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| PHOTO / TEXTRON DEFENSE |
U.S. firm Textron Defense Systems has begun deliveries of 512 CBU-105 sensor fuzed munitions to India. The company began deliveries of the weapon system to the U.S. Air Force in September — it is a foreign military sale (FMS) to India and therefore needs to be routed through the applicable U.S. service — and will complete deliveries by the end of the year. Deliveries to the Indian Air Force by the U.S. Air Force are likely to begin early 2013.
A 2010 government to government contract worth $257.73-million was cleared after India expressed interest in the weapon in 2008. Textron announced the contract win and began production for the Indian order in February 2011. The weapon is likely to be deployed from the IAF’s Jaguar strike aircraft and Su-30MKI air dominance fighters.
As a result of treaties on cluster munitions that India and the US are not signatories to, India’s interest in the CBU-105 has been perceived as controversial, though the Indian government has persistently committed to the use of such weapons only against military targets.
Sir, what are ur views w.r.t PRC's SAC J-31/FC-60's first flight? Will it force MoD and DRDO to speed up the R&D on AMCA? We still think it can be achieved with full efforts by pvt. Sector and various institutions such as IITs/NITs..
Sir, what use of this wepon?
Its an excellant anti tank weapon to be used in war especially on western front
Dear Mayur: India can keep working on AMCA. Need of the hour is to revive the interest in US Joint Strike Fighter F-35. The fighter is in advanced stages of testing. FGFA, who knows when it would happen.
Agree.. FGFA will only be ready by 2050 (as the name says T 50)…and the electronics and data fusion in f 35 is the most modern in the world even better then F22.
F 35 is a sitting duck. It can't maneuver at high speed or do a dog fight. T 50 will be an excellent overall air dominance fighter.
Dog fight is irrelevant in modern day air warfare where stealth and bvr weapons steals the show.
T 50 aka pak fa will have a huge X band Aesa radar and L band radar on it wing. With these two radar and IRST POD it will definately kill the F 35 which is far less stealthy than F 22.
awesome news!!!! bring on those tanks on the borders…and lets see how many can just 1 of these beauties blow up!!!!
Good! They should supply at earliest.
Pakistan also possesses this.
We paid top dollar for it and the PAF got it for free as part of the 'Military Aid'.
Go figure!
My2Cents from Oz.
India is digging its own grave by acquiring such lethal weapons.
What a stupid comment
@anon 12:58pm: pakistan has been digging its own grave by undertaking proxy war against india for the past 25 years ..and pakistan has succeeded in its mission of landing in its own grave..! and india has money 2 buy such weapons.. what have you? International alms from the middle east and china.. and nothing else..
@Anon 12:58 No not at all. Pakistan's grave? Hell yeah!
@Anon 6:08am: your views are indeed worth 2 cents or lesser, coz India is the first export customer of the CBU 105..do some research please and then post!
@Anon 6:08 Provide a ref or link for your claim. Pakis dont poses it.
these r much needed conventional weaponry & game changers.
I don't think these cluster bombs will be useful in mountain terrains. perhaps they are only useful in desert locations.So, essentially they will only be used against PAK.
What Happened to Rafale??? ??
f35… l-II… no super crusie… no air superiority… mediocre weapons load… mediocre area coverage… nil strike/ground capability… substandard range… zero dog fight capability… BVR blindness… limited tracking/survillance… makes it an awesome fighter… come on litening II… come on… urging will make it 5+ gen platform…
I was the happiest person in the world when India downgraded it's FGFA requirement to just 144. Now they can divert more commitment to the AMCA and AURA.
There is no hurry to jump on this '5th generation' bandwagon. The Rafale and Tejas Mk2 will be more than capable of handling everything for the next 2-3 decades. Not to mention the wide array of sensors and weapons will be integrated on these bad boys. Weapons like CBU 105, AASM, Meteor, Storm Shadow and indigenous systems like LRAAM, NAG based SOW, Anti radar Missile can offer India the edge in future conflicts.
Along with those A330 MRTTs, you can hit where it hurts. An air force is a system of components. It's much more important that the systems work well with each other rather than look good individually on paper.
Anon @7:49 AM
then we need only… send ballons… what the heck… we need any flying things… floating things will do… sure thing… nowadays… morons get… bharat ratna… nobel prizes…
Instead of blah blah blah, try to give some logic.
anon @6:08 Pakistan does not possess it and more than likely US will not supply it to Pak. US has offered cutting edge military equipment to India, while denying it to Pak. It is as simple as thar. Cold war is over, Chinese dragon is looming over us, we need to get closer to US.
Learning from the weaknesses of the F-35, I hope the next aircraft will be really excellent.
Shiv,
WHy is India becoming so dependent on the US ? This is a very dangerous trend . You had yourself reflected on the dangers of malware been inserted in the P 8I that US is selling to India ( link below ) :
http://livefist.blogspot.it/2009/09/exclusive-devil-in-details-bogey-in-p.html
Ram jaane , how many more such hardwares will be infected with malwares . I suspect they are putting malwares even in the Apaches and CHinooks
Thanks,
HIndu
@Anon 7:49 AM History always repeat my friend. Dogfight may not matter now but will matter in future because your opponent will also have stealth. You simply cannot put 1000 transmitreceive modules on your missile to lock its target and you know passive systems are not reliable against a stealth.
The rcs of f 35 is 0.001 and that of t 50 is 0.01 at best. So in a bvr who will take the first shot that also with meteor missile that everybody could imagine. Again t 50 will join the service in 2020 and by that time f35 will be a much matured ac with all the drawbacks being rectified by lock mart. And the radar of f35 is so powerfull that it can jam the f22 also. Russian aesa is rather new and will take time to mature.
EW and electronics of f35 is the most latest in the world and that is a field where USA has expertise over Russia. With awacs and tanker support f35 is formidable. It has passive censor also which was dropped from f22 for cost cutting. And passive systems are the main weapons of stealthy ac to detect others while avoiding detectipn.
how to dodge an… incoming bvr sam/aam… if every conter measures fail/get exhausted… just float around…
Where F35 trumps T50 is it's V/STOL capability. In any future conflict (most probably against China), our adversaries will draw the 1st blood and their targets will be our airfields, radar installations and communication/spy satellites. In other words we will not only be deaf and mute but also a cripple without runways. This is where the F35B can play the role of a deterrent when all our chips are down. The F35B can also land and take off from LPDs that India plans to acquire in the near future. These fighters will also help in peace keeping operations thereby enhancing India's soft power which is more important than hard power in some regards.
They will never get in the air. PAF will destroy these bombs on the ground. PAF always gave IAF bloddy nose even if it was defeated.
Ha ha ha…. Nice joke….. Grow up baby
Even it was defeated, you are right bloody nose is always better than defeat. Ultimately you have accepted that porkistan is defeated
@Anon 11:27 Your points are nice but the truth is that to intercept those wannabe bombers we would require an swift and agile fifth gen fighter and there is no match for FGFA. Rest assured we can use pretty much any plane in peace keeping missions. Why would on earth we send out fifth gens to some other country when we have a jerk China next door? By the time we gather enough FGFA to send outdoor our AMCA will be ready. And that has Stol too.
come on litening II… come on… urging will make it 5+ gen platform…
Same is true for all others.. M i right?
@9:02 Pakistan has been defeated and cut to half in 1971. The remainder is just there to make long threats and lots of noise. Right now they the world's largest drone target range and it seems will continue to remain so.