Sometime during his first couple of months in office, President-elect Barack Obama will have to confront one of his first big decisions about U.S. defense policy and budgets.br /br /And it’s a thorny one.br /br /Specifically, Obama and his as-yet-unnamed circle of top defense advisers will have to determine whether to continue spending roughly $4 billion a year to buy F-22 Raptor fighter jets built by Lockheed Martin.br /br /They might decide, as the Bush administration has, that the F-22 is superfluous and that the money is needed for other priorities. On the other hand, the Air Force, according to defense analysts and consultants, wants to buy at least 60 more of the $180 million jets.br /br /Jim McAleese, a consultant with close ties to the Air Force, told a Reuters conference in Washington last week that the service was putting “all its political capital” into buying more F-22s beyond the 183 on order.br /br /”I think the Air Force will work very hard to build a consensus” around the idea of buying 60 more F-22s under a three-year agreement, McAleese said.br /br /Time is of the essence, according to the Air Force and Lockheed, which says it needs hundreds of millions of dollars soon to keep the F-22 production line up and running. If the line begins to shut down and then is restarted, F-22 advocates say it would add hundreds of millions of dollars to the cost of buying more planes.br /br /The F-22, launched in the early 1980s to counter Soviet air forces in Europe, has been targeted by the Pentagon civilian management team as an airplane that is likely to be of little use in the kinds of irregular wars the U.S. is fighting or is likely to face.br /br /The Air Force and its backers say the F-22 could be necessary to deal with regional threats posed by countries buying advanced Russian and Chinese fighter jets. Lockheed Chief Executive Robert Stevens told the same conference that the F-22’s stealth capabilities make it an excellent deterrent.br /br /And F-22 supporters are trotting out the jobs argument, saying the Obama administration surely will not want to put thousands more aerospace industry employees out of work in the midst of a deep recession.br /br /Loren Thompson, a defense analyst with the Lexington Institute think tank and a consultant to Lockheed with close ties to the Air Force, said in a recent op-ed piece that while defense purchases shouldn’t be justified by the jobs they create, killing the F-22 could potentially affect thousands of jobs, directly and indirectly.br /br /Maintaining F-22 production, Thompson said, is important “because the U.S. still has a big commercial aerospace sector benefiting from the economies of scale created by suppliers and labor forces serving both public and private markets.”br /br /About 1,800 employees work on the F-22 at Lockheed’s Fort Worth plant, where the aircraft’s midfuselage section is produced. Boeing produces the wings in Seattle; Pratt amp; Whitney supplies the engines; and Lockheed assembles the planes in Marietta, Ga.br /br /”We await and will support the decision of the next administration regarding any continuation of F-22 production,” Lockheed spokesman Rob Fuller said in a statement.br /br /Defense Secretary Robert Gates has been in open conflict with the Air Force over the F-22 and fired the former Air Force secretary and chief of staff for, among other things, their open advocacy of the program in defiance of administration policy.br /br /Obama is retaining Gates, but F-22 supporters believe that they have a better chance of preserving the program once Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England leaves.br /br /England, the former head of General Dynamics and Lockheed’s Fort Worth plant, has said repeatedly that the Air Force does not need more F-22s and has worked to accelerate purchases of the F-35 joint strike fighter.br /br /In a recent interview with the Star-Telegram, England said the Pentagon’s limited funds for aircraft need to be spent on speeding F-35 development and production.br /br /”There’s no question that Gordon England has tried to kill the F-22,” Thompson said in an interview.br /br /England’s view is supported by a number of recent position papers from think tanks offering advice to Obama, and TheNew York Times editorial page has weighed in against the Raptor.br /br /Obama is a smart politician and, Thompson said, will probably pick other defense battles to fight that will produce greater budgetary savings than shutting down F-22 production.br /br /Plus, senior Democrats on the House Armed Services Committee are supporters of the program. “Why would Obama want to get into an argument with these people?” Thompson said.br /br /Other than retaining Gates, Obama has not named anyone to fill key Defense Department posts, most notably England’s successor. Obama has been advised on defense policy by officials from the Clinton administration, including former Air Force Secretary F. Whitten Peters, who some say may be an F-22 advocate.br /br /There’s no question that Gordon England has tried to kill the F-22.”

