the IR signature of the missile plume.Special technique is used to discriminate againsta non approaching radiation source. Some sys-tems use an image sensor that passively detectsultra violet emissions. To reduce false alarm,colour discrimnants are used. Specially designedstate-of-art filters with purpose-built imageintensifier tubes and photon-counting focal-plane array processors ensure high sensitivityand longer range. Some advance systems evenuse pulse doppler radar for detection.

Special Self protection Systems These are composite systems which can carryout electro-magnetic detection, laser warning,jamming and chaff/flare dispensing. Elisra ofIsrael has come up with an Advance SelfProtection Suite (ASPS) for frontline fighters andlight aircraft which includes a passive warningand situational awareness system with activejammer integrated into a complete self protec-tion electronic warfare suite. The integrated war-fare suite integrates passive subsystems with anactive ECM jammer which can cope with a widearray of threats. A major breakthrough in IRMAWS is the Passive Approach Warning System(PAWS) which is a highly effective family ofoperationally deployed IR missile warning

devices. It offers an all-in-one concept for inte-grating multiple capabilities MAWS, panaromicdisplay, collision avoidance, small arms firewarning and detection and ultra-accurate realtime identification of incoming missile directioneven when launched from short range. All-in-one concept manifests itself in easier adaptabil-ity, simplifying and reducing training, installationand maintenance costs. PAWS-1 is for helicop-ters and PAWS-2 for fighters.

Another example is the self protection suitejointly developed by Lockheed Martin and SPARAerospace Limited which combines AN/ALR-56M (RWR), AN/ALE-47(V)Threat-adaptiveCountermeasures Dispensing System(CMDS)and AN/AAR-47 (MAWS). The system is fullyintegrated and detects IR and radio frequencythreats. It provides audio and visual warnings,and deploys countermeasures with minimaloperator interaction.

SEADCombined with EW, SEAD has become a verypowerful means for the survivability of airborneplatforms.Apart from carrying out jamming, it alsoinvolves the firing of High Speed Anti-RadiationMissile (HARM). EA-6B Prowler aircraft not onlycarries out active radar jamming but also firesHARM. F-16CJ is primarily a SEAD aircraft whichalso fires HARM. Prowler’s jamming capability isbeing improved so that they are able to take onfrequency hopping radars. The US Air Forces’ AirCombat Command has developed a conceptcalled Countering Air Defence (CAD) which aimsat improving SEAD capability by upgrading HARMtargeting system, advanced targeting pod andminiature air launched decoy. This will enable it tolaunch joint direct munition attack, joint stand-offweapon and potentially other stand-off precisionguided munitions against fixed and mobile enemyair defence systems. The US Air Force gives greatimportance to survivability: In a mission profile 20-40% could be attacking aircraft and 80-60%escorting aircraft to ensure survivability throughjamming, decoys, SEAD or other means.

ConclusionThe modern attacking airborne platforms face avery hostile air defence and ground based EWenvironment. The development in air defenceradars, guns and missiles has made this defencevery lethal, covering a very large air space enve-lope. The cost of fighter aircraft, bombers andattack helicopters is very high.Added to this is thecost of training a pilot. In a bid to avoid casualtiesin air battles, nations are taking all measures toensure survivability and success of the mission. �

EW DedicatedAircraft

E-130H Compass Call: E-130H CompassCall is an airborne tactical weapon systemusing a heavily modified version of the C-130Hercules. The system disrupts enemy commandand control communications and limits adver-sary’s coordination.E-6B Prowler: E-6B Prowler is a long range,all weather aircraft with advanced electroniccountermeasures capability with ALQ-99 onboard receiver, ALQ-99 pod mounted jammingsystem, USQ-113 communications jammingsystem and HARM missile. It is manufacturedby the Northrop Grumman SystemsCorporation.EF 111A Raven: EF 111A Raven is an EWaircraft and its most distinguishing features area fin tip pod or football mounted on top of thereinforced vertical stabiliser and a narrowcanoe-shaped radome mounted under thefuselage.EA-18G: Boeing’s EA-18G Growler is the USNavy’s latest electronic attack aircraft whichwill replace the career based EA-6B Prowler in2009. EA-18G combines the combat provenF/18-Super Hornet with state-of-art electronicwarfare avionics suite. It is capable of Mach 1.8and is capable of jamming enemy electronicsand SEAD. It can also detect electronic emis-sions, classification and monitoring. Theadvance AEA system has been designed andproduced by Northrop Grumman Corporation.

