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China's military can destroy five out of six U.S. bases in Asia with waves of missile strikes as the result of its large-scale military buildup that threatens U.S. access and freedom of navigation in East Asia, according to a forthcoming congressional report.
"The main implication of China's improved air and conventional missile capabilities is a dramatic increase in the [People's Liberation Army's] ability to inhibit U.S. military operations in the region," a late draft of the report by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission concludes.
The U.S. government has growing concerns over what the report says are "China's improving capabilities to challenge the U.S. military's freedom of access in East Asia."
The draft report - the final version is set for release Wednesday - has been disclosed as tensions in Asia intensify over growing assertiveness by the Chinese military in the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea and the South China Sea. President Obama, during his recent visit to Asia, frequently mentioned growing U.S. concerns about "maritime security" and the need for stronger alliances against regional threats.
In Japan on Saturday, Prime Minister Naoto Kan thanked Mr. Obama for U.S. support during Tokyo's recent dispute with China over Chinese fishing near Japan's Senkaku Islands.
"For the peace and security of the countries in the region, the presence of the United States and the presence of the U.S. military, I believe, is becoming only increasingly important," Mr. Kan said. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said last month during theJapan-China dispute that the Senkakus are covered by the U.S.-Japanese defense treaty, a signal to China that the U.S. military is prepared to defend the islands from Chinese encroachment.
The United States also could face a Chinese missile strike on its bases and ships in a future conflict with China over Taiwan, according to the China commission report.
In addition to missiles, the Chinese military buildup includes major deployments and upgrades of Chinese jet fighters that have increased ranges and better weapons, as well as greatly improved air defenses, the report says.
The report says that in the event of a conflict, China missiles alone would be enough to attack and shut down five of the six major U.S. military bases in the region. Guam is the exception because it is 1,800 miles from China.
China's growing long-range bomber arsenal, however, means the "PLA Air Force's bomber fleet soon could allow it to target Guam, where the sixth U.S. Air Force base is located," the report says.
Guam is the site of a major U.S. military buildup in Asia, with the addition of new submarines and bombers and spy aircraft.
U.S. bases vulnerable to Chinese missile attack include two in South Korea, namely Osan and Kunsan air bases, the report says. Each could be destroyed with attacks by 480 short- and medium-range ballistic missiles and 350 ground-launched cruise missiles for each base. The bases are some 240 to 400 miles from China.
In Japan, U.S. bases at Kadena, Misawa and Yokota could be knocked out with 80 medium- and short-range ballistic missiles and 350 ground-launched cruise missiles, the report says. Those bases are between 525 miles and 680 miles from China.
"Not only would U.S. bases be threatened in the event of a conflict with China but so too would U.S. deployed aircraft," the report says.
For the past 20 years, China's missile and naval forces have been transformed from an outdated military to "one with modern aircraft and air defenses and a large, growing arsenal of conventional ballistic and land-attack cruise missiles," the report says.
Since 2000, for example, Chinese short-range missile forces alone increased from a brigade of up to 36 launchers to as many as 252 today, the report states.
Additionally, China now has up to 500 DH-10 land-attack cruise missiles with ranges of up to 932 miles. A second, new cruise missile, the YJ-63 also is deployed and has a range of more than 125 miles.
"In addition to increasing the number of missiles, China is also extending their range, improving their accuracy, and increasing their payload," the report says.
Two warships of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) People’s Liberation Army-Navy (PLAN) docked at a port in Myanmar on August 29, 2010, in the first publicized PLAN ship visit — but not the first actual PLAN visit — to Myanmar.
It was a move designed to help pre-position the PRC in its relations with Myanmar in the lead up to that country’s upcoming national elections.
The move also ended two decades of discreet PRC approaches to its naval presence in the Indian Ocean. It also follows the open PLAN task force presence in anti-piracy operations off the Horn of Africa, and the now open commitment to use of the Pakistani Baluchistan port of Gwadar, at the entrance to the Persian Gulf. Significantly, although the PRC maintains itself as both a heartland and maritime power, it is aware that the great challenge to break out from US global strategic dominance is essentially a maritime matter. Given economic and other realities, the US will be forced to rely increasingly on the US Navy — and particularly the Seventh Fleet in the Pacific and Indian Oceans — to project US influence.
