India gears up to order 22 Apache helicopters for $1.4 bn

 NEW DELHI: India is getting ready to order 22 heavy-duty Apache helicopters for around $1.4 billion, in what will be yet another big defence deal to be bagged by the US.

The US has already made military sales worth over $8 billion to India over the last few years, despite it having lost out to France in the almost $20 billion MMRCA (medium multi-role combat aircraft) project to supply 126 fighters to IAF, which is in the final commercial negotiations stage.

 In the battle for the attack helicopters, Boeing's AH-64 D Apache Longbow met all air staff qualitative requirements during the field trials conducted by the IAF, while the Russian Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant's Mi-28 Havoc failed to pass muster.

"It's just a matter of time before the contract is inked for the Apaches after final commercial negotiations. Most of the hurdles have been cleared,'' a defence ministry official said. The US and Russia are also locked in battle to supply 15 heavy-lift helicopters to IAF, with the Boeing-manufactured Chinooks pitted against the Russian Mi-26 choppers.

Indian armed forces are looking to induct as many as 900 helicopters in the coming decade, including 384 light-utility and observation, 90 naval multirole, 65 light combat, 22 heavy-duty attack, 139 medium-lift and 15 heavy-lift, among others, many of them from abroad.

The impending $1.4 billion deal for the 22 Apaches will also include the supply of 812 AGM-114 L-3 Hellfire Longbow missiles, 542 AGM-114 R-3 Hellfire-II missiles, 245 Stinger Block I-92 H missiles and 12 AN/APG-78 fire-control radars.

Among the other military aviation deals already bagged by the US are the $4.1 bn contract for 10 C-17 Globemaster-III strategic airlift aircraft, $2.1 billion for eight P-8 I maritime patrol aircraft and $962 million for six C-130 J 'Super Hercules'' planes.

Indian Coast Guard get new Hovercrafts

Indian Coast Guard Hovercraft H-187, the first of the series of 12 Air Cushion Vehicles (ACVs) designed and built by Griffon Hoverwork Limited

The 21 meters long Air Cushion Vehicle displaces 31 tonnes and can achieve a maximum speed of 45 knots. The ACV is capable of undertaking multi-farious tasks such as surveillance, interdiction, search and rescue and rendering assistance to small boats/craft in distress at sea.

Serving Aircraft carriers of the world

The French navy has one nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, which is named after the country's late president, Charles de Gaulle

U.S. aircratf carrier Carl Vinson

U.S. aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman

U.S. aircraft carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower

U.S. aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln

India's only aircraft carrier, the INS Viraat, is a warship that was purchased from the United Kingdom. It was formerly known as the HMS Hermes before being refitted by India

The 17,000-metric ton Principe de Asturias is the aircraft carriers used by the Spanish Navy

The 14,000-metric ton aircraft carrier Giuseppe Garibaldi of Italy

Receiving most of its military heritage from the former Soviet Union, Russia now operates the Admiral Kuznetsov, with a displacement of more than 67,000 metric tons

Indian Army gets battle-ready on Jaisalmer border with Pakistan with model modern military station

Move seen part of the cold start doctrine in which Indian armored column will move in to occupy Pakistan in case Pakistan government abdicates or collapses to Taliban militants

South Punjab - Multan, Quetta in Balochistan and Karachi will be the main thrust using the Indus valley for transportation

 

Jaisalmer is set to house the first “model modern military station” of the country with reduced response time to emergencies, battle-ready capabilities in modern warfare and a set up critical to the supply chain for army rationing.

According to highly placed sources, the Indian Army has decided to develop a modern army base in the border district to cut down on the response time to an emergency, including a reduction in travel time in case of a disturbance along the border. It’s proximity to the international border of India and Pakistan, has got the army to reap the benefits of this strategic location for securing the nation against any foreign aggression in future. At present, the army base at Jodhpur is trained to respond to a situation across the border, but to expedite heavy military movement, a station close to the border is being put up, sources said. The distance from Jodhpur to the border is around 300 km. Having a base at Jaisalmer would save at least 6-7 hours for the troops. “In case of disturbance or war-like situation, when every minute counts, such a response time can turn the situation around,” a reliably placed official said, adding, “Because of its location Jaisalmer is being developed as a defence hub; the defence department has identified some places where the latest technology would be installed as a tactical ploy in modern warfare; Jaisalmer is one of them.”

The assault of a 9-men PLA infantry squad - PLA tactics

Click on photos to enlarge

Japanese engineers hasten humanity’s extinction, unveil fully-armed four-ton robot

http://suidobashijuko.jp/ 

I thought it was unreal when I first saw this...Skynet Terminator is here :O

PAK-FA Prototype Tests AESA Radar for Russian and Indian Airforce

"Sukhoi" has started testing the fighter T-50 (PAK FA) with a new on-board radar system with an active phased array, said in a statement received by the Editor "Lenty.ru." The new radar is installed on the third prototype of the future fighter T-50-3. In the first ground and flight tests were checked in the modes of the radar features "air-to-air" and "air-surface". In parallel testing of optical channels.