Special self protectionsystems are compositesystems which cancarry out electro-magnetic detection,laser warning,jamming and chaff/flare dispensing.



INDUSTRY

PATH TOGLOBALISATION

THE INDIAN AIRCRAFTINDUSTRY IS ON THEPATH TO GLOBALISA-TION THROUGHCOLLABORATION WITHLEADING AEROSPACECOMPANIES

Air Marshal (Retd) B K Pandey Bangalore

From its humble beginnings in the pri-vate sector in 1940, the Indian aircraftindustry has grown into a vast anddiverse entity, most of it in the publicsector. The main constituents of the

industry are Hindustan Aeronautics Limited(HAL), a Defence Public Sector Undertakingthat dominates the manufacturing and mainte-nance sector and the government run DefenceResearch and Development Organisation(DRDO) that has laboratories dedicated toresearch in aeronautics and other disciplinesrelated to defence. There are a few privateentrepreneurs such as Taneja Aerospace &Aviation Limited (TAAL) with the capability tomanufacture small aeroplanes, as also a fewestablishments such as Varman Aviation andAir Works India who are engaged primarily inthe overhaul of privately owned aircraft orengines. Their contribution is relatively smallbut useful. Apart from these, NAL, a laboratoryunder CSIR and BEL have made significant con-

tribution towards the growth of the Indian air-craft industry.

HALHAL, the flagship company of the nation whichgenerates considerable public interest andsometimes consternation, has around 30,000personnel manning its 19 manufacturing estab-lishments and nine R&D centres. It was estab-lished with the objective of self-reliance in mili-tary aviation. Since its inception, HAL hasdesigned and built 13 types of aircraft and man-ufactured a similar number under licence, whichis no mean achievement for a developing coun-try. The entire fleet of trainer aircraft comprisingthe HT-2, HPT-32, Kiran Mark I and Kiran MarkII are products of HAL. However in the opera-tional fleet, whether fighter, transport or heli-copter, top-of-the-line flying machines haveeither been procured from abroad at exorbitantcosts or built under licence. The HF-24, the firstindigenous combat aircraft project was success-

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ful neither as a project nor learning experience.Those built under licence – the Gnat, MiG-21,MiG-27, Jaguar, Avro, Dornier 228, Chetak andCheetah – have served the nation in full meas-ure. With licensed production of the Su-30 MKIand Hawk, the IAF could be rated in the worldas equipped with some of the best equipment.HAL is also moving from mere outsourcing man-ufacturing of components to vendors to seekingpartners to undertake more complex tasks ofdesign and development as well.

The IAF being the fourth largest in the worldand the primary customer is bound to generatehuge demand for aircraft, both fixed and rotarywing. A large proportion of the IAF budget isused to pay for procurement from foreignsources and even licensed production is a bigdrain unless there are markets abroad. Thefinancial outlay in such projects are of stagger-ing proportions – the Hawk deal is estimated atRs 8,000 crore (US $1.8 billion) and the Su-30MKI deal is a whopping Rs 25,000 crore (US$6 billion).

Welcome changes in the industry are now vis-ible by way of new projects, products and mean-ingful collaboration with global players.

Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) DhruvThe Dhruv, a world class machine, has made animpact at the various air shows in the countryand abroad. It is a twin engine, multi-role,multi-mission helicopter in 5.5 ton class,designed and developed by HAL to meet therequirement of both military and civil opera-tors. Incorporating a number of advancedtechnologies, series production of the ALHDhruv commenced at the Helicopter Division ofHAL in 2001. Around 70 Dhruvs are already inservice with the defence forces. In 2007, HAL

plans to produce 18 aircraft with figures goingup to 24 in 2008 and 33 in 2009. The armedversion is scheduled for a 2008 launch.Meanwhile, upgrading of helicopters withShakti engine is underway.

HJT-36 Intermediate Jet Trainer (IJT)The IJT is being developed by HAL to replacethe 35 year old fleet of HJT 16 Kiran jet train-ers. It is a sub-sonic aircraft with fuel-efficientturbofan engine, advanced avionics and high-er weapon load. This will help lay the founda-tions for transition to the Hawk AJT. For themaiden flight on March 7, 2003, the IJT wasfitted with the Larzac engine from Snecmawhich delivers a thrust of 1,400 kg. In 2005,HAL entered into an agreement with NPOSaturn of Russia for joint development andmanufacture of a 1,700 kg thrust engine des-ignated as the AL-55 I. For a fleet strength ofaround 250 IJTs, HAL Koraput will manufac-ture 1,000 engines. So far, nearly 300 testflights have been completed and production ofthe first batch of 20 aircraft is being undertak-en concurrently with the development pro-gramme. Certification is expected by end 2007

and induction into the IAF in 2008. HALexpects to roll out at least 20 aircraft per year.

Light Combat Aircraft (LCA)The LCA or Tejas, developed jointly by the DRDOand HAL is the jewel in the crown of the Indianaircraft industry. The project was conceived in1983 to replace the MiG-21 fleet. Althoughsome preliminary work on design was carriedout in the eighties, the project was finally sanc-tioned in 1993 and the prototype was to fly in1996. The LCA represented a generational leapand even if the prototype was to be powered byan already available American engine the GE404, the schedule envisaged was somewhatambitious. Development of the Kaveri engine forthe LCA by GTRE was sanctioned in the eighties.After an investment of Rs 6,000 crore (US $1.3billion), the LCA flown for the first time in early2001 is yet considerable distance from opera-tional clearance and induction into the IAF. TheKaveri project has absorbed Rs 3,000 crore (US$650 million) so far and yet its availability isuncertain. DRDO is now seeking collaborationwith a reputed global company to salvage theproject.

The IAF generateshuge demand for air-craft, both fixed androtary wing.

HJT-36 Intermediate Jet Trainer is successor for HJT-16Kiran Trainer and its certification is expected by end 2007


INDUSTRY


The LCA is comparable to the best in theworld in its class. With an array of critical tech-nologies such as a glass cockpit, airframe ofadvanced carbon composites, a four channeldigital fly-by-wire control system and sophisti-cated software, development of the LCA pre-sented not only a formidable technological chal-lenge but required progressive project manage-ment techniques. Given the inherent impedi-ments before the Indian aircraft industry, it mustgo to their credit that a third generation combataircraft, designed and developed within thecountry, has taken to the skies. The IAF ought toprovide the support necessary to make earlyinduction of the aircraft a reality. The real chal-lenge is to produce the LCA at affordable cost asalternatives from abroad could cost Rs 300 crore

(US $66 million) apiece.By the end of 2006, the LCA had completed

580 test flights and eight aircraft are underLimited Series Production. The IAF has placed anorder for 20 aircraft and a similar order isexpected to follow. The first two squadrons willbe equipped with the GE 404 engine. A conser-vative estimate indicates combat service entrynot earlier than 2012.

New Joint VenturesThe Indian aircraft industry is on the path toglobalisation through collaboration with leadingworld aerospace companies. HAL has signedthe deal with Rosoboronexport to licence manu-facture 120 RD-33 engines at Koraput for theupgraded MiG-29 fleet. This would help HALprogress to the next generation jet engines suchas RD-33MK engines for the carrier based MiG-29K fleet and thrust-vectoring engines for theMiG-35 should these be procured. The govern-ment has approved a joint venture between HALand Snecma for the manufacture of aero-enginecomponents for domestic and export markets.HAL has also signed a ten-year deal with Pratt &Whitney for manufacturing high-precisionengine components at Koraput and Bangalore.

