INS Dega to have Mig 29 squadron

Naval Air Station INS Dega that presently has the only Advanced Jet Trainer (AJT) squadron in the country will also have a MiG-29 K squadron. “We intend to have it in place in the next two years and the creation of infrastructure has begun,” says Commanding Officer of INS Dega Capt. D Bhattacharya. Once it happens besides AJTs, pilots would also be trained on MiGs.

The Hawk Mk-132 craft were inducted forming the AJT squadron in November, 2013. It is the Hawks flying that accounts for the morning roar over the skies in the city.
The MiG squadron is expected to be launched once aircraft carrier Vikrant to be based at the Eastern Naval Command is commissioned in 2018. There are also plans to develop a sister airfield at Bobbili where a World War II airfield with two abandoned runways exists.
It will be developed as a diversifying airfield to meet contingencies like bad weather or runway-related problems in Vizag, says Capt Bhattacharya. The additional back-up is required with the number of assets increasing while Dega will remain the main base. Besides, INS Dega is a joint user airfield with civilian aircraft operating and the Navy offering operational support.
INS Dega presently has about 40 craft training pilots.
The Dega air station was abuzz with activity on Thursday with Kamov, Dornier, Chetak, UH 3H, Hawk Mk 132 and the pilot-less target Lakshya on display.

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China declares India's Oil exploration in South China Sea illegal

China is consolidating its  authority over the international South China Sea by declaring it controls international waters off the coast of independent Vietnam.

“India’s intention to once again explore for oil in the disputed waters of the South China Sea is an unwise move, as it will further complicate the maritime disputes and do a disservice to maintaining the positive momentum that has been achieved in China-India ties,” declared the state-run China Daily, as translated by the Times of India.
“The Indian company should be told: Without the permission from the Chinese government, activities conducted by any foreign company in these disputed waters are illegal,” the editorial continued. The search is “illegal,” said China’s government. The Indian-owned oil company should “rethink its oil exploration plans,” China threatened.
Actually, India’s oil “exploration” is in partnership with Vietnam and has progressed far enough for the Indians to begin preparations for moving an oil platform into the area. Want China Times of Taiwan notes that the deal between an Indian company and Vietnam’s state-run PetroVietnam was signed three years before China opened international bidding on exploration of the waters under its control.
China is rapidly extending its naval force into the South China Sea, partly by building new islands with airbases. The ocean floor is believed to contain much oil and gas, and the nearby countries—China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Indonesia,and Japan—are arguing over which parts of the large sea are owned by each neighboring country.
Under President Barack Obama, the U.S. and the U.S. Navy is doing little to slow or deter the Chinese expansion. Instead, U.S. foreign policy has been focused on trying to make Israel sign a peace deal with hostile neighbors.
The Times of India recalled that India has previously argued constructive economic activity should have no impact on the South China Sea territorial dispute. But the China Daily sweeps that argument aside: “New Delhi may deem its oil exploration activities in the South China Sea purely economic in nature. But, considering the already existing tensions in the South China Sea, New Delhi’s move will only aggravate the situation.”
The Indian government is advised by China Daily’s editors to “avoid taking missteps that may sabotage the good development of their ties” with China.
The Chinese editorial also took some time to fulminate against “the meddling of outside forces, such as the United States.”
The Indians may also be irritated by Chinese adventures in the Indian Ocean, which the Chinese military recently warned India to stop thinking of as its “backyard,” lest “clashes” break out.

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OROP announcement: Key Points

NEW DELHI: Defence minister Manohar Parrikar said on Saturday that the government has decided to implement the "one rank, one pension" scheme.
Here is the highlights of Parrikar's announcement on the OROP:

1. OROP will be implemented from July 1, 2014 and the base year would be 2013.
2. The estimated cost to implement OROP would be between Rs 8,000 crore to Rs 10,000.
3. Pension of ex-servicemen will be revised every five years.
4. Re-fixed pension will be the average of minimum and maximum pension in 2013.
5. OROP arrears to be paid in 4 half-yearly installments.
6. Those drawing pensions above the average will be protected.
7. A one-member judicial committee will be constituted. It will give reports on equalisation period in 6 months.
8. Personnel who retire voluntarily will not be covered under OROP scheme.

