T-50 PAK FA Ends MAKS Hot & Low

This sucks. MAKS 2011 ended on a real downer for the PAK FA programme. The video above shows what happened during the take-off roll of the second T-50 prototype -- a starboard engine flameout after two sharp spikes of flame. The take-off was immediately aborted by pilot Sergei Bordan. Sukhoi has apparently put it down to a malfunction in the fuel supply system and the FADEC. Not a pretty way to end your first public show. Damn.
source : htt p://livefist.blogspot. com/2011/08/pak-fa-ends-maks-hot-low.html

Three Hundred Air Warriors inducted into Indian airforce

More than 300 Air Warriors were on Friday inducted into the Indian Air Force (IAF) at a passing out parade held at the IAF station at suburban Tambaram.
Air Commodore Alok Kumar, Command Flying Training Officer, reviewed the parade held at the end of their training.
In his address on the occasion, Kumar said the career prospects in the IAF had 'substantially improved,' and urged the newly inducted professionals to strive for excellence.
He said the operational efficiency of the IAF 'hinged upon,' maintenance and administrative support.
This was vital as the IAF was "in the process of a technology based transformation and modernisation with the phased induction of high performance, state-of-the-art aircraft and high precision military hardware and automation," he added.
Earlier, the Air Warriors had gone through a 'rigorous intensive training' at the Mechanical Training Institute and Workshop Training Institute (WTI).
Besides the 322 personnel, 13 soldiers from the Air Forces of Nepal, Myanmar and Sri Lanka also earned the training course certification, a defence release here said.
source : htt p://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes. com/2011-07-01/india/29725805_1_mechanical-training-institute-air-warriors-iaf-station

Indian Army downplays america warning about terror attacks in india

Asserting that the recent US warning about LeT attacks on India had "no special intelligence value", the Army on Sunday said it had eliminated top commanders of the outfit which has increased "desperation" of militants to infiltrate into Kashmir ahead of winter. "Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad are traditionally the major terrorist groups -- Jaish from the year 2000 and Lashkar even before that. It has no special intelligence value that Lashkar or Jaish are planning to increase attacks or their activity," General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the Army's Srinagar-based 15 Corps, Lt Gen Syed Atta Hasnain said. Hasnain said the Army has always known about Lashkar's attempts to target India.

"What is important is what we are doing to counter it. Jointly, security forces are targeting the leadership of Jaish and Lashkar, and our intelligence this year has been extremely good. It is because of this that the desperation has increased (among militants) and they are trying to infiltrate," he told reporters here.

Warning that LeT has the ability to "severely disrupt already delicate" regional relations, the US State Department had said the Pakistan-based terror outfit, responsible for the 2008 Mumbai attacks, remained active in Kashmir and continued to target India along with groups like JeM and HuM.

The GOC said infiltration attempts will continue over the next two months. "Infiltration will continue and their (militants') mistakes will also continue and we will take benefit of their mistakes," he said. 


source : htt p://zeenews.india. com/news/nation/indian-army-downplays-us-warning-about-let-attacks_727450.html

India ready to counter China`s border might

With Beijing flexing its muscles by strengthening its military capacity in Tibet, New Delhi has given an in-principle nod to beef up defences along the 4,057-km Line of Actual Control. The Indian counter-move includes raising a new army corps at Pannagarh in West Bengal, an armoured
brigade each in eastern Sikkim and eastern Ladakh and an independent infantry brigade in the Barahoti plains in Uttarakhand.While the proposed upgradation of Indian military defences is being processed for final approval by the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), it was given an in-principle green signal from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and defence minister AK Antony during an army presentation last month.
The strategic step was taken in the light of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) capability to deploy no less than 34 divisions (nearly half-a-million troops) within a month on the LAC due to a huge infrastructure build-up (see graphic) in Tibet. To add to India's discomfort, the PLA has been conducting airborne, para-dropping and artillery firing exercises in Tibet for the past two years.Government sources said the Pannagarh-based corps (around 15,000 combat troops) will include a Ranchi-based formation, which is currently part of the Mathura-based 1 Corps. This means that the army will raise two more divisions in the coming years to replenish the Mathura Corps and another to add to the Pannagarh formation. For this purpose, the army has earmarked 6,000 acres of land in Pannagarh, which has a functioning air force strip and is located 150 km from Kolkata.
Already a battalion and a tank regiment, which will be part of the armoured brigade, have been moved to Sikkim.
At the heart of the proposed Indian defence build-up is the threat assessment that the PLA may become assertive across the Arunachal Pradesh border in the coming years as Beijing still calls its South Tibet and has not given up its stapled visa strategy for residents of Arunachal Pradesh and Jammu Kashmir.
source : htt p://www.hindustantimes. com/Delhi-ready-to-counter-Beijing-s-border-might/Article1-735945.aspx

