Iran To React Immediately If Attacked : Says Iran's UN Ambassador Mohammad Khazaei

Iran's United Nations Ambassador Mohammad Khazaei

Iran's Ambassador to the United Nations Mohammad Khazaei has warned that any aggression against the Islamic Republic will be swiftly met with 'appropriate' action.

Iran would not hesitate to act in self-defense and respond to any attacks on its territories, IRNA quoted a formal letter of complaint by Iran's UN envoy to the world body's Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday.

Khazaei lashed out at the "inflammatory remarks and baseless allegations" made recently by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and underlined that the Islamic Republic would take appropriate defensive measures to protect itself.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran expresses its deep concern over such remarks, and strongly condemns the provocative, unjustifiable and irresponsible comments," the senior Iranian diplomat noted.

Sarkozy warned on August 31 that Iran's alleged attempts to build long-range missiles and “nuclear weapons” could lead unnamed countries to launch a pre-emptive attack.

French president's accusations against Iran comes as the IAEA has conducted numerous inspections of Iran's nuclear facilities but has never found any evidence indicating that Iran's civilian nuclear program has been diverted to nuclear weapons production. 

http://www.presstv.ir/

CAG Accuse Indian Navy For Buying MiG-29K's Without Weapons

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in its report slammed the Ministry of Defence and the Navy for buying war planes that do not have weapons. It also pointed a finger at the Indian Air Force (IAF) for having ‘let off’ three of its officers who caused a loss of Rs 302 crore when a sensitive aerostat radar got damaged.

 

The CAG, in its report tabled in both Houses of Parliament, said the Indian Navy followed a flawed approach in acquiring its fighter aircraft fleet by not finalising the associated weapon package. The CAG said that 11 out of 16 MiG 29K aircraft, acquired at a cost of $740.35 million (Rs 3,405.61 crore), been delivered in December 2009 and May 2011. No matching armament, for which a contract was signed in March 2006, has been delivered as on October 2010, thereby adversely affecting the operational capabilities of the aircraft.

Further, the Navy has selected a ‘beyond visual range’ (BVR) missile with an unsatisfactory track record. Lastly, the complete armament package finalised for the aircraft contains certain ammunition, worth $20.98 million (Rs 93.68 crore) which did not have the approval of the competent authority.

The MiG 29K is a deck-based fighter meant for seaborne aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya (Admiral Gorshkov). At present, the fighters are based at a land base in Goa as the aircraft carrier itself has not arrived.

The agreement was signed under an Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) between India and Russia in October 2000 for the procurement of an aircraft carrier along with the MiGs for onboard operations. The Ministry of Defence in January 2004 concluded a contract with Russian Aircraft Corporation (RAC-MIG) for procurement of the MiG 29K aircraft. The weapons package was postponed and de-linked from the negotiations for the aircraft.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/

Israeli Hermes 900 UAV Can Reach Iran

The Israeli Air Force (IAF) will soon acquire the “Hermes 900” Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) manufactured by Elbit Systems Ltd.

Asenior IAF officer Said that the IAF is co-partner in the development of the model, which will be assigned to the squadron currently operating the “Hermes 450”, another Elbit Systems product. 

Built as a medium-altitude long-endurance aircraft, many of the Hermes 900’s features are twice the size of those in the older model. With its 15- meter wingspan, carrying capacity of 350 kilograms (maximum), and cruising altitude of 30,000 feet, Hermes 900 can remain aloft twice as long – over forty hours - as the earlier model.

Experts believe that its long-endurance capability and satellite communication systems will enable it to operate in ranges of thousands of kilometers, thus reaching countries as distant as Iran.

Hermes 900 carries equipment under its belly and wings. Cameras and other visual devices can be quickly replaced for daytime or nighttime missions.

The air force is testing the UAVs in the designated squadrons. The “UAV Intelligence and Space Department” is responsible for the technical aspects of operating and maintaining an allweather aircraft on a 24-hour a day basis.

Elbit Systems has announced that three “Hermes 900s” will be delivered to the IDF.

