plawolf
Lieutenant General
Ignoring the counting of unhatched chickens for the moment, but when has China ever been 'belligerent' in the Indian Ocean?!
Indian Military News, Reports, Data, etc.
- Thread starter bd popeye
- Start date
Ignoring the counting of unhatched chickens for the moment, but when has China ever been 'belligerent' in the Indian Ocean?!
You should re-evaluate your position, because right now the Indian Navy still isn't even sure what they want their third carrier to be like.
And if they really are going for a nuclear carrier like they said they will, it will only be operational by like the mid 2030s going even by optimistic standards.
I suggest you read this sequence of posts over on Key Forum where I asked some of the members familiar with Indian military matters to expand on it.
Just because a particular subsystem is cleared for export doesn't mean that the entire product is ready.
TerraN_EmpirE
Tyrant King
Punj Lloyd, IWI of Israel make small arms in India
MALANPUR, MADHYA PRADESH: MAY 04, 2017 14:42 IST
UPDATED: MAY 04, 2017 16:30 IST
Atul Punj, Chairman, Punj Lloyd Group.
“This is the first JV under the Make in India initiative,” Mr. Chouhan said and gave a call for a Make in Madhya Pradesh.
Punj Lloyd in collaboration with Israel Weapon Industries (IWI) on Thursday inaugurated India's first private sector small arms manufacturing plant at Malanpur in Madhya Pradesh.
The joint venture (JV) Punj Lloyd Raksha Systems (PLR) was formally inaugurated by Chief Minister of MP Shivraj Singh Chouhan at the company’s existing premises. The JV will manufacture four products X95 carbine and assault rifle, Galil sniper rifle, Tavor assault rifle and Negev Light Machine Gun (LMG).
“This is the first JV under the Make in India initiative,” Mr. Chouhan said and gave a call for a Make in Madhya Pradesh.
Initially the plant would manufacture components and in phases it would be expanded to manufacture complete small arms for which the licence is awaited. Security forces in India already have a large inventory of small arms from IWI and the JV would cater to their maintenance and support.
“License is in the final stage of approval with the Home Ministry. It is likely to be done in the next few months,” Atul Punj, Chairman Punj Lloyd told The Hindu.
Samy Katsav, Chairman of SK Group which is the parent company of IWI said that the components manufactured at the plant would be exported to Israel to be integrated into the small arms manufactured there which would be further exported worldwide.
Mr. Katsav stated that 90 per cent of IWI’s products were exported and eventually the idea is to export full fire arms from India to Israel and worldwide.
“Israel will be the first export customer for the small arms made here,” Eyal Calif, Director of SIBAT, Israel Ministry of Defence told The Hindu.
While the plant marks a major boost to domestic defence manufacturing, the Indian Army’s quest for procuring a basic CQB continues.
In 2010, the Army began the process for procuring a Close Quarter Battle (CQB) carbine, and sometime in 2011 it began the process of procuring assault rifles. The assault rifle tender was cancelled in 2016 due to a resultant single vendor situation.
Incidentally, Galil Ace carbine of IWI was the CQB which qualified in the earlier tender. Now defence ministry officials said that the CQB deal would be fast tracked to meet the urgent requirements of the services.
X95 carbine and assault rifle, Galil sniper rifle, Tavor assault rifle and Negev Light Machine Gun (LMG)
Tavor Assault Rifle limited Use Indian Forces including MARCOS 5.56x45mm, 5.45x39 ( Ukranian variant )
X95 Carbine. 13 inch barrel derivative of Tavor. limited use by Indian Forces Central Reserve Police Force. Calibers 5.56x45mm, 5.56x30mm Indian, 5.45x39mm Ukrainian, 9x19mm and .300 Blackout
IWI Galil Sniper Rifle 7.62x51mm In issue Indian Army
Negev 5.56mm issued by Indian Forces as LMG 7.62x51mm variant available
mentioned in the article but not as a production is the IWI Galil ACE.
ACE is a further modification of the Galil which is a derivative of the Finnish RK 62, which is a derivative of the AKM, It's available in 5.56x45mm,7.62x39mm,7.62x51mm. carbine, rifle and sniper versions.
SinoSoldier
Colonel
Assuming what "Vnomad" said is credible, it doesn't make sense for the Indian government to send LoRs to the US for the EMALS system before placing an order for the carrier. Undertaking the initial official steps in military procurement indirectly confirms that the IN fully intends to purchasing and building the Vishal.
Additionally, having secured the EMALS and AAG should allow the Vishal to be completed sooner than previously estimated. The biggest roadblock now would be the miniaturization of an indigenous nuclear reactor.
