Boeing Says Japan Could Produce F-18 Super Hornet Under License

F-18 Super Hornet

U.S. planemaker Boeing said local defence contractors might build F/A 18 Super Hornets under licence if Japan chose to buy the next-generation fighter jet.

The comment came after the U.S. aerospace giant, along with Lockheed Martin and a consortium of European countries, submitted bids to produce Japan's next mainstay combat aircraft in a deal that could be worth up to $8 billion.

Japan, which is facing a resurgent China and its growing military as well as threats from North Korea, plans to decide this year how it will replace its current fleet of ageing F-4 Phantom fighters with about 40 new combat airplanes.

Phillip Mills, Director of Boeing's Japan FX Capture Team, said Japanese makers could supply about three quarters of Super Hornet components if Japan opted for the fighter jet.

There has been great interest in how much of next-generation fighter jet-related jobs will be outsourced to the Japanese industry, which has been battered by gradual but consistent shrinkage of the defence budget.

"If you came to the Boeing production line, everything you saw Boeing doing in St Louis would be available or is available for Japan industry to do," Mills told Reuters in an interview.

Defence System of Pakistan Air Force Was On Red Alert Due To US Planes

Spada-2000

Former ISI chief lt gen (retd) Hameed Gul has said that the time has come when the government should tell the US clearly that it should not try to take revenge of failure in Afghanistan from Pakistan, adding that Pakistan Air Force had put its defence system on red alert on Sunday night due to US flights on Pak-Afghan border.

General Hameed Gul said that recent incidents clarify that the Pak-US relations cannot remain at that level where were in Musharraf era, adding that every leader of Pakistan says that we don not accept America as our Master, and this is the voice of whole nation.

He said that it is time to say US that we are not like Cambodia, we are a nuclear state. “It is time to say that if you would do this than we response in this way,” he added.

The Pentagon's New China War Plan

Despite budget woes, the military is preparing for a conflict with our biggest rival -- and we should be worried

 

This summer, despite America’s continuing financial crisis, the Pentagon is effectively considering trading two military quagmires for the possibility of a third. Reducing its commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan as it refocuses on Asia, Washington is not so much withdrawing forces from the Persian Gulf as it is redeploying them for a prospective war with its largest creditor, China.

According to the defense trade press, Pentagon officials are seeking ways to adapt a concept known as AirSea Battle specifically for China, debunking rote claims from Washington that it has no plans to thwart its emerging Asian rival. A recent article in Inside the Pentagon reported that a small group of U.S. Navy officers known as the China Integration Team "is hard at work applying the lessons of [AirSea Battle] to a potential conflict with China."

US Asks China To Explain Why It Needs Aircraft Carrier

WASHINGTON — The United States said Wednesday it would like China to explain why it needs an aircraft carrier amid broader US concerns about Beijing's lack of transparency over its military aims.

"We would welcome any kind of explanation that China would like to give for needing this kind of equipment," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters when asked whether the carrier would raise regional tensions.

"This is part of our larger concern that China is not as transparent as other countries. It's not as transparent as the United States about its military acquisitions, about its military budget," she said.

"And we'd like to have the kind of open, transparent relationship in military-to-military affairs," Nuland said.

"In our military-to-military relations with many countries around the world, we have the kind of bilateral dialogue where we can get quite specific about the equipment that we have and its intended purposes and its intended movements," she said.

US Says Taliban Who Shot At US Helicopter dead

Taliban who shot at a US military helicopter which crashed, leaving 38 American and Afghan troops dead, have been killed, a US commander has said.


General John Allen, US forces commander in Afghanistan, said those responsible had been targeted in an air strike.

Separately, Nato said in a statement the strike had killed Taliban leader Mullah Mohibullah and the insurgent who fired at the helicopter.

The dead included Navy Seals, US Air Force personnel and other groups.

Many of those killed in Saturday's crash were members of Seal Team Six, the elite special forces unit whose members undertook the May raid into Pakistan that killed al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden.

"The strike killed Taliban leader Mullah Mohibullah and the insurgent who fired the shot associated with the August 6th downing of the CH-47 helicopter," the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) statement said.

USA C17 Global Master Landed At Chendu Airport

US, Pakistan Near Open War -- Chinese Ultimatum Warns Washington Against Attack

 

China has officially put the United States on notice that Washington’s planned attack on Pakistan will be interpreted as an act of aggression against Beijing. This blunt warning represents the first known strategic ultimatum received by the United States in half a century, going back to Soviet warnings during the Berlin crisis of 1958-1961, and indicates the grave danger of general war growing out of the US-Pakistan confrontation.