“In the future, one third of the IAF’s aircraft will be UAVs”, a senior air force officer Said.

www.israeldefense.com

After The Merkava: The Isreali Next Generation Tank

The Merkava Tank Planning Directorate has set up a team to study the principles of the tank of the future. The defense establishment has yet to make a decision or even establish a direction for the systematic development of a new tank, as production of the Merkava Mark IV tanks nears completion. The team has been requested to present ideas for an armored fighting vehicle (AFV) that would provide massive mobile firepower on the future battlefield. 

 

 

The team includes IDF officers and members of the defense ministry. Basic questions are being raised: Should the future tank be lighter than the 70 ton Merkava? Can the thick layers of armor be dispensed with, because of new active defense systems capable of intercepting antitank missiles in flight? Will the tank of the future be operated by a four-man crew, or perhaps less? Will it require a cannon or will an advanced recoilless firing system, launched from the turret or rear of the tank, suffice? The team is also considering the future AFV's horsepower capabilities and track systems (heavy or light) versus the option of putting wheels on the chasis. 

"Changes in the battlefield are beyond our imaginations and issues concerning the tank of the future are only in their initial stage; at this point [the discussions] are almost abstract in nature," admits a defense source. "We're trying to envision the direction of developments on the future battlefield, and then we'll formulate suitable ideas. At any rate, the tank of the future is still very far off and if sweeping changes are introduced then it’s doubtful that the armored vehicle will still be called a 'tank'."

www.israeldefense.com

US reconnaissance plane under jamming attack bu North Korea

A US military reconnaissance plane came under electronic attack from North Korea and had to make an emergency landing during a major military exercise in March, an aide to a lawmaker said Friday. The aide said the plane suffered disturbance to its global positioning system (GPS) by jamming signals from the North's southwestern cities of Haeju and Kaesong as it was taking part in the annual US-South Korea drill, Key Resolve.
The incident was disclosed in a report that Seoul's defence ministry submitted Thursday to opposition lawmaker Ahn Kyu-Baek of parliament's defence committee, the aide to Ahn told AFP.
Spokesmen for the defence ministry and US Forces Korea declined to comment.
Jamming signals, sent at intervals of five to 10 minutes in the afternoon on March 4, forced the plane to make an emergency landing 45 minutes after it was airborne, the aide quoted the report as saying.
They also affected South Korean naval patrol boats and speedboats as well as several civilian flights near Seoul's Gimpo area, according to the report.
Seoul mobile users also complained of bad connections and the military reported GPS navigational devices malfunctioning as the South and the US were staging the drill, which was harshly criticised by the North.
The communist state has about 20 types of jamming devices mostly imported from Russia and it has been developing a new device with a range of more than 100 km (62 miles) near the heavily fortified border, Yonhap news agency has said.
The North is also believed to have been responsible for the intermittent failure of GPS receivers on naval and civilian vessels along the west coast in August 2010.
South Korea's then-defence minister Kim Tae-Young said at the time that the devices could disrupt guided weapons and posed "a fresh security threat" to Seoul.
The UN's International Telecommunication Union in April urged the North to stop disrupting signals in the South.

MiG Denies Stealth Technology Transfer To China For J-20 Fighter

Russia has never transferred any stealth technology to China to assist it with its J-20 Black Eagle fifth-generation stealth fighter prototype, Russian plane maker MiG said.

"We are not delivering any equipment to China, and never have," MiG spokeswoman Yelena Fyodorova said.

MiG's statement follows claims in the Russian and foreign press last week that China's J-20, unveiled over six months ago, is based on technology and components from the Russian Mikoyan Article 1.44, a stealth technology demonstrator aircraft, development of which was suspended.

Some analysts say the aircraft have close similarities.


"The back end of the J-20 looks awfully like the 1.44, as does the overall layout with delta canards," said Douglas Barrie, an air warfare specialist at the London-based International Institute of Strategic Studies.

"If it's a coincidence, it's a striking one. Russia may have provided technical support, but there is nothing substantial to prove that. China has however relied on Russia for much of its defense procurement for a decade and a half," he added.

China's J-20 Black Eagle is thought to be conceptually similar to the U.S. F-22 Raptor and the Russian T-50 jets, but is likely to be just a technology demonstrator or prototype rather than a viable fighter.



