Much of our ‘X’ discussion on Jet engine tech revolves around a subconscious assumption that it is a single complex technology to crack. The truth is it is the discovery & mastering of 100s of technologies across solid & fluid physics, design, materials, manufacturing, electronics, control systems.
It is not I cracked 4 out of 5 tech so hey why not be able to get 4/5th of efficiency of a western jet engine. Need to have considerable mastery over all of them and, critically, good understanding of the interplay of all these technologies together in adverse environments.

Early top of the head thoughts on the large Lithium reserves discovered in Kashmir.

1. This is by no means a small reserve. In a sense of proportion/contribution to our nation this could be the equivalent of more than a Bombay High/KG basin share to our national consumption. 2. What needs to be seen is that out of the total reserves how much can actually be extracted realistically and viably in a geography like Kashmir. I am no SME on that and that is a point we need to look deeper. the numbers could vary significantly.

ADA, as it had said earlier, looking for an SP model partner who can bring both technology(vague) and investment in development and manufacturing of AMCA. HAL will definitely be on of the contenders. Would be interesting to see which other company enters and what it brings. This is much more than other partnerships we've seen in the past with the pvt sector. Only HAL-ADA have done these kind of partnerships on the LCA Mk1/Mk2. Here the partner is expected to bring investments & technologies to the development stage itself & not just manufacturing.

Hard disagree here! Except for few professions, India is still a rat race and a very hard grind for millions across different class of professions. Those who do get a larger/better opportunity are better off gaining accelerated career/job growth & earning and then making a call.

https://twitter.com/rajivtalreja/status/1623171646747197441

Even after getting a good job the fight to climb up is much more competitive in terms of the opportunities/contenders ratio and the money involved. The sheer number and the business value of the work is so much high in West(even China) compared to Indian ecosystem.

The 5 stages of grief:

Stage -1 Denial Stage - 2 Anger

The USAF is ahead of the rest of the world in zeroth order, first order and even second order in terms jet engine technology development. Here comes the newest concept technology in the town, rotating detonation engine. It has given an R&D contract to P&W aviationweek.com/defense-space/… In zero'th order, by which I mean contemporary low bypass jet engine technology it is already heads and shoulder ahead of the rest of the world and is still working on improving it for its current 4th generation fighter and bomber fleet.

The way I see it, Western commentariat on India is of three types.
1. The establishment pax Americana types who still see the world in a US - Russia/China binary and see India's drift towards America as an incomplete project. These are the ppl who want India to be (+) part of the Western order in its current from with the US as undisputed leader to be accepted. No, these are not the ppl who care much about the internal matters of India except as a tool of leverage. Their ultimate goal is for entire world to become so.

Not at all! For far too long we've let the West & Russia define the means & paradigms of our warfare. ATGM, tanks, ground attack a/c, AESA radar, cruise missile etc. These were shaped by their warfare history. We have to think for our threat & geographic environment!

https://twitter.com/srinathraghava3/status/1497094459800297472

To truly overcome this follower mentality we have to break from this paradigm and create capabilities and platforms that the adversary cannot guess or find defensive solutions against.
Unless you could unlearn what's taught in Colonial era war college syllabus to think afresh!

They are getting it at last?! 🥲🥲

https://twitter.com/ANI/status/1497080094443335684

All this understanding and appreciate is welcome. But without many times more $$ to attract right players and razor sharp focus cutting the bureaucracy and lobbies it is all just talk without seriousness.

https://twitter.com/ANI/status/1497083459059462145?s=20&t=NTwQp28ArFeevK9bTgx-bA

When I speak of increasing indigenous R&D budget by 4 to 5 fold and deep reforming the domestic R&D sector, ppl brought up excuses of Per capita income, govt's budget constraints etc. Look at the cost & constraints we are paying for depending on foreign defence tech & eqpt today. When people think of Military industrial complex, they only think of the manufacturing capacity. They forget the RDT&E component, the secure supply chain for raw material etc. Having a mfg capacity doesn't mean much if we don't know what and how to manufacture.

A friend working at the Indian R&D centre of one of the chip design behemoths of US spoke with regards to what we need to do. He sees little value in bringing TSMC large scale fabs in India. He says the marginal value add will only be few thousand skilled jobs at a huge cost! (+) He told about a story where few Chinese chip design engineers from his company came out and started their own chip design effort with state support and ecosystem in China. Today apparently they own 30% of the market segment in China against this US behemoth. (+)

Make air bags, ABS and other safety features compulsory. NCAP 0 ratings have no place on our roads.

