Capture Kabul, cripple Kashmir: Pakistan’s new two-faced war

It was around 4.30 am on July 1 when a Pakistani suicide bomber crossed the Line of Control and blew himself up about 25 meters from an Indian Army picket at Saujiyan in the Poonch sector of Jammu and Kashmir. Other than the bomber, there were no casualties.

A week later, in the same area, a Pakistani improvised explosive device – a roadside bomb – proved more lethal and killed an Indian Army porter.

India believes these attacks, and other such activity along the de facto border and inside Jammu and Kashmir, are part of a deliberate Pakistani game plan to push in as many militants as possible across the LoC. The goal of all this: escalate violence in the run-up to and possibly disrupt the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections next year.On the other side of Pakistan, though this may not seem obvious to people in India, is a related attempt by Rawalpindi to use the same terrorists to drive India out of Afghanistan.
US intelligence had confirmed to India that Lashkar e Taiba cadre were being moved into the provinces of Kunar and Nuristan in expectation of the US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan next year. The recent suicide bomb attack on the Indian consulate in Jalalabad which killed a dozen people was part and parcel of this larger strategy. 
“Pakistan is using Lashkar to target Indian interests in Kabul,” said a senior Indian official. “The Jalalabad attack was orchestrated by Lashkar.”
Pakistan is similarly transferring militant cadre recruited from its Khyber Paktunkhwa province to boost militant ranks in the Kashmir Valley.
The broad Indian assessment is that the LoC and Kashmir in general have seen relatively low levels of Pakistani action because Rawalpindi was forced to divert as many as 150,000 troops to the Pakistan-Afghan border.
With the US troop withdrawal approaching and Pakistan sensing that it may soon have a friendly regime ensconced in Kabul, the Pakistani army and Lashkar are once more concentrating on destabilizing Kashmir.
Lashkar chief Hafiz Sayeed declared this in a recent India Today interview saying, “Full-scale armed jihad will begin soon in Kashmir after American forces withdraw from Afghanistan.”
Kashmir is starting to simmer again. Attempts by Lashkar’s border action teams, groups that are backed by the Pakistani Army, to ambush Indian Army patrols have gone up this year. The decapitation of two soldiers in Krishnaghati area of Poonch sector on January 8, 2013, and the recent killing of five Indian soldiers in the same sector on Tuesday morning are just two of the more bloody examples.

“The escalation is evident from the fact that till July 2012 only 13 infiltrators had been killed but during the same period this year more than 23 infiltrators have been killed on the LoC,” said a source.
“There have been no less than 10 border actions undertaken by Pakistan Army backed terrorists on the Jammu LoC ,” said a senior official. He warned that the infiltration figures are expected to rise this month.
That is along the border. The situation inside the Valley has become equally violent. There have been two definitive suicide attacks by Lashkar cadres this year inside Jammu and Kashmir – the first in three years.
A fidayeen attack on Central Reserve Police Force camp at Bemina in Srinagar on March 14 and an attack on Indian Army jawans at Hyderpora bypass a day before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s June 25 visit to Kashmir.
Indian intelligence conducted a security review in Kabul days before the Jalalabad attack. The then home secretary RK Singh flew down to Srinagar on June 20 to brief army and police about a threat against a police station on the eve of Singh’s June 25 visit.
“The Poonch action shows that Pakistan Army is opposed to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif normalizing ties with India and is also connected to the appointment of General Parvez Kiyani’s successor in November,” said a senior official.
The Pakistani gameplan is quite clear: infiltrate militants eastward and westward, across the Durand and Radcliffe lines. Rawalpindi’s men in khaki want to turn the clock back to the 1980s when Afghanistan was a Pakistani colony and Kashmir was in flames.

 hindustantimes

US, India discuss joint production of military equipment

A top American defence official and the head of India's DRDO have discussed ways to take bilateral defence cooperation towards the goal of joint development and production of military gear.

US Deputy Secretary of Defence Ash Carter and DRDO chief Avinash Chander also held talks on measures to deepen the defence trade relationship between the two countries.

"The two leaders discussed how to deepen US-Indian defence trade relationship, and exchanged views on a range of efforts currently underway to move bilateral defence cooperation further toward the mutually agreed-upon goal of a relationship based around co-development and co-production," a senior defence official told PTI.

