Indian Military

WASHINGTON: After weeks of hesitation and divisions among his advisers, President Barack Obama on Friday endorsed military action against Libya's Moammar Gadhafi, saying U.S. values and credibility are at stake to stop "the potential for mass murder" of innocents.
The US military, which is already stretched thin by two wars and an expanding effort to assist disaster victims in Japan, would take a supporting role, Obama said, with European and Arab partners in the lead. He explicitly ruled out sending American ground forces into the North African nation.
A wide range of US firepower stood ready, including Navy ships and submarines capable of launching Tomahawk cruise missiles with high-explosive warheads that could destroy air defense sites and other potential targets in the earliest stages of any allied military action.
In solemn remarks at the White House, Obama never used the word "war," but that is what US forces could face if Gadhafi refuses to comply with United Nations demands.

NEW DELHI: Having already procured three Airborne Warning and Control Systems (AWACS), the Indian Air Force is planning to induct ten such eyes for boosting the country's air defence.

In the near future, the IAF will place fresh orders for two more PHALCON AWACS in addition to the three procured earlier.

But in the long run, it has plans of inducting a total of ten such aircraft in its fleet, Defence Ministry officials told PTI here.

With ten aircraft, the IAF hopes to provide round the clock vigil across all the frontiers, the sources said.

India inducted its first AWACS system in Delhi this year and the second was inducted into the fleet in June.

Officials said the third aircraft is expected to join the fleet by the end of this year in December. The AWACS deal was initiated in 2004 between India, Israel and Russia.

The project involved the Israeli Phalcon early-warning radar and communication suites which had to be mounted on the Russian IL-76 heavy-lift military aircraft.

New Delhi — Before the end of 2010, India and Russia are slated to sign the mega defence deal to jointly produce the fifth generation fighter aircraft (FGFA). The upcoming India visit of the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will be the occasion where the Indo-Russian FGFA project will be signed besides other defence deals.

According to sources, the final draft of the agreement has been readied and the approval has to come from the Indian Finance Ministry. The Indo-Russian FGFA will be based on the Russian Sukhoi T-50, which flew for the first time this January in Siberia and it will be built to the Indian Air Force (IAF) specifications. Significantly, it is being touted as superior to the American F/A-22 `Raptor’, the world’s only operational FGFA as of now.

India will be getting a customised Sukhoi T-50 PAK FA and the state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), as a co-developer, will enable the execution of the specifications laid down by the IAF. The FGFA project will see an estimated $6 billion investment by India.

[Agence France-Presse] New Delhi: India, which has built a supersonic cruise missile jointly with Russia, is holding talks with at least four countries to sell the weapons system, a senior Indian official said on Tuesday. {ln:brahmos-supersonic-cruise-missile 'BrahMos} Aerospace, a 50:50 tie-up with Russia, needs the approval of both governments to export the weapon which its makers claim is the world's fastest cruise missile, each costing up to three million dollars.