An IDC Report

Agni III missile being readied for launch

War Room Leak

It appears there were leaks of the presentations made from the Indian Navy's War Room computer, which were copied onto pen drives. The title War Room comes from the Royal Navy (which is the senior service in UK) and is actually the Operations Room or in peace time the Maritime Control Room of the nation. In UK the Prime Minister especially Churchill spent most of his time in the Cabinet Room and the War Room directing the war. Britain was lucky as he had been the First Lord of the Navy twice. Churchill was known to sip brandy and smoke cigars in the War Room but he made sure no secrets ever left the War room.

In India the politicians and PM came to the War Room to see the Navy’s operations in the aftermath of the TSUNAMI and for the first time appreciated the Navy's capabilities. Regrettably the Navy's War room in South Block is also the comfortable and spruced up secure space where all presentations are conducted, and the hard disks of the War Room computers store in them both secret and unclassified data about the nation and its Navy. It seems some traitorous persons took out all this data and the CBI now claims that 7000 pages went out on pen drives and so a few black sheep are giving the Navy a bad name.

More Krivack III Ships to be Inducted

However, this does not seem to have affected the expansion plans as the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) approved the purchase of three Krivak III Class frigates, on 06 July 2006, at a cost of a cost of Rs 5,114 crores (USD $1.1 billion). Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, stated after the CCS meeting, that the first vessel would be delivered five years after the signing of the contract and the following two ships would be delivered within 12 months (at six-month intervals) after the delivery of the first boat. The Defence Minister also stated that the CCS approved an additional Rs 400 crore (USD $87 million) for unspecified equipment. Naval sources indicate that these funds are earmarked for arming these frigates with the supersonic BrahMos (PJ-10) ASCM. The Kaliningrad-based Yantar Bureau will build these vessels for the Indian Navy.

Naval Ships to Visit Greece

As a part of the Indian Navy’s overseas deployment to the Mediterranean, four Indian warships INS Mumbai, INS Brahmaputra, INS Betwa and INS Shakti will be at the port of Piraeus, Athens from 9 July 2006 on a four-day visit. These ships are a part of the Indian Navy’s Western Fleet based at Mumbai. The visit seeks to foster maritime goodwill between the India and Greece, two nations that share a uniquely rich cultural and maritime heritage. This visit seeks to bring the two nations even closer, enhance existing bonds between India and Greece and for greater engagement in the years ahead.

The ships will be open for public visits with free entry on 11 July 2006, between 0900 hrs and 1200 hrs. A media briefing will be held on 11 July 2006 between 1700 hrs and 1800 hrs, on board the flagship, INS Mumbai.

Stop Press news is that the Agni 3 missile is to be tested over the weekend and civil airlines have been told to reroute their flights. We wishe the DRDO all luck. We also note that the President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam visited Wheeler Island near the launch site some days ago. As ‘the Missile Man’ he will always be an interested party.

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