Carter and Chander met at the Pentagon yesterday. Indian Ambassador to the US Nirupama Rao and Vikram Singh, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence for South and Southeast Asia, also participated in the meeting.

Carter and Chander noted that they looked forward to the upcoming visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Washington.

Business standard

MiGs touch down on the Vikramaditya’s deck

( Indrus) : The final phase of tests on the INS Vikramaditya commenced on Monday, August 5, with a joint practice mission involving naval aircraft from Russia’s Northern Fleet. The mission, in which MiG-29s performed several approaches at different altitudes and a touchdown on the aircraft carrier’s deck, was led by RSK MiG chief pilot Mikhail Belyayev.
Around this time a year ago, Belyayev flew over the Vikramaditya’s deck together with test pilot Nikolai Diorditsa, who has been accorded the Hero of the Russian Federation title. The test pilots flew 517 sorties – including 41 landings and 41 take-offs from the aircraft carrier’s deck – in July and August 2012, testing the aircraft, the fuelling and flight support equipment, the aircraft lifts, its launch assist systems and arresting gear.
Overall, the commissioning team had no complaints about the work of the aircraft wing or the operation of the ship’s support systems. Representatives of the Indian Navy were also satisfied. But the testing wasn’t completed in full; night-time take-offs and landings did not take place, for example, because of a serious failure of the ship’s power plant. The fire-proof protection of all eight boilers gave in to extreme temperatures.
As a result, the aircraft carrier was returned to Sevmash last autumn to undergo a complicated nine-month overhaul with assistance from representatives of the Baltic Shipyard (where the boilers were manufactured). The deadline was duly met, and the aircraft carrier, complete with repaired boilers, sailed into the White Sea on July 3. The ship passed every other trial a day before Navy Day and developed the top speed of 29.3 knots under regular load at full displacement.
According to earlier plans, the full testing cycle involving an aircraft wing and maritime training for the Indian crew is scheduled for completion by October 15. After that, one month will be allotted to eliminate any minor flaws. The INS Vikramaditya should be handed over to the Indian Navy in November.

Delay in air defence system
The Vikramaditya will have to wait another 3 years for a air defence weapon, The New Indian Express reported on Monday.
The delay in getting the Long Range Surface-to-Air Missile or LR-SAM will be at the Indian end, the paper said, adding that India decided to develop it jointly with Israel and the project is facing delays.
The aircraft carrier will be retrofitted with a Russian-origin AK-630 rapid fire gun, during its first and immediate refit on arrival in India, the paper said.

New units to manufacture missiles, aircraft soon

India’s missile and military aircraft manufacturers are setting up new assembly lines to produce more indigenous missiles and combat and utility helicopters for the armed forces.

While missile maker Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL), Hyderabad, is setting up three new production units, Bangalore-based aviation major Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has asked the defence estates department to locate 1,000 acres of land for setting up a new division for helicopters, Defence Minister A K Antony said in the Lok Sabha on Monday.

Bidar in north Karnataka and Butibori in Maharashtra were inspected by HAL officials for the purpose. But no decision has been taken yet.

BDL is setting up new units at Visakhapatnam and Ibrahimpatnam in Andhra Pradesh and Amravathi in Maharashtra.

The Visakhapatnam unit, sources said, will manufacture light-weight torpedoes for the Indian Navy. BDL has acquired 10.32 acres.

A Rs 76-crore factory is scheduled to be completed by December 2013.

The factory will produce an electrically propelled, self-homing torpedo that can be launched from ships and helicopters. It can hunt submarines at 33 knots, with an endurance of six minutes in shallow and deep waters.

The other two BDL units are bigger. The 553-acre unit at Amravathi will be used to set up an assembly line for the Akash surface-to-air-missiles. The Army has placed a Rs 14,000-crore order for two regiments of Akash missiles for air defence. An order from the Indian Air Force is also expected.

