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Moscow is puzzled over Indian media rumors
claiming that Russia refuses to fulfill a decade-old contract on
licensed production of T-90S main battle tanks in India, a Russian defense industry source said.
“The Russian side is timely and completely
fulfilling all agreements with India on the licensed production of T-90
tanks, including the delivery of all necessary components and the
transfer of technical documentation,” the source said on Tuesday.
India’s Business Standard said on November 28 that the licensed
production of T-90 tanks was “hamstrung by Moscow’s obstruction in
transferring technology and the Russian-built assemblies needed even for
the India-built tanks.”
“It is difficult to say why these allegations have emerged,” the
Russian source said, adding that all controversial issues on the arms
contracts with India are promptly resolved by the Russian-Indian
intergovernmental commission on military-technical cooperation.
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Russia has turned on a new incoming missile early warning system in its
westernmost region in response to US plans for a missile shield in
Europe.
President Dmitry Medvedev ordered the system to be activated on a visit
to the radar unit in Kaliningrad, a Baltic region bordering EU
countries.
The unit is equipped with the new Voronezh-DM radar system.
Mr Medvedev has warned Russian missiles could be deployed on the EU's borders if the shield is installed.
Washington wants an anti-missile shield ready by 2020, arguing that it
is necessary to provide protection from the potential missile threat
posed by countries like Iran.
Under President George W Bush, the US had initially intended to locate
major parts of the shield in Poland and the Czech Republic, but Russia
objected vigorously.
When Barack Obama took office in the White House, he scaled back the original ambitions.
"Nato's missile defence system [is] designed to defend against threats
from outside Europe - not designed to alter balance of deterrence," Nato
chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in a recent tweet.
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The Chinese Navy is expected to procure 30 more submarines by 2020 and
bring the total from the current 62 to 100 by 2030, Hong Kong's Ming Pao
daily reported on Tuesday.
According to the paper, the U.S. has 75 subs, 26 of them deployed in the
Asia-Pacific region. China is building up its Navy, including
retrofitting its first aircraft carrier.
Bloomberg News quoted experts as predicting that Asia-Pacific nations will have up to 86 more subs by 2020.
Beijing is not revealing the cost of the subs, but Macau-based military
affairs analyst Huang Dong estimates it at US$200 million per sub or $6
billion for 30.
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The Ministry of Defence has issued a tender for the import of 66,000
5.56 mm assault rifle for an estimated $250 million (Rs 13,000 crore) to
replace the locally-designed Indian Small Arms System 5.56 mm AR, which
the army has reluctantly employed since the mid-1990s.
The Request for Proposal dispatched to over 40 overseas vendors last
month -- with bids to be submitted by mid-Feb 2012 -- requires the 3.66
kg AR's to convert to 7.62x39 mm and be fitted with Picatiny
Rail-mounted reflex sights.
The ARs would also need to be equipped with under-barrel grenade launchers and be able to fire locally-produced ammunition.
The RfP also mandates a transfer of technology to the State-owned
Ordnance Factory Board to locally make the ARs of which the eventual
requirement is expected to be around 2 million for the army, the central
paramilitary forces and state police in a massive programme estimated
at $2-3 billion.
Armament industry officials, however, said that the exclusion of the
private sector from this potential contract was at variance with the
MoD's much publicised aim of privatising the monopolistic State-run
military-industrial sector.
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The recent launch of the nuclear capable Babur cruise missile and its shiny new launch system was looked upon by many as yet another “trick up the magician’s sleeve”.
The Tomahawk based Babur is a hybrid weapons system: a Chinese turbojet powering a reverse engineered fuselage of a BGM-109 Tomahawk, with its guidance system developed locally using American built microprocessors.
This is not an uncommon approach when it comes to the design of Pakistani weapons, but the process from start to finish is rarely smooth.
