Supporting Afghanistan This time Mi 35 Attack Helicopters

Supporting Afghanistan This time Mi 35 Attack Helicopters

   India all set to give four Mi 35 attack helicopters to the Afghanistan army as a good will to fight against Taliban and Pakistani sponsored terrorism. The proposed discussion will be held by coming days when the Afghan National security adviser meet his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval. Afghanistan looks Indian co operation to build peace and security along the state. India already deployed Forces and support systems in Afghan to fight against the Taliban terrorists and improve the country's economy and stability.

    Supplying the Attack helicopter is new in the defense cooperation. Earlier India provided HAL made Cheetal helicopters for utility purpose. However this is the first time India providing modern Mi 35 Hind E helicopters to Afghan. The Attack helicopters can be used to fight against Taliban's with it's superior fire power and defensive capabilities. Afghan already operating some Mi 35 attack helicopter bought directly from Russia earlier.

    After US overthrow the Taliban's from Afghanistan, India officially express interest to build stronger relationship with Afghanistan, With the US support India carried out friendly mission in early 2010.  India not engaged the fight against Taliban in Afghan, However India moved with infrastructure and economical aid to Afghan to establish good relationship for longer times.

     India invested bigger projects in Afghan by constructing Power plants, Health and Educational activities. The Indian Army's BRO (Border Road Organization) also sent in Afghan to build key roads around afghan to connect major cities like Delaram and Zaranj, Also take care of the Nimroz remote province and  assisted many humanitarian and civil constrictions. India also helped the Afghani's to stop depending on Pakistan for their economical needs.

    At first in 2005, India deployed more than 200 ITBP elite commando's to safe guard Indian missions in Afghan such as constructions, Educations and government buildings. The US and the Collation forces will not allow foreign troops inside their mission zone.Where India is the first country who deployed the forces inside Afghan with the support from Afghan political leaders. India also says once the ISAF mission ends India will deploy more troops inside afghan.

    The Pakistan is on other hand playing hide and seek games inside Afghan by plotting attacks and suicide bombings. The well known connection between ISI and Taliban has been whitewashed by Wikileaks, Once the ISI backed Taliban militants carried out a suicide attack in Indian Embassy Kabul. The Attack killed an Indian Army Brig general and a senior diplomat official. Same kind of attacks still happens in Afghan to sabotage Indian  missions. The recent one is last year attack in Indian Consulate Herat.  The attack was repelled by the ITBP Commando's.

    Providing assistance to Afghan Army is also a key interest, Most of the Afghan Soldiers are trained by Indian Army, India also hosts some Afghan nationals in NDA Pune. India supported the Afghan military by supplying armored personnel carrier and 4x4 Jeeps.  Earlier HAL Provided three Cheetal Utility helicopters to Afghan Army. All of them under operational.

    Taliban threats in Afghan still exists.As a recent example, this year Taliban seized two major districts in northern Afghan with Pakistani support. However the Afghan forces and US forces later carried out counter attack to re capture the lands from Taliban. The US earlier said will pull out all the troops from Afghan by 2015. however they revised their plans and extended to one more year.

    

     Afghan currently has less than 10,000 US Forces and Air crafts, Some 2000 other Soldiers from NATO countries, unknown number of Indian Army and Para military troops and 1,70,000 Afghan troops. However the Afghan troops are poorly equipped to fight against the Taliban's.Most of the times the Afghan positions are overrun by  Taliban's. However later The ISAF comes to the rescue.

    The Afghan Air force has some Mi 35 and Mi 17 for Air support, The MD 500 also provide close air support. Afghan set to receive the first batch of A 29 Coin aircraft's from Brazil in coming years to revamp their Air fleet. Which makes Afghan a good place in Middle East with the support of India. 