Indian Army fears rise in infiltration of terrorists into J&K

The General-officer-in-Command 15 Corps, Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain has expressed apprehensions that armed terrorists from across the line of control would step up their efforts to infiltrate in to Jammu and Kashmir in the coming months. General Hasnain said that August and September are generally considered the best time for infiltration but our troops are ready to face the challenge.
"We have so far killed 12 to 13 commanders of Lashker-e-Taiba and Jaish-e- Mohammad this year. The level of desperation in the militant groups is high as their leadership has been wiped out. When desperation rises mistakes happen and we will exploit those mistakes of militants," Gen Hasnain told reporters at wreath laying ceremony of Lieutenant Navdeep Singh inside Srinagar Army headquarters on Sunday.
General Hasnain said, "There is no intelligence communication with the army from across the border but we have different resources for intelligence."
He said, the Pakistani sponsors frequently change the route of the armed terrorists to keep the Indian troops guessing. "Whenever we get success on certain routes on LoC against infiltration attempts, those routes get blocked and the terrorists are pushed in from other routes," corps commander Hasnain said.
About Saturday encounter at the LOC wherein 12 armed terrorists were killed, he said it was a result of coordinated and synchronized intelligence.
Meanwhile, State Human Right Commission has revealed that 2156 unidentified militant bodies have been buried in unmarked graves at 38 different sites in the Kashmir Valley.
A report released by the SHRC here reveals that there were 21 unmarked graves in Baramulla, three each in Bandipore and Handwara and 11 in Kupwara and others in other districts of Kashmir. It also said that 851 unidentified bodies were found in Baramulla, 14 in Bandipore, 14 in Handwara and 1277 in Kupwara.
All these bodies, according to the SHRC report, were handed over by the police to the local population for burial with bullet injuries and were classified as "unidentified militants."
The report came after a three-year-long inquiry by an 11-member team led by Bashir Ahmad Yatoo, senior superintendent of police of the investigative wing of the commission.
The SHRC probe was the response to a campaign by the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons, which in March 2008, released a report, "Facts Underground" and pointed out the presence of unmarked graves.
source : htt p://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes. com/2011-08-22/india/29914040_1_infiltration-srinagar-army-kupwara

