SAC 5th Generation Stealth Fighter F-60

SAC 5th Generation Stealth Fighter F-60

SAC 5th Generation Stealth Fighter F-60

Indian Navy to Induct 24 Long Range Maritime Reconnaissance Aircraft

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.

Russia Wants a Darpa Like Agency

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.

Basically, Russia wants to modernize, and needs its own far-out research department to do it. Its military is getting old and risks becoming dependent on other  countries. It’s also a part of a larger Russian push for more military tech. And there’s no telling what projects the agency could come up with. Perhaps the agency, when open for business, can take on the task of controlling our minds and constructing robots that will keep the human brain alive forever.

Russia Want To Closer Relationship With Pakistan

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 1960s, again a decade later, and are seeing it being repeated now. If it ever made strategic sense in the 1960s, or even in the late 1970s, it certainly does not now."

Russia, though, is returning to what it calls its "near abroad". Primary is Russia's increasing interest in the stability of the Central Asian countries, many of whom are threatened by Islamic terrorism that has its roots in the terror groups inside Pakistan. Moscow might see a greater engagement with Islamabad as a way to understand Pakistan's actions. Russia's Pakistani initiative comes as Islamabad's relationship with its principal backer, the US, is determinedly heading south.

Ronen Sen, former envoy to Moscow and Washington, said, "This is a sign of the re-alignments in anticipation of the Afghanistan withdrawal."

PLAAF J-20 Stealth Fighter

PLAAF J-20 Stealth Fighter

PLAAF J-20 Stealth Fighter

PLAAF J-20 Stealth Fighter

PLAAF J-20 Stealth Fighter

India To Launch AWACS Project To Counter China

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 new and old systems, say sources.

But IAF has only three Phalcon AWACS mounted on IL-76 aircraft, under the $1.1 billion tripartite agreement among India, Israel and Russia finalized in 2004, despite being confronted with two potentially hostile fronts.

The case for two additional "follow-on" Phalcon AWACS, with a range of over 400-km and 360-degree coverage like the first three, has run into some rough weather due to sharp cost escalation.

UFOs Seen Approaching Shenzhou 9 Rocket

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.