Indian Navy Chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta Spells Out Vision 2022

[nitesh]

India Today - India's most widely read magazine.

President Patil to tour submarine
Sandeep Unnithan
New Delhi, January 2, 2009

President Pratibha Patil will get her maiden guided tour inside an Indian naval submarine on Saturday during an official visit to the naval base at Visakhapatnam.

The submarine being readied for the supreme commander's visit is the INS Sindhudhvaj, one of the navy's fleet of 10-kilo-class submarines. The Sindhudhvaj was recently refitted in a Russian shipyard and equipped to fire anti-ship missiles. However, unlike the president sea sojourn two years ago, President Patil will not be sailing out into the Bay of Bengal.

The president will also be given a guided tour of a classified naval facility, the School of Advanced Undersea Warfare (SAUW) and shown around the submarine simulators. Commissioned at the INS Satavahana in 2007, crews of India's planned fleet of nuclear submarines - the under-construction Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) and the Akula-2 class SSN - are trained on the simulators at the SAUW.

The president's itinerary does not include a visit to the first hull of the ATV, under construction at a classified ship-building facility. The hull of the 6,000-tonne submarine was to have been launched into the water on January 26 this year, but is now believed to have been postponed to mid-2009. This is the latest in the series of delays in the indigenous programme which began in the early 1970s.

[nitesh]

The Hindu News Update Service

PM to commission Ezhimala Naval Academy on Jan 8

Ezhimala (PTI): Ezhimala Naval Academy, a project to conduct a host of training courses including research, will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on January 8, Navy chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta said on Friday.

"After deciding to set up a full-fledged naval academy at this site, we have come to a stage wherein we are ready to commence training at the academy and the Prime Minister will dedicate the academy to the nation on January 8," he told a press conference here.

The over Rs 720 crore project, billed as Asia's largest is capable of accommodating 750 personnel and about 500 support staff to assist the day-to-day activities of academy.

Flanked by the Arabian Sea, picturesque hills and inland waters, the Academy spread over a 2,452 acres, will be the only centre in India imparting four-year B Tech courses in Electronics and Communications, and Mechanical Engineering for all the newly inducted trainee officers.

The syllabi and the curricula have been drafted keeping in mind the current technical advancements and the skill tests that will be required in handling the future acquisition of the Indian Navy, he said.

"The academy would give a lot more thrust on intellectual works and will have a unique laboratory and plans to allow others to do research works here," Admiral Mehta said.

The ongoing works of the project are scheduled to be completed by April end and the full-fledged courses will start in June next, he said.

The entire training sessions, currently being held at Goa's 'INS Mandovi', would be subsequently shifted to the 'INS Zamorin' at Ezhimala, which is located in Kerala's Kannur district.

[nitesh]

The deal is signed guys

India inks largest-ever defence deal with US-India-The Times of India

India inks largest-ever defence deal with US
5 Jan 2009, 0055 hrs IST, Rajat Pandit, TNN


NEW DELHI: The UPA government has quietly gone ahead and signed the biggest-ever defence deal with US: a $2.1 billion contract for eight Boeing P-8I long-range maritime reconnaissance (LRMR) aircraft for Navy.

TOI had reported on December 27 that the huge deal was finally on the verge of being inked after protracted negotiations and clearance from the Cabinet Committee on Security.

The actual signing took place on January 1, with defence ministry's joint secretary and acquisitions manager (maritime systems) Preeti Sudan and Boeing integrated defence systems vice-president and country head Vivek Lall signing the contract, sources said.

But, strangely enough, the defence ministry is keeping the deal under wraps. Incidentally, the previous NDA regime had also signed a flurry of mega defence deals -- like the $1.5 billion one for Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov and $1.1 billion one for three Israeli ‘Phalcon' AWACS (airborne warning and control systems) -- in the run-up to the April-May 2004 general elections.

Sources said the P-8I contract was "a direct commercial agreement with Boeing", with "some issues of end-use verification yet to be fully sorted out" with the US government.

As reported earlier, India and US are negotiating the End-Use Verification Agreement (EUVA) and the Communication Interoperability and Security Memorandum of Agreement (CISMOA), which are required under American laws to ensure compliance with sensitive technology control requirements.

The two pacts are required since India is now increasingly turning to US to buy military hardware and software. Though India does not have problems with safeguards, it does not want them to be "intrusive".

In terms of the contract size, the P-8I deal supplants the $962 million deal signed with US in 2007 for six C-130J `Super Hercules' aircraft for Indian special forces.