But Washington is also working to bolster its strategic relations with the Republic of Korea, the ASEAN states as a whole, and India. The crunch for the US will be in finding the economic resources to boost the US Navy’s power projection advantages, particularly in the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
An Australian analyst, Dr Joel Rathus, of Adelaide University and Japan’s Meiji University, has noted (in the East Asia Forum, August 28, 1010): “A re-alignment is steadily underway in East Asia. Increasingly, ASEAN (and Korea) are moving closer to the geographically distant US, while China is becoming more distant from its neighbors.”
He also said: “China has seen the US and ASEAN draw closer on issues of major interest, such as the territorial disputes in the South China Sea. Clinton’s identification of this issue as a ‘pivot’ of regional security brings the United States back as a player after more than a decade of diplomatic passivity (to China’s notable discomfort).”
Building, or re-building, the US Navy in the Pacific and Indian Ocean to its earlier pre-eminence will not be easy for the US, despite the apparent numerical dominance which the USN has in the regions in terms of air and naval striking power.
To begin with, the PLAN has already deployed assets which severely inhibit the US Seventh Fleet: the Kilo- and Improved Kilo-class submarines, and other modern submarines, which can readily penetrate USN anti-submarine warfare (ASW) pickets around carrier battle groups; and the shipborne SS-N-22 Sunburn (P-270 Moskit or 3M-80/-80E) supersonic anti-ship missiles, against which there is as yet no adequate defense.
Now, Adm. Robert Willard, commander of the US Pacific Command, has confirmed during August 2010 discussions in Tokyo, that the PLA was “close to becoming operational” with its anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM), based on a variant of the CSS-5 medium-range (1,500 to 2,000 km) ballistic missile (also known as the DF-21). The DF-21s have maneuverable warheads (MARVs: Maneuverable Re-Entry Vehicles), and the type has undergone testing. The yet-to-be-deployed DF-21D would, most US sources agree, be a game-changer in the Pacific, giving the PRC, not the US, control of the anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) high ground. The PRC is highly conscious of the fact that control of the seas is foreseeably being removed from the US.
All of this potentially makes the US-Republic of China (ROC: Taiwan) strategic relationship of greatly renewed importance, but the US has gone out of its way in recent years to downplay this, even to the point of supporting the ROC Army’s internal political lobbying to retain control of the ROC defense equation.
Right now, some 80 percent of the ROC’s defense spending goes to the Army, which reflects the original “continental army” approach which the ROC had when it left the mainland and was positioning itself to return. That situation no longer prevails: the ROC is now an island, maritime power, which relies on sea transport for some 99 percent of its raw materials.
Despite this, the US — and even the US Naval War College analysts — have gone out of their way to promote a so-called “porcupine strategy” for the ROC, by which it would rely on the Army to repel a PRC invasion. Now, however, the US needs the ROC to develop its maritime and air power resources, which have long been neglected.
Mark Helprin, writing in The Wall Street Journal on August 15, 2010, noted that “If present military trends continue, the correlation of forces will shift much more to Beijing's advantage within the next decade.” He continued:
“Lurking about the presidency in the guise of secretary of state, America's chief diplomat has embarked upon a mistake that someday may rival Dean Acheson's exclusion of Korea from the Pacific defense area, or April Glaspie's muddled words to Saddam Hussein.
At a regional meeting in Hanoi in late July, Hillary Clinton unveiled an initiative the effect of which is an attempt to forge a defensive alliance along the maritime perimeter, with nations such as Vietnam and the Philippines. Like her predecessor Acheson, Mrs. Clinton seems averse or blind to military analysis. Her inevitably stillborn South China Sea initiative is showy diplomacy that may lead either to a military clash with China or, more likely, a ratification of China's aims as the United States lets its implied guarantees die on the vine.
China's assertions in regard to the potentially oil rich and strategically important South China Sea are consistent, clear, and patently absurd. Based upon the questionable ownership of uninhabited rocks and shoals, some which do not rise above water and others roughly the size of a Volkswagen, it claims an area almost as large as the Caribbean Basin and as far as 1,800 miles from its nearest shoreline.
In linking America's national interests to those of the coastal states thus insulted, Mrs. Clinton's recent comments are commendable but insufficiently backed. China above all is sensitive to "paper-tigerism" and ready to challenge it, especially in regard to its essential interests and where the balance of applicable power is swinging in its favor. A naval battle in which China has the upper hand? Do we not have the most powerful military in the world?