One week of Russian intensive Bombing inside Syria

One week of Russian intensive Bombing inside Syria

    Russia almost take full control of Syrian air space, since the beginning of tactical air deployment, Russia gets full support from the Syrian officials about the target locations, and feed those target co ordinates into the Fighters mission computers, with the use of satellite guided bomb, they striking the target with very good precision. however striking co ordinates seems they just only started bombing ISIS Positions, as first they strike targets close to the Latakia port, which was besieged by radical Islamist force called as Free Syrian army, the Rebels who armed by west and America to fight against Assad's forces.

     While many western analysts confirms the  initial stages of Air strike conducted over Rebel held area's not the ISIS held area's like Palmyra and Rakka, after some pressure from international community, Russia initiated first air strike over Palmyra which is under controlled by ISIS, those smart bombs from Su 34 targets directly towards the ISIS positions, which almost destroyed each and every ISIS positions in Palmyra, so far Syrian air forces used dumb bombs, which lacks precision kill, without having real time battlefield information about actual target positions, they use ground forces radio communication to strike enemy targets in real time, when ISIS hear about the Fighter jets, they moves from the position, So most of the Airstrikes causes no real damages,

    The Russians comes with complete preparation, they deployed one or two Il 20 coot electronic intelligence plane,which is used to collect ground intelligence, intercepting communications and capture real time SAR imaginary, the same data can be transferred to other Russian aircraft's operating within the zone, Russia uses the Su 34 for Precision bombing for surgical strikes, and uses Su 24 Fencer and Su 25 Frog foot for heavy bombing, these two were armed with unguided bombs.

      All of the Russian planes fly above some 20,000 feet to evade from ISIS manpad threat, during the ISIS Rising days, bunch of pictures released which shows ISIS using MANPAD's, even recently ISIS shot down Iraqi reconnaissance light attack helicopter, and recently Russia announced there is no threat from ISIS manpad's inside Syria, while they still fly above some 20,000 feet, where MANPAD can't have the capability to reach that altitude, meanwhile the west and American sponsored terrorists doesn't have any manpad's, that's why Russian Helicopters and Syrian Helicopters enjoys full air superiority over entire Syrian air space.

     Cities like Idlib and Aleppo is contentiously targeted by the Russians, which is under controlled by the Syrian rebels, The Su 34 armed with 500 kg GLONASS guided bombs heavily used in that places to push back the Rebels. which is the Russians major challenge and that's why they deployed the forces very quickly, Russia still have no plans to deploy combat soldiers inside Syrian battlefield, however some 2000 Russian infantry soldiers still inside Syria, to safe guard Russian interests like protecting the air base and the Naval outpost, which was vulnerable to Syrian rebels.

     As Russian Military planners stepped into anti ISIS Strikes, they initially planning to cut the military supply, the known Russian tactics since decades, Russia forced to conduct parallel bombing over Syrian Rebels and ISIS. Russia almost managed to collect information about the ISIS Resupply, So in coming days they plan to conduct more fire bombs over ISIS positions, It's hard to comes for an conclusions within a week, what Russian forces did, so far a year US and allied forces conducted nearly some 10,000 of sir strikes killing some thousands of ISIS Terrorists and equipment's, ISIS doesn't "expanded" after International Coalition attacks heads by the USA, actually they lost 25% of the territory,

    Unlike American air strikes, Once Russian forces conduct air strike Friendly forces suddenly deployed and hold the positions,  not only the Assad Regime, Iran already deployed some two thousand Combat soldiers inside Syria to assist the Assad's shia regime, Iran plans to deploy more troops in Syria coming days, another Syrian ally is the Hezbullah Terrorists, who is a Shia terrorists, who supports Assad from the beginning of the Civil war, the Hezbullah supported by Syria and Iran, now Russia too transferred some odd older T 72 Battle Tanks, where Hezbullah's main target always Israel, Israel bombed Hezbullah positions many times, they attacked Hezbullah position's inside Lebanon, and Syria earlier.