India will get the first P-8I towards end-2012 or early-2013, with the other seven following in a phased manner by 2015-2016. The contract also provides an option for India to order four to eight more such planes.

Armed with torpedoes, depth bombs and Harpoon anti-ship missiles, the P-8I will also be capable of anti-submarine warfare and anti-surface warfare. They will replace the eight ageing and fuel-guzzling Russian Tupolev-142M turboprops currently being operated by Navy.

The P-8I planes will help in plugging the existing voids in Navy's maritime snooping capabilities, having as they will an operating range of over 600 nautical miles, with `5.5 hours on station'.

Customised for India and based on the Boeing 737 commercial airliner, the P-8I will actually be a variant of the P-8A Poseidon multi-mission maritime aircraft currently being developed for US Navy, which has ordered 108 of them to replace its P-3C Orion fleet. India, of course, remains unhappy over the US decision to sell more P-3C Orions, armed with Harpoon missiles, to Pakistan.

At present, the Navy uses the TU-142Ms, IL-38SDs and Dorniers for surveillance operations in the Indian Ocean region. It is also now in the hunt for six advanced medium-range maritime reconnaissance planes, for around Rs 1,600 crore, to further boost its snooping capabilities.

For innermost layer surveillance, up to 200 nautical miles, Navy is going in for two more Israeli Heron UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles), with three ground control stations and two ship control stations, for Rs 386 crore after successfully deploying eight Searcher-II and four Heron UAVs. There is also the Rs 1,163 crore joint Indo-Israeli project for developing rotary-wing UAVs for use from warships.

[nitesh]

Indo-Russian wargames in Arabian Sea to boost military ties

Indo-Russian wargames in Arabian Sea to boost military ties

Moscow, Jan 11: India and Russia are set to deepen their military ties with wargames planed in the Arabian Sea that will include nuclear-powered warships later this month, a top defence official said on Sunday.

Six Russian warships led by nuclear-powered missile cruiser "Pyotr Veliky" (Peter-the-Great) will conduct wargames with the Indian Navy in the Arabian Sea later this month, Chief of General Staff, Army-General Nikolai Makarov said.

"The joint Russia-India exercise 'Indra-2009' will be carried out in January end. From the Russian side six ships including Northern Fleet's nuclear powered heavy missile cruiser, will take part in the wargames," Makarov said.

According to earlier reports, "Pyotr Veliky" known as 'buster of aircraft carriers' will be joined by the powerful anti-submarine squadron of the Russian Pacific Fleet for the joint Indo-Russian war games.

Bureau Report

[nitesh]

L&T to build Rs 2,000cr shipyard near Chennai-India Business-Business-The Times of India

L&T to build Rs 2,000cr shipyard near Chennai
11 Jan 2009, 1422 hrs IST, PTI


MUMBAI: Hopeful that the present economic downturn will not hit its ambitious Rs 2,000 crore shipyard plan near Chennai, Larsen and Toubro (L&T) will start building naval ships, particularly frigates and warships.

"Our shipbuilding plans are not focused on the kind of ships where the demand is low. We are not focused on shipbuilding as a total spectrum. We are not looking at bulk shipping. We are looking at niche areas of shipbuilding," L&T Board member M V Kotwal said.

"We would start with a lot of naval ships such as warships and frigates. We want to build this yard with the most advanced system. At present, Navy's demand is unfulfilled," Kotwal said.

Last year, L&T signed an agreement with the Tamil Nadu government to set up a shipyard in Kattupalli, near Chennai, at a cost of Rs 2,000 crore.

Justifying the move to build naval vessels, Kotwal said, "We have got a very good position with regard to naval equipment is concerned. Navy has been quite positive on indigenization in lot of things."

“If you look at the long term, Navy has definitely got a plan. There will be a large requirement much exceeding the capacity,” he said.

"That is where we see a definite potential," Kotwal said.

[nitesh]

Indian Navy Looks for Six MRMRs | AVIATION WEEK

India has issued a request for proposals (RFPs) for six so-called medium-range maritime reconnaissance (MRMR) aircraft. The move comes amid India's choice of Boeing's future P-8I multimission aircraft with four options to replace India's eight aging TU-142s on Jan 1.

The Indian Coast Guard also is looking for six MRMRs but without an Airborne Early Warning system.

Rivals for the Navy's RFP - for which bids have been already submitted - include a variant of Boeing's P-8I, and possibly the turboprop ATR-72MP, EADS C-295, Dassault's Falcon 900MPA and Embraer P-99A platforms. For the Coast Guard RFP, contenders could be the ATR-42MP, C-295 or CN-235MP.