We do, but strategic appraisal must not be one-dimensional. Although decisive to some, that this country spends more on defense than the next 14 countries combined is irrelevant to things such as the scope of its commitments, personnel costs, the willingness or reticence of allies, purchasing power parity, force structure, asymmetrical advantage and disadvantage, domestic politics, strategical genius, its absence, and many other factors including not least geography.
China fought us to a draw in Korea more than half a century ago. In Vietnam we stayed our hand for fear of drawing it into the battle, when its primitive navy was not even a tenth the size of ours, it had no nuclear weapons that could threaten us, and the Western Pacific was an American lake with a necklace of massive military installations now largely abandoned and an alliance structure we are at present trying to rebuild with words.
Whittled down by successive administrations, the big stick now turns on the Obama lathe as it is pressed against the Gates knife. If present trends merely continue, in five or 10 years, when the U.S. will have to decide whether to challenge China's claims or acquiesce, the correlation of forces will have shifted much more to China's advantage. “
The PRC’s anti-fleet capabilities are not the only concern which the US must face in the region. The Indo-Russian BrahMos supersonic cruise missile is already deployed with the Indian fleet and the new BrahMos Block II — which is capable of more complex trajectory and maneuver — has now (as of September 5, 2010) been successfully tested. These various missiles, deployed by the PRC and India, have yet to see successful countermeasures deployed by the US Navy.
At present, the US has pursued an aggressive strategic campaign to provide strategic partnership to India, but in reality India cannot afford to abandon its relationship with Russia, even though New Delhi is aware that it must move its relationship with Russia to a new parity, abandoning the old Cold War paternalism with which Moscow treated India.
Moreover, India, while seeing accord with the US Chinese Military, Chinese Navy, Chinese Power, Peoples Liberaton dealing with the PRC, has its own strategic agenda to follow in the Indian Ocean, and this, too, is not necessarily in total accord with the objectives of Washington.
India on Sunday (February 7) "successfully" test-fired its nuclear-capable Agni-III ballistic missile with a range of more than 3,000 km from the Wheeler Island off Orissa coast. The indigenously developed surface-to-surface missile was tested from a rail mobile launcher near Dhamara, about 100 km from here, at about 1046 hours, defence sources said.
"All mission parameters were met," they said, adding the test was a success. This was the fourth flight test in the Agni-III series carried out to establish the "repeatability" of the missile's performance, they said.
The entire trajectory of today's trial was monitored through various telemetry stations, electro-optic systems and sophisticated radars located along the coast, in Port Blair and by Naval ships anchored near the impact point in the down range area for data analysis, the sources said.
Agni-III missile is powered by a two-stage solid propellant system. With a length of 17 metres, the missile's diameter is 2 metres and launch weight is 50 tonnes.
It can carry a payload of 1.5 tonnes which is protected by carbon-carbon all composite heat shield. The sleek missile is equipped with sophisticated navigation, guidance and control systems along with advanced on-board computer systems.
The electronic systems are hardened for higher vibration, thermal and acoustic effects, an official of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) said. A high performance indigenous ring laser gyro-based navigation system, which was flight-tested for the first time during the last Agni-III trial, was a success, he said.
Defence Minister AK Antony congratulated DRDO chief VK Saraswat and the scientists involved in the Agni-III project on the "remarkable success" of the missile test.
The first trial of Agni-III conducted on July 9, 2006 had ended in failure.
But the subsequent two tests on April 12, 2007 and May 7, 2008 were successful. The Indian-built Agni-III missile - Agni means fire in Sanskrit - was first tested in 2006.
Brings all of Israel, the Persian Gulf (Oil?) and major cities in China, such as Shanghai, within striking distance
The missile tested on Feb. 7 was fired from a mobile rail launcher, government sources said.
"The next series of missiles is Agni-V, which has left the drawing board and is moving toward the first flight trial within the year," DRDO chief military scientist V.K. Saraswat told a news conference in New Delhi.
Russia on Friday unveiled a new fighter aircraft touted as a rival of the US F-22 stealth jet and developed amid the highest secrecy as part of a plan to modernize the armed forces.
The fifth generation fighter, manufactured by the Sukhoi company and known as the PAK FA, made a maiden flight of just over 45 minutes at the firm's home base of Komsomolsk-on-Amur in the Far East region.
"The flight lasted 47 minutes during which all the aircraft's systems were tested. It was successful," Sukhoi spokeswoman Olga Kayukova. "This is the first time it has been unveiled."
