Just got this nifty little see-through picture that provides a vague sort of glimpse into what’s been done to the Chetak/Alouette-III by IAI Malat to convert it into an unmanned platform for the Indian Navy. There are two prototypes known to be flying in Israel now.
This is a great idea to give the old Chetaks and Cheetas a second life. Removal of the crew and related equipment makes room for sensors and other misssion equipment. Kudos to IN for some out of the box thinking.
Cujo
hey shiv can u pl give us a brief description about the NURAV vs SCOUT n other unmanned chopper…..do u have any updates about lch,awacs, sitara programmes…..lca updates???? wat abt the medium n heavy lift helos tenders floated by iaf n army….looking forward to it…..
Israel is a very smart country, the have started converting Boeing Passenger Jets into aerial refuellers for Columbia, chetaks into UAV for India, most importantly they are getting the knowledge/experience on these experimental technologies using other countries money :)..
Very smart, i assume they will not deliver this piece to us, unless and until we decide on FireScout deal, Americans have a big clout on Israelis …
anyways, something good for the India, although i believe we wont have any great TOT on this one….
yep well said
Overall this looks to be a viable and promising project.
The Russia-Israel-France-India quadrangular co-operation seems to be working very well n is a win-win for the parties concerned. Hats-off to whosoever's brainchild it was.
@Rakka
Yes you are right they use money of other countries for gaining knowledge. Do you think they have better mind that us ?
What they have is better management and vision. And most important they do not have "Indian" babus
I've always been apprehensive about this project because compared to other rotary UAVs the Chetak is too large and heavy. As such the ship will be able to carry at most only one since it will need space to spare for ASW/AEW/SAR helicopters. UAVs like the Fire Scout, however, need only half as much space as a typical naval helo, so more can be carried.
Sellouts hawking for yancware should keep their mouths shut especially when one solution has far better indigenization percentage, existing spare logistics, greater user familiarity and above all better endurance compared to the kill-switch laden sealed blackboxes aka firescout.
there is no equipment that have no shortcommings lets make indian equipment and improve it on the job, I have used number of imported equipment from time to time they all are repaired or upgraded under warranty so what if our eqpt does not meet the QR set by an armchair General BUT its INDIAN Go Indian
Ah. Constructive criticsm met by blind jingoism. Do the fearless Anonymous jingos have anything at all to contribute beyond kiddy-level yells of 'Sellout/Yank-lover! DRDO mahan!' that would get them warned/banned on any proper forum?
Can the fleet of mig 21 bis be converted into unmanned combat aircrafts? Is DRDO or HAL thinking on these lines.