DRDO, PSU and Private Defence Sector News

[rone]

can any one tell mne what happen to tata kestrel project .. is it dead ..or is our gov sleeping ..we need to replace our old bmtp 2 as soon as possible ..and also with 105 mm gun on kestrel can be deployed in Chinese sector na..it would be more mobile? ..

 

[porky_kicker]

DRDO ultra wide-band radar absorbing skin for aircrafts.

Mostly probably being developed for AMCA and UCAVs, it will be nice if it ends up with LCA too.

 

[porky_kicker]

DRDO coastal surveillance radar.
Can be used on ships and airports also

 

[Shashwat]

GOI issued notification for new HAL MD/CEO- T. Suvarn Raju has been shown the door or maybe retiring.

http://pesb.gov.in/Vacancy/HAL-CMD.pdf

 

[soikot banerjee]

GOI issued notification for new HAL MD/CEO- T. Suvarn Raju has been shown the door or maybe retiring.

http://pesb.gov.in/Vacancy/HAL-CMD.pdf

He is retiring definately retiring, if he was to be fired it would have been done the way 13 IOFS and 14 DRDO chief were expelled.
But what need to be seen is, this time CEO for HAL is not going to be a insider!
Hopefully they are praying for some merit based selection . Praying the same, hope no fishy things happen in appointing the new chief

 

[Arihant Roy]

DRDO ultra wide-band radar absorbing skin for aircrafts.
View attachment 22925 View attachment 22926

Mostly probably being developed for AMCA and UCAVs, it will be nice if it ends up with LCA too.

Wasn't there any description or text with these pics. And sir, can you post the source of the above pics.

 

[Sancho]

@Adioz

You might want to listen to the podcast to get an idea how military a officer that have to deal with DRDO sees them:
Sieh dir den Tweet von @BharatShaktiBSI an:
There is simply a huge difference between what is promised and what they actually deliver, which is why all 3 forces are highly disappointed with them.

 

[Steven Rogers]

@Adioz

There is simply a huge difference between what is promised and what they actually deliver, which is why all 3 forces are highly disappointed with them.

Their promises is keeping the Indian defence not sold in the hand of lobbyists and foreign fathers of Indian dalals. By the way what disappointing Indian Navy, or what disappointing Indian Army and air force.

Sent from my Aqua Ace II using Tapatalk

 

[binayak95]

Their promises is keeping the Indian defence not sold in the hand of lobbyists and foreign fathers of Indian dalals. By the way what disappointing Indian Navy, or what disappointing Indian Army and air force.

Sent from my Aqua Ace II using Tapatalk

If you can't see the shortfall, you're probably blind.

 

[Steven Rogers]

If you can't see the shortfall, you're probably blind.

I can see the short falls, but can you guide me to the specific region and reason for that.

Sent from my Aqua Ace II using Tapatalk

 

[Sancho]

Indian Army and DRDO co-operate to boost tank-killer Nag missile

15 July 2012

...The problem with the DRDO’s anti-tank guided missile (ATGM), christened the Nag (Hindi for cobra), is its range. For most of the day and night, the Nag unerringly strikes its targets out to four kilometres, the range that the army demands. But in extreme heat, especially in summer afternoons in the desert, the missile cannot pick up targets beyond 2.5 kilometres. Once the temperature cools, the Nag’s seeker differentiates again between the target and surrounding objects (or ground clutter).

Dr Avinash Chander, the DRDO’s missile chief, told Business Standard, “Even in the worst conditions, the Nag is 100 per cent accurate out to 2.5 kilometres. Except when the temperature is really high, it is also accurate at four kilometres. By the year-end, we will develop a seeker with higher resolution, which will be accurate at four kilometres in any conditions.”

http://wap.business-standard.com/ar...t-tank-killer-nag-missile-112071502004_1.html

Former DRDO Chief Dr Avinash Chander in 2012 - promise:

"By the year-end, we will develop a seeker...which will be accurate at four kilometres"

=>

DRDO working on slightly reduced range of Nag missile
Jun 23, 2016

The DRDO is working on a slightly reduced range of Nag, the indigenously-built third generation anti-tank guided missile, Director General S. Christopher said here on Thursday, June 23...

..."The missile identifies the target (tank) through infra red seeking. So if the environment is cool and even if the differential temperature is just two degree, it can identify the target," he told reporters here.