 deccanherald

A momentous occasion for CSL

The launch of the first indigenous aircraft carrier INS Vikrant on August 12 will be a momentous occasion for Cochin Shipyard Ltd (CSL) which achieved the feat  in four years of laying the keel under trying conditions. The warship is expected to join the Navy fleet by 2018.
Ms Elizabeth Antony, wife of Defence Minister A.K. Antony will launch the ship at a function to be attended among others by Antony, Navy chief Admiral D.K. Joshi and Union minister for shipping  G.K. Vasan.
The design of the indigenous aircraft carrier (IAC) is the result of a collaborative effort of Indian Navy’s design organization and the design team of CSL. The special steel for the ship was supplied by the Steel Authority of India Ltd.  CSL in association with National Metallurgical Research Laboratory developed the weld process and consumables for this special grade steel.
The 263-metre-long IAC can displace about 38,000 tonnes and  is propelled by four gas turbines. It can achieve a speed of about 30 knots.  It will operate a combination of Russian MiG-29K, Ka31 and the indigenous light combat aircraft, sources in the Navy and CSL said.The flight deck of IAC will feature two take-off runways and a landing strip equipped with three arrester wires.

Deccan Chronicle

Indigenous aircraft carrier made of special steel

New Delhi: Over 24,000 tonne of specially designed steel capable of withstanding "high impact load shock" has gone into the construction of India's first indigenous aircraft carrier, officials said Monday.Commodore Saibal Sen, additional principal director, Naval Design, said here that DMR-249A and DMR-249B were among the qualities of steel that have been developed in the country and used in the aircraft carrier, which will be launched at Kochi Aug 12.

He said while DMR-249A was at least twice in strength than normal steel, DMR 249B was thrice as tough.

The high-end steel qualities for warships were developed following research efforts of Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory (DMRL) and Naval Materials Research Laboratory (NMRL) in association with Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), a public sector company.

DMRL and NMRL are both organisations of Defence Research and Development Organisation.

Sen said that the steel qualities had been tested for their strength at minus 60 degrees.

He said about 27,000 tonnes of steel will be used in construction of the aircraft carrier and would cost about Rs 500 crore.

Sen said that the development of the specialised quality steel was of national and strategic importance and would have rip-offs in the coming years.

He said there was possibility of such steel being used in construction of civilian ships also.

SAIL chairman CS Verma said the organisation was laying thrust on "value added products" as part of its modernisation efforts.

He said total requirement of steel for defence sector was about 1,20,000 tonne per annum and SAIL was providing over 75 percent of the demand.

He said the navy's needs of steel were also being largely met by SAIL.

Sen said the navy had to maintain a large inventory of various grades of steel to meet requirements and difficulties were being faced in procuring them.

"Due to these reasons, the navy decided to rationalise these steels to AB class with superior properties," he said.

The aircraft carrier is being built at Cochin Shipyard Limited. After its launch, it will be redocked at Cochin Shipyard for erecting the island superstructure and remaining underwater work.

IANS / Zeenews

Russia Has Best Missile-Defense Radars – Senior Official

 

(RIA Novosti) – Russia’s missile-attack warning radars are far superior to any foreign counterparts, a top defense official said Friday.
Russia has an “absolute lead,” “no one else can match these stations,” Deputy Defense Minister Yury Borisov said after visiting a Voronezh-M radar in Siberia’s Irkutsk Region.
The Voronezh-M has greatly surpassed previous-generation systems, in particular the Dnepr, the official said, adding that the Voronezh-M had a range of 6,500 kilometers, higher resolution and a broader field of vision.
The radar system will “reliably protect our southeastern sector and the northeastern part of the Pacific,” he said.
His comments echoed ones last month by General Staff chief Valery Gerasimov, who said Russia was building a new aerospace defense system that would guarantee detection of enemy ballistic and long-range cruise missiles at blastoff.
The system would feature advanced information-gathering, data-processing and attack capabilities with an early-warning radar system to be deployed along the entire Russian border, Gerasimov said.
In late May, Russia’s Aerospace Defense Forces conducted a series of snap drills that checked the combat readiness of aerospace defense units, air force units and air defenses in the Western Military District, as well as military transport and long-range aviation command. The exercises involved 8,700 people, 185 aircraft and 240 military vehicles.