Pakistan’s military has, does and for the immediate future, will continue to consider India its arch nemesis and existential threat. This fact seems to influence most major decisions that Pakistan’s establishment makes for the rest of the country, including blunders that have cost the nation dearly. Unlike India, with its booming economy and positive repute in world politics, Pakistan neither has the economic capacity nor the goodwill to update its military as it wishes. While its self-declared all-weather friends, the Chinese, are always ready to supply Pakistan with military hardware on deferred payments or soft loans, their electronic systems are still maturing compared to their western counterparts.
The result is that the Pakistani Military have to scrounge around the secondary arms market and work with the Chinese to come up with alternative solutions. Many of these solutions end up being co-developed or totally indigenous, and while most are surprisingly effective and sometimes better than their western alternatives, not all attain the success they set out to achieve. The acceptance of mediocrity allows such solutions to pass as no other alternative is present.
The organizations that perform military research in Pakistan are mainly under the control of the establishment, with strict control of who is employed and what they are doing. Even a low level employee goes through a tedious check with the intelligence agencies.
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Cold Start has been one of the biggest concerns of Pakistan’s military and civilian government.
The argument has been protracted for a while now and the Pakistani military has carried out many an exercise to counter this threat. At this stage the Pakistani military thinks that it has significant response capabilities to nullify the Indian Cold Start strike.
They could have been right if India had followed through with its military diktat, but unknown to the Pakistani military and civilian establishment, the Indian military changed its strategy and game plan right in mid-stride.
The Cold Start doctrine that initially constituted a military strike at requisite targets took a shape and form of totally different nature that was not known to our military, which incidentally is extremely rigid in its approach and analysis.
In the past few years, India had taken a route of economic growth and progress, where any kind of war or aggression by the forces in uniform would have been devastating for its economy, social welfare and standing in the world.
So just after the Indians had moved their troops toward Pakistan’s border and had the full attention of the Pakistani military, mid-stride they switched gears.
The Indians turned their full attention and operations toward other forms of warfare that have been subversive in nature and have managed to cause severe economic repercussions as well as massive unrest in Pakistan. This unrest in the masses was created through hyperactive news coming through controlled news media and possibly even sponsored terrorist activities. While the Pakistani military was lost in searching the elusive Indian military Cold Strike in the Sindh desert and the Punjab plains, the Indian subversive Cold Start doctrine was operating at 110% of its strength in all venues of the Pakistani community within months of its inception.
The goal has been to cripple Pakistan’s capabilities, starting with economic slowdown to gradually bring it to a standstill, and also creating unrest in the society through indiscriminate bombings of civilian targets. This was done through ‘paid for’ vendors and outsourcing it to the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan and the Baloch Liberation Front. These have brought about the desired result at a much faster pace than expected.
Match this with lacklustre reaction from the Pakistan military establishment and General Staff officers who have no clue of establishing a security ring around military establishments, let alone less critical targets.
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India will ink the world's single largest defence deal by closing the
126 medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) contract in a couple of
months. As these fourth generation fighter jets join the Indian Air
Force fleet, China will prepare to launch its fifth generation stealth
fighter Chengdu J-20. China is racing ahead towards the planned
induction of its indigenous stealth fighter in 2017. The Chengdu J-20,
which made its debut in January this year, has already flown two
prototypes, within a span of four months. In India's case, however, the
two shortlisted contenders — Eurofighter Typhoon and Rafale, both only
fourth generation — are still undergoing price negotiations. The
commercial bids for the US $15 billion deal were opened on 4 November.
Eurofighter Typhoon from the European consortium EADS — comprising
Italy, Germany, Spain and UK as partner nations — is a twin-engine,
multi-role fighter. A question mark exists on its air-to-ground
capability. The UK audit watchdog NAO has criticised the Typhoon for its
problems with spares availability, flying hours, immature estimates in
funding and inefficient collaborative decision making. It has said that
the aircraft will not have full multi-role capability for some years.
To add to this, the Typhoon is still in the process of acquiring
air-to-ground attack capability, which was tested unsuccessfully in
Libya recently.
French Dassault Aviation's twin-engine Rafale fighter is operational
only in the French Navy and Air Force, and recently lost out the US $10
billion deal it had hoped to sign with the United Arab Emirates.