“Any Attack on Pakistan Would be Construed as an Attack on China”

 

Responding to reports that China has asked the US to respect Pakistan’s sovereignty in the aftermath of the Bin Laden operation, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Jiang Yu used a May 19 press briefing to state Beijing’s categorical demand that the “sovereignty and territorial integrity of Pakistan must be respected.” According to Pakistani diplomatic sources cited by the Times of India, China has “warned in unequivocal terms that any attack on Pakistan would be construed as an attack on China.” This ultimatum was reportedly delivered at the May 9 China-US strategic dialogue and economic talks in Washington, where the Chinese delegation was led by Vice Prime Minister Wang Qishan and State Councilor Dai Bingguo. Chinese warnings are implicitly backed up by that nation’s nuclear missiles, including an estimated 66 ICBMs, some capable of striking the United States, plus 118 intermediate-range missiles, 36 submarine-launched missiles, and numerous shorter-range systems. 

Support from China is seen by regional observers as critically important for Pakistan, which is otherwise caught in a pincers between the US and India: “If US and Indian pressure continues, Pakistan can say ‘China is behind us. Don’t think we are isolated, we have a potential superpower with us,’” Talat Masood, a political analyst and retired Pakistani general, told AFP. 

The Chinese ultimatum came during the visit of Pakistani Prime Minister Gilani in Beijing, during which the host government announced the transfer of 50 state-of-the-art JF-17 fighter jets to Pakistan, immediately and without cost. Before his departure, Gilani had stressed the importance of the Pakistan-China alliance, proclaiming: “We are proud to have China as our best and most trusted friend. And China will always find Pakistan standing beside it at all times….When we speak of this friendship as being taller than the Himalayas and deeper than the oceans it truly captures the essence of our relationship.” These remarks were greeted by whining from US spokesmen, including Idaho Republican Senator Risch. 

New Missile Defence Shield In Romania Tests Russian-U.S. Relations

A new test for relations between Russia and the United States has arisen as Romania struck a deal with Washington Tuesday to deploy U.S. missile interceptors there, prompting Moscow to ask for "safeguards" from Washington.

This future missile shield could set one more obstacle for the talks underway between the two countries on European missile defense system, local analysts said.

Though Washington said the missile shield was to counter attacks from Iran, Moscow worried the shield could be turned against Russia, targeting its strategic nuclear forces.

India To Get 10 C-17 Globemaster III Heavy Airlift Aircrafts

A deal is one step away from being closed to purchase a total of 10 C-17 Globemaster-III aircraft units from Boeing of the US. After earlier protestation, the money spent for the acquisition has been approved by the finance ministry. 

Sources revealed that the only formal thing left to be done is the Cabinet committee’s approval, which is expected to follow soon. After this, the deal for the 10 strategic heavy airlift aircraft units will be forwarded to the FMS (Foreign Military Sale). The FMS is a government-to-government system that revolves around military equipment.

The price of the C-17 Globemaster-III aircraft units have been the cause for a lot of rumors concerning the government. The president of Boeing Military Aircraft, Chris Chadwick, dismissed these rumors however, saying that there are no problems with the price related to the C-17 Globemasters, and there’s has been no indication whatsoever from the government that the $5.8-billion sale of 10 of those units are going to be put to the Indian Air Force. He told this to the FE on a recent visit to Delhi, also saying that he thinks that their offer is very fair, and is also mandatorily needed to meet certain requirements concerning the airplane’s capabilities and life-cycle costs. “We are pretty close to signing the contract”, he also said.

India Rade For 5.8-billion Dollar C-17 Globemaster Deal

The deal to buy 10 C-17 Globemaster-III aircraft from Boeing of the US is a step closer to being clinched. The finance ministry, after initial objections, has sanctioned the money for the acquisition.

According to sources, after this development, the only formality left is the approval by the Cabinet committee on security, which is expected soon. 

US Asks China To Be Transparent On Military Modernisation

Expressing concern over growing might of China's armed forces, a top pentagon official has said that absence of clarification from the East Asian country on its military modernisation efforts has significant implications for regional stability.

"Absent clarification from China, its military modernisation efforts hold significant implications for regional stability," the US Pacific Command Commander Admiral Robert Willard, said in his testimony before House Armed Services Committee.

The region is developing its own conclusions about why the People's Liberation Army (PLA) continues to expand its ability to project power outside China's borders, and to range both US forces and its allies and partners in the region with new anti-access and area-denial weaponry.

