India on Tuesday selected the French Fighter Rafale over the Eurofighter Typhoon in a multi-billion dollar contract for the supply of 126 Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) — the country's largest defence deal to date.
Interestingly, for a company that faltered at the start, with the Defence Ministry indicating that the Rafale was out of the race, Dassault made a comeback and went on to win the bid.
The decision to open exclusive negotiations with Dassault was acclaimed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who praised the “very high-level, fair and transparent competition involving the two European finalists.”
While expressing disappointment over the development, Cassidian — the defence and security division of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company, which manufactures the Typhoon — maintained in a statement that it had offered the IAF the most modern aircraft available.
Sources in the Defence Ministry said the product was picked up on the basis of it being the Lowest Bidder (L1), a decision arrived at after complex calculations, including the life-cycle costs. The two aircraft were chosen from a list of six, including U.S. Boeing (F/A18) and Lockheed Martin (F-16), Russian MiG-35 and Swedish Saab (Gripen), in April last year.
The deal is estimated to be worth $10.2 billion (Rs.54,000 crore). The plan includes acquiring 126 aircraft, 18 of them in fly-away condition and the rest to be made in India at the Hindustan Aeronautics facility under transfer of technology.
For France, the deal is the third big defence contract that has come its way. In the current financial year, the Government of India cleared the $2.4 billion upgrade of 51 Mirage-2000 aircraft and the $970 million supply of MICA fire-and-forget missile for the same aircraft.
In the middle of 2001, I predicted in my book, The Coming
Collapse of China, that the Communist Party would fall from power in a
decade, in large measure because of the changes that accession to the World
Trade Organization (WTO) would cause. A decade has passed; the Communist Party
is still in power. But don't think I'm taking my prediction back.
Why has China as we know it survived? First
and foremost, the Chinese central government has managed to avoid adhering to
many of its obligations made when it joined the WTO in 2001 to open its economy
and play by the rules, and the international community maintained a generally
tolerant attitude toward this noncompliant behavior. As a result, Beijing has
been able to protect much of its home market from foreign competitors while
ramping up exports.
By any measure, China has been phenomenally successful in
developing its economy after WTO accession -- returning to the almost
double-digit growth it had enjoyed before the near-recession suffered at the
end of the 1990s. Many analysts assume this growth streak can continue indefinitely.
For instance, Justin
Yifu Lin, the World Bank's chief economist, believesthe country can grow for at least two more decades at 8 percent, and
the International
Monetary Fund predictsChina's
economy will surpass America's in size by 2016......continued....
The demands for blocking NATO supplies are being made. Mind you these organizations are banned by the United Nations. They change names to get away from the ban and hold massive rallies
Security for this conference was provided by Pakistani intelligence - ISI, Pakistan Army and
Lockheed Martin Mission Systems and Sensors (MS2), operating under the
Corporation’s Electronic Systems business will manage the new business.
MS2 also manages other small UAS activities including Desert Hawk,
Persistent Threat Detection System aerostats, K-MAX unmanned helicopter
system, and high altitude airship programs.
Procerus was founded in 2004
and based in Orem, Utah, Procerus is a privately held company that
provides autopilot, targeting and payload technologies for micro UAS to
domestic and international governments, as well as industry and academic
institutions.
DCNS and its local partner Boustead Naval Shipyard have won a US$2.8
billion contract to supply six Gowind patrol vessels to Malaysia, in the
type’s first export order. The first corvette will be delivered in
2017, with others following at six-monthly intervals.
In October 2010 Boustead received a letter of intent from the Malaysian
government that requested it to build six second-generation patrol
vessels. Boustead Naval Shipyard (BNS) was selected for the contract in
early December last year,
Turkish T-37 disappeared, pilots missing including a Pakistan Air Force Squadron Leader Masood Hussain
During an unfortunate incident PAF pilot Squadron Leader Masood Hussain,
who was on posting to Turkey under exchange posting to Turkish Air
Force has crashed while on a routine training mission, with a Turkish
under training pilot. According to a press release issued by PAF here on
Tuesday, a portion of the wreckage of the trainer aircraft has been
found in the sea near Izmir (Turkey).
The Turkish Air Force is carrying
out search and rescue operations. Meanwhile, contradicting news reports
regarding crash of a PAF aircraft in Turkey, a spokesman of PAF told APP
that no PAF aircraft has been sent to Turkey for taking party part in
any exercise or training mission. He, however, said that a trainer
pilot, Squardron Leader Masood Hussain, was sent to Turkish Air Force on
exchange posting.
With work on the Indian navy's future aircraft carrier the INS Vikramaditya now 90% complete, an RSK MiG-29K fighter has been placed aboard the vessel for the first time.
According to Sevmash, the Vikramaditya will start sea trials
in May 2012, with these to involve take-offs and landings using two
industry-owned aircraft. One is a purpose-built MiG-29K, while the other
is a MiG-35D two-seat demonstrator now being modified after the crash
of a MiG-29KUB trainer during trials in 2011.