Raytheon sees 'never-ending opportunity' in Patriot missile system

 

(Reuters) - Raytheon Co is poised to book billions of dollars worth of orders for its Patriot air and missile defense system in the coming months, underscoring the resurgence of a weapon first developed to defend Europe against a possible Soviet attack.
Three decades later, the system has been upgraded multiple times and more than 200 fire units are in use in a dozen countries, with additional customers in talks to buy into a system that just a few years ago looked ready to wind down.
Raytheon Chief Executive William Swanson last month called the system "a never-ending opportunity" after a major redesign as part of a $3.3 billion order from the United Arab Emirates in 2008 that has spawned multiple new orders and launched a new chapter in the program's history.
"Once you upgrade it you can go back to all your other customers and offer them the upgraded hardware to reduce their costs, reduce the spare content and so forth. So it's a never-ending opportunity for us here at Raytheon," Swanson told analysts on an earnings call.
Raytheon builds Patriot - a long-range, high-altitude, all-weather system - and acts as the systems integrator for the PAC-3 missile, which is built by Lockheed Martin Corp.
Raytheon officials say they expect several large orders for Patriot systems in the second half of the year, including a deal for 11 fire units from Qatar valued at around $2 billion. They also expect an order exceeding $500 million from Kuwait that could expand further in coming years through related contracts for modernization, spares and services.
Turkey is also weighing a large order that would be worth around $500 million initially, but could expand later.
The Patriot system is already used by 12 countries - United States, Netherlands, Germany, Japan, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Taiwan, Greece, Spain, South Korea and UAE. Raytheon is in active talks to enlarge that group and upgrade existing systems, according to Tim Glaeser, a vice president with Raytheon's Integrated Defense Systems (IDS) division.
Poland is considering buying equipment from Germany, which Raytheon would then upgrade, and India has expressed an interest, as have Singapore and Malaysia, Glaeser said.
The company says more than $400 million has been invested into making the Patriot system faster, smarter and tougher. Components have gotten smaller, computer chips are an eighth of the size they were in 2006, and new units are built in an upgraded facility that uses computer-controlled tools.
Glaeser said the company has streamlined production significantly, making it cheaper to build the Patriot system.
For instance, he said the company had driven the cost of the system's complex antenna down 300 percent, making it possible to swap the whole antenna out if it was not working, rather than having to waste time and money troubleshooting its 5,800 parts.
Raytheon doesn't just earn by building the systems. It also makes money through constant software and other upgrades and maintenance. In June, the company won a $116 million contract from the U.S. Army to provide engineering services, which company officials say will allow them to work on enhancements funded jointly by the U.S. military and international customers.
All Patriot users participate in a special council that meets yearly to consider engineering changes.
MORE USERS, LOWER COSTS
Will Lovell, director of production in the Army's Patriot project office, said the international partnership helped push down the cost of owning and operating the system for all users.
The addition of each new user helped reduce the cost per unit for participating country since the program's baseline costs remained the same, Lovell told Reuters.
"It ... benefits everyone when more countries select Patriot as their missile defense system," he said.
Loren Thompson with the Virginia-based Lexington Institute said Raytheon's Patriot system was riding a major military modernization wave in the Middle East, but also benefited from the U.S. Army's decision to pull out of the next-generation MEADS system that was initially meant to replace Patriot.
A Lockheed-led international consortium is developing the Medium Extended Air and Missile Defense System with funding from the United States, Germany and Italy. Washington plans to end funding this year, after the development program is completed.
"With the waning of MEADS, Patriot is likely to remain the pre-eminent air defense system in the world for the next 20 years," he said. "The reason it's a never-ending opportunity for Raytheon is because its successor was killed."
One of MEADS's key attributes was a 360-degree radar that allows the system to spot threats coming from any direction, something Patriot cannot do.
Glaeser said Raytheon is "exploring options for a 360-degree sensor to meet the requests of our international parties." The Army has said it hopes to harvest some technologies from the MEADS program and reuse them, but it has not released details.

Agni V to be operational by 2015

With two or three more successful test firings, the Agni V missile is expected to be operational by 2015, said Tessy Thomas, director, Agni Missile Project, Defence Research and Development Organisation, here on Friday.

Interacting with the media after inaugurating a national conference on ‘Systems, Energy and Environment,’ organised by the Government College of Engineering at Mangattuparamba, Ms. Thomas said this ambitious project can carry multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles which can deliver multiple warheads at different targets.

Affirming that India is self-reliant in missile technology, Ms. Thomas said the country had made a quantum leap in the field.

Agni V is one of the biggest achievements of the country and this is being further improved upon. As per earlier calculations, the intercontinental ballistic missile had a range of 5,000 km, but according to the observations made by neighbouring countries, it has a range of 7,000 km, a statement which underlines the strength and potential of the missile.

