When last did the Americans relay on the outside world for weapons….I can think of the Harrier.

Modalities of BrahMos-II project being finalised: Pillai

Tiruchirapalli (Tami Nadu), Sep 1 (PTI) The modalities for developing hypersonic missile BrahMos-II to be carried out by the Indo-Russian joint venture BrahMos Aerospace, are on the verge of being finalised, a top official of the company said here.

A final shape of the project, aimed at developing the aerial version of BrahMos missile that could traverse at speeds between Mach 5 to Mach 7, would emerge shortly, BrahMos Aerospace CEO and Managing Director A Sivathanu Pillai told reporters here Monday.

The design team had already been lined up and discussions would be held shortly between the joint venture partners on investments, sharing of technical responsibilities, administration and sharing of manufacturing facility infrastructure, he said.

Supersonic cruise missile BrahMos, which has a capability of carrying 300 kg conventional warheads at a speed of around 2.8 Mach, has already been inducted by the Army and the Navy.

http://www.ptinews.com/news/258771_Modalities-of-BrahMos-II-project-being-finalised–Pillai

EXCLUSIVE: Navy’s MiG-29K Squadron To Be Called “Black Panthers”
The Navy’s brand new INAS 303 squadron is being christened “Black Panthers” and will get its first four MiG-29Ks in late October or early November. The squadron emblem (to the right) will be painted on the tails of all the MiG-29Ks — a snarling Black Panther, with a red mouth and nose, and yellow eyes. According to sources, there had been talk of naming the squadron “Sea Wolves”, though the Navy finally took a call to name the squadron after a big cat, like the White Tigers squadron is.

Sources at Naval HQ indicate that Commander Theophilus is tipped to take over as the first Commanding Officer of the Black Panthers squadron. Cdr Theophilus currently heads the Intensive Flying & Testing Unit (IFTU) that has been raised in anticipation of the MiG-29K.

The contract for 16 MiG-29K jets was signed with RAC-MiG on Jan 20, 2004 for $740.35-million, with an agreed delivery commencement date of June 2007 (more than two years late, as usual).

http://livefist.blogspot.com/2009/08/exclusive-mig-29k-squadron-to-be-called.html

Actually election fraud (Rs 10 and vote) is almost non-existant these days according to independent observers. People may not know about the Nuclear Bomb or Indo-US nuclear deal but they knew that the UPA government gave them programs like Employment Guarantee Program and other welfare measures. This is reflected in the election results. This is why even ‘Manmohan-is-soft’ campaign of the opposition did not become successful. In my opinion the UPA will rule another five years after this because of measures like food security bill and others. 🙂

For that matter I am totally against India signing either the CTBT or the NPT as they are made to serve the interests of the ‘official’ nuclear powers who tested as much as they wanted to in the past.

The People of India have shown their faith in the Congress government by re-electing them with a better majority! So no matter what Non Residents (who can’t vote) think the majority is liking the way the country is moving forward. Recent polls suggested 60% of the population is in favour of closer ties with the USA. 🙂

Navy’s Sea Harriers Airborne Again
Less than a week after the Navy lost a committed young pilot Lt Cdr Saurav Saxena in a Sea Harrier fighter crash off the coast of Goa, the fleet was made airborne again today, sources confirmed. In what seems to me to be a true tribute to the memory of the young pilot, the Navy went through the motions and began Sea Harrier flights earlier today.

Coincidentally, when Navy Chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta was asked this afternoon about (erroneous) reports that the Harrier fleet had been grounded following the August 21 crash, he thundered, “Who has grounded them? Have you grounded them? I certainly have not.” Obviously he’s right. The fleet was never grounded. No recommendation was made by the Navy in Goa to HQ to effect grounding of the fleet, simply because they are thorough professionals. Nobody wants a knee-jerk grounding without understanding precisely what made the aircraft go down. After any crash, there is an default period — the length of which varies — of no flight for the type, during which a laid-down routine of specific tests are conducted. This is not the same as grounding the fleet, a far more serious decision whenever it is taken. The checks conducted during the post-crash period may lead to a recommendation for fleet grounding, but in this case it did not happen, thankfully. Grounding a fleet is an unnerving, difficult decision on any military commander.

http://livefist.blogspot.com/2009/08/sea-harriers-airborne-again.html

Further from that the report posted by Tango III on the aviation news thread is very interesting:

http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?t=93109&page=3

Looks like the USN are highly concerned about the remaing life of the legacy Hornet fleet with many in a rough state. They were looking at a SLEP to get them to 10000 hours but that is looking unlikely now.

I think you should not read much into it. The requirement for the USN is to keep a large fleet of Legacy hornets active, while for Brazil they only need a few.

If the Americans will let them, they can go handpick the few they want from amongst the potential junk.