The defense ministry of Mongolia and the defense agency of Japan
signed a Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation Wednesday, according
to the press service of the Mongolian president's office.
The press service reported that Mongolian President Tsakhia Elbegdorj
on Wednesday met with visiting Japanese Defense Minister Yasuo
Ichikawa, who was on a two-day visit in Mongolia.
During their meeting, President Elbegdorj said he was happy to see
that the first Japanese guest for the 40th anniversary of the
Mongolia-Japan diplomatic relations was a Japanese cabinet member.
President Hu Jintao (Center, 2nd row) and other top Chinese leaders attend the Spring Festival gala held at the Great Hall of the People for military officers, soldiers and civilians on Saturday, Jan. 14.
A Spring Festival gala was held at the Great Hall of the People Saturday to entertain the country's military officers, soldiers and civilians.
Representatives of officers and soldiers in the military units and armed police forces in Beijing as well as some Beijing residents attended the gala.
President Hu Jintao and other top Chinese leaders including Wu Bangguo, Jia Qinglin, Li Changchun, Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, He Guoqiang and Zhou Yongkang were also present at the gala.
Hu expressed greetings to the audience and extended his good wishes for them, ahead of the traditional Spring Festival, or the Chinese Lunar New Year, which falls on Jan. 23 this year.
In recent years India has been shifting toward aircraft that would give it the ability to patrol and act at extended ranges. In January 2004, India and Israel signed a $1.1 billion contract for 3 Phalcon airborne warning and control system (AWACS) aircraft, as part of a $1.5 billion tripartite agreement with Russia. With the arrival of its first IL-76 Phalcon, India joined the global ranks of AWACS operators. The aircraft will monitor huge swathes of Indian airspace, intercept communications and log radar frequencies, add some ground surveillance, and help command IAF responses.
At the same time, India moved to implement AWACS capabilities on a 2nd, smaller, platform, in order to provide broader coverage. The goal there is to field a Tier 2 platform based on Embraer’s ERJ-145 jet, and Indian radar and electronics, allowing India to join the global ranks of AWACS designers. Just to make things interesting, their arch-rival Pakistan offers a contrasting case study, with quicker fielding of off-the shelf buys from China (Y-8 based ZDK-03) and Sweden (Saab 2000 Erieye).
Video footage showing a Chinese general talking about sensitive spy cases has appeared on the internet.
In the video, Maj Gen Jin Yinan complains that there are many
Communist Party members who have "turned rotten" and sold secrets to
foreign countries.
China has not commented on the video, which is an
embarrassing incident for a country that does not like to talk about spy
cases.It shows Gen Jin giving a lecture at Beijing's National Defence University.
With a tea cup by his side, the senior officer lifts the lid on a number of recent spy cases.
He talks about a Chinese ambassador in Seoul who passed on sensitive material to the South Koreans.The authorities caught the ambassador but charged him with
economic crimes because they were too embarrassed to reveal his real
wrong-doing, says Gen Jin.He goes on to talk about another senior official who spied -
just as his father had done a generation before - although the father
had spied for the Communists, not against them.
*****
The audience were students at the university and the lecture was apparently given as a warning to discourage traitors.China's leaders do not usually talk about spy cases, and they will probably be furious these details have now leaked out.
Footage of a Chinese general discussing sensitive spying cases has been
leaked onto video sharing site YouTube, in what appears to be an
embarrassing failure of secrecy for the usually tightlipped military.
It wasn't clear when or where major general Jin Yinan made the comments.While some of the cases had been announced before, few details had
been released, while others involving the military had been entirely
secret.
Among those Jin discussed was that of former ambassador to South Korea Li Bin, who was sentenced to seven years for corruption.
News from BBC
Footage of a Chinese general discussing sensitive spying cases has been
leaked onto video sharing site YouTube, in what appears to be an
embarrassing failure of secrecy for the usually tightlipped military.
It wasn't clear when or where major general Jin Yinan made the comments.
While some of the cases had been announced before, few details had
been released, while others involving the military had been entirely
secret.
Among those Jin discussed was that of former ambassador to South Korea Li Bin, who was sentenced to seven years for corruption.
Jin said Li had actually been discovered passing secrets to South Korea
that compromised China's position in North Korean nuclear disarmament
talks, but the allegations were too embarrassing to make public and
graft charges were brought instead.
"In all the world, what nation's ambassador serves as another country's spy?" Jin said.
Similar treatment was handed out to the former head of China's
nuclear power program, Kang Rixin, who was sentenced to life in prison
last November on charges of corruption.
Jin said Kang had in fact peddled secrets about China's civilian
nuclear program to a foreign nation that he did not identify, but that
was considered too sensitive to bring up in court.
Kang, a member of the ruling Communist Party's powerful Central
Committee as well as its disciplinary arm, was one of the
highest-ranking officials ever to be involved in spying, Jin said. His
arrest dealt a major shock to the party leadership, Jin said.
The video was also posted on Chinese websites, and while it was
removed from most locations, screen shots, audio files and transcripts
of Jin's comments could still be found on sites such as Sina Weibo's
popular microblogging service.