This is long overdue!

https://twitter.com/swarajyamag/status/1482212384395902978

We need more robust crash test research & standards within our country. I've worked with NHTSA on couple of projects and their approach is very different. They don't start with models and pre-existing stds unlike here. They start on first principles and then build a framework (+)

Summary on Kaveri Engine shared by MoS MoD today in Rajya Sabha. Thanks to @subhsara
We at last get the total expenditure on the Kaveri program, Rs 2035.56 crore
This is pittance compared to the Multi Billion $ effort that serious nations mount.
WE'RE JUST NOT SERIOUS ABOUT IT! @subhsara Explains why the govt dropped jaws when Safran quoted 500 million euros to develop test and certify the engine further(aside offsets). Till then both DRDO & Govt were lying to themselves that we can get a jet engine cheap. They cudn't accept this reality! economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/defence/d…

This is a thread on ground transportation proving and testing infrastructure that exists across India. This includes civil and defence facilities available across India.

Starting with Maruti Suzuki’s test track in Rohtak. Quite a big and diverse Proving ground Moving South to the National Capital Region we have the government ICAT’s test facility and homologation centre that carries some regulation and R&D work on the part of govt. This facility is located in Gurgaon.

Binge watching Tarmak media's #HamaraTejas series dispassionately. Neither over the top exuberance nor cynicism. Just trying to learn where they came from and what they have to say about their journey. Finished. I liked Ep 1,5 & 6. Learnt new things from them. 2,3,4 were more powder puffing mundane achievements as ground breaking but that's ok. A lot of celebrations about success, which is warranted, less acknowledgement of the mistakes and drawbacks though.

The way Afghanistan has turned out to fall to ragtag militia within days after more than a decade of national building project. India post 1947 would’ve had its task cut out in terms of forming a stable political union and not get balkanised by sub national forces completely. Starting right from landing forces in Srinagar to bringing the 500 odd princely states we faced an uphill battle to form a nation and thanks to the leaders and the bureaucrats then who had a razor sharp focus on that in the initial decades.

Aatmanirbhar Screwdrivergiri!
75 yrs and we still import what is mundane tech worldwide!

“The South Korean firm will share the designs and once MCF approves they will be made in South Korea and brought in India in knocked down condition"
timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india… 1955, ICF Perambur was started to produce coaches for IR with imported design from Swiss Schlieren and we have been producing that for 65 years now.
All that ICF was doing was produce variations of the same design for different purposes. No new overall design or generative D&D.

Lot of good info in this article! Missed this earlier somehow! hindustantimes.com/india-news/lca… “We plan to carry of out the 1st flight of the aircraft by March 2022 and get the certification from CEMILAC by mid-2023 before kicking off production. The 1st Mk-1A aircraft will be delivered to the air force by March 2024, with the rest slated to join its combat fleet by 2029.”

This is also probably the lowest order placed by a host Air Force for an indigenous aircraft.

Rate of production is directly proportional to order size. Public or private. Why build additional production capacity if line will become dry in 4 years?

https://twitter.com/sootradhar/status/1426132090827902976

If IAF needs 200-300 MWF, then it has to show the money. Maybe get an AoN from DAC so that HAL can confidently invest in additional production capacities for Mk1A and use it to MWF later. But for that MWF will have to be ready by 2026-27(IOC I mean). Will ADA deliver? 🤷🏼‍♂️

Piyush Goyal wants Indian Inc to be nationalistic like East Asian companies to their nations.
Has any Indian govt in its 74 yr history ever done anything remotely like what East Asian govts have done to their national companies? Zilch Nada Nil! thehindu.com/business/Indus… If this is the barometer of being nationalistic then the govt itself isn’t. It has been awarding tenders to Chinese firms over Indian firms for the sake of L1. Then WTF shouldn’t corporate India do what’s best for itself? business-standard.com/article/econom…

9 years back China didn’t have a single aircraft carrier, now it’s building 3rd. IAC-1 has been under construction on CSL docks for more than 9 years.

China’s 3rd aircraft carrier is in advanced stages of development while India’s shipbuilding stammers!
swarajyamag.com/defence/how-ch… Trying to address the reasons for the perennial delays in Indian defence shipbuilding at Defence shipyards. Ofcourse the usual PSU work culture, unions, and very malignant issue related to a DPSU comes in. But there's more to why our shipyards specifically are too slow!