Indian Defence Exports

Armenia is interested in buying additional ATAGS 155mm artillery systems from India

Sputnik Armenia news agency reported citing Indian Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses Director Sujan Chinoy.

“ATAGS is highly maneuverable,” Chinoy told Sputnik Armenia. “They are made in India and have been highly successful. The Armenian side bought six of these systems and was satisfied.”

Chinoy mentioned Armenia’s previous acquisition of the Swathi Weapon Locating Radar systems and Pinaka MRLS.

He said that Armenia has potential to develop its defense industry, which is now focused on startups. “Armenia has three such companies, which isn’t few given the country’s size and population. India has 120 such companies. Therefore Yerevan and Delhi can establish active cooperation in the area of military technologies, especially in issues concerning startups,” Chinoy said.

Earlier media reports said that Armenia ordered the ATAGS systems back in 2022 and received the first batch in August 2023.

According to the Indian Defense Ministry, Armenia bought $600,000,000 worth of armaments from India in 2024-2025 fiscal year.


Published by Armenpress, original at Armenia interested in buying more ATAGS artillery systems from India
 
Armenia looks to India for Astra missiles, upgrade of its Sukhoi fleet

Four Su30s bought from Russia in 2019 did not take part in the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Azerbaijan as they lacked fire power, including guided air-to-surface munitions.

By Snehesh Alex Philip
14 September 2024 01:10 pm IST
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The 'Astra' beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile developed by DRDO | Photo: Commons.

New Delhi: Armenia has reached out to India for possible procurement of Indian missiles including the indigenous beyond visual range Astra air-to-air missile and possible upgrade of their Sukhoi 30s, ThePrint has learnt.

Sources in the defence establishment said that the talks are on and still at a very initial stage.

Armenia is looking to upgrade its air force and is seeking help from India in terms of weaponry and maintainability of their assets, the sources added.

“The Su30s operated by Armenia are different from what we operate. So one will really have to see what all can be done. The talks are just in the initial stage,” a source told ThePrint. “They (Armenians) want to upgrade their Su30s and integrate our weapons.”

The weapons being sought by Armenia also include air-to-surface guided munitions. There was no confirmation on whether Armenia was also seeking the air launched BrahMos missiles.

The sources explained that there are multiple protocols when it comes to exports of missiles and multiple issues have to be tackled first.

Armenia had bought four Su30s from Russia in 2019 but those did not take part in the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Azerbaijan as the aircraft lacked fire power including guided air-to-surface munitions.

Interestingly, Azerbaijan has beefed up its Soviet era Su25s with help from Turkey.

Another area that Armenia is looking at is maintaining issues of the Su30s and also training of its pilots, the sources said.

India operates close to about 272 Su 30 MKIs and has managed to locally manufacture some of the components of the aircraft which helps in reducing the dependability on Russia for service and spares.

Incidentally, the four Su30s operated by Armenia are largely known as “white elephants” because of large investment without being of use. On the other hand, Azerbaijan invested in drones and loitering munitions, which were able to take out multiple air defence assets of Armenia and also pulverise its armoured columns.

Since the conflict, Armenia has become a big defence export destination for India and has, in the past, bought several systems, including artillery guns besides certain kinds of missiles, mortars, radars, small arms and sight systems.

(Edited by Tony Rai)

Armenia looks to India for Astra missiles, upgrade of its Sukhoi fleet
 
Egypt seems interested in Tejas & ALH Dhruv. High level delegation visited HAL facilities this week. Still a long way before this translates into anything substantial:

Egypt out military shopping, eyes Tejas and Dhruv as high-level delegation visits HAL

Brazil seems to be interested in DRDO's AIP plug for their Scorpene subs:


Brazilian Scorpene subs are the largest among their cousins:
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Weapon load out remains the same for all of the Scorpene subs. Of course, with the AIP plug the subs will get much longer:
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Wish we made a VLS plug too. But then sub would get too heavy & too slow. INS Kalvari (S21) is going into here 1st major refit in September 2025. She will receive her AIP during this refit. The Nirbhay SLCM would become ready by the time INS Kalvari completes her refit. After this refit maybe the Brazilian navy can get a demonstration of the AIP.

Cost will play a big role too. Per unit cost of Brazil's Scorpene subs comes out around 1 billion USD compared to India's 680 million USD. Even if the AIP works great, one wonders if the Brazilian navy would want to put more money into these subs.
 
