These superb photographs of the recently concluded TROPEX 2012 have been made available exclusively to Livefist and are used here with courtesy. The Bay of Bengal exercise involved 40 warships and submarines and 13 aircraft/UAVs.
©Photos By & Courtesy Sitanshu Kar
HEY SHIV,
GOOD PHOTOS OF INS VIRAAT AND AND OTHER AIRCRAFTS. PLEASE POST PHOTOS OF SUBMARINES AND OTHER SURFACE COMBATANTS
Sad to see air wing..its a navy with contradictions…its surface ships r amongst d best n most modern in the world and its air wing is amongst most obsolete and vintage, not even a single piece of air asset is modern…
shiv, 1 observation. livefist is not a news website competing against others for viewership and financial deals. I believe its a site made by an enthusiast for fellow enthusiasts, and its USP is hard information dedicated to indian defence.
a recent trend has been to bring home the "EXCLUSIVELY to livefist" tag which till now was only used by TRP crazy TV channels.
We readers come back again and again because we know how much effort you put into the site. I dont think such gimmicks are really required.
Just my 2 paisa worth suggestions…
Hi shiv, thx for the pics. It was awesome. Shiv can u pls try to update abt Nag and Nirbay missiles.
–
Ram
nice photos. India should have inducted some retired uk harriers.
Sea King 3-ship…beautiful!
If I talk business then I would say it a mutually beneficial blog for everyone..it allows Shiv an extra space which helps him in developing contacts and provide him first hand feedback of his work, it allows various supplier if I may use that term such as armed forces to put their views directly to the audience and audience gets quality material directly which they don't get otherwise….its much like bharat rakshak.. who are not commercial to the extent they can be and same goes with shiv, if he start posting adverts on his blog he will loose quality, credibility, honesty and control for very small amt of money ..and since we all are humans and earning money is not wrong..this blog helps Shiv to create his own identity and makes him an expensive anchor..otherwise except for five star journalists covering politics and bollywood who knows others..and it is because of this blog that shiv and ajai have an identity…and both shud b proud of this fact..I certainly m proud of both…but I wud say none of these two put so much effort(its a hard work to run such a massive blog, tat too with full time job n family) for monetary gains..its their enthusiasm and love for their work…
some of the aircraft need a bath. Badly.
India's post-independence National Maritime Museum.
@Anon 3:10 pm: Maybe thats because you are not seeing the newly inducted Mig 29ks in these images and also lets not forget the P-8I fleet that will soon join the air wing in the next few years..so all is not so gloom and doom..i think the IN planners are also mindful of your concerns regarding the naval aviation wing..
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Beautiful pics. So these sea harriers will be replaced by Rafale M.
40 warships? …we got 40 on the eastern coast??? ..i hope somebody was covering the west coast.
The fleet air arm makes me feel sad. But oh well…
I have an question for this forum….will India at all build a nuclear powered Nimitz class supercarrier? I think that it'll be best if the Gorshkov, IAC 1 and IAC 2 (all 3 of which are conventional powered) are kept close to Indian shores as air defence assets, and 6-8 nuclear supercarriers are built to expand the navy's blue water capabilities, along with cutting edge modern aircraft.
Vijay Gupta
@anonymous 1.19am aka Vijay Gupta
Dear
Vijay India Does not need nuclear super carriers of 1 lakh ton DWT to project blue water capability, its america's need which likles to play international police. For us ex-Gorshkov, IAC1, IAC2, and IAC3 (in future) are enough. what we really need are nuke powered 6-9 SSNs (India may get French help on that), SSBNs (arihant and 5 more) and SSGNs (chakra and 1 more). For India that will be all
Thanks
Joydeep Ghosh
We should have bought some harriers – we are down to almost single digits now – US bought out the entire UK harrier fleet after india let go of the opportunity to buy a few good ones
Yaar!!!
Sea Harriers ko naya Paint hi kar lo!!!
kam se kam acche to dikhenge…
ya grease hi saaf kar lo..
40 saal ho gye ab to…post retirement services le rahe ho kya?
Tons of better things to photograph for publicity. Sea Harriers are just mere show pieces. How about showcasing equipment that's actually doing something worthwhile?
Hi Shiv, is there any update on the AGNI 5 missile program. The missile is scheduled to be tested on February 2012. Already, we are closing the Feb deadline.
@sents: No. these sea harriers are gradually getting replaced already by the Mig 29ks. we have already got 16 of them, and 29 more are on order as part of a 45 Mig-29k order. and @Anon 3:10 pm: continuing from my previous post, lets also not forget the Su-30mki super 30 upgrade program which though technically will not be in the Navy's hands but still 40 of these Sukhois will be capable of firing anti ship cruise missiles like Brahmos adding much more teeth to the air to sea combat potential of our forces. Add to that the Naval LCA program and the naval Rafale if it materializes, the next 15 years should be interesting times for naval aviation.
To induct 6-8 nuclear supercarriers we would need a defense budget as large as the United States. Its totally insane to even think about 6-8 nuclear supercarrier right now. The USS Nimitz has nearly 5000 trained personnel working on board. A nuclear supercarrier will need a large fleet of protective surface ships, submarines, replenishment vessels and support vessels to form a carrier battle group. Without that an aircraft carrier is a just a large HVT sitting duck or silkworm magnet. Its a massive investment we are talking about.
To induct 6-8 nuclear supercarriers we would need a defense budget as large as the United States. Its totally insane to even think about 6-8 nuclear supercarrier right now. The USS Nimitz has nearly 5000 trained personnel working on board. A nuclear supercarrier will need a large fleet of protective surface ships, submarines, replenishment vessels and support vessels to form a carrier battle group. Without that an aircraft carrier is a just a large HVT sitting duck or silkworm magnet. Its a massive investment we are talking about.
@Anon 1:19 AM
INDIA WILL BUILD A NUCLEAR POWERED CARRIER BUT IT WILL NOT BE IN THE SAME CLASS AS NIMITZ IT IS MORE LIKELY TO BE A 65000 TON VESSEL INDIA WILL MOST LIKLEY HAVE 4 OF THESE AS OFF NOW THE DESIGN AND POWER PLANT IS IN CONSIDERATION BUT THE BAD TING IS IT WILL TAKE A DECADE MORE TO FINALIZE IF EVERY THING GOES ACCORDING TO THE PLAN TILL THEN WE WILL HAVE TO WATCH INS VIKRAMADITYA AND INS VIKRANT IN ACTION
the photos are awesome and many thanks for the pics shiv. Its a visual treat. M sure u must have thoroughly enjoyed it!
missile firing during nights missing
Thank you for not spoiling the photos with ludicrous watermarks.
Thank God, finally the deck crews for the carrier are wearing proper headgear that combine hard hat and ear safety, just like the USN.
I was used to seeing Viraat deck crew with bare heads and just wearing ear muffs.
My2Cents from Oz..
what is the meaning of tropex