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SP's Aviation - ISSUE No 1-2018

Issue Features

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  MILITARY | 2018
  Hopes From 2018: Crucial Aspects for IAF
  By Air Marshal Sukhchain Singh (Retd)

  Capital procurements for the Indian Air Force are anchored on a long-term perspective plan based on the threats and the geopolitical environment

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  MILITARY | MRO
  Disruptive Technologies in Military MRO
  By Air Marshal Sukhchain Singh (Retd)

  Identifying emerging disruptive trends in technology affecting MRO well in advance, will ensure that military MRO will be able to provide the required combat availability of the war fighter

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  MILITARY | UNION BUDGET
  Defence Budget 2018: IAF Modernisation Damper
  By Air Marshal Sukhchain Singh (Retd)

  The defence five-year plans are formulated in consonance with existing threat perceptions, the “Raksha Mantri’s operational directives” and the 15-year Long-Term Integrated Perspective Plan (LTIPP)

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  MILITARY | WRAP-UP
  2017: Eventful for Military Aviation
  By Rohit Srivastava

  While the Indian government has initiated steps to address issues related to strengthening the capabilities of the Indian armed forces, much still remains to be done

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  MILITARY | UPGRADE
  Jaguar Upgrade Now or Never
  By Rohit Srivastava

  Any further delay in the upgrade, especially re-engining of Jaguars will lose its purpose as the aircraft has 15-20 years of residual life

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  CIVIL | UNION BUDGET
  Impact of Budget on UDAN
  By Arpita Kala

  From hawai chappals and hawai jahaaz to flight operations affected by smog, Minister of Finance Arun Jaitley has big plans for Indian aviation

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  CIVIL | COCKPIT CREW
  A Concrete Step to Address Pilot Shortage
  By John Slattery

  The airline industry offers tremendous opportunity and job security for pilots, especially with such robust growth in air travel projected over the next twenty years

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  CIVIL | RCS
  Air Deccan's G.R. Gopinath: Mad Scientist or a Brilliant Visionary?
  By Arpita Kala

  After revolutionising commercial aviation sector with 1 tickets and e-tickets, the pioneer of affordable flights may have bitten off more than he can chew with Air Deccan 2.0

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  BUSINESS AVIATION | 2018
  Hopes From 2018 – Gulfstream Perspective
  By Jason Akovenko

  Another initiative for 2018 is to continue our focus on providing customers the most advanced technology from start to finish

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  A Word from Editor-in-Chief
  By Jayant Baranwal, Publisher & Editor-in-Chief

  Our valuable readers will notice that we have redesigned SP’s Aviation. We do believe that the new appearance of the magazine will appear to be much smarter, more readable and compact, and therefore interestingly informative

• 

  NEWS WITH VIEWS
  Italian Court on AgustaWestland Case
  By Air Marshal B.K. Pandey (Retd)

  On Monday, January 8, 2018, the Italian Court of Appeal of Milan has acquitted Giuseppe Orsi, former President of Italian defence and aerospace major Finmeccanica and Bruno Spagnolin, former CEO of its subsidiary AgustaWestland, of corruption charges involving a multi-crore deal with India for VVIP helicopters.

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  HALL OF FAME
  Kelly Johnson (1910-1990)
  By Joseph Noronha

  Johnson’s method was to assemble an exceedingly small team of elite engineers in close proximity in an environment where innovation, creativity and productivity could flourish

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  LAST WORD
  An Opportunity Squandered
  By Air Marshal B.K. Pandey (Retd)

  Delays in taking decisions in the procurement of military hardware has adverse effect on the modernisation process of the Indian armed forces which in turn has implications for national security

• NEWS | DIGEST
  Appointments
  

  Eric Chen, previously President of Airbus Commercial Aircraft China, succeeds Laurence Barron as Chairman of Airbus China. George Xu has been appointed CEO of Airbus China.

• NEWS | DIGEST
  Quick RoundUp
  

  Airbus’ Commercial Aircraft deliveries in 2017 were up for the 15th year in a row, reaching a new record of 718 aircraft delivered to 85 customers.

