(NSI News Source Info) Kochi - February 28, 2009: In a bid to strengthen the maritime and coastal security of India, the Centre had decided to designate the Indian Navy as the authority responsible for overall maritime security, which includes coastal and offshore security. The Indian Navy uses modern technology and weapon systems, some of which are domestically developed. Others, like the BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles, are jointly developed with Russia. Some major strides in defense research. There are reports on the joint development by India and Israel of the Barak-II missile system, an improved, longer range version of the Barak-I air defence missile which is operational on Indian Navy ships. The Barak-I is used on most of the main ships of the Indian Navy. The Indian Navy's nuclear deterrence capability is based on Sukanya class ships armed with the Dhanush ballistic missiles that has a range of 350 km.
India has a number of foreign made cruise missile systems, including the Klub SS-N-27. It also has its own Nirbhay cruise missile systems under development. The Sagarika (Oceanic) submarine launched ballistic missile (SLBM), which has a range of at least 700 km (some sources claim 1000 km) forms part of India's nuclear triad. Another successful program has been the adaptation of the Yakhont anti-ship missile system into the BrahMos by the NPO and the DRDO. The BrahMos has been tailored to Indian needs and uses a large proportion of Indian-designed components and technology, including its fire control systems, transporter erector launchers, and its onboard navigational attack systems. The successful test of Brahmos from INS Rajput (D51) provides Indian Navy with precision land attack capability.
Announcing the Government’s decisions on the sidelines of the keel laying ceremony for the ‘Indigenous Aircraft Carrier’ being built at the Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL) here, Mr Antony said in its endeavour, the Indian Navy would be assisted by the Coast Guard, State Marine Police and other Central and State agencies for the coastal defense of the nation.

As part of the measures to spruce up the maritime security in the backdrop of the recent Mumbai attacks, the Defence Minister said Joint Operation Centres (JOCs) at Mumbai, Visakhapatnam, Kochi and Port Blair would be set up under the charge of existing Naval 'C-in-Cs'.

The JOCs would be manned and operated by the Navy and Coast Guard with inputs from diverse agencies, including Central and State Government. Besides, a 'National Command, Control, Communication and Intelligence' network for real-time maritime domain awareness linking the operations rooms of the Navy and Coast Guard, both at the field and apex-level would be established.

In order to synergise operations between the Navy and the Coast Guard, the Navy would control the operations of the two forces, which would result in effectively managing threats from the sea and security of the coastline.

(NSI News Source Info) MOSCOW - February 28, 2009: A Russian government source expressed astonishment on Friday over a statement made by Canada's defense minister over a flight by a Russian strategic bomber near the Canadian border. The Tupolev Tu-160 is a supersonic, variable-geometry heavy bomber designed by the Soviet Union. It is similar in configuration to the B-1 Lancer but is significantly faster than the B-1B at altitude with a greater combat range and payload capacity.
Entered service in 1987 with the 184 Guards Bomber Regiment, based at Priluki, Ukraine, the Tu-160 was the last strategic bomber designed by the Soviet Union but remains in production, with at least 16 currently in service with the Russian Air Force.
Pilots of the Tu-160 call it the “White Swan”, due to its maneuverability and antiflash white finish.
Although several civil and military transport aircraft are bigger, the Tu-160 has the greatest total thrust, and the heaviest takeoff weight of any combat aircraft, and the highest top speed as well as one of the largest payloads of any current heavy bomber.
Peter Mackay said two Canadian fighters forced the Russian Tu-160 Blackjack to make a U-turn on February 18 as it neared Canadian airspace less then 24 hours before U.S. President Barack Obama was due to visit Ottawa. The Canadian minister said the move was "a strong coincidence."
"The Canadian defense minister's statements concerning the flights of our long-haul aircraft are totally unclear... This was a routine flight. The countries adjacent to the flight path had been notified and the planes did not violate the airspace of other countries. In this light the statements by the Canadian Defense Ministry provoke astonishment and can only be called a farce," the source said.
The Russian Defense Ministry spokesman, Col. Alexander Drobyshevsky, confirmed that all the neighboring states had received prior notification of the flights by Russian strategic aircraft.
Lt. Col. Vladimir Drik, a Russian Air Force spokesman, said earlier the Tu-160 flights were in compliance with international agreements and rules and did not violate Canadian airspace.