"But if the tank is left for hours in summer (sun), that is what we did during the recent trial, the temperature difference between the tank and the environment is negligible and that is the time we cannot meet the targeted four km range," he said.

While the missile had a successful night trial earlier in the year, Christopher said the DRDO was working on a slightly reduced range of "around 3.2 km from the targeted four km".

"So we have requested the defence minister that as a first phase the missile's range be slightly reduced, that too only when used in the middle of the day i.e., between 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. So in phase one, we will work on a slightly reduced range and in the next phase we will improve the product so as to meet all the targets," he said...

https://www.oneindia.com/amphtml/in...tly-reduced-range-of-nag-missile-2134950.html

Current DRDO chief Christopher in 2016 - delivery:

"we cannot meet the targeted four km range...So we have requested... the missile's range be slightly reduced"


Air launched NAG

16 Jan 2012

...On seeker technology, Chander said they were working very closely with France, Israel and Russia. “Last month, we successfully test-fired an antitank Nag missile with millimetric wave (mmw) seeker. We are planning to introduce the technology in helicopter-launched missiles of 7-km range,” he said..

https://www.pressreader.com/india/hindustan-times-jalandhar/20120116/288488659915010

Former DRDO chief Dr Avinash Chander in 2012 - promise:

"millimetric wave (mmw) seeker. We are planning to introduce the technology in helicopter-launched missiles of 7-km range"

=>

Source: forceindia.net Interview Feb 2017

Current DRDO chief Christopher in 2017 - delivery:

"There won't by any millimeter wave...we are only getting around 5Km"

 

[AMCA]

http://wap.business-standard.com/ar...t-tank-killer-nag-missile-112071502004_1.html

Former DRDO Chief Dr Avinash Chander in 2012 - promise:

"By the year-end, we will develop a seeker...which will be accurate at four kilometres"

=>


https://www.oneindia.com/amphtml/in...tly-reduced-range-of-nag-missile-2134950.html

Current DRDO chief Christopher in 2016 - delivery:

"we cannot meet the targeted four km range...So we have requested... the missile's range be slightly reduced"


Air launched NAG

https://www.pressreader.com/india/hindustan-times-jalandhar/20120116/288488659915010

Former DRDO chief Dr Avinash Chander in 2012 - promise:

"millimetric wave (mmw) seeker. We are planning to introduce the technology in helicopter-launched missiles of 7-km range"

=>

Source: forceindia.net Interview Feb 2017

Current DRDO chief Christopher in 2017 - delivery:

"There won't by any millimeter wave...we are only getting around 5Km"

Nag was always a problematic system in the hot deserts of Rajasthan. Spike missiles also failed to hit the target in 2009 trials conducted by the army in Rajasthan. Nag missile range was never reduced, it achieved full 4km range in summer trials conducted last year.

At one point of time, it was being touted that the missile in its first phase would be inducted at a reduced range of 3-3.2-km during day time but latest set of trials far surpassed all expectations by achieving the earlier target of 4-km for both day and night. https://m.timesofindia.com/city/jai...et-during-trials/amp_articleshow/59132335.cms

Under development is a DRDO-developed active fire-and-forget, adverse-weather millimeter wave (MMW) radar sensor for a 15km-range version of the HELINA for fixed wing aircrafts. Helicopters cannot have MMW based missile for ground targets to be engaged by MMw sensor-equipped HELINA, the first reqmt then is for an airborne radar capable of ground moving target detection/tracking, which both the Rudra & LCH lack. HeliNa failed to achieve desired performance i.e 8km range which has led to development of SANT missile which was tested last year from Mi35 helicopters.

