(TimesofIndia) : Deeply embarrassed by the US raid that killed Osama bin Laden under its nose, the Pakistan army might be tempted to ratchet up hostility towards India and even encourage the terror proxies it controls to stage strikes on the Indian mainland, the Indian security establishment feels.
The Pakistan army is having to deal with not just the disbelief of foreign governments over its claims of being unaware of Osama being in Abbottabad, a crowded city with a heavy military presence, but some hostile questioning at home as well. Its claims of being able to thwart any intrusion – protecting sovereignty being the army's USP – have been dealt a hard blow by the US action.
There is a view that the Pakistan military may look to recover lost prestige by diverting popular attention towards India and army chief Ashfaq Kiyani's aggressive response to Indian Army chief V K Singh's claim that India could stage an Abbottabad type operation indicates as much. In a statement, the Pakistan army said it would respond strongly to any Indian "misadventure."
It serves the Pakistan army's purpose to feed popular paranoia about India and the possibility of Islamabad's "nuclear jewels" being under threat. A flare up of regional tensions can help turn the spotlight from its failures at a time when US law makers are asking why another dollar should be paid to an ally who might have harboured Osama.
While opening the terror tap at a time when its reputation as jihad central stands highlighted in bold is a risky path to tread, militarists may be guided by very short term calculations, security sources feel.
Keeping in mind the unsettled state of affairs in Pakistan with analysts agreeing that India would top the list of Pakistan army and ISI targets, the Indian security establishment is being doubly cautious to ensure that it does not provide any excuse for Pakistan to seize on to up tensions.
The present position of the Pakistan army, the country's most powerful institution, also rules out possibility of an immediate military coup. As recently as 10 days ago, an assessment here spoke of the growing restlessness in the Pakistan army top brass with the political leadership. There were also inputs indicating ISI chief Lt Gen Ahmad Shuja Pasha may have written directly to prime minister Yousuf Gilani expressing displeasure over some politicians for criticising ISI. "A coup is extremely unlikely in the present situation," a senior official said.
(FlightGlobal) : The US Air Force has stopped flying all Lockheed Martin F-22s for an indefinite period over concerns about a possible glitch in the onboard oxygen generation system.
The stand-down order issued on 3 May by Air Combat Command (ACC) chief Gen Will Fraser comes about six weeks after the F-22s were restricted to flying below 25,000ft due to the same problem.
The order is in effect until "further notice", the ACC says.
"The standown is a prudent measure following recent reports of oxygen system malfunction," Fraser said in a statement.
While the F-22s remain parked, investigation teams will continue to determine the cause of the malfunction, the statement added.
The ACC emphasized that the stand-down order is technically not considered a "grounding", which occurs only in response to a catastrophic technical issue. A stand-down is voluntary and precautionary.
Despite keeping the F-22s on the ground, ACC believes the stand-down order will not change the air force's ability to perform missions such as air superiority alert. The F-22 is still available for "national security directed missions", the ACC said. One-time flights can also be approve by the heads of major commands, inclduing repositioning flights.
The air force has been flying the F-22s operationally for more than five years, with more than 150 already in service. All 186 F-22s on order are expected to be delivered by early next year.
(Defpro.com ) : Anyone even remotely familiar with the vagaries and complexities of Indian defence procurement will be only too aware of the risks involved with commenting on the results of a major competition there before the relevant contract has been signed and has entered into force (as well as, on a number of occasions, even after that). But even with a prudent attitude, it is nowadays clear that the Dassault Rafale and the Eurofighter Typhoon have been shortlisted as the two final contenders in the Indian Air Force’s multi-billion-dollar MMRCA competition for the procurement (mostly through licence construction) of 126 latest-generation multi-role fighter aircraft.
Such a choice in principle obvious entails truly monumental strategic and political implications for the future of India as a whole, the more so in that it implies rejecting the Russian (MiG-35) and most particular the American offers (F-16, F/A-18). These implications will most certainly provide food for thought to commentators and analysts for many months to come. This column is however focused on a not-so-collateral aspect, namely on what the Indian choice tells us about the respective characteristics and performance of the some of the world’s leading fighter designs, competing against each other on the global defence market.