The Dalai Lama's War

IN THE late autumn of 1962, there was a short, intense border war between India and China. It resulted in the complete rout of an underprepared and poorly led Indian Army. For the two rising powers, the battle—and its outcome—was seen in national, civilizational and ideological terms. These nations were, or at least saw themselves as, carriers of ancient civilizations that had produced great literature, philosophy, architecture, science and much else, but whose further evolution had been rudely interrupted by Western imperialists. India became free of British rule in 1947; China was united under Communist auspices in 1949. The recovery of their national independence was viewed as the prelude to the reemergence of China and India as major forces in the world.
Thus, the defeat of 1962 was at once a defeat of the Indian Army by its Chinese counterpart, a defeat of democracy by Communism, a defeat of one large new nation by another and a defeat of one ancient civilization at the hands of another. In India, the defeat was also interpreted in personal terms, as the defeat of Jawaharlal Nehru, who had held the offices of prime minister and foreign minister continuously since independence in 1947.
That debacle at the hands of China still hangs as a huge cloud over Nehru’s reputation. And there is an intriguing comparison to be made here with his fellow Harrovian, Winston Churchill. British historian Robert Rhodes James once wrote a book called Churchill: A Study in Failure, whose narrative stopped at 1939. It excavated, perhaps in excessive detail, its subject’s erratic and undistinguished career before that date. But of course, all Churchill’s failures were redeemed by his heroic leadership in World War II. It is tempting to see Nehru’s career as being Churchill’s in reverse; marked as it was for many decades by achievement and success, these nullified by the one humiliating failure which broke his nation’s morale and broke his own spirit and body. The war began in October 1962; a year and a half later, Nehru was dead.
It is a legacy that still haunts the Sino-Indian relationship.
NEHRU WAS long interested in (and influenced by) China. His prolific writings—books, letters, speeches—reveal much of the man and how he came to be so deeply misled by the threat he (and his country) faced. Nehru saw China at once as peer, comrade and soul mate. His first major book, Glimpses of World History, published in 1934, puts his predilections on full display. It has as many as 134 index references to the Middle Kingdom. These refer to, among other things, different dynasties (the Tang, Han, Qin, etc), corruption, Communism, civil war, agriculture and banditry. Already, the pairing of China and India was strongly imprinted in Nehru’s framework. Thus China is referred to as “the other great country of Asia” and as “India’s old-time friend.” There was a manifest sympathy with its troubles at the hands of foreigners. The British were savaged for forcing humiliating treaties and opium down the throats of the Chinese, this being an illustration of the “growing arrogance and interference by the western Powers.”
In all his pre-1947 writings, Nehru saw China from the lens of a progressive anti-imperialist, from which perspective India and China were akin and alike, simultaneously fighting Western control as well as feudal remnants in their own societies. Chiang Kai-shek and company, like Nehru and company, were at once freedom fighters, national unifiers and social modernizers. It stood to reason that, when finally rid of foreign domination, the two neighbors would be friends and partners.
In the spring of 1947, with India’s freedom imminent, Nehru organized the Asian Relations Conference in New Delhi. Representatives of Asian nations already free or struggling for independence from European rulers were in attendance. There, Nehru called China “that great country to which Asia owes so much and from which so much is expected.” The conference itself he characterized as

an expression of that deeper urge of the mind and spirit of Asia which has persisted in spite of the isolationism which grew up during the years of European domination. As that domination goes, the walls that surrounded us fall down and we look at each other again and meet as old friends long parted.

Nehru believed that the fundamental areas of disagreement between India and China could be bridged; in particular, the unresolved detritus of the imperialist era that largely centered on Tibet. For back in 1913–14, a meeting was held in the British imperial summer capital, Shimla, convened by the government of India and attended by Chinese and Tibetan representatives (Tibet was by then enjoying a period of substantial, indeed near-complete, political autonomy from Chinese overlordship). Here the McMahon Line (which sought to demarcate the frontiers of British India) was drawn. When India became independent in 1947 it recognized this boundary, which largely followed the path of the Himalaya, and adopted it as its own. By this, Nehru and his government thought that the border between India and China, determined at the Shimla Conference, had been reaffirmed.
Even when the Communists took power on the mainland in 1949 and began to voice their reservations about the McMahon Line, the prime minister continued to give Beijing the benefit of the doubt. So did other influential Indians. The ambassador to China, K. M. Panikkar, was greatly impressed by the new ruler, comparing Mao Tse-tung to his own boss, Nehru. Both, he claimed—or fantasized—“are men of action with dreamy, idealistic temperaments,” both “humanists in the broadest sense of the term.”
source : htt p://nationalinterest. org/article/the-dalai-lamas-war-5742