HAL will undertake licence manufacture of theHawk AJT.

Electronics display systems manufacturerSamtel has entered into partnership with HALfor development and manufacture of avionicsdisplay systems for domestic and globaldemand. This first public-private partnership indefence avionics would synergise the capabili-ties of the two companies to become globallycompetitive, paving the way to developing next-generation display systems. HAL is also in dia-logue with Airbus for setting up an MRO facilityat HAL airport in Bangalore.

DRDOEstablished in 1958, the DRDO was to minimiseimport of weapon systems through indigenisa-tion. Over the last five decades, the organisationhas registered a few successes. But the organi-sation is yet to achieve its strategic objective. Theorganisation needs to conceptualise projectscorrectly and set realistic and attainable objec-tives.

Taneja Aerospace and Aviation Ltd(TAAL)TAAL, a company under the Indian SeamlessMetal Tubes Ltd of Pune, was established in1994 with its headquarters at Bangalore and amanufacturing facility at Hosur. It is the onlycompany in the private sector engaged in themanufacture of non-military aircraft and has itsown airfield. The aim of the company was tocreate a nucleus for the development of an air-craft manufacturing facility outside the publicsector to boost general aviation in the country.Since its inception, the company has diversifiedits activities into several areas related to theaeronautical industry. Currently, TAAL is in theprocess of setting up an MRO facility for com-mercial aircraft and acquiring state-of-the-artcapability to manufacture aero-structures,machined components and composites. Atpresent, the company is engaged in the pro-duction of the all composite Hansa trainer air-craft developed by NAL and the Thorp T-211 allmetal two-seat sports aircraft. �

When fully developedand operationalised,the LCA will be com-parable to the best inthe world in its class.

Once operational, the LCA will be comparable to the best in its class.


NEWS DIGEST

CIVILAirAsia awards fifth contract to STEngineering's aerospace arm

Singapore Technologies Engineering Ltd (STEngineering) has revealed that ST AerospaceSupplies, the wholly owned subsidiary ofSingapore Technologies Aerospace Ltd (STAerospace), has been awarded an aircraft compo-nents Maintenance-By-the-Hour contract fromAirAsia for its new fleet of A320 aircraft. The US$130 million contract involves components main-tenance support over 10 years for 130 AirbusA320 aircraft from AirAsia's fleet. ST Aerospace isthe aerospace arm of ST Engineering. This latestcontract adds to ST Aerospace's current airframe,components and engines support for AirAsia'sBoeing 737 fleet.The four earlier contracts, datingfrom 2002 to 2004, total about US $133 million.

Boeing sets records for airplane ordersin 2006The Boeing Company recorded 1,044 net com-mercial airplane orders during 2006, and for thesecond year in a row set a Boeing record for totalorders in a single year. The 2006 total surpassesthe previous Boeing record of 1,002 net orders in2005. Gross orders in 2006, which exclude can-cellations and conversions, totalled 1,050. Boeingrecorded 1,029 gross orders in 2005. For the sec-ond consecutive year, the 737 programmeachieved a record with net orders of 729 air-planes. The previous record total for the 737 pro-gramme was 569 in 2005. Boeing also had astrong year across the board in twin-aisle com-mercial airplanes: 157 orders for the 787

Dreamliner programme, 76 orders for 777s, 10orders for 767s, and 72 orders for 747s.This is thehighest total for the 747 programme since 1990and fifth highest in the history of the programme.

