ASIAN DEFENCE

SAC 5th Generation Stealth Fighter F-60 SAC 5th Generation Stealth Fighter F-60

Boeing P8-I The Indian Navy will acquire 12 more Long Range Maritime Reconnaissance (LRMR) aircraft in addition to the 12 Boeing P8-I already ordered or being ordered. Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Nirmal Verma told India Strategic in an interview that the Navy was satisfied with the progress of the first eight Indian P8-Is being built by Boeing under a 2009 order and that the second order for four more aircraft was being processed to be placed within the current fiscal ending March 2012. The Government had cleared these 12 aircraft already as requested by the Navy, and at a later date, it was being planned to acquire 12 more LRMRs for offshore surveillance and protection of the Indian waters and interests, bringing the total to 24, he said.

Russian industry and defense leaders announced plans last week to bankroll the Russian Foundation for Advanced Research Projects in the Defense Industry. Russia’s newly re-coronated president, Vladimir Putin, has already sent a bill to parliament to authorize the agency, which will be tasked with keeping track of projects that “can ensure Russian superiority in defense technology,” according to news service RIA Novosti. One possible location is near the Gromov Flight Research Institute — an experimental aircraft test base — to Moscow’s southeast. The future site, though, may also resemble the Skolkovo Innovation Center, a sort of Silicon Valley for Russia’s high-tech companies located on the city’s opposite end. But instead of focusing on civilian IT and biotech like at Skolkovo, the companies near Gromov would take charge of “all high-risk and fundamental research projects in the military-industrial complex,” Dmitry Rogozin, chief of Russia’s defense industry, said. ...

Russia, India's strongest international partner, is trying its hand at engaging Pakistan, an exercise that will be watched carefully in New Delhi. Vladimir Putin, Russian president, will be in Islamabad on September 26 for a "quadrilateral" meeting with Tajikistan, Pakistan and Afghanistan on the future of Afghanistan. Putin will also have a first-ever bilateral summit in Islamabad along with the quadrilateral. The "quadrilateral" last met in Dushanbe in 2011. India and the US recently started a trilateral dialogue with Afghanistan to continue assisting Afghan development after the Nato withdrawal in 2014. Indian analysts believe this visit could be the beginning of a deeper strategic realignment that brings together various intersecting interests. Prabhat Shukla, former envoy to Russia, says, "The Russian policy of opening up to Pakistan is a well-settled response to a perceived opening up by India towards the US. We saw it in the late 1...

PLAAF J-20 Stealth Fighter PLAAF J-20 Stealth Fighter PLAAF J-20 Stealth Fighter PLAAF J-20 Stealth Fighter

Indian Phalcon AWACS In India Clearances are underway to initially develop two AWACS aircraft, with four more to follow at a later stage, under the new `AWACS-India' project to be executed by DRDO and its Bangalore-based Centre for Air Borne Systems (CABS). Under it, 360-degree AESA (active electronically scanned array) radars will be mounted on large aircraft like IL-76, Boeing or Airbus said a DRDO source. Potent force-multipliers like AWACS or AEW&C (airborne early warning and control) systems have changed the entire nature of air warfare because they can detect incoming aerial threats, ranging from fighters to cruise missiles, much before ground-based radars. They also serve to direct air defence fighters during combat operations with enemy jets and also help in tracking troop build-ups. Pakistan already has four Swedish Saab-2000 AEW&C aircraft, with four more Chinese ZDK-03 AWACS in the pipeline. China has around 20 AWACS, a mix of ne...

UFO Near Shenzhou 9 Rocket TV viewers watching the Shenzhou 9 mission liftoff on Saturday evening might have seen two UFOs approach the rocket as it exited the earth's atmosphere. Video recorded by infrared cameras revealed two shining objects rapidly moving toward the rocket from opposite sides of the Long March 2F rocket about four minutes and 11 seconds after liftoff. The objects could not have been stars as none were visible during the 6:37 pm launch time, said Wang Sichao, a researcher at the Purple Mountain Observatory in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province. Wang ruled out the possibility the objects were parts of the rocket, as they appeared ahead of its trajectory, as well as the theory they were birds since the objects left extremely visible heat signatures.