 

[Steven Rogers]

http://wap.business-standard.com/ar...t-tank-killer-nag-missile-112071502004_1.html

Former DRDO Chief Dr Avinash Chander in 2012 - promise:

"By the year-end, we will develop a seeker...which will be accurate at four kilometres"

=>


https://www.oneindia.com/amphtml/in...tly-reduced-range-of-nag-missile-2134950.html

Current DRDO chief Christopher in 2016 - delivery:

"we cannot meet the targeted four km range...So we have requested... the missile's range be slightly reduced"


Air launched NAG

https://www.pressreader.com/india/hindustan-times-jalandhar/20120116/288488659915010

Former DRDO chief Dr Avinash Chander in 2012 - promise:

"millimetric wave (mmw) seeker. We are planning to introduce the technology in helicopter-launched missiles of 7-km range"

=>

Source: forceindia.net Interview Feb 2017

Current DRDO chief Christopher in 2017 - delivery:

"There won't by any millimeter wave...we are only getting around 5Km"

And what are the other options, SPIKE(failed and perform worst than the NAG during the trails), NAG was tested with uncooled LWIR seeker, now it uses MWIR coupled with CCD camera to take out 4kms target at extreme hot desert, while SPIKE still can't hit in such terrain.

Sent from my Aqua Ace II using Tapatalk

 

[Steven Rogers]

Nag was always a problematic system in the hot deserts of Rajasthan. Spike missiles also failed to hit the target in 2009 trials conducted by the army in Rajasthan. Nag missile range was never reduced, it achieved full 4km range in summer trials conducted last year.

Under development is a DRDO-developed active fire-and-forget, adverse-weather millimeter wave (MMW) radar sensor for a 15km-range version of the HELINA for fixed wing aircrafts. Helicopters cannot have MMW based missile for ground targets to be engaged by MMw sensor-equipped HELINA, the first reqmt then is for an airborne radar capable of ground moving target detection/tracking, which both the Rudra & LCH lack. HeliNa failed to achieve desired performance i.e 8km range which has led to development of SANT missile which was tested last year from Mi35 helicopters.

HELINA was quoted 7km+ missile, SANT project is their since 2014 not a new, and given the range it is more off Indian Brimstone than specific HELINA replacement. HELINA features LOAL.

Sent from my Aqua Ace II using Tapatalk

 

[Steven Rogers]

http://wap.business-standard.com/ar...t-tank-killer-nag-missile-112071502004_1.html

Former DRDO Chief Dr Avinash Chander in 2012 - promise:

"By the year-end, we will develop a seeker...which will be accurate at four kilometres"

=>


https://www.oneindia.com/amphtml/in...tly-reduced-range-of-nag-missile-2134950.html

Current DRDO chief Christopher in 2016 - delivery:

"we cannot meet the targeted four km range...So we have requested... the missile's range be slightly reduced"


Air launched NAG

https://www.pressreader.com/india/hindustan-times-jalandhar/20120116/288488659915010

Former DRDO chief Dr Avinash Chander in 2012 - promise:

"millimetric wave (mmw) seeker. We are planning to introduce the technology in helicopter-launched missiles of 7-km range"

=>

Source: forceindia.net Interview Feb 2017

Current DRDO chief Christopher in 2017 - delivery:

"There won't by any millimeter wave...we are only getting around 5Km"

MMW seeker is not miniaturized to fit on NAG, it was meant for HELINA and other PGMs.

Sent from my Aqua Ace II using Tapatalk

 

[Steven Rogers]

[emoji17][emoji17][emoji17][emoji17][emoji17][emoji17][emoji17][emoji17]

Sent from my Aqua Ace II using Tapatalk

 

[Sancho]

And what are the other options,

It's not about the options, but about understanding and admitting that there is a big gap in the promises of DRDO and what they actually deliver. And the direct quotes of 2 DRDO chiefs, not only prove that, but can't be just denied like that, because there are no more credible sources than them, when it comes to DRDO.

It's not enough to blindly support indigenous developments, you also need to hold the developing agencies accountable to their promises, be it for the sake of the forces, or the security of the country.

 

[Kunal Biswas]

Your understanding and exposure on real ground is limited ..

 

[Steven Rogers]

It's not about the options, but about understanding and admitting that there is a big gap in the promises of DRDO and what they actually deliver. And the direct quotes of 2 DRDO chiefs, not only prove that, but can't be just denied like that, because there are no more credible sources than them, when it comes to DRDO.

It's not enough to blindly support indigenous developments, you also need to hold the developing agencies accountable to their promises, be it for the sake of the forces, or the security of the country.

Their are various credible sources which say that MMW seeker is developed for PGMs, NAG was from start used LWIR seeker, then they shifted to MWIR seeker coupled with sofradier's CCD camera. MMW was always meant for HELINA, but why only post section of their statements why not a complete statement.