In a move that could raise concerns in the U.S. and Israel, Russia will donate 10 MiG-29 fighter jets to Lebanon and commit to supplying the teetering Arab democracy with more war machines, an official told reporters Wednesday.br /br /Though the jets aren’t likely to pose a strategic challenge to Israel, or even Lebanon’s other neighbor, Syria, the move signifies Moscow’s military resurgence in parts of the globe long dominated by the U.S.br /br /”It is an effort to reassert Russia’s status in the Middle East in a way that has very high visibility,” analyst Anthony Cordesman of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies said.br /br /Moscow said the move was meant to help stabilize Lebanon, which frequently has descended into war during the last four decades.br /br /”Lebanon has decided to intensify military-technological cooperation” with Russia, said Mikhail Dmitriyev, the director of Russia’s Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, according to Russia’s Interfax news agency. “We consider the Lebanese army as a key element of political stability within this country.”br /br /In announcing the donation, Dmitriyev said Moscow might sell Lebanon tanks and artillery.br /br /Lebanon’s weak and politically divided army, which has received extensive U.S. weapons and funding, must contend with the powerful Shiite Muslim political organization Hezbollah, whose Iranian- and Syrian-backed militia is committed to fighting Israel.br /br /Although Washington says it has substantially increased military support to Lebanon, officials in Beirut complain that the aid has been minimal. U.S. officials have said they won’t help Lebanon’s army in a way that would threaten Israel’s security.br /br /The Russian aircraft were designed to counter U.S.-made Lockheed F-16 Fighting Falcons, of which Israel has about 345. But Cordesman said the early export versions of the MiG-29 were little match for Israeli or even Syrian air power.br /br /Lebanon’s air force currently amounts to a few combat helicopters and two 1960s Hawker Hunter fighter jets that were recently refurbished.br /br /At least one Lebanese military official said the Russian planes would be of questionable use to the country.br /br /”It is an unnaturally big step for the Lebanese army,” he told The Times, speaking on condition of anonymity, adding that Lebanon lacks the infrastructure and training to make use of such fighter jets.br /br /Russia’s previously strong ties to the Jewish state began to weaken in 2005 when Moscow started selling advanced antiaircraft weaponry to Syria. The relationship suffered a further blow during Russia’s summer war against Georgia, which received military equipment and training from Israel.

The Indian government has accused Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), a Pakistan-based terrorist group, of sending the 10 gunmen who launched attacks across Mumbai, killing more than 170 people. But Pakistan denies the allegation that the attacks were plotted and launched from its soil.br /br /Indian military officials said that stationing three MiG 29s at the Hindon air base outside the capital after 12 years after the planes were removed would cut down its air force’s response time in an emergency situation by at least 10 minutes. Without the deployment, jets would need to be scrambled from bases at Ambala and Bareilly.br /br /“We have deployed our MiG 29 fighter aircraft on a temporary basis for the air defence of the capital from any rogue terrorist aircraft,” said a senior officer, declining to be named.br /The warplanes would supplement conventional ground-based air defences including surface-to-air missiles and anti-aircraft guns.br /br /Officials said the Hindon air base had been reactivated for fighter aircraft operations. It was closed in 1996 after an unusually high number of accidents caused by birds that hover over a nearby abattoir.br /br /India’s military, meanwhile, maintains a state of high alert following the Mumbai strikes.br /While the foreign minister Pranab Mukherjeetold parliament recently that war “is not the solution”, defence officials in New Delhi concede that war or precision strikes against Islamist militant camps in Pakistan could not be “entirely discounted”.

KARACHI: Responding to the violation of Pakistan air space by Indian jet planes on 13-12-2008, the defense analyst professor Hassan Askari said Saturday’s violation of Pakistan air space by Indian air force was an attempt to escalate tension between both the countries.br /br /He said that Pakistan defense authorities already feared Indian violation as they termed Indian violation of Pakistan air space, was an attempt to check Pakistan Air Force preparation to defend its air spaces.br /br /Lauding Pakistan Air Force response he said, “India must have got be fitting retaliation”.br /br /He advised the government of Pakistan to raise this issue in United Nations so that the proper action against India could be sought.br /br /Askari termed Pakistan strategy in current circumstances right, keeping in view the tension appeared after Mumbai attack and added that Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi should raise this issue before his Indian counterpart Pernab Mukherji during their meeting scheduled tomorrow.br /Source: a href=”http://www.thenews.com.pk/updates.asp?id=62393″TheNews.com.pk/abr /br /span style=”font-size:130%;”span style=”font-weight: bold;”India denies any violation of Pakistani airspace/span/spanbr /br /India denied on Sunday its warplanes had violated Pakistani airspace.br /br /”The Indian Air Force denies any such violation of airspace,” Air Force spokesman, Wing Commander Mahesh Upasani told Reuters, describing Pakistani accusations as an attempt to divert “the attention of the people towards something which has not happened”.br /br /Pakistan