Defence 360

By: Jyotiprakash,Defence360 Bureau of Industry and Security, Commerce,USA has amended Export Administration Regulations (EAR) by adding seven persons to the Entity List. The seven persons who are added to the Entity List have been determined by the U.S. Government to be acting contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States. These seven persons will be listed on the Entity List under the destination of Pakistan. The date of the amendment which is said to be December 15,2016 earmarks the start of sanctions against PAKISTANI Missile Program is a important Phenomenon & is certain to make quite a lot of buzz in the international arena & is certain to worry China,the only supporter of PAK. The license requirements apply to any transaction in which items are to be exported, reexported, or transferred (in-country) to any of the persons or in which such persons act as purchaser, intermediate consignee, ultimate consignee, or end-user. In a...

Source: IDRW Outgoing Indian Air Force Air chief marshal Arup Raha has confirmed that long pending “Make in India” Tata-Airbus C-295 aircraft project will be concluded in next Six months to replace the ageing Avro fleet of the IAF. Procurement of 56 C-295 medium transport aircraft for IAF and 6 for Indian coast Guard ( multimission maritime aircraft variant ) have been cleared by Government of India to be manufactured locally in India by Tata-Airbus consortium.  According to original plans, first 16 aircraft will be brought off the shelf manufactured in Airbus facilities and remainder of 46 aircraft would be manufactured at Tata-Airbus facilities in India and all C-295 aircraft will be delivered within eight years of concluding the agreement. Tata-Airbus consortium expects further orders which will swell combined C-295 orders beyond 75 aircraft with repeat orders coming from Indian Air Force.  Rumours around India choosing C-295 also to replace 100 odd ageing Soviet...

Source: IDRW Outgoing Indian Air Force Air chief marshal Arup Raha has confirmed that third series production Light Combat Aircraft, Tejas-SP3, which completed its first flight in September earlier this year has been handed over to first Tejas squadron by HAL.  On July 1 this year, IAF raised the first squadron of Tejas which saw induction of Tejas-SP1 and SP2 into Indian Air Force for active duties and SP3 now makes it third aircraft in the squadron and fourth (SP4) likely to make its first flight by March 2017 and to be handed over to IAF by June later in 2017 as per sources close to idrw.org .  As per Orginal plans, IAF wanted to induct Tejas-SP3 before the Air Force Day (October 8) but missed the days due to pending sorties which were mandatory required to be cleared before the aircraft could be handed over to Indian Air force leading to delays. HAL plans to streamline LCA-Tejas Production and each aircraft after three successful sorties by HAL test pilots will be ...

Source: IDRW Air Chief Marshal Raha when asked about status of Fifth-generation fighter aircraft (FGFA) while addressing his last Press conference before his retirement , confirmed that negotiations for development of 5th Generation fighter aircraft based on Russian T-50 is still be carried out but refused to confirm that final agreement between India and Russia will be concluded anytime soon.  High-level Russian delegation earlier this year had talks with Indian officials In India, where they offered to reduce developmental cost from $6 billion to $3.7 billion to fund and develop customised FGFA based on Indian Air force requirements which also included development of three prototypes of FGFA fighters to be delivered to India for testing and product optimization .  Sergei Chemezov, CEO of Rostec State Corporation while speaking to the Indian media had said that they are hopeful that final agreement on development of FGFA will be concluded by year end but IAF is not ...

Source: IDRW After Sarsawa air base in Uttar Pradesh was confirmed to be Home for first Rafale squadron of the Indian Air Force, News just coming in is that Framed ” No. 17 ‘Golden Arrows” which took part in the Kargil Operations distinguishing itself in the Fighter Recce role under command of incoming Indian Air force Air Marshal Dhanoa will be resurrected to induct first Rafale squadron in Indian Air Force. First Rafale No.17 Squadron will be formed in 2019, which will be based in Sarsawa air base in UP.  The airbase is located just 50 km away from National Capital New Delhi in flight times and will be tasked to protect National Capital in a case of War. Golden Arrows also belonged to Late Sqn Ldr Ajay Ahuja whose Mig-21 was shot down by Pakistani Ground forces using Stringer missile in Kargil war.  Ahuja while carrying out a recce mission to locate crashed Mig-27 belonging to Flt Lt K Nachiketa over target area was shot down when he flew his aircraft low, but he ...