Pictures broadcast on state television showed the fighter jet -- which has been kept closely under wraps for years -- flying at altitude and then landing on a snow-surrounded runway.
"The aircraft performed well in all stages of the flight programme. It is easy and comfortable to pilot," said Sergei Bogdan, the pilot for the flight, in comments published on the Sukhoi website.
The new jet has the capability of carrying out long flights above the speed of sound as well as simultaneously attacking different targets.
Russia is currently embarking on a major programme to re-equip its military, not least the air force which is still using largely Soviet-era equipment and suffers from frequent crashes.
The new fighter, which has been in development since the 1990s, is due to enter the armed forces in 2015, Russian news agencies said.
“Today we’ve embarked on an extensive flight test programme of the 5th generation fighter. This is a great success of both Russian science and design school.
This achievement rests upon a cooperation team comprised of more than a hundred of our suppliers and strategic partners. PAK FA programme advances Russian aeronautics together with allied industries to an entirely new technological level.
These aircraft, together with upgraded 4th generation fighters will define Russian Air Force potential for the next decades.
Sukhoi plans to further elaborate on the PAK FA programme which will involve our Indian partners. I am strongly convinced that our joint project will excel its Western rivals in cost-effectiveness and will not only allow strengthening the defense power of Russian and Indian Air Forces, but also gain a significant share of the world market”, - said Mikhail Pogosyan, Sukhoi Company Director General commenting on the launch of the flight test programme.
"There is no doubt that the plane is needed," the ex-commander of the Russian air force, Anatoly Kornukov, told the Interfax news agency.
"Our Su-27 and MiG-29 planes are good but have aged. They are 20 or more years old and it's time to have something as a replacement," he said.
He said the new plane could easily stand comparison with the US F-22, also a fifth generation stealth fighter.
"It's going to be no worse than an F-22. I've been in an F-22 and I know."
Russia's campaign to modernize its military has been marred by repeated setbacks with new equipment, above all a string of failed tests of its new Bulava sea-based intercontinental nuclear-capable missile.
Russia is currently embarking on a major programme to re-equip its military
U.S. officials watched with growing concern today as reports suggested Pakistan was massing troops to the India border.
Such a move raises double-barreled worries: A possible confrontation between two nuclear powers and a shift by the Pakistani military away from battling the Taliban along its western Afghan edge.
U.S. intelligence and military officials were still trying to determine what Troop Formations are on the move, and, what Pakistan's intent may be.
Officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.
Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, was in Pakistan twice this month, and as many as seven times in the past year. In recent meetings with senior Pakistani leaders he has urged restraint and encouraged both sides to find ways to work together.
One senior military official said today that the U.S. is monitoring the issue, but still could confirm assertions from Pakistani intelligence officials that some troops were on the move, heading to the Indian border.
A key concern for U.S. officials is that some of those troops may have been stationed along the volatile Afghan border, and were being diverted to the Indian side.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Mullen, who have both been in the region in recent weeks, have expressed the hope that Pakistan would stay focused on fighting militants in its mountainous northwestern Federally Administered Tribal Areas, or FATA.
The Pakistan Army's 14th Division is being redeployed to the towns of Kasur and Sialkot, close to the Indian border.
Analysts said the redeployment is likely meant as a warning to India not to launch missile strikes against militant targets on its territory. It is not likely an indication that the two countries are about to descend into war, analysts said.
"They should concentrate on the real issue: how to fight against terrorists and how to fight against and bring to book the perpetrators of [the] Mumbai terrorist attack," said Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met with the chiefs of the army, navy and air force to discuss "the prevailing security situation," according to an official statement.
Pakistan canceled leave for members of its armed forces Friday, beefing up its military strength in case of conflict with India over the deadly Mumbai attacks, a senior military official said.
The military remains on alert, but it has not moved additional troops to the Indian border, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
In response, India said it had not canceled any time off for its military."People are taking leave, no problem," said Indian Defense Ministry spokesman Sitanshu Kar. "We have an optimum number, which is always maintained."
Pakistan accused Indian fighter jets of violating its airspace on two separate occasions more than a week ago, raising the possibility of conflict. But Pakistani officials subsequently played down the incidents, saying the violations, which India denied altogether, were likely accidental.
Pakistani fighter jets have flown over several of the country's major cities in recent days after the alleged airspace violations.
Pakistan and India have fought three wars since their independence from Britain in 1947, but the stakes are even higher now that both countries have nuclear weapons.