(NSI News Source Info) WASHINGTON - February 28, 2009: The continuing deadlock over new arms deals between Russia and China has led to a remarkable development: Russian security services are investigating a suspected plot to steal Russian weapons and sell them to Beijing.
RIA Novosti reported Wednesday that a number of Russian navy officers were under investigation for allegedly trying to ship 30 anti-submarine missiles and 200 bombs, worth a total of $18 million, to Tajikistan for eventual delivery to China.
The Kremlin is taking the allegations very seriously. Russia's chief military prosecutor, Sergei Fridinsky, told RIA Novosti a criminal investigation had started on the case. He said the naval officers had been working with several businessmen. The report gave no indication whether any of the powerful, super-wealthy Russian organized crime families were involved.
The targeted weapons do not appear to have been state-of-the-art or strategically significant, at least according to the report. Russian navy spokesman Capt. 1st Rank Igor Dygalo described them to the news agency as "decommissioned, recycled ammunition."
Dygalo stated that the plot had been foiled by "the navy, in conjunction with the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office and the Federal Security Service."

However, RIA Novosti gave a tantalizing hint that the plot, and the existence of organized criminality within the Russian navy, may have gone far higher. It cited what it described as "some media reports" as claiming that very senior Russian naval officers, up to the rank of several vice admirals and rear admirals, may have been implicated.

(NSI News Source Info) February 28, 2009: China has apparently sold some of its new assault rifles (the Type 95) to Myanmar. Troops in that country have been seen carrying the Chinese weapon. The QBZ-95 (Type 95) is bullpup design (the magazine is behind the trigger) that uses China’s proprietary 5.8x42mm cartridge, which is a little wider than the 5.56 NATO, but shorter in overall length.

The Type 95 uses a 30-round magazine, similar to the M-16. The Type 95 fires single shots or bursts. China is still in the process of replacing its own Type 81 (improved AK-47) rifles with the new rifle The Type 95 is about ten percent lighter than the older rifle, and has apparently been well received by the troops.
The Type 95 was first seen in Hong Kong when China took over in 1997. The Type 95 comes in a variety of styles (a compact version, an automatic rifle, and a sniper rifle). An export version (the Type 97), using the standard 5.56mm NATO round is called, and is apparently what Myanmar is using.
At the same time China was exporting Type 97 rifles to Myanmar, it provided Bangladesh with financing and technical assistance for building a factory to produce a modified version of the Chinese Type 81 assault rifle.

This is a 7.5 pound rifle that looks like the Chinese Type 56 (itself a copy of the Russian AK-47). The main differences are that the Type 81 has less recoil and "jump" (of the rifle when fired), which improves accuracy.

The Bangladeshi version of the Type 81 is called the BD-08, and the new factory will be able to produce 10,000 a year. Eventually, Bangladesh will replace all its current Type 56 rifles with BD-08s. Both use the same 7.62/39mm ammo.

(NSI News Source Info) MOSCOW - February 28, 2009: Russia no longer depends on Ukraine to provide it with strategic missile tracking data following the launch of its new radar facility in the country's south, the commander of Russia's Space Forces said on Friday.
Russia's Voronezh-DM radar site in the southern town of Armavir went into service on Thursday.
Maj. Gen. Oleg Ostapenko said the Armavir radar would monitor missile routes and probable directions for a missile attack in the south and southeast of Russia in place of the early warning facilities in Mukachevo in western Ukraine and Sevastopol, the Crimea.
Russia terminated a 1997 agreement with Ukraine on the use of both Ukrainian radars in February 2008 on the grounds that they had become obsolete.
With an effective range of 4,000 kilometers (2,500 miles) the Voronezh-class radar has capabilities similar to its predecessors, the Dnepr and Daryal, which are currently deployed outside Russia, but uses less energy and is more environmentally friendly.
Gen. Ostapenko said Russia would build more radar stations to replace the existing ones, adding that the Armavir facility was the second, after the Lekhtusi complex, in the Leningrad Region, which had been put into operation in March 2006.
Washington wants to place 10 missile interceptors in Poland and a radar station in the neighboring Czech Republic, purportedly to counter a missile threat from Iran and other "rogue" states. Russia has fiercely opposed the plans, saying the European shield would destroy the strategic balance of forces and threaten Russia's national interests.

