quadbikeAntony on Fire !
Naval war games close to China beneficial: Antony
New Delhi, Oct 12 (IANS) In observations that could raise the hackles of China, India Wednesday acknowledged the benefits of holding joint exercises with global and regional powers such as the US, Japan and Vietnam in the South China Sea, East China Sea and the Western Pacific Ocean.
‘The several joint maritime exercises with have had with regional navies in South China Sea, East China Sea and the Western Pacific have brought benefits,’ Defence Minister A.K. Antony said while addressing a conference of Indian Navy commanders.
The Indian Navy has been frequently venturing to these seas close to China for war games with the Americans and Japanese, and the Vietnamese.
An Indian naval warship sailing in South China Sea was reportedly confronted by China, which asked it to return from the area, claiming the waters belonged to it. Indian oil companies have begun exploration in blocks owned by Vietnam in South China Sea and Indian warships frequent Vietnamese ports on calls.
However, Antony stressed the need to maintain a balance between the various responsibilities of the Indian Navy.
‘Although reaching out to our extended neighbourhood is important, you must always be mindful of the core area of your responsibility that mainly includes preserving and strengthening our shorelines and coastal security.’ he said.
Antony also pointed out that India had the ability to be a potent and stabilising force in the Indian Ocean region with major international shipping lanes passing closer to its island territories.
He noted that Indian Navy had been ‘mandated to be a net security provider to island nations in the Indian Ocean region,’ apart from assuring India’s maritime neighbours that the South Asian giant will provide ‘unstinted support for their security and economic prosperity’.
‘Most of the major international shipping lanes are located along our island territories. This bestows on us the ability to be a potent and stabilising force in the region,’ Antony said.
‘We assure our maritime neighbours of our unstinted support for their security and economic prosperity,’ he added.
Antony said the development of infrastructure in the island territories must be pursued in synergy with other stake-holders.
On the coastal security front, Antony said India had taken several measures to strengthen security along the 7,500-km long coastline, but that should not let complacency creep into the maritime security forces.
‘We have taken several measures to strengthen our coastal security. Our maritime forces are capable of protecting our maritime frontiers. However, this should not lead to a feeling of complacency.’
He went on to say that ‘isolated incidents, which though directly did not pose a challenge to maritime security, highlighted the need to further strengthen our coastlines and maritime security’.
He also emphasised the need to replicate coastal security exercises with all stakeholders ‘as frequently as possible’.
On other issues and challenges facing the navy, Antony said piracy was ‘a continuing cause’ of major concern, but noted that ‘the international community as a whole needs to do a lot more collectively’.
quadbikeO Boy India is turning on the heat !
Our warships will keep going to S China Sea: Antony
India today made it clear that its naval warships would continue visiting the South China Sea for exercises and to protect Indian interests, despite Chinese claims of sovereignty over the entire sea.
China is also wary of nations like Vietnam. The dispute was mentioned in the UN this year and China had rejected any intervention. Defence Minister AK Antony today said, “To ensure uninterrupted and safe passage for its ships for trade, India will keep visiting these waters for naval exercises to protect its core areas of interest.”
However, he clarified there was no move to increase naval presence in the South China Sea. Antony was speaking to the media on the sidelines of the Naval Commanders’ Conference. This statement comes within weeks of two verbal duels between the two neighbours. Incidentally, Vietnam President Truongtuong Tan Sang is on official visit to India.
The first incident was when Indian naval warship INS Airavaat on a sail in the South China Sea had carried on with its scheduled course after an unidentified caller over the open radio network allegedly asked the Captain of the ship about his presence in the waters. Just three weeks ago, Indian oil exploring company ONGC started exploration in off-shore block near Vietnam in South China Sea. India made it clear that these were international water and all installations would be protected against any aggression.
