A secret meet between Israel and India to prepare a $3 billion arms deal

A secret meet between Israel and India to prepare $3 billion arms deal

A meeting between Israeli Director general of Ministry of Defense along with his officials, Israeli ambassador to India Carmon, home minister Rajnath singh and defense minister Manohar parrikar held in Delhi, Friday. some sources close to Israel mentioned the meeting discussed about the Prime minister's visit to Israel and the proposed arms deal worth of $3 billions.

After the president, home minister and foreign minister visit to Israel, The Indian Prime minister gearing to visit the Holy land. This is the first official prime minister level visit to Israel. However Modi as Gujarat CM visited Israel earlier. The prime minister's visit is not only just a political visit, It's a key military level visit too.

India selected the Israeli firm Rafael to team up with Indian private company Kalyani, to build and supply third generation fire and forget anti tank guided missile to Indian Army. Rafael's Spike beat US Javelin, french and Russian firms to supply more than 300 plus Spike launchers and 8000 plus Spike missiles. The proposed deal not yet signed so far, the deal still on the cabinet committee on security for negotiations and preparations. 

Indian army announced the spike missile selection in October 2014, following joint venture between Kalyani and Rafael by February last year. Kalyani will make the missiles and launching systems, while Bharath Dynamics integrate the system into one. the Spike missile details and other information found here.

Days ago, IAF Selected the Israeli Spice guided bomb and new generation litening target pod to integrate into the Su 30 MKI. the reason is, to make the Su 30 MKI better in air to ground missions too, the details also found here. 

Indian Army is on the other side who repeatedly asking the land based version of Barak 8 dubbed as medium range SAM. The air force also asking the same, However some sources say India might sign a contract with Israeli IAI to supply one regiment of MR SAM, which comprising eighteen firing units. India also plans to sign mass acquisition of  Barak 8 missiles from IAI and DRDO for Indian Navy.

However there is no clear information about the proposed sale of armed Heron drone sale. Earlier it's reported that India already signed the deal with IAI to supply eight Eitan drone for some $400 millions. the earlier article about IAI Eitan found here.

Reports from Ministry said that, CCS and Finance ministry working closely with the Israel firms to prepare the final contract papers. which will be signed during the PM visit to Israel.

China gifts 300 Type 99 Tanks to Pakistan

China gifts 300 Type 99 Tanks to Pakistan

The Chinese Type 99

    Pakistan Army set to receive brand new third generation Type 99 main battle tanks from China as a gift. The Pakistani's shows interests in the Type 99 earlier and evaluated them for future purchase. This would be a ideal replacement of older Pakistani Type 59,85,69  main battle Tanks, those are also acquired from the Chinese earlier which is unfit in current battles. Recently the Pakistani Army buys some 300 second hand upgraded T 55 Tanks from Serbia, to increases their Tank numbers close to Indian Army.

    The Chinese Type 99 delivery seems just a beginning. Pakistan plans to replace their aging tanks with modern third generation Tanks with in house developed Al khalid and another foreign Tanks like Type 99. They also planned to modernize the Ukrainian delivered T 80 Tanks into new standard with the help of Russia. The modernization makes the tanks more powerful to fight against Indian T 90 MS. Pakistan operates some 300 T 80 Tanks which are 2+ generation Tanks.

    Addition of the new Type 99 tank in the Pakistani inventory gives some good advantages against the superior power fire of the Indian Army. India deployed more than thousands of brand new modified  T 90 Tanks along the Indo Pakistani borders, with the option of deploying another thousand more before 2020. Compared to the Type 99 the T 90 also developed based on the T 72 Variant and performance wise the T 90 leads in the race due to light weight and more protective composite armor.

    The Type 99 is a third generation tank, features some advanced automatic technologies like auto reloader, electronic countermeasures, missile firing cannons and active protection systems. The Type 99 is one of the front line main battle tank of the PLA Army. It's believed the Type 99 is the upgraded T 72 which incorporates Russian and Western technologies. the smooth bore main gun, auto loader mechanism are all comes from the Russia, while the armors and optronics suites  are derivatives from some western armors.

