ASIAN DEFENCE

Pakistan has witnessed new defense acquisitions in this decade than any other, and in the center of it all is the new fighter which was designed by China with partial funding from Pakistan. It is formally known as JF-17 Thunder. When the fighter was in development, Pakistani online communities were jumping with excitement comparing it with its arch rival India’s modern combatants Su-30MKI, Mig-29S & Mirage-2000H. There were claims of it featuring western Radars and long range missiles, & Chinese ordering some due to its superior capabilities. But the reality is far from it. China having spent significant amount of money into a fighter which it is never going to use, most probably forced Pakistan to accept its avionics to offset some its development costs. Chinese who are known for their self reliance first and quality next, are further downgrading JF-17s capabilities with their poorly copy-pirated avionics. Along with their dubious weapons, any chance of JF...

Swedish maker of the Gripen jet fighter, is focusing on winning smaller orders from as many as nine countries after being excluded from India’s military program, Chief Executive Officer Hakan Buskhe said. Saab sees potential for Gripen orders in Brazil, Romania, Croatia, Denmark, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Hungary and the Czech Republic, Buskhe said in an interview today. Hungary and the Czech Republic are existing customers that may expand their orders, he said. “We feel good about the Gripen program, it has lots of potential,” Buskhe said, adding that it “remains a profitable business.” India’s defense ministry informed Saab April 27 that the Gripen hadn’t been shortlisted for its plan to buy 126 jets.

Russian MiG-35 fighter jet faces an uncertain future after missing out on a lucrative contract with India. The Asian country, which has long been a major trading partner for the Russian defence sector, had planned the biggest arms contract of the century, ordering 126 mid-range multipurpose fighters at a cost of more than $10 billion. But the MiG bid was shot down by the French Rafale and the Typhoon Eurofighter, built by an Italian-British consortium. And apart from the immediate loss of business, the news provokes fears that the Russian jet might now be a hard sell elsewhere in the world. Unfounded confidence Russia had good grounds to believe the MiG-35 would win the contract, Kommersant reported.

Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Rao Qamar Suleman on Thursday said that Pakistani forces are aware of prevailing situation and fully prepared to meet all challenges. He was addressing to passing out parade of graduating and commissioning cadets and graduates from Flying, Aeronautical Engineering , air defence and general services at Pakistan Air Force (PAF) Academy Risalpur. He said today we are living in uncertain times when nation faces many internal and external threats. In recent military operations against militants and criminals have undoubtedly proved that military in Pakistan has the capability and the will to full-fill its obligations. Air Chief said “By the grace of Allah, Pakistan Air Force has inducted state-of-the-art weapon systems and its modernization drive is on track. He said “We do not want to accumulate huge inventory of weapons, our endeavor is to develop capabilities that are required to deter and defeat all internal and external t...

Lockheed Martin has received an Undefinitized Contract Action from the US Government for the Foreign Military Sale of an additional C 130J to Israel, with funding for advanced procurement items for a third aircraft. Israel ordered its first C-130J in April last year and will receive that aircraft in spring 2013. The next two aircraft will be delivered in late 2013 and late 2014 respectively, Lockheed said in a statement.

Pakistan,  Conducted a successful Flight Test of the indigenously developed Air Launched Cruise Missile, Hatf-VIII (Ra’ad). The missile test was conducted as part of the continuous process of improving the technical parameters of the weapon system. The Ra’ad Missile, with a range of over 350 km, has been developed exclusively for launch from Aerial Platforms.  This missile system has enabled Pakistan to achieve a greater strategic stand off capability on land and at sea. ‘Cruise Technology’ is extremely complex and has been developed by only a few countries in the world.

The BrahMos Supersonic cruise missile will be inducted into the Air Force in 2012, a top Defence Research and Development Organisation official said. The missile has already been inducted into the army and navy, BrahMos Aerospace Managing Director and Chief Controller, DRDO, A Sivathanu Pillai, told reporters at Chunkankadai, near here. The BrahMos missile, a joint venture of India and Russia, is the first such in the world, he claimed.