Willard said China's rise will largely define Asia-Pacific environment in the 21st century.

He said China's naval activities are a direct challenge to accepted interpretations of international law and established international norms.

"Of growing concern is China's maritime behaviour. China's recent official statements and actions in what Beijing calls its --near seas -- represent a direct challenge to accepted interpretations of international law and established international norms," Willard said.

"While China does not make legal claims to this entire body of water, it does seek to restrict or exclude foreign, in particular, US, military maritime and air activities in the --near seas -- an area that roughly corresponds to the maritime area from the Chinese mainland out to the --first island chain--(described, generally, as a line through Japan, Taiwan, Philippines, and Indonesia) and including the Bohai Gulf, Yellow Sea, East China Sea, and South China Sea," he said.

India-US Naval Exercise Malabar Start From Saturday

Indian Navy’s three destroyers and the support vessels are positioned in the western Pacific where they will practice maneuvers on interdiction at sea and anti-piracy patrol with the US warships in the annual Malabar series of exercise, from Saturday. Although Malabar is essentially an Indo-US exercise, Japan, an important ally of the US and India’s strategic partner, was also invited.

But it pulled out at the last moment as its armed forces were dealing with the nuclear crisis.

Japan had earlier agreed to play host to Indian and the US naval warships by holding the exercise near the port city of Okinawa. After it’s withdrawal, the venue was shifted to somewhere in the western Pacific. Its’s withdrawal means that exercise has been scaled down there will be no submarine component and missing in action would also be the aircraft carriers.
The US in the past has fielded its Carrier Strike Group 7 with the USS Ronald Reagon at the helm, but in this edition the US Pacific fleet destroyers and corvettes would match the Indian participation. Indian fleet, comprising destroyers INS Delhi and INS Ranvijay, along with fleet tanker INS Jyothi, starting from eastern fleet headquarter at Vishakhapatnam has reached the area marked for exercise.

U.S. Wants To Use India In Missile Shield Against Russia And China

 United States has been trying to rope in India for its plans to build a global missile defence system threatening Russia and China, the Komsomoloskaya Pravda, a popular Russian daily published from Moscow reported on Thursday.

In a story based on the WikiLeaks releases, the report said the U.S. has not only been planning to deploy a missile shield against Russia in Europe, but had also been negotiating with countries along Russia's borders, such as Japan and India, to jointly build missile defences that would also target Russia.

“The noose [around Russia] is tightening,” the newspaper said. “Thanks to WikiLeaks, it has become known that Washington has been simultaneously conducting talks with countries in other parts of the world for building U.S. missile defences on their territories. Those are different countries, but they form a chain around Russia.”

A 2007 confidential cable from the U.S. embassy in New Delhi carried by the daily refuted media reports that India had abruptly turned its back on a 2005 agreement with the U.S. to cooperate on missile defences. The cable said the Indian media had misinterpreted remarks by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee after the Russia-India-China trilateral meeting in Harbin, China, on October 24, 2007. Mr. Mukherjee had dismissed as “groundless” the idea that India was going to join a U.S.-led missile defence system.


“MEA contacts confirm this did not mean India was not interested in continuing to cooperate with the U.S. on missile defence technology and that there has been no change from the current level of bilateral missile defence cooperation,” the U.S. embassy cable said.

USAF - B-1B Lancer Aircraft

USA Confirms Plans For Missile Defense Base in Poland

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has confirmed Washington's plans to deploy missile defenses and Air Force units in Poland.

"As was announced by our two presidents in December, we plan to establish a new permanent U.S. air detachment in Poland, build missile defenses in Poland, and as agreed at the NATO summit, develop a contingency plan in the region," Clinton told journalists ahead of talks with Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski in Washington.

Wikileaks published U.S. cables in late 2010 showing that NATO was drawing up a plan on the protection of Estonia, Lithuania and Poland from external threats on a request from the United States and Germany.

 The Guardian reported that under the plan, reportedly approved by Clinton, the United States, Britain, Germany and Poland would deploy troops in the region in case of a military aggression against the Baltic States or Poland itself.

According to the British newspaper, NATO members approved the draft plan during the alliance's summit in Lisbon in November 2010.

In 2009, the United States decided to deploy several F-16 fighter jets and Hercules transport aircraft in Poland. Polish Defense Minister Bogdan Klich has said the United States was also planning to deploy Patriot missile defense systems in Poland at a base just 100 kilometers from the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.

"We have a full agenda that will concentrate on three essential areas: building our mutual security, expanding prosperity and promoting democracy," Clinton said on Thursday, adding "as we grow our military partnership, we continue to expand economic ties between the Polish and American people."