She observed that missile technology is used as a weapon of peace.

Acknowledging that more than 2,000 institutions and industry players are associated with the DRDO for the project, Ms. Thomas said the Agni series is of global standards, while Agni IV and V belong to a new class of technology.

Speaking on female representation in the area of missile technology, Ms. Thomas said the zone, generally considered a male bastion, is opening to change. When she joined the DRDO in the eighties, the scenario was different as there were not many engineering colleges. With more colleges, more people are approaching the field, including women, she added.

The Hindu

Hi-tech firing support equipment for Army tanks

Aiming to improve target hitting of tanks and armoured vehicles, Indian Army plans to buy about 2,000 pieces of laser-guided simulation firing-support equipment, which will be used by the armoured and mechanised infantry regiments.

The Army issued a request for information on July 25 to global vendors that produce these equipment used by North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) forces. The plan is to buy 2,000 pieces of these equipment at a cost of approximately Rs 1,000 crore within the next four years.

These laser-guided instruments would be fitted inside gun tubes. They will help gunners to acquire and lock on to the target before firing, thereby improving the number of hits.

The Army plans to install these equipment in close to 55 armoured regiments operating Russian origin T-72 and T-90 tanks as well as 45 mechanised infantry regiments, which are using Russian BMP infantry combat vehicles.

The plan was to equip one-third of tanks or BMPs in each regiment with this simulator, reliable sources said.

Some of the regiments currently use an old generation simulator, made by Bangalore-based Bharat Electronics Limited, for tanks and BMPs. But these simulators are 15 years old now and had major problem in the target alignment, said an officer.
Also those instruments were cumbersome and difficult to install.

Deccan Herald

Indian Air Force to get first BrahMos-armed Su-30MKI fighter in 2015

BrahMos Aerospace chief Sivathanu Pillai tells Itar-Tass that joint production and development the way ahead for Indo-Russian defence ties.
The Russian-Indian joint venture BrahMos Aerospace hopes to transfer the first Su-30MKI jet fighter to the Indian Air Force in September 2015, BrahMos President Sivathanu Pillai said.
Two Su-30MKI fighter planes are now being modernised by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited. Their full-scale mock-ups have already been made and delivered to India. They will be tested before December of this year.
According to Pillai, the first launch of an airborne BrahMos missile is scheduled for June 2014. He expressed hope that the Su-30MKI jet fighter armed with BrahMos missiles would be ready in September 2015.
Pillai told Itar-Tass that Russia would surpass its competitors in terms of military-technical cooperation with India only if the two countries created more joint ventures.
In 1960s-1980s India was completely dependent on contracts with the Soviet Union and use of Soviet technologies. After the Soviet Union’s   breakup, other countries started supplying arms and hardware to India, and Russian-Indian military-technical cooperation decreased, he said.
Pillai believes that Russia and India should have understood that the two countries need to create more joint ventures to design and make military products. In his opinion, the development of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles is a successful example of such cooperation.
“India and Russia are big friends. I would even say that Russia is the only true friend of India. And if we want to keep military-technical cooperation at the previous levels, we have to create more joint ventures, especially where it concerns high-tech products,” Pillai said.
This would allow Russia to go far ahead of its competitors in India, he added.
Pillai is confident that the BrahMos missile project can be considered successful only if the missiles are bought by both Russia and India. At the moment, only India is buying them. He said this issue is being discussed at different levels and expressed hope that Russia would make a positive decision.
The overall value of BrahMos missile contracts with India’s Navy, Air Force and Army has reached $4.2 billion and may increase to $7.5 billion by 2015.
Earlier this year India successfully tested a BrahMos supersonic missile from an underwater platform. This was the first time that any supersonic cruise missile was launched vertically from a submerged platform. The BrahMos supersonic cruise missile was successfully test fired from the Indian Navy's newest guided missile frigate INS Tarkash off the coast of Goa in late May.
The missile performed high-level “C” manoeuvre at pre-determined flight path and successfully hit the target. The surface-to-surface missile, having a range of 290-km, was test launched from the Russian-built Project 1135.6 class warship.
BrahMos cruise missiles have been adopted by India's Army and the Navy’s surface ships. The Indian Air Force has also ordered a batch of land-based missiles. Work is also underway to adapt the missile to Su-30MKI planes used by the Indian Air Force.
 BrahMos is an acronym of the two rivers: Brahmaputra in India and Moskva in Russia.
When visiting the headquarters of the Russian-Indian joint venture BrahMos Aerospace Limited, which makes supersonic cruise missiles, the chief of the Russian Army General Staff said that the joint venture made “reliable missiles that have few matches in the world.”
“A state with such weapons has a serious combat capability,” he said. The joint venture has designed a new version of the supersonic cruise missile of the same name that can be launched from submarines.
 “The missile is ready for use from submarines,” Alexander Maksichev, managing co-director of the joint venture, told Itar-Tass. The missiles are intended for use aboard the Scorpion-type submarine, for which the Indian Navy has placed orders in France. The Russian-Indian joint venture BrahMos has designed a new version of the supersonic cruise missile of the same name that can be launched from submarines.
“We have proposed that these submarines be armed with BrahMos missiles too,” Maksichev said.
The BrahMos missile has a flight range of up to 290 kilometres and is capable of carrying a conventional warhead of 300 kilograms. The missile can cruise at a maximum speed of 2.8 Mach.