 

China has been working on a future fighter program since the mid-1990s, but the J-20 is not expected to enter service before 2018-2020.

Earlier in the month, Mikhail Pogosyan, the head of Russia's United Aircraft Corporation said that China's fifth-generation fighter program is more for effect than substance and branded the maiden flight as a "show-off."

China relied on the Soviet Union for much of its aviation technology until the Sino-Soviet split after 1961. China then carried on developing copies of Soviet and Russian aircraft.

Beijing also relies on Russian engines, radars and electronic components for many of its other aircraft, such as the JF-17 fighter it developed jointly with Pakistan.

"We are not delivering any equipment to China, and never have," MiG spokeswoman Yelena Fyodorova said.

indrus.in

India Prepared To Face The Chinese Threat : IAF Chief

In response to the US official reports of  China  deploying nuclear-capable missiles along the borders with India, the Air Force chief said the country was not 'worried' over these developments as it has own plans to deal with the situation.

"These are all known, it is nothing that we are worried about. We have our own plans and we are moving ahead with our own plans. These are the realities we have to deal with," Air Chief Marshal NAK Browne said in reply to a query. 

The Air Chief Marshal was releasing the brochure for the upcoming two-day 6th International Conference on Energising Indian Aerospace Industry beginning from September 22, 2011 in Delhi.

The US Pentagon reports have said that the Chinese People's Liberation Army has deployed nuclear missiles along the borders. The Chinese government has, however, denied the US reports.

The Indian Navy also denied reports of a London-based newspaper that a Chinese warship had confronted its assault vessel in the disputed South China Sea after it left Vietnamese waters in late July.

"The INS Airavat returned from its scheduled official deployment to Vietnam without any confrontation with a Chinese vessel," Navy spokesperson Commander PVS Satish said in a release.

When asked what India can learn from China in developing its indigenous aerospace industry, the IAF chief said: "One thing that one could learn from them is that they don't attempt to do everything themselves."

"Once you start the Research and Development and then wait and wait, then you make it the test-tube model, it takes you 20-30 years to finalise the project," Browne said.

However Browne was of the view that China got a fair amount of technology from outside.

He said that Chinese were spending a lot of money on R&D. In case of Indian Defence public sector units the investments in R&D is comparatively low.

Browne was of the view of cooperation with the private sector. But he said that the private sector need to upgrade its R&D.

In the recent past, India has deployed its fighter aircraft including the frontline Su-30MKI in Assam and is in the process of upgrading its Advanced Landing Grounds in Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh.

Asked about its plans to upgrade the Nyoma ALG into a full-fledged airfield, Browne said the proposal was with the Government.

He said that the deal for 126 medium multi range combat aircraft is likely to be signed by the year end.

“The Naresh Chandra Committee is likely to recommend better coordination between the service headquarters and the Defence Ministry,” he said.

The Indian aerospace industry is currently undergoing a phase of rapid growth and progressive transformation. With compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18% over the last five years, India has emerged as a major aerospace market. Driven by the increased defence spending, the booming commercial aviation market, rising technological and manufacturing capabilities of Indian industry and robust economic growth, the Indian aerospace industry (civil, military and space), is expected to grow at minimum 12 to 14% annually during the next five years. The changing dynamics of this sector has eventually been unraveling new sets of challenges and opportunities for the industry players prompting them to restructure their short to long-term business strategies.

With maintenance, repair and overhauling (MRO) activities picking up mainly due to the significant and sudden rise in the total fleet size, India is expected to become the hub for aviation MRO facilities. The aviation MRO market in India is expected to outspace the growth in the global as well as in the Asian market very shortly.

The rapid growth of opportunities in this sector has been able to attract major global aerospace companies into Indian aerospace market. As per some estimates, India would require about 1,300 commercial planes worth $150 billion in the next two decades to meet the growing demands. With growing passenger movements and increasing military aviation demand, Indian aerospace sector is going to be the epicenter of opportunities for both domestic and international business communities. The upcoming 6th International Conference on Energising Indian Aerospace Industry in Delhi is likely to deliberate on all these issues.

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