(NSI News Source Info) MOSCOW - February 28, 2009: Russia's new-generation aircraft carrier will be nuclear powered and have a displacement of up to 60,000 metric tons, a United Shipbuilding Corporation executive said on Friday.
Vice Adm. Anatoly Shlemov, the company's head of defense contracts, said the new carrier was still at the drawing board stage, but its blueprint and basic specifications have already been defined.
He said the carrier will serve as a seaborne platform for new-generation fixed- and rotary-winged aircraft, in particular, a fifth-generation fighter that will replace the Su-33 multirole fighter aircraft currently in service, as well as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV).
"It will be a fifth-generation aircraft with classic horizontal take-off and landing capability," the admiral said.
Shlemov said, unlike in the past, the new aircraft carrier would not be armed with cruise missiles, which were not part of its "job description."
He said that at least three such carriers were to be built, for the Northern and Pacific Fleets.
The executive offered no timeline on the project, saying it was not as yet clear which shipyard would get the contract.
The new carrier has an estimated price tag of $4 billion.
So far the Russian Navy only has one aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov Project 1143.5, built in 1985, with a displacement of 55,000 metric tons, a crew of 1,500, and capability to carry more than 50 aircraft. :

(NSI News Source Info) ROME - February 28, 2009: Chicago-based Boeing and Italy's Alenia Aeronautica have definitively broken off talks to jointly manage a final assembly line for Alenia's C-27J aircraft in Florida, meaning Boeing would no longer have any role in the U.S. Joint Cargo Aircraft (JCA) program. In 1997, Alenia and Lockheed Martin formed Lockheed Martin Alenia Tactical Transport Systems (LMATTS) for the development of an advanced version of the G.222 with advanced avionics, a glass cockpit and new engines, the same Rolls-Royce AE 2100s that power the C-130J Super Hercules. The LMATTS joint venture was later dissolved when Lockheed Martin chose to offer the C-130J as a contender in the same U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force Joint Cargo Aircraft (JCA) competition in which the C-27J was competing. Alenia Aeronautica then paired with L-3 Communications to form the Global Military Aircraft Systems (GMAS) joint venture to market the C-27J. Boeing Integrated Defense Systems later joined Alenia and L-3 Communications as a GMAS team member., as of this week Boeing are no longer involved in this procedure.
Alenia previously announced this month that it would start building the line in Jacksonville alone in order to make delivery deadlines to the U.S. Army and Air Force, which are set to acquire 78 of the aircraft.
Alenia and Boeing said at the time that talks would continue for Boeing to join Alenia in the work at a later date. But both firms on Feb. 26 said those talks would not continue.
"We have decided jointly to break off discussions," an Alenia source said. "The discussions did not reach an agreement on financial and economic conditions regarding the assembly line."
A Boeing spokesman confirmed the move.
"After our best efforts in talks, we have decided not to go ahead with Alenia North America in establishing the final assembly line," said Bill Barksdale, communications director for Boeing's Global Mobility Systems.
"It was not about the team or about the airplane," he added. "We did a final analysis, looked at the business objectives, at our shareholders and what they expect, and we made the decision not to go forward. We value our relationship with Alenia, and that relationship will continue."
After starting talks as long ago as 2006, the firms said last summer they were on the brink of agreeing to terms on revenue streams from the line, part of the $2 billion deal to supply the aircraft to the Pentagon. Officials subsequently said the deal would be signed before Christmas 2008.
Alenia plans to break ground in Jacksonville by the end of March to have the line operational in April 2010. Meanwhile, the first 13 aircraft ordered under the JCA program are set to roll off Alenia's production line in Italy.
Both firms confirmed that Boeing would no longer have any role in the JCA program.