ASIAN DEFENCE

Russian Strategic Missile Defense troops have begun deploying the new Nebo-M (Heaven-M) anti-missile radar facility systems, a spokesman from the Russian Defense Ministry’s press service said Thursday. “The mobile multi-range programmable Nebo-M complex is capable of performing tasks of providing information on small-sized aerodynamic and hypersonic targets in difficult jamming background, as well as provide information for anti-missile weapon systems ,” the spokesman said. NEBO-SV-RLS-7S           The deployment, construction and development of Russia’s anti-missile systems have become a top priority for the Russian Defense Ministry, predominantly due to the expansion of a US anti-ballistic missile system in Eastern Europe, in particular in Romania, Turkey and Poland, as well as in Spain.

India and Russia have generally agreed upon the amount and division of work during the research and development (R&D) stage of the fifth generation fighter aircraft (FGFA) project.  A contract for the R&D phase is being prepared and expected to be signed this year, said Yuli Slyusar, president and chairman of Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) at Aero India 2015 in Bengaluru. “The Russian and Indian parties have generally agreed on the work share of each,” said company officials but refused to divulge specific details at this stage. The work share of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has been a contentious issue as the project will have equal investment between India and Russia and is likely to cost over $30 billion for about 400 aircraft. India plans to induct 144 of them. PAKFA T-50_ shark_camouflage But HAL’s share in the work has been limited to a meagre 13 per cent so far which will not build any critical technological ga...

The Air Force's current plans for high-altitude surveillance, keeping the decades-old U-2 flying while upgrading the new RQ-4 Global Hawk drone, will not meet the demands of the military for reconnaissance, and the service needs to start again with a new aircraft to replace both spy plans, the head of Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works said. The Air Force's fiscal 2016 budget request will keep the U-2 flying until 2019 while funding upgrades to the Global Hawk's sensor package to put the drone on par with the aging spy plane. The move will have the drone take over the spy plane's missions in full, though the differences in capabilities means that neither aircraft can really do the other's job. "I ask myself, when will a program be initiated, which I think will be unmanned, to replace both and do the full set of missions accomplished by both the U-2 and the Global Hawk " said Rob Weiss, the executive vice president and general manager of Lo...

The new Be'sat submarine will have a displacement of 1,300 tons and will be capable of launching cruise missiles as well as torpedos. Iran is building a new submarine, called Be'sat, which will be capable of firing cruise missiles and laying underwater mines, the country's Fars News Agency reported. "The Navy's new subsurface vessel will be ready and launched soon to enhance the Army's power," Iranian Army Commander Major General Ataollah Salehi told reporters in December. Be'sat submarine The submarine will be 60 meters long and have a displacement of over 1,300 tons. It will have six bays for torpedoes and marine cruise missiles. The Be'sat, will be Iran's biggest domestically made submarine. The Iranian Navy also operates three Russian Kilo-class submarines with a displacement of 2,325 tons and six torpedo tubes but no cruise missile capacity.

The Russian military plans to buy an additional number of Ilyushin IL-76 MD-90A transport planes as part of its modernization program. The IL-76 MD-90A is an updated version of the IL-76MD, which itself is based on the IL-76 aircraft platform. "By 2020 we expect to have all 39 such aircraft lined up as part of the contract we signed with the Defense Ministry in 2012,” said  Sergei Artyukhov, deputy head of the new plane’s maker, the Ilyushin Aviation Complex, a subsidiary of the United Aviation Corporation (UAC). Il-76MD-90A “The new program for 2020-2025 provides for the delivery of more IL-76 MD-90A planes for our Air Force,” he added.  Artyukhov earlier said the Ilyushin Aviation Complex was also eyeing India and China as potential buyers of the new aircraft. The IL-76MD-90A was developed to transport a range of military equipment, armed personnel, heavy and lon...

According to Indian ambassador in Moscow, defense companies involved in a joint project with Russia to build a Fifth-Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) are satisfied with their access to Russian technologies. MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Indian defense companies involved in a joint project with Russia to build a Fifth-Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) are satisfied with their access to Russian technologies, the Indian ambassador in Moscow said, denying media reports that Moscow withheld information from New Delhi.    "We have had excellent results in our bilateral cooperation and are fully satisfied with the access to technologies that our defense enterprises get. We proceed with the same level of cooperation in the development of the FGFA ," Ambassador Pundi Srinivasan Raghavan told RIA Novosti. This remark came after IHS Jane's Defence Weekly magazine claimed last September that India ha...