Decades ago, the Soviet Union built its aircraft carrier pilot training facilities at Nitka, outside Odessa, a city that is, since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, in the independent country of Ukraine.
Ukraine is now trying to attract China and India as customers for these facilities. China has signed up, and is buying aircraft carrier equipment made in Ukraine.
China is expanding its own carrier aviation training center, and is buying consulting and technical services from Ukraine to assist in that project.
One interesting item to come out of the visits by Chinese naval aviation personnel to Ukraine, is that the Varyag, a former Soviet carrier that China bought from Russia six years ago, is being restored for use as a training carrier. This explains the spotty restoration work that has been done on the Varyag. However, the Chinese indicated that the Varyag could still be turned into an operational combat carrier, either before or after it enters service as a training ship.
The Nitka base was used by the Soviets to train MiG-29K and Su-33 pilots for service on their carriers. India is buying MiG-29Ks for their carriers, and China is apparently building, with Ukrainian help, a carrier version of the Su-30 (which is what the Su-33 was).
South Asian regional tensions mounted last week after nuclear-armed Pakistan entered a state of “high alert” after receiving a phone call, now believed to be a hoax, from India’s foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee to Pakistan’s president Asif Ali Zardari the day that terrorist attacks on Mumbai concluded.
The caller allegedly threatened to attack Pakistan if measures were not taken to track down militants associated with the Mumbai terrorist strikes.
On Saturday, Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper reported on the incident: ”Whether it was mere mischief or a sinister move by someone in the Indian external affairs ministry, or the call came from within Pakistan, remains unclear, and is still a matter of investigation. But several political, diplomatic and security sources have confirmed to Dawn that for nearly 24 hours over the weekend the incident continued to send jitters across the world. To some world leaders the probability of an accidental war appeared very high.”
Senior Pakistani government officials confirmed the report and said the matter was under investigation, which involves efforts to trace the origin of the phone call and how it was directed to Mr Zardari.
One senior Pakistani official said Indian officials have denied that the call ever originated from Mr Mukherjee, raising the possibility that the call was a hoax. However, the Pakistani official insisted that the calling number was traced back to Mr Mukherjee’s office in New Delhi.
”We are looking at two possibilities right now. Either it was somebody from the Indian foreign ministry who used the foreign minister’s number to pull a prank or some very sophisticated technology was used to fabricate the calling number” said the official who spoke to the Financial Times on condition of anonymity.
Reporting on the reaction to the phone call, DAWN wrote; ”Intense diplomatic efforts that started late on Friday went on throughout the following day. During this period phone calls were made from Islamabad to some of the top officials and diplomats in Washington, including Condoleezza Rice, and the US Secretary of State called Mr Mukherjee and others in India in a night-long effort to understand what might have gone wrong, and to persuade the two sides to bring down the temperature.”
A senior western diplomat commenting on the report said, the incident prompted Mr Zardari to call Condoleezza Rice, US Secretary of State, to convey Pakistan’s anxiety over worsening security conditions.
Ms Rice then called Mr Mukherjee to inquire about the incident during which Mr Mukherjee categorically denied making the phone call in the first place. The western diplomat also revealed that before Ms Rice’s phone call to Mr Mukherjee, the unknown caller allegedly using the Indian foreign minister’s phone from his office, also called the US secretary of state, but was not put through to speak to her.
”Could this incident have caused a war between India and Pakistan? That is the big fear of an accidental situation coming together” said the western diplomat. ”It seems that standard procedures should have been followed in Pakistan such as someone taking down the Indian telephone number and then returning the call. That obviously did not happen, in what seemed at the time like a building up crisis situation”.
The recent Islamic terrorist carnage in India reminds everyone that India has been one the major victims of terrorism of late. Last year, Indian suffered over a thousand dead from terrorist attacks.
Over 2,000 died in 2006.
While Islamic terrorism, as in Mumbai, was a major source of deaths, it was not the only one.
The major source of Islamic terrorism in India is the Pakistani backed campaign to drive Indians, particularly non-Moslem Indians, out of the disputed, by India and Pakistan, province of Kashmir (actually Jammu-Kashmir, as the lower portion of the state, Jammu, is largely Hindu.) Kashmir, on the other side of a mountain range from Jammu, is largely Moslem, and Pakistan believes all of Kashmir (Pakistan invaded and seized northern Kashmir in the late 1940s) should be theirs.
