Eye on China, Indian Navy Boosts Eastern Command

With an eye on China as well as in keeping with India's "Look East" policy, the Navy is slowly but surely bolstering force levels on the eastern coast with new warships, aircraft and spy drones as well as forward-operating bases (FOBs).

So much so that the Navy has now upgraded the post of the chief of staff (CoS) at the Eastern Naval Command (ENC), which is next only to the flag officer commanding-in-chief, to a three-star general rank. Vice-Admiral S Lanba will take over as the new CoS at ENC on May 1, 2011. The other full-fledged naval operational command, the Western Naval Command (WNC) based at Mumbai, has had a vice-admiral as the CoS for quite some time now.

Additions to the ENC, which has around 50 warships at present, include the new indigenously-manufactured stealth frigate INS Shivalik, which is packed with weapons and sensors, and the 16,900-tonne INS Jalashwa, the huge strategic sea-lift amphibious warship second only to aircraft carrier INS Viraat in size.

India, Russia Plan To Build Futuristic Main Battle Tank

Encouraged by the remarkable success of their pilot co-development defence project, the Brahmos missile, India and Russia are planning to design and build a futuristic main battle tank.

Defence industry experts will discuss the new project when a delegation of the Russian Uralvagonzavod (UVZ) tank-building factory visits India this week to participate in an international seminar on the Future Main Battle Tank (FMBT) organised by the Army along with the Confederation of Indian Industry.

The two sides have already had preliminary discussions on the issue, according to UVZ Director General Nikolai Malykh.

"We put forward this idea [of a joint tank project] at the turn of the 21st century," he told journalists in Moscow. "The Indian side has now come up with a similar proposal. We will take the first step when our experts go to India to attend a conference on the future tank and prospects for the tank-building industry."

Iran's Bushehr Nuke Plant Being Reloaded With Fuel - Russia

 Iran's Bushehr Power Plant is being loaded with nuclear fuel again after an inspection and a clean-up of the reactor and the plant's circulation piping, Russia's Atomstroyexport company said on Friday.

Iran had to unload fuel due to safety concerns in February. Russia said a breakdown in one the reactor's cooling pumps necessitated the removal of 163 fuel rods from its core.

"The loading of fuel-rod assemblies into the core started at the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant on April 8," Atomstroyexport, which specializes on the construction of nuclear power facilities abroad, said in a statement.

The fuel for Bushehr was provided by Russia, which completed the long-delayed construction of the plant last summer. The plant was expected to start feeding electricity into the national grid in February.

Eighteen Percent Increase In Pakistan Defence Budget

National Assembly’s Standing Committee for defence on Thursday approved a defence budget of more than Rs.500 billion for 2011-2012.

The Standing Committee meeting was held at the Parliament House and was chaired by Azra Fazal. Secretary defence and concerned officials participated in the meeting and informed the committee about the defence budget needs.

Mig-29UPG – The New Strike Fighter For Indian Air Force

Recent successful first flight of the upgraded Mig-29UPG of Indian air force in Russian , marks the birth of a new striker platform for the Indian air force , India had awarded Mig-29 upgrade contract to Russia worth $900 million in 2006 and first flight of the upgraded Mig-29UPG makes it now more formidable strike platform ,which was missing in it earlier .

Mig-29A/B variants were first inducted into Indian air force in 1986 to counter Pakistan’s acquisition of F-16 in their fleet , Mig-29 was designed to be a aerial interceptor aircraft and a dog fighter for the air force , it had little or no capabilities to strike ground targets , but with new upgrades to it avionics and airframe Indian air force will have that capability fighter-bomber capable of striking mobile and stationary targets on the ground and at sea with high-precision weapons under all weather conditions. from this superlative fighter.

