Pakistan rushes to UN to avoid a full-scale War with India

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Thursday, November 24, 2016

By: TNN

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Highlights

 Pakistan has asked the UN to act before the situation snowballs into a "full-fledged crisis"
 Pak has alleged that the situation along the Line of Control posed a "grave threat to
international peace and security"

Alarmed by the escalation of tension with India along the LoC+ , Pakistan on Thursday asked the
UN to act before the situation snowballs into a "full-fledged crisis".

Pakistan's ambassador to the UN Maleeha Lodhi met the Deputy UN Secretary General Jan
Eliasson and the Chef de Cabinet of the Secretary General Edmond Mulet during which she
alleged that the situation along the Line of Control (LoC) posed a "grave threat to international
peace and security".
Lodhi, according to a statement issued by the Permanent Mission of Pakistan to the UN, in her
meeting with UN officials alleged that escalating tensions on the LoC "was a deliberate attempt"
by India to "divert the attention of the international community from the gross human right
violations being committed" by it in Kashmir.

Alleging that the attack on an ambulance trying to evacuate the injured was a particularly
"abhorrent act" that was a breach of the most fundamental legal and humanitarian laws, Lodhi
urged the UN to act before the escalating tensions snowball into a full-fledged crisis.

The UN Department of Peace Keeping Operations was separately asked to mobilise United
Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) to effectively monitor the
LoC and the Working Boundary as a step to help deescalate tensions between India and Pakistan,
a statement said.

Pakistan Army had on Wednesday said seven persons, including three of its soldiers, were killed
in an exchange of fire with Indian troops on the LoC.

The clash occurred a day after India warned of retribution after losing three soldiers in Pakistan
firing and after Pakistan yesterday rejected as "false" and "baseless" the charges that the body of
an Indian soldier was mutilated by Pakistani soldiers in a cross LoC-attack.

Govt. set to place a Multi-Billion $ Mega Order to build 4

Assault Helicopter Carriers in Indiia
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Wednesday, November 23, 2016

By: Defence Aviation Post

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The Modi government’s ongoing focus to improve national security and empower the Indian
Navy to ring-fence the Indian Ocean and beef up its strength in the region is being seen as an
important growth driver by private players in the defence sector.

While China is steadily growing its influence in the Indian Ocean as also the South China Sea,
India currently has only one LPD that was acquired way back in 2005, commissioned in 2007
and is currently called the INS Jalashwa. In all and with costs running into billions of dollars, six
frigates and one refitted Aircraft Carrier (from Russia), two logistic tankers (from Italy), and one
LPD (Second hand ship from USA) have been imported since 2002.

However, in line with government’s current plans and focus, the Indian Navy will soon be
equipped with latest state-of-the-art assault warships. On the anvil is a mega order from the
Indian Navy, with an announcement expected anytime now, for its multi-billion dollar program
to build four 25,000-ton landing platform docks (LPD) or helicopter carrier warships—-the
largest assault ships to be built in an Indian yard.

Equipped with a point defence missile system, these LPDs or specialised warships powered by
electric propulsion systems will possess massive capabilities of carrying as many as six main
battle tanks, 20 infantry combat vehicles and 40 heavy trucks.

Besides, special operation helicopters and large helicopters, weighing up to 35 tons, will operate
from the ship. The LPDs will also be equipped with a close-in weapon system, an anti-torpedo
decoy system, a chaff system, and heavy and light machine guns. This apart, each ship will be
able to accommodate as many as 1500 personnel including officers, sailors and troops.

With established foothold in the sector, engineering and construction conglomerate, the $15
billion plus company Larsen and Toubro (L&T) is looking forward to the announcement of
commercial negotiations for this LPD program of the Indian Navy. With a mega shipbuilding
facility at Kattupalli near Chennai and a shipyard at Hazira in Gujarat, L&T is looking forward
to major orders from the Indian Navy, LPD being one of them.

The Request for Proposal (RFP) for building four LPDs / Helicopter Carriers had already been
issued by the defence ministry in 2014 as first Buy and Make (Indian) program by the Indian
Navy and L&T along with Reliance Defence are the two shortlisted companies in the fray for
this large order.The RFP stipulates that out of the four LPDs, two lead ships will be built by the
winning private sector shipyard while the later two will be produced by Hindustan Shipyard at
the same cost. An announcement on the commercial negotiations process for these four LPDs is
expected shortly.