Highly priced, approximately around $80 million a piece, neither
Typhoon nor Rafale has a proven radar (the tender requirement is for an
AESA [active electronically scanned array]). This came to light during
laboratory trials. The manufacturers said that the radar would be
integrated once the deal was finalised.
It would take almost four years for the first aircraft to arrive
after the deal is inked. So by the time India gets its fourth generation
aircraft in 2016, the Chinese will be ready to induct their fifth
generation aircraft.
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China will develop an air force with integrated capabilities for both
offensive and defensive operations in space as well as in air, the
People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force Commander Xu Qiliang said
Sunday.
Xu Qiliang, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force Commander, gestures during an interview.
Calling militarization in the space and in air "a threat to the
mankind," Xu said China must develop a strong force in the two arenas in
order to face challenges of that threat.
The PLA air force would improve its detection and early warning, air
striking, anti-missile air defense, strategic delivery capabilities in
order to effectively protect China's interests and help maintain
regional and world peace, Xu said.
Xu meanwhile stressed that the PLA air force was peace-oriented.
"The Chinese people is a peace-loving people, and China is a responsible
developing country which upholds a national defense policy that is
defensive in nature," he said.
A powerful PLA air force would protect China's sovereignty, safety and
territorial integrity, and would play a major part in maintaining
regional stability and world peace, he said.
"The PLA air force will pose no threat to any other country," Xu said.
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US and NATO officials were disappointed with Dmitry Medvedev's recent
harsh statements about Russia's intention to pull out from the Strategic
Arms Reduction Treaty. NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen was
one of the first to respond to Medvedev's statements.
"The suggestion that deployment of missiles in the areas neighboring the
alliance is an appropriate response ... is very disappointing. NATO's
missile defense system [is] designed to defend against threats from
outside Europe. Not designed to alter balance of deterrence," Rasmussen
wrote via Twitter.
"Cooperation, not confrontation, is the way ahead," he added.
However, the USA still refuses to give legal guarantees saying that the
air defense system in Europe is not aimed against Russia.
Colonel-General Leonid Ivashov, the President of the Academy of
Geopolitical Problems, said in an interview with Pravda.Ru that there
were two basic positions determined in the START-3 Treaty (the document
was signed a year ago).
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Nato helicopters attacked a military checkpoint in northwest
Pakistan on Saturday, killing up to 28 troops and prompting Pakistan to
shut the vital supply route for Nato troops fighting in Afghanistan,
Pakistani officials said.
The Foreign Office condemned Saturday’s attack.
“Prime
Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani has condemned in the strongest terms the
Nato/Isaf attack on the Pakistani post,” ministry spokeswoman Tehmina
Janjua said in a statement.
“On his direction, the matter is being taken (up) by the foreign ministry in the strongest terms with Nato and the US.”
Two
military officials said that up to 28 troops had been killed and 11
wounded in the attack on the Salala checkpoint, about 2.5 kilometres
from the Afghan border.
The attack took place around 2 a.m. in the Baizai area of Mohmand, where Pakistani troops are fighting Taliban militants.
A
senior Pakistani military officer said efforts were under way to bring
the bodies of the slain soldiers to Ghalanai, the headquarters of
Mohmand tribal region.
“The latest attack by Nato forces on our
post will have serious repercussions as they without any reasons
attacked on our post and killed soldiers asleep,” he said, requesting
anonymity because he was not authorised to talk to the media.
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Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC), which displayed its products in
Dubai Airshow-2011 in UAE, told APA, Azerbaijan shows interest in JF-17
Thunder combat aircrafts jointly produced by Pakistan and China and
announced its intention to purchase aircrafts of this type.
The JF-17 Thunder performed flight displays over the Dubai airport
during the air show. Members of the Azerbaijani delegation also watched
the flights.
Referring to negotiations held with Azerbaijan, company officials said
that the discussions have not entered the phase of signing a contract
yet. The company is currently executing the orders of the Pakistani
Air Forces; the export to Azerbaijan could be realised in the upcoming
years. According to the company, the negotiating parties are determining the annual amount of the possible order.
