Tejas LCA Enters Key Test Phase From Next Month

The Tejas Light Combat Aircraft has certainly tested the patience of the Indian air force and the Indian defense establishment, but the coming weeks may finally yield important breakthroughs to fielding the indigenously developed aircraft.

Next month, Tejas is due to undergo a second phase of night trials and, if the systems perform as advertised, it will be cleared for night attack, a crucial requirement to achieve full operational clearance (FOC) as a day/night, all-weather platform by December 2012.

The Tejas recently began its first phase of night attack trials. The fifth limited-series-production aircraft (LSP‑5), in the final Mk.1 configuration that includes a night-vision-capable cockpit, was used in six night flights in which test pilots conducted mock targeting and attack drills to test simulated avionics and integration of weapons and sensors. The aircraft’s modified ELTA Systems multimode radar and Rafael Litening pod were both tested during the flights.

Following the first six tests last month, India’s Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) said, “The preliminary results indicate that the integrated system performed very well, meeting the requirements of night operations. The flights also tested the helmet-mounted display system [Elta DASH] and instrument landing system.”

With the Indian air force set on establishing its first Tejas squadron in 2013, the next 16 months are crucial for the project test team. There are several flight-envelope expansion tasks still unfinished, including assessing angle of attack, g-forces and sustained turn rate. The next limited-series-production aircraft, LSP-6, is expected to be dedicated to resolving those issues quickly.

The air force is putting pressure on developments. Before Tejas reached initial operational clearance (IOC), the service waived some requirements, but it is firm it will not do so again for FOC, Air Chief Marshal Pradeep Naik made clear during a Tejas ceremony in January when IOC was attained. “We’ve waited a long time for the Tejas. We don’t want a partial platform. We want everything fully operational,” he said.

The absence of certain capabilities that the Tejas team promised but could not deliver for IOC in January 2011 did not please the service, which was finally forced to extract assurances that the untested capabilities will be completed by next month. These include wake penetration tests as well as all-weather, day/night and lightning clearances. Several test points in weapons delivery in different configurations remain on the team’s must-do list and will continue through into next year. So far, the Tejas has only conducted live drops of gravity bombs and Vympel R-73 (AA-11 Archer) short-range air-to-air missiles. Strike profiles are being tested at the DRDO’s new bombing range outside Bengaluru.

In the next few months, Tejas platforms will fire air-to-ground munitions such as cluster weapons, laser-guided bombs and S-8 rocket pods against still and moving targets. Rafael’s Derby beyond-visual-range missile is expected to be a standard on the Tejas, with trials scheduled a year from now. Reports suggest a contract could be signed shortly. In its final Mk.1 configuration, the air force also expects the Tejas to be fully capable of deploying Kh-59-series stand-off strike weapons and Kh-35/31 antiship missiles.

The next big item on the program time line is the first flight of the LCA navy variant, expected in the next two months. Its progress has been delayed by issues with weight, landing gear and sink-rate parameters.

Meanwhile, India’s troubled and hugely delayed Kaveri turbofan engine development effort—once linked to the Tejas program—has made some progress in flight trials. Between November 2010 and April this year, the engine has powered an Iluyshin Il-76 flying testbed on 11 flights outside Moscow. The Kaveri, delinked from the Tejas program several years ago because of persistent failures to meet requirements, is being completed in cooperation with Snecma (and its M88 ECO core) for India’s fifth-generation Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft and, in a modified form, the country’s concept stealth unmanned combat aircraft known as AURA.

Way Forward For Indian State Of Jammu And Kashmir

By Sushant K Singh

The political process in the Valley can only be reactivated fully once the security situation has been brought under control. However certain steps can be initiated to restart the political process immediately. These will have to be undertaken at many levels simultaneously within the state.

SECURITY CENTRIC MEASURES

1. The state police, supported by the central paramilitary forces, must lead an offensive that dis-aggregates the separatist leadership, local ring-leaders and mobsters from the average citizen. The former must be targeted and the latter protected. To signal a clean break from the happenings of last three months, the state government must effect a change in the leadership at the state, districts and police station levels. Policemen who hail from areas affected by violence, or have families residing in these areas, should be kept out of situations where they are publicly visible in the conflict. Instead of local police, teams of Rapid Action Force, with well-publicised shoot-at-sight orders and equipped with non-lethal means of crowd control, must be employed to control major public demonstrations and prevent mob violence.

2. The modes of financing of the separatists, mostly by hawala channels, must be unearthed, investigated and blocked. A special joint task force of the state government, Union Home Ministry and the Union Finance ministry must be established immediately with an independent and specific mandate---free of any local political interference---to pursue the money trail. The squeezing of financial support to the organisers and leaders of stone-pelting mobs will rapidly bring an end to these paid protests.

3. In the near-term, the state police force must be equipped, trained and re-oriented for tackling public demonstrations using non-lethal means. Sufficient quantity of modern non-lethal equipment, along with trained manpower has to be inducted into the state police. As more than 500 terrorists are still active in the Kashmir valley and attempts to infiltrate more into the state continue unabated from across the Line of control, the counter-terrorist capacities developed over last two decades must be preserved. This can be best achieved by training newly inducted police recruits in non-lethal crowd control and inducting them simultaneously with the new equipment in various districts of the state over the next 3-6 months.

4. The intelligence setup in the state needs to be reinforced and reformed. A mechanism must be put in place under the Governor to co-ordinate and optimally use all the intelligence resources in the state---of central agencies, army and the state government. As there are external agencies involved in aggravating the situation, the state government must establish a real-time connection with the central intelligence agencies to receive, collate and analyse the intelligence inputs available with them. These two exercises should be completed within the next one month, by institutionalising new standard operating procedures. This intelligence must be used to conduct specific targeted operations against the separatist leadership, ring-leaders and organisers of mob protests.

5. The Indian army must remain vigilant at the Line of Control and continue with its three-tier deployment to stall any attempts at infiltration by Pakistan before the winter sets in. The Rashtriya Rifles units deployed in the non-urban areas must ensure that any attempts to revive the jihadi insurgency in the state is nipped in the bud. Even if there is an increased involvement of the army in quelling street protests, there should be no dilution of its strong anti-infiltration posture on the Line of Control.

POLITICAL MEASURES

6. The Union government must not announce any unilateral concessions as they would pander to separatists and violent mobsters. Back-channel negotiations with the separatists must be started in the right earnest, but any political or economic packages must be preconditioned to reciprocation by the separatist leadership. All public negotiations or agreements with the separatists though must be entered into only by the duly-elected state government, and not by New Delhi. The divisions within the separatist leadership---Syed Ali Shah Geelani vs Massrat Alam, and Mr Geelani versus Mirwaiz Umar Farooq---must be highlighted and exploited by the state government.  

7.  The idea that Kashmiris are special must be publicly replaced by the idea that all Indians are special. New Delhi must specify that any political solution will have to be within the Indian Constitution. Any measures for devolving more political powers to the state will also be applicable to all the states of India, along with Jammu & Kashmir.

8. The proposal to review the provisions of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) or its application to various districts must be a political decision, based on security considerations. The need to review the provisions of the AFSPA has been identified by the Supreme Court and other government committees. A decision on it must be taken on its own merit without considering Jammu & Kashmir as a special case. The plan to review the application of AFSPA, however, can be a part of a quid pro quo deal with the separatists. Pending such a political agreement, the review should be based on security inputs and taken by the state government.

9. At the grassroots level, the National Conference and the Congress Party should re-invigorate their cadres and start a political movement in the Valley. Peace marches and public rallies must be held in the areas not afflicted by the separatist violence. They must challenge the separatists to dissociate their political message from religious tools. The dangers of this mixture must be exposed by highlighting the example of Pakistan. Calls from parents to re-open schools and from local businessmen,craftsmen and tradesmen to run their routine lives must be highlighted in these public events.In the affected areas, the local cadre of the mainstream parties must be supported by the party leaderships to conduct small word-of-mouth campaign in their localities.To break the momentum of the separatist protests, the demobilised counter-Restoring order in Jammu & Kashmir insurgent groups from the 1990s and the special operations group (SOG) may need to be revived and used in specific situations and locations.

10. The state government must immediately announce the holding of elections to local bodies on the return of normalcy in the Valley. Powers must be devolved to the local bodies, on par with other states of the country on completion of the elections. In 2005, there was over 80 percent voting in the local body polls in the state. The announcement of such polls will re-invigorate the dormant political cadre of the mainstream parties in the state.

11. Although Article 370 of the Indian Constitution has kept the state of Jammu & Kashmir secluded from the rest of the country, it is a constitutional provision and can not be revoked or violated without the due political consensus. However, the isolation of the Valley caused by this Act must be nullified by providing better inter-connectivity among all the regions of the state. Better physical connectivity through newer and wider roads,expeditious completion of the Jammu-Anantnag railway line and cheaper and smaller flights will facilitate and spur freer movement of people and ideas within the state. This will lead to greater economic activity and also redress the social imbalance that has crept into the Valley.

INFORMATION & STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS

12. Local, national and international media must be encouraged to visit normal areas of the Valley, outside of the three affected districts, to expand the coverage of Kashmir. Doing so will demonstrate the separatist violence is confined to a small fraction of the state and its populaton. Srinagar also needs to craft its own public diplomacy campaign, to showcase the normal areas in the Valley, and in other parts of the state. The Hindu-and Buddhist-dominated regions of Jammu and Leh deserve greater media attention, so too the Shia-dominated regions of Kargil and Gurjar-dominated regions of Rajauri-Poonch, all of which oppose separatism. The Islamist agenda of the separatist leadership must be exposed.

13. The state government must select a number of government schools in Srinagar town and make sure they stay open amidst all calls for strike and protests. The students and teachers must be escorted and ferried to the school and back under police protection. The symbolism of this one step will hurt the credibility of the separatists and enhance the legitimacy of the state government in the mind of the citizen.

India to Set Up Coast Guard Academy in Kerala

With coastal security becoming a major area of conern, India's first Coast Guard Academy would be set up at Azheekkal near Kannur in north Kerala, Defence Minister AK Antony said on Sunday. Speaking after dedicating the Titanium Sponge Plant at the Kerala Minerals and Metals Ltd at Chavara near here, Antony said 164 acres land for the Academy had already been acquired by KINFRA, state's infrastructure development agency.

As coastal security was a major area of concern, the role of Coast Guard had increased in recent times. It was in view this that the Defence Ministry decided to set up an Academy exclusively to bring out personnel with specialised training in coastal security operations, he said. Indian Cost Guard had become an important agency in maintaining the security of the territorial waters of the country in view of terrorist threats and increasing presence of pirates.

Antony said the Academy would have the potential to become one of best such institution in Asia.

In ensuring the safety and security of fishermen along the Indian coast was also important. It was the Coast Guard which engage in rescue operations in times of natural calamities like Tsunami and helping the fishermen when they were in distress.

The Rs 143.11 crore Titanimum Sponge Plant, fully funded by ISRO, is a major Centre-state joint venture project of strategic and scientific importance. With the commissioning of the plant, India would join select nations having the capability to develop titanium sponge after America, China, Russia, Japan, Ukraine and and Kazhakistan.