Articles By Gp Capt AK Sachdev
IAF’s Combat Aircraft Shortfall: A Ticking Time Bomb
By: Gp Capt AK Sachdev | Issue: Vol. 32.1 Jan-Mar 2017 | Date: 16 Feb , 2017
The Tejas is an aircraft the IAF can do without, although pressures to induct it have led to orders. Meanwhile, the sands of time, inexorably straining through the impassive hourglass of IAF...
China – The New Aerospace Power
By: Gp Capt AK Sachdev | Issue: Vol. 31.3 Jul-Sep 2016 | Date: 18 Nov , 2016
Both India and China began their march towards progress almost at the same time and have had an unwholesome antagonism towards each other since the 1962 War. The boundary dispute between the two...
Privatisation of the Indian Aerospace Industry: Problems and Prospects
By: Gp Capt AK Sachdev | Issue: Vol. 31.2 Apr-Jun 2016 | Date: 09 Aug , 2016
“Make in India” has been around for some time now, both as a slogan and as a rallying point for industrial lobbies. As far as the aerospace industry is concerned, the single major act of...
Make in India: Problems and Prospects for the Aerospace Industry
By: Gp Capt AK Sachdev | Issue: Vol. 31.1 Jan-Mar 2016 | Date: 27 Jun , 2016
The Indian public sector aerospace industry, protected by successive governments, does not have much to show as results for all the money spent in the last seven decades. On the other hand, the...
Future of Rotary Wing Craft
By: Gp Capt AK Sachdev | Issue: Vol. 30.4 Oct-Dec 2015 | Date: 30 May , 2016
Technological advances have brought impressive improvements in rotorcraft technology albeit without eliminating the intrinsic limitations. The classic helicopter design has been mutated into newer...
Will Advances in UAVs Edge Out Manned Aircraft?
By: Gp Capt AK Sachdev | Issue: Vol. 30.4 Oct-Dec 2015 | Date: 23 Apr , 2016
The term ‘drone’ has hummed itself into aviation lexicon and is universally used to describe flying objects not carrying a human pilot; some other terms in general use for them are Unmanned...
Is the IAF Equipped for a Two-Front War?
By: Gp Capt AK Sachdev | Issue: Vol. 29.2 Apr-Jun 2014 | Date: 09 Jan , 2016
During the past decade, India’s defence preparedness has steadily and inexorably deteriorated despite constant clamour by the defence forces for modernisation and upgradation to meet assigned...
Rise of the Transport Aircraft Industry in China
By: Gp Capt AK Sachdev | Issue: Vol. 30.2 Apr-Jun 2015 | Date: 02 Nov , 2015
Reaching the leading edge in technological regimes is an objective purposefully being pursued by China and the velocity of development in some technologies has been astonishing. However, the means...
India’s Space Endeavour
By: Gp Capt AK Sachdev | Issue: Vol. 30.1 Jan-Mar 2015 | Date: 27 Oct , 2015
As in the case of the US, for India too, satellite data and its associated connectivity touch every aspect of daily life. As India’s space programme blooms in keeping with ISRO’s Space Vision...
Rise of the PLAAF: Implications for India
By: Gp Capt AK Sachdev | Issue: Vol. 28.4 Oct-Dec 2013 | Date: 06 Oct , 2015
The ‘inscrutable’ sobriquet for the Chinese is not so much because of their unsmiling faces but on account of their unpredictable actions. Military action against India may not come in the...
Helicopter Fleet for the IAF
By: Gp Capt AK Sachdev | Issue: Vol. 28.2 Apr-Jun 2013 | Date: 29 Sep , 2015
Although the US lost out in the MMRCA race, the consideration of life-cycle costs has tilted the balance in favour of US products when it comes to the C-17 Globemaster III, the C-130J Super...
IAF’s Trainer Fleet: Need for Revamp!
By: Gp Capt AK Sachdev | Issue: Vol. 29.4 Oct-Dec 2014 | Date: 09 Feb , 2015
Up till mid-2009, for basic training, the IAF was using the HPT-32, a piston-engine aircraft produced indigenously by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). This aircraft was in service with the...
Helicopters in Military Aviation in China
By: Gp Capt AK Sachdev | Issue: Vol. 29.3 Jul-Sep 2014 | Date: 07 Nov , 2014
China has the world’s second largest defence budget next only to the US and with the future looking upbeat for China’s economy and for its military spending, defence manufacturers and...
The Future of Military Helicopters
By: Gp Capt AK Sachdev | Issue: Vol. 28.1 Jan-Mar 2013 | Date: 16 Jul , 2014
Regrettably, advances in helicopter design have not been as impressive as for fighter aircraft. This is despite the fact that helicopters have been utilised in every conflict situation and despite...
Indian Military Helicopter Fleet
By: Gp Capt AK Sachdev | Issue: Vol. 29.1 Jan-Mar 2014 | Date: 09 Feb , 2014
In terms of size, the Indian armed forces are amongst the largest in the world but in terms of equipment, they are lamentably lagging behind the leading edge of weapon systems and aircraft...
India’s Energy Security: Role of Offshore Helicopter Operations
By: Gp Capt AK Sachdev | Issue: Vol. 28.3 Jul-Sep 2013 | Date: 13 Dec , 2013
The helicopter is the workhorse for the off-shore oil and gas exploration and production industry. The ever-increasing demand for energy, ever escalating prices of crude oil and the discovered...
Military Application of Unmanned Rotary Wing Aircraft
By: Gp Capt AK Sachdev | Issue: Vol. 27.4 Oct-Dec 2012 | Date: 14 Dec , 2012
The term Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is being slowly replaced by UAS as in many of its variegated missions, the aircraft is not carrying any payload from one place to another and is thus not a...
Helicopters in Special Operations
By: Gp Capt AK Sachdev | Issue: Vol. 27.4 Oct-Dec 2012 | Date: 26 Nov , 2012
By definition, Special Operations are those that are executed independently or in conjunction with conventional military operations with the aim to achieve a political or military objective where...
India and the European Aerospace Industry
By: Gp Capt AK Sachdev | Issue: Vol 26.1 Jan-Mar 2011 | Date: 22 Oct , 2012
After the nightmare of recession, the airline industry is convincingly on the path to recovery. The mood in European as indeed, in the global aviation industry, is definitely upbeat. In fact, the...
The Helicopter as a Combat Platform
By: Gp Capt AK Sachdev | Issue: Vol. 27.2 Apr-Jun 2012 | Date: 13 Oct , 2012
Development of the pure helicopter remained painstakingly slow. The first closed circuit kilometre was flown by a helicopter only in 1924, more than 16 years after the first rotary wing flight....