Offering a high manoeuvrability, JF-17 Thunder aircraft have the same or even superior capabilities to the MiG-29
aircraft of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces. By introducing this asset
into its inventory the Azerbaijani Armed Forces could increase their
combat effectiveness.
PAC company officials said that Pakistan and Azerbaijan have high-level
relations. Islamabad supports Baku’s positions and territorial integrity
of Azerbaijan and provided military assistance to the country since the
very beginning. Taking these relations into consideration, there will
be no problems in the sale of fighter aircraft to Azerbaijan.
According to company’s representatives, within the Pakistan-China cooperation, the production of a Block-2 version of the JF-17 Thunder will soon be launched.
This model will be equipped with the newest electronic warfare systems,
as well as additional weapon systems. In addition, a two-seat
configuration of the aircraft is being developed.
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India is doing a lot of work on laser weapons, particularly at the technology level, said a DRDO's top defence scientist.
We
are trying to see how to produce high power lasers, how to get that
kind of narrow beam, how to get miniaturized version of laser power
device,' said V.K. Saraswat, scientific advisor to the defence minister.
He, however, said India need to graduate from physics portion to the actual portion of engineering and development.
Saraswat,
who is also the Director General of Defence Research and Development
Organisation (DRDO), was talking to reporters on the sidelines of 22nd
annual conference of Indian Nuclear Society here Thursday evening.
He
said DRDO, Atomic Energy and academic institutions like Plasma Research
Laboratory and National Physical Laboratory were working together on
the physics of laser.
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The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has hired the founder of the
controversial US security company Blackwater, to set up a paramilitary
force made up of foreign mercenaries in Abu Dhabi.
Blackwater founder Erik Prince is to set up an 800-member battalion of foreign troops.
Documents obtained by The New York Times (NYT) on Sunday showed the crown prince of Abu Dhabi being behind the $529m deal.
It is a contentious move, which raises questions about loyalty, the role
of citizens and the potential instability brought on by the popular
uprisings in the Arab world.
The NYT said the covert unit will be used to put down internal revolts,
defend oil pipelines and skyscrapers from any possible terrorist attack.
It also claimed that fighters from Colombia and South Africa have
already been flown into the Emirate, where its rulers are reportedly
deeply concerned about the popular unrest in the "Arab world as well as
the perceived threat from Iran".
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Ninety-one civilians were killed and 494 others injured in police firing
in Jammu and Kashmir in 2010, the Rajya Sabha was informed Wednesday.
"As per National Crime Record Bureau data, 91 civilians got killed and
494 civilian got injured in police firing during 2010 in Jammu and
Kashmir," Minister of State for Home Jitendra Singh informed Rajya Sabha
in a written reply.
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A year after conducting its first live
military exercise in Tibet, China has for the first time rehearsed
capture of mountain passes at heights beyond 5,000 metres with the help
of armoured vehicles and airborne troops.
The Chinese Defence Ministry makes this claim in a
short official report that describes the exercise as the “first joint
actual-troop drill of the PLA air and ground troops under
information-based conditions in frigid area with a high altitude”. The
joint drill involved the Chinese Air Force, ground troops, armoured
columns and a range of support entities.
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India and Israel continue
to silently expand their already expansive ties in the fields of
defence and homeland security, at a time when Tel Aviv is threatening
military action to quell Iran's nuclear ambitions despite New Delhi
seeking a diplomatic resolution.
Israeli Air Force
commander-in-chief, Major-General Ido Nehushtan, is the latest in the
series of high-level visits to India, which are kept under the radar due
to political sensitivities, to further bolster the "bilateral strategic
partnership''.
This comes close after Israeli minister of
public safety Yitzhak Aharonovitch held wide-ranging discussions with
home minister P Chidambaram on ways to expand ongoing cooperation in
counter-terrorism and intelligence-sharing during his low-profile visit
to New Delhi. Maj-Gen Nehushtan, on his part, discussed military
cooperation with IAF chief Air Chief Marshal N A K Browne on Monday, and
is slated to meet his naval and army counterparts and other MoD
officials on Tuesday.