 ITAR-TASS. / indrus.in

Eye on future, India mulls options for nuclear-powered aircraft carrier

Nothing projects raw power like an aircraft carrier prowling on the high seas, capable of unleashing strike fighters against an adversary in a jiffy. A nuclear-powered carrier can make the punch even deadlier with much longer operational endurance.

With its first indigenous aircraft carrier (IAC) set to be "launched" at Cochin Shipyard on August 12, and sea trials of the first nuclear submarine INS Arihant to begin shortly after, India is now examining the possibility of having a nuclear-powered 65,000-tonne carrier in the future.

Navy vice-chief Vice Admiral RK Dhowan on Thursday said a "detailed study" was underway on the "size, type of aircraft and their launch and recovery systems, propulsion" and the like for the IAC-II project. "Yes, we are also considering nuclear propulsion. All options are being studied. No final decision has been taken," he said.

There are huge cost issues with nuclear-powered carriers, which can easily take upwards of $10 billion to build. The Royal British Navy is reverting to carriers propelled by gas turbines/diesel-electric systems from nuclear ones.

However, the US has 11 Nimitz-class "super-carriers" — each an over 94,000-tonne behemoth powered by two nuclear reactors and capable of carrying 80-90 fighters - to project power around the globe. China, too, is now looking at nuclear-powered carriers after inducting its first conventional carrier — the 65,000-tonne Liaoning — last September.

So, while Navy may want a nuclear-powered carrier, it will ultimately have to be a considered political decision. The force, however, is firm about its long-term plan to operate three carrier-battle groups (CBGs). "One carrier for each (western and eastern) seaboard and one in maintenance," said Vice Admiral Dhowan.

But, even two CBGs will be possible only by 2019. The 40,000-tonne IAC, to be christened INS Vikrant, will be ready for induction only by December 2018, as was first reported by TOI.

"Design and construction of a carrier has many challenges. Around 75% of the IAC structure has now been erected. India joins only four countries — the US, Russia, the UK and France - capable of building a carrier over 40,000-tonne," he said.

The 44,570-tonne INS Vikramaditya - or the Admiral Gorshkov carrier now undergoing sea trials after a $2.33-billion refit in Russia - in turn will be ready by end-2013 instead of the original August 2008 deadline.

Vice Admiral Dhowan admitted India's solitary carrier, the 28,000-tonne INS Viraat, will soldier on till 2018 due to these long delays. The 54-year-old INS Viraat is left with just 11 Sea Harrier jump-jets to operate from its deck. The 45 MiG-29K naval fighters, being procured from Russia for over $2 billion, can operate only from Vikramaditya and IAC.

The 260-metre-long IAC, whose construction finally began in November 2006, will be able to carry 12 MiG-29Ks, eight Tejas light combat aircraft and 10 early-warning and anti-submarine helicopters on its 2.5-acre flight deck and hangars. It will have a crew of 160 officers and 1,400 sailors. Powered by four American LM2500 gas turbines, the IAC will have an endurance of around 7,500 nautical miles at a speed of 18 knots.- Times of india