Friday, November 30, 2012

DTN News - INDIA DEFENSE NEWS: IAF In Mountain Strike Corps To Counter Chinese Might

DTN News - INDIA DEFENSE NEWS: IAF In Mountain Strike Corps To Counter Chinese Might
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Rahul Datta ~ The Pioneer
(NSI News Source Info) SINGAPORE - December 1, 2012: Keeping China’s growing military prowess in mind, the Indian Air Force (IAF) will now be part of India’s proposed mountain strike corps that will be based in Uttarakhand and the North-East.

This move came about after the Government turned down the Army’s Rs 60,000-crore proposal seven months back on the grounds that it was too Army-specific and that the three Services should jointly put up the proposal.

The new proposal sent to the Defence Ministry by Chairman Chief of Staff Committee Air Chief Marshal NAK Browne 10 days back projects requirements for combat helicopters, radars, anti-aircraft and anti-missile guns and electronic surveillance equipment.
This is besides the Army’s projection of recruiting nearly 40,000 to 60,000 jawans and officers trained in mountain warfare apart from acquisition of artillery guns, howitzers and long and short range infantry weapons including rifles.
Incidentally, the earlier proposal was drafted by the Army alone after the Government gave an approval in principle more than a year back. However, the Finance Ministry later sent back the proposal to the Defence Ministry and asked it to come up with a joint proposal by the three Services, sources said here on Wednesday.
Explaining the rationale behind the objection on the Army’s proposal, sources said given the magnitude of the project with huge expenditure involved, the Government wanted to avoid a scenario where the IAF and the Navy also put forward their requirements at a later stage. Against this backdrop, the Government asked the Chairman Chief of Staff Committee to draw a joint proposal about the strategy to meet the challenge of China’s growing military prowess and listing their requirements in a synergised manner for the strike corps, officials said.
The new proposal reinforces the need for setting up the corps at the earliest with air elements including combat helicopters to provide cover to advancing troops from enemy and destroy its fortified positions and gun locations.  Moreover, the new plan also gives details of the deployment of frontline IAF fighter jets in forward bases in the North-East and Uttarakhand and requirements to upgrade these bases to aid the proposed corps, sources said.
The Army has already started raising the second mountain division (one division has 10,000 men). The first division was raised a year back for Arunachal Pradesh and these two divisions will form part of the strike corps. The raising of a strike corps is the brainchild of former Army Chief VK Singh. The objective was to launch a counter-offensive in Tibet if China carries out a Kargil-type  adventure.
Moreover, rapid modernisation of China’s armed forces and its vastly superior infrastructure in Tibet and other areas along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) opposite Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh regions was another reason for this strike corps as China has carried out offensive exercises in Tibet Autonomous Region in the past few years.
Besides these factors, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) also expressed reservations about the corps saying such a move may send wrong signals to Beijing and escalate tension in the region.
The PMO felt that China in the last few years has not increased its troop strength along the LAC and any accretions by India will prove counter-productive as both the countries are holding regular dialogue to resolve the vexed boundary dispute. However, the defence establishment maintained that China has improved its military infrastructure backed by excellent sensors and radars and therefore, did not need to have troops on the ground to guard its territory. Enjoying this advantage over India, China has not increased its troop strength in the last few years.
India lacks infrastructure including roads, rail and airfields and has to maintain its presence in the Ladakh region and Arunachal Pradesh throughout the year. While China has built more than a 10,000-km long rail network and airports in the Tibet region and can rush troops and maintain logistical support in case of an eventuality, India is way behind and troops have to be physically present there.

*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Rahul Datta ~ The Pioneer
*Speaking Image - Creation of DTN News ~ Defense Technology News 
*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News Contact:dtnnews@ymail.com 
©COPYRIGHT (C) DTN NEWS DEFENSE-TECHNOLOGY NEWS

DTN News - CHINA DEFENSE NEWS: China's New Fighter Jet J-15 Has Range of 3,000 Km

DTN News - CHINA DEFENSE NEWS: China's New Fighter Jet J-15 Has Range of 3,000 Km
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Zee News
(NSI News Source Info) SINGAPORE - November 30, 2012: Chinese fighter jet J-15, which successfully landed on the country's first aircraft carrier, has a range of about 3,000 km without refueling and strong sea-air combat capability, said an official.


Zhang Junshe, deputy director of the country's Naval Military Studies Research Institute, told that the successful takeoff and landing of the J-15 is a clear sign of an increase in the fighting capacity of the aircraft carrier. Carrier-based aircraft is an important symbol of the fighting capacity of an aircraft carrier, he said. 

