Defence 360

                                                                       Merkava MBT Israeli companies involved in the Merkava tank and Namer armored personnel carrier held a seminar in India, Israel’s biggest defense customer. Representatives of over 20 Israeli companies involved in the development and production program for the Merkava tank and Namer armored personnel carrier today finished the first seminar ever conducted in India.  Dozens of Indian companies attended the seminar. The Ministry of Defense SIBAT – Ministry of Defense International Defense Cooperation Authority sponsored the seminar, in view of the emerging needs of Indian industry in order to prepare for the large-scale procurement of armored vehicles by the Indian army expected in the coming years.The growing security ties between ...

By : AINOnline India’s Ministry of Defense has cleared an order for 83 Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), designated Mk1A, from government-owned defense manufacturer Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) for the Indian Air Force (IAF). HAL currently has in hand an order for 40 GE F404-engined LCAs for the IAF. Of the 20 to be produced with an initial operational clearance, three have been delivered and the fourth is scheduled to be handed over by early next year. Twenty more will be supplied once they receive the final operational clearance (FOC) by end of 2017. HAL says it will increase production from eight to 16 a year “once a formal order is received for the 83 Mk1As.” IAF Air Chief Marshall Arup Raha said last year: “We want the LCA Mk1A with an improved radar [Elta's ELM-2052 AESA or active electronically scanned array], electronic warfare, in-flight refueling and better missiles.” But a privately owned OEM said: “While there is to be joint work between HAL and Elta, we don’t k...

                                                   Abdul Razak Ali Artan By : Rediff.com Pakistani embassy in New York, raided over Ohio terror attack, & important papers relating to attack has been seized. The Somali-born student, who injured 11 people in a car-and-knife attack at Ohio State University before being shot and killed, had lived in Pakistan along with his family for about seven years. The 18-year-old attacker, identified as Abdul Razak Ali Artan, was a Somali refugee who left his homeland with his family in 2007, lived in Pakistan and then came to the United States in 2014 as a legal permanent resident,  NBC News quoted law enforcement officials as saying. He temporarily lived in Dallas before settling in Ohio. He rammed his car into a crowd at Ohio State University on Monday and attacked them with a butcher kn...

. Norway plans to order five Boeing Co P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol planes to maintain its surveillance capacity and meet future security challenges, the NATO country’s Defence Ministry said. Norway’s long maritime border with neighbouring Russia has become a renewed focus for the country’s military planners following the Russian annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region. Norway’s territorial waters also stretch far into the Arctic. Neighbouring Sweden and Finland, which are not in the NATO alliance, have also expressed concerns about incursions by Russian submarines and other naval vessels. The submarine-hunting patrol planes will replace Norway’s current fleet of six P-3 Orion and three DA-20 Jet Falcon aircraft and are expected to be delivered in 2021 and 2022. Norway will also buy related intelligence equipment, the ministry said. Special features of Poseidon: P 8 Poseidon is a Long Range patrolling, surveillance, reconnaissance, anti submarine, anti Ship wa...

According to Iraqi sources, the country is in the last negotiating stages to seal a $2.5 billion arms purchase deal with China. Sources added that Iraq turned to China for weapons after it could not reach a deal with Russia to buy weapons on credit. The weapons being considered include air defense systems such as the FD 2000 an export variant of HQ- 9, which is the Chinese equivalent of the Russian S-300. China’s third generation main battle tank, the Type 99, is also being considered to be included in the deal. Iraq will be paying the first installment of $833 million in 2017 should the deal pass. The Iraqi Army has traditionally been a large operator of Chinese weapons. Short Information about HQ 9/FD 2000 HQ 9 is the copied version of Russian S 300, a Soul long range surface to air missile system which is believed that it is developed by Russian technical support and assistance. The missiles is being based on Taian TA 5380 8X8 high mobility chassis with the TEL erictor which l...

