L&T will bid to build navy’s second submarine line

 New Delhi, Sep 29 (IANS) Engineering and Construction giant Larsen and Toubro Tuesday said it will bid for the Indian Navy’s second line of conventional submarines.

The company had built India’s largest shipyards, near Chennai and in Gujarat, which had the capacity to build all types of naval construction, including submarines, L&T chairman and managing director A.M. Naik told reporters here.

‘We will be bidding for the navy’s second line of conventional submarines,’ he said.

He pointed out that L&T, along with the Russians, was vying to build Amur-class vessels but the initiative did not take off due to lack of funds.

‘Our shipyards in Hazira and Kattupalli have the capability to take up construction of vessels of about 7,000 to 9,000 tonnage and even warships of the size three or four times these vessels,’ Naik said.

http://trak.in/news/lt-will-bid-to-build-navys-second-submarine-line/8980/

China Versus India

September 29, 2009: The commander of the Indian Air Force is openly complaining that China has three times as many warplanes as India (which has 1,700, have of them combat, the rest support). The head of the Indian Navy has been complaining about Chinese warships being more numerous, and more frequently  showing up in the Indian Ocean.

The Indian Army is less concerned. Three years ago, India adopted the Russian T-90 as its new main battle tank. There is now local production of about a thousand T-90s over the next decade. India already has imported 310 T-90s. Under this plan, by 2020, India will have 2,000 upgraded T-72s, over 1,500 T90s, and few hundred other tanks. This will be the most powerful armored force in Eurasia, unless China moves ahead with upgrades to its tank force. The border between China and India is high in the Himalayan mountains, which is not good tank country. India's tank force is mainly for use against Pakistan. But if the Chinese should ever cross the border, they had best be prepared to deal with lots of modern tanks.

China says it is not concerned with India's moving two more infantry divisions into northeast India, where the Himalayan mountains form a thousand kilometer long, unfenced border with China. There are boundary disputes between India and China along the Himalayas, but these are now being negotiated (although not settled yet). India is putting those two divisions into Arunachal Pradesh to deal with long term ethnic unrest. India also recently upgraded a primitive airfield (used mainly for helicopters), 25 kilometers from the Chinese border, to one that can handle larger transports. Again, while some Indian politicians proclaim that this is all about defending India from the Chinese menace, it's actually more about local tribal separatists.

Although India lost several border skirmishes to Chinese troops along that border in the 1960s, China was never considered a real threat. That's because there were no Chinese railroads leading to their side of the Himalayan frontier. With only a few roads leading into Tibet, from China proper, the Chinese could never launch a major offensive across the Himalayan border. That changed three years ago when China completed a railroad into Tibet.

So China is now a threat from all sides. India is particularly annoyed at China intruding into the waters surrounding India. It's not called the Indian Ocean for nothing, and the Indians consider these waters sacrosanct. Chinese naval power is not welcome. India has long blamed its defeat in the 1962 war with China over a lack of sufficient air power. This is still the case. Indian air force generals are using that memory, and the continued imbalance between the Indian and Chinese air forces, to make a case for buying lots more modern aircraft.

Source : Strategy Page

Russia tests Indian fighter jets on board its aircraft carrier

MOSCOW, September 30 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's MiG aircraft maker said on Tuesday it has successfully tested on board the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier four MiG-29 carrier-based fighter jets due to be delivered to India.

Russia and India signed a contract on January 20, 2004, stipulating the supply of 12 single-seat MiG-29Ks and four two-seat MiG-29KUBs to India as part of a $1.5 billion deal to deliver the Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier, currently being retrofitted in Russia for the Indian navy.

"During the tests on September 28-29, the MiG-29K and MiG-29KUB fighters conducted several take offs and landings on the deck of the [Admiral Kuznetsov] aircraft carrier in the Barents Sea," the company said in a statement.

Admiral Kuznetsov is the only aircraft carrier in the Russian Navy.

The two MiG-29Ks and two MiG-29KUBs were officially transferred to India earlier this year. They were inspected by Indian technical experts and used in a five-month flight training course for the Indian pilots.

The aircrafts are expected to be delivered to India in mid-October.

Meanwhile, Russia and India are still negotiating a new deal on the completion of the Admiral Gorshkov overhaul.

Russia has pledged to finish the Admiral Gorshkov's overhaul as soon as possible and deliver it to India in 2012 if the additional $1.2 bln funding is provided by New Delhi.