The Navy's MRMR is supposed to replace the aging Islander fleet of 10 aircraft, which will be used for training and possibly shared with the Coast Guard. Two have already been gifted to Myanmar. The aircraft will have a range of over 500 nautical miles with an endurance of around 6 hours.

"The Navy is looking at Naval Staff Qualitative Requirements (NSQR) in the MRMR, rather than platforms," a senior Indian official here told Aerospace Daily.

In addition to eight Boeing P-8Is, the Navy will also be getting 11 new Dornier short-range aircraft. India has been focusing on the need for new and updated technology. The P-8I provides India with speed, reliability, persistence and room for growth to satisfy the country's requirements well into the future, Boeing claims. The aircraft features an open-system architecture, advanced sensor and display technologies, and a worldwide base of suppliers, parts and support equipment, a company statement says.

"The result of these efforts will bring the Indian navy advanced technology that is unmatched in maritime reconnaissance aircraft, and the reach and capability it needs to defend India's vast coastline and maritime waters," says Vivek Lall, Boeing IDS vice president and India country head.

P-8A Photo: Boeing

[nitesh]

Boeing talks to India about maritime patrol aircraft deals

Boeing talks to India about maritime patrol aircraft deals
By Stephen Trimble

Boeing has launched discussions with Indian industry for offset deals linked to a new contract to supply at least eight P-8I maritime patrol aircraft to the nation's navy. The company's search is focused on finding structural and avionics partners to fulfil a requirement reportedly worth 30% of the deal's $2.1 billion value.

"We are working with a number of suppliers in India to work out the details. That is ongoing," says Bob Feldmann, Boeing vice-president and programme manager for the P-8I.

A version of the US Navy's 737-based P-8A Poseidon multi-mission maritime aircraft, the design was selected after a long-range maritime reconnaissance competition against types including EADS's Airbus A319. India becomes the first export customer for the type, which will replace its current Tupolev Tu-142 turboprops.

New Delhi will purchase a first batch of eight P-8I airframes and mission systems under a direct commercial sale, with weapons including sonobuoys, torpedos and Boeing AGM-84 Harpoon anti-ship missiles to be added via the US government's Foreign Military Sales system.

Indian officials have not informed Boeing of any requirement to integrate other weapons, such as the Brahmos supersonic anti-ship missile being developed by India and Russia.

Deliveries will run between 2013 and 2015, although Indian media reports suggest that the deal could eventually be expanded to total 12-16 aircraft. "Ultimately, it's the Indian government's and Indian navy's call as to what their need is, but we expect more P-8s to be added in the future," says Feldmann.

The sale must now be approved by the US Department of State and Congress, but Feldmann says that Boeing already has "export authority for a tremendous amount of this weapon system. We are confident that Congressional notification will occur and then we will go forward with the whole programme." New Delhi has previously signed a $1 billion contract for six Lockheed Martin C-130J tactical transports.

Boeing expects to perform the first test flight of a prototype P-8A in the third quarter of this year, with the type due to enter service with its first US Navy unit in fiscal year 2013.

[nitesh]

http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/s...20gulf,%20eden

NEW DELHI: The Indian Navy is getting ready to scale down operations in the piracy infested Gulf of Aden, where it has been facing action for over two months, due to operational deployments and exercises back home.

The navy will be sending a smaller missile-guided frigate to replace the Delhi-class missile-guided destroyer INS Mysore, which repulsed pirate attacks on two occasions and led to the arrest of 23 pirates.

“INS Mysore, which is currently patrolling the Gulf of Aden, will be replaced soon. And a Brahmaputra-class guided-missile frigate is most likely to be the replacement. It is a faster vessel,” a senior navy official said on condition of anonymity.

The Indian Navy had sent the INS Mysore, one of the largest and powerful vessels in its fleet, to replace its frontline warship INS Tabar, reasoning that it would not need to make frequent visits to the port for replenishments during the prolonged deployment.

The decision to send a smaller platform in the Gulf of Aden, one of the busiest and most piracy infested sea lanes in the world, follows an operational alert post the Nov 26-29 Mumbai terror attack and a major Indo-Russian naval exercise scheduled later this month.

The Indian Navy has just concluded an amphibious exercise with the Indian Army and the Indian Air Force (IAF) in the Arabian Sea. The next in line is the Indo-Russian drill from Jan 25-31, in which the navy will field a destroyer and two frigates apart from a kilo-class submarine.