While earlier three domestic vendors– ABG Shipyard, L&T and Reliance Defence (formerly
Pipavav Defence) were vying for this contract, only two (L&T and Reliance) could finally clear
financial and technical evaluation. ABG Shipyard failed to qualify due to large debts on its
balance sheets and the corporate debt restructuring process being underway for the yard. While
L&T has a tie-up with Navantia of Spain as its technical partner, Reliance Defence with DCNS
of France, and ABG had tied up with Alion of the United States.

This explains our focus on the Shipbuilding capabilities of Indian companies.

India quietly signs $1.4bn deal for 2 AWACS and 10 Heron

TP UAV's with Israel
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Thursday, November 24, 2016

By: Air Cosmos Int

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India quietly signed two contracts worth $1.4bn with Israel Aerospace Industries for the purchase
of two additional Phalcon/IL-76 Airborne Early Warning and Control Systems (AWACS) valued
at $1 billion and 10 Heron TP unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) during the recent visit of Israeli
President Reuven Rivil to India.

The contracts were signed in New Delhi on 16th November in the presence of Brig. Gen. (Retd)
Mishel Ben Baruch, Director, SIBAT, Israel Ministry of Defence and Indian defence secretary G
Mohan Kumar.

An Indian Air force (IAF) official said the purchase of two AWACS has been pending for the
past five years and the deliveries should be made within the next two to three years. “Phalcon
AWACS are tremendous force-multipliers and we are having an excellent experience with
them,” the official added.

A $400m contract for the purchase of 10 weaponised Heron TP UAVs was also signed with IAI.
Deliveries to the IAF are expected to be completed over the next three years.

According to the IAF official, the Indian Heron TPs will have very sophisticated communication
& intelligence systems, detection finders, signal parameters and emitter classification and geo-
location capabilities, in addition to electronic surveillance measure for long-range automatic
detection and identification of emitting targets.

The official added that Indian Heron TPs will be capable of launching guided munitions and
lightweight tactical missiles. Currently the three Indian defence forces operate around 60 Heron
UAVs but it is not known whether they are weaponised or not. The three Indian defence forces
have a joint requirement of over 200 weaponised UAVs in the next 10 years.

IAI has also given a proposal to India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation
(DRDO) to jointly develop an advanced version of Heron UAV in India. However, the ruling
National Democratic Alliance government wants all future UAV requirements to be met through
the Make in India initiative. Israeli Searcher Mark 1 & II, Heron and Heop UAVs are currently
used by Indian defence forces.

India Took a Shocking 33 Years to Develop a Jet Fighter

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Thursday, November 24, 2016

By: The National Interest

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The Indian government is proposing to export its Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) Tejas
light combat aircraft to other Asian nations. New Delhi hopes that the indigenously developed
fighter’s relatively simple design and potentially low maintenance costs will be a selling point
for the jet. But India’s prospects for selling the its “new” fighter are highly dubious.

“The government proposes to export the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas to other countries.
In this connection preliminary discussions have been held with a few friendly countries,” reads a
statement from Indian defense minister Shri Manohar Parrikar. “Presently, HAL has established
facilities for manufacturing and delivery of 8 LCA per annum. There is a plan to ramp up the
production rate from 8 to 16 Aircraft per annum progressively by 2019-20.”

It’s unclear which potential customers might be interested in the Tejas, though New Delhi has
been trying to market the jet overseas with an appearance at the Bahrain air show earlier this
year. But given that India has been trying to develop the Tejas since the 1980s without delivering
a viable combat aircraft, it is highly doubtful that any of New Delhi’s allies would be willing to
purchase such a fighter. Moreover, even after more than 33 years of development, the Tejas
continues to be plagued with problems—though developers believe that they can resolve
outstanding issues with the aircraft within a year. “I told them that all shortcomings should be
fulfilled and the plane should be ready in a year,” Parrikar told the Hindustan Times on Nov. 20.

