Indian Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

[aksha]

Thanks a bunch!

the indian navy operated hawker sea hawk and french alize antisubmarine aircraft on ins vikrant

heres a video[video=youtube;6m_ZvlAK0nc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6m_ZvlAK0nc[/video]

 

[Jeff Head]

I have a stupid question that has been bothering me for a long while. So I have learned from my good fellow SDF members that India has been operating their own CVs for several decades. However, this is the first time their own pilots have landed on a CV. So what kind of planes had they been landing on their own CVs before? If none, then what was the purpose of their CVs if they had no planes to land?

This is the first time they have landed any of their new Mig-29Ks on the Vikramaditya, not the first time Indian aviators have landed on any carrier.

They have been operating Harriers now for the last several decades, first on the Virkant, R11, and then on the Viraat, R22 (which is still in use after over 50 years)..

Before the HArriers, on the INS Virkant, R11, which they bought from the UK in 1957, they operated Hawker Sea Hawk attack aircraft, and Belize ASW fixed wing aircraft, and they were launched via catapult.

 

[tphuang]

more on this issue of Russia not supplying India with what it needs. Again, nothing conclusive, but I think where there is smoke, there is fire.

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If Russia doesn't get better at this, it's going to loose Indian market.

 

[joshuatree]

Anyone here think with potential sanctions against Russia, India may face an even tougher environment importing military hardware from Russia or become an irritant to the West if they ignore any sanctions and continue to do business with Russia?

 

[thunderchief]

Anyone here think with potential sanctions against Russia, India may face an even tougher environment importing military hardware from Russia or become an irritant to the West if they ignore any sanctions and continue to do business with Russia?

India is too big now to be blackmailed by the West. Also, large percentage of Indian military hardware is of Russian origin (Army,Navy and Air Force) and I don't think they would be willing to just throw that away. Add to that some historical/emotional reasons : most of the Indians prefer Russia (no big historical quarrels,support during 1971 war) to UK (colonial power) or US (supporter of Pakistan) .During Cold War India preferred to stay neutral, but still leaned more to USSR side . I think they would repeat same strategy now.

 

[Jeff Head]

Anyone here think with potential sanctions against Russia, India may face an even tougher environment importing military hardware from Russia or become an irritant to the West if they ignore any sanctions and continue to do business with Russia?

No.

1st, I do not think the sacntions will be effective, particularly as Russia imposes counter sanctions.

2nd, the Indians are a principle customer of Russian arms...if anything, this will cause that trade to increase as Russia seeks to expand in light of any sacntions that do last for any extended period.

The biggest hurt I see to Russian arms deals is going to come if France indeed refuses to deliver thet Vladivostock and Sevasapol LHDs.

 

[aksha]

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Delhi: India’s operation to search the missing Malaysian airliner will go beyond its maritime zone on Friday when it will deploy two aircraft including the P-8I and the C-130J planes in Malaysia.
India has been part of international operations to locate the plane which has been missing for around two weeks now after taking off from Kuala Lumpur but the area being scoured is limited so far to the Indian waters.
“One P-8I maritime surveillance aircraft along with one IAF C-130J aircraft are being deployed to Malaysia. These aircraft would be joining the International Search Force by Friday noon,” a Navy release said.
The search for the missing aircraft has shifted to the Indian Ocean Region 5,000 km south of Jakarta and the operations to search the area had resumed on Wednesday.
The force has also deployed four warships INS Satpura, Sahyadri, Saryu and Batti Malv in the Bay of Bengal, the Andaman Sea and West of Andaman Islands.
“In coordination of the surface search by ships, extensive air searches are also being conducted. One P-8I with Electro Optics/Infra Red pods, one C 130J Hercules aircraft (of Indian Air Force) and one Dornier aircraft are undertaking searches in the area,” the Navy said.
The navy said Indian forces are in continuous touch with the Royal Malaysian Navy and Air Force from its Maritime Operations Centre at Navy headquarters and all possible help is being rendered towards search and rescue operations for MH 370.

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how do you think india will react to chinas official request to send its warships to indian waters to search for mh 370?

 

[thunderchief]

The biggest hurt I see to Russian arms deals is going to come if France indeed refuses to deliver thet Vladivostock and Sevasapol LHDs.

As I said before, I don't think Russia needs Mistrals at all. Nevertheless, it seems that French are backing off from their threats, after all they need money badly :

Mistral manufacturers in France hint that anti-Russian sanctions undesirable

The western countries' sanctions against Russia that the EU and US officials are currently discussing as part of retaliation for Crimea' accession to Russia may threaten the interests of European business companies. Officials of the French companies DCNS and STX have already voiced concern about the likely collapse of the deal to deliver Mistral-class helicopter-carriers to the Russian Federation.

Paris may give up the contract for building Mistral-class amphibious assault ships for Russia as part of the western countries' economic sanctions against the Russian Federation, a move that may lay off 600 workers, engaged in the project. Le Figaro also reports that the collapse of the deal will also negatively affect the financial soundness of DCNS.