By GDNA An Italian FREMM frigate Bergamini successfully carried out the first ASTER 30 firing of the FREMM Programme. The firing took place at the PISQ facility in Easter Sardinia, which is the Italian Joint Firing Range. The OCCAR-EA FREMM Programme Division is procuring 10 FREMM Frigates on behalf of the Italian Navy with deliveries ongoing until 2021. The first qualification firing has been conducted in autonomous mode with the Italian SAAM ESD (Surface Anti Air Missile, Extended Self Defence) system, to the full satisfaction of the Italian Navy. The next launch, which will be in integrated mode, is planned for April 2017. The Italian FREMM Anti Air Warfare Capability based on the SAAM ESD provides both Self Defence and Extended Self Defence, guaranteeing protection also to consort ships through their 16 ASTER missiles (ASTER 15 or ASTER 30). The firing was conducted using an instrumented telemetry missile (procured by the OCCAR-EA FSAF-PAAMS Programme D...

India’s quest to develop its own fighter jet engine got a leg up after a $2-million consultancy agreement was finalised with leading French defence manufacturer Safran to help revive the Kaveri project.  The project stalled in 2014 after the Kaveri gas turbine engine developed for combat planes and unmanned aircraft was unable to provide the required power thrust — a fact French experts expect to correct after study.  Initial assessments by the French company show that 25-30% more work is needed for the Kaveri engine to be combat-worthy.  A detailed joint development plan will be drawn up that could use offset credits — the obligation is 50% of contract cost, which translates to over 3 billion euros — coming from the Rafale fighter jet deal.  As reported by ET in July, France has offered a 1-billion euro investment to revive the project. Several rounds of discussions have already taken place since January between Safran, which has developed the M88 engi...

The Indian Air Force took a vital step last week towards boosting its dwindling fleet of combat aircraft. As MiG-21s and MiG-27s retire, forcing the IAF to close down squadrons, a new avionics upgrade for the nuclear-capable Jaguar strike fighter will let it fly for another two decades. This is Hindustan Aeronautics Limited's new DARIN-III 'navigation attack' system that allows the Jaguar to do pinpoint bombing. The DARIN-III allows a pilot to feed in the coordinates of targets deep inside enemy territory. Once airborne, the computer's inertial navigation system directs the pilot to the target, telling him when to releases his weapons precisely. IAF's deputy chief, Air Marshal R K S Bhadauria, flew a Jaguar equipped with DARIN-III in HAL Bengaluru, after which he accorded 'initial operational clearance' of the upgraded system. The IAF's six Jaguar squadrons (20 fighters in each) are deployed in Ambala, Jamnagar and Gorakhpur. Termed 'deep ...

A Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) of Indian army was injured after being hit by sniper fire from across the border on Wednesday. Sources said that JCO Dewan Singh of 12 Jat regiment was hit on his chest in Gulpur sector of Poonch in Jammu and Kashmir. He was airlifted to an army hospital in Udhampur for treatment, they said.

(Source :  Telegraph.co.uk ) A German intelligence officer has reportedly been arrested over a suspected Islamist plot to bomb the agency's headquarters in Cologne. The 51-year-old official was said to have made a "partial confession" to the plot, according to Der Spiegel. The suspect attempted to pass on sensitive information about the BfV (Germany's domestic security agency), which could lead to a threat to the office, according to an official. "He is accused of making Islamist remarks online under a false name, and offering internal information during chats." a BfV spokesman said. The BfV said the man "behaved inconspicuously" prior to his arrest. He had, since April, been engaged in gathering intelligence on Islamist extremists in Germany, Der Spiegel said. Online chats were apparently found between the suspect and other Islamists in which he attempted to recruit them to the intelligence agency to mount an attack on "non...

Ohio State Attack: What We Know About Abdul Razak Ali Artan ** A senior law enforcement official said authorities are a "long way" from pinpointing a motive for the Monday morning attack, which sent 11 people to the hospital. But the Facebook post is a valuable clue to Artan's state of mind as they try to determine if the ambush was rooted in terrorism or if he had a personal problem or grudge that pushed him over the edge. ** He grew up in Somalia but left with his family in 2007, settling in Pakistan, according to law enforcement officials. (NBC News) Minutes before his car-and-knife attack on the Ohio State University campus, Abdul Razak Ali Artan posted a photo to his Facebook page. It was a picture of a document on a Dell computer screen with the warning: "Screenshot this before it gets deleted." Below that was a jumbled screed in which the author railed about the treatment of Muslims around the world. It vented anger at the United State...