Nonetheless, New Delhi continues to assert that the Tejas offers performance comparable to
France’s Dassault Rafale. “This is a plane which is completely indigenously manufactured and
can compete with any other fighter plane in the world. It is as capable as the Rafale. Only this is
a light combat aircraft (LCA),” Parrikar told the Hindustan Times. “Only a 3.5 ton missile can be
carried on it, Rafale on the other hand can carry a nine ton (payload). This plane can fly at the
rate of 450Kms, Rafale can run 900Kms because it has twin engines.”

Despite, India’s bold claims, the generally unimpressive Tejas is not in the same league as other
comparable aircraft in the export fighter market. The Swedish Saab JAS-39 Gripen and even
upgraded older model F-16s and F/A-18s generally offer superior performance for comparable
and sometimes even lower prices. Moreover, the Tejas—with a hodgepodge of technologies
drawn from Israel, France, Russia and the United States, among others—would be a nightmare to
clear for export.

Despite being billed as an indigenous aircraft, roughly 25 percent of the current Mk-1 version of
the aircraft is built from imported components. While that might seem fairly low, those
components are the core of what makes a fighter a fighter. Imported systems on the Tejas include
the Israel Aerospace Industries/ELTA EL/M-2032 radar, an Elbit helmet-mounted cueing
system, a British-made Martin Baker ejection seat and an American General Electric F404
afterburning turbofan. Additionally, many of the jet’s weapons—such as the GSh-23 23 mm
cannon—are of Russian origin. Indeed, the very fact that the Tejas is equipped with a U.S.
engine means that Washington has a veto on which nations New Delhi can offer the aircraft to
for sale. Thus, a potential customer might be better served to simply purchase a used F-16 or
F/A-18—which are far better jets with a far more attractive package of weapons (not to mention
political clout).

Meanwhile, India recently ordered 83 more Tejas Mk-1A jets, a slightly refined version of the
current Mk-1 aircraft, of which 20 are on order. The Tejas Mk-1A will replace the current
mechanically-scanned radar with a new Israel Aerospace Industries/ELTA EL/M-2052 active
electronically scanned array (AESA) radar, a new electronic warfare pod and a Cobham in-flight
refueling probe. There are also a host of other improvements to correct the deficiencies found on
the original Mk-1.

New Delhi is continuing to refine the aging Tejas design with the Mk-II version, which is set to
make its debut in 2025. The new version of the jet will be equipped with the 22,000-pound thrust
class General Electric F414 engine, which was originally developed for the Boeing F/A-18 Super
Hornet. However, the Indians are attempting to revive the failed Kaveri indigenous engine that
was originally slated to power the Tejas before it became glaringly apparent that it was not up to
the task. The France’s Snecma is working with the Indians to certify the Kaveri engine for the
flight of a Tejas light combat aircraft prototype in 2018.

“Once the engine houses make it a flightworthy engine, we have numerous programs coming up
and there is more than one place for it to be fitted. The question is whether we will be able to fit
it into only the LCA or will we be able to get it into the (GE) 414 with the higher power is a
point that we are raising,” C.P. Ramanarayanan, DRDO’s Director General for Aeronautics told
India’s Business Standard.

Given India’s abysmal track record in developing indigenous combat aircraft, there is little
reason to be optimistic about New Delhi’s prospects for the Tejas. Frankly, the Indian Air Force
would be better served by relegating the Tejas to being technology demonstrator and simply
buying a genuine combat aircraft from one of its allies.

Pak will have to induct 5th Gen Stealth Jets to counter

India's S-400 Missile Defence : Pak Think Tank
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Thursday, November 24, 2016

By: Modern Diplomacy

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During the Indian Premier Narendra Modi’s last trip to Moscow, there was no progress made on
the sale of missile defense system S-400 and Akula class nuclear submarines. Although two
leaders were agreed on jointly producing Kamov-226 military helicopters and building nuclear
power plants.