The Indian Air Force has carried out an extremely stringent and detailed competitive evaluation process, extensively testing the six competitors (Rafale, Typhoon, Gripen, MiG-35, F-16, F/A-18) and assessing them against each other on a list, that included some 650 parameters. It is highly dubious whether any other air force in the world ever had the chance to perform a similar process, thus gaining a detailed, first-hand knowledge of the respective strong points and shortcomings of the best combat aircraft money can buy. And at the end of this technological evaluation process, two European designs have emerged as the best of the best.
The key point to be underlined here is that the Rafale and the Typhoon have been downselected ’on technical and operational grounds alone’, that is, even before discussions and negotiations on price, technology transfer and offset are to start. This on the one hand implies that it is perfectly feasible for such discussions and negotiations to eventually fail, leading to the competition being reopened (hence, the need for a prudent attitude). But on the other hand, the conclusion is inescapable: the latest and most capable European fighter aircraft are vastly superior – in terms of design and overall performance _ to everything the US industry can currently offer. They are so superior, in fact, that after having tested them a discerning customer would not even bother to ask for the price of the American competitors. And this is so, despite both the F-16 and F/A-18 boasting the significant advantage of an arguably more advanced and most certainly way more mature combat system, including at its top a second-generation fully operational AESA radar as against European prototypes.
This situation, with the likes of the Rafale and Typhoon having no real export-cleared US counterpart, has nothing to do with the capabilities and technological level of the respective aerospace industries. Rather, it is linked to the choice of the timing for the launch of the development programmes for new-generation combat aircraft on the two sides of the Atlantic, as well with the US decision to go for an uncompromising stealth approach which, just because brilliantly successful must remain the exclusive equipment of the US Air Force.
The perception of such a significant “commercial capability gap”, whereby the US will progressively become less and less able to beat off the European (and Russian) competition on the global market for combat aircraft until the F-35 becomes fully operational and credible, is not a new development. Indeed it surfaced a dozen years ago if not even earlier, and it has been the main rationale for the unprecedented decision to launch the JSF programme as a “multi-national project” – the undeclared but only too evident goals being to drain European financial resources, that would otherwise be invested in the further development of European designs, as well as lure at least some countries into taking a blind commitment towards eventually acquiring an aircraft, of unknown performance and at an unspecified price.
But not everybody has fallen into the JSF trap, and there still are countries left that would rather select their new combat aircraft after taking a very close look at their performance first, before moving to discuss the price. The (preliminary) results of the Indian MMRCA competition tell the world that if you want the best, and your pockets are deep enough, with the F-22 out of the fray and the F-35 still years away, you will want to go for either the Rafale or the Typhoon. The competitors are, to put it mildly, a second-best choice.
It would be very interesting to watch whether this message will reverberate on other procurement decisions ahead – at least in countries, that can afford to say “no, thanks” to Washington.
(TimesofIndia) : Russia may remain India's biggest defence supplier for the next two decades but its tardy supply of spares and after-sales service is forcing New Delhi to increasingly tap other countries to maintain Russian origin aircraft, helicopters and other weapon systems.
Over the last couple of months, IAF has floated a slew of global tenders for spares and special tools for MiG-23 and MiG-29 fighters, IL-76 and AN-32 transport aircraft, Mi-17 helicopters and OSA-AK surface-to-air missile systems.
Now, the Army too has jumped on to the bandwagon for different equipment, which includes a global RFI (request for information) for acquiring "active protection and counter-measure systems'' for its T-90S main-battle tanks, which have faced several technical problems since their induction began over the last decade.
"Yes, the international market is being explored to get spares for our Russian-origin equipment. We will still go to the Russian OEMs (original equipment manufacturer) for specialized spares. But we can get generalized spares at much cheaper rates from elsewhere,'' said a senior officer.
This comes after years of India trying to get Russia to ensure uninterrupted supply of spares and regular maintenance, with even defence minister A K Antony regularly raising it with his Russian counterpart.
