F-35 Lightning II Helmet Mounted Display System to Make CANSEC Debut

The F-35 Lightning II Helmet Mounted Display System (HMDS) will make its CANSEC debut this year in the Rockwell Collins exhibit (Booth 1103). The HMDS, manufactured by Rockwell Collins ESA Vision Systems, provides F-35 pilots with unprecedented situational awareness for piloting the most advanced aircraft in the world. The virtual head up display provides pilots with day and night operation capability and a binocular wide field of view.

Rockwell Collins specializes in leveraging commercial avionics for military applications while also providing its customers with high performance communications in any environment. Journalists and show attendees are invited to the company’s exhibit at CANSEC 2014 to learn more about Rockwell Collins avionics and communications products, solutions and systems integration capabilities, including:

Advanced, proven airborne products, systems and solutions

• ARC-210 – Airborne programmable software defined radio
• HeliSure – Enhanced situational awareness for helicopter safety
• Pro Line Fusion – Applying innovative commercial avionics for military aircraft
• 
  

High-performance, interoperable, secure networking communications

• Wideband HF – Communications for secure exchange of high bandwidth data
• 721S radio – Fixed site communications for command and control
• FireStorm – Situational awareness for mapping and tracking friend or foe
• SMART Blade Radio – Flexible, space efficient communications for air traffic control applications
• Link 16 – Wide range of Link 16 terminals
• 
  

Simulation, training and life cycle support

• Link 16 Simulation and RealFires- Solving complex simulation and training challenges
• FlexForce – Tailorable, performance based service solutions
• 
  

Rockwell Collins is committed to serving its Canadian customers. With a workforce of more than 140 engineers, program managers and support staff in Ontario and Quebec, Rockwell Collins has a well-established and growing presence in Canada and is actively involved in the local communities. The Montreal facility primarily handles Commercial Systems sales to the Canadian civil aviation community. It is an important element in the company’s strategic alliance with Bombardier Aerospace, through which Rockwell Collins provides customer engineering and operations support.

The facility in Ottawa specializes in the design and development of wireless, ad hoc networking technologies, including battlefield modeling and simulation of tactical networks. The SubNet Relay Technology developed there is in use with customers worldwide, deployed with some of the world’s major navies. Additionally, the Canadian-designed Tactical Application and Communication Test Bed enables customers to simulate operational military scenarios using models of military applications, devices and protocols through a fully distributed discrete event communication simulator.

The facility also serves to coordinate customer service and repairs for Rockwell Collins products sold to Canadian military and commercial customers including Intermediate-level repair and service capability for the Multifunctional Information Distribution System (MIDS) Link 16 terminals installed on Canadian Forces’ CF-18 fighters and ARC-210 radios in use on all RCAF fleets of aircraft.

Rockwell Collins is a pioneer in the development and deployment of innovative communication and aviation electronic solutions for both commercial and government applications. Our expertise in flight deck avionics, cabin electronics, mission communications, simulation and training, and information management is delivered by a global workforce, and a service and support network that crosses more than 150 countries.

                                            Read more: http://www.defencetalk.com

Russia fulfils FGFA obligations with India - Alexander Kadakin

Russia fulfils all of its obligations under the FGFA programme with India, Russian Ambassador to India Alexander Kadakin said at the Defexpo-2014 security systems exhibition in New Delhi.

“We pay no attention to negative publications that appear from time to time and claim that Russia does not fulfil its obligations under the fifth generation fighter aircraft programme. Russian-Indian military-technical cooperation under this programme develops as scheduled, and we have not received any official complaints from the Indian side,” he said.

Vyacheslav Dzirkaln, Deputy Director of the Russian Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, told Itar-Tass at the exhibition that all such publications had been written to order.

“We have no official complaints from India with regard to the fifth generation fighter aircraft. All negotiations take place under the agreements reached earlier,” Dzirkaln said.Commenting on one such article in the Business Standard, Dzirkaln said it was not true. “There is some speculation regarding the development of the Russian-Indian fifth generation fighter aircraft programme, but it’s not surprising because the Indian Air Force, as the customer, would like to get the ‘hardware’, while budget funding has been disbursed for research and development,” he said.

The newspaper said the Indian Air Force (IAF) had “alleged the Russians would be unable to meet their promises about its performance.” On December 24, 2013, in a meeting in New Delhi chaired by Gokul Chandra Pati, the secretary of defence production, top IAF officials argued the fifth generation fighter aircraft (FGFA) had “shortfalls… in terms of performance and other technical features.”