In a bold and revolutionary step, 40 students and faculty from different engineering disciplines at VSS University of Technology (VSSUT) Space Development Programme here are set to build, launch, test and recover indigenously developed reusable satellites and rocket. With not much of data available about Hirakud dam, the team has decided to use their idea and innovation. Siltation, seepage and unscientific water distribution system, flood control, irrigation and hydel power generation will be some of the areas which the students will be dwelling on. Active team member, Bodhisattwa Sanghapriya, estimate on silt deposit will be carried out using sounding rocket, designed and developed in R&D Lab of VSSUT. The rocket will carry a Can Satellite (CanSat) payload of around 350 gms well equipped with state-of-the-art technology. The rocket upon launching will reach a height of over 13000 ft in the sky and deploy the Can-satellite which will monitor the real time scenario ...

IAF is in the process of providing all its 1.75 lakh personnel with phones that are hack proof as they connect only with the Indian Air Force internal network. All IAF personnel from airmen to officers are being provided these smartphones, which can protect our communication from getting intercepted and also prevents our data from being leaked to hackers who are always on the prowl for classified defense-related information,”  an IAF officer said . The phones are equipped with facilities of video calling and voice calling but they do not have any apps like other general smartphones. “In future, we may develop and provide apps which can be of help for the air warriors like if they need any information immediately about their salary or any other issue,” the officer said. The phones also provide end-to-end connectivity at all times and at all air bases – from the world’s highest battlefield Siachen Glacier to Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The smartphone sets are being provi...

Strongly suggesting that Kashmir should ‘stay with India’, the 2009 IAS topper and now MD J&K Power Development Corporation (PDC), Dr Shah Faesal has said that it (India) is the “only country” in the world with which a culturally diverse and “politically disparate entity” like Jammu and Kashmir can find “anchor”.  In his article titled “Kashmiris trapped in deadly politics of grief, must abandon macabre heroism” published today on The Indian Express, Dr Faesal has built his argument around the post-1990s phase of of the Kashmir-conflict to censure the five-month-long unrest the valley witnessed this year.  “Every new agitation in Kashmir has had this familiar tetrad of eruption, hope, bereavement, despair. By the time the first stone was pelted in the July uprising of 2016, the outcome was already known to everyone. It is this predictability which has begun to worry Kashmiris now,” reads his article. Referring to the recent unrest, Dr Faesal says that “revolution ca...

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a ceasefire between Syrian opposition groups and the Syrian government starting at midnight on Thursday. The Kremlin statement came after Moscow, Iran and Turkey said they were ready to broker a peace deal in the nearly six-year-old Syrian war. The Syrian army announced a nationwide halt to fighting but said Islamic State and ex-Nusra Front militants and all groups linked to them would be excluded from the deal. It did not say which unnamed groups would be excluded. Several rebel officials told Reuters they had agreed to the ceasefire plan, but there was uncertainty over which groups were included in the deal, which was due to come into effect at 2200 GMT on Thursday. Talks on a ceasefire picked up momentum after Russia, Iran and Turkey last week said they were ready to back a deal and adopted a declaration setting out principles that any agreement should adhere to. Putin said Syrian opposition groups and the Syrian government h...

India is set to position its second squadron of special operations aircraft C-130J in Panagarh, West Bengal, to increase flying in areas close to the disputed boundary with China. “The second squadron of C-130J would be located at Panagarh. The flying will start by March-April 2017,” Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha said here on Wednesday ahead of his retirement on December 31. The mountain strike corps being raised by the army would eventually be located at Panagarh. India currently has 13 corps – 10 defensive and 3 offensive corps – 1, 2, and 21 based in Mathura, Ambala and Bhopal. The 17 corps will be the first one to have specific capabilities to fight in the mountains. Raha brushed aside China’s angry reaction to the successful testing of long-range nuclear-capable Agni-V missile earlier this week. “In international diplomacy, normal diplomacy or military diplomacy, these posturing and signalling will always be there. So we should just go about with our task, meet our own requirem...

In last one week, the Indian Air Force’s (IAF) Su-30MKI has been deployed to test the Astra air-to-air beyond visual range missile and the Smart Anti-Airfield Weapon, to add to the heavy BrahMos air launched cruise missile which was tested earlier. Last week, India's Defense and Research Development Organisation (DRDO) flight tested the Smart Anti-Airfield Weapon (SAAW) from a Sukhoi-30 MKI aircraft of IAF. The trails were tracked by Radar and Telemetry ground stations at the Integrated Test Range (ITR) during the entire duration of the flight, an official press release said. Two weeks ago, the IAF test fired a beyond visual range (BVR) air-to-air missile Astra against an actual target in full operational configuration for the first time over Bay of Bengal. Two rounds of the missile from Sukhoi-30 MKI aircraft were targeting pilot-less target aircraft (PTA) Banshee, Defense officials were quoted by local media near the test range in Odhissa state. The mission was termed ‘succe...