Antony, speaking to the commanders said, “The Navy will be the net security provider to island nations in the Indian Ocean Region. Importantly, he said the phase II of the Karwar port (South of Goa) will soon be cleared by the Cabinet. This will more than double the berthing jetties for the Navy. Karwar is one of the few deep sea ports on the West coast.
On Chinese Army’s presence in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, the minister said they had been present in the area since a long time. He said India was aware of the fact and had conveyed its concern to China also. He refused to comment on the nuclear submarine Akula class “Nerpa” that India was leasing from Russia for 10 years.
quadbikeAs China & India start to consume oil en masse, i too believe fuel will sky rocket to the point heavy twin engine fighters will end up as costly elephants no-one can afford to practice adequately, at least not as the bulk of an air force.
😡 For me the next revolutionary fighter must have an alternative fuel source like Ethanol or something like that, rather than still rely on fossil fuels.
quadbike.. in one of the most biased and uninformed way.
😉 I have long thought and commented that all these twin engined fighters would become White Elephants at one stage for the IAF. Good to know some one in the media thinks the same as well. 😉
quadbike’nuff said.
:rolleyes: Gripen is cost efficient and that is all that been said.
quadbikeNavy to safeguard Indian Ocean islands: Antony
Charting out a larger role for the Indian Navy, Defence Minister A K Antony has said that the maritime force has been mandated to be a net security provider for island nations in the Indian Ocean region and is a “potent and stabilising force” in the region.
Emphasising that India’s economic growth is “inextricably linked to the seas”, Antony said that major international shipping lanes are located along its island territories, giving the responsibility of security in the region to the Navy.
“The Indian Navy has been mandated to be a net security provider to island nations in the Indian Ocean region. We would like to assure our maritime neighbours about our unstinted support for their security and economic prosperity,” Antony said in his address at the Naval Commanders Conference in the capital today.
“The quantum of trade passing through international shipping lanes is vast. Peace and unhindered safety of our maritime trade and that of our vessels is one of our primary concerns,” he said.
While he refrained from directly commenting on China’s growing military prowess, he said India has conducted several exercises in the South and East China seas to strengthen bilateral relations and cooperative engagement.
However, he added a note of caution, saying that “although reaching out to our extended neighbourhood is important, you (Navy) must always be mindful of the core area of your responsibility that mainly includes preserving and strengthening our shorelines and coastal security.”
Later, responding to questions, the minister said India has no plans to increase its presence in the South China sea and is only interested in the uninterrupted passage of ships in the region. “There is no question of India going there in large scale. We will go there for exercise and uninterrupted passage of ships and trade. There is no question of any naval presence there. That is not our intention, our main concern is to protect our core area of interest,” he said.
quadbikeMilitary satellite delayed again by a year
NEW DELHI: PM Manmohan Singh may wax eloquent that the military will be equipped with “all necessary means to meet all threats”, including those “which go beyond conventional warfare”, but no sense of urgency is being shown in the space arena.
Indian armed forces are still to get their own dedicated surveillance and communication satellites despite several years of promises and plans, leave alone offensive space capabilities like ASAT (anti-satellite) weapons or advanced directed-energy laser weapons.
Moreover, the government continues to keep the desperately-needed tri-Service Aerospace Command in cold storage, even though China has taken to the military exploitation of space, which includes ASAT capabilities, in a major way.
Top defence officials admit the much-awaited launch of the naval communication and surveillance satellite, “Rohini”, has been once again delayed by a year or so. Satellites for Army-IAF will only follow thereafter.
Incidentally, during the naval commanders’ conference in 2009, defence minister A K Antony had declared that the satellite to boost connectivity over sea would be launched in early-2010.
Subsequently, Indian Space Research Organization ( ISRO) had revised the satellite’s “launch window” to December 2010-March 2011. But to no avail.
“There has been another big delay now…it won’t be possible before end-2012 at the earliest,” said an official, even as all top military commanders are currently in New Delhi for their annual brain-storming sessions.
