|
WHAT'S HOT?
––
ANALYSIS OF
RECENT HAPPENINGS |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Vajpayee
TO VISIT MOSCOW BEFORE WASHINGTON –– INDO
RUSSIAN STRATEGIC RELATIONS SET TO RISE HIGHER? An Idc Analysis
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
New
Delhi, 30 October 2001 Defence relations and now the coordination between India and Russia, on the operational and political aspects of ENDURING FREEDOM –– which seems to be heading nowhere for USA ––appear to be good and strong. Moscow and India are backing the Northern Alliance, but militarily the Alliance are weak and are being propped up. As IDC analysed earlier, Ambassador K Raghunath (who speaks Russian and is a capable Diplomat who has always spelt maturity for India’s Foreign Affairs) has been in Moscow since last few months. He is modest, is willing to listen and knows how to act in the National Interest. India is lucky to have him in Moscow at this juncture in history post 9–11. After India’s nuclear blasts in 1998, he shouldered the burden from the MEA and diplomatically covered up for all that the politicians, including Gerorge Fernandes (China is enemy No 1), were saying with out thinking, and then retracting like we Indians are wont to do. Today
by luck the Indian Navy has a
friend in George Fernandes, back as Defence Minister for the third time.
IDC attended the Cariappa Memorial Lecture on Infantry Day on 27th
October and in Fernandes’ speech he bemoaned that China had left us way
behind and this left many thinking as the subject for the day was
‘Comprehensive Security for India’. The event is being separately
analysed, but it is he who recognized that the Navy had been neglected and
promised to make up. He has a good equation with Admiral Sushil Kumar,
which augurs well for India’s Navy. Fernandes
is back in the saddle in South Block and the first thing he did was to
promise to open the capital expenditure purse. His socialist leanings have
enabled him to have a good working relationship with the Russian Dy Prime
Minister Ilya Klebanov. Both Chair the Inter-Governmental Commission on
Defence Procurement on the fast path route. It
seems acquisitions are moving fast especially for the Indian Navy as it
prepares to celebrate 4th December as the NAVY DAY. This was the day when
the killer Missile boats bashed up the oil depots at Kamari off Karachi in
1971. It was the Soviet supplied equipment and Coastal Missile boats that
were used ingeniously (by towing them part of the way), that made the day
for the Navy's brilliant performance in the war. IDC’s
book " A Nation and Its Navy at War ", Lancers, is dedicated to
the Sailors of the fine Indian Navy and Admiral of the Fleet Sergei
Gorshkov. He was the founder and great builder of the Russian and also the
Indian Navy to which he kindly supplied equipment over and above the call
of signed MOUs. History is repeating itself for the IN. Another
new relation of equality of equipment on payment from Russia is on the
cards. The media has reported that when PM Vajpayee visits Moscow from 4th
November, before proceeding to New York, defence deals worth over US$ 3
billion will be signed. These could well include the Gorshkov and the MIG
29Ks for which an MOU was signed some years ago. IDC
believes there has been pressure from Russia to take the Gorshkov and
other goodies made easier to come by. This is fair. The Media also reports
that a nuclear submarine is being acquired on lease at US$ 25 million per
year for three years lease and the Indian Navy needs this nuclear
submarine badly for training and to augment its ATV Nuclear Submarine
project. This
secret project had placed many orders for the submarine being built in
modules with Larsen and Tubro at Hazira and Mazdocks, which are in
advanced state to be finally assembled at the Ship Building Facility set
up at Vishakapatnam. In fact Larsen and Tubro’s balance sheet was up
this year and the Chairman referred to other projects, which contributed
to the profits, without naming ATV, which had definitely contributed to
it. The ATV Project is headed by Vice Admiral Ravi Ganesh, who is due to
retire soon, but is likely to be granted an extension as was his
predecessor. It may be recalled that Ganesh was the Commanding Officer of
INS Chakra the first nuclear submarine which was leased from Russia by the
IN some years ago. IDC
is in the process of analyzing which Nuke the Russains will transfer on
the three-year lease and we give below the details of the AKULA class, to
hint what sort of class the submarine may belong to. The
Russian defence industry is looking up and its new
flagship submarine Gepard will officially join the underwater fleet at a
ceremony likely to be held in late November and attended by President
Vladimir Putin. Commander-in-Chief Admiral Vladimir Kuroyedov who attended
the IFR in February said the super-silent Gepard, nuclear-powered and
missile-armed, has already been through successful sea and weapons trials,
and is the last in the 14-vessel Bars series. It
has a displacement of up to 12,770 tons and a top submerged speed of 35
knots at a maximum dive of 600 metres. The boat is served by a 63-strong
crew and has an awesome armament potential of 24 nuclear-tipped cruise
missiles with a range of up to 3,000 km. Though much smaller than Kursk,
the submarine is formidable and is equal to USA’s Los Angeles class.