    There is some reports earlier mentioned that Israel too joined with the Russians to pound the ISIS positions, however Israeli ministry denies the same, Israel fighting enemies since decades, yet they never publicly acknowledges their actions, also some reports mentions that Russian ministry ordered to all allied and American fighter jets leave from the Syrian air space, however America and France says they will keep striking ISIS positions inside and outside Iraq and Syria.

     

    Anyway, It's clear Russia could intensify his attack in coming days, that we can see more ISIS targets, and some Russian American confrontation too.  

Savage Taliban returns to Afghanistan marks arrival with Parliament attack

 Taliban returns to haunt Afghanistan attacks  heart of Kabul

  The dreaded Taliban Islamic extremists group have returned to haunt Afghanistan which was on its way to recovery and development. Taliban terrorist have started gaining grounds in the Northern provinces and preliminary intelligence reports have now confirmed the taking over of two districts in Kunduz Region. Taliban militants yesterday struck at the heart of Afghanistan after a suicide bomber and gunners attacked the Parliament at national capital Kabul. The advance of Taliban has been left unchecked with only the Afghanistan forces left to take care of the situation. The international forces have retreated from the troubled Afgan region after fighting a lengthy battle with the militias.  

     The NATO led by America which once was a crucial link in restoring peace, law and order across Afghanistan has phased out its force leaving Afghanistan alone to handle the situation on ground. India has been an active element in helping Afghanistan restore the Democracy it once enjoyed. Afghanistan has termed India as a strategic partner which has stood by its side in the worst of its time. India played a key role in helping Afghanistan host its first ever election in decades. India has also helped Afghanistan restore its Economy by actively helping in increasing its trade with India and other Asian nations. India has also provided world-class training for Afghanistan military forces in bases throughout India.

    But the growing relations between Afghanistan and India have been an alarming situation for Pakistan. Taliban leaders have claimed support of Pakistan’s ISI support for their activities across Afghanistan. Last year Taliban had ambushed 24 Indian ITBP commandos and Afghan military personnel in attacks against Indian Consulate. Attacks on Indian missions have been key matter of concern in India’s aid to Afghanistan, the threats have increased over time with the NATO forces pulling out.





     Taliban is slowly gaining grounds in the Northern provinces, which NATO forces continue to consider as the one of the toughest battleground in their history. By Sunday Taliban had taken control of the Chandra district in Kunduz region, this is a victory for the Taliban as this will eventually pave way for the neighboring resource rich districts. Afghan National Army (ANA) has been successful in holding up fort in the mainlands but the renewed surge by Taliban has inflicted a major dent to the ANA operations. 

 Taliban after taking over the Chandra district has now advanced into the Dashti Archi. Dashi Archi houses a key operational base of the ANA, Taliban have also seized nearly four battle tanks and numerous heavy artillery. ANA meanwhile has started evacuating the nearly 150,000 civilians before mounting a counter operation. The attack on Afgan parliament has raised questions over the operations of the ANA. But with left extremely minimal force there is hardly anything the ANA can do.

    ANA has put up a brave face in countering the Taliban in its area of operation. ANA has been busy mounting operations on Taliban holdings across Kabul. The repeated bombings and gunfights in and around the capital have kept most of the ANA grounded around Kabul. During the attack on parliament the ANA successfully gunned down the insurgents and took control of the power seat. During the operation a ANA soldier executed six Taliban perpetrators alone thus controlling further damage to the control. The video of the brave men can watched in the link here.


Editor - Karthik Kakoor

Cold war reloaded. Its Raptors against Flankers over European skies.

United States Air Force to deploy F-22 Raptors in Europe to deter Russian Flankers

       The military build up in Eastern Europe has gone a notch up, USA has now decided to field heavy war machinery across European countries. Specific sources have confirmed that USA is contemplating about deploying at least a single squadron of its most advanced F 22 Raptor in bases in the European bases. USA has termed Russia as the biggest threat in the region. Soon after Baltic nations became part of NATO, America deployed two Threat Security Packages (TSP) consisting of twelve F-15 from the Florida National Guard and twelve A-10 thunderbolt from the 355^th fighter wing.

