Indian Military

TOKYO: Japan's defence minister said his country needs stronger military ties with the US and South Korea to balance China's growing might, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.
In an interview with the paper, defence minister Toshimi Kitazawa said relations with the United States were strengthened by the help its military provided in the aftermath of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
He said Japan was particularly concerned about China's increasing naval capabilities.
"Our priority is to make our bilateral relationship with the US rock solid," he told the paper.
"In order to maintain the right balance in our relationship with China, we need to also solidify the ties between Japan, the US and South Korea," said Kitazawa, of the centre-left Democratic Party of Japan.
Kitazawa earlier this month tearfully thanked US forces for their help in the round-the-clock relief effort in the aftermath of the quake and tsunami.
His comments appear to show a change of attitude in the ruling party, whose previous premier, Yukio Hatoyama, had vowed a less subservient relationship with Washington.

WASHINGTON: US secretary of state Hillary Clinton said on Thursday that the United States is studying how it can offer the Philippines military equipment to defend itself, amid tension with China.
The two countries are starting "to determine what are the additional assets that the Philippines needs and how we can best provide those," Clinton said at a press conference with Philippine foreign secretary Albert del Rosario.
Del Rosario said earlier that his country hoped to lease naval equipment from the United States, calling for a "reset" in the two nations' alliance in the face of rising friction at sea with China.
Clinton said del Rosario will meet later with US defense secretary Robert Gates and other Pentagon officials as the United States seeks to "closely coordinate" with the Philippines.
"We are determined and committed to supporting the defense of the Philippines," the chief US diplomat said.
"And that means trying to find ways of providing affordable material and equipment that will assist the Philippines military to take the steps necessary to defend itself," she said.

BRUSSELS: Nato allies may have succeeded in giving a military edge to a rebellion against Libya's Muammar Gaddafi but the operation exposed cracks in the Western alliance that will complicate its involvement in future conflicts.
There are few doubts the Western bombing campaign was instrumental in allowing Libyan rebels to defeat government forces and effectively seize power after more than four decades of Gaddafi's authoritarian rule.
But how it was put together through European and US diplomacy shows Western powers may opt for going their separate ways in the future when it comes to "discretionary" military intervention that is conducted to protect civilians and not in self-defence.
Such a trend would put new strains on their already dwindling defence budgets at a time of deepening financial difficulties in Europe and may threaten Nato's ability to remain effective in the near future, some analysts say.
The operation in Libya, they argue, underscored a push by the United States to hand over the leadership of Western military interventions to their European partners when conflict flares up in Europe's immediate neighbourhood.

WASHINGTON: The US Air Force has had to ground dozens of F-22 fighter jets for the second time this year after concerns a pilot suffered a lack of oxygen in the cockpit, officers have said.
Commanders at a base in Virginia and in Alaska ordered a "pause" in flights for the world's most expensive and advanced fighter aircraft as a safety precaution, an Air Force spokesman said.
The decision came after an incident last week in which a pilot at Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia suffered "hypoxia-like" symptoms in mid-flight, Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Johnson told AFP.
The announcement came only a month after the Air Force grounded the entire Raptor fleet from May through mid-September -- an extraordinary step -- to allow engineers to check for possible problems with the plane's oxygen supply.
Analysts say the precise source of the problem remains a mystery despite elaborate tests and safety measures.
The fleet was cleared to return to the air last month without a clear explanation behind a spate of incidents in which pilots appeared to suffer from a lack of oxygen.

WASHINGTON: The US military's top officer on Thursday said American troops are "ready" for the repeal of a ban on gays serving openly, arguing the armed forces would be stronger as a result.

Admiral Mike Mullen and US defense secretary Robert Gates urged senators to scrap the ban before the end of the year, saying a Pentagon study out this week showed that the change would cause no major problems for the military, even at a time of war.

"I believe that in the long run, repeal of this law makes us a stronger military and improves readiness. It will make us more representative of the country we serve," Mullen told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Mullen said the Pentagon study confirmed his belief that the military could carry out the change without disruption and that attitudes in the military have evolved since the " Don't Ask, Don't Tell" law was adopted in 1993.

"I believe our troops and their families are ready for this.

WASHINGTON: The White House said on Wednesday it was inevitable that a ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the military would end, adding the only question remaining was how it would be done.

A new furor over Obama's plans to end the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy erupted after a judge ordered the government to suspend it, but the Pentagon said lifting the ban should be the job of Congress not the courts.

"It is not a question of whether it will end, but the process by which it will end," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said on Wednesday.

"The courts have demonstrated that time is ticking on the policy of ' Don't Ask, Don't Tell.'

"The president strongly believes that this policy is unjust, that it is detrimental to our national security and that it discriminates against those who are willing to die for their country."

Earlier, defense secretary Robert Gates was asked to comment on Tuesday's federal court ruling ordering the halt of the policy, and said he felt "strongly that this is an action that needs to be taken by the Congress.

WASHINGTON: A US judge on Tuesday ordered the Pentagon to stop banning openly gay men and women from serving in the military after ruling last month that the "don't ask, don't tell" policy was unconstitutional.

US district judge Virginia Phillips in California rejected the administration's request to limit her ruling to only military personnel who are members of the Log Cabin Republicans, the organization that sued to overturn the policy.

Phillips said in a 15-page order that because she had ruled that the policy was unconstitutional, the only proper remedy was to grant the organization a broad injunction barring the US military from enforcing its policy.

The group proved during the trial earlier this year that the policy "irreparably injures servicemembers by infringing their fundamental rights," Phillips said in the ruling.

She granted a permanent injunction that barred the Pentagon from enforcing the policy against anyone under its jurisdiction and told the defense department to suspend or end any pending investigation, discharge or other proceedings under the policy.