Radar PAK FA being developed by the Research Institute of Instrument name Tikhomirov. According to the "Sukhoi", a radar with electronic beam control is made on the basis of the Russian element nanoheterostructures. The system will allow the PAK FA to recognize and classify the group and single target at long range, and at the same time pointing to arms for a few of them. In addition, on-board system will provide communications and electronic countermeasures.

In February 2012 it was reported that the PAK FA prototype made a total of more than 120 flights. The third prototype of the aircraft involved in the flight test program in November 2011. It is expected that during 2012 the program will connect, and the fourth prototype of the T-50-4. The first prototype aircraft flies from January 2010 and the second - in March 2011.

Malaysian Army Main Battle Tank PT91M

India gets hawk eye over Strait of Malacca - INS Baaz

India will on Tuesday formally open a key naval station, aptly named INS Baaz (Hawk), in the southern part of Andaman and Nicobar Islands that will boost its ability to keep an eagle eye on the critical maritime choke-point: the Strait of Malacca.
With navy chief Admiral Nirmal Verma declaring the base open, the nation’s southeastern-most fringe, which is closer to Indonesia than the Indian mainland, India will gain strategic supremacy in the area, an Indian Navy officer said in New Delhi.
The new base, which will also include an upgraded air base, will soon be operating heavier military planes from the Indian Air Force fleet like the just-inducted Hercules C-130J Super Hercules meant for special forces’ operations.
Campbell Bay straddles a strategically key location in the Indian Ocean/Bay of Bengal overlooking the mouth of the Strait of Malacca, from across Aceh in Indonesia. With this, the Indian military will be sitting pretty at a location from where it can kickstart operations if maritime activities in the region are threatened.
Once a piracy-affected region, Indian and Indonesian navies continue to monitor it for criminal activities by jointly patrolling their maritime borders.
India’s move comes even as the US has spelt out its future military strategy to focus on the Asia-Pacific by “re-balancing” its force levels from the Atlantic.
US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta had said at the Shangri La Dialogue in Singapore last month – and in New Delhi earlier – that the US will base at least 60 per cent of its naval assets in the Asia-Pacific region.
The Strait of Malacca acts as a key link between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, connecting East Asia, Australia and the US with Asia and Africa.
At least a quarter of the world’s trade – and more importantly, at least 80 per cent of China’s oil requirements – passes through the Strait of Malacca.
India already operates naval bases at Port Blair and Car Nicobar in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands chain.
It also has at least three air strips at Diglipur in the north Andamans, Port Blair and Car Nicobar.
The new base will significantly increase India’s strategic reach in the region, considering that Campbell Bay is about 300 nautical miles south of Car Nicobar, till now the navy’s major forward operating base in the area.

India Navy's ‘K-15 Black Project’

India has quietly gate-crashed into an even more exclusive club of nuclear-tipped submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs). Project found out when top scientist given award

The annual awards function of the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) the other day witnessed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh handing over the “technology leadership award” to a scientist, A K Chakrabarti, of the Hyderabad-based DRDL lab, for the “successful development” of the country’s first SLBM. This capability has been acquired only by four nations, the US, Russia, France and China. Long shrouded in secrecy as a “black project”, unlike the surface-to-surface nuclear missiles like Agni, the SLBM may now finally come out of the closet. Called different names at different developmental phases, which included “Sagarika’’ for an extended period, the SLBM in question is the ‘K-15’ missile with a 750-km strike range. Much like the over 5,000-km Agni-V that will be fully operational by 2015 after four-to-five “repeatable tests”, the K-15 is also still some distance away from being deployed. While the SLBM may be fully-ready and undergoing production now, as DRDO contends after conducting its test several times from submersible pontoons, its carrier INS Arihant will take at least a year before it’s ready for “deterrent patrols”.

India’s first indigenous nuclear-powered submarine, the 6,000-tonne INS Arihant, is still undergoing “harbor-acceptance trials” with all its pipelines being cleared and tested meticulously on shore-based steam before its miniature 83 MW pressurized light-water reactor goes “critical”. The submarine will then undergo extensive “sea-acceptance trials” and test-fire the 10-tonne K-15, which can carry a one-tonne nuclear payload, from the missile silos on its hump.

The sea-based nuclear leg in the shape of SLBMs is much more effective — as also survivable being relatively immune to pre-emptive strikes — than the air or land ones. Nuclear-powered submarines, which are capable of operating silently underwater for months at end, armed with nuclear-tipped missiles are, therefore, considered the most potent and credible leg of the triad. With even the US and Russia ensuring that two-thirds of the strategic warheads they eventually retain under arms reduction agreements will be SLBMs, India with a clear “no-first use” nuclear doctrine needs such survivable second-strike capability to achieve credible strategic deterrence.

Indian Navy Submarine hunter Poseidon-8I takes shape in Seattle, Washington

Boeing internal projections see India signing on for up to 30 or more aircraft, keeping in mind the Indian Navy's "tremendous maritime domain awareness needs".

The US Navy's next-generation drone, the X-47B

The simulated aircraft carrier flight operations room at NAS Patuxent River

The control display unit for the X-47B is used to guide the aircraft during aircraft carrier taxiing

Vietnam Airforce and Navy ready to take on the Chinese