 

   The Type 99 has some active protection systems to spoof off the guided missiles and the explosive reactor armor used to withstand from point attack shells. The protection systems are comparable to the Modern Tanks like T 90 and western Tanks like Challenger MBT. However the Tank yet to be battle tested. The Type 99 comes with digital architecture for fire control which reduces the tank crew and work load. The fire control system is the ISFCS-212 with an IR automatic target tracker, The Type 99 also has laser target designator, an IR searchlight, and an improved 2nd generation thermal sight.

The T 80 MBT

  The Indian T 72 too modified with some western technologies, which allowed the Tanks to be operated in day and night conditions. The Indian T 72 modernized with Polish fire control systems and thermal imagining systems. along with home made explosive reactive armors and Israeli made Navigation systems. The T 72 Ajeya also employed Laser warning systems and improved Engines. while the Type 99 superior in missile firing cannons only. Indian Army operates more than  2000 upgraded  T 72 main Battle tanks.

   The Type 99 can fire guided Missile Invar from the smooth bore gun, makes the Tank powerful against non line of sight targets, which allows to engage Tanks hidden from the plain. The laser guided missile can home into enemy target then explode with high explosive or tandem hallow charge warhead. The missile can be self guided or guided from the Tank for jamming resistance. The missile uses laser beam riding for guidance, allows to engage targets upto some  5 kilo meters. The Inavr missile also being used by Indian Army in it's T 90 Tank. The Indo Israeli cannon launched guided missile comes with better range and fire power which was employed in the Arjun Tanks .

Indian Army T 90

  It's believed Pakistan may modernize the first batch of 300 Type 99 to suits in Pakistan condition and  they eventually deploy those Tanks near Punjabi lines. showing their little offensive fire power against Indian Army. However the Indian Army set to receive third generation guided anti tank missiles from Israel. which allows the Army infantry group to destroy modern tanks like T 80 and Type 99. The Spike ATGM comes with laser and IIR guidance with top attack mode, which can defeat almost all kind of modern Tanks. While Pakistan don't have such fire and forget man portable missiles.

   Those Type 99 should need better air cover to work near Indian borders, Since the Indian Air force already inked a contract to procure  the modern Apache gunships with fire and forget anti tank missiles like hell fire. The Apache can withstand from the Type 99 secondary fire support systems like 12.7 mm and 7.52 mm machine guns. 

Pakistan Buys 282 Refurbished T 55 Tanks from Serbia

Pakistan Buys 282 Refurbished T 55 Tanks from Serbia

    It's interesting and surprising from the Pakistani side that they invested into vintage T 55 tanks along with old APC and field guns from Serbia, but those are very well upgraded by the Serbians before hand overing to Pakistan. The upgrades includes Armour protection, new Generation Explosive reactive Armour added along with digital controls systems added in the Upgrade. makes them safer against  RPG's and heavy machine gun rounds.

The T 55 is a Medium Tank 36 Tons of weight, using a 100mm Main gun along with a 12.7mm for anti personnel usage, which shows good for mobility and good for asymmetrical warfare, where Pakistan suffering since decades. actually Pakistan need a good small arms to protect themselves from it's Terrorists. here T 55 is a good option because it's reliable against terrorists attacks and available in low cost both in procurement and maintenance. most of the fights fought by the Pakistan is  with their own Jihadi's.

        The Pakistanis went for Cheap Tanks rather than good APC and Infantry fighting Vehicle's which is not good against such Heavily armed militants, even they have good number of APC's named Talha which is not good against those Terrorists, usually they were easy targets to the terrorists.

     These Tanks were good in Mobility due to lower weight, with the ERA Armour It can be deployed in Battlegrounds, and It's more than good against the modern IFV's, But it's not a real threat to India when it's deployed to near border. but good for Ambushes only.

                    Pakistan is not known for Keeping good numbers of Main battle Tank, they have some less than thousand Modern Battle Tanks, nearly 300 Brand new T 80 from Ukraine, and some Pakistani Chinese Made Al Khalid MBT's.

             Mean Time India Have triple amount of Modern MBT's, and two new programs to increase the numbers. more than 300 Arjuns are under operational, nearly 1000 of MK 2 version planned, more than 1000 of T 90 in Operational. and 2500 modernized T 72 Ajeya Tanks.