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India is celebrating VICTORY of 1965 war with pakistan

India has begun more than three weeks of celebrations to mark the 50th anniversary of what it claims was victory in the 1965 war with Pakistan.
President Pranab Mukherjee laid a wreath at the martyr's memorial at Delhi's India Gate monument on Friday. Meanwhile, eight civilians have been reportedly killed as India and Pakistan exchanged fire in the Kashmir region.
Kashmir, claimed by both countries in its entirety, has been a flashpoint for more than 60 years.

Major Waheed Bukhari, a spokesman for Pakistani Rangers, told Reuters news agency that five civilians had been killed and 48 others treated for injuries after firing from the Indian side in the Sialkot area.
And across the border, India's Border Security Force said three civilians had died and 22 were wounded in firing across the border in the Jammu region.
Both said the other side had opened fire first, and their accounts could not be independently verified.
The South Asian rivals have fought two wars and a limited conflict over the region.
'Victory Carnival' ::
The 1965 conflict began when Pakistan sent up to 30,000 troops into Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir.
Indian soldiers invaded Pakistan in retaliation.
Over the years, both sides have claimed victory. Pakistan celebrates 6 September every year as "Defence of Pakistan Day" with a 21-gun salute and a victory parade. Indians meanwhile believe that their forces had the clear upper hand in the war.
The war was fought on the western front where for over three weeks more than 100,000 Indian soldiers fought against Pakistan's 60,000 troops.
The fighting killed more than 8,000 men, most of them Pakistanis.
On Friday morning, Prime Minister Narendra Modi "praised the courage & bravery of our Armed Forces" on Twitter ::
As we mark the 50th anniversary of 1965 war, I bow to all brave soldiers who fought for our Motherland in the war.
The celebrations began on 28 August, the day Indian troops captured the strategic Haji Pir Pass in Pakistan. They will go on until 22 September - the day India and Pakistan agreed to a UN-sponsored ceasefire.
The main event - a "victory carnival" with a show of military might, song and dance - is planned for 20 September on Rajpath - the wide boulevard in the city centre where the annual Republic Day parade is held and where India recently organised a record-breaking yoga event.
The celebrations will also include seminars, photo exhibitions and a concert. Many Indians support Mr Modi's decision to hold the commemorative events - but critics say holding a carnival is in bad taste.
The 1965 war was one of four between India and Pakistan since independence from Britain in 1947.

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Pakistani captured terrorist saying he is better trained then Indian Army

Pakistani terrorist of Lashkar-e-Toiba Sajjad @ Abu Ubaidullah told the interrogators that he is better trained to fight with Indian Army. He also said that he has done arms training (Darua Aaam) in Mansera and Daura Khas (Special training) in Muzaffarabad before he infiltrated into Kashmir eight days ago through Bijhama Uri sector of the Line of Control along with 4 others who were killed.

He said that three other groups were also ready to infiltrate after we left to cross the Line of Control in Uri sector.
Twenty two year old Pakistani terrorist was captured alive by Major Mishra of 32 RR of Indian Army after army fired tear smoke and chilly grenades inside the cave in which he had taken shelter when Army encircled the group.
Sajjad was brought to Srinagar tonight in an Army chopper and landed at Sharifabad where from he was taken for interrogation.
The arrested Pakistani terrorist is extensively questioned by the sleuths of intelligence agencies and Jammu and Kashmir Police.
Meanwhile, Surveillance is being maintained at all sensitive places in Line of Control after the report of Pakistan army is desperately assisting highly trained terrorists to infiltrate into this side of LoC causing surge in ceasefire violations in the past one month.
“Terrorists are desperate to infiltrate before these passes close, hence the increase in the incidents of cross border firing,” top police offical told Mirror.
” We have successfully eliminated a large number of terrorists in the Valley. Some of the terror outfits have been rendered leaderless, so to fill in the gap they want to push in more terrorists into our side,” he said.

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US asks Pakistan to show ‘restraint’ in expanding Nuclear Power

The US has asked Pakistan and all other nuclear-armed countries to exercise “restraint” in expanding their nuclear capabilities after two American think-tanks said Pakistan could have the third largest stockpile of atomic weapons in about a decade.

                                                       

“We continue to urge all nuclear-capable states, including Pakistan, to exercise restraint regarding furthering their nuclear capabilities,” State Department spokesman John Kirby said yesterday.

He was responding to a question on a latest report by two top American think-tank, according to which in a decade or so, Pakistan would have more than 350 nuclear weapons that would be third largest stockpile of nuclear weapons after the United State and Russia.