Indian defence ministry on the behalf of Indian Air Force showed interest in Russian S-400
Triumf air defense system. However the Moscow clarified it will never reciprocate to such
request until India negotiates the joint Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) development
program. So it was explicable when there was no follow-up negotiated on S-400 sale during
Modi’s visit. But at the sidelines of the eight BRICS summit, India and Russia agreed to sign an
inter-governmental agreement for the procurement of four regiments of Russian-made S-400
Triumf.
The S-400 Triumf (NATO designation: SA-21 Growler) is a new-generation medium and long-
range anti-aircraft missile system. This missile system was manufactured by the Almaz-Antey
Corporation and contains multiple missile variants to counter stealth aircraft, UAVs, cruise
missiles and sub-strategic ballistic missiles. It can strike planes and tactical ballistic targets at a
distance of 250 miles (400 km). The Indian Air Force desires the S-400 to enhance its air defense
systems. Meanwhile, the purchase of S-400 is a sign that India is far away in creating an
indigenous operative anti-missile missile system.

Recently, Vladimir Drozhzhov, deputy head of Russia’s Federal Service for Military-Technical
Cooperation (FSMTC) claimed that, “The Russian Federal Service has prepared a draft
intergovernmental agreement on the supply of the S-400 systems to India and passed it on to our
partners, so we are awaiting a response.” Whereas, Aide to the President of Russia and head of
the Control Directorate of the Presidential Administration of Russia, Vladimir Kozhin said that
"There are many of those who want it (the S-400 system) but the case is that we are not able to
supply everyone with it and therefore we will not deliver it to everyone because the priority is
the Russian army, however, the negotiations with China and India are underway,"

Russia has been using the S-400 Triumf system for countering strategic threats with respect to its
requirements obligatory in context of Europe against the United States. Now in future, the
probable existence of these missiles in the South Asia, especially under Indian command is
certainly going to contribute as another problem for Pakistani military. The future proliferation
of S-400 to India is a grave challenge for Pakistan and it rings alarm bells also for China. The
Triumf air defense system is easy to transport, well networked and has a range to defend huge
areas. The traditional non-stealth fighter jets are specific target for the system and completely
useless in the region where this system is being installed.

Some analysts contemplated that the best counter to the Triumf system is a long-range Surface to
Air missile (SAM), for instance the Chinese HQ-9. Whereas, the genuine measure against
Triumf system is to obtain a comprehensive ability which would preferably destroy India’s air
defence capabilities. There are numerous methods available to counter an air defence system i.e.
Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD), Directed Energy Air Defense (DEAD), radar
decoys, stealth air strike, drone air strike, cruise missile and ground invasion. Theoretically the
conventional answer for Pakistan Airforce is to attain stealth aircraft along with anti-radiation
air-to-surface missiles and sub-munition capable air launched cruise missiles (ALCM). Whereas
Pakistan Army should invest in multiple independently-guided re-entry vehicle (MIRV)
equipped ballistic missiles to counter any future acquisition of S-400 by India.

Sputnik reported last year that Beijing had already concluded $3-billion worth deal to purchase
the S-400 Triumf from Moscow and it will receive the first batch as early as 2016. Therefore it is
quite possible that China will be first beneficiary of S-400. In such scenario China will definitely
not on the same page with Russia to supply such important strategic weapons to India. Whereas
Russia can no longer ignore China’s likes and dislikes in contemporary picture. The reason for
such closeness between Moscow and Beijing is pragmatic sanctions on Russia by the West and
China’s unconditional support to Russia in this critical passage of time.
Meanwhile, the U.S. is quite concerned with Russian S-400 air defense systems going global.
The U.S. is sensitive on the issue of deploying this system in any region especially in South Asia
because this will put restrictions on the U.S. manoeuvrability in the region, as one senior U.S.
Marine Corps said that, “(S-400) a complete game changer for all fourth-gen aircraft (like the F-
15, F-16 and F/A-18). That thing is a beast and you don’t want to get near it.”

On the other hand the U.S. is building case to mainstreaming India into the Missile Technology
Control Regime (MTCR). Therefore, India has to align itself according to MTCR guidelines but
by the purchase of S-400 system it is violating the MTCR Guidelines and risking the
proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

The S-400 Triumf system under India’s command will contest Pakistan’s capability to conduct
Air defense or Air offense operations in its airspace. It will also augment India’s ability to
counter Pakistan’s aerial preeminence. Pakistan will be forced to invest in technologies to
counter or develop comparable systems to highlight weaknesses in India’s air defenses to uphold
regional balance.