Sent from my Aqua Ace II using Tapatalk

 

[soikot banerjee]

I believe someone was in doubt about why DRDO should be helm of all defense tech in India's R&D, I now believe I have a answer to that. This is something that the profit seeking corporates won't ever do and that is R&D on based on fundamental sciences based def tech. This is all indirectly the boon of the LCA programme, agree with it or not, this is the truth.







EXCLUSIVE: Inside The World Of India’s Most Secret Combat Aircraft Program
Shiv AroorFeb 02 2018 8 30 am

PART 1 OF THE INDIAN FUTURE WEAPONS SERIES

At one end of a sparsely lit chamber is a cluster of row desks with computer terminals. Most of the computer screens are off, tiny orange lights indicating they’re only hibernating in ‘power save’ mode. At least one terminal has a student in jeans slouched in front of it, two bottles of mineral water at his feet. It’s late, well after work hours. Not unusual for a college laboratory. Except, there’s nothing about this room that’s even remotely run-of-the-mill. A mess of wires disappears mysteriously into another room, darkened at this time of night. It is in a cleared out space behind the lone student working past midnight that the room’s chief occupant sits on a long brown table.

Coloured white and shaped tantalizingly like an arrow head is a rough aircraft model, quite clearly in the middle of a fabrication process. Parts of the model appear tacked together with tape. Students building aero-models is far from uncommon, especially at India’s most prestigious engineering school, but this white craft has more riding on it than anything the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur’s (IIT-K) famed aeronautical department has ever been entrusted with before. Within the six-foot frame of the model that sits on this table, and an identical metallic clone in a chamber a few hundred meters away, lies the future of India’s combat air power.

Codenamed SWiFT, short for stealth wing flying testbed, the aircraft is a technology demonstrator being designed and built in collaboration with the Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), a government military laboratory in Bengaluru. While the white model is used as a shaping test platform, the black fabricated metal clone of the SWiFT undergoes wind tunnel testing at IIT-K’s in-house facility. And no, these models aren’t just for show.

Top sources associated with the project have confirmed to Livefist that by the end of this year, a prototype SWiFT will be fitted with a Russian NPO Saturn 36MT turbofan engine (which currently powers the Nirbhay cruise missile) and launched on its first flight during the 2018-19 financial year. It will be the first major step in India’s effort to wield an stealthy unmanned aircraft built to fire precision weapons at designated targets in unfriendly airspace.

In the broadest sense, the Ghatak is intended to be an aircraft launched covertly near or over hostile territory, evading enemy sensors by virtue of its stealth, and destroying identified targets with air-to-ground weapons. In a broader sense, such stealth could also be used to gather electronic intelligence or covertly conduct airborne surveillance. Primarily though, the Ghatak is simply being developed as an unmanned bomber (A temporary working title even identified it as the Indian Unmanned Strike Air Vehicle or IUSAV).

In every conceivable sense, the SWiFT getting airborne will constitute a flight into the unknown — for the research team leading the effort at IIT-K, the clutch of government military laboratories under the Defence R&D Organisation (DRDO) that ‘handle’ the project, and not least, the Indian Air Force that will be its primary operator.

“The project is fully positioned as a futurustic platform. It draws very little from any existing technologies in the country,” an IIT-K student associated with the project told Livefist. “Everything we’re doing here is fundamental. And that is why it is so important.”

The research project at IIT-K is to receive at least $8 million towards proving the contours of the SWiFT. But this little aircraft being finetuned and tested by the aeronautical research task force at IIT-K, is essentially a miniaturised model of something much larger. When it enters flight testing before March next year, the SWiFT will begin proving technologies and parameters for an unmanned weaponised aircraft approximately eight times its size. The big final unmanned combat aircraft (UCAV) named Ghatak has a seven-year deadline to lift off. This holy grail of the entire effort is being spearheaded in Bengaluru by the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), a consortium of government labs and agencies devoted to combat aircraft.

The Ghatak began as Project AURA (autonomous unmanned research aircraft), a program revealed first on this site in 2010. Classified and administered by a team of high level experts that reports directly to the Prime Minister’s Office, it is easily the most significant current military aviation thrust anywhere in the country. The expert committee that oversees the Ghatak program is headed by Dr. R Chidambaram (Principal Scientific Advisor to the government), with former DRDO chief & current member of the Niti Aayog Dr. V K Saraswat and former ISRO chief Dr. K Radhakrishnan. Their report to the PMO in 2016 has been a blanket endorsement of the program, urging the government to support it in every way. An ‘in principle’ approval of the program is likely to yield full-fledged project status in the 2018-19 financial year.