Twenty years ago, Pakistan decided that terrorism was the only practical way to get Kashmir back. India was more powerful militarily, and had beaten Pakistan in every war between them. The terrorist groups, that have bases and training camps in Pakistani Kashmir, not only send terrorists across the border into Indian Kashmir, but have also been responsible for about two-thirds of the deaths, from Islamic terrorism, in the rest of India.
It was apparently Kashmir based terrorists who carried out the recent Mumbai atrocities.
There are several separate terrorist groups operating in Kashmir. These include; Lashkar-e-Taiba (apparently the organizers of the recent Mumbai murders), Jaish-e-Muhammad, Harakat ul-Jihad-I-Islami and Harakat ul-Mujahedeen (the last two formerly operated in Afghanistan against the Russians during the 1980s).
There have been several thousand Islamic terrorists active in Kashmir (on both sides of the border) since the late 1980s. The numbers are kept down by the deaths of most terrorists who get into Indian Kashmir.
The Pakistani based terrorists has also caused the growth of similar, but much smaller, groups inside India (which has 150 million Moslems). The Kashmir terrorism campaign has largely failed, and the number of active terrorists there has been dwindling over the past few years.
This has apparently played a part it carrying out attacks elsewhere in India. Only some parts of the Pakistani government back these terrorists, as most Pakistanis realize that too much Pakistani based Islamic terrorism inside India could trigger a major war with India. Since both nations now have nuclear weapons, this could get very ugly. The Islamic terrorists don't care, as they are on a Mission From God, and whatever happens is God's Will.
Tribal separatists in northeast India are another major source of terrorist deaths. The northeastern tribal territories only became part of India when the British colonial government departed in 1947. The tribes resented this, as well as the growing flood of migrants from other parts of India. The terrorism was directed largely at these immigrants. There used to be over 5,000 active and armed separatists, but counter-terror operations, and an amnesty program, have reduced the number to less than a thousand. Many of the separatists have devolved into criminal gangs and bandits.
The third source of terrorism is in eastern India, where communist (Maoist) rebels seek to establish a communist dictatorship, in order to resolve the social and economic inequities in the region. There are 5-10,000 armed Maoists out in the countryside, where they battle counter-terrorism forces and locals who violently disagree with the Maoists goals and methods.
India uses local police, a special force (165,000 members of the Central Reserve Police Force), the army, and several intelligence agencies to battle their terrorism problems.
The Foreign Ministry has also been useful because of its efforts to get other nations to recognize these terrorist organizations as "international terrorists", and thus subject to sanctions and prosecution overseas. This has caused Pakistan increasing problems. The "Kashmir belongs to Pakistan" cause is very popular inside Pakistan, making it difficult for Pakistan to crack down on Pakistani terrorists that carry out operations inside India, and sometimes elsewhere in the world as well.
The backlash from the Mumbai atrocities, and Islamic terrorist attacks on the Pakistani government is putting more pressure on Pakistan to crush its domestic Islamic radical groups.
This is particularly true with the Taliban in Pakistan. This group is just the most recent manifestation of violent Islamic conservatism in Pakistan's tribal areas. Pakistan has always tried to compromise with domestic terrorist groups, but the recent Islamic violence in Pakistan, Afghanistan and India is forcing Pakistan to confront Islamic terrorists, and deal with the problem once and for all. That won't be easy, as a large minority of Pakistanis support the Islamic militants.
News on the Bombay attacks is breaking fast on Twitter with hundreds of people using the site to update others with first-hand accounts of the carnage.
The website has a stream of comments on the attacks which is being updated by the second, often by eye-witnesses and people in the city. Although the chatter cannot be verified immediately and often reflects the chaos on the streets, it is becoming the fastest source of information for those seeking unfiltered news from the scene.
In the past hour, people using Twitter reported that bombings and attacks were continuing, but none of these could be confirmed. Others gave details on different locations in which hostages were being held.
And this morning, Twitter users said that Indian authorities was asking users to stop updating the site for security reasons:
One person wrote: “Police reckon tweeters giving away strategic info to terrorists via Twitter”.
Many pointed to reports that that the situation had led to clashes between Indian forces and militants in the disputed border region of Kashmir. Some messages gave the names of suspected terrorists. None of the information could be confirmed at this stage.
Twitter is a micro-blogging service, where people can send short messages of up to 140 characters to friends using text messages or over the internet.