Construction began in 1991. IDC
learns the missile silos within the pressure hull of
the nuclear submarine Kursk have not been damaged as a result of the
sinking and that speaks volumes of the Russian technology and Putin’s
resolve, as some bodies have been recovered. IDC feels the lease is a good
idea and the not too late to be signed Gorshkov deal is inescapable for
the Naval Aviation. IDC
also learned that the IN is to get 4 TU 22 Backfire Bombers and again the
Navy may not strictly need these fast aircraft with capability of tracking
Nuclear Submarines and must have justified them for a maritime
reconnaissance (MR) role, but in any case they are for national interest
as they can deliver Nuclear Bombs as far away as China with out being
easily intercepted 'Akula'/'Akula-II'
class nuclear powered attack submarines Displacement:
10,700 (Akula-II: 12,390) tons submerged Concept/Program:
Was a new-design submarine, the steel-hulled contemporary to the titanium
'Sierra' class, but with a primary role of strategic strike using SS-N-21
cruise missiles. Are used as general-purpose attack submarines, and must
be considered the best Russian SSNs in service - but still lag behind USN
subs. There have been two upgrades: 'Improved Akula' and 'Akula-II'.
Improvements included better silencing and improved automation. There is
some disagreement as to which units are 'Improved Akula' vs. 'Akuka-II'. Classification:
Podvodnaya Lodka Atomnaya (PLA); Nuclear Powered Submarine. Builders:
Zavod imeni Leninskiy Komsomol, Komsolol'sk-na-Amur; Sevmashpredpriyatiye,
Severodvinshk. Disposals/Reserve:
K-284 (lead unit) laid up in 1995 pending refuelling; probably will not
return to service. K-322 (Kashalot) also laid up and unlikely to
return to service.
In
conclusion IDC places below links to various Russian Military, Technical
and News sites, which provide a plethora of information about the goings
on in that vast nation: Official
sites: 1.
"RosOboronExport Ltd." ("Russian Defence Export Ltd.")
–– state run company for the exports of armaments: www.rusarm.ru 2.
IAPO –– IRKUTSK AVIATION INDUSTRIAL ASSOCIATION –– The exclusive
partner of HAL in the joint production of SU-30 MK I jet fighters: http://eng.irkut.ru 3.
Aircraft building corporation "MiG": http://www.migavia.ru/
4.
Combat helicopter manufacturer "KAMOV": http://www.kamov.ru/index1.htm 5.
"MIL" helicopters Kazan factory –– Supplier of Mi-17 famous
combat helicopters to India: http://www.kazanhelicopters.com/ 6.
"MIL" helicopters Moscow factory –– Supplier of Mi-24, Mi-35
and Mi-28 (new model), combat helicopters to the Indian armed forces: http://www.mil-moscow-helicopter.com/Eng/helicopter.htm
6."Air
Defence Systems" –– Interstate Industrial Group for production of
anti-ballistic missile and air defence systems (Russia and Belarus): http://www.defensys.ru/about_eng.html 7.
Baltiysky Shipyard –– Manufacturer of "Talwar" class
frigates for the Indian Navy: http://www.bz.ru/ 8.
"Rubin Naval systems" - Designer of "Kilo"/"Sindhushastra"
and "Amur" class diesel-electric submarines as well as
nuclear-powered subs: http://www.ckb-rubin.com/main.html 9.
Kurganky machine building plant –– Co-producer of BMP-3 in cooperation
with Avadi Heavy Vehicles Factory http://www.kurganmash.ru/ 10.
Arzamas machine building plant –– Manufacturer of BTR-80 and BTR-90
armored personnel carriers: http://www.amz.nnov.ru/index_en.html 11.
Rubtsovsk machine building plant –– APCs manufacturer: http://rmz.rubtsovsk.ru/ 12.
Federal Agency of control systems in defence electronics and military
telecoms: http://www.pacy.ru/eng/eindex.php3 SPECIALIZED
MILITARY MASS MEDIA: 1.
Military News Agency - Daily online edition with the latest military,
defence and armed conflicts news and analisys from all over the world: http://www.militarynews.ru/EMAIN.ASP 2.
"Military parade" –– Superb illustrated corporate magazine
of Russian defence industries: 3.
Avia.ru –– The best on-line daily news bulletin on the Russian
military and civil aviation: http://www.avia.ru/english/ Other
recommended (amateur) sites: 1.
Russian armed forces and militray-industrial complex links catalogue: http://www.edu.uni-klu.ac.at/~kkehraus/index.htm 2.
The best military aviation amateur site: http://www.aeronautics.ru/ 3.
Kalashnikov assault rifles amatuer site: http://kalashnikov.guns.ru/ 4. Small arms amateur site: http://www.guns.ru/ |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||