Egypt seems interested in Tejas & ALH Dhruv. High level delegation visited HAL facilities this week. Still a long way before this translates into anything substantial:

Egypt out military shopping, eyes Tejas and Dhruv as high-level delegation visits HAL

Brazil seems to be interested in DRDO's AIP plug for their Scorpene subs:


Brazilian Scorpene subs are the largest among their cousins:
View attachment 36287
Weapon load out remains the same for all of the Scorpene subs. Of course, with the AIP plug the subs will get much longer:
View attachment 36288
Wish we made a VLS plug too. But then sub would get too heavy & too slow. INS Kalvari (S21) is going into here 1st major refit in September 2025. She will receive her AIP during this refit. The Nirbhay SLCM would become ready by the time INS Kalvari completes her refit. After this refit maybe the Brazilian navy can get a demonstration of the AIP.

Cost will play a big role too. Per unit cost of Brazil's Scorpene subs comes out around 1 billion USD compared to India's 680 million USD. Even if the AIP works great, one wonders if the Brazilian navy would want to put more money into these subs.
Aren't they using the mesma
 
Egypt seems interested in Tejas & ALH Dhruv. High level delegation visited HAL facilities this week. Still a long way before this translates into anything substantial:

Egypt out military shopping, eyes Tejas and Dhruv as high-level delegation visits HAL

Brazil seems to be interested in DRDO's AIP plug for their Scorpene subs:


Brazilian Scorpene subs are the largest among their cousins:
View attachment 36287
Weapon load out remains the same for all of the Scorpene subs. Of course, with the AIP plug the subs will get much longer:
View attachment 36288
Wish we made a VLS plug too. But then sub would get too heavy & too slow. INS Kalvari (S21) is going into here 1st major refit in September 2025. She will receive her AIP during this refit. The Nirbhay SLCM would become ready by the time INS Kalvari completes her refit. After this refit maybe the Brazilian navy can get a demonstration of the AIP.

Cost will play a big role too. Per unit cost of Brazil's Scorpene subs comes out around 1 billion USD compared to India's 680 million USD. Even if the AIP works great, one wonders if the Brazilian navy would want to put more money into these subs.
looks like there is a big pool of countries looking for products from friendly neutral country to avoid overreliance on west. India could very well capitalize on it & grow our exports.
 
Wish we made a VLS plug too. But then sub would get too heavy & too slow
This could very well be under consideration for Batch-2 Scorpenes imo.

I'm no expert but a VLS plug shouldn't add more than 100t to the displacement.

SLCM in its current version is designed for tube-launch so imo IN brass will want to stick to that for the Kalvaris.
 
This could very well be under consideration for Batch-2 Scorpenes imo.

I'm no expert but a VLS plug shouldn't add more than 100t to the displacement.
Some work on VLS plug was ongoing along with the AIP plug.
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From the looks these were Brahmos launch tubes. 2x4=8 nos. of them.

Kalvari class subs have a beam of 6.2 m. Brahmos missiles are 8.4 m long. We would need to cut holes in the inner hull which would reduce the depth at which this sub can operate. The hump on the sub would be about 2.5 m tall. This would surely change the hydrodynamic & acoustic properties of the sub. The Navy eventually dropped this plan.

Maybe the modifications were causing the subs to be unacceptably loud. Maybe the French OEM didn't agree with this mod or were charging a lot of money to do hydrodynamic tests. We don't know.
SLCM in its current version is designed for tube-launch so imo IN brass will want to stick to that for the Kalvaris.
Yes, that's what I meant. These missiles would need to be stored in the torpedo magazine which is limited in size. To carry SLCMs we have to reduce the number of torpedoes carried.
 
Well no wonder they went for torp tube launch capable system for Brahmos NG , hopefully true. This cutting sub hull for fitting the api is itself a murky business. Why not incorporate from new batch even if test case?
 
A Ukrainian 120mm mortar crew from the 3rd Assault Brigade using the Iranian HM-16 mortar and the Indian shells:



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2000 guns over the next 3 years. A sizable order. All of these will probably end up in Ukraine one way or another.