“The problem is the repeated failures of GSLV (geosynchronous satellite launch vehicle) and indigenous cryogenic engines (ISRO is now left with only one of the cryogenic engines imported from Russia),” he added.
With no early launch in sight, talk is gaining ground that India should contemplate a foreign launcher for its GSAT-7 series of military satellites.
The 2,330-kg naval satellite is supposed to have an around 1,000 nautical mile footprint over Indian Ocean, stretching from Red Sea to Malacca Strait, to ensure “network-centric operations” and “maritime domain awareness”. The IAF-Army one, in turn, will have a similar footprint over land.
The Defence Space Vision-2020 identified only intelligence, reconnaissance, surveillance, communication and navigation as the thrust areas in Phase-I till 2012. But even such capabilities, which include the critical necessity to keep 24×7 tabs on enemy troop movements, warships, airbases and missile silos as well as bolster surveillance over Indian airspace, will remain limited in the absence of dedicated military satellites.
Interestingly, while India is publicly opposed to “militarization of space”, the defence ministry last year had come out with a “Technology Perspective and Capability Roadmap” till 2025 which identified space warfare as a priority area, as was first reported by TOI.
The roadmap, for instance, identified development of ASAT weapons “for electronic or physical destruction of satellites in both LEO (2,000-km altitude above earth’s surface) and GEO-synchronous orbits” as a thrust area.
quadbikeI thought helina was cancelled because they had problems with the seeker head, or was that Nag?
:confused: IMO both ain’t cancelled may be ur confusing it with Trishul ?
quadbikeISRO launches Megha-Tropiques, 3 other satellites
Indian Space Research Organisation’s rocket polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV) has scored yet again by launching the Indo-French weather satellite Megha-Tropiques and three other satellites.
The PSLV on Wednesday launched into orbit the four satellites from the spaceport in southeastern Andhra Pradesh’s Sriharikota on Wednesday morning at 11 am. The PSLV-C18, weighs 230 tonnes and stands 44 metres tall, ferried the four satellites that together weighed 1,042.6 kg. Around 22 minutes into the flight, the rocket first spat out Megha-Tropiques and followed it up with SRMSAT, VesselSat and Jugnu. The whole process took about 25 minutes from the time of blast off.
With this, India has also become only the second country to launch such a mission — the first being a US-Japan combined mission in 1997. The Rs 80-crore Megha-Tropiques is a joint mission between Indian and French space agencies to study the water cycle and energy exchanges in the tropics.
The chief aim of the project is to understand the life cycle of convective systems which influences the tropical weather and study their contribution to the energy and moisture budget of the atmosphere in the tropical regions.
The main satellite carries three auxiliary payloads with it — two by French space agency CNES (Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales) and one jointly by ISRO and CNES —and a complementary scientific instrument.
The French space agency Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES) has built three instruments of Megha-Tropiques: SAPHIR, SCARAB and GPS-ROS. The fourth, MADRAS, is a joint effort of ISRO and CNES. The other three satellites launched in the mission are Jugnu, SRMSat and VesselSat-1.
Jugnu is a nano-satellite developed by engineers at the IIT-Kanpur, under guidance of scientists at ISRO. Jugnu aims to prove the camera system developed by IIT-K for imaging the Earth in near infra-red region and test image processing algorithms. It also aims to test GPS system in satellite system and test MEMS (Intertial Measurement Unit) in space. The satellite weighs about 3 kg.
The Rs 1.1 crore SRMSat is a satellite developed by the students and faculty of SRM University to measure the pollution levels in atmosphere by tracking CO2 and H2O (water vapour) levels. The satellite weighs about 10.09 kg and uses a grating spectrometer. The third satellite, VesselSat-1 which is 28.7 kg, has been developed by LuxSpace of Luxembourg. It carries AIS or the Automatic Identification System for ships.