According to a daily “The News” more than 100 Pakistani Baloch dissidents have been sent to India by the Indian consulate located in Kandhar (Afghanistan) for six-months training. These people were selected from areas bordering Pakistan as well as Baloch nationals residing in different camps in Kandhar. They have been promised a salary of $ 500- 1,000 on their return to Afghanistan. They will be imparted training in the fields of sniper shooting, handling of technical equipment such as GPS, wireless sets and intelligence gathering techniques. The handlers of the dissident Baloch elements plan to assign different targets in Baluchistan and Sindh provinces to the trained Baloch militants for sabotage and terrorist activities. Ever since the Taliban were ousted from power and foreign troops landed in Afghanistan in late 2001, the Indians have been using the Afghan soil for sabotage and terrorist acts in Pakistan. Since 9/11, Indian influence has increased tremendously. Ind...

Leopard 2 Tank Saudi Arabia wants to buy 600 to 800 Leopard battle tanks from Germany, at least twice the number previously expected, a German newspaper reported on Sunday.  A deal for around 300 tanks was about to be signed, Bild am Sonntag newspaper said in a report sent to Reuters ahead of publication.  The newspaper said that while there was opposition to the deal in Germany’s Chancellery, Foreign Ministry and Defence Ministry, there was support for it within the Economy Ministry.  “The Saudi order could secure the future of German tank-makers Krauss-Maffei Wegman and Rheinmetall, which urgently need new markets because of the restructuring of the German army,” said Bild am Sonntag.   A German government spokeswoman declined to comment.

 From 2013 onwards, IAF will kick off a major upgrade in its entire training programme for pilots who go on to fly expensive top-notch fighter jets, transport aircraft and helicopters. Better initiation into the intricacies of combat flying, inherently dangerous in contrast to civil aviation, is critical for new pilots since over 39% of the 1,010 crashes recorded by IAF since 1970 have been attributed to "human error (aircrew)". Forced to drastically cut down the quantum of flying for pilots to only 25 hours in Stage-I "basic" training for the last three to four years due to acute shortage of trainer aircraft, IAF now plans to ramp it up to 65 flying hours, with an additional 25 hours on advanced simulators. This will be possible with fast-track induction of 75 Swiss Pilatus PC-7 basic trainer aircraft (BTA) under the Rs 2,900- crore deal inked last month after a long delay. "The Swiss have promised to begin deliveries by next January itself,...

 Norinco New MBT-3000 Tank China’s North Industries Corporation (NORINCO) also displayed their Main Battle Tank 3000 the company hopes to deliver to the Chinese Army in two years, Cheng said. It’s one of the few, if not the only, company to be developing a main battle tank. The tank can reach speeds up to 42 miles per hour with a cruising range of 500 km. It has a fording depth of four to five meters and a trench of 2.7 meters. The maximum gradient is 60 percent. Engineers mounted a 125mm smoothbore gun onto the MBT 3000. The main gun can fire APFSDS, HEAT and HE shells and gun launched missiles with a maximum missile range reaching 5,000 meters. MBT 3000 also features a 12.7 mm anti-aircraft machine gun and a 7.62mm coaxial machine gun. Tankers can also fire from 8 76mm smoke grenade launchers and 4 76mm shrapnel grenade launchers.

T-50 Russia's United Aircraft Corporation  is to introduce a 4th Sukhoi T-50 stealth fighter into its test and development program this year, the company's President Mikhail Pogosyan said on Thursday. "We are now testing three aircraft. A 4th will be brought in this year," he said. Pogosyan had said earlier this year that the firm would introduce a fourth aircraft into the test program but did not disclose when. The first production standard T-50 is due to enter service with the Russian Air Force by 2015, and the first evaluation example by 2013. The service plans to acquire 60 of the fifth-generation fighters.