An Intermediate Jet Trainer (IJT) prototype aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF) crashed at Tamil Nadu's Krishnagiri district on Thursday. Both the pilots were ejected safely, said IAF officials. The accident took place while the aircraft was on routine flight testing on Thursday afternoon.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani stated that his government wants to turn the Pakistan Air Force into a modernized and leading air force of the world. This statement was made during his conversation with the Chief of the Air Staff Air Marshal Rao Qamar Suleman, who called upon Gilani at the Prime Minister’s House. He gave assurance to the Pakistan Air Force’s chief government that he’ll offer complete support to make sure the project, initiated by the air force, will be successfully completed. Qumar Suleman further elaborated about the activities of the operation, and some additional ongoing projects that he PAF has undertaken.

The Indian Air Force (IAF) is scouting the global arms market for stand-off missiles for its modern fighter jets to shore up their capability to shoot down enemy aircraft beyond visual range, an officer said Monday. The IAF has issued a request for information (RFI) to global manufacturers of stand-off missiles fitted with light warheads that are capable of hitting enemy planes without engaging them in close dogfights, the officer said here. "Such missiles become very potent when linked with airborne early warning and control systems (AWACS) that provide inputs on enemy missiles and aircraft beyond visual range. We do possess AWACS and we can make best use of these missiles," the officer added.

India will deploy thousands of additional troops and build airstrips along its remote northeastern border with China, in a sign of persisting wariness between the two countries despite growing business ties. India and China fought a brief war over their 3,500-kilometre Himalayan border in 1962, and both sides claim the other is occupying big but largely uninhabited chunks of their territory. Although India and China have signed a treaty to maintain “peace and tranquility” along the disputed frontier and agreed to find a political solution to the row, talks have made little progress.

The Indian Air Force's south west air command (SWAC) will have a Su-30MKI squadron permanently based at Jodhpur sometime in the next two years, according to air marshal AK Gogoi, AOC-in-C of SWAC. Speaking here on Wednesday, air marshal Gogoi said the air force was strengthening itself and would be able to deal with any sort of threat especially from Pakistan and China. Air marshal Gogoi was on a three-day visit to the Jodhpur air base, the headquarters of SWAC, his first after assuming command. Talking about the deployment of the DRDO-developed medium range, surface-to-air, Akash missile, air marshal Gogoi, two squadrons of these missiles were soon be deployed, of which one will be at Pune, which falls under SWAC's command. The other deployment would be at Gwalior. "Besides this, six more squadrons will be deployed in the region to check any threat from China," he added.

After launching development of stealth UCAVs (unmanned combat aerial vehicles), India is now also looking at designing solar-powered spy drones which can cruise in the sky for several days at a time. The high-altitude, long endurance (HALE) solar-powered UAV will not just reduce Indian military's carbon footprint but more importantly provide a cost-effective and flexible 24x7 ISTAR (intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance) platform akin to "a pseudo-satellite" orbiting closer to the ground. "Yes, Army and IAF have asked us to develop the solar-powered HALE UAV. Initial work is in progress for such a drone which can undertake a 15-day continuous flight over 30,000-feet," DRDO's chief controller R&D (aeronautics) Dr Prahlada told TOI.

   Pakistan and Turkey will start three days of naval exercises April 22 to strengthen maritime security cooperation in the North Arabian and adjoining seas as part of the battle against piracy, Pakistan Navy spokesman Capt. Shakeel said. Pakistan Navy Frigate PNS Alamgir arrived at Golcuk Naval Base, Turkey, April 21, to carry out a number of harbour and high-seas exercises with the Turkish Navy.

The United States will provide Pakistan with 85 small "Raven" drone aircraft, a U.S. military official told  on Thursday, a key step to meeting Islamabad's calls for access to U.S. drone technology. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, declined to disclose the cost or model of the non-lethal, short-range aircraft.

The Pakistan Air Force is stronger than ever. Since the last Indo-Pak air war of 1971, the Pakistan Air Force has with steely determination built up numbers, lethal capabilities and a combat force now counted as one of the most disciplined and well-trained air forces in the world. Today has a disturbing proof that all this has made India worried. A recent presentation by the defence intelligence establishment paints a morbid picture of how the numbers and capability advantage that the Indian Air Force has always found comfort in is rapidly slipping away. Headlines Today has accessed the recent presentation made to the Ministry of Defence. The document makes singularly ominous projections. The most glaring warning is about combat force ratio. The presentation says that the ratio of 1:1.7 is likely to progressively dip to 1:1.2 by the end of 2012. It describes this as a "historic low". It also says that the traditional hi-tech advantage is almost equal now ...