     Raptor are the most priced possession of the USAF which has not even been exported to its trusted allies. The Raptors have been till time deployed in mainland America and operated in the Asia-Pacific region but only as rotational deployment. USA has just concluded its naval drills with Ukraine, Russia had warned of a befitting reply to the drills. In a surprise and an extremely risky maneuver a Russian Su-24 jet buzzed USS Donlad Cook in Black Sea. US had termed this move as extremely provocative and have warned Russia against any such maneuvers in the future. 

      Ever since the Ukrainian invasion, relations between Russia and USA have been severed and experts believe the countries are at the brink of starting a modern cold war scenario. Air space violation, repeated weapons validation tests and bi-lateral exercises have doubled ever since. USA and the rest of the western bloc have hit the Russian economy hard by imposing economic sanctions. Putin has been putting up a brave face all along but with Russia being cornered the development rather the existence of a self-prevailing Russia is being questioned. Crimea has been a key talking point all along, the incident of MH-17 send ripples across the globe. Russia and involved nations are nuclear states and have the highest stockpile of the WMD’s.


 Lost is the era under USSR when Russia was an unchecked power, but the collapse of USSR changed the course for Russia. Russia lost the regional control and also lost the prosperous states which were under its control. Russia under Putin is headed towards restoring the dominance in the region. Putin has adopted the best possible aggressive move to put Russia where it once belonged.

It all started with Russia annexing Crimea, which the international community had reportedly recognized as Ukrainian territory.  Facing the wrath of Russia, Ukraine was forced to join NATO and OSCE to counter the Russians.  With Ukraine a success, Putin focused towards the other former USSR nations specially Latvia and Lithuania.

     Russian forces have been violating the international airspace at alarming levels. There have been instances when Russians had deployed two Tu 92 bombers on a long range patrol over the International border. The Tuplov aircraft were accompanied by two IL 78 aerial refuel tankers which were escorted by two heavily armed Su 27. The patrol stretched as far as Portugal and was then resisted by Typhoons which escorted out the formation.  

      With violations increasing at an alarming rate the smaller countries have expressed their disability to check the repeated violations. Germany, Britain and France are being outstretched, the answer came with USA deploying its F-15’s in bases across Europe but these squadrons are up for rotation. After the Crimean annexation the patrol missions have reached to an astonishing sixteen missions from a mere two missions.

    US Air force secretary Daborah James has confirmed the news and has stated that ‘ Russia was the biggest threat on her mind’. The secretary went on to say “It's extremely worrisome on what's going on in the Ukraine. We've seen the type of warfare, which someone dubbed it hybrid warfare, which is somewhat new. So I would put that at the top of my list.”   The F-22 will not be deployed on a permanent basis rather on a rotational deployment. The F-22 will be replacing the home bound F-15’s, six Raptors were deployed in bases along the Asia-Pacific region. The fighter was homed in Dubai and Japan, the F-22 had proved their might by escorting a US navy MQ4 drone which was being tailed by a Iranian F-14.

      With the AESA radars the F22 can jam low powered passive radars, like NIIP Radar which is fitted onto most of the Russian flankers. The situation though critical along the international airspace will surely not witness any aircraft firing missiles. Hence the need will be for a versatile jet that can meddle with the enemy platforms and at the same time defend and attack if the need arises. The deployment of F-22 is also a win-win situation to the USAF, the operations of F-22 has been largely constrained to mainland US. With the deployment to troubled skies the fighter will also get a shot at proving it’s might against the most capable enemy of US. The aircraft has some of the latest technology on-board and clubbed with stealth the aircraft is a flying ghost house in the skies. It has to be seen what will be answer of Russian forces for the deployment of the F-22’s.   

Article - Karthik Kakoor