Zhang said the J-15 is China's first generation of independently developed carrier-based aircraft. It is a third-generation fighter with strong sea-air combat capability and supersonic speeds. It can carry multiple types of long-range anti-ship and air-to-air missiles. 

The J-15 has a range of about 3,000 km without refueling, and thus has strong long-range combat capability, said the media report. After the successful takeoff and landing of the carrier-based aircraft, the navy will now test other components of the carrier battle group.


*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Zee News
*Speaking Image - Creation of DTN News ~ Defense Technology News 
*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News Contact:dtnnews@ymail.com 
©COPYRIGHT (C) DTN NEWS DEFENSE-TECHNOLOGY NEWS

DTN News - ISRAELI DEFENSE NEWS: Israeli Defense Chief Sounds Ready To Hit Iran, Thanks In Part To Iron Dome

DTN News - ISRAELI DEFENSE NEWS: Israeli Defense Chief Sounds Ready To Hit Iran, Thanks In Part To Iron Dome
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources By Spencer Ackerman - Wired
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - November 30, 2012: Israel’s retiring defense chief thinks Iran needs to be “coerced” in 2013 from building an atom bomb, despite any U.S. hopes that sanctions will bring Tehran to the negotiating table. And the recent success of his new, U.S.-funded missile defenses seems to have convinced him that Israel is better able than ever to deter its Iran-backed foes.

“Of course, we would love to see some heavenly intervention that will stop them, to wake up some morning and learn that they’ve given up on their nuclear intentions,” Barak told reporters at the Pentagon Thursday during a joint press conference with Leon Panetta, his American counterpart. “You cannot build a strategy based on these wishes or prayers. Sanctions are working and they are more hurting than anything I remember from the past vis-a-vis Iran, but I don’t believe these kinds of sanctions will bring the ayatollahs to a moment of truth where they sit around a table, look into each other’s eyes and decide that the game is over.”

Not exactly what Panetta wanted to hear during what was supposed to be a friendly press conference in which they celebrated how the U.S.-backed Iron Dome rocket defense system stopped Hamas’ rocket attacks cold. The U.S. defense chief, who effused over the retiring Barak as “a man of peace” and praised their long friendship, said the “unprecedented pressure” on Iran from international sanctions present “time and space for an effort to try to achieve a diplomatic solution.”
Not likely, thinks the retiring Barak. “During the coming year and hopefully before they reach what I have called a ‘zone of immunity’” — a point at which Israeli airstrike couldn’t meaningfully hinder Iranian nuclear work — Iran “will be coerced into putting an end to it this way or another way,” Barak said. “The physical attack option is an option that should be there, should remain on the table, never be removed.”
That may be short of a pledge to attack Iran next year, but it’s hardly a vote of confidence in any alternative. And it reflects a lingering divide in U.S. and Israeli goals on Iran, despite the rhetoric of unity. “We will prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon,” Panetta said, “and that remains our policy.” Barak’s policy is different: to stop Iran from even getting to the point in its technological nuclear work where an airstrike is senseless, before Iran gets the bomb. The Israeli defense chief acknowledged “sometimes slight differences” with U.S. policy “that should be better discussed behind closed doors.”
However much Barak seems resigned to Iran’s determination “to go in the footsteps of Pakistan and North Korea,” he also mused out loud about Iron Dome as a security game-changer for Israel. Not because a system that was “extremely successful” at stopping unguided Qassam rockets can also stop Iranian Shahab-3 ballistic missiles — it can’t. But because of the demonstration effect that Israeli missile-defense technology can have on Iran and its proxies.
“The very knowing of the other side that you have such an effective system, especially when we’ll be equipped with many more interceptors, it will change the balance of contemplation on the other side,” Barak said. “It creates a logical kind of deterrent, not a psychological one, because any enemy that tries against Israel is exposed to the effectiveness of our efforts that we’ve seen during in this operation.” Especially since, Barak noted, Iron Dome’s big brothers — David’s Sling and the Arrow — are in development to stop more powerful missiles launched by Iran and Hezbollah.
Barak won’t be defense minister next year, as he announced this week he’s retiring from politics. But if other prominent Israeli decision-makers think that Iron Dome restored Israel’s ability to deter adversaries, imagine the value they might place on an Iran attack next year.

*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources By Spencer Ackerman - Wired
*Speaking Image - Creation of DTN News ~ Defense Technology News 
*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News Contact:dtnnews@ymail.com 
©COPYRIGHT (C) DTN NEWS DEFENSE-TECHNOLOGY NEWS