Another rumor circulated on the Internet recently involving the alleged J-18, China's first warplane with vertical/short takeoff and landing capabilities. Earlier this month, citing a report by Japan's Asahi Shimbun newspaper, Phoenix Television said the J-18 had completed a test flight at a field base in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The report said the wings of the jet, similar to Russia's Su-33, a carrier-based multi-role fighter, could be folded, and suspected that it would be installed on China's future aircraft carrier. The report came at the same time as foreign media speculated that China's first aircraft carrier, a modification of the Varyag bought from Ukraine, would take to the oceans in July. The Chinese military has denied such reports.

The Indian Air Force will deploy two squadrons of its frontline air superiority Su-30MKI fighter here. "We have decided to deploy two squadrons of Su-30MKI fighter squadrons in Jodhpur in next two years," South Western Air Command chief Air Marshal A K Gogoi told reporters here. Gogoi is on a three-day visit to the air force bases in and around Jodhpur. Jodhpur will be the first Su-30MKI base along the Pakistan border. Till now, the IAF has deployed its main strike fighter in Lohegaon near Pune, Bareilly, and Tezpur and Chabua in Assam. IAF also plans to deploy the aircraft at its Halwara air base in Punjab. IAF has started operating Su-30s in high-altitude areas too and its squadrons on a regular basis practice flights from the Leh air base in Jammu and Kashmir.

Pakistan Successfully conducted the 1 st flight test of the newly developed Short Range Surface to Surface Multi Tube Ballistic Missile Hatf IX (NASR). The missile has been developed to add deterrence value to Pakistan’s Strategic Weapons Development programme at shorter ranges. NASR, with a range of 60 km, carries nuclear warheads of appropriate yield with high accuracy, shoot and scoot attributes. This quick response system addresses the need to deter evolving threats. The test was witnessed by Director General Strategic Plans Division, Lieutenant General (Retired) Khalid Ahmed Kidwai, Chairman NESCOM Mr Irfan Burney, senior officers from the strategic forces, scientists and engineers of strategic organizations.

The Report Is From Local Pakistani Newspaper Says That Pakistan and China have sign an Agreement on The Development Of Stealth Version Of Jf-17 Thunder Fighter Aircraft.

The induction of third generation anti-tank Nag missile is likely to be delayed by more than a year with the Army seeking improvements to the specially-made missile carrier, Namica. After the completion of the missile's “final validation trials” in the Chandan Air Force ranges in Rajasthan in July last, it was anticipated that it would be inducted into the Army this year.  During the trials, the missile proved its capability against both moving and stationary targets, covering varying ranges of 500 meters to 2,600 metres. The Namica too established its “channel-crossing ability” and manoeuvred across the Indira Gandhi Canal at Nachna in Rajasthan during flotation trials time. Each carrier can carry 12 missiles with eight of them in ready-to-fire mode. Having a maximum range of four km, the Nag is equipped with the highly potent HEAT (High Explosive Anti-Tank) warhead.

Tata  Co. said Monday its Strategic Electronics Division has been awarded a contract to improve India's defence airfields' capabilities to handle modern combat aircraft being inducted by the Indian Air Force. The order is from India's defence ministry for the so-called program, Modernisation of Airfield Infrastructure - Phase I, Tata Power said. Tata Power didn't give any other details, including the value of the contract and the number of airfields it will upgrade.

A Pakistani Newspaper Monday said that the tank gun is ready to be delivered to the Heavy Industries Taxila (HIT) for Al-Khalid and Al-Zarar tanks. A tank gun is the main armament of a tank. HIT used to earlier procure 125 millimetre 'blanks' from France for the army's two main battle tanks. Blanks are the final shape of the gun barrel before it is finished. It was then fitted into the tank at HIT. While Al-Khalid - a joint venture between Pakistan and China - has been with the army since 2001, Al-Zarar is an upgraded T-59 tank. The country's first blank was produced at the Heavy Mechanical Complex (HMC) in Taxila.

Currently there are only around 500 type 99 of all variant and likely less than a thousand will be build. The type 96 while less advanced is the primary main battle tank of the PLA with 1,500 to 2,500 of all variants in service and is still being produced. The type 96G has thermal sights shared by the commander and gunner while all three crew have night vision. The commander can target for the gunner, giving the type 96G hunter killer capabilities. The main gun of the type 96G is the same as the type 99G capable of firing depleted uranium APFDS and AT 11 missiles. The armor is thinner but its just as advanced as the type 99 armor. Its also air transportable.