In an exclusive interview to Livefist, DRDO chief Dr. S. Christopher made his first ever comments on the Ghatak and SWiFT programs.

“Nobody will share the technologies that go into Ghatak. And that’s the reason why we have committed to building every piece of technology that will make this a proven stealth unmanned combat aircraft,” Christopher told your correspondent in a phone interview from Bengaluru, where has just met with the project leadership. “Whatever beating we have got so far will be nullified. The day when technologies are denied, I can say I have my own.”

The ‘beating‘ Dr. Christopher refers to is two-fold. One, the steady stream of media and public criticism the DRDO has persistently come under for cost and time overruns on many of its projects, including the LCA Tejas light fighter. And two, the opportunistic technology denial regimes that have bedeviled several Indian homegrown military projects. The DRDO chief’s chagrin is based on the perceived hypocrisy of countries and governments that readily offer their aircraft and weapons for sale to India, but step back when it comes to sharing useful technologies for India’s indigenous weapons programs. India’s lucrative arms requirements have recently compelled countries to ‘sweeten’ arms packages with offers of high-end technology for projects like the Ghatak, though the government has decided that the stealth UCAV needs to be as Indian as possible — certainly all critical technologies.

While the SWiFT gets set for a first flight in a year, the bigger Ghatak is still a way off, with a first flight near impossible before 2024-25. As the IIT-K team works to finetune the SWiFT/Ghatak’s shape and contours — crucial to its stealth — the DRDO and ADA are working to do two things as quickly as possible: one, understand the study of radar signatures of such an aircraft, a science totally new to Indian aerospace scientists. And two, as crucial, finalise the jet engine that will power the Ghatak in its ultimate configuration.

Dr. Christopher has officially confirmed an exclusive Livefist report from a year ago, revealing plans underway to build a full scale model of the Ghatak for radar signature and electromagnetic signature testing at a facility in Hyderabad.

“We are in the process of making the 1:1 model so that we can prove our RCS reduction capability via shaping and materials. We’ve got five labs working on the material side, while the airframe is completed by ADA. And that is what we are physically making because shape is most important. Shaping is 70 per cent of the signature reduction process. We’ve got an Outdoor Radar Cross Section Test Measurement facility (ORANGE) in Hyderabad which will test the model,” Dr. Christopher said.

The Ghatak project is proceeding on what can only be described as a shoe-string budget for the moment. Finances began to flow into the project in 2016 through a ‘lead-in’ project sanction for “design of GHATAK and Development of Critical Advanced Technologies for GHATAK” valued at Rs 231 crore (about $37 million). More significant expenditure will ensue once the SWiFT/Ghatak move forward. Crucial to progress is choosing an engine for the Ghatak. As noted above, the SWiFT technology demonstrator will fly with a Russian mini-turbofan. The bigger Ghatak will need far more growl. And as Livefist reported, power will almost definitely be drawn from a variant of the indigenous Kaveri jet engine.

The Kaveri, developed originally for the LCA Tejas fighter project, has fallen famously short of expectations. However, a partnership with France’s SAFRAN as part of offsets from India’s multi-billion dollar deal for 36 Rafale fighters (Rafales are powered by Safran engines) has set down the modalities for a rescue mission that will save the Kaveri from oblivion, and dust it up for improved performance.

“We are almost at a final understanding with the IAF that we will use the Kaveri dry engine (i.e. non-afterburning). In the Kaveri that we have, we weren’t getting the power that we wanted. It started out with started with 80 kN and then 90 then 98 kNs. In a dry version for Ghatak, even 50 kN will be more than sufficient. We will be finalising that very shortly,” Dr. Christopher said.

In its 2015-16 annual report, the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), a consortium of agencies leading the development of, among other things, India’s Light Combat Aircraft Tejas, makes the first official mention of the Ghatak, correctly noting, “The UCAV aircraft and engine technology is highly classified and is unlikely that any country would share this technology with India. Hence it is inescapable requirement to develop an Indian UCAV and its engine considering the future combat warfare scenario. The development of an unmanned combat aircraft is a “national imperative” toward self reliance in aerospace technologies. The committee strongly recommended the sanction of the project at the earliest to be at par with other developed countries.”