Dude it's not even a matter of vnomad's credibility -- read the two articles I linked which explicitly state that the IN has yet to even decide on a design and are yet to even ask for funding for a design that they want. Vnomad's posts, as someone who follows Indian defence matters more closely than us, really just confirm what we've already suspected.
As for the US authorizing EMALS and AAG sale to India -- India has been given export approval by the DoD for those subsystems, yes. I hope you realize there is a difference between India being cleared to buy certain subsystems versus having a finished design that they've settled on?
And what makes you think EMALS and AAG access means Vishal would be completed sooner than "previously" estimated? All previous estimates have factored in the assumption that India would have access to subsystems from the US as well, no previous estimates assumed India would be sourcing an indigenous EM catapult or arresting gear.
Furthermore, you make it sound like being able to seek foreign subsystems is something which will accelerate the pace of a project's development or production, but if you look at all the of the IN's past big ticket items like frigates, destroyers or its current aircraft carrier they source weapons from all over, including Israel, Europe, Russia, and none of those projects were expedited due to sourcing from foreign sources.
So the biggest roadblock at this point seems to be the Indian Navy having to decide what kind of carrier they even want, finishing that design, seeking govt funding approval for it, then getting all the R&D and production ducks in a row to build the ship and fit it out with all the subsystems that if past history has shown, will likely be sourced from multiple different places, and further complicate the construction and fitting out process and lead to delays on top of existing factors.
timepass
Brigadier
India's embarrassing North Korean connection..
Research centre in the Himalayan foothills under scrutiny after revelation that it trained North Korean scientists.
by
New Delhi, India - Hong Yong-il is the North Korean embassy’s new first secretary to India and has been in the country for just a month.
He lives on the first floor of a two-storey house in a tree-lined lane in Delhi’s busy Lajpat Nagar.
The apartment is huge but nondescript, sparsely furnished; a modest affair as compared with many other diplomatic residences in the Indian capital.
Hong wears on his shirt a miniature badge, with the face of Kim Il-sung, the country's founding father and grandfather of current leader Kim Jong-un.
This is not Hong's first stint in India. In 1996, he stayed in the country for nine months, studying a course in remote sensing technology at the (CSSTEAP).
The research centre is located in Dehradun, a small town in the foothills of the Himalayas, about 235km from the Indian capital New Delhi.
"Dehradun is a very quiet town," Hong said in an interview with Al Jazeera. "The course was very informative, the teachers were very good."
Hong was, in fact, at the centre, a school set up in 1995 by the United Nations, to ensure that "in years to come, no country in the region will have to look abroad for expertise in space science & technology application".
Training North Korean students
Since then, North Korea has sent at least 30 students to train at the institute.
Two are currently studying there, one of whom is affiliated with the National Aerospace Development Administration, which, the report says, plays a key role in the country's nuclear development programme.
And it kept sending scientists and space employees, even after the UN issued the first set of nuclear sanctions in 2006, prohibiting member countries from providing technical training to North Korea.
The lapse was exposed only in March 2016 in an annual report to the UN Security Council.
The "repeated applications" by North Korea, the report said, indicates the courses were relevant to its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile development programme.
The UN has issued five major sanctions against North Korea since 2006.
North Korea: Challenges of a 'pariah state'
However, some of the course modules at the centre training the North Koreans might have violated provisions of the sanctions.
For example, the report states, one of the courses offered instructions that "could be directly relevant" to "designing and testing a launch vehicle using ballistic missile technology, such as those on launch vehicles, attitude control, and telemetry, tracking, command and data-handling systems".
Investigators also found a course on satellite communications, which is in banning "any transfers" to or from North Korea, "technical training, advice, services or assistance related to nuclear-related, ballistic missile-related or other weapons of mass destruction- related programmes".
Not traditional allies
India and North Korea are not traditional allies. They have shared diplomatic relations since the 1970s, but India has also been one of the staunchest opponents of North Korea's nuclear weapons development programme.
The centre is funded in part by the UN, along with India and several other organisations. It said that the sanction was taken into account in the admission process.
India justified the content of the courses, saying that the topics covered are "very general" and the basic principles of these courses "are available from open-source".
It also said that topics covered "would certainly not contribute to acquiring expertise in those specific areas by the participants".
Dehradun, in the foothills of the Himalayas, is home to several elite Indian defence institutes [Reuters]
However, North Korean students who trained in the school have gone on to occupy important state positions in Pyongyang.
After finishing his course in India, Hong, the official at the North Korean embassy in Delhi, went on to head a research group on remote sensing technology at the State Commission for Science and Technology, where he worked until his assignment in India.
Paek Chang-ho, who had been on the satellite communications course at the institute in 1999-2000, before the sanctions were issued, became the head of an agency involved with North Korea's .
The 52-year-old Paek, who ended up on the UN's sanctions list for his role in the 2012 launch, is now a senior official at a scientific research agency.