“The missile frigate is faster, but still a smaller ship and is not capable of lengthy deployments like INS Mysore,” another official said explaining the capabilities of the two vessels.

The scaling down of the navy's commitment in anti-piracy operations is also influenced by the absence of any global coalition to combat piracy in the region.

The deployment of Indian Navy ships in the Gulf of Aden last year came as piracy off Somalia surged in recent months with the Horn of Africa nation descending further into chaos.

Last year, 112-odd incidents of piracy, including hijacking of a Saudi supertanker carrying crude oil worth $100 million, were reported in the Gulf of Aden.

[nitesh]

Indigeneous Sonar Development

[nitesh]

The restless visionary who changed the face of L&T- Engineering-Ind'l Goods / Svs-News By Industry-News-The Economic Times

The restless visionary who changed the face of L&T
15 Jan 2009, 0109 hrs IST, Kausik Datta, ET Bureau

MUMBAI: It was 1964. A certain AM Naik, then all of 22, walked into the Larsen & Toubro office in Mumbai for a job. The young lad was excited and was keen to say all
the right things at the interview. When reminded by his interviewer — a Scotsman — that his rise in L&T may not be as smooth as in his first job, Mr Naik, who grew up in Surat and spoke little English, wanted to say that he would try his best to live up to the company’s expectations.

Gripped by anxiety, he ended up saying: “Who knows? Time will tell.” The rest is history: 35 years later, Mr Naik became L&T’s chairman & managing director.

The goof-up may sound prophetic today, but it wasn’t so then. The Scotsman — Mr Baker — offered him an assistant engineer’s post with a monthly salary of Rs 760, but the then general manager, a Mr Hansen, wasn’t amused with his faux pas and considered him ‘overconfident’. So, his offer was downgraded to a junior engineer’s position with a salary of Rs 670 a month.

Mr Naik can regale you with many such nuggets. He remembers, for instance, every twist in his brilliant academic career — the marks he scored at every stage, the combination of subjects, etc. A movie buff, he was a regular in the front-row seats in cinema halls — the son of a village school teacher, he didn’t have the money for the more comfortable seats at the back. For the record, the Dilip Kumar-Vaijayantimala-starrer Madhumati is his all-time favourite. He has watched it no less than seven times.

Soon after engineering school, the Gujarati lad joined Nestle Boilers, a Parsi-owned firm in Mumbai, and resolved “only to work”. He didn’t take a single day off, and launched himself into a life of hard grind.

It is this passion and grind that catapulted him to the job of the chairman of India’s largest, and arguably most respected, engineering company, L&T. The rise may be meteoric for the once junior engineer, but Mr Naik feels it wasn’t fast. “L&T was a semi-government organisation where seniority mattered the most for promotion. I have done away with the system now,” he says.

When Mr Naik took over as the managing director in April 1999, the lack of vision was the biggest challenge faced by L&T — founded in 1938 by Danish engineers Henning Holck-Larsen and Soren Kristian Toubro. The economic landscape was fast changing, and L&T would also need to, and fast, he figured.

Together with Boston Consultancy Group (BCG), he prepared a five-year plan (within 90 days), made presentations all around on how L&T would look like in the future and resolved that L&T would be a multi-national corporation in five years. As he attached great importance to people — “they are the front wheels of the growth vehicle” — he interacted with employees in 38 locations, co-opting them into his vision.

It wasn’t just the vision thing. Mr Naik quickly got down to get the numbers to make it real. When he took over the reins in 1999, L&T had a profit of around Rs 342 crore on revenues of Rs 7,474 crore — admirable for a pure-play engineering company. But Mr Naik wasn’t satisfied and believed the Indian economy had large untapped areas with big potential.

He thought the existing business model had to be rejigged and called in BCG for consultation. Following a ruthless review, new areas were identified and some businesses were dumped altogether. The gamble paid off. Last year, L&T posted Rs 2,325 crore in earnings on revenues of more than Rs 30,000 crore. Its market capitalisation has jumped manifold.

The visionary in Mr Naik remains restless. Recently, he kicked off a new restructuring at L&T by creating a dozen operating companies, with a central board of directors providing them guidance. The move will transform L&T into an umbrella organisation to look after the overall performance of all businesses under the overarching L&T brand.