So confident is the DRDO chief in his timelines, he hopes for his team to begin engaging the Indian Air Force in a conversation about orders in 2020. A senior IAF officer at the Air Headquarters told Livefist that the Ghatak was “very much in our perspective plans” and that “we are looking forward to discussing our support and taking forward the necessary requirements“.

The IAF is fighting a protracted battle to conserve combat squadron numbers, and is hoping that a slew of global tenders will help it build fighter aircraft numbers. While the government has openly committed to meeting the IAF’s needs on a timely basis, the reality inspires rather less confidence. In the near term, it’s the looming election season that will certainly push the pause button on any current due process to acquire new aircraft from abroad. In the medium term, apart from the 36 Rafale fighters that will begin arriving in 2019, the remainder of the IAF’s fighter needs are to be met under the aegis of the hugely complex Strategic Partnership (SP) model that envisages private sector production lines in India. Amidst this combination of uncertainties that swirl through the world of manned fighters in Indian skies, the Ghatak program offers at least some promise of rare long-term planning.

But the path ahead is also the most difficult. Building an unmanned stealth bomber will require the DRDO and its associated agencies to pull hard and away from other UCAV imaginations, variously including stated plans to unman the LCA Tejas itself, the intention to arm India’s Rustom/Tapas long endurance surveillance drone that’s currently in flight test, and, most recently, the push for Predator C/Avenger armed drones from the United States.

Dr Christopher adds, “The shape of Ghatak is totally dependent on us. The engine is totally dependent on what is requested by the IAF. We need to always come to an understanding on that as soon as possible. Otherwise there is always a debate and question on what we anticipated and what we gained.”

Asked about why the SWiFT program is under wraps, Dr Christopher smiles. “We don’t want to advertise it too much. It’s a technology demonstrator. You’re the first we’re talking about it to.”

The eagerness not to trumpet the program is understandable. The tussle between the DRDO and services is gratingly familiar too, and explains the DRDO chief’s anxiousness to freeze configurations on the Ghatak as quickly as possible. The DRDO’s LCA Tejas fighter has turned something of a corner and entered service with the Indian Air Force in 2016. But in its wake lies a painful litany of pitfalls that the DRDO is hoping to bridge.

The Ghatak effort is also the first independent effort by India to build an unmanned combat air platform. The headwinds such a project faces are singularly onerous. Quite apart from the fundamental stealth technologies that are being developed literally from scratch are the ambitious timelines the DRDO has set for itself despite a cautious approach to the Ghatak. The proof of the Ghatak will be in whether it is truly the low-observable aircraft it is intended to be, rather than just an interestingly shaped platform. Finally, the electronic wizardry that will bring together the the sensor-weapon loop to give the Ghatak its intended teeth is a steep climb. For one thing, the cautiousness at DRDO is underscored by an ironic abundance of confidence.

“One this is certain. We have to build and prove the Ghatak. It is the future. We have started well. And we will get there. Failure is not an option,” Dr. Christopher says.

India needs manned combat aircraft. Lots of them, and quickly. It’s the refrain you’ll unfailingly hear from military planners every year. As things stand, every single one of those requirements will be met by imported jets either built abroad, or manufactured under license in India. From single engine fighters for the Indian Air Force to twin engine carrier borne fighters for the Indian Navy to fifth generation fighter aircraft. It’s a busy, familiarly turbulent matrix of intrigue that continues to dog India’s quest for an elusive air power equilibrium. A turbulence buffeted by the pressures of budget, costing and, at the higher end, by the very paradigm of manned combat flight.

But if there’s some relief from this bustle, then the tiniest escape hatch into the future is nestled many hundreds of kilometers away from the power centers of Delhi — the outskirts of the dusty industrial hub of Kanpur, and the verdant suburbs of Bengaluru and Hyderabad, where a group of students, professors and the country’s top aerospace scientists are steeped in the sort of research that will — ultimately and hopefully — launch India into a new paradigm of air combat capability.

NOTE: Since the subject matter of this post pertains to a classified Indian project, the information and data have been vetted by Livefist through our government sources before posting.