News Roundup: DRDO DEW for Zapping UAVs, Lakshya ToT to L&T, IAF Initiates Procurement of Additional MI-17V5

Mi-17V5 at Aero India 2013

IAF Initiates procurement of additional 48 Mi-17V5 helicopters

The ET reported on July 20, 2015 that the IAF has initiated procurement of 48 additional Mi-17V5s at a cost of $1.1b (Rs 6,980 cr).

The deal would involve 30 percent offset obligation.

On February 17, 2015 Sputnik News reported that India and Russia were discussing purchase of additional Mi-17V5 helicopters.

India has so far ordered 151 Mi-17V5 helicopters from Russia in two batches. The first order was for 80 helicopters and the second for 71.

As on February 18, 2015, Russia had delivered 121 helicopters against the order for 151 helicopters. Russia completed deliveries against the initial 80 helicopters order in 2013. Deliveries against the follow-on order for 71 helicopters are likely to be completed by end 2015.

IDP Sentinel members can read more at Mi-17V5 Purchase From Russia - IDP Sentinel

Lakshya ToT to L&T

The IE reported on July 18, 2015 that MoD has approved a DRDO proposal for transfer of technology (ToT)  of Lakshya-2 to Larsen and Toubro (L&T) for commercial production.

L&T will pay DRDO a royalty on domestic sales and exports of the PTA. Exports would require MoD approval. Potential export customers include Singapore, Malaysia and Israel.

Lakshya PTA at Aero India 2011

Lakshya ToT to private sector L&T for royalty based sales is a first involving a major defense system. In the past such ToT has been made exclusively to public sector units and with no royalty.

The landmark deal will serve as a model for private sector involvement in marketing, maintaining and upgrading DRDO developed systems, allowing DRDO to focus on R&D.

IDP Sentinel members can read more at Lakshya - 2 - IDP Sentinel

DRDO Working on Directed Energy Weapon (DEW) Systems

DRDO's CHESS (Center for High Energy Systems and Science), Hyderabad is developing Directed Energy Weapon (DEW) systems.

One of the DEW weapon systems being developed would target UAV's.

On March 2, 2015 CHESS invited tenders for Off-axis concave and convex parabolic mirrors.

The concave mirror is required to have a parent focal length of 2000mm and mirror diameter of 150mm, while the convex mirror is required to have a parent focal length of 200mm and a mirror diameter of 25mm.

In early July 2015, DRDO's IRDE (Instruments Research & Development Establishment), Dehradun invited tenders for supply of High Resolution thermal imager for CHESS platform.

The IRDE tender seeks a Thermal Imager based on Pelican-D 640x512 MWIR IDDCA with 14.5X zoom capability. The Imager is required to have recognition range capability of 5-km against a 1.5m x 3m  UAV target.

IDDCA (Interleaved Double Dynamical Clustering Analysis) is a sampling algorithm based on clustering.

It appears that the imager being sought by IRDE would be used to aim a DEW developed by CHESS for use against UAVs.

IDP Sentinel members can read more at Directed Engergy Weapon (DEW) Systems (IDP Sentinel)