                  But looks like The Pakistanis need a good numbers of MBT's o confront against the Indian Forces, mostly all of these Indian Tanks will be deployed along the Indo Pakistani Border, makes the Pakistani's pinned downed if war broken out. Pakistani's have no other options but increase the numbers of Battle Tank.

               Even if it is looked like Those T 55 procurement only for attacks against terrorist, but they frequently uses the Air power to defeat the Terrorists. but there is no way using those Tanks against Terrorists, because they easily can ambush if it was used in the Urban warfare. even though those terrorists uses huge size of IED's to break those Tanks from bottom end,

                The Pakistanis has the only option to Stop the Indian flotilla of Tanks by using latest generation Anti tank missiles, but the problem is no one ready to supply most sophisticated fire and forget Anti tank missiles to Pakistan. the Pakistanis uses the Chinese made  variant of HJ 8 Anti Tank missiles, which is good against older generation Tanks, The Modern Tanks comes with more defensive options from Armour upgrades to active protection system. also those HJ 8 uses the wire guidance which makes the Handler keep an eye of the target till the missile strike the Tank. which is not a good option in modern battlefields.

    But India also have the same wire guided missiles, but they have two other projects for fire and forget types, one is through procurement the Spike missile variants from Israel, another is home made Nag missile.

Indian Army Basic Fire Arm issue

Indian Army Basic Fire Arm issue 

Indian Army Para Commandos with TAR 21

      It's been addressed many times, even the last UPA regime and current BJP government, But still the Army using decades old AK series for Counter insurgency and faulty INSAS for conventional warfare. since problems in such fire arms the government bought only some numbers of modern assault rifles specially for special forces, those models include M 4 and TAR 21 models,

      And the army went for buy modern rifles from abroad, since the Indian versions still lacks the quality and manufacturing, Army shortlisted four international vendors and tested their models, but unfortunately all four failed in the High altitude conditions Janes reported. and the effective trails of multi caliber infantry weapon system  also put on forward, the Army also looking to place additional order of TAR rifles which were produced under license,

       So far Indian Army has more than  one million active soldiers. which divided into some 350+ battalions each comprising some 800 Soldiers, battalions also divided into four companies comprising 200 Soldiers for each company, which is also divided into three platoons, each having sixty Soldiers commanded by a Junior Commissioned officer, Here each soldiers specialized in his department whether Gunner, Marksman, Radio man,and Medic

      Actually each platoons have special Marksman Sniper Rifles, Anti Tank missiles, MANPAD's, Machine gunner and Assault team, when we looks their equipments, It's small shock since they using obsolete equipments, from Assault rifles to Anti tank guided missiles too, Here the level of shortage.

Assault Rifles for Army

the MCIWS which replaces the INSAS

       Assault Rifles are the first and foremost infantry fire arms, there is no replacements in the sight to change  where OFB comes with  MCIWS which is being in development stages, and the MCIWS is the only current Assault rifle in option to Replace the old INSAS, the MCIWS firstly revealed in the Def Expo 2014, and as of now three prototypes developed which is in development trails, the MCIWS can fire both 5.56mm and 7.62mm standard Rifles by  changing the Rifle Barrel only.

Carbines- CQB

Coast Guard with AMOGH 5.56mm

       Carbines are used for close battle situations, such as special operations, and counter insurgency. Indian Army using specialized variants of Ak series rifles for this role called AKM , and recently some good numbers of  M4 and TAR 21 bought by the Army for special operations.the CQB deal scrapped due to all the Four contenders Rifle Failed in some Trails, The Barretta ARX 160, TAR 21 and M4,  The OFB also presented it's AMOGH 5.56mm carbine, Some of the Coast Guard using AMOGH rifles as of Now.

Sniper

Dedicated Sniper Rifle .338 Laupua Magnum

        So far Army relay's on the vintage soviet era Sniper Rifle Dragnov, for Sniper ops and using Indian made Vidhwansak for Anti material use, since the Dragnov not effective to penetrate modern ballistic vests, the SVD is not actually a pure Sniper, It's a Designated Marksman Rifle only for Sharp shooting, It's time to modernize with new generation Sniper Rifles. earlier the NSG went for Heckler Hock  MSG 90 and some bough US made baretta M 82 .50 cal Modern Sniper, currently most of them uses .339 laupua magnum bullets operated sniper Rifles.