China carried out a flight test of its new JL-2 submarine-launched ballistic missile last month, highlighting Beijing’s nuclear buildup of missile submarines. The JL-2 flight test took place Jan. 23, according to defense officials familiar with details of the test. No details of the test were available. China in the past has conducted JL-2 flight tests from the Bohai Sea. Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Jeff Pool declined to comment on the test. But Lt. Col. Pool said the JL-2 was discussed in the Pentagon’s most recent annual report on the Chinese military as one part of the People’s Liberation Army Navy’s “first credible long-range sea-based nuclear deterrent.” The JL-2 test took place, coincidentally, on the same day that North Korea conducted what Pentagon officials said was the first flight test of a developmental submarine-launched ballistic missile called the KN-11 . Officials said there did not appear to be any linkage between the two tests. The congressional...

Russia may be leveraging India's anger at  French aerospace firm Dassault to kill a $20 billion aircraft deal, after allegations that the company seriously misled New Delhi on pricing its Rafale fighter jets. After three years in limbo, Indian newspaper Business Standard reported on Monday that India's defense ministry now considers the contract "essentially dead."  Moscow lost out on the contract in 2012, when India chose Dassault's Rafale fighters over Russia's MiG-35 multi-role aircraft . With tensions between Russia and France high following Paris' decision last year to delay the delivery of two Mistral-class warships over conflict in Ukraine, analysts said that politics may have played a role in the demise of the French aerospace deal.  "Obviously, Russia is working to kill the French contract and they are [attacking] from all direction...

Pakistan will directly import engines from Russia to manufacture its JF-17 Thunder fighter jets . The engines were earlier imported via China. According to sources in ministry of defence production, China has recently issued no objection certificate (NOC) to Pakistan, which was earlier producing the fighter jet as a joint venture with China. “The Chinese NOC now allows Pakistan to import fighter jet engines from Russia directly,” a source said. “This will not only reduce the cost of production of the fighter jet but will also lead to enhanced defence cooperation between Russia and Pakistan.” Islamabad and Moscow had recently agreed to boost cooperation in several spheres including that of defence during the recent Russian defence minister’s visit to Pakistan. “This is a significant move since Pakistan had never struck any direct defence deal with Russia,” the sources said. RD-93 “Russia was clearly tilted towards India and the new Russian policy towards Pa...

Pakistan/China likely to get first customer. Argentina and China signed deal for 20 FC-1 fighter aircraft in order to increase aerial capabilities of the Argentina. The move, which further raised tensions in the South Atlantic last night, follows a three-day visit by President Kristina de Kirchner to Beijing last week, in which Argentina secured 15 economic agreements and significant financial investment to bolster its failing economy. It comes after a decision by Buenos Aires to abandon talks with Vladimir Putin to secure 12 Sukhoi Su-24 'Fencer" bombers . Last night sources told the Sunday Express that the deal with Russia, revealed by the Sunday Express in September, had stalled after a series of delays and concerns over post-sale maintenance. However, that failure will see Argentina now take delivery of 20 of the Chinese-made fighter jets. In a "working group" formed by the two countries, Beijing agreed to supply around 20 FC-1 fighter j...

While conflict between the  United States and Russia over Ukraine has raised talk of a new Cold War, another feature of that era has also begun to re-emerge — the missile race . A new arms rivalry between Russia and the United States is heating up as the two major military powers rush to develop a new class of hypersonic, non-nuclear missiles that can strike any target on the globe within one hour of launch with devastating accuracy. The United States is leading the chase for the new weapons, which Russia firmly believes poses a significant threat to its own nuclear missile forces.  "Russia considers this trend as a path to obtaining [non-nuclear] means of depriving Russia of its deterrent capability," Dr. Eugene Miasnikov, director of the Moscow-based Center for Arms Control, Energy and Environmental Studies told The Mo...

