its good to keep the enemy guessing about our capabilities..else the enemy can come up with tactics/strategies to deal with weapons if they know that they are in service with the IAF.

You are suggesting that “enemy” doesn’t know these things? Sure you might be able to keep photos out of circulation but how do you control all the people who come into contact with the weapons during the course of training etc. Aircrew, groundcrew, civilians responsible for logistics etc, government officials responsible for oversight and thier staff etc etc. Then there are all the folks in the supplier country who know. Personally I think the only way India could keep such things secret is if they have something along the lines of the US “Area 51” arrangement. An elite, high security unit, probably with only a small inventory of the equipment in question, preferably operating from a somewhat isolated locality to allow for better control of the surrounds, in house procurement of systems (since involving foreign components leaves you trusting people over whom you have no control) etc, etc. Thing I don’t see is just whats so important about ASMs that they would be so particularly secretive about them as Harry suggests. India’s major opponents are land powers with any naval conflict likely to be peripheral at best. I can sort of see the reason for keeping ARMs as under wraps as possible since they are a critical part of taking out an enemy’s air defence network and opening him up for air strikes. I still doubt that the knowledge of anything but a small “silver bullet” capabilty could be kept secret from other powers for long.

Daniel