The 48-page report titled “A Normal Nuclear Pakistan” by two renowned scholars Tom Dalton and Michael Krepon of Stimson Center and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace – says that the growth path of the country’s nuclear arsenal, enabled by existing infrastructure, goes well beyond the assurances of credible minimal deterrence provided by its officials and analysts after testing nuclear devices.

The report said that Pakistan will retain its capabilities for the foreseeable future as a necessary deterrent against perceived existential threats from India.

“At this juncture, Pakistan’s military leadership in Rawalpindi can choose to accept success in achieving a strategic deterrent against India — a nuclear force posture sufficient to prevent limited nuclear exchanges and a major conventional war,” it said.

“Alternatively, it can choose to continue to compete with India in the pursuit of full spectrum deterrence, which would entail open-ended nuclear requirements against targets both near and far from Pakistan. These choices would lead Pakistan to two starkly different nuclear futures and places in the global nuclear order,” the report added.

The report also said that Pakistan consider five nuclear weapon-related initiatives including shifting declaratory policy from “full spectrum” to “strategic” deterrence, and committing to a recessed deterrence posture and limit production of short-range delivery vehicles and tactical nuclear weapons.

It also proposed that Islamabad will lift Pakistan’s veto on Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty negotiations and reduce or stop fissile material production, separate civilian and military nuclear facilities and sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty without waiting for India.

“Having succeeded in achieving the requirements of strategic deterrence, Pakistan is in a position to consider nuclear-weapon-related initiatives that would not impair Pakistan’s ability to deter existential threats,” the report said.

“Taking even some of the five initiatives we propose would clarify Pakistan’s commitment to adopt similar practices as other normal nuclear states. They would facilitateinvestments, both military and nonmilitary, that would address Pakistan’s national, social, and economic security interests in more practical ways,” it said.

“They would reduce risks of escalation that could lead to nuclear war. And they could facilitate Pakistan’s entrance into the nuclear mainstream, while strengthening nonproliferation norms, bolstering global disarmament hopes, and setting the bar higher for new entrants into the NSG,” the report said.

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Russia is seeking India's help during sanction time

Russia banks on the Narendra Modi Government in India to support it during “these testing times” of Russia being put under sanctions by the US and European Union, like the way Russia supported India when the latter faced sanctions from the west, Sergev Chemezov, CEO of Russia’s biggest and government-owned defence company, Rostec, has said.

                                             

                                                
Calling Modi’s ‘Make in India’ program as a “correct decision” which Russia supports, Chemezov told ET that India was Russia’s number one partner followed by China. Russia is facing a testing time in face of US and EU sanctions due to annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.

“We are trying to work with other partners – India and China. Regarding India, you have survived a number of years in sanctions – our corporations helped you always. I hope that in these years (when Russia faces sanctions), India will not isolate (us) and give us help,” Chemezov has told ET in Moscow.

Over 200 KA-226T helicopters are expected to be produced jointly by Russia and India — the first major defence project under Modi’s ‘Make In India’ programme though both countries are still to sign the final contract.

India’s Defence Acquisition Council approved the project in May. Victor Kladov, Head, International Cooperation, Rostec said they hoped to finalise its Indian partner for the project and complete the process to sign this deal with India “by the end of this year” as the negotiations were “in their final stage” and said “decisions were being made faster” in India since the new government has taken over. “PM Modi’s ‘Make In India’ scheme is the current worldwide trend and we are coming in line with it,” Kladov has told ET.

“When Indian PM Modi visited our stand in Bengaluru during the AeroIndia show earlier this year, we explained that we are ready to produce KA-226T choppers in India. He asked why so slow about the project – we replied saying we have been waiting for the defence ministry decision for 4 years – they declared tender, cancelled it, they declared new tender, again cancelled it and then readjusted their plans. So changing of policy by acquiring agency derailed and delayed in many ways. No at least we know the trend – Make in India. When PM Modi declares Make In India, it comes in line with the trend worldwide — this is the current trend worldwide, nobody is interested in just buying or selling,” Victor Kladov of Rostec has told ET.

Rostec CEO Sergev Chemezov said Russia has offered its comments to India that it was ready to work both with HAL and a company in the private sector for co-production of the KA-226 helicopters. “It is up to India to which company to choose. We are ready to work with both companies,” Chemezov said.

Kladov added that Russia knows India has plans to buy more MI-17 “and we are looking forward to negotiations” on it.

During the visit of Russian President Vladmir V. Putin to India last December, Modi had said Russia was and will remain India’s “primary defence supplier”. India has however been pursuing defence deals with other countries as well – including the recent decision to buy Rafale fighter aircraft from France – leading to a perception that India’s defence relations with Russia were getting diluted.

