A modernized A-50U airborne warning and control system (AWACS) aircraft entered service with the Russian Air Force on Monday, an AF spokesman said.
The aircraft has an advanced onboard computer, satellite communication and radar systems, Col. Vladimir Drik said.
It now has the capability to detect various types of flying targets, including helicopters, cruise missiles and supersonic aircraft, he said.
The Beriev A-50, based on the Ilyushin Il-76 transport, first flew in 1978. It entered service in 1984, with about 40 produced by 1992.
The A-50 can track up to 10 fighter aircraft for either air-to-air intercept or air-to-ground attack missions.
NEW DELHI/WASHINGTON: The US, which lost a bid for a $11 billion contract for 126 war planes, has now offered New Delhi partnership in the development of the world's most advanced flying machine, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
Pentagon, which acknowledged that India's recent decision not to opt for America's F-16 and F-18 fighters was a setback, said it was still interested in selling its topnotch fighters to India. "Despite this setback, we believe US aircraft, such as the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), to be the best in the world," the Pentagon said in a nine-page report to US Congress. "Should India indicate interest in the JSF, the US would be prepared to provide information on the JSF and its requirements (infrastructure, security, etc) to support India's planning," the Pentagon said in a one-of-its kind report on India submitted to the US Congress.
The F-35 is a fifth generation all-stealth fighter being developed by US armament giant Lockheed Martin in a joint consortium with eight other countries - the UK, Italy, the Netherlands, Turkey, Canada, Denmark, Norway and Australia. The F-35 Lightning II boasts advanced airframe, autonomic logistics avionics, propulsion systems, stealth and firepower at the most affordable cost.
The US has already undertaken some test flight of the fighter. F-35 is the only other 5th generation aircraft to fly in the world besides the F-22 Raptors. Washington refuses to share the Raptor technology with any other nation, even closest allies UK and Israel.
More joint work on science and technology "may lead to co- development opportunities with India as a partner," the Defense Department report said.
The nine-page review of defense ties with India was prepared in response to a legislative provision sponsored earlier this year by Senate Armed Services Committee members Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, and John Cornyn, a Texas Republican. Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed Martin builds the F-35 in Texas.
United Technologies Corp. makes the plane's engines in Connecticut. "Our two governments must be proactive in finding new ways to take on emerging security challenges together," Lieberman said in an e-mail, citing cybersecurity and counterterrorism. The report reflects the desire by successive US administrations to convince India to increase security cooperation and buy American equipment as it expands and modernises its military. The push included a years-long fight for congressional approval in 2008 of an agreement intended to clear the way for US manufacturers such as General Electric to sell India nuclear-energy technology. The US expected the nuclear-energy agreement to help increase a range of technology sales to India, especially in the defense sector.
Lockheed's F-16 jet fighter and Boeing's F/A-18 Super Hornet were eliminated from the $11 billion bid to replace India's aging MiG-21s. Aircraft on the shortlist were Dassault Aviation SA's Rafale and the Eurofighter made by BAE Systems, Finmeccanica and European Aeronautic, Defense & Space Co. Lockheed Martin said in June it may offer the F-35 stealth fighter to India. The Cornyn-Lieberman requirement for the security cooperation report helped open an avenue to do that, Lockheed senior vice-president Patrick Dewar said in a June interview at the Paris Air Show. India has urged the US to give it more access to technology so that the two countries can develop weapons together.
The Pentagon acknowledged that goal in the report. "The US wants to develop deeper defense industrial cooperation with India, including a range of cooperative research and development," they wrote in the assessment.
NEW DELHI: China continues to deploy four new nuclear capable ballistic missiles, including one that can be launched from submarines ( SLBM), causing fear among its neighbours and the US, says a latest report by Federation of American Scientists. This, coupled with Beijing's reluctance to define its minimum deterrence posture, says the report, has raised doubts about its intentions in upgrading its nuclear and missile arsenal.
The report authored by scientists Hans Kristensen and Robert Norris estimates that China has 240 nuclear warheads. While the report focuses mainly on China's attempts to target the US by assigning an increasing number of warheads to its long-range missiles, it says Beijing is now using the 7,200 km-range DF-31 missiles to target India and Russia instead of the earlier DF-4.
Indian officials say it's worrisome that Delingha in central Qinghai province is one of the places, where most of the upgrade is taking place. Not more than 2,000km from Delhi, Delingha is meant to be used almost exclusively for India as other countries from here like Nepal, Myanmar and Pakistan are not identified as potential targets.
Kristensen told TOI that India was a potential target, but added that the Chinese nuclear policy is geared towards all potential adversaries, each of which has its own characteristics. "India to the south is countered with medium-range missiles from central (Delingha region) and southern (Kunming region) China," he said.
"One factor that can contribute to making the situation better or worse between China and India is of course India's own military modernization along the India-China border as well as India's development of longer-range nuclear missiles that are more directly aimed at China," he added.
Estimating that China has approximately 140 land-based nuclear ballistic missiles, the report says Beijing is deploying four new nuclear-capable ballistic missiles (the DF-21, DF-31, DF-31A, and JL-2). "Deployment of the DF-31, first introduced in 2006, continues at a slow rate; China is using the DF-31 ICBM to replace its older DF-4 missiles. We estimate that China deploys 10-20 DF-31s, with the same number of launchers," says the report, adding that DF-31 is taking over regional targeting of Russia, India, and Guam from the DF-4.
A submarine launched ballistic missile JL-2 is a modified version of the DF-31 and even though it has failed several flight-tests, the report said, it still has enough to target neighbouring countries like China and Russia.
"With regard to conventional forces, US capabilities and operations in northeast Asia also mean that China's general military modernization appears to be focused on US-China scenarios. But the long border with Russia is a major military focus for Chinese general purpose military planning. And the border with India is another area of new interest and upgrades," Kristensen added.
WASHINGTON — The United States has taken a significant first step toward offering F-35 fighter jet aircraft to India in a sign of its desire to deepen defense cooperation.
Robert Scher, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for South and Southeast Asia, said Wednesday the U.S. thinks India’s military could use a jet like the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, which the U.S. is developing with a consortium of allies.
“What’s clear is that the F-35 is something that we would be more than willing to talk to the government of India about,” should they express an interest, he said.
Scher was speaking at a Pentagon news conference after the release of a Defense Department annual report to Congress on U.S.-India security cooperation.
The report, which outlined expanding military exchanges between the world’s two largest democracies, said the U.S. is committed to a broad trade defense relationship “that enables transfers of some of our most advanced technologies.”
The offer to discuss the F-35 comes after Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin missed out to European competitors in April bidding for an $11 billion deal to supply India with 126 fighter jets. The U.S. defense firms were offering F-16s and F-18s.
President Barack Obama had lobbied in person for that deal when he visited India last November, and his administration described the knock-back as a missed opportunity to deepen defense ties.
Analysts said completing any potential sale of F-35s is still a long way off, but the offer in principle to supply the more sophisticated jets reflects Washington’s commitment to India’s growth as a global power and emergence as a strategic partner for the United States.
Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman and Republican Sen. John Cornyn said Wednesday’s report was “an encouraging sign that the administration is committed to strengthening our relationship with India.”
The F-35 is the Pentagon’s biggest weapons procurement program and has been undertaken with support from allies including Britain, Australia, Canada, Israel and several European nations. It has been plagued with delays and cost overruns.
Ashley Tellis, a defense expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think tank, said it was unlikely India would consider the F-35, which is not expected to be in the U.S. Air Force before 2016, as a fresh candidate for the deal that U.S. firms missed out on in April.
But he said India will be looking to acquire a stealth fighter — known as the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft — after the middle of the decade. Although India wants to co-develop that plane, F-35s supplied by the U.S. would be an attractive option, he said.
Russia’s third prototype Sukhoi T-50 fifth generation fighter will be ready to take to the skies in the near future.
“It will fly when the designers are absolutely confident in their product,” the source said.
The assembly of the fourth fighter is “in the final stages of completion,” he added.
The T-50 made its maiden flight in January and two prototypes have since been undergoing flight tests.
The T-50, developed under the program PAK FA (Future Aviation System for Tactical Air Force) at the Sukhoi OKB, is Russia's first new major warplane designed since the fall of the Soviet Union.
It is expected to enter service in 2016.
The US may be bagging lucrative Indian defence deals, notching up sales worth over $11 billion in the military aviation sector alone, but it cannot get over the fact that New Delhi does not want its fighter jets.
Just a couple of days ahead of a crucial Indian defence ministry's meeting, which will set the stage for eventual selection of either Eurofighter Typhoon or French Rafale for IAF's over $10-billion MMRCA (medium multi-role combat aircraft) project, the US has again dangled the bait of an advanced 5th-generation fighter before India.
Dubbing as a "setback" the ejection of its F/A-18 `Super Hornets' and F-16 `Falcons' out of the MMRCA race after the technical evaluation, Pentagon on Wednesday told the US Congress that it was prepared to offer its Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) - the F-35 `Lightning-II' - to India. While the F-35 is a generation ahead of the MMRCA contenders, the IAF is looking to order 126 of 4th-Gen-plus fighters like Typhoons or Rafales, with another 63 probably at a later stage that will take the overall project cost to well beyond $20 billion.
India has embarked on the path to co-develop its own 5th-Gen fighter, based on the Russian Sukhoi T-50 prototype, with New Delhi and Moscow inking a $295-million preliminary design contract (PDC) last December.
But with India intending to spend a staggering over $35 billion to induct at least 166 single-seat and 48 twin-seat 5th-Gen fighters from 2020 onwards, the US is reluctant to give up easily.
In a report on US-India security cooperation, which otherwise dwelt on the expansive bilateral military ties, Pentagon said, "Despite the (MMRCA) setback, we believe US aircraft, such as JSF, to be the best in the world."
It added, "Should India indicate interest in the JSF, US would be prepared to provide information on the fighter and its requirements (infrastructure, security etc) to support India's future planning."
This is not the first time the F-35 bait has been dangled, but India has refused to bite so far. Senior defence officials say India neither wants nor can afford two types of 5th-Gen fighters. "It would be a financial, maintenance and logistical nightmare. The F-35 programme itself has been hit by huge cost overruns," said a top official.
Another official added, "The crucial full design phase with Russia of our stealth 5th-Gen fighter, the perspective multi-role fighter with supercruise, ultra-manoeuvrability and internal carriage of weapons, will be launched by next June-July."
He said, "Tons of documents are being exchanged. Apart from 40 of our scientists, designers and others being positioned in Russia, secure data links will be established for real-time communication between the two sides. Once the detailed designs are frozen, prototype development and manufacture will begin."
While this 5th-Gen fighter will be the mainstay in the future, the IAF is looking at 270 Sukhoi-30MKIs contracted from Russia for about $12 billion, the 126 MMRCA and 120 indigenous Tejas Light Combat Aircraft, apart from 110 upgraded MiG-29s and Mirage-2000s, to defend the skies in the medium term.