"The training may very well have helped North Korea's military programmes," Bruce Bechtol, president of the International Council on Korean Studies, said in an email.
But the Texas-based professor and Korea expert said that the result of the probe "does not necessarily make India complicit" with North Korea's programme.
Global navigation studies
According to the report, North Korea tried to send at least one student to the institute in 2015 to attend a global navigation satellite systems course, although his application along with those of four others was rejected.
"I don't know why they have rejected all the applications," Hong, of the North Korean embassy in Delhi, told Al Jazeera.
"I have contacted the university officials but they are yet to give me an explanation."
Hong seems unaware of the Security Council report, or that India has been asked for an explanation over the apparent lapse.
Skand Tayal, a former Indian ambassador to South Korea, told Al Jazeera that "whatever cooperation" India has with North Korea is meant for "civilian application".
"India has been consistently opposing North Korea's nuclear development programme," said Tayal, who has observed North Korea for many years.
"If there has been a violation, it would be an oversight."
The Security Council report said it too believes that the slip-up was inadvertent.
An email to the institute requesting for comment went unanswered.
Sarnam Singh, programme coordinator and director of one of the courses, said the institute was not accepting applications from any more North Korean students.
'Serious error'
India is due to present a detailed report to an UN advisory committee on the issue.
"It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realise how extraordinarily unwise, and indeed irresponsible, it is nowadays to train North Korean operatives in technologies that can be used to improve and perfect their ballistic missile programme," Nicholas Eberstadt, a political economist at the American Enterprise Institute think-tank, said in an email.
"The government of India needs to acknowledge the seriousness of this error, take accountability for it, and publicly commit that it will not be an enabler of North Korean WMD programmes thenceforth."
RP Singh, a former Indian ambassador to North Korea (2002-2004), said the idea behind the courses is to provide professional and not technical training.
"India won't knowingly violate US sanctions," he said.
Earlier in January, India condemned North Korea's claim of detonating a hydrogen bomb, and called it a matter of "deep concern".
India eyes nuclear technology deal with Japan
India is concerned about "proliferation links between North East Asia and our neighbourhood", Vikas Swaroop, India's foreign office spokesman, had said, in an indirect reference to Pakistan's AQ Khan network.
The network was ran by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme, and who is credited with selling sensitive nuclear technology to North Korea.
In 2004, Khan got a pardon from then Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf and made a televised confession saying he acted alone and absolved the Pakistan government of any hand or knowledge in the network.
Pakistan, backed by China, and India, backed by the US, are currently seeking the much-coveted membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), an elite group of 48 nuclear supplier countries.
On Monday, the NSG begins a week-long meeting in Seoul, South Korea, to decide on the membership of both India and Pakistan.
The controversy surrounding the training of North Korean scientists may or may not have much bearing on the outcome of the Seoul meeting, but it does amount to a curious footnote to the global debate on nuclear non-proliferation and missile technology control.
The UN has issued five major sanctions against North Korea since 2006 [Reuters]
Source: Al Jazeera
Research centre in the Himalayan foothills under scrutiny after revelation that it trained North Korean scientists.
by
New Delhi, India - Hong Yong-il is the North Korean embassy’s new first secretary to India and has been in the country for just a month.
He lives on the first floor of a two-storey house in a tree-lined lane in Delhi’s busy Lajpat Nagar.
The apartment is huge but nondescript, sparsely furnished; a modest affair as compared with many other diplomatic residences in the Indian capital.
Hong wears on his shirt a miniature badge, with the face of Kim Il-sung, the country's founding father and grandfather of current leader Kim Jong-un.
This is not Hong's first stint in India. In 1996, he stayed in the country for nine months, studying a course in remote sensing technology at the (CSSTEAP).
The research centre is located in Dehradun, a small town in the foothills of the Himalayas, about 235km from the Indian capital New Delhi.
"Dehradun is a very quiet town," Hong said in an interview with Al Jazeera. "The course was very informative, the teachers were very good."
Hong was, in fact, at the centre, a school set up in 1995 by the United Nations, to ensure that "in years to come, no country in the region will have to look abroad for expertise in space science & technology application".
Training North Korean students
Since then, North Korea has sent at least 30 students to train at the institute.
Two are currently studying there, one of whom is affiliated with the National Aerospace Development Administration, which, the report says, plays a key role in the country's nuclear development programme.
And it kept sending scientists and space employees, even after the UN issued the first set of nuclear sanctions in 2006, prohibiting member countries from providing technical training to North Korea.
The lapse was exposed only in March 2016 in an annual report to the UN Security Council.
The "repeated applications" by North Korea, the report said, indicates the courses were relevant to its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile development programme.