"In some cases, Russia has resolved the issue. But in many others, problems with breakdown and service maintenance spares continue...some acute, some manageable,'' said another officer.
India has had an expansive defence partnership with Russia, with the latter notching up military sales well over $35 billion since the 1960s, leading to over 60% of equipment held by Indian armed forces being of Russian-origin.
Ongoing bilateral defence projects are worth another $15 billion or so. IAF, for instance, is progressively inducting 272 Sukhoi-30MKIs at a cost of around $12 billion from Russia.
The figures will further zoom north with India slated to spend $35 billion over the next two decades to induct 250 to 300 of the stealth fifth-generation fighter aircraft (FGFA) from 2020 onwards.
India, however, has consciously moved towards other countries like Israel, France, UK and US for its military requirements over the last decade to ensure that "not all its eggs are in the Russian basket''.
Apart from proper after-sales service, New Delhi has been telling Moscow to stick to delivery schedules, not jack up costs mid-way through execution of agreements and remove roadblocks in transfer of technology.
Russia, of course, is the only country which supplies "certain sensitive'' military technology to India. India later this year, for instance, will get the K-152 Nerpa Akula-II nuclear-powered submarine from Russia on a 10-year lease.
Russia has also played a major technical role in the development of India's first indigenous nuclear submarine INS Arihant(destroyer of enemies), which is scheduled to be commissioned next year.
A Russian Meridian series military communications satellite has been put into a designated orbit, a spokesman for the Russian Space Forces said on Thursday.
A Soyuz-2.1a rocket carrying the Meridian 4 satellite lifted off from the Plesetsk space center in northern Russia at 09.41 pm Moscow time (17:41 GMT) on Wednesday.
"A Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket with a Fregat booster has successfully orbited a Meridian satellite," Lt. Col. Alexei Zolotukhin said.
The official said that a communication link with the Meridian 4 had been established, and the satellite's on-board systems were operating without glitches.
The Meridian 4 satellite is the fourth in a series of military communications satellites which are being launched by Russia to replace the ageing Molniya system.
Russia has more than 100 satellites in orbit. Two-thirds of them are military or dual-purpose spacecraft.
(Rusnavy) : Indian company Hindustan Aeronautics has completed first series of flight tests of new fighter Tejas, reports Flightglobal. The aircraft's capabilities to lock on targets and deliver air strikes in the night time were tested during the flights. According to India's Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), the tests were successful, and the fighter proved its capability to be used in night operations.
Second phase of night tests will start in two months. When those tests are finished, Tejas would be commissioned into Indian Air Force. The fighter is equipped with pulse-doppler radar EL/M-2032 made by Israel Aerospace Industries. Designator LITENING made by Israeli company Rafael is used for target illumination. Those two components were checked during night tests of Tejas. Tejas was designed as a substitution for obsolete Soviet fighters MiG-21. The aircraft is capable to accelerate up to 1,900 kph; its flight range makes about 2,000 km. Tejas is armed with 23-mm gun, 8 stations for various missiles, guided and regular bombs.
Tejas is presently used as a basis for further development of deck-based version for Indian Navy, training two-seater airplane, and advanced version Mark II.
Russia's Sukhoi aircraft manufacturer has started test flights of its first series-produced Su-35S Flanker-E multirole fighter, the company said on Tuesday.
The aircraft took off from the Komsomolsk-on-Amur airfield in Russia's Far East, spending one and a half hours in the air testing propulsion and control systems.
The Su-35 Flanker-E superiority fighter is powered by two 117S engines with thrust vectoring. It can effectively engage several air targets simultaneously using both guided and unguided missiles and weapon systems.
The aircraft has been touted as "4++ generation using fifth-generation technology."
After the tests are completed, the Su-35 will be transferred to the Russian Defense Ministry.