Observers say the move will help L&T unlock shareholder value by listing all these operating companies as and when they reach critical mass. It will also help L&T, always seen as a vulnerable takeover target due to the absence of any single promoter group, ring-fence itself against hostile bids. L&T is no stranger to hostile bids. The Ambanis of Reliance had coveted the firm. In 1999, when Mr Naik was overseas, Kumar Mangalam Birla called him to say that Hindalco had launched an attempt to take over L&T. The Aditya Birla group had bought Reliance’s L&T stake and launched an open offer. However, Mr Naik managed to hold that by hiving off L&T’s cement business and selling it to Mr Birla, and in the bargain managed to keep L&T’s core business and identity intact.

In fact, Mr Naik feels that his biggest achievement in L&T has been to save the company from the Birla bid. He recounts the slog he had to endure to make that happen. “I knocked on almost all doors, visited all ministries who matter to L&T. I showed them the pictures of the company’s production facilities like submarine units which were strategic in nature. I asked them whether they wanted the company to go to a private fold. Most of the ministers said ‘never.’ The employees also opposed the Birla bid.”

The hard-won battles made Mr Naik’s ascension to the chairman’s role easier. In fact, he thinks that the Birla bid may have helped L&T implement his vision plan of 1999, which had clearly indicated that L&T should get out of the cement business. L&T also got a good price from the sale — Hindalco paid Rs 1,400 crore for L&T’s cement business at a time when the company’s total market value was only Rs 4,000 crore. The sale also dramatically improved L&T’s debt-equity ratio.

Challenges have always chased Mr Naik, only this time it is of a different kind. The economic slowdown in India and across much of the developed world is casting its shadows on L&T. Mr Naik is aware of it, and is ready for the challenge.

The slowdown could result in a drop in infrastructure spending, and L&T is consolidating its energies. It has stopped bidding for real estate projects. It plans to focus on sectors such as power, railway and shipbuilding to offset losses that other segments may incur. But Mr Naik firmly believes that its diversification into new business areas and recent forays into new geographies will help L&T flourish. As for India, he says it will continue to grow, albeit somewhat slowly at around 6.5%.

Despite heading one of India’s leading blue-chip companies, Mr Naik is a firm believer in simplicity. He says he has three suits, eight shirts and four ties. He is actively involved in social work, and is developing an educational institution set up by his father in Kharel, Gujarat. The place where it all began.

[nitesh]

AFP: With Thailand accused, India says hundreds feared dead at sea

With Thailand accused, India says hundreds feared dead at sea

3 hours ago

PORT BLAIR, India (AFP) — India said Sunday that hundreds of people were missing at sea, believed to be part of a wave of boat people allegedly dragged out to the middle of the ocean by Thailand and left to die.

Thailand has denied the accusations, but accounts of survivors and the latest reports from the Indian coast guard have piled the pressure on Bangkok, and the Thai government said it would meet rights groups on Monday.

The Thai navy is accused of detaining the migrants, from a Muslim ethnic minority in Myanmar, after they washed up on the Thai coast -- and then towing them to sea and leaving them to their fate.

India's coast guard said Sunday it had rescued hundreds of the refugees from the Rohingya ethnic group, who live along the border of Myanmar and Bangladesh, but that hundreds more were feared lost.

"They said they were taken to an island off the Thai coast and beaten up before being forced into boats and pushed into the high seas," said Ranjit Narayan, a police official on India's remote Andaman and Nicobar islands.

"We fear several hundred are still missing," coast guard commander S.P. Sharma told AFP. He said India had rescued 446 refugees from four boats since the end of December.

Those figures are in line with those of the Sunday Morning Post, a Hong Kong newspaper, which said it had compiled a toll of 538 missing or dead.

Sharma said the migrants said they had been arrested by Thai officials and set adrift without engines or navigational equipment.

"Some survivors also said their boat was towed out to sea by the Thai navy and given two sacks of boiled rice and two gallons of water before being abandoned in the middle of the sea," he said.

The Bangkok Post newspaper on Sunday carried accounts from survivors.

"We were tied up and put into a boat without an engine... we were then towed into the high seas by a motor boat and set adrift," a man named as Zaw Min told the paper.

Thailand is facing a brutal separatist insurgency in the south of the country that has left more than 3,500 people dead in the last five years, and the government would be sensitive about any mass influx of migrants.

But the Thai navy and other government officials have denied the accusations.

"Authorities followed the regular process when arresting the illegal migrants," navy spokesman Captain Prachachart Sirisawat told AFP.

Yet mounting photographic evidence, and accounts from Western tourists who have recently visited the beautiful sun-dappled islands on Thailand's Andaman coast, have supported the charges.

