Naval version of LCA rolled out
Special Correspondent
milestone:Defence MInister A.K. Antony and Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Nirmal Verma at the roll-out function of the LCA trainer aircraft (Navy) at the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited in Bangalore on Tuesday.
BANGALORE: India's first indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), designed specifically for the Navy, rolled out from the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) facility here on Tuesday.
Defence Minister A.K. Antony described the milestone as “memorable” and urged the project team to conduct the first flight of NP1, the LCA trainer aircraft (Navy), by the year-end.
By 2015, the aircraft will be deployed aboard the indigenous aircraft carrier that is being built at the Cochin Shipyard. The LCA has to undergo systems integration tests, ground runs, taxi trials and eventually flights, before it will be ready for deployment, officials said.
The aircraft, developed under the auspices of the Naval Programme of the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), will fly with a U.S.-made engine. It has been designed to make ‘ski jump' take-off and arrested landings aboard an aircraft carrier. A source in the ADA said the aircraft required “a new design” that would “knock out 300-400 kg from the next prototype.”
The NP2, the aircraft being specially designed for the Navy, is expected to fly for the first time in 2011, sources said.
HAL Chairman Ashok Nayak said the team has “taken longer [time] than planned earlier because of several technical challenges, important of them being “designing an integrated fuel tank and bigger landing gear.”
He sought “early go-ahead” from the government for the next prototype, pointing out that the lead time for this would be three years.
Mr. Antony said the Shore Based Test Facility at the naval air base in Goa was being used to simulate take-offs and arrested landings aboard carriers. It would also train pilots of the LCA's naval version. “It is already being used for training pilots aboard MiG-29K fighter jets, bought from Russia, which are to be deployed aboard aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov.”
Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Nirmal Verma said the LCA induction would give the Navy a “multidimensional force capability.”
R.K. Singh, Secretary, Defence Production, said the HAL would need to create separate production lines to keep pace with the defence requirements. The HAL would have a role to play in the development of the fifth generation fighter aircraft and the medium combat aircraft, a multirole stealth fighter.
Addressing journalists later, Mr. Antony said: “A chain of 46 radars for coastal surveillance will be ready soon.” Referring to Kashmir, he said: “The situation is a matter of concern, but not grim.” “Tourist arrivals in the valley are much higher than last year.”
Asked whether the armed forces would play a more active role in fighting Maoists, Mr. Antony said: “Using the Army for law and order is always the last resort.” However, the Army would provide security personnel fighting the Maoists with logistics support and training.
Maoist bandh in 6 States from today
Special Correspondent
| “CPI (Maoist) will specifically target iron ore-carrying goods trains in the Bastar region” |
RAIPUR: The Communist Party of India (Maoist) has declared a two-day bandh, starting July 7, followed by an additional five days of protests, demonstrations and public rallies in Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal.
“The bandh is in response to the brutal killing of Comrade Azad, and freelance journalist Hem Chand Pande in a fake encounter in Adilabad,” said Ravula Srinivas, alias Ramana, secretary of the South Bastar Regional Committee of the CPI(Maoist), in a telephonic interview with this correspondent. “We request the public, intellectuals and all democratic forces to support this bandh.”
While Ramana promised not to target medical stores and essential services, he said the party would specifically target goods trains in the Bastar region. “We demand that trains carrying iron from Kirandul [in Dantewada] to Vishakapatnam [in Andhra Pradesh] be stopped for this period,” Ramana said, “else we shall be forced to target them.”
On July 2, the police killed two persons in an encounter in Adilabad. While one body was identified as CPI(Maoist) central party spokesperson Azad, the second was found to be that of Hem Chand Pande, a man identified as a freelance journalist born in Pithoragarh, Uttarakhand.
While the Bastar division of the CPI(Maoist) has claimed that Pande was simply a freelance journalist accompanying Azad on a story, a press release issued by the outfit's Northern Bureau has identified Pande as zonal committee member ‘Comrade Hem.'
Maoist leaders insist that Azad and Pande were not killed in an exchange of fire, as described the Andhra Pradesh police, but were picked up from Nagpur and executed in Andhra Pradesh. The police have consistently denied Maoist claims.
Suspected militant killed in encounter
IMPHAL: A suspected militant was killed in an encounter with the Army in Thoubal district on Tuesday, official sources said.
Personnel of 12th Maratha Light Infantry exchanged fire with militants when they were on a patrol at Maibam Palli.
A hand grenade and a 9 mm pistol were recovered from the spot.
The body was sent to the Regional Institute of Medical Science and Hospital here for post-mortem. — PTI
27 detained with fake visas
NEW DELHI: Twenty-seven people planning to go to Dubai allegedly with fake visas were detained by CISF personnel at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here on Tuesday.
(The Hindu reports dated 6-7-2010)
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