said on Saturday that Indian warplanes had violated its airspace but said this was “inadvertent” and there was no cause for alarm about an escalation of tension between the nuclear-armed neighbors.br /br /The report followed a rise in tensions after gunmen killed 179 people in India’s financial capital Mumbai in an attack which New Delhi blamed on Pakistan-based Islamic militants.br /br /A Pakistan Air Force spokesman said there were two violations, one in the Kashmir area and another in the sector around the city of Lahore in Pakistan’s Punjab province.br /br /In response to India’s denial on Sunday, the Pakistani Air Force said it stood by its statement.br /br /”Our stance is the same. There’s no change in it,” spokesman Humayun Viqas said.br /br /India has been extremely careful in recent years to prevent its warplanes from straying into Pakistan’s airspace.br /br /Pakistan shot down two Indian planes which it said had gone into its airspace during the 1999 Kargil conflict, fought on the Line of Control dividing disputed Kashmir.br /br /India said the planes were in its airspace when they were shot down.br /br /Following the Mumbai attacks, India, backed by the United States, has called on Pakistan to crack down on Pakistan-based militant groups. But the government in New Delhi has resisted domestic pressure to launch retaliatory strikes of its own.br /br /India and Pakistan have fought three wars and went to the brink of a fourth in 2002 following an attack on the Indian parliament in December 2001 that New Delhi blamed on militants based in Pakistan.br /br /Source: a href=”http://in.news.yahoo.com/137/20081214/738/tnl-india-denies-any-violation-of-pakist.html”Yahoo! News/a

Russia would soon sign a contract with India to jointly develop and produce a fifth-generation combat jet from next year, the director general of Russian aircraft maker Sukhoi said here Wednesday.br /br /”We plan to begin flight tests (of the fighter) as early as in 2009,” Mikhail Pogosyan told reporters.br /br /The Russian-Indian advanced multi-role fighter is being developed by Sukhoi, which is part of Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), along with India’s Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), under a inter-governmental agreement signed in Oct 2007.br /br /Russia and India will simultaneously develop two versions of the combat aircraft – a two-seat version to meet the requirements of India’s air superiority policy, and a single-seat version for the Russian Air Force.br /br /Pogosyan is in Beijing as part of a delegation accompanying Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, who is leading the Russian side at the 13th Russian-Chinese Commission on Military and Technical Cooperation.br /br /Pgosyan told reporters that Russia and China are also set to boost cooperation in combat aircraft production.br /br /”China is one of the main customers for our (Russian) aircraft and today the Chinese Air Force has in service over 200 of our Su-27 Flanker and Su-30 Flanker-C jet fighters,” he said.br /br /The commission is set to discuss further cooperation in aircraft production and particularly the licensed production of Su-27 and Su-30 planes in China.br /br /China has acquired 76 Su-27SK fighters from Russia since 1992, and bought a license for production of another 200 planes in 1995, in a deal worth $2.5 billion.br /br /However, the 1995 agreement did not include the transfer of avionics and AL-31F turbofan engine technology, and the Chinese manufacturers had to rely on the Russian supply of these systems.

a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_RRbP6fpJWAc/ST9mmeij7kI/AAAAAAAAA1w/IZvEk2KxxzY/s1600-h/su-30MKI.jpg”img style=”margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 166px;” src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_RRbP6fpJWAc/ST9mmeij7kI/AAAAAAAAA1w/IZvEk2KxxzY/s320/su-30MKI.jpg” alt=”" id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5278050099520597570″ border=”0″ //aAfter the warning on possible air strikes on Indian soil, the armed forces, especially the air force and the navy, have been kept in a state of war readiness. There has been no massive mobilization of troops on the border, though.br /br /While Indian Air Force (IAF) fighters have been mounted with bombs and kept in a state of readiness to take off within minutes, almost the entire western naval fleet is aggressively patrolling the Arabian Sea.br /br /The military was moved into this state of heightened alert within 24 hours of the terror attack on Mumbai, which began on November 26. When it became clear that the terrorists were Pakistanis, the government ordered the mobilization.br /br /According to a source, the IAF has recalled senior officers from leave, moved some of its missile formations forward, and armed its fighters with missiles. Pilots have been put on standby in operational rooms.br /br /To justify the state of war readiness, the government spoke of the possibility of a 911-style attack on India. At a meeting with the three service chiefs, defence minister AK Antony cautioned them to take measures to thwart such an attack. But a source said the alert was a cover to justify India’s exceptional military mobilization.br /br /The forces have been put on high alert to back up India’s diplomatic efforts to get Pakistan to crack down on terrorists on its soil.br /br /The IAF says it is in state of “passive air defence (PAD)”, which means it is geared to take any measure to defend the country’s assets. Under PAD, all platforms, including fighters, are kept operationally ready, armed with missiles, and pilots are prepared to fly at a moment’s notice.br /br /During Operation Parakram, the air force was kept on “active air defence”, which means it was in a state of readiness to destroy enemy assets.br /br /The source