(RIA Novosti)
(PTI) India's decision to shortlist European aircraft over American warplanes was taken on merit and would not affect its bilateral relations with the US, Defence Minister A K Antony said today.Antony, who was in Jaislamer to review the security situation along the Pakistan border, said the country wanted to procure the best available aircraft at the best available price and there should be "no ill-feeling" about it. The Defence Minister was responding to a question about the rejection of US fighters in the bid for 126 Multirole-Medium Combat Aircraft (M-MRCA) deal in which Eurofighter and French Rafale have been shortlisted.The Minister said that the relations between the US and India would remain unaffected despite the rejection. The US had expressed disappointment after the ouster of its F-16 and F-18 fighters from the IAF deal. Antony was here on a day's visit and went to forward locations along the international border in the desert state. The minister also said that the defence forces of the country are prepared enough to counter the challenge of NBC (Nuclear, Biological and Chemical) war. When asked about the infrastructure development along the border, he said that the country was not lagging behind in this respect. Describing the killing of Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden as a "good sign" in the war against terror, Antony said the global terrorist's presence in Pakistan validated India's concerns that the country was being used as a launching-pad to carry out terror activities. Antony, who was briefed on operational and infrastructure issues, expressed satisfaction over the operational preparedness along the border. The Defence Minister, who interacted with troops, promised to look into improving infrastructure and habitat for them. Army Chief General V K Singh, Lt Gen A K Singh (General Officer Commanding-in-Chief Southern Command), Lt Gen Narendra Singh (General Officer Commanding Konark Corps) and defence secretary Pradeep Kumar were among others present there.
Jaisalmer, May 2 (IANS): Defence Minister A.K. Antony Monday reviewed the operational preparedness of Indian Army troops along the Pakistan border in Rajasthan and asked them to remain vigilant to thwart any "misadventure by our adversary".
Antony, who went to the forward areas near here on a day-long trip, asked the troops to "remain alert and be prepared to tackle any misadventure by our adversary" and promised to enhance military infrastructure and habitat for the personnel in the harsh desert terrain, a defence ministry release said.
The desert sector is defended by the army's Pune-based Southern Command. The army will hold a massive summer war game in the deserts along the Pakistan border in the Bikaner sector later this month to validate its battle concepts and doctrines, primarily the use of firepower such as artillery, main battle tanks and armoured personnel carriers in destroying enemy targets.
Antony, who arrived at Jailsalmer along with army chief General V.K. Singh and defence secretary Pradeep Kumar, was received by the southern army commander, Lt. Gen. A.K. Singh, and Konark corps commander Lt. Gen. Narendra Singh.
Immediately on arrival, the defence minister, along with the field commanders, embarked on a tour of the forward-most locations to meet with the troops guarding the border in extremely harsh conditions of sweltering heat and frequent dust-storms.
He was briefed in detail on operational and infrastructure issues. During his interaction with the troops, the defence minister also expressed his satisfaction at the operational preparedness along the borders and gave his assurance to look into the aspects of enhancing infrastructure and habitat for troops, the release said.
Later, Antony visited Jaisalmer military station, where he was given a detailed briefing on operational aspects. The need for enhancing infrastructure at key military stations and forward locations was stressed upon for enhancing the operational and fighting efficiency of field units.
He complimented all ranks for their display of "unflinching morale, high fighting spirit and operational preparedness in such a difficult terrain and adverse climatic conditions".
NEW DELHI: After the US expressed "disappointment" over the ouster of its two companies from the multi-billion-dollar combat aircraft deal, the IAF today said there was "nothing wrong" in its selection process.
"Whether anyone is happy or unhappy, we have done whatever we were asked to do by the Government...If you select one aircraft, it always happens that other side would be dissatisfied. There is nothing wrong with our process. It is a human feeling," IAF Chief Air Chief Marshal P V Naik said here.
Naik was talking to reporters on the sidelines of the annual P C Lall memorial lecture where Rajya Sabha MP Karan Singh was the chief guest.
On the last date of the expiry of the commercial bids for the tender, the Defence Ministry had shortlisted the European Eurofighter and the French Dassault Rafale for the 126 Medium-Multirole Combat Aircraft (M-MRCA) deal.
Two American companies including the Boeing and Lockheed Martin were rejected by the IAF along with the Swedish Saab Gripen and the Russian MiG 35.