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Chandrayaan-2 to take off in 2017 : ISRO chief

India’s second lunar probe, Chandrayaan-2, is planned to be launched in 2017, the parliament was told on Thursday. ”The Chandrayaan-2, India’s second mission to the Moon, has Orbiter, Lander and Rover configuration.

It is planned to be launched during 2017-2018 time frame by Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota,” Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office Jitendra Singh told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply.

According to the Indian Space Research Organisation, Chandrayaan-2 is an advanced version of the Chandrayaan-1 mission. Chandrayaan-1 was launched from the Chennai-based spaceport on October 22, 2008. It was a successful mission where the spacecraft orbited around the Moon at a height of 100 km from the lunar surface for chemical, mineralogical and photo-geological mapping of the Earth’s natural satellite.

Chandryaan-2 will be an indigenous mission where the ISRO will develop the lunar Lander and be responsible for the Orbiter and Rover as well as the launch by GSLV.

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Captured Paki terrorist Sajjad Ahmed begged for mercy after Army used ‘Chilly Grenades’ to flush them Out

He panicked and begged for mercy after army commandos fired ‘chilly grenades’ and teargas shells into a cave to flush out the terrorists who were holed up there since last night. Sajjad Ahmed was subsequently arrested and he identified himself as a resident of Muzzafargarh in Pakistan’s Punjab province.

                                         

                                             
The 22-year-old was one of the five terrorists who had crossed over from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and hid in the cave after army detected the infiltration and was hunting for them in Rafiabad area of Kashmir. After crossing over from PoK in a place over 100 kms north of here, the five Lashker-e-Taiba militants made several attempts to breach the tight cordon placed along the LoC, army officials said.

The realignment of security layers along the LoC was the brainchild of outgoing Corps Commander of 15 Corps Lt Gen Subrata Saha, who moved on to Army Headquarters for a new assignment. Giving details, senior officials said Army’s technical intelligence had picked up signals about a group trying to infiltrate through this area during the night of August 25-26.

A cordon was laid and one of the militant was killed yesterday in an encounter. However, there was no whereabouts of the remaining terrorists, the officials said. When the operation was being called off, a reluctant Army Major insisted that the terrorists were still on the Indian territory and a crack team of various units was formed for a search operation. During the operation, a natural cave was found on the heights in Rafiabad, they said.

When the forces approached it, they were fired upon and in the ensuing encounter, three Lashker militants were killed. Apprehending that there could be some more terrorists inside the cave, the troops then fired several rounds of tear gas shells and ‘chilly grenades’ inside to flush them out. After sometime, troops entered the cave and found Sajjad weeping bitterly — one because of panic and secondly because of the effect of chilly grenades. He was immediately arrested and sent to Joint Interrogation Centre in Srinagar for thorough questioning.

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How INS Arihant could be a game changer in the region?

New Delhi: The indigenous nuclear submarine INS Arihant is set to be launched for sea trials in a "month or two" and it will test-fire the submarine-launched nuclear capable ballistic missile BO-5, DRDO said today.

The nuclear reactor on board the INS Arihant was activated last year in August taking it closer towards sea trials after which the vessel would be inducted into operational service in the Navy.

"Arihant is going through the power-up cycle (in its nuclear reactor). It is the first time that we are doing the power-up cycle on a nuclear submarine. So, we are very cautious and going step by step. It will take a month or two more before it goes to the sea (for trials)," DRDO chief Avinash Chander told PTI.
He was asked about the present status of the indigenous nuclear submarine programme under which at least three Arihant-Class nuclear underwater vessels would be built for the Navy.

"During the trial phase, the Arihant will testfire the fully-developed BO-5 missile as part of the sea trials," he said.
Once inducted, the submarine will help the country complete its nuclear triad giving it the capability to respond to nuclear strikes from sea, land and air-based systems.
Nuclear triad is the ability to fire nuclear-tipped missiles from land, air and sea-based weapon platforms.
INS Arihant has been undergoing trials at Navy's key submarine base in Vishakhapatnam and has cleared most of its harbour acceptance trials.
The medium-range nuclear missile BO-5 has a range of over 700km-range.
The nuclear submarine will help India achieve the capability of going into high seas without the need to surface the vessel for a long duration.

Conventional diesel-electric submarines have to come up on surface at regular intervals for charging the cells of the vessel.

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