Interestingly, as recently reported by
TOI, India is all set to order another two advanced Israeli Phalcon
AWACS (airborne warning and control systems), capable of detecting
hostile aircraft, cruise missiles and other incoming aerial threats far
before ground-based radars, at a cost of over $800 million.
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The Russian Air Force will take delivery of about 90 new fixed and rotary wing aircraft in 2012, a Defense Ministry
spokesman Told.
The Air Force will receive up to 10 Su-34 Fullback fighter-bombers,
about 10 Su-25SM Frogfoot attack fighters, and an unspecified number of
Su-35S Flanker-E multirole fighters, Col. Vladimir Drik said.
The Su-35S is Russia’s advanced “Generation 4++” fighter.
New acquisitions will also include over 20 attack helicopters, such
as the Mi-28N Night Hunter and the Ka-52 Alligator, as well as “highly
modernized” Mi-35 Hind helicopters.
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Rumors were circulating recently in the Korean military and defense
industry that U.S. intelligence agencies are investigating Korea's
weapons production and exports.
"The rumors said that CIA and
FBI agents have arrived and are investigating the Defense Acquisition
Program Administration and defense firms to find out whether Korea has
developed and exported weapons based on stolen U.S. military
technologies," a government official said Thursday. "But our own probe
into these rumors found no investigation of DAPA or defense firms by any
U.S. agencies."
The rumors began circulating after an unusual
joint Korea-U.S. investigation in September of suspicions that Korea
illegally disassembled the Tiger Eye, a key component of the
cutting-edge U.S.-made F-15K fighter jet equipment for low-altitude
night penetration attacks.
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The indigenous 4.5 generation J-11B has officially been spotted with 5th generation weapon.
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UAE's United-40 Armed Drone From Dubai Air Show
UAE's United-40 Armed Drone From Dubai Air Show
UAE's United-40 Armed Drone From Dubai Air Show
UAE's United-40 Armed Drone From Dubai Air Show
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India’s ''pride,'' the light combat aircraft (LCA) Tejas, will only be inducted into the Indian Air Force (IAF) in mid-2014, as the aircraft, about which the IAF had expressed some dissatisfaction, is yet to get the second initial operational clearance (IOC-2).
Answering queries from the media after inaugurating a conference here, Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal N A K Browne said the IOC-2 is expected only by mid-2012 and the final operational clearance could be scheduled only two years after that.
Pointing out that there are some delays in its development, he said: “The delay is caused by the active monsoon during which not many flights could be undertaken. But there are also some technical issues that have to be resolved as we go along.”
It is noteworthy that his predecessor Air Chief Marshal P V Naik was very vocal about the shortcomings of Tejas. He had, in fact, said the aircraft had not yet reached the category its promoters claimed it was on the day it received the IOC and that it had a long way to go before his men are able to fly it.
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Pakistan has upgraded the MFI-395 Super Mushshak with a completely new
integrated glass cockpit instead of traditional style of analog dials
and gauges.. The Super Mushshak is a basic trainer aircraft which is
offered to the International Military and commercial customers. by the
Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC).
The Super Mushshak features two large multi-function displays, one each
for the pilot and co-pilot. It is on the static line next to the JF-17
fighter.
The Mushshak series of basic trainers has been a great success for the
Pakistan Aeronautical Complex due to its export orders. Beside
commercial customers PAC has sold Mushshak trainer to the Pakistan Air
Force & Pakistan Army (149), Iranian Air Force (25), Royal Saudi Air
Force (20), Royal Air Force of Oman (8), Egyptian Air Force (54) and
the Syrian Air Force (6).
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PAF Saab-2000 Erieye AEW&C Aircraft
PAF Saab-2000 Erieye AEW&C Aircraft
PAF Saab-2000 Erieye AEW&C Aircraft
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