Govt sets fresh deadline for delivery of Scorpene subs

Faced with a reality of an ageing fleet of submarines, India has set a tight schedule for the state-owned shipyard Mazagon Docks Limited (MDL) for the delivery of six diesel-electric Scorpene submarines to the Indian Navy. MDL has been asked to deliver one submarine every six months starting August 2015. All the six have to be commissioned by September 2018.All the six submersible machines are in various stages of construction and each one is hidden behind a covered building yard in Mumbai that is heavily guarded from snooping eyes. This is the first time in decades that India is building the potent submarines on its soil. French Naval engineering company DCNS is the foreign partner.
Originally, the first Scorpene was to be delivered in December 2012 and the other five submarines were to follow at one-year intervals till December 2017. The submarines are being built at $4 billion (approx Rs 18,000 crore).
Chairman-cum-Managing Director of the MDL Vice-Admiral HS Malhi (retd), informing a team of reporters from Delhi on the progress of the important programme, said “The fabrication of the pressure hull is moving before schedule and in line with the decision of the Cabinet Committee on Security. The first submarine will be delivered in August 2015.”
By next year, the fabrication of all six submarines will be done and the MDL will get ready to build the next lot of submarines, under the project codenamed ‘75-India’ at a projected cost of $11 billion (approx Rs 49,500 crore).
Global majors have responded to India’s bid in partnering the project. These include Russia’s Rosoboronexport, French DCNS, German HDW and Spanish Navantia.
The development of the Scorpene is critical for the Navy. At present, the Navy operates 14 diesel-electric submarines after it decommissioned two Foxtrot-class submarines last year. Of the 14 submarines, 10 are Kilo class Soviet-origin vessels and the rest are HDW German-origin vessels. Till the Scorpene comes up, the Navy has re-jigged its maintenance schedule for the existing lot.
India intends to have a 30-vessel submarine force for the Navy that should be in place by 2030. This will include three nuclear-powered submarines, the first of that lot, the INS Arihant, is already launched at sea and is being outfitted.
sources : htt p://www.tribuneindia. com/2011/20110823/main6.htm

Major Setback to Indian space programme?

A Russian cargo rocket ferrying three tons of food and fuel to the International Space Station broke down about five minutes after it blasted off on August 24, completing its flight by arcing into a Siberian forest rather than achieving orbit.

The crash of the unmanned craft, a Progress cargo ship on top of a Soyuz rocket, does not pose an immediate problem for the six crew members living at the space station, who are well stocked with supplies taken there in July by National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) last shuttle flight. But it raises questions about the reliability of this model of Russian rocket, a similar model of which is used for manned launchings.

Since the retirement of the shuttle programme last month, Russian-made Soyuz rockets are the only means of transport to space for American astronauts. NASA has contracted with the Russian Space Agency to fly Americans on these rockets for several years.

Under scrutiny

The crash on Wednesday will surely be closely scrutinised because of its implications for American manned space flight on the Russian rockets. If a quick diagnosis and fix elude Russian engineers, NASA and the other agencies collaborating on the space station could face difficult choices.

“We've always known this was a risk,” the manager of the space station for NASA, Michael T. Suffredini, said.

The next set of three crew members is scheduled to launch to the space station in September, and another three are to go up in December.

Further, the Soyuz capsules in which the crew members ride also serve as lifeboats in case of an emergency, and the capsules are allowed to stay at the station for up to 210 days.

It means that three crew members may have to return to Earth in one of the Soyuz capsules docked at the station by October at the latest. Without replacements, that would leave only three people to operate the station, greatly reducing the time they could devote to running experiments.

If the problem dragged on to the end of the year, the other three would also have to return to Earth, leaving the space station unoccupied.

Mr. Suffredini said the station could be operated from the ground and stay in orbit indefinitely as long as there were no major failures and other cargo ships continued to fly; a Japanese one and a European one are scheduled to be launched next spring.

The Progress and Soyuz have proven reliable until now. Forty-three of the supply ships have successfully flown to the space station. But the failure on Wednesday was the second in August from the Baikonur launching pad in Kazakhstan. The upper stage of a Proton rocket sent a telecommunications satellite into the wrong orbit on Aug. 18.

Russia has planned another Soyuz expedition on Thursday, from the Plesetsk launching pad in the far north of European Russia. That rocket is scheduled to carry a navigation satellite for the Glonass system, the Russian version of the American GPS.

But the Russian space agency said it might delay manned launchings on the Soyuz — the only means of reaching the station for astronauts and cosmonauts — if the reasons for Wednesday's crash were not quickly determined.

The Progress is a cargo spaceship that the Russians call a space truck, routinely launched to the space station carrying spare parts, fuel, food, oxygen, water and other items.

The Soyuz design is a 1960s holdover that jettisons four bulky booster rockets soon after liftoff, then flies in three stages to space. It carries both manned and unmanned spaceships to the space station. At the launching on Wednesday, the Progress lifted off as planned on top of a Soyuz rocket. A little more than five minutes later, however, the rocket's third-stage engine shut down sooner than it should have, before the spacecraft had enough velocity to reach orbit.