The UN has issued five major sanctions against North Korea since 2006.
North Korea: Challenges of a 'pariah state'
However, some of the course modules at the centre training the North Koreans might have violated provisions of the sanctions.
For example, the report states, one of the courses offered instructions that "could be directly relevant" to "designing and testing a launch vehicle using ballistic missile technology, such as those on launch vehicles, attitude control, and telemetry, tracking, command and data-handling systems".
Investigators also found a course on satellite communications, which is in banning "any transfers" to or from North Korea, "technical training, advice, services or assistance related to nuclear-related, ballistic missile-related or other weapons of mass destruction- related programmes".
Not traditional allies
India and North Korea are not traditional allies. They have shared diplomatic relations since the 1970s, but India has also been one of the staunchest opponents of North Korea's nuclear weapons development programme.
The centre is funded in part by the UN, along with India and several other organisations. It said that the sanction was taken into account in the admission process.
India justified the content of the courses, saying that the topics covered are "very general" and the basic principles of these courses "are available from open-source".
It also said that topics covered "would certainly not contribute to acquiring expertise in those specific areas by the participants".
Dehradun, in the foothills of the Himalayas, is home to several elite Indian defence institutes [Reuters]
However, North Korean students who trained in the school have gone on to occupy important state positions in Pyongyang.
After finishing his course in India, Hong, the official at the North Korean embassy in Delhi, went on to head a research group on remote sensing technology at the State Commission for Science and Technology, where he worked until his assignment in India.
Paek Chang-ho, who had been on the satellite communications course at the institute in 1999-2000, before the sanctions were issued, became the head of an agency involved with North Korea's .
The 52-year-old Paek, who ended up on the UN's sanctions list for his role in the 2012 launch, is now a senior official at a scientific research agency.
"The training may very well have helped North Korea's military programmes," Bruce Bechtol, president of the International Council on Korean Studies, said in an email.
But the Texas-based professor and Korea expert said that the result of the probe "does not necessarily make India complicit" with North Korea's programme.
Global navigation studies
According to the report, North Korea tried to send at least one student to the institute in 2015 to attend a global navigation satellite systems course, although his application along with those of four others was rejected.
"I don't know why they have rejected all the applications," Hong, of the North Korean embassy in Delhi, told Al Jazeera.
"I have contacted the university officials but they are yet to give me an explanation."
Hong seems unaware of the Security Council report, or that India has been asked for an explanation over the apparent lapse.
Skand Tayal, a former Indian ambassador to South Korea, told Al Jazeera that "whatever cooperation" India has with North Korea is meant for "civilian application".
"India has been consistently opposing North Korea's nuclear development programme," said Tayal, who has observed North Korea for many years.
"If there has been a violation, it would be an oversight."
The Security Council report said it too believes that the slip-up was inadvertent.
An email to the institute requesting for comment went unanswered.
Sarnam Singh, programme coordinator and director of one of the courses, said the institute was not accepting applications from any more North Korean students.
'Serious error'
India is due to present a detailed report to an UN advisory committee on the issue.
"It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realise how extraordinarily unwise, and indeed irresponsible, it is nowadays to train North Korean operatives in technologies that can be used to improve and perfect their ballistic missile programme," Nicholas Eberstadt, a political economist at the American Enterprise Institute think-tank, said in an email.
"The government of India needs to acknowledge the seriousness of this error, take accountability for it, and publicly commit that it will not be an enabler of North Korean WMD programmes thenceforth."
RP Singh, a former Indian ambassador to North Korea (2002-2004), said the idea behind the courses is to provide professional and not technical training.
"India won't knowingly violate US sanctions," he said.
Earlier in January, India condemned North Korea's claim of detonating a hydrogen bomb, and called it a matter of "deep concern".
India eyes nuclear technology deal with Japan
India is concerned about "proliferation links between North East Asia and our neighbourhood", Vikas Swaroop, India's foreign office spokesman, had said, in an indirect reference to Pakistan's AQ Khan network.
The network was ran by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme, and who is credited with selling sensitive nuclear technology to North Korea.
In 2004, Khan got a pardon from then Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf and made a televised confession saying he acted alone and absolved the Pakistan government of any hand or knowledge in the network.
Pakistan, backed by China, and India, backed by the US, are currently seeking the much-coveted membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), an elite group of 48 nuclear supplier countries.
On Monday, the NSG begins a week-long meeting in Seoul, South Korea, to decide on the membership of both India and Pakistan.
The controversy surrounding the training of North Korean scientists may or may not have much bearing on the outcome of the Seoul meeting, but it does amount to a curious footnote to the global debate on nuclear non-proliferation and missile technology control.
The UN has issued five major sanctions against North Korea since 2006 [Reuters]
Source: Al Jazeera