BEL completes Akash trials; HAL is partner in progress: ISRO

Bengaluru, Dec 1: The Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) said on Monday that the firing trials of home-grown Akash Air Defence System have been completed. Designed and developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and manufactured by BEL, the trials were conducted successfully at the Integrated Test Range (Balasore in Odisha) from November 17 to 22.

"At the latest firing trials, the systems were tested successfully under extreme flight condition of near boundary low altitude, far boundary high altitude and multi-target, multi-missile scenario," says BEL spokesperson.

The flight trials were carried out on unmanned aerial target Banshee jet and para-flares. The targets were repeatedly destroyed by the Akash Missile System. This is the last in the series of flight trials carried out on the production version of the Akash Air Defence System for the Indian Air Force to validate complete intercept envelope of the Air Defence System.

HAL to man new ISRO facility

Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Dr K Radhakrishnan laid the foundation stone for Integrated Cryogenic Engine Manufacturing (ICEM) facility in Bengaluru on Monday.

The facility coming up on a HAL land is being set up over a built-up area of 5560 sqm opposite to HAL's Aerospace Division and will be manned by HAL. ISRO will fund Rs 139 crore for the facility.

"Our plan is to establish the ICEM facility in next two years and we are proud to come out with a strategy on indigenous engines for our space missions in future," says HAL Chairman Dr R K Tyagi.

Hailing HAL's contribution, Dr Radhakrishnan, said: "We remember HAL every time we succeed in our missions, the Mars Orbiter Mission being the latest. We have been partners in progress and will continue to be so in future too."

Dassault delivers 100th Falcon with new system

Dassault Aviation recently delivered the 100th Falcon equipped with Dassault's new FalconBroadcast airborne health monitoring tool. FalconBroadcast enables operators to begin troubleshooting unscheduled maintenance events while the aircraft is still in the air, reducing aircraft downtime.

This was first introduced in 2012 on the Falcon 7X. Designed to be hosted on any Falcon equipped with Dassault's EASy cockpit, it is currently available on Falcon 7X, 2000S, 2000LXS and 900LX models. It will be available on the Falcon 8X.

"FalconBroadcast's real-time event tracking capability allows maintenance teams to identify and quickly resolve issues that might otherwise lead to an AOG situation," says Jacques Chauvet, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Customer Service.

Air Works JV with Yaksa, Nepal

Air Works India Engineering Pvt. Ltd recently entered into a joint venture (JV) with Yaksa Investment Private Limited, Nepal to form a new entity, Air Works Nepal. The JV Company will provide aviation maintenance services to international airlines and domestic operators from Tribhuvan International Airport, Kathmandu.

The JV reaffirms Air Works' commitment to extend its presence to neighbouring countries, offering best-in-class services to clients from locations outside India and maintaining Air Works' leading market position in the region,

"This is an opportunity for us to partner with a distinguished business group to provide maintenance engineering services in Kathmandu," says Vivek N Gour, Managing Director, Air Works.

Air Marshal Sukhchain Singh takes charge

Air Marshal Sukhchain Singh assumed the responsibilities of Air Officer-in-Charge Maintenance at Air HQ, New Delhi on Monday. Hailing from Amritsar, he was commissioned in the Electronics stream of Aeronautical Engineering branch in IAF on 02 Jul 1979.

He is a graduate in Electronics and Communication from REC Kurukshetra (now NIT) and a post graduate in Integrated Electronics from IIT Delhi. He is also an alumnus of the prestigious Defence Services Staff College, Wellington.

He was awarded the Vishisht Seva Medal in January 1999 for his distinguished service in IAF. He has rich experience in the field of maintenance management of aircraft, radars and guided weapons.

New LRDE Director

S S Nagaraj, an Outstanding Scientist (OS), has been appointed as the Director of Electronics & Radar Development Establishment (LRDE), a unit of DRDO, Bengaluru. Nagaraj obtained his BE degree in Electronics and Communications from Govt. BDT College of Engineering, Davanagere and M.Tech in Electronics from KREC, Surathkal. He joined LRDE in 1987.

He has been working in the area of Active Aperture Radars, Passive Phased Array Radars, Radar Signal Processing and Imaging Radars. He has been responsible for developing Signal Processor for Rajendra Phased Array radar for Akash weapon system.

He has made significant contributions in integrating Rajendra Radar with Akash Weapon System.

[MilMat or Military Matters will bring to you aerospace and defence happenings in brief on a regular basis. MilMat is compiled by OneIndia Defence Desk.]