Moscow has long opposed the deployment of U.S. missile defenses near its borders, arguing they would be a security threat and could destroy the strategic balance of forces in Europe.

The United States scrapped earlier plans in September last year for an anti-ballistic-missile defense system in the Czech Republic and Poland. Moscow welcomed the move, and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said later that Russia would drop plans to deploy Iskander-M tactical missiles in its Kaliningrad Region, which borders NATO members Poland and Lithuania.

Russia and NATO agreed to cooperate on the so called Euro missile defense system at the Lisbon summit. NATO insists there should be two independent systems that exchange information, while Russia favors a joint system.

US Doubts HAL's Capability For MRCA

  

Washington has expressed serious doubts on the ability of Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) to handle projects like the MMRCA, dubbing it "untested and suspect". This drew a sharp response from a defence ministry official, who pointed out the defence PSU was already engaged in producing a frontline "air dominance" fighter like Sukhoi-30MKI with Russia's help.

As per the MMRCA contract, which India hopes to ink this year, 18 jets will be bought off-the-shelf from the foreign vendor finally selected, while the rest will be manufactured by HAL in India after transfer of technology.

Two American fighters, F/A-18 'Super Hornet' ( Boeing) and F-16 'Falcon' ( Lockheed Martin), are in the race to bag the project, which is the largest fighter deal going around the world at this time. The other jets, which have undergone the gruelling field trials by IAF, are the Swedish Gripen (Saab), French Rafale (Dassault), Russian MiG-35 (United Aircraft Corporation) and Eurofighter Typhoon (consortium of British, German, Spanish and Italian companies).

The Financial Times on Friday reported that US ambassador to India Timothy Roemer, in a confidential cable last year, had held India's aviation industry as "two to three decades behind the US and other western nations" despite some advances.

"The potential for HAL to successfully partner with US firms on a truly advanced aircraft remains untested and suspect," said Roemer, in the cable now leaked by WikiLeaks and "seen" by the British newspaper.

After a trip to HAL facilities in Bangalore in February 2010, Roemer also expressed surprise at the lack of automation and safety precautions at the HAL plant. US companies need to "approach partnerships carefully to understand the management and technological experience of Indian firms", he said.

American Laser warship In Development

India Has No Plan To Join Or Buy The US-led Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) Programme

  

India has no plans as of now to either join the US-led joint strike fighter (JSF) programme or buy the F-35 `Lightning-II' fifth-generation fighter aircraft (FGFA) when it finally becomes operational.
"We cannot have two types of FGFA. We have already launched preliminary work for our FGFA after inking the $295 million preliminary design contract (PDC) with Russia last month,'' said a top defence ministry official on Friday.

This comes in the wake of comments made by a top Pentagon official, undersecretary of defence for acquisition, technology and logistics Ashton Carter, in Washington that the US was open to Indian participation in its JSF project.

Interestingly, the comments came during a function where an aggressive sales pitch was made for India to select either the American F/A-18 `Super Hornet' ( Boeing) or F-16 `Falcon' ( Lockheed Martin) over their European rivals in the ongoing IAF's medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) contest.

The other 4.5-generation fighters in the hotly-contested race to bag the $10.4 billion MMRCA project, under which 18 jets will be bought off-the-shelf and another 108 will be manufactured in India under transfer of technology, are Eurofighter Typhoon, Swedish Gripen (Saab), French Rafale (Dassault) and Russian MiG-35 (United Aircraft Corporation). 

The IAF force matrix for the coming years revolves around the 270 Sukhoi-30MKIs contracted from Russia for around $12 billion, the 126 MMRCA and 120 indigenous Tejas Light Combat Aircraft, apart from upgraded MiG-29s and Mirage-2000s.

In the decades ahead, the advanced stealth FGFA to be developed with Russia will be the mainstay of India's combat fleet. "Our FGFA will be cheaper than the F-35. Moreover, the intellectual property rights of the FGFA will equally and jointly vest on both India and Russia, with full access to the source code and the like,'' said another senior official.

With a potent mix of super-manoeuvrability and supersonic cruising ability, the "swing-role'' FGFA will of course not come cheap. The cost of designing, infrastructure build-up, prototype development and flight testing has been pegged at around $11 billion, with India and Russia chipping in with $5.5 billion each.

Over and above this, each of the 250-300 FGFA India hopes to begin inducting from 2020 onwards will cost around $100 million each. In all, India will spend upwards of $35 billion over the next two decades in its biggest-ever defence project till now.

