Despite Indian pressure, US agrees to sell F 16 to Pakistan

Despite Indian pressure, US agrees to sell F 16 to Pakistan

     Even after heavy pressure from Indian side the Obama led US government agrees to sell upto eight new F 16 block 52 fighters to Pakistan, by saying the additional number of fighter jets helps Pakistan to fight against terrorism, The new F 16 foreign military sales program was earlier blocked by the US congress members, However the president office over ruled and passed the contract.

    US and India comes very close in recent years, India almost stopped some key projects with Russia, due to the increased Russian Chinese relationship. In case of war the US and it's allies are the only hope to help the Indians, same like in 1962.

     So it's the US who also accept Indian interest of not getting close to Pakistan, Earlier once India heavily opposed the American plan of gifting all the used MRAP and other armored vehicles in Afghan war to  Pakistan. US assured India that they will not going to gift the used Armour vehicles to Pakistan.

    After that there is no good military sales was signed between US and Pakistan, however last year US sold AH 1 Z viper attack helicopter and hundreds of anti armor missiles to Pakistan, India didn't reacted about that AH 1 Z FMS deal. despite Indian signature of Ah 64 deal. 

    When Pakistan asks US to new F 16 fighters to strike against terrorists, India heavily opposed, not only India, many US lawmakers and peoples also opposed the deal,  this makes US to review the deal once again, Many of them from US congress suggested the US government to block further military assistance to Pakistan.

      Pakistan failed to react against terrorists, meantime they fueling them to fight against India and Afghan. It's well known that Pakistan is the birth place of world terrorism. The reason why India and many others concerned about the new F 16 sale.

     Pakistani's uses the F 16 only against India, not against terrorists, that's known to every one, Pakistan fools the International community by saying their fighter struck the Terrorists emplacements close to swat, However they failed to show evidences.

     The proposed sale consists of eight new F 16 block 52 fighter, comprised of two F 16 C variants/trainers and six F 16 D fighters, at the estimated value of some $700 millions, However the DSCA statement didn't mentions about any missile or weapon sale along with the F 16 fighters 

     Many law makers in the US congress surprised about the president's office decision of supplying the fighter jets, even after despite pressure from US Congress sponsored think tanks. The republican senators and other law makers told media, that they are going to over rule the decision and tries to block the white house decision.

    India also summoned US ambassador to India Richard varma, by saying "displeasure and disappointment” over Obama administration’s decision to sell F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan.“We are disappointed at the decision of the Obama administration to notify the sale of F-16 aircraft to Pakistan. We disagree with their rationale that such arms transfers help to combat terrorism.“The record of the last many years in this regard speaks for itself,” the MEA statement said.

     Meanwhile Indian defense minister Parrikar also said media, that they were in talks with USA to block the F 16 sale to Pakistan, by saying we still have options.

Missiles, Bombs and Tanks, Russia punishing Syrian Rebel groups

Missiles, Bombs and Tanks, Russia punishing Syrian Rebel groups

    After the tactical air deployment, Russia now moves to intensify the attack on Syrian rebels and ISIS terrorists. as last week Russia started firing the Long range cruise missile from Caspian sea, which is close to Russian mainland. the long range cruise missiles hits the rebel positions very closely making severe damages to the rebels defensive positions. and the strike allows the Syrian regime forces advance towards the Rebels positions in northern Aleppo, a Syrian rebels stronghold.

    The Russians provided tactical air support, missile strikes and close air support to the Syrian Regime to recapture the ground, the Russians never sends it's ground troops or special forces to support the Syrian army. however they covers the regime forces from the air, by using Mi 24 P attack helicopters armed with cannons and unguided Rockets. more than four Mi 24 P fly very low and provided close air support to the Syrian Regime forces.

    The Offensive is not a success till now, even with the Russian Air support. Syrian Rebels ambushing the Regime Tank columns in every positions. the Rebels has Saudi supplied US made second generation TOW anti armor missiles, and Russian made Konkrus missiles. they used those missiles and ambushed the Syrian armors. as first day of offensive, Syrian ground troops lost more than twenty armored vehicles. which include BMP and T 72 Main battle tanks. the Rebels too suffered causalities, only because of the Russian gunships. the Saudi and West denied to supply MANPAD's to the Syrian Rebels, if they have MANPAD's they surely destroy all flying close air support helicopters.

    The Offensive continued the next day too, the Russians dropped cluster munitions and laser guided munitions. the coordinated attack forced the Rebels to withdraw from the northern Aleppo stronghold. however both Syrian army and Syrian rebels suffered very much, and the ISIS used the chance, they suddenly comes from the northern side and capture the battle zone, and now ISIS gains the northern Aleppo grounds. and Russian, Syrian, Iranian forces striking the same Aleppo as third day.

     The Aleppo offensive comes with a coordinated strike, Russian Air support, Iranian Tactical support and Syrian ground support, yet