The gun if probably the ARDE modified version of the license produced FN MAG. Specs aren't that different from the original FN MAG but it is lighter by 2.5 kgs:
View attachment 35271

Some pics of the gun taken during its prototype testing phase:
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Official confirmation:

India Set To Export Its Advanced Modified Medium Machine Gun to European Countries - News18

Interesting detail:
“We have received an order of 2,000 MMGs from the European companies. The gun is being customized in accordance with the requirement of the buyer and the agreement, which was signed in December last year,” said Surendra Patil Yadav, General Manager SAF, Kanpur told News18, while confirming the development.

Wonder what customizations were asked for.
 
More and more articles are coming out on this from the Moroccan press:

Industrie de la défense: avec le groupe Tata, le Maroc se lance dans la production de véhicules de combat

Industrie de la défense: avec le groupe Tata, le Maroc se lance dans la production de véhicules de combat

The Moroccan Army is planning on using the WhAP to substitute their French VABs.


They will probably get the Israeli UT30MK2 turret.

A few years back the Moroccan army has started to receive TAT LPTA 716 & LPTA 1826 military transport trucks:
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Around late 2013 the Russians were proposing to sell their Pantsir-S1 & Tor-M2KM to the Indian military along with the S-400 system as a comprehensive AD package.

They were even proposing mounting the Pantsir-S1 & Tor systems on Indian trucks, namely TATA LPTA 6x6 and 8x8 trucks. TATA motors sold a few of these trucks to the Russians to allow them to mount these systems.

Pantsir-S1 on a TATA LPTA 8x8:
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Tor-M2KM on a TATA LPTA 8x8:
1728196680602.png

This pitch didn't materialize. The Indian side was only interested in the S-400. But as the Russians purchased these trucks, these remained with them.

Few days back photos & videos emerged on twitter of a Pantsir-S1 decoy on a TATA LPTA 6x6 in Mali. The truck is clearly destroyed & abandoned:



So, the theory goes that the Russians may have handed over these trucks to the Wagner group. Wagner is known to be active in Mali & some other African nations. That maybe how this truck ended up there.

As to what happened to it, that's more difficult to speculate on. This truck clearly had a decoy Pantsir system, not the actual Pantsir-S1. The real system needed an 8x8 to support its weight, the decoy was mounted on a 6x6. Also, if this were a real system those missile tubes would have exploded & burned the truck to the ground.

What weapon was used to hit this truck? The tire tracks on sand shows the truck was reversing when it was hit. The crew saw the threat approaching & were maneuvering the truck to dodge the threat. The threat couldn't have been a tank or land-based vehicle, there are no bullet or tank shell holes anywhere on the truck. The threat was likely airborne.

The fire damage is only on the mid-section of the truck. Conventional bombs would have ripped the truck to pieces. This kind of damage is consistent with very small warheads. Loitering munition perhaps.

Weren't the Russians fighting Al-Qaeda/ISIS in Mali? So, Al-Qaeda has loitering munitions ? :oops:
 
Alarm after defence PSU sells explosives to banned German Company

By Manu Pubby, ET Bureau
Last Updated: Oct 05, 2024, 11:09:00 PM IST
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Synopsis
Munitions India Limited (MIL) sold and delivered almost 500 tons of explosives to Rheinmetall, a German company banned for corruption since 2012. The deal was executed through an intermediary. Shipments began in late 2023 and continued into early 2024. Authorities were alerted and the final shipment was stopped. The event highlights MIL's booming international demand amid Russia-Ukraine conflict.


Alarm bells have rung after a state-owned defence public sector unit sold and delivered close to 500 tons of explosives to a German company, Rheinmetall, which has been debarred from business on corruption charges since 2012. The deliveries took place late last year and early 2024, with a final shipment believed to have been stopped after the matter was brought to notice within the government.

The Indian company, Munitions India Limited (MIL) has had a bonanza of orders from the international market for the past two years as the global demand for explosives has peaked since the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The company has a fully booked production capacity with multiple nations lining up to place orders.

As per records seen by ET, the deal to sell explosives was struck through an intermediary and the first shipment of 144 tons was sent in October 2023. The supply was made to a Spanish company named Expal, which had already been acquired by Rheinmetall as per public records. Two additional shipments were sent, with the final one dispatched in March 2024.

Sources said that while the original contract for delivery was to Expal, the company changed ownership to Rheinmetall and this was not informed to higher authorities. A detailed questionnaire sent to MIL and the defence ministry was not responded to.

Alarm after defence PSU sells explosives to banned German Company