Machine Gun

IMI Negev 7.62mm LMG

   For continuous fire support, heavy friendly fire support and Suppressing fire gives boost to the friendly forces to allow and move their positions, changing their magazines and simulating targets. mean time enemy pinned down for continuous fire from our side, India operates some tri pod version of Heavy machine guns and some unknown numbers of Older version of PKM Light Machine guns, who is 7.62 mm Caliber, for battle support,Army also plans to replace those vintage MG with modern light weight Machine guns. as per known details most of the MARCOS,IAF Garuds ,swat teams of Punjab,chattisgarh,Octopus unit of hyderabad. who using the IWI Negev 7.62 Machine Guns, It's believed that Negev is going to replace all existing LMG from Indian Forces.

Anti Tanks

  Army uses second generation Milan ATGM, which will be replaced soon by more powerful Israeli made Spike ATGM systems, the ministry already cleared the deal, but no time line available about the delivery,

MANPAD

Army is in evaluation trails of new generation MANPAD system, since Army have only less numbers of soviet era Igla MANPADS, as per details the Army soon announce the winner and start negotiating about procuring some thousand plus systems. so far Russian made Igla S leading the Trails,

BFJ,Helmet and NVD

No informations available yet, since it's too many times the Ministry scrapped the deal of Helmets and BFJ, and no informations about the Night Vision devices.

mini UAV

Almost all other Army's have battlefield UAV's, Indian army also evaluating some Indian private company's UAV's, the American Raven UAV also in consideration.   

Project 15 Bravo Vishakpatnam Destroyer

Project 15 Bravo Visakhapatnam Destroyer

The Hull of P 15 B INS Vishakapatinam Destroyer

        Apart from the US Navy the Japenese become the second Biggest Navy, but the Chinese Sub merged platforms can give upper edge to the JMSDF, but no one can give good credits to Chinese Sub merged platforms, so the Japanese remains second, to fight against Chinese and Dominate the Indian Ocean Indian Navy need more powerful Destroyers, after the Delhi class and Rajput Class, Government plans to build more advanced Network centric Stealth guided Destroyers, hence the P 15 A the Kolkatha class ships born, by this project Navy would receive one Destroyer in each two years, after some delays the Navy getting those destroyers  now,

       The Indian Navy already receive first of the Kolkatha Class last year and get inducted and the second Ship Kochi is Expected to inducted in the Navy this year, and the final of P15 A the Chennai would be inducted in the coming Year,

    After that Indian Navy has another series more advanced Destroyers compared to the P15 Alpha, The P15 Bravo named Visakhapatnam class and it would be commissioned today, and can finish all trails and be deployed by 2018.

     In P15 B there were four ships planned each would be inducted into the navy with two years cap, Starts 2018 and end by 2024, compared to three ships in P 15.

    The P 15B Displacement mentioned at 7,300 tons lesser than 200 tons by P 15A, due to the more composite materials sleek design and Less Helicopter Facility, P15 A planned to carry two Helicopters but the P15 B will carry a Single SH 70 ASW, search and Rescue Multi role Helicopter.

  The Ships again to carry the More powerful Aegis alternate the Israeli MF STAR Fire Control Radar, which can guide the Ships Offensive and Defensive weapons and gives Target information's, the same MF STAR also the Main FCR in the P 15 A.

     The P 15 B comes with 32 VLS launch of Barak 8 and 16 VLS Launcher of Brahmos, as per Reports, but we can expect more numbers, that means additional 32 VLS Barak and 16 VLS Brahmos or the Nirbhay, and more Number for Maitri QR SAM expected to be 32 systems. also it have to be fitted with four AK 630 or SAM cum CIWS like Phalnx system, the information's not yet released.

   Also the Ship's main gun not yet to be Choose but the Finmccanica OTO Bereda  Naval Gun with Guided Shells may be win the deal, also no information about the RBU 6000 ASW launchers, some roumers also says the Ship can accommodate some Israeli Spike NLOS system for intercepting fast Attack Crafts and Speed Boats, a New method where most western countries are fitting the systems in their Ships.

  The Ship's Torpedo Launching capability is also unknown, but It's sure two or four Torpedo Launching Tubes would be Placed in the Ships, the same P15 A , Delhi class all equipped to launch four 533mm Torpedo's from the Deck.