The Indian FGFA will primarily be based on the single-seater Sukhoi T-50, the prototype of which is already flying in Russia, but will include a twin-seater version and a more powerful engine with greater thrust.

"Its complete design will be frozen by the end of the 18-month PDC. Six to seven of its prototypes should be flying by 2017. After that, there will be 2,500 hours of flight-testing over 25 months before the series production begins in 2019,'' he said.

India To Get 4 Additional Boeing P-8I Long Range Maritime Reconnaissance Aircraft

  

The Indian Navy has decided To Buy 4 additional  Boeing P-8I long-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft to boost its maritime patrol capabilities as well as counter piracy threats and to Counter the growing Chinese influence in the Indian Ocean.

In a deal expected to range between $1 billion to $1.5 billion, the new aircraft will be in addition to the eight the Navy had ordered in January 2009, for about $2.1 billion. The new contract price is also expected to include the cost of aero-structures and avionics.

“The Indian Navy has received the necessary government approvals and has decided to go ahead with the contractual processes to acquire four additional P-8I aircraft under the options clause,” Commander PVS Satish, public relations officer for the Indian Navy Said.

According to sources, Boeing has already submitted its draft offset contract to the defence ministry last week. “The government is considering exercising the option of adding four P-8I aircraft,” Dr Vivek Lall, vice-president, Boeing Defence, Space & Security told ET. The P-8I, which is based on the Boeing next-generation 737 commercial airplane, is a variant of the P-8A Poseidon that the defence vendor Boeing is developing for the US Navy. India is the first international customer for the P-8 platform.

The first of the eight P-8I aircraft, which were bought through the direct commercial sales route with Boeing, are expected to be delivered to India within 48 months of the original contract signing. The aircraft are of supreme strategic importance for India’s naval forces, with the country looking to enhance its role in the high seas.

Further, the global community has been clamouring for India to play a more dominant policing role against sea piracy in the Straits of Malacca, which is one of the busiest commercial and military sea-routes in the world, and along the East African coast.

Also, in the ongoing scramble for sea power in the world’s thirdlargest ocean, India has been desperate to stop what it perceives as a growing Chinese hegemony in the region. Separately, Boeing has also submitted a reply to the Navy’s Request for Information for six medium-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft as well.

However, ministry sources did not confirm whether any of the other global defence vendors had responded to the same.
Others expected to be in the running for the contract include Russia’s Ilyushin, France’s Dassault and EADS . Like most defence deals pursued in India, the acquisition of the MRMR aircraft has followed a long and tortuous route. With the original global Request for Procurement issued in 2008, before the Mumbai attacks, the same was later scrapped by the defence ministry on certain technical grounds.

The current RFI also specifies the aircraft should be able to carry out electronic intelligence gathering and counter-measures, besides maritime patrol and search and rescue within an operational envelope of 350 nautical miles or almost 650 kilometres, as well as a patrol endurance of at least three and a half hours.

There are additional requirements that the aircraft be capable of carrying at least two anti-ship missiles and a jamming pod. As with the P-8I, the navy has specified in the RFI that certain pieces of equipment must be indigenous, like Identification Friend or Foe Interrogator with Secure Mode, MSS Terminal, BFE, Datalink and Speech Secrecy Equipment and vendors must indicate their commitment to integrate this equipment into the aircraft.

US Air Force To Spend $16 Billion On Upgrades For F-22 Raptor

The US Air Force could spend up to $16 billion over the next several years on further upgrades for the Lockheed Martin F-22.
It could also award some of the business to the manufacturer's competitors.


The dollar value was disclosed in a 26 January acquisition notice calling for bidders to compete for the follow-on Raptor enhancement, development and integration (FREDI) contract.

Lockheed was awarded the original multi-year REDI deal in 2004, but now the USAF is inviting its competitors to bid for the work too.

he last of 187 F-22s will be delivered to the USAF in early 2012, but the service plans to spend about $500 million annually for the next several years on planned upgrades. It is upgrading the F-22's radar and computer, adding more capable missiles and making the stealth aircraft easier to maintain.

At the same time, the USAF also plans to transition the F-22's sustainment programme "to a more organic support concept", the acquisition notice says.
Lockheed has been managing the F-22's maintenance system under a performance-based logistics (PBL) deal, which is designed to generate cost savings over time but locks the government into a long-term support deal.

But the USAF and other government agencies have decided to scale back the use of such PBL contracts. Instead, more maintenance work is being assigned in government depots, while other upgrade and sustainment tasks are split among several contractors.