The rocket and Progress ship crashed in the dense Siberian forest. The Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations said rocket debris landed in three separate areas of the Altai region in southern Siberia, which borders Mongolia. The regional governor, Yuri Antaradonov, said the police had cautioned people to stay clear of the wreckage, as it could be contaminated with toxic fuel. His only concern, he said, was that some people may have been camped in the forest at the time of the crash because “it is the season of collecting pine nuts” in that part of Siberia. —

sources : htt p://www.thehindu. com/opinion/op-ed/article2397095.ece

Bomb defused ahead of queen's Ireland visit

A bomb was defused near Dublin ahead of a visit by Britain's Queen Elizabeth scheduled to start on Tuesday, Irish police said. "A viable explosive device was found on a bus yesterday evening in Maynooth," near Dublin, a spokesman said, adding that police had been tipped off by an anonymous call.

The device was defused by the Irish army, he said.
Earlier, a homemade bomb was found in the luggage compartment of a bus in Ireland on Tuesday and blown up by the army in a controlled detonation, the military said, hours before the first state visit by Britain's Queen Elizabeth.
Ireland has mounted its biggest security operation ahead of a visit steeped in symbolism and gestures designed to underline how warm neighbourly relations have replaced centuries of animosity.
The bomb was found in the town of Maynooth, about 25 km from Dublin, the defence forces said in a statement. The military had deployed a team to the outskirts of the town, in county Kildare, in response to a police request.
The remains of the device were handed over to police for their investigations, the statement said.

sources : htt p://www.hindustantimes. com/News-Feed/europe/Bomb-defused-ahead-of-queen-s-Ireland-visit/Article1-698545.aspx

China upgrading air force rapidly, says Indian AirForce chief

The Indian Air Force could lose its combat edge over rivals in the neighbourhood in the next 10 years if it fails to keep pace with its modernisation targets, Air Chief Marshal PV Naik has warned. He said China had embarked on a "modernisation spree" and there had been "considerable
development" of infrastructure and "induction of assets across India's northern and eastern borders". "If the IAF has to maintain technological superiority, our plans for critical acquisitions for the next 10 years must stay on track. If not, others will catch up," Naik told HT in an exclusive interview.
Asked to assess the modernisation of the Chinese air force, Naik said it was consolidating "quantitatively and qualitatively" at a rapid pace.
 "IAF is also in the process of upgrading its assets and developing new facilities," said Naik, who is credited with speeding up India's biggest military contracts such as the $10.2 billion (Rs 45,900 crore) deal for 126 fighter jets and the $4.1 billion (Rs 18,450 crore) tender for 10 C-17 military transport planes.
The People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) is pushing ahead with the induction of Sukhoi-30s, JF-17 Thunder jets, J-10 strike fighters, airborne early warning and control systems, mid-air refuellers and air defence systems to transform itself into a credible air power.
China's J-20 stealth fighter is expected to add a new dimension to its capabilities.
The Communist neighbour faces daunting modernisation challenges, given the fact that its air force is saddled with more than 2,000 Soviet-design fighters from the 1960s. The PLAAF reportedly operates more than 3,500 aircraft compared to the IAF's 700 fighters.
With an annual economic growth of 10%, the Chinese have been able to invest large sums in military modernisation. Beijing's official defence budget is pegged at $92 billion (Rs 4,14,000 crore), but Pentagon estimates its actual defence spending to more than $150 billion (Rs 6,75,000 crore).
India will spend $36.5 billion (Rs 1,64,415 crore) on defence this fiscal - 1.8% of its GDP. But experts argue defence spending should be around 3% of the GDP, seen in the backdrop of China's rising military might.
The IAF plans to tone up with future acquisitions, including 300 fifth generation fighter aircraft, 140 light combat aircraft, six midair refuellers, 80 Mi-17 helicopters, 22 attack helicopters and 15 heavy-lift choppers.

sources  : htt p://www.hindustantimes. com/News-Feed/newdelhi/China-upgrading-air-force-rapidly-says-IAF-chief/Article1-709094.aspx