Three prominent US senators have warned that Russia may face sanctions over the country's alleged interference in the recently concluded presidential election, media report said on Thursday.   Outgoing President Barack Obama is expected to announce retaliatory measures as early as Thursday, the BBC reported.   The Republicans John McCain and Lindsey Graham, and Democrat Amy Klobuchar, voiced their support for sanctions on Wednesday.   They were visiting the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which are Nato members close to Russia's western edge, when they talked about the sanctions and said the move had cross-party support.   President-elect Donald Trump, however, has rejected claims of Russian interference.   The sanctions could include economic sanctions and changes to diplomatic relationships.   Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova responded in a statement: "If Washington really does take new h...

After 18 years of having failed to buy a towed artillery gun from the global arms market, top army generals are finally reassured that their most worrying operational shortfall will soon be met from within India. This belief comes after a week of successful “engineering trials” of the Advanced Towed Artillery Gun System (ATAGS), from December 13-20, at the Defence R&D Organisation (DRDO) ranges in Balasore, Odisha. Army observers witnessed the trials. “We are on track in designing and building an international quality gun through the ATAGS project. If it continues like this, India will be a major gun supplier in the world market, instead of a major buyer”, asserts a senior army procurement manager. The army is usually restrained in its endorsement of on-going DRDO projects. So pleased is the ministry of defence that it has ordered the two existing ATAGS prototypes to be transported post-haste to New Delhi and displayed in the Republic Day Parade this year. ATAGS is potentially...

Expressing its concerns, China has announced to take up the matter of India's nuclear-capable missile Agni-V test with the United Nations (UN), which the latter said was not against any country. The Chinese foreign ministry Wednesday said they were exceptionally concerned about Agni-V affecting "strategic balance and stability in South Asia", according to an Indian daily. "The UN Security Council has explicit regulations on whether India can develop ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear weapons," Hua Chunying, spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry said. In response, New Delhi said the successful test not only "complied with all applicable international obligations", it was also "not aimed at any country." Agni V - nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile - has a range of 5,000 km that makes it capable of reaching the furthest northern parts of China as well as Europe. China however claims that the real range o...

India’s decision to utilize its newly constructed Tuting military airport near the China border for civilian flights is being hailed by Narendra Modi supporters as indicative of the current Government’s resolve to stare down China. India now wants to develop its frontier region as a tourist destination so that it can populate remote areas close to Line of Actual Control (LAC) as the de facto border with China is called. Starting civilian aircraft in a frontier region may have deeper significance in terms of counterbalance Chinese aggression in frontier region.  But the truth is more prosaic. The landmark 1996 India-China agreement on maintaining peace and tranquility on the border contains no provisions about civilian flights near the border. The 2005 protocol that further defines the 1998 only prohibits military flights 10 km from the LAC.  The newly constructed Tuting ALG is just 18 miles away from LAC and is the second Indian town on the River Siang (Yarlung Tsangpo in...

An international manhunt by France has failed to find the ­former French naval officer ­suspected of stealing 22,400 con­fidential documents on submarine capability from French shipbuilder DCNS that ended up in Australia. The 68-year-old French nat­ional and naval expert is understood to have been on the run since The Australian revealed news of the massive data leak in August. The man’s name and his details were found in the leaked data, with French authorities believing the former DCNS subcontractor might have stolen the documents from a DCNS office in France in 2011. The leaked data was then posted from Singapore in 2013 to a former Australian submariner, Rex Patrick, who disclosed its existence to The Australian in August this year. The disclosure sparked an investigation in France and India about how such sensitive data was taken from DCNS, the company that will design Australia’s $50 billion future submarines. News of the leaked data prompted the Turnbull government to tight...

One fails to understand why Beijing is so adamant to not re-open the Himalayan land ports between India and Tibet, while at the same time, it is ‘inviting' New Delhi to join the CPEC bandwagon. The Indian media always gets excited when there is a possibility of a thaw with Pakistan. One can’t do anything about it; it is too deeply engrained in the Indian psyche to dream of a rapprochement between the two neighbours. The latest occasion was when Pakistan’s Southern Command Commander Lt Gen Amir Riaz remarked that India should join the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and enjoy its benefits. Riaz said, “New Delhi should ‘shun enmity’ with Islamabad and jointly reap the benefit of the multi-billion dollar project.” The CPEC is a Chinese ‘dream’; when he visited Islamabad in April 2015, Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged $46 billion for it. When asked about India joining the venture, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying replied: “I wonder whether the Indian ...