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.
Russian Fighter Jet Makers Loses Deal Of The Century
Russia has lost the largest arms tender of this century - the delivery of the medium multi-role combat aircraft for India. Russia was taking part in the tender with its MiG-35 fighter jet (a modernized version of MiG-29). The contract stipulated the delivery of 126 fighter jets in the amount of over $10 billion.Now there are two rivals left, both of them are European companies: Rafale, France, and Eurofighter Typhoon, built by the Italian-British-European consortium.
The decision of the Defense Ministry of India is extremely important for the whole world market. Russia's defeat in the tender virtually means that Russia's Air Force will not be receiving those fighter jets either. It may also mean that Russia's chances to sell the jets to someone else in the world have decreased considerably, observers say.
Russia was certain from the very beginning that her aircraft would win the tender. Indian experts also estimated Russia' chances for the victory as very high. The MiG-35 fighter jet was taking an advantage over its competitors with its lower price. The jet is well-known on the world market.
Russian Sukhoi Begins Test Flights Of Su-35S Fighter Jet
Russia's Sukhoi aircraft manufacturer has started test flights of its first series-produced Su-35S Flanker-E multirole fighter, the company said on Tuesday.
The aircraft took off from the Komsomolsk-on-Amur airfield in Russia's Far East, spending one and a half hours in the air testing propulsion and control systems.
The Su-35 Flanker-E superiority fighter is powered by two 117S engines with thrust vectoring. It can effectively engage several air targets simultaneously using both guided and unguided missiles and weapon systems.
BAE Systems Will Not Submit A Proposal For Bofors Guns In Indian Artillery Tender
The purchase of 400 tower artillery-guns has been pulled out of the Defense Ministry’s interest today by Global defense major BAE Systems. The guns are an upgraded version of the currently used Bofors Guns, for the Indian Army.
The reason for this decision was made after the company realized that the newer version of the guns were technically limited, allowing the competition to suffer from only minimal disadvantages with their FH-77B05 guns, stated BAE spokesperson Guy Douglas.
“After careful consideration of BAE Systems, we’ve come to the conclusion that our company will not submit a proposal. As we decided this, we’ve also informed the Ministry of Defense about this,” he added.
Eurofighter And Rafale Shortlisted For MMRCA
Sources have revealed on Wednesday that the defense ministry has requested Eurofighter and French Dassault Aviation for extension of the validiy of their commercial bids for a contract of 126 units of combat aircraft, worth a few billion dollars. This could be an indication that they are shortlisted for the mega deal that IAF (Indian Air Force) proposed.There’s however no clarification regarding the details of this deal. The defense ministry refused to divulge into any interaction with third parties regarding the deal.
The defense ministry had sent certain communications to the two foreign firms, but it came on the eve of expiry of commercial bids of defense majors, who were also involved in the “race”.
Sources said however that the ministry has only written letters to Eurofighter and Rafale, in an attempt to extend the validiy of their commercial offers.
India’s IJT Training Aircraft Crashes, Pilots Safe
A crash took place an Indian Air Force training aircraft in the Udedurgam Reserve Forests in the Khrisnagiri District, on Thursday evening. The pilot and the co-pilot have ejected themselves from the flight, eye-witnesses said. According to the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited in Bangalore, the incident took place during flight-testing.The aircraft, which had burst into flames, crashed about 35 km away from Hosur.
With the help of parachutes, the two flight tenants – two squadron leaders – were able to land away from the crash site, about 650 ft. Further.
They weren’t able to land securely however. They were both wounded. One of them sustained a harsh leg injury, and the other became comatosed. With the help of an IAF helicopter, they were taken to Bangalore.
At Bangalore, a person identification exposed that the pilot and co-pilot were Squadron Leader Bathra and Squadron Leader Mathu.
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