“Megha-Tropiques will be five years in orbit and the data is expected to come in two to three weeks (from now),” ISRO chairman K Radhakrishnan said in Sriharikota — a barrier island off the coast — at a press conference after the launch. ISRO officials said the organisation was planning to switch on all satellites one by one, after stabilising them.
With this, ISRO’s launch vehicle PSLV has launched 53 satellites, including 27 foreign payloads. On the PSLV launch vehicle, Radhakrishnan said PSLV was a much sought-after vehicle. “We must have the capacity to produce more launch vehicles.”
Megha-Tropiques, with its circular orbit inclined 20 degrees to the equator, will enable climate research and aid scientists seeking to refine prediction models. The last such similar project, The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission — it is a joint mission of NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency designed to monitor and study tropical rainfall — was launched on November 27, 1997.
quadbikeTop IAF commanders to review infrastructure in NE, North
New Delhi: The top commanders of Indian Air Force (IAF), over the next three days, will review the infrastructure development in North and North Eastern regions to ensure deployment of its assets in forward areas to support Indian Army in challenging conditions.
Chaired by Air Chief Marshal N A K Browne, the three day Commanders Conference of IAF began here today to discuss issues related to force modernization and capability enhancement to respond effectively during challenging times.
“The IAF is witnessing unprecedented phase of modernization and capability enhancement and can effectively respond to any attempt at undermining India’s national security,” Browne said while addressing the Conference.
The conference is being attended by the Chiefs of IAFs seven commands and the Principal Staff Officers (PSOs).
“Emphasis would be on infrastructural development in North and North Eastern region to improve response time through forward basing of armed forces’ assets and supporting the Indian Army in challenging conditions,” IAF officials said.
Over the next three days, the commanders would discuss aspects related to infrastructure development and enhancing the capability of air warriors, the officials said.
Observing that transformation in IAF includes induction of force multipliers and air mobility platforms, IAF chief Browne said the process can be witnessed in all facets of capability building in the force.
“The transformational change can be witnessed in all facets of capability building that include not only combat platforms but also induction of force multipliers and air mobility platforms to provide strategic reach and operational flexibility,” the IAF Chief said.
quadbikeIAF Firmly on the Path to Enhancing Operational Potential
A three day Air Force Commanders’ Conference commenced at Air Headquarters, Vayu Bhawan, New Delhi today. The conference is being attended by the Air Force Commanders of all the Operational Commands as well as the Training and Maintenance Commands besides the Principal Staff Officers at the Air Head Quarters.
The Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal NAK Browne, exhorted all Commanders to uphold the ‘People First Mission Always’, vision of the IAF. He also complimented them for their excellent professionalism and responsiveness during the recent Humanitarian and Disaster Relief Operations undertaken in Sikkim and Orissa.
Addressing the Commanders, the Air Chief said, “The IAF is witnessing an unprecedented phase of modernization and capability enhancement and can effectively respond to any attempts at undermining India’s national security. The transformational change can be witnessed in all facets of capability building that include not only combat platforms, but also induction of force multipliers and air mobility platforms to provide strategic reach and operational flexibility”.
Over these three days, the Commanders would discuss key issues relating to Operations, Maintenance and Infrastructure development and most importantly, the HR issues relating to the training of the air warriors.
The key focus is likely to be on strategizing various aspects related to training and development of air warriors with special emphasis on consolidating flying training and development of air warriors to cope with the depletion in trainer aircraft resources. An emphasis would be seen to be laid on the infrastructural development in the North and North Eastern areas to improve response time through forward basing of armed forces’ assets and supporting the Indian Army in challenging conditions.