Media reports have shown photographs of people on a beach with their hands trussed above their heads.

The United Nations refugee agency said it had contacted the Thai government when the allegations first surfaced last week.

"We requested the Thai government take all measures necessary to make sure the lives of the Rohingyas are not put at risk ... We have not had any response yet," said Kitty McKinsey, Asia Pacific spokeswoman for the UNHCR.

If the allegations turned out to be true, McKinsey said, Thailand "would be breaching the very basic human rights conventions -- the basic right to life, putting people's lives at risk by towing them out to sea."

The Rohingya are stateless and face persecution from Myanmar's military regime, forcing thousands into rickety boats each year to try to escape poverty and oppression and head to Muslim-majority Malaysia.

David Mathieson, an expert on Myanmar with New York-based Human Rights Watch, said Thailand had for the past few years taken a harsh stance on Rohingya landing on its shores, in part because they wanted to discourage further migration of the group through Thailand.

There were also fears that some are mercenaries trying to join the separatist insurgency, although Mathieson said there was little evidence to back up those claims.

"These are really serious allegations that need to be investigated by the UN and the Thai government," he said.

[LCA]

Indian Navy to issue RFPs for another set of maritime patrol aircraft news
17 January 2009

The Indian Navy will look to source a new fleet of maritime patrol aircraft to replace an ageing fleet of 12 Britten-Norman Islander patrol aircraft. The Indian Navy expects to begin retiring the Islanders from service from around 2013. The Navy has already confirmed an order for eight Boeing P-8Is medium-range maritime surveillance aircraft.

Embraer EMB145The Navy may either transfer the Islanders to the Indian Coast Guard, or convert them for use as trainers. Neighbouring country Myanmar, which sourced two Islanders from India for its coastguard several years ago, may also be a candidate for some of the retiring aircraft.

Indian defence ministry sources said a request for proposal was imminent and a decision on the choice of aircraft could follow within a year.

Brazil's Embraer is a leading contender for the order as it already has a maritime patrol version of its EMB-145. It already has a order to modify the same type for an indigenous Indian Air Force airborne early warning and control platform.

However, other contenders in the fray could be turboprop alternatives such as maritime patrol variants of the ATR 72 and the EADS Casa C-295. Boeing could also offer a modified version of the P-8I, while Israel's Elta Systems has been pushing a maritime patrol variant of the Dassault Falcon 900 business jet.

India's Coast Guard also requires around six maritime patrol aircraft through a separate tender, with the ATR 42 and EADS Casa CN-235 as possible contenders.

India is the first export customer for Boeing's P-8 configuration.

[nitesh]

Balloon-mounted radars from Israel to help Navy monitor the coastline

Balloon-mounted radars from Israel to help Navy monitor the coastline
Manu Pubby

New Delhi: The Indian Navy is set to acquire two aerostat radars from Israel to fill vital gaps in the coastal security setup in the aftermath of the Mumbai attack. This is the first time the Navy will operate the balloon-mounted air defence radars that have a detection range of over 500 km and can track low-flying aircraft.

The Navy has also started price negotiations to purchase close to 300 missiles for its Barak ship air defence systems after it was given the go-ahead to deal with Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defence Systems Ltd that has been under the CBI scanner for alleged kickbacks during the NDA regime.

Sources said the Navy will shortly sign a deal to acquire two EL/M-2083 Aerostat radars, which are already in service with the air force, from Israel. While the acquisition was on the Navy’s shopping list for a long time, it was accelerated by the Government after the Mumbai attack.

The new radars, mounted on a hot-air balloon tethered to the ground, will enhance the Navy’s ability to detect enemy aircraft by providing 3-D coverage in a radius of 500 km. Three aerostat radars, for example, will be able to give seamless coverage for the entire western coast. This would be in addition to the ground- based radars already being operated by the Navy.

“The biggest advantage of an aerostat radar is that it is not fixed and can be moved to any location on the basis of the current threat perception. It will give us the flexibility to deploy it on a need basis,” a senior Navy officer said.

The IAF currently operates two aerostat radars and has ordered four more from Israel to boost air-defence cover. One of the radars, which can be quickly deployed at different locations, was moved to southern India after the LTTE carried out air strikes against Sri Lankan targets in 2007.

[Jihad]

The ties between Israel and India are strengthening as it seems..?

[nitesh]

Originally Posted by Jihad

The ties between Israel and India are strengthening as it seems..?

These are apart from original 11 intended for IAF. So total becomes 13.