Richard Clarke, a former cybersecurity and cyberterrorism advisor for the White House, was a U.S. government employee for 30 years: between 1973 and 2003. He worked during the times of Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and even George W. Bush. He may not be working under current U.S. president Barack Obama, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have something to warning about. He says state-sanctioned Chinese hackers are stealing R&D from U.S. companies, threatening the long-term competitiveness of America. We’ve heard this before, but the way Clarke puts it makes the situation look even more dire. “I’m about to say something that people think is an exaggeration, but I think the evidence is pretty strong,” Clarke said during an interview. “Every major company in the United States has already been penetrated by China. My greatest fear is that, rather than having a cyber-Pearl Harbor event, we will instead have this death of a thousand cuts. Where we lose o...

Russia and Israel are negotiating a joint project to build an unmanned aerial vehicle, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said on Wednesday. “We are negotiating with Israel. Our aim is to persuade them to start technological cooperation and to develop a product that will be used in both countries, and could also be sold to third countries,” Rogozin said in an interview with the Rossia-24 TV channel. Russia will no longer buy ready-made weapon systems in the West but is only interested in new technology, said Rogozin, who is responsible for Russia's military-industrial complex. “Technology should be attracted by localizing production on Russian territory,” Rogozin noted. In mid-May a source in the Russian defense industry said Moscow may buy a large new consignment of unmanned aerial vehicles from Israel and 24 command and control systems worth around $50 million in the foreseeable future.

 F/A-18F Super Hornets Australian defense officials are set to go to the USA this week for an update from Lockheed Martin, the manufacturer of the JSF F-35 Lightening II, about the delivery schedule of the F-35 jets. The country plans to buy up to 100 F-35 fighters and has placed an initial order for 14. The Royal Australian Air Force  was expected to induct the first batch of F-35 advanced stealth fighters by 2018. However, the US Air Force too is buying the same variant of the Joint Strike Fighter as the RAAF and has pushed back the dates by which it expects to have its first squadrons operational from mid-2016 to 2017 -- and possibly now to mid-2018, the news report said. Despite assurances from Lockheed Martin   that the first 14 fighters will be delivered to it on time, Australian defense officials believe that deployment of the new generation fighters in the RAAF would not happen before 2020 or even later.

India is to acquire at least eight warships from South Korea in a bid to bolster its maritime defense, under a proposed defense deal likely to be inked soon, local media reported. As part of a growing "strategic partnership" with South Korea, India will buy at least eight advanced minesweeping and hunting warships -- it will get two of the vessels from South Korean firm Kangnam Corporation, while the other six will be manufactured by Goa Shipyard in western India after transfer of technology, 'The Times of India' newspaper reported. "The contract is now being finalized after the conclusion of the commercial negotiations," an unnamed source was quoted as saying. India will used these warships to detect and destroy underwater mines, often planted by both state as well as non-state actors, the report said.

DDG-1000 Destroyer The U.S. is building "the most advanced" warship in history - DDG-1000 destroyer of Zumwalt class that the Pentagon called a "super-stealth silver bullet." It will be able to move quietly along the coast, including in the shallows, hitting the targets of the enemy with electromagnetic rail guns, deceiving enemy radars. Americans plan to equip its fleet in the Asia-Pacific region with these ships "from sci-fi movies". It is to the shores of China frightening with the increase of its military where the Pentagon intends to relocate 60% of its ships in 2020 in the framework of the renewed military strategy. The new destroyers are being built in Maine, the first will be launched as early as 2014, the Associated Press reported. Visiting the local shipyard in April, the head of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Grinert praised the ships, saying that they would be the hope in the future. He listed the main advantages: ...

INS Vikramaditya INS Vikramaditya aircraft carrier took to the sea for the first time on Friday.  The carrier sailed out for crucial pre-delivery trials in the early hours of June 8 from the berth of the Sevmash shipyard in Russia’s northern city of Severodvinsk, where the former Soviet heavy aviation cruiser Gorshkov had been converted into a regular aircraft carrier christened Vikramaditya.  During the trials, scheduled to last 120 days, all the ship’s systems will be tested.  “The main part of the trials is testing aircraft takeoff and landing,” Sevmash chief Andrei Dyachkov told. “The programme of tests is very tight as deck aviation can operate only from June to September in the harsh conditions of Arctic seas.”  The test flights will be carried out using two Russian aircraft, MiG-29K and MiG-35, flown by Russian pilots. Russia last year delivered to the Indian Navy 12 MiG-29K single-seaters and 4 MiG-29KUB two-seaters, w...