    The Ships SONAR systems also not described which or what system would be selected the Indigenous Bow Mounted or Navy can import a foreign Bow Mounted SONAR. and no information about the crucial Towed Array SONAR, most of the Indian warships lacks this technology, even the P15 A yet to be receive the Towed Array SONAR. but as per SP's Article the TAS in P15 B comes without any delays, even they don't have the credible sources to prove it,

   The Entire Ship built with advanced Network Centric capabilities to fight in the Modern Battle field and can be work with more modern powerful Aircraft carriers, Nuclear Attack submarines and long range ASW planes like the P 8I.

    The sources also mentioned that the ship can sustain any kind of Nuclear Biological and Chemical Attacks, even most of the Ships designed to survive such attacks, but noting to say about this, but can these ships can survive when a Large scale EMP attack hit the Ships. Questions Remains.

      Also some sources said that Navy gets Help from Thales and IAI about the CMS (Combat Management Systems) Network centric Attack and co ordination also setting up the Radars to work even affected by the EMP.

  With long Questions yet to be answered which will be out in the Media's in coming Days. 

 

A Artistic Representation of Advanced Destroyer

A Delhi Class Destroyer

Rajput class Destroyer

INS Kolkatha a Kolkatha Class Destroyer

Spike ATGM

Spike Anti Tank Guided Missile

infantry equipped with Spike systems

Each and Every Infantry Battalions nowadays hold several Armour Piercing Equipments or an Special Weapon that would be a Anti material rifle or and man portable air defence missile or a anti tank guided missile which provide the infantry battalion group to fight against any tough conditions. while it gives Air cover and Armour cover.

The Indian Army too equiped with such sophisicated weapon systems like they have Anti material rifles the Russian made igla-s MANPAD system and the French supplied MILAN ATGM's. But everything would replaced at time to induct more lethal and modern system. and the Indian Army now plans to induct the Spike 4th Generation ATGM system who replaces the second generation Milan systems. 

There will be a Biggest game happens before shortlisting and sealing the Spike deal. the deal may be signed at the 2011. but the US dropped it's bombshell by announcing to join India to produce Next Generation Javelin Anti Tank missile system. the Javelin system is the primary ATGM for US ground forces and the Marines. which is also a Fourth gen system.

So Indian official looks through the US offer to co produce the next gen Javelin systems. but that deal becomes more tricky and takes more years than the scheduled date. the Forces finally opted the Israeli offer of Spike ofcourse with the ToT. and the Indian PSU company Bharath Dynamics Limited produced the Spike Missiles in India. the initial deal holds some 321 Missile Launcher tubes and Launching Equipments and some 8300 missiles and 15 training Simulators. as of now Indian army is authorized to field some 8500 ATGMs. 

Milan ATGM system

Initially the Spike missile will be fitted into the Indian Army BMP 2 Vehicles only. which is a IFV. the Army operating thousands of such Vehicles. that have already a 30mm cannon and an 7.62mm Rifle now the Spike will be Placed.  The Spike's LR version is the Vehicle mounted Version which can engage the Target in 4 KM range. and it can penetrate the 600mm thick armours.

The spike chooses the weak spot of the target and fly through a  lofted trajectory  and hit directly into the Weak spot of the target. The spike uses two different guidance system one is a Imaging Infrared seeker (IIR) which allows the missile can be used in Night Conditions and the laser wire guidance gives more accuracy to hit the target. the spike's warhead is the Tandem Charge heat which can penetrate the thick Armour then explode.

the Spike also can be used in the Remote weapon stations which can be mounted in a IFV or an Stationary outposts. The TATA kestral platform is a Good choice of mounting such RCWS weapon station along with a .50 cal or an 7.62 mm Machine gun. the Man portable and remote weapon station missiles can be produced after completing the initial procurement of  8000 missiles.

India also have an Indigenous program of building a ATGM. which is built by DRDO and BDL tey named the Missile as NAG which is a third generation missile System while DRDO added three different versions whose seeker only varying A wire guided a infrared guided and a Radar homing missile. the Army already inducted the Vehicle version of NAG which known as NAMICA the nag missile fitted in a BMP platform.

The Indian NAG missile Carrier Namica