Others have used the site to post contact details of relevant emergency services for those caught up in the attack. There were appeals for Twitter users to post “I’m fine” messages so it could be relayed onto family and friends.
Many sent messages of support to the Indian authorities and Bombay’s citizens.
One user said: “please give all respect and due to all those cops and army people who are risking their lives 4 us”. Other Bombay residents showed anger that the situation was continuing: “sadly NO ONE seems to be in charge. what are they all WAITING for 18 hours later ?”
Even as the supertanker the Saudi Sirius Star continues to be in the grip of pirates of the coast of Somalia, the Indian Navy appears to have taken the lead in the fight against pirates.
An Indian warship deployed in the Gulf of Aden fought Somali pirates and destroyed their vessel after a brief battle, the navy said on 19 Nov 2008.
Two accompanying speed boats sped away after the main vessel was blown up late on Tuesday.
"INS Tabar retaliated in self defence and opened fire on the mother vessel," the navy said in a statement.
"As a result of the firing by INS Tabar, fire broke out on the vessel and explosions were heard, possibly due to exploding ammunition that was stored on the vessel."
Naval officers on board the warship said they spotted pirates moving on the deck with rocket propelled grenade launchers.
"On repeated calls, the vessel's threatening response was that she would blow up the naval warship," the navy said.
India deployed INS Tabar, a naval warship, to escort Indian ships after the country's shipping firms said they were losing $450,000 a month on cost overruns and delays in meeting deadlines.
Crew members are reluctant to sail in the Gulf of Aden, one of the world's most important sea trade routes, fearing attacks by pirates.
Meanwhile, Saudi supertanker Sirius Star was hijacked over the weekend and has anchored off the coast of Somalia in Eyl, even as pirates took over another Iranian-operated cargo vessel with a Hong Kong flag ‘Delight’.
US navy commander Jane Campbell of the Bahrain-based 5th Fleet said the status of the crew and cargo was not known. There are some Indians among the 25-member crew.
Last week, in the first-ever action after being deployed in the Gulf of Aden, the Indian navy on November 11 thwarted an attempt by pirates to capture an Indian merchant vessel in the region. The ship, M V Jag Arnav, had recently crossed the Suez Canal and was eastward bound when it was surrounded by pirates, who tried to board and hijack the ship, navy sources in New Delhi said.
When the 38,265-tonne bulk carrier, owned by Mumbai-based Great Eastern Shipping Company, raised an alarm, it caught the attention of the Indian naval warship, INS Tabar, which was patrolling in the Gulf of Aden waters.
The Persian Gulf nation of Qatar is expanding its military alliances by signing defense a agreement with India.
There has been trade between the Persian Gulf and India for thousands of years, but not much in the way of military conflict. India is too far away.
The big powers in the Gulf have long been Iran (formerly called Persia) and Turkey.
The Arab states in the Gulf are seeking ways to defend themselves against Iranian aggression, and making friends with large countries outside the area seems a safe strategy.
Qatar is a peninsula in the Persian Gulf with 1.5 million people and lots of oil (and the highest per-capita income in the world). It's also an absolute monarchy, and the king is eager to turn the country into a banking and commercial center. He knows the oil won't last forever. So he instituted a program to suppress corrupt practices and encourage honest business and government operations. Partly because the Qataris are so well off financially, the program is working. Old customs die hard, but arrest, prosecution and prison awaits those who oppose the king.
Qatar also gave women the vote (some government officials are elected), and more equal treatment in legal and commercial transactions. This has been condemned by Islamic conservatives, as has the kings support of American military operations in the region. There has only been one terrorist bombing (in 2005, by an Egyptian worker) in Qatar since September 11, 2001.
Qatar is a base for U.S. Army, Air Force and Navy operations. But all this is out in the desert, or out of the way in general.
About 70 percent of the kingdoms population are foreigners, there on work contracts to help the natives handle all their wealth. While there are religious conservatives in the kingdom, the big threat is seen as Iran.
The arrangement with India involves Qatari military personnel training in India, and Qatar investing in Indian military development projects.
In a pinch, the Indians have made it known that they might station some troops in the kingdom (to give the Iranians another reason not to attack Qatar).
India will join the United States, Russia and China by building a land based landing field in the same shape as an aircraft carrier.
The SBTF (shore-based training facility) will be built outside the east coast port city of Goa.
