Posted on 07/22/2007 10:55:16 AM PDT by CarrotAndStick
In a major move, the United States has sent feelers that it is now ready for transfer of hi-technology weaponry to India, including its fifth generation Joint Strike Fighter F-35.
Though Pentagon has offered New Delhi participation in its missile shield, top of the shelf 4th generation F-16 and F-18/A fighters, weapon locating radars and its new brand of long range maritime reconnaissance aircraft, it has so far kept the F-35 under wraps.
But in a surprise move last week, a high-level team from US Defence Major Lockheed Martin met top officials of the Indian Air Force to convey that the F-35 Ligthening-II was available for IAF's fifth generation fighter requirements.
Lockheed Martin's Vice President for Business Development Rob Weiss said after the meeting that they had indicated that the F-35 was ready to be in reckoning for India's fighter needs beyond the induction of the 126 Multi Role Combat Aircraft.
The offer would come in handy for India, as the country's security experts have been struggling to find partners to develop futuristic fifth generation fighters.
Though New Delhi has been in negotiation with Moscow for joint development and joint investment in next generation fighters, the Russian concepts of such fighters is currently only on the drawing board.
What?
Puts mucho pressure on China.
I find this hard to believe.
Japan and Australia should get them also.
RELATED
http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=84902
Japan, US, India hold naval drills
Agencies
Posted online: Monday, April 16, 2007 at 0918 hours IST
Tokyo, April 16: India, Japan and the United States on Monday conducted their first joint naval drills in the Pacific Ocean as the three try to forge closer ties, officials said.
Japan sent four escort vessels to the drill off Japan’s east coast, where two US destroyers and three Indian warships joined the exercise, a Japanese defence ministry spokesman said.
“The first naval drill between Japan, the United States and India is aimed at boosting the friendly relationship among the three countries as well as improving maritime technique,” the spokesman said.
The drill also looks at cooperation in the event of a major natural disaster such as a tsunami.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has repeatedly called for a four-way alliance among Japan, India, the United States and Australia to counter Tokyo’s frequent tension with China.
Abe agreed to the naval exercises during a summit with his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh in December.
Officials, however, have denied the drill is linked to China, whose Premier Wen Jiabao paid a landmark visit to Japan last week.
India has also been working to ease longstanding tensions with China.
The warships training with Japan and the United States were also scheduled to have joint exercises with China, Russia and Vietnam, according to the Indian defence ministry.
http://vision.org/visionmedia/article.aspx?id=3258
Australia seeks to soothe China military friction
Vision.Org ^ | July 9, 2007 | By Chris Buckley
BEIJING, July 9 (Reuters) - Australia’s defence minister said on Monday that his country sees China as a reliable partner and is not seeking to contain Beijing, days after Canberra said China’s military build-up could upset regional security.
Speaking to People’s Liberation Army officers in Beijing, Minister for Defence Brendan Nelson called China a “regional partner” whose help was needed to defuse North Korea’s nuclear weapons plans, terrorism and other threats.
Nelson said Australia’s recent bolstering of security ties with Japan, including working with the United States on anti-missile technology, was not intended to “contain China’s rise”.
“Let me assure you that nothing could be further from the truth,” he said in prepared remarks issued to reporters.
Nelson was in Beijing to explain a defence strategy paper launched by Prime Minister John Howard on Thursday. Both sides also announced what China called their first joint maritime drill.
Australia, a close U.S. ally, has regularly distanced itself from concerns in Washington that China’s military and economic rise was likely to stir regional conflict. But the defence paper said China’s military build-up “could create misunderstandings and instability in the region”.
While noting “potential for misunderstanding”, Nelson stressed hopes for greater security cooperation and transparency and pointed to North Korea as a “key threat”.
“Australia and China share a vital interest in a stable global environment and regional order in which to pursue further economic development,” Nelson said, noting cooperation in fighting terrorism and peacekeeping and a planned visit to Sydney by two Chinese naval ships in September.
