Russia and Turkey should be looking to join a future Asian Union. Then we can start the continental wars.

It really does look like the YF 23 does it not. A bit disappointed at the exhausts (look traditional) I hope that will change in the Production Version.

I think many of us including myself are guilty of responding to potential flame biting in the IAF thread. Let us make a pledge to ignore all off topic posts by the usual suspects.

Argentines should order a few squadrons of Su 35. Fuel won’t be a problem then 🙂

The oceans are the last frontier

New Delhi, India — The leak last week of a classified report on China’s navy, prepared by the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence, was enlightening in what it said and what it left unsaid. The meat was in the latter half of the report on China’s modernization of its underwater navy and its missiles.

As China progresses from a regional power to a country with global ambitions, it has increasingly realized that its shortcomings at sea are an impediment. The first major step was taken during the meltdown of the new millennium. While the rest of the world was scrambling to cut back, Chinese President Jiang Zemin ordered an ambitious shipbuilding plan for its merchant marine fleet.

In the decade that followed, the shipyards of China were nurtured and cherished financially. This enabled the country to become a builder’s maritime power, with skills that could then be honed to build warships and submarines.

The People’s Liberation Army Navy, or PLAN, is today reaping the fruits of that drive as modern destroyers and submarines are being launched as envisaged to meet national ambitions. However, as sophisticated underwater systems are being constructed to meet likely adversaries in open oceans, the PLAN is increasingly finding the limits of its present competencies. It has accordingly shifted its posture to a few quality platforms rather than a numbers game of fielding mediocre vessels.

Nowhere is this more obvious than in its SSBN /SSN fleet, strategic antisubmarine warfare capabilities and maritime aviation aircraft. To a trained ASW specialist the new SSBN class is a juicy target underwater, as it will be located at large ranges in specific acoustic frequencies.

Further recent reports of major accidents in a missile-firing submarine and the complete loss of another in 2003-04 have dampened their credibility, and are perhaps the reason none of these platforms have been out on ocean patrol.

A spat with Russia over intellectual property rights has completely stopped the transfer of technology in all maritime and aviation spheres. This has affected ambitions to launch an aircraft carrier with its integral air wing.

The present reported reluctance to send acquired ships and submarines to Russia for medium repairs has hit the operational availability of these sophisticated platforms. The PLAN is increasingly aware that its go-it-alone methodology has affected its capabilities to the extent that what looks good on paper is not translating into viable instruments of state policy.

The PLAN today still remains largely confined to the East Asia Sea. The ASEAN powers are rapidly acquiring submarines and will present a formidable challenge in the South China Sea by 2013. It is a bit surprising that the intelligence report from Washington said nary a word on these aspects – or maybe they were deliberately not published.

The dark horse in Asia today is Russia. This is a country with its advanced marine capabilities intact even after the fall of the Soviet Union. Modern SSBN/SSN classes have emerged since 1991 and are graphically acknowledged in the intelligence report of 2010.

A further report of a new diesel electric submarine, the Sarov, fitted with a “teapot” sized nuclear propulsion plant, has been confirmed. This air-independent propulsion plant enables the submarine to operate under water, on electric drive, for extended periods. Extensive sea trials will be in progress over this year to check all systems.

Russia retains its intercontinental ballistic missile capabilities from subsurface platforms and newer variants are emerging. With the prices of crude oil and natural gas rising, Russia is likely to be awash with cash in the near future as its exports to the European Union, China and India are augmented. The author reckons this country as a leader of the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) economies for two reasons – it has its own very advanced military industrial sector and its infinite energy deposits in Siberia.

But political ambivalence and falling demographic numbers are affecting Russia’s credibility on the world stage. Fortunately Russia has a strong nationalist leader in Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, and it is a matter of time before he leads his country back into reckoning in the new multipolar world. His forthcoming visit to India in March 2010 will increase ties established at the highest levels and the armed forces, especially the Indian navy, with respect to nuclear submarine programs and maritime aviation.

The United States remains the clear leader in marine technology today. By locking horns with the Soviet Union for over 50 years during the Cold War, the U.S. Navy developed capabilities that gave it hyper-power status. In this century China has no chance of coming close to the United States in marine technology.

The Indian Navy’s interaction with the U.S. Navy in regular “Malabar” open sea exercises since 1992 has given the service a glimpse of its capabilities, especially with respect to SSN submarines and aircraft carriers.

Mastering maritime space requires technology, training, education and manpower policies that enhance the capability of the weakest link to perform without blemish under conditions of extreme stress. This was last seen in the Battle of the Atlantic between the Allies’ anti-submarine warfare forces and the submarines led by Admiral Karl Doenitz of Germany. With the shift of the economic center of gravity to Asia in this century will a parallel situation arise?

Mastering the oceans is a must for India. Within these waters lie untapped energy resources, mineral wealth, protein and yet unknown mysteries. Take the annual phenomenon of the southwest monsoon. It brings economic prosperity worth us$20 billion to India on an annual basis. A shift in this pattern would result in untold misery, climate change and desertification of India, Pakistan, Tibet, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Bhutan.

No scientific database or model exists to forecast this phenomenon precisely over the seas. It is estimated that the poor monsoon of 2009 dropped the region’s growth by 2 percent. A continent-sized country whose population includes one-sixth of humanity cannot be oblivious to its requirements or held hostage to the goodwill of external forces.

Source

Super Model legs with a horrible face ?