This will be used to train pilots to land on carriers. India is getting its first four MiG-29K fighters soon. These aircraft are modified to operate from carriers. The remaining twelve MiG-29Ks will arrive by the end of 2009.
India will receive the refurbished Russian aircraft carrier Gorshkov in 2012. This deal will cost $2.5 billion. This includes the purchase of the poorly maintained Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov, and Russian shipyards performing repairs, modifications and upgrades. Then there was the $800 million cost of aircraft, weapons and equipment. Building a Gorshkov type carrier today would cost about $4 billion, and take several years more.
The Admiral Gorshkov entered service in 1987, but was inactivated in 1996, as too expensive to operate on a post Cold War budget. The Indian deal was made in 2004, and the carrier was to be ready by 2008. But a year ago reports began coming out of Russia that the shipyard doing the work, Sevmash, had seriously miscalculated the cost of the project.
Once refurbished, the Gorshkov, renamed INS Vikramaditya, should be good for about 30 years of service. That's because, after the refit, 70 percent of the ships equipment will be new, and the rest refurbished. It will operate sixteen navalized MiG-29 fighters, plus some helicopters.
India wants the Gorshkov in service before 2012, because that's when it's existing carrier (the 29,000 ton INS Viraat) is to be retired. If the MiG-29K is successful on the Vikramaditya, these aircraft will be used on other carriers India is building.
India has awarded Russia a 965-million-dollar contract to upgrade its multi-role MiG-29 warplanes, officials said on Monday.
The two post-Cold War allies Saturday signed the deal to extend the life of India's fleet of 70 MiG-29 jets another 15 years from their current 25 years, an air force official said.
"The project entails two to three years and only six of them would be re-fitted in Russia while the work on the remaining squadrons would be carried out by them at Indian bases," he said asking not to be named.
The pre-condition was a "precaution" against delays in the modernisation of the MiG-29s which are among the main combat planes in India's inventory.
"We learnt our lessons with the MiG-21 project," he added, alluding to years of delay in the promised upgrade by Russia of the jets, now labelled "flying coffins" and "widow-makers" because of frequent crashes due to engine failure.
Under the contract Russia will re-arm the twin-engined MiG-29s with air-to-air missiles, modern bombs, increased fuel capacity and the latest avionics, the contract said.
The MiG-29 deal came after India last month resolved a protracted dispute with Russia on the sale of the Soviet-era carrier Admiral Gorshkov to the Indian navy.
Russian export firm Rosoboronexport in 2004 signed up to refurbish the 44,570-tonne carrier for 970 million dollars but last year demanded India pay an additional 1.2 billion dollars.
The two sides buried the hatchet after India agreed to pay 900 million dollars more for the 30-year-old carrier which will now join the Indian navy in 2011.
Gorshkov is to fill a vacuum left by the scrapping in 1997 of India's first aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant, which had been in service since 1961.
The Indian navy has only one operational aircraft carrier, the INS Viraat, which is to be phased out in coming years.
Russia accounts for 70 percent of Indian arms supplies but late deliveries and commercial disagreements have led New Delhi to use other suppliers such as Israel, Britain, France and the United States.
Russia is in a race with Western rivals for a 12-billion-dollar deal to sell 126 fighter jets, artillery worth two billion dollars and 317 helicopters worth a billion dollars to India.
US and European military aircraft manufacturers have emerged as the forerunners to win the fighter deal which will enable India to junk the crash-prone MiG-21.
NEW DELHI - India tested a nuclear-capable missile designed to be launched from a submarine, in a move aimed at expanding India's ability to respond in case of a nuclear attack, officials said Tuesday.
It was unclear if the testing was successful.
"We are still awaiting reports from the testing site," said Gen. Umang Kapoor, a spokesman for the state-run Defense Research and Development Organization, which carried out the test.
The missile has a range of 435 miles and was test-fired from an underwater platform immersed in the Bay of Bengal. India is building a nuclear-powered submarine expected to start sea trials next year. It would be able to launch ballistic missiles.
Submarine-launched ballistic missiles would give India second strike capabilities if its land- or air-based weapons were disabled.
India's current crop of missiles includes the short-range Prithvi ballistic missile, the medium-range Agni and Akash missiles, the anti-tank Nag and the supersonic Brahmos missile, developed jointly with Russia.
result of its large-scale military buildup that threatens U.S. access and freedom of navigation in East Asia, according to a forthcoming congressional report.