PAF J-10 Model

China's ASN-218 UAV China's ASN-218 UAV China's ASN-218 UAV

China's ASN-216 UAV China's ASN-216 UAV China's ASN-216 UAV

China's ASN-209F UAV China's ASN-209F UAV China's ASN-209F UAV

China's New 6 Barreled Machine Gun

Russian President Vladimir Putin emphasized burgeoning military ties with China on Wednesday on the second day of a visit to his nation's eastern neighbor. Putin told Vice President Xi Jinping that he and Chinese President Hu Jintao have vowed to expand military exchanges and he also recalled recent Russian-Chinese naval exercises in the Yellow Sea. Military exchanges between Moscow and Beijing have accelerated under a regional security grouping that has hosted regular border protection and anti-terrorism drills. China is a major customer for Russian fighters, submarines, missiles frigates, and other high-tech arms, but mistrust lingers from their Cold War rivalry. Ties have warmed steadily, however, over Putin's decade-long dominance of Russian political life. Putin's visit is his first to China since returning to Russia's presidency last month and comes ahead of his first visit to the U.S. in a move seen as signaling an eastward pivot...

Chinese analysts say that US efforts to make India part of its alliance against China will not succeed India pursued independent foreign policy focusing on its national interests. US defence secretary Leon Panetta's visit to New Delhi is as part of Washington's efforts to make it part of alliance against Beijing but India's interest lie with Beijing, Wang Dehua, a specialist on South Asia studies at the Shanghai Institute for International Studies said. "It seems that the US is sparing no efforts in forging a semi-circle of alliance against China from the South" as Panetta has attended the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore and afterward visited Vietnam and India, Wang, a specialist on South Asia told state-run Global Times which carried an article highlighting Panetta's visit to New Delhi. "But India has its own agenda in the region," Wang said noting that India wants to be independent in making its own foreign policies while maximis...

China's New Type 056 Corvette China's New Type 056 Corvette 

  TF-X Project

 Cruise Missile Hatf VII Babur Pakistan on Tuesday conducted a successful test fire of the multi-tube, indigenously developed Cruise Missile Hatf-VII (Babur), having a range of 700 km. According to ISPR statement, Babur Cruise Missile is a low flying, terrain hugging missile with high maneuverability, pin point accuracy and radar avoidance features. It can carry both nuclear and conventional warheads and has stealth capabilities. It also incorporates the most modern cruise missile technology of Terrain Contour Matching (TERCOM) and Digital Scene Matching and Area Co-relation (DSMAC), which enhances its precision and effectiveness manifolds. The missile was launched from a state of the art multi tube Missile Launch Vehicle (MLV) which significantly enhances the targeting and employment options of Babur Weapon System in both the conventional and nuclear modes.

 Hatf -VIII Ra'ad ALCM Pakistan Conducted a Successful Flight Test of the indigenously developed Air Launched Cruise Missile, Hatf-VIII (Ra’ad).   The Ra’ad Missile, with a range of over 350 KM, enables Pakistan to achieve strategic standoff capability on land and at Sea. ‘Cruise Technology’ is extremely complex and has been developed by only a few countries in the world.  The state of the art Ra’ad Cruise Missile with Stealth Capabilities is a Low Altitude, Terrain Hugging Missile with high maneuverability, and can deliver nuclear and conventional warheads with pin point accuracy. A major additional feature of today’s test was the effective employment of the National Command Authority’s fully automated Strategic Command and Control Support System (SCCSS).  It has enabled robust Command and Control capability of all strategic assets with round the clock situational awareness in a digitized network centric environment to decision makers ...