31-Dec-2020: MoD signs contract with BEL to supply indigenously developed 10 Lynx U2 Fire Control systems for Indian Navy
Ministry of Defence (MoD) has signed a contract with Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) for procurement of 10 Lynx U2 Fire Control systems for frontline warships of Indian Navy at a cost of Rs 1,355 crore under Buy (Indian) category in New Delhi today. The Lynx system has been designed and developed indigenously that would further the ‘AatmaNirbhar Bharat’ vision of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi.
The LYNX U2 GFCS is a Naval Gun Fire Control System designed to acquire, track and engage targets amidst sea clutter. It is capable of accurately tracking air/surface targets, generating required target data for predicting weapon aiming points and engaging target. The target engagement is carried out with the medium/short range gun mounts like Russian AK176, A190 and AK630 and the SRGM available onboard ships.
The Gun Fire Control System has been designed with an open and scalable architecture permitting simple and flexible implementation in many different configurations. The system has been developed and delivered to Indian Navy and has been in service for over two decades, satisfactorily meeting the tactical requirements of Indian Naval ships of various classes like destroyers, frigates, missile boats, corvettes, etc.
The system has been upgraded continuously and indigenisation has been the major focus along with technology upgrades. The indigenous content of the system has been continuously increased, generation to generation to eliminate the dependency on foreign OEMs. The system will be installed on the NOPV, Talwar and Teg class of ships. The system including the Tracking Radar, Servo and Weapon Control Modules has been completely designed and developed by BEL. The indigenous system will ensure maximum up-time of the system and guarantees excellent Product support throughout its life time.
The system proposed in the contract is of the fourth generation and is a completely indigenized system, developed in the true spirit of ‘AatmaNirbhar Bharat’. These will be delivered by BEL, Bengaluru over the next five years.
29-Oct-2020: Army launches Secure Application for Internet (SAI)
In the quest for ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’, Indian Army has developed a simple and secure messaging application named the “Secure Application for Internet (SAI)”. The application supports end to end secure voice, text and video calling services for Android platform over internet. The model is similar to commercially available messaging applications like WhatsApp, Telegram, SAMVAD and GIMS and utilises end to end encryption messaging protocol. SAI scores over on security features with local in-house servers and coding which can be tweaked as per requirements.
The application has been vetted by CERT-in empaneled auditor and Army Cyber Group. The process for filing Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), hosting the infrastructure on NIC and working on iOS platform is currently in progress. SAI will be utilised pan Army to facilitate secure messaging within the service.
The Raksha Mantri after reviewing the functionalities of the App complimented Col Sai Shankar for his skill and ingenuity for developing the application.
20-Oct-2020: Hybrid model of ‘smart’ fence being tested along the LoC
The Army has significantly improved its electronic surveillance along the Line of Control (LoC) to check infiltration, and work on converting the existing border fence into a smart fence integrated with several sensors is under way.
However, there is a rethink on converting the entire fence over a 700 km stretch into a smart one due to the high cost. A hybrid model is now being adopted.
The new hybrid model of the smart fence being tested will cost around ₹10 lakh per km and 60 km is being attempted this year. This has some rudimentary smartisation. The earlier proposal for a hi-tech fence was to cost around ₹10 crore for 2.4 km. A ₹10 crore type trial was done in the Army’s 19 Division last year, but it was too expensive so no more contracting was done.
The fence will be integrated with LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) sensors, infrared sensors and cameras among others.
In recent months, the Army has beefed up troops close to the LoC to plug gaps and it has resulted in a drop in infiltration this year. While the multi-tier anti-infiltration grid remains in place, the first tier has been strengthened. Troops have also been given drones, both big and small, to monitor the ground.
The existing fence called the Anti-Infiltration Obstacle System (AIOS) is located about 700 m from the LoC. The double row fence consisting of concertina wire was constructed between 2003 and 2005. With its high rate of degradation every year due to snow, the Army came up with a proposal to install a smart fence with various sensors integrated into it and a pilot project was subsequently taken up.
For instance, Tangdhar sector gets 10-15 feet snowfall in peak winters, which means in some places the entire fence gets buried. Due to snow, the iron fence becomes brittle and consequently 60-70% of the fence has to be repaired every year. Every year, there is a major exercise over four months from March to June to bring that fence up.
The fence is present along most of the around 740 km long LoC. While the damage to the fence is less south of Pirpanjal due to less snow, heavy snowfall in North Kashmir causes big damage. In addition to the fence, the Army has deployed long range surveillance systems to detect people and small vehicles, both during day and night. The fence too has been integrated with various sensors.