West To Have 80,000 Cruise Missiles By 2020-Russian Military Experts

Source:RIA NOVOSTI 

Russian military experts forecast that Western nations will have 80,000 cruise missile by 2020, a deputy commander of the Russian General Staff said on Saturday.

"We expect Western countries to have at least 80,000 cruise missiles by 2020, including about 2,000 of them nuclear-powered," Gen. Igor Sheremet said in an interview with the Ekho Moskvy radio station.

He added these missiles are clearly not simply designed for drilling or intimidation purposes.

"They can deliver disarming or even 'decapitation' strikes," Sheremet said.

Arms Race Between South Asian Nuclear Neighbors India And Pakistan Goes To The Skies

India’s plans to modernise its ageing air force have triggered a tit-for-tat Pakistani programme that could exacerbate strategic tensions in South Asia, officials and analysts told "The National".

Defence analysts said the planned air force expansions were part of an arms race between India and Pakistan that dates back to the 1960s and the height of the Cold War.

The South Asian neighbours, both of which possess nuclear arsenals, have fought three wars and as many regionalised conflicts since gaining independence from British colonial rule in August 1947.

 

  

Siemon Wezeman, senior fellow at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s arms transfer programme, said: "Although India and Pakistan deny it, an arms race is on. India wants to become a regional power, and is building its arsenal accordingly, while Pakistan wants to maintain a rough parity for survival" in the event of another conflict

His comments came after an announcement by the Pakistani minister for defence, Ahmed Mukhtar, that Pakistan is to acquire 50 advanced JF-17 Thunder warplanes, to be co-produced with China at a factory about 50km west of Islamabad.

India To Test 5,000-km Agni-V China Killer ICBM By The End OF 2011

  Source:The Economic Times

 India will test its 5,000-km Inter-Continental ballistic missile (ICBM), often termed the China killer For its ability to reach the northernmost areas of that country,At The end of 2011. The head of a premier defence research agency said on Friday when Defence Minister AK Antony asked for the expeditious development of the Agni-V missile system.

  DRDO  has developed a spectrum of missiles with a different range and payload capability. Now, DRDO must demonstrate its capability to reach a range of 5,000 km at the earliest, Antony said at a function at the research agency.

DRDO chief VK Saraswat , who was present beside Antony, said Agni-V will be tested by the end of this year.

Israeli Medium Power Radar Deployed In Gujarat In A Move To Bolster India's Air Defence

 Source:The Times OF India

Indian plan to bolster  Air defence surveillance network, IAF will commission a spanking new Israeli medium-power radar (MPR) at Naliya in Gujarat this week.

"This state-of-the-art radar, to be named Arudhra, is being inducted towards strengthening the air defence in the Saurashtra-Kutch region and constitutes an important component in IAF's plan to achieve network-centric operations," said an officer.

IAF chief Air Chief Marshal P V Naik will be inducting the radar, which has a range of over 300 km, at the Naliya airbase on Friday after the commanders' conference of the South-Western Air Command.

Indian Navy Disappointed From Naval Drills Cancellation With Russia

Source:RIA Novosti

 Indian Navy is disappointed with Russia's last- minute cancellation of joint naval Exercise in the Pacific Ocean in April, Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Nirmal Verma said.

 

The Indian Navy task force consisting of three destroyers - INS Delhi, INS Ranvir, and INS Ranvijay, corvette INS Kirch, and tanker INS Jyoti called at Pacific Fleet's main base in Vladivostok on April 18-23.

Russia reported the arrival of Indian warships as a friendly visit, but the Indian side claims the program of the visit originally included joint drills, which were cancelled by the Russians at the last moment.

"Vladivostok is nearly 5,000 miles away from here [India]. So for us to plan a deployment of ships all the way there takes a lot of planning and costs lots of money to deploy ships at such distances," Verma said in an exclusive interview.

Russia Delivers Another Batch OF Mig-29K Fighters To India

 MiG aircraft Coporation delivered a new batch of five MiG-29K/KUB carrier-based fighters to the Indian navy in May, the company said.

"A flight training simulator and other technical equipment has also been delivered," MiG said in a statement on Monday.

The two countries signed a contract stipulating the supply of 12 single-seat MiG-29Ks and four two-seat MiG-29KUBs to India in January 2004. The contract is part of a $1.5-billion deal to deliver the Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier, currently being retrofitted in Russia for the Indian Navy.

India's first four MiG-29Ks and MiG-29KUBs officially entered service in February 2010.

India Planned Attack On Pak Navy Mehran Base To Kill Chinese Engineers

The terrorist attack on Karachi's Mehran Naval Station on May 22 was conceived and launched by India with the primary objective of killing the Chinese engineers present there, a Pakistani newspaper has claimed, citing 'informed sources'.

Four to six Taliban terrorists had entered PNS Mehran on May 22, destroying two maritime surveillance aircraft and killing ten military personnel during their 17-hour siege of the naval air base.

"India is the only country in the region that feels troubled by the Pakistan Navy, which had awfully beaten the Indian Navy in Operation Dwarka of 1965. Since then, it has been an earnest desire of India to harm the Pakistan Navy but it was perhaps not possible on the battle front, hence it struck the PNS Mehran," The News quoted sources as saying.