Amongst other issues, the discussions would also range from pace of progress in platform and weapon inductions and various processes to the effective integration of modern air defence radars and weapon systems to maintain requisite combat potential. Various maintenance issues like the life cycle philosophies and modernization of maintenance practices to enable a more inclusive role for the Base Repair Depots in maintaining legacy systems would also be deliberated upon. Based on the valuable insight gained during the successful induction of C-130 J aircraft, Commanders would also review the processes of the Foreign Military Sales(FMS) to ensure smooth induction of the C-17 aircraft.
quadbikeJust weeks from now, Indian Defence Minister A.K. Antony will announce whether the Eurofighter or Dassault will win the $12 billion contract for the supply of 126 front-line fighters for the Indian Air Force.
Consistent delays by Russia in procurement, slipshod service and repeated cost escalations elbowed out the MiG-35,while US reluctance to give India anything other than the 20th century F-16, as well as crippling conditions on local production sharing of the more futuristic F-18, put paid to the hopes of the Obama administration that the Indian taxpayer would bailout Lockheed or boost Boeing. That left the Saab Gripen, which was eliminated by the Defense Ministry from consideration, reportedly on the grounds that it had a less than optimal radar capability.This columnist favoured the Gripen, not only because it’s much cheaper than the two other European Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) under consideration, but because Saab would have been agreeable to the location within India of far more significant chunks of aircraft production than the Eurofighter consortium or Dassault, both of whom seem seek to confine production operations of higher technology items to Europe rather than partnering with India to lower overall costs. Unlike Germany and France, the Scandinavian countries are far more willing to enter into equal partnerships with Indian industry, and hence the acquisition of the Swedish aircraft would have boosted local capabilities far more than either of the two options now shortlisted.
Interestingly, while the choice of radar has been given as the reason why the lower cost Gripen was eliminated, the Eurofighter has the exact same radar system as the Swedish aircraft, made by the same manufacturer. Additionally, the lifecycle costs of the Eurofighter are believed to be nearly ten times that of the Saab option, while the costs of the Dassault option are reportedly eight times the cost of the Gripen, for every hour of flight. This will make operation of either of the two shortlisted variants prohibitively expensive for the Indian Air Force.
Purchasing white elephants has become the sport of choice for the Defense Ministry. The Indian Navy has bought the mothballed Admiral Gorshkov from Russia at a price that will cross the $3.2 billion mark, or three times the estimate given at the time the decision to purchase this aircraft carrier was made. Like the Eurofighter or the Dassault options, the Admiral Gorshkov (now re-christened Vikramaditya and awaiting induction sometime in 2012) will be hugely expensive to operate. Of course, as the just-concluded $2 billion deal for the ‘upgrade’ of the Mirage squadrons shows, the higher the cost, the more the hidden ‘sweeteners’ are likely to be.
While there have been news reports of the Italian relatives of a prominent political family in India showing an interest in the MMRCA acquisition, the Indian media has, as is its wont, not dared explore the possibility of any such connection. Instead, they have lapped up the Defense Ministry’s handouts, which tout the deal as giving ‘teeth’ to India’s air attack capability. That such teeth would be false teeth doesn’t seem to bother many. Thus far, the Defense Ministry has refused to budge from its policy of relying on foreign rather than Indian companies for big ticket items.
Antony has presided over the biggest spending binge ever entered into by the Defense Ministry. This legacy is the polar opposite of that of previous Defense Minister V.K. Krishna Menon, who during his tenure sought to deepen ‘self-reliance’ for defence items and technology. Given the financial hole that Europe is in, the murderous expense involved in purchasing, maintaining and operating the Eurofighter or the Dassault Rafaele may be put down to charity.
quadbikeStill bad bad tiffy fans.
quadbikeThat was when it wasn’t that clear FC-1 would be a successful project.
I always wonder why they are not more into the J 10, so far they have plans to have more FC-1 than J 10, may be the co-development (hahaha) comes into play but other than that a PAF fleet of J-10/FC-1 in equal proportion would be far more formidable.
quadbike+1
Moreover Turkey now want to assume a leadership role across the Muslim World, and selling arms to Serbs will not look good in that respect.
Serbia should buy the Eurofighter.
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