China’s Defence Minister Cao Gangchuan told Nelson that the Chinese ships would hold a joint rescue exercise with Australia and New Zealand “to show the expansion of our substantive military cooperation”, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
Nelson and Cao did not directly discuss the Australian defence document in their 90-minute meeting, Xinhua said.
“Neither side should do anything to raise the concern of the other country,” Cao said.
China announced in March it would boost defence spending by 17.8 percent in 2007, spending 351 billion yuan ($46 billion) on the PLA. Many Western analysts say Beijing’s real defence spending is much higher, though it remains a fraction of U.S. spending.
Nelson said greater candour by China about its defence plans could “prevent misunderstandings and instability in the region”.
In a defence policy paper issued on Friday, Japan also voiced concern about lack of transparency on China’s burgeoning military spending.
Beijing has not given a detailed reaction to the Australian paper. Asked about it at a regular briefing last week, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said: “The Chinese government has repeatedly stated that China will be unwavering in taking the peaceful course of development.”
© 2007 Reuters
Australia is in on the F-35.
Whoa. This is also a shot across the bow at the Paki-Pro-Taliban military.
This would signal a shift into making India a major ally in the region, as a counterbalance against China and radical Islamic forces.
India has come a long way in a short time.
How? You think they wont sell it? I love India. I have had (and have) Indian friends but they left there (India) for good reason.
India to host massive naval exercise with US, Japan and Australian naval units
http://www.domain-b.com/aero/july/2007/20070714_massive_naval.htm
14 July 2007
New Delhi: The Indian Navy will host twenty warships from the navies of five countries, as part of a major naval exercise to be held in the waters of the Bay of Bengal in September this year. The announcement comes on the back of a visit by the Australian defence minister, Brendan Nelson, to the country a couple of days back, who announced that the Australian Navy would be participating in a exercise in these waters later on in the year.
The combined units will include three aircraft carriers as well as nuclear submarines and a contingent of the Indian Air Force’s Jaguar maritime strike fighter aircraft.
The aircraft carriers will include the nuclear powered, USS Nimitz, that recently dropped anchor at Chennai, along with the US Navy’s last conventionally fuelled carrier, the USS Kitty Hawk and the Indian Navy’s own INS Viraat, which flies the Harrier VTOL aircraft.
The countries taking part in the naval war game are the US, Japan, Australia and Singapore, according to defence ministry officials. The exercise, codenamed Malabar-07, will feature missile destroyers, stealth frigates, nuclear and conventional submarines and tankers besides the carriers. The five-day manoeuvres will also see the Indian Air Force shore-based Jaguar deep penetration strike aircraft, configured for a maritime role, in action along side the Indian Navy’s Sea Harrier jets operating from the INS Viraat.
Increasing interaction between the Indian, US, Japanese and now Australian, navies has become a source of worry for China, which has openly expressed its apprehensions regarding the formation of an alliance in this region. For some time now, certain media circles have been trying to propagate an “Axis of democracy” in this part of the world, which loosely translates into an alliance of the US, Japan and India. It would be an interesting development if Australia too should get linked to any such speculative move.
During his visit to India, which came on the back of a visit to mainland China, Australia’s defence minister, Brendan Nelson, had tried to allay Beijing’s fears, saying there was no quadrilateral security alliance comprising Australia, the US, India and Japan in the offing.
PHILIPPINE SEA (April 9, 2007) – U.S. and Indian Navy ships conducts a formation during Exercise Malabar 07-01. Malabar is a bilateral U.S.-Indian Navy training exercise off the coast of Okinawa, Japan. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class John L. Beeman · Date: Thu April 12, 2007
The aircraft is of nominal value with out the support that goes with it.
And south korea.
They’ve possessed some of our first echelon planes for some decades now and haven’t sold them. But your right Iran did too. sometimes you have to act and hope the sheeple don’t elect another Jimmuh Carter.
This con only mean that something better has almost completed R&D.
Great pics !Thanks
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