ASIAN DEFENCE

India prepares for building of a 300-meter long nuclear-powered aircraft carrier capable to accommodate 54 warplanes. Prime contenders to assist in the ship building are Russia and France. Media reported in the summer of 2015 that Russia, France, the UK and the US had received requests for proposal regarding the new carrier. Nonetheless, according to Lenta.Ru , prime bidders will be the countries that delivered ship-based airplanes to India earlier. Russian aircraft is represented in the Indian Navy by   MiG-29K  fighters,  and France will start delivery of  Rafale war  planes in the nearest future. INS  Vikramaditya                                                                              Currently, the Indian Navy operates INS  Vikramad...

Nigeria to Buy 3 JF-17s, 10 Super Mushshak

The J-20 project has made some significant progress in the past 2 years with the roll out of prototypes 2011 to 2017 to accelerate the flights testing and development of the J-20 aircraft. With the roll out of 2101, what appears to J-20’s first LRIP aircraft, it’s possible that the first batch of J-20s will get delivered to FTTC this year to start the process of expanding flight envelope, testing/evaluating new weapon systems, developing new training procedures and combat tactics for a new aircraft. If FTTC evaluation proceeds well, J-20 may be certified and start entering into service next year. It looks like the project is proceeding a couple of years faster than the original expectations. For this entry, I want to look at how the progress of J-20 vs progress of other fighter jet projects affects regional balance of air power. To start off, the most obvious threat to PLAAF comes from the vast number of F-35s that will be deployed in the APAC region by America and its allies. Due t...

The recent announcement of of Eight more F-16s for the PAF has been cause of much anxiety and depression in the neighbourhood. Albeit Pakistan has been operating the Fighting Falcon for over Thirty years with newer and more capable models being acquired within the last decade, however, the reaction by India to the recent acquisition has been unprecedented. This is all the more scandalous since India currently is one of the top armament purchasing country boasting of fourth largest air force in the world. But it's also possible that India does have real concerns as the F-16s continue to rattle nerves in New Delhi. According to Indian writer Pushpinder Singh, the arrival of F-16s in the Sub-continent caused such alarm bells that India in response ended up purchasing no less than 220 assorted fighter jets from Russia and France, hence the latest reaction by India thus shouldn't come as a surprise.  F-16 The F-16, the most widely used and combat proven aircraft of recent ti...