Russia is apparently planning an enlarged naval fleet. 12 Project 955 "Borei" submaines . Eight 955s have been ordered under the SAP 2020 . Four more are planned after 2020. The Borei has a compact and integrated hydrodynamically efficient hull for reduced broadband noise and the first ever use of pump-jet propulsion on a Russian nuclear submarine. The Borei submarines are approximately 170 metres (560 ft) long. They have a maximum submerged speed of at least 46 kilometres per hour (25 kn; 29 mph). They are equipped with a floating rescue chamber designed to fit in the whole crew. Smaller than the Typhoon-class , the Boreis were initially slated to carry 12 missiles but are able to carry 4 more due to the decrease in mass of the 36-ton Bulava SLBM ( a modified version of the Topol-M ICBM ) over the originally proposed R-39UTTH Bark . Cost is some 23 bln RUR ($890 million USD), in comparison the cost of an Ohio-class SSBN was around 2 billion USD per...

During the Wenchuan Earthquake in 2008, an all-red Russian-made M-26 helicopter , the largest helicopter in the world, was frequently seen on TV. It lifted a large number of badly-needed goods and materials to the disaster-hit areas, impressing the public. However, there were only two M-26 helicopters in China at that time, and they were the only helicopters that were able to lift those lifesaving heavy-duty machines. The pain of Wenchuan is also the pain of the helicopter industry in China. After that, China began to speed up the development of heavy helicopters, and China and Russia's joint development of heavy helicopters has become a hot spot. An insider from the military industry system of Russia said in an interview that the heavy helicopter being jointly developed by China and Russia is slightly smaller than the M-26 helicopter . With China's needs taken into full consideration, it is usable at high altitude, reported Interfax, the Russian news age...

The Russian Air Force   has performed bomb-carrying trials with its Ilyushin Il-76 'Candid' strategic transport aircraft , the company announced on 30 January. In the exercise, which took place in the Tver region of the country north of Moscow , an Il-76MD was fitted with P-50T practice bombs on four underwing hardpoints .   Il-76 'Bombers   The modification is geared at enabling the aircraft to operate on unprepared and unfamiliar airfields behind enemy lines. The crews will first visually inspect the airfield using flares, before dropping bombs ahead of landing with troops on board. "Bombing is performed at a speed of 500 km / h at altitudes of 500 to 1,000 m (1,650 ft to 3,280 ft)," a company statement said.

Pakistan successfully tested what it described as the "indigenously developed" Ra'ad air-launched cruise missile (ALCM) on 2 February, according to an I nter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) statement. The 4.85 m-long, nuclear-capable Ra'ad was launched from an undisclosed air platform and was the fifth successful test firing to be announced. All previous tests, the most recent of which was on 31 May 2012, were conducted using an upgraded Dassault Mirage III ROSE aircraft . The 350 km-range missile enables Pakistan to achieve " strategic standoff capability " on land and at sea, the Pakistan Army said. Pakistan Tests Ra'ad ALCM Lieutenant General Zubair Mahmood Hayat, director general of the Strategic Plans Division , described it as a major step towards strengthening Pakistan's full spectrum credible minimum deterrence . This is aimed at achieving strategic stability in the region, he added.

According to Russian media , Russian Helicopters JSC is developing a 5th generation stealth helicopter . “Two of the major designing offices in the country, Mil and Kamov have two different versions of it: Mil is proposing an one-rotor craft while Kamov a two-rotor version”, commented Mr. Shibitov (Executive Counselor). Russian 5th Generation Stealth Helicopter While details have not been made public, the general requirements by the military are estimated to be the following: -lightness -quiet -low observability -two pilots (tandem configuration, possibly) -long range -intelligent weapon control system -fighting against aircrafts -max speed of 500-600 km/h -ground analysis systems for trails of passing vehicles or troops -artificial intelligence

The People’s Liberation Army Navy is preparing for a permanent deployment to the Indian Ocean and plans to use dual-use ports as secret ammunition caches and to support military operations, according to a piece in Washington-based National Interest. The US magazine said China aims to dominate the Indian Ocean after Beijing deployed amphibious ship the Changbaishan and a nuclear submarine to the region. The country has attempted to establish itself as a maritime player in the Indian Ocean by increasing anti-piracy deployments, naval exercises and investments in maritime infrastructure projects. These activities raised concerns on whether Beijing will adopt more aggressive maritime strategies in the future. The PLA Navy’s submarines docked at the port of Colombo in Sri Lanka twice last year and China is said to have established military facilities in the country. Beijing also holds a controlling stake in Hambantota port in the southeast of the country. With the ...