Airbus’ share of civil airliner marketslips to 43% European airframer Airbus has, as expected,failed to repeat its recent successes in its annu-al battle with Boeing, having secured net ordersfor 790 aircraft in 2006, against 1,044 for its USrival – giving Airbus a market share of 43%. Themanufacturer gained gross orders for 824 air-craft. It is also claiming 434 deliveries with acombined value of Euros 26 billion (US $33.5billion). Boeing delivered 398 aircraft. TheEuropean firm struggled against Boeing during

the first half of last year but made up ground inthe second half, although this was largely due tostrong Airbus A320-family sales.Airbus has beenrelatively weak in the wide body market owingto the winding-down of A300 production, poorsales of the A340, and last year’s uncertaintiesover the A380 and A350 programmes. EADS,Airbus’ parent company has issued a warningthat Airbus would make a loss this year owing toone-off payments related to customer settle-ments, charges over the A380 project, and thecompany’s new ‘Power8’ efficiency scheme.

GE to acquire Smiths Aerospace General Electric Company announced onJanuary 15, 2007 that it had agreed to purchaseSmiths Aerospace, a UK-based supplier of inte-grated systems for aircraft manufacturers andcomponents for engine builders, for US $4.8 bil-lion in cash. The deal is subject to approval bySmiths Group shareowners as well as customaryregulatory reviews. The acquisition will broadenGE's offerings for aviation customers by addingSmiths innovative flight management systems,electrical power management, mechanical actu-ation systems and airborne platform computingsystems to GE Aviation's commercial and mili-tary aircraft engines and related services.

MILITARYIndia stays Israel's single largest armscustomerBuoyed by Indian defence procurement worth US$1.5 billion, the Israeli defence industries haverecorded all time high sales figures in 2006. Chiefof the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal S P Tyagi andNavy vice-chief Vice Admiral Venkat Bharathan,among others, visited Israel in 2006 to re-affirmthe strong ties. Joint R&D projects for moreadvanced radars, long endurance and high alti-tude UAVs, electronic warfare systems, third gen-eration night fighting capabilities and such otherareas are being explored for cooperation.

Israel Aerospace Industries signed US$4.088 billion in new contracts in 2006Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) signed new con-

Privatise India’s non-metro airports

Small cities are slowly but steadily becomingnerve centres of economic growth in India. Thisis true for the aviation sector as well. Aviationhas leapfrogged in recent years with double-digit growth rates. Of course, international air-ports like Delhi and Mumbai have already beendrawing considerable number of incrementalpassengers. The big story could, however, bethat non-metro airports in cities such asAmritsar, Nagpur and Ahmedabad will be in thethick of action in the coming years. There is anurgent need to modernise the non-metro air-ports to enhance overall connectivity in thecountry, and to take the aviation sector to thenext level of growth. The civil aviation ministryhas drawn up plans to modernise 35 non-metro airports. The modernisation plan consistsof developing the ‘air-side’ and the city-side ofthese airports. The total cost for modernisationof these airports is expected to be around Rs7,000 crore (US $1.6 billion) out of which Rs1,500 crore (US $350 million) will be spent oncity-side development. The development of the35 non-metro airports across the country islikely to be completed by the year 2010-11. Thegovernment has already started developmentof air-side of 12 non-metro airports.


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NEWS DIGEST


tracts worth US $4.088 billion in 2006, com-pared to US $3.4 billion in 2005, an increase of22%.This marks the first time in IAI’s history thatthe company has exceeded US $4 billion in neworders in a one year period. Israel AerospaceIndustries, Ltd. (IAI), formerly known as IsraelAircraft Industries, is Israel's largest industrialexporter and a globally recognised leader for thedefence and commercial markets. IAI providesunique and cost-effective technological solutionsfor a broad spectrum of needs in space, air, land,sea and homeland defence.

Enhanced Fire Scout makes flight debutThe US Navy’s MQ-8B Fire Scout unmanned aerialvehicle (UAV) made its first flight in December2006 at the Webster Field annex of Patuxent RiverNaval Air Station in St. Inigoes, Md. The Navy’svertical takeoff and landing tactical UAV (VTUAV)system was originally dubbed the RQ-8A, but dur-ing the summer of 2005, was re-designated to theMQ-8B to reflect the Fire Scout’s evolution towardan increased, multi-functional role. The test eventsmarked the first flight of the enhanced variant.