After modernization, the carrier will join the Indian Navy as INS Vikramaditya, and is expected to be seaworthy for 30 years.

http://en.rian.ru/mlitary_news/20090930/156295236.html

agra-to-host-indo-us-joint-exercise-in-october

New Delhi, Sep 29 (ANI): A five-day joint exercise involving IAF and USAF transport aircraft, Cope India-09, will be held at Agra from October 19.

The participating IAF aircraft include IL-76, AN-32 and Mi-17 helicopters, while USAF will participate with C-17 Globemaster, C-130J (Super Herclues) and C-130H transport aircraft.

The exercise is aimed at evaluating the efficacy of joint operations in the realm of tactics, aero medical aspects and Combat Search and Rescue (CSAR) missions involving medium and heavy lift transport aircraft.

Nearly 160 USAF personnel and about 200 IAF air warriors will participate in the exercise.

The Indian Army and the US Army will also simultaneously conduct their largest joint exercise in October, featuring variety of armoured vehicles, medium and heavy lift aircraft and helicopters.

The Indo-US Army exercise will be conducted at Babina in Uttar Pradesh. (ANI)

http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/india-news/agra-to-host-indo-us-joint-exercise-in-october_100253856.html

CoBRA and Army cannot suppress our movement: Maoists

Maoist guerrillas have adopted a belligerent stand against the centre's move to send security forces into Maoist controlled areas in several States, by declaring that neither the commando force raised by the CRPF nor the Rashtriya Rifles of the Indian Army could suppress the revolutionary movement in the country.

The recent offensive in Bastar forests of Chhattisgarh by the CRPF's Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA) and Chhattisgarh police was “courageously” repulsed by the Maoist guerrillas who killed at least six security forces personnel. "After suffering the biggest loss, the commandoes caught several unarmed adivasis and killed them in cold blood", Azad, spokesperson of the Maoist Central Committee said in a statement here on Tuesday.

Referring to the September 18 offensive in forested areas of Dantewada district in Chhattisgarh, Azad said the massive operation was part of a bigger offensive being taken up in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal.

The brutal onslaught in Dandakarnya showed the extreme demoralisation of and desperation of the "fascist clique" at the centre over its failure to lay hands on the mineral wealth in the adivasi-inhabited regions in Eastern and Central India.

Azad alleged that the Centre was planning 'aerial bombardment' of some Maoist-held areas even at the cost of civilian casualties and destruction of clusters of villages. The centre had already tried 'Vietnam type' resettlement of adivasis in 'strategic hamlets' through the Salwa Judum campaign in Bastar forests. The visit of Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram to Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand on September 25 was akin to "morale-boosting trips" of Donald Rumsfeld and George Bush to Iraq and Afghanistan.

The advertisements in newspapers on naxal violence was part of a simultaneously taken up psychological war, but such 'cheap propaganda' was bound to backfire, as people witness the violence perpetrated by the security forces daily.

Conceding that the arrest of Kobad Ghandy was a 'great loss' to the revolutionary movement in India, Azad said Ghandy was betrayed by a 'weak element' in the party. The courier had led the Special Intelligence Branch (SIB) of Andhra Pradesh and the intelligence wing in Delhi to Bhikaji Cama Place in South Delhi, where Ghandy had an appointment after his return from a trip to a Guerrilla zone in the country. Ghandy was arrested on September 17 and not on 20th as police claimed, he said charging that the police had planned to ‘torture and murder' him, but with the intervention of democratic civil rights organisations foiled their plans.

http://beta.thehindu.com/news/states/andhra-pradesh/article26600.ece

3 CRPF men killed in Sopore firing

SRINAGAR: Three CRPF personnel and a woman were killed when militants fired at a patrol at Sopore in North Kashmir's Baramulla district on Tuesday.

A police officer said militants fired indiscriminately at the CRPF patrol near a bus stand. "The three personnel were injured and later succumbed in a local hospital,'' the officer said. "The woman pedestrian, in her fifties, died on way to the hospital.''

Sources said Al-Badr outfit has claimed responsibility for the attack. "Two AK-47 rifles of the slain personnel are also missing,'' a source said.

Security forces cordoned off the area to nab the attackers but no one was arrested till last reports came in.

Meanwhile, army averted a major tragedy by defusing five landmines at Tikipora in north Kashmir's Kupwara district. "The landmines were recovered after Army's 28 Rashtriya Rifles were tipped off that terrorists had planted them to target the forces,'' said SHO Sajjad Ahmad.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/india/3-CRPF-men-killed-in-Sopore-firing/articleshow/5069599.cms