This hold quite a importance to Indian air force since its plans to upgrade Mirage -2000 fleet has still not taken off due to higher price asked by the french vendor and also due to safety issues regarding Mig-27 fleet which forms a bulk of the Ground attack fleet along with the Jaguar strike aircraft’s .upgraded Mig-29 fleet will only strengthen strike aircraft fleet of the Indian air force , since addition of MKI’s in IAF’s Fleet has strengthened both the roles for the air force .

Mig-29 as per the contract will get new increased range and payload, new glass cockpit, digital fly-by-wire control system, new avionics, improved radar, KOLS infrared search and track (IRST) and an in-flight refueling probe. The radar will be the Phazotron Zhuk-ME which is capable of tracking ten targets to a maximum range of 245km.

China Clones And Sells Advanced Russian Fighter Jets

A YEAR after the collapse of the Soviet Union, a cash-strapped Kremlin began selling China a chunk of its vast military arsenal.

The sale included the pride of the Russian air force, the Sukhoi-27 fighter jet.

For the next 15 years, Russia was China's biggest arms supplier, providing $US20 billion ($20.13bn) to $US30 billion of fighters, destroyers, submarines, tanks and missiles. It even sold Beijing a licence to make the Su-27 fighter jet - with imported Russian parts.

Today, Russia's military bonanza is over, and China's is just beginning.

After decades of importing and reverse-engineering Russian arms, China has reached a tipping point: It now can produce many of its own advanced weapons - including high-tech fighter jets like the Su-27 - and is on the verge of building an aircraft carrier.

Not only have Chinese engineers cloned the prized Su-27's avionics and radar but they are fitting it with the last piece in the technological puzzle, a Chinese jet engine.
In the past two years, Beijing hasn't placed a major order from Moscow.

Now, China is starting to export much of this weaponry, undercutting Russia in the developing world, and potentially altering the military balance in several of the world's flash points.

This epochal turnaround was palpable in the Russian pavilion at November's Airshow China in the southern city of Zhuhai. Russia used to be the star of this show, wowing visitors with its "Russian Knights" aerobatic team, showing off fighters, helicopters and cargo planes, and sealing multibillion dollar deals on the sidelines.

This year, it didn't bring a single real aircraft - only a handful of plastic miniatures, tended by a few dozen bored sales staff.

China, by contrast, laid on its biggest commercial display of military technology - almost all based on Russian know-how.

The star guests were the "Sherdils," a Pakistani aerobatic team flying fighter jets that are Russian in origin but are now being produced by Pakistan and China.

"We used to be the senior partner in this relationship - now we're the junior one," said Ruslan Pukhov, of the Russian Defence Ministry's Public Advisory Council, a civilian advisory body to the military.

Russia's predicament mirrors that of many foreign companies as China starts to compete in global markets with advanced trains, power-generating equipment and other civilian products based on technology obtained from the West.

China Says No Hurdle In Resuming Defence Ties With India

Chinese Embassy spokesperson Zou Yonghong told The Indian Express: "There is no hurdle in defence cooperation. Dialogue between the two military is going on."

Defence cooperation was paused in August last year after China refused to issue a proper 'pasted' visa to Lt Gen B S Jaswal, the GOC-in-C. He was the Northern Army Commander in Jammu and Kashmir which China considers "disputed".

While the Chinese side is very keen to resume the defence exchanges between the two countries, New Delhi is insisting that the issue of stapled visas to J&K residents must be resolved first.
In this context, New Delhi has noticed that Beijing has not issued a single "stapled visa" to J&K residents since Chinese Premier Wen Jiaobao's visit last December. Government sources confirmed this development — that has taken place quietly — to The Indian Express, although there have been no formal or official communication from Beijing on the issue. The real test, sources said, is whether the Chinese are issuing proper 'pasted' visas to Indian nationals hailing from J&K.

South Block sources, who have been tracking this issue, said New Delhi is not yet celebrating this development, but is "cautiously optimistic". However, the issue of stapled visas, sources added, remained with respect to the residents of Arunachal Pradesh.