The United Engine Corporation (UEC) has successfully conducted the first ground-based ignition of the second stage of the engine for the Prospective Airborne Complex of Frontline Aviation (PAK FA T-50 aircraft). The UEC is part of the Rostec state holding company. Gas generators had to be prepared for the testing, along with the demonstrator engine. What   is   the   PAK   FA   flying   with   now? The PAK FA is currently using a first stage engine, a modernized Al-41. Pavel Bulat, avionics specialist and head of the Kupol Group of Companies, said the AI-41 is an updated version of the engines used for the Su-27, Su-30 and other models in that series. “The engine for the T-50 was significantly upgraded from the original models, incorporating the latest control system, compressors, and so on. Nevertheless, it still falls short of the 5 th  generation model, and is very noticeable on radar screens,” said the expert. The new se...

Over the past few years, India made efficiency upgrades to its transmission grid to reduce the losses. Still, almost 20 per cent of the total generation, which is more than twice the world average, doesn’t reach intended customers.  The facility in Kamuthi, Tamil Nadu, has a capacity of 648 MW and covers an area of 10sq km. This makes it the largest solar power plant at a single location, taking the title from the Topaz Solar Farm in California, which has a capacity of 550 MW. The solar plant, built in an impressive 8 months, is cleaned every day by a robotic system, charged by its own solar panels. At full capacity, it is estimated to produce enough electricity to power approximately 150,000 homes. The project is comprised of 2.5 million individual solar modules, and cost approximately $679m to build. The new plant has helped nudge India’s total installed solar capacity across the 10 GW mark, according to a statement by research firm ‘Bridge to India’, joining only a...

Following its economic expansion in Central Asia, China unexpectedly took a step to expand its military dominance in the region. In September 2016, Beijing offered to build 11 new border checkpoints and a new military facility along the Tajikistan-Afghanistan border, which raised some concerns in Russia. Although these moves could position China as a security player in Central Asia, Russian experts seemingly are doubtful about the future of any China-Central Asia military alliance. Notably, Russia has an entrenched presence in the region and its largest foreign military base is located outside the Tajik capital. China’s economic expansion in Tajikistan is a very young phenomenon. In the early 2000s, Chinese influence in Tajikistan was quite weak and limited, due to the lack of transport networks connecting both countries. Only after the opening of a new major highway between two countries did bilateral trade significantly increase. Another fact...

Even as China continues to encircle India in the name of economic initiatives like the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), One Belt One Road (OBOR) and other projects, India is looking to counter these moves. Thankfully, India has found a reliable friend in Vietnam which like India shares its enmity with the powerful China. And as the ancient proverb goes, "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" functions well for both, India and Vietnam. India will soon be rolling out red carpet welcome for Vietnam's defence minister Ngo Xuan Lich on December 3. This visit is important even as India and Vietnam deepen their military co-operation which has already been upgraded to that of strategic partnership. Ahead of Lich's visit, Vietnam's top envoy in India, Ton Sinh Thanh, Vietnam's ambassador in India interacted with Indian Navy officials in Kochi. A tweet from the official account of Indian Navy revealed Thanh's visit to the under-construction Indigenous ...

By :Dawn.com The Russian foreign ministry on Tuesday rubbished Pakistani media reports about 'secret negotiations' between the two countries regarding cooperation on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Reports circulating last week claimed that the Russian spy chief had made a visit to Pakistan in order to inspect the Gwadar port. The reports alleged that Pakistan had formally authorised Russia to join the $46bn CPEC after the head of Russian intelligence requested to join the project. "The Pakistani media reports about secret negotiations between Russia and Pakistan on the implementation of projects as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) are not true to the facts," Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation  said in a press release . Russia denied holding discussions with Pakistan on the possibility of joining the project. "Moscow is not discussing the possibility of joining this project [CPEC] with Islamaba...

Project GHATAK~AURA UCAV Safran has offered to partner India’s Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) in the development of a variant of the indigenous Kaveri engine for its combat drone, ‘Ghatak’. The French company which manufactures engines for Rafale fighter jets are waiting for an approval by the Union government. AMCA “We are working on technologies required for ‘Ghatak’ with about Rs 230 crore ($33.5 million) sanctioned as part of pre-project studies,” S. Christopher, Director General, DRDO, and Secretary, Department of Defence R&D, Ministry of Defence (MoD) was quoted as saying by Deccan Chronicle Sunday.                                                       LCA TEJAS Safran’s offer could help accelerate the development of Kaveri engine to power ‘Tejas’ (Light Combat Aircraft) fighter jets. S...