• NEWS | DIGEST: MILITARY | ASIA PACIFIC
  Russian PGMs for India
  

  Raksha Mantri Nirmala Sitharaman has cleared the procurement of 240 bombs, at a cost of 1254 crore from M/s JSC Rosonboron Exports, Russia.

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  NEWS | DIGEST: MILITARY | ASIA PACIFIC
  India’s Most Lethal Missile Agni-V Successfully Test-Fired
  

  On January 18, 2018, India has successfully test-fired its most lethal, indigenously-designed and built 5000km range intercontinental, surface-to-surface, nuclear-capable ballistic missile Agni-V.

• NEWS | DIGEST: MILITARY | ASIA PACIFIC
  BrahMos Supersonic Cruise Missile
  

  India plans to test an extended-range variant of its BrahMos supersonic cruise missile by the end of this year. New Delhi has already tested a 400km variant of the missile...

• NEWS | DIGEST: MILITARY | ASIA PACIFIC
  Russia Releases Infographic on Sukhoi Su-57 Fighter
  

  The PAK FA Programme involves the design, production and delivery of a fifthgeneration fighter aircraft to the Russian Air Force which will increase its combat potential.

• NEWS | DIGEST: MILITARY | ASIA PACIFIC
  Additional Contract for F-35
  

  Amid fresh UN-imposed sanctions on North Korea and further bellicose threats made by Pyongyang, Japanese and South Korean media have reported that their respective governments are considering additional F-35 Joint Strike Fighter orders.

• NEWS | DIGEST: MILITARY | ASIA PACIFIC
  Astra Beyond Visual Range Air to Air Missile (BVRAAM) for UAE
  

  The UAE has expressed interest in purchasing India’s indigenous Astra BVRAAM to arm its fleet of Mirage 2000-9 fighter aircraft.

• NEWS | DIGEST: MILITARY | ASIA PACIFIC
  RFP for Tejas
  

  Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) has received a RFP from the IAF for 83 Tejas Mk-1A light combat aircraft (LCA). The RFP comes following the November 2016 clearance for funds for the programme...

• NEWS | DIGEST: MILITARY | ASIA PACIFIC
  DRDO Successfully Conducts Interceptor Missile Test
  

  Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) System of DRDO has successfully scored a direct hit on incoming missile on December 28, 2017 from Dr Abdul Kalam Island off the coast of Odisha.

• NEWS | DIGEST: MILITARY | ASIA PACIFIC
  China’s Wing Loong II Reconnaissance-cum-Armed UAV
  

  A recent flight by the Aviation Industry Corporation of China’s Wing Loong II has set a new record with the UAV hitting five successive targets with five separate types of missiles.

• NEWS | DIGEST: MILITARY | ASIA PACIFIC
  RFP for Indigenous Light Combat Helicopter
  

  HAL has received a RFP from the IAF and the Indian Army for 15 Light Combat Helicopters (LCH). The LCH is a 5.5-tonne class, combat helicopter designed and developed by HAL.

• NEWS | DIGEST: MILITARY | AMERICAS
  Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF ) Contract for Boeing
  

  Boeing is to carry out repair and support services for the RSAF following the award of a US Air Force $480.4 million fixed-price-incentive-firm contract which comes as a 100 percent FMS to the Gulf kingdom...

• NEWS | DIGEST: MILITARY | AMERICAS
  Boeing Contract for Qatar
  

  Boeing has been awarded a $6.1 billion USAF contract as part of Qatar’s F-15 programme. The deal provides for the FMS requirement to procure 36 new F-15QA aircraft for the Qatar Emiri Air Force...

• NEWS | DIGEST: INDUSTRY | AMERICAS
  Missile Defence Agency (MDA) orders THAAD
  

  MDA has almost tripled its production orders for Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) interceptors from the system’s manufacturer, Lockheed Martin.

• NEWS | DIGEST: SPACE | ASIA PACIFIC
  ISRO Launches 100th Satellite
  

  The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully placed into orbit its 100th satellite “Cartosat 2” on January 12, 2018. The Cartosat 2 satellite was the main payload of ISRO Polar...