Asked if the rejected companies would be given reasons for disqualification, the IAF chief said, "Their debrief was done when the test got over. Every body knows whether he is compliant or non compliant."
US firm Boeing, whose F-18 aircraft did not make the cut in the shortlist, had expressed its "disappointment" and said it would seek a debrief from the IAF for its ouster from the tender.
On the future fleet of the IAF, Naik said it would comprise the Su-30s, M-MRCAs and the Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) along with the indigenous LCA Tejas.
On issues about the anti-radiation missile in the deal, the IAF chief said, "These issues are not public issues. We have done our job and we have to decide about the L1 (lowest bidder)."
"We will sort out all issues as per the DPP. Let the issue be sorted out and we will give you all the details," he said without divulging any detail about the issue.
The issue, sources said, is over the sale of anti-radiation missiles, which are manufactured by an American firm and would require clearances by the US for sales to India .
Weapon systems are sold by the US through the Foreign Military Sales route only to the countries and they require its permission for selling it to other sides.
The IAF tender mandates that the companies should offer a weapons package including anti-radiation missile while delivering the aircraft.
Fleet minesweeper Vilayet will be delivered to Iranian naval force stationed in the Caspian Sea in the nearest days, reports ISNA referring to Iranian Navy Deputy Commander.
According to him, fleet minesweeper Vilayet is an altered version of Jamaran ship modernized with new systems and technologies.
Light frigate Jamaran (on Iran's classification – destroyer) was delivered to Iranian Navy in Feb 2010.
News agency FARS called it "the biggest defense project". Jamaran is designed for antisubmarine/antisurface/antiaircraft warfare. In addition, the ship is capable to accommodate a deck-based helicopter. Jamaran can be used for electronic warfare as well.
New Delhi: Marking a major step forward in technology development, India is expected to equip indigenously-built Dhruv helicopters with missiles in two years as part of an ambitious missile-development programme.
The guided air-to-ground HELINA, an upgraded version of Nag anti-tank missile, is being indigenously developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and will be in the final stages and ready for user trials in 2013.
"For the first time, we are developing indigenously a missile called HELINA for being deployed on the weaponised version of the ALH Dhruv helicopter," DRDO chief V K Saraswat said in an interview.
Under the programme, propulsion systems of the NAG missile have been strengthened and they would be able to take out enemy tanks from a range of seven to eight kms.
Saraswat said the initial trials of the missile from ground-based system have been successful and work will now begin on its integration with the helicopters.
Nag is one of five missile systems developed by the organisation under the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP).
The DRDO is also working on development of a number of new missiles or upgrading the range of the existing ones.
Under this programme, work is expected to begin by the end of this year on development of short range surface-to-air interception missile system in collaboration with France.
"Our main thrust in the tactical missile systems is going to be the Short Range Surface-to-Air Missile (SR-SAM) system... We are trying to work with the MBDA of France on this programme," Saraswat said.
The missiles, with a range of eight to nine kms, will replace the Russian-origin Pechora and OSA-AK missile systems with Air Force and the Army.
"We have not done much in this area (short-range missile systems)...We are undergoing negotiations (with MBDA) and hopefully it would be launched by the end of this year," he added.
India has developed medium and long range systems such as the Akash Surface-to-Air missile system, but so far it has not ventured into the domain of similar short range systems.
On the work-sharing arrangements between the two sides for the programme, Saraswat said, "The design and development would be totally indigenous and only a few things such as the production technology and seeker would be from the partners (MBDA)."
In the partnership, the DRDO will also seek the production technology for the mass production of missiles in the facilities of Public Sector Undertaking Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL).
"When you want to produce large numbers, you have to have an automated assembly line. For missiles, we don't have that automation system in our production facilities... What we are looking at in these new programmes is that production technologies of BDL are also improved so that the rate of production can be increased," he said.
"Our main thrust in the tactical missile systems is going to be the Short Range Surface-to-Air Missile (SR-SAM) system... We are trying to work with the MBDA of France on this programme," Saraswat said.