F-35 achieves flawless second flight,demonstrates performance capabilities

The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II hasachieved another successful test flight from thecompany's Fort Worth, Texas, facility. "With thissuccessful flight and its broad array of test points,F-35 flight test has really begun," said DanCrowley, Lockheed Martin executive vice presi-dent and F-35 programme general manager. "Theease of starting and flying this aircraft is a reflec-tion of the quality of the team who designed andbuilt it." The F-35 is a supersonic, multi-role, 5thGeneration stealth fighter designed to replace awide range of existing aircraft, including AV-8B

Harriers, A-10s, F-16s, F/A-18 Hornets and UnitedKingdom Harrier GR.7s and Sea Harriers.

Northrop Grumman's airborne signalsintelligence payload takes to air Northrop Grumman Corporation's AirborneSignals Intelligence Payload (ASIP), a next gen-eration signals intelligence sensor for the US AirForce, recently took to the air on its first flight

aboard the U-2 aircraft, launching the flight testphase of the programme. ASIP deliversenhanced signals intelligence capabilities to thewarfighter. It detects, identifies and locates radarand other types of electronic and modern com-munication signals. A key attribute of the ASIPpayload is an open, scaleable architecture thatallows future system upgrades to be easilyadded and sensors readily reconfigured in sup-port of evolving warfighter needs.

Eurocopter signs with the FrenchGendarmerie for 37 EC135sEurocopter has signed a significant contract withthe French Gendarmerie for the acquisition of 37EC135 (12 firm orders and 25 options) valued atEuros 233 million. These EC135, which will beused for police missions, will replace the single-engine Ecureuil B, BA and B1 that the FrenchGendarmerie has been operating since 1980.The first helicopters will be delivered during thelast quarter of 2008.

A ‘sales and marketing dogfight’ betweenAmerican fighter jets F-18 Super Hornets andthe much-ballyhooed F-16s will be just one ofthe star attractions in the Aero India 2007,which will be held in Bangalore fromFebruary 7-11, 2007. Both Boeing, whichmakes the F-18, and Lockheed Martin, which

manufactures the F-16, are flying down their machines and men for the Bangalore show, the firsttime that Americans are turning up in strength after the Aero India began in 1996. Besides two F-18 Super Hornets, Boeing will also be sending a giant C-17 transport aircraft and Chinook heavy-lift helicopters for the show. The American jets will have to contend with three other internationalcompetitors who are lining up to bid for the 126-aircraft deal that the Indian Air Force is expectedto call for shortly, one of the single largest fighter plane contracts in the history of aviation, wortha massive US $7 billion at least. Also in the race, is Sweden's Grippen and Russian advanced MiGs.The prospective deal has been the talk of military aviation circles for several months now.

F-18s, F-16s to light up Bangalore skies

The Government hasappointed Air MarshalFali Homi Major presentlyAir Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Eastern AirCommand, as the nextChief of the Air Staff witheffect from the afternoon

of March 31, 2007. The present Chief of the AirStaff, Air Chief Marshal S P Tyagi retires fromservice on March 31, 2007.

Air Marshal Major will become the first everhelicopter pilot to command the force. Theforce has strictly been the preserv of fighterpilot for the last 75 years.

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Back Cover Lockheed Martin AD

www.lockheedmartin.com

F-16 proven recordof performance.

4,300 deliveries and counting.

The greatest multirole fi ghter units in the world demand nothing less than the greatest operational

multirole fi ghter. The F-16 operates with durability and precision in all conditions. Its adaptability

to new technology keeps it at state-of-the-art performance. And it’s easily the most cost-effective

fi ghter to deploy, maintain and support. At 4,300 deliveries and counting, the F-16 has a proven

record of incorporating new technology to maintain the combat edge.

301-51993_F16_India.indd 1 1/9/07 10:57:48 AM

SP's Special Suppliment to Aero India 2007

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