said the IAF has reduced the number of personnel on leave to just 10% from the average 30% of its total strength and recalled several key officers from leave. In the western and southwestern air commands, which cover the Pakistani border, all leave has been canceled. The state of high alert extends to air stations in the South.br /br /According to the source, besides fully arming fighters and placing pilots in operational rooms, the IAF has moved some missile units close to the Pakistan border. These are primarily surface-to-air missiles and other air-defence assets that can shoot down any incoming threat.br /br /Meanwhile, the navy’s western command based in Mumbai has also been put on a state of high alert, with nearly two dozen warships patrolling the Arabian Sea.br /br /A source said that drawing from the experience of Operation Parakram, it was decided not to carry out massive troop movements on the border. The mobilization of ground forces, started after the 2001 attack, achieved little and was called off on October 16, 2002. This time the government has put in place a more “opaque” military mobilization.br /br /span style=”font-size:130%;”span style=”font-weight: bold;”"We are ready for war”- Pakistan’s Foreign Minister/span/span:a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_RRbP6fpJWAc/ST9mtHcjAPI/AAAAAAAAA14/lCnHHx3sQfE/s1600-h/jf-17.jpg”img style=”margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 261px;” src=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_RRbP6fpJWAc/ST9mtHcjAPI/AAAAAAAAA14/lCnHHx3sQfE/s320/jf-17.jpg” alt=”" id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5278050213580439794″ border=”0″ //abr /Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has indicated that his country is ready for war with India, if it’s imposed on them.br /br /”We do not want to impose war, but we are fully prepared in case war is imposed on us. We are not oblivious to our responsibilities to defend our homeland and it is a clear message. We want love and friendship, we want peace and stability in this region, but our peace mission should not be understood as the weakness of Pakistan,” Shah Mahmood Qureshi said.br /br /Quershi also ruled out handing over to India any of its citizens found to be linked to the Mumbai attacks and said that any Pakistani individual found to be involved in the incident will be tried under the country’s laws.br /br /”The arrests are being made for our own investigations. Even if allegations are proved against any suspect, he will not be handed over to India,” Qureshi was quoted as saying by PTI. “No arrested Pakistani would be handed over to India,” he said.br /br /Asked about the arrest of leaders and members of banned groups like Lashker-e-Toiba in a crackdown launched on Sunday, Qureshi said they were apprehended due to efforts made by intelligence agencies as part of the government’s commitment that Pakistan’s soil would not be used for terrorist activities directed against any other country.br /br /”We will proceed against those arrested under Pakistani laws,” he said.br /br /Qureshi said the government had made it clear that Pakistan was not involved in any way in the Mumbai attacks. Islamabad had also made an offer to jointly investigate the Mumbai attacks with India but had not yet received a response from the Indian side, he said.br /br /Ironically, Qureshi’s statement came in just after Pakistan’s Defence Minister, Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar assured that his government is willing to co-operate with India in terror investigations.br /br /”I think the offer of the Government of Pakistan that there should be a joint probe is a very good offer. If you want to probe somebody you should have evidence against those people and we still don’t have exact evidence because those people have died. A joint investigation will lead to better relations between the two countries. Our investigation team will come to India and sit with your people and will come out with findings. Thereafter you can start probing and asking questions,” Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar had told CNN-IBN in an exclusive interview on Tuesday.br /br /Mukhtar had also added that the present government was willing to discuss all issues with India.br /br /”Forget the past as there was no civilian government but President Asif Ali Zardari is willing to discuss and find solutions,” he said.

p class=”first”Indian Air Force on Thursday said it is prepared to counter a 9/11 type aerial terror attack on targets in India./pp”This (report about terrorists carrying out a possible aerial attack) is based on a warning, which has been received (by the government) and we are prepared as usual,” Air Chief Fali Homi Major said after laying a wreath at Amar Jawan Jyoti at India Gate on the occasion of Navy Day./ppHe said the issue was discussed during the meeting of three service chiefs with Defence Minister A K Antony on Wednesday at South Block./pp”The issue was discussed in yesterday’s meeting,” he said./ppAfter receiving inputs from intelligence agencies about possible aerial strikes by terrorists, airports in Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai were put on high alert on Wednesday night as the reports suggested that terrorists could have sneaked into India to carry out strikes on the anniversary of the demolition of the Babri Masjid./ppDefence Minister A K Antony had also on Wednesday warned the armed forces about the possibility of terror attacks from airborne platforms similar to the 9/11 attacks in the US./ppIn the meeting, Antony called for greater coordination among security and intelligence agencies so as to make the intelligence inputs actionable./ppAntony wanted tightening of vigil along India’s coastal, land and aerial frontiers to prevent terror attacks in future./p