Top Indian Defence Ministry sources suspect the IAF is undermining the FGFA to free up finances for buying 126 Rafale medium multi-role combat aircraft, the newspaper said.

Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) estimates the Russian-Indian market for fifth generation fighter aircraft at 200 planes and the global market at 400 planes.

The initial version of the FGFA being created jointly by India and Russia will be ready for flight testing in 2014, the Times of India said earlier, quoting the Chief of the Air Staff and Air Chief Marshal Norman Anil Kumar Browne as saying.

“The two sides are close to signing a key contract expected to be worth over $11 billion for research and development phase of the project in the near future,” the newspaper said.

The IAF Chief was in Russia in August 2012 to review the progress made in the programme and the prototypes of the aircraft developed by the Sukhoi Design Bureau at Zhukovsky there, the newspaper said.“The first prototype of the FGFA is scheduled to arrive in India by 2014 after which it will undergo extensive trials at the Ojhar air base (Maharashtra)...we are hopeful that the aircraft would be ready for induction by 2022,” Browne told PTI.

Browne reviewed the performance of the fifth generation fighter aircraft, called Sukhoi T-50.

“Russia has already given the draft R&D contract to us. It will include the cost of designing, infrastructure build-up at Ozar, prototype development and flight testing. So, India will have scientists and test pilots based both in Russia and Ozar during the R&D phase up to 2019. HAL will subsequently begin manufacturing the fighters,” the newspaper's source said.

Russia’s Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation (FSMTC) First Deputy Director Alexander Fomin said that India and Russia would need at least 6-10 years to build a fifth generation fighter aircraft.

“It takes some time to create a plane. The manufacture of such a sophisticated piece of equipment is a science-consuming process that requires big investments. At least six to ten years will pass before we build a sample of the fifth generation fighter plane and being its serial production,” Fomin said.

In the future, Russia and India plan to sell these planes not only on the national markets, but also in third countries. “We will export it in cooperation with Indian partners,” the official added.

According to Indian media reports, the two parties will invest $8-10 billion in the project. Experts believe that the new plane will exceed Western analogues by the cost-efficiency criterion and will not only enhance the defence capabilities of the Russian and Indian navies, but will also take a worthy place on the world market.India’s Hindustan Aeronautics Limited and Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation will work on the new fighter plane.

It usually takes about 3-4 years to test new planes before their mass production can begin. Russia's new plane may as well fit into this schedule, especially since its maiden flight proved its reliability in different regimes.

Fifth generation planes are currently used only by the United States: F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning. However the Russian plane, tentatively called T-50, surpasses the American Raptor.

                                                  Source :http://in.rbth.com/

MIG-21 crashes in J&K, pilot dead

SRINAGAR: A MIG-21 fighter aircraft of the Indian Air Force crashed on Tuesday in Bijbehara area of Anantnag district in Kashmir, killing the pilot. 

The MIG-21, which was on a routine exercise, crashed in the fields at Mirhama in Bijbehara area, 45 kms from here, defence sources said. 

Pilot Raghu Bansi was killed in the crash, they said. The MIG-21 had taken off from technical airport here this morning, the sources said. 

The cause of the crash was not immediately known. A team of IAF officials have rushed to the spot.

                                                            Source : TOI

Sikorsky develops unmanned UH-60 Black Hawk

In development since 2007, Sikorsky recently acknowledge the existence of an unmanned version of UH-60 Black Hawk. According to Sikorsky the helicopter will be able to carry autonomous missions without having a pilot on board. The helicopter could be deployed as early as 2015.

“The ability for the pilot to leave the cockpit for potentially dull and dangerous missions significantly reduces crew limitations and increases Black Hawk flight operations.” said Chris Van Buiten, vice president of Technology and Innovation at Sikorsky.

The new variant of the UH-60 Black Hawk could be flown manned as well as unmanned depending on the requirement of the mission. The technology would allow full pilot control of the helicopter for complex missions. The helicopter will have technologies used on MQ-1 Predator.

The need for an unmanned Black Hawk came into light after two Black Hawks were shot down in Mogadishu, Somalia back in 1993. With over four decades of service, there are many variants of Black Hawk.

In 2011, during Operation Neptune Spear. A very strange and unexplained stealth version of UH-60 Black Hawk was revealed and was never acknowledged by United States government or Sikorsky.

An unmanned utility helicopter has many benefits, it will reduce possibilities of casualties and will decrease work load on crew during resupply missions.

                                    Source :http://www.defenceaviation.com/