According to Le Figaro, Moscow has already paid 1.2 billion euros to Paris, or more than a half of the contract sum. If breach of contract is also included in the economic sanctions package against Russia, France will have to pay the break fee..................

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[Jeff Head]

This is an excellent article about the overall geopolitcal and military basis for the Indian's Navy growth.

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​

"We cannot afford to be weak at sea … history has shown that whatever power controls the Indian Ocean has, in the first instance, India’s seaborne trade at her mercy, and in the second, India’s very independence itself." Jawaharlal Nehru

Indian strategic culture has been characterised by a preoccupation with land based threats (PDF), a bias evident from an examination of budgetary allocations to the three services. The Navy has traditionally got the least funding, resulting in it being called the Cinderella Service. This has been due to several factors. First, India has a history over millennia of being repeatedly invaded from the Northwestern plains. Second, the British stymied the growth of the Indian Navy, seeing it as a potential strategic competitor. Third, all of India’s major 20th century conflicts in 1947, 1962,1965,1971 and 1999 were against land powers. Finally, the trend was reinforced by the US alignment with Pakistan as a response to India’s perceived tilting towards the USSR, which had the effect of keeping India focused on remaining a land power and not transitioning to a maritime one.

Since the 1990s, India has rejected inward-looking economic models of growth and has increasingly integrated itself into the global economy. As a result, 75% of India’s trade by value and 97% by volume is now carried by sea. Sustained rates of economic growth towards double figures are required for India to pursue its primary national goals of lifting large proportions of its population out of poverty, and once again becoming a pivotal nation in global affairs. Fuelling this growth requires great quantities of energy.
With four fifths of Indian energy supplies being imported by sea—the bulk of which originates from the Persian Gulf and passes through the Straits of Hormuz—India is confronted with the ‘Hormuz dilemma’. That particular arc of nations is home to Islamic extremist groups and has a large presence of private military security companies. The former Indian navy chief flagged these as a threat. India’s unease about security around Hormuz and the western Indian Ocean is palpable in a region that collectively accounts for a sizeable proportion of the crises and conflicts in the world.

The Indian Ocean is home to the world’s most important shipping lanes and the principal maritime straits, including the Malacca Strait, the Bab al Mandab and the Lombok Strait in addition to Hormuz. Together these carry over half the world’s container traffic and over 80% of the world’s seaborne oil trade transits through the Indian Ocean. Geopolitical security concerns coupled with widespread piracy have ensured the presence of many external powers. The recognition that the Asia Pacific is the future engine of world growth and the rise of China have compelled the US to have a forward deployed presence in the region and are the prime reasons for the US pivot. The US Navy has long identified a need for an expansion in ship numbers, but its fleet continues to shrink. Most recently, the identified required fleet size was in the range of 313–346 ships, but it’s presently hovering in the 280s.

The US has proclaimed India as a natural ally and a linchpin of America’s ‘pivot’ that will act as a ‘regional anchor’ in the new world order. In 2010, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates declared India’s potential to be a net provider of security in the Indian Ocean and beyond. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed similar sentiments. India now plans for the development of a blue water Navy, as envisioned by then Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Suresh Mehta in 2006. India aims to have 160 combat ships by 2022, centered around at least three aircraft carriers. With the Navy now receiving a budget share hovering about the 20% mark, and with the Navy’s portion of capital acquisitions far exceeding that of the Army, this is no longer mere conjecture.

While there are tensions on the Himalayan front, large scale land warfare in the high altitude Himalayas for any prolonged stretch of time is extrordinarily difficult. It’s on the seas where Indi–China strategic competition with China is most likely to play out. India fears the so-called ‘string of pearls’—a supposed Chinese attempt at encircling India in its maritime backyard. China also depends on oceanic energy supplies for its survival, preoccupied as it is with its own ‘Malacca dilemma’.

Today China finds itself in a rare situation historically (PDF) of not having land-based threats pose as its dominant security concerns, which has resulted in China’s explosive expansion of its naval arm which will, among other things, bring it into the Indian Ocean in some numbers. India has described China as the ‘principal variable in the calculus of Indian foreign and defence policy’. As recent crises in the Ukraine, Syria and Iran have demonstrated, the US needs to maintain a global naval presence—some argue that the US needs to maintain a ‘three-hub navy’. But with declining fleet numbers, the US will need partners, and India is one obvious candidate. How the US chooses to engage India and balance China will determine the trajectory taken by sea power in the Indian Ocean and beyond.

 

[delft]

I have a stupid question that has been bothering me for a long while. So I have learned from my good fellow SDF members that India has been operating their own CVs for several decades. However, this is the first time their own pilots have landed on a CV. So what kind of planes had they been landing on their own CVs before? If none, then what was the purpose of their CVs if they had no planes to land?

Before the Sea Harriers they had new Hawker Sea Hawks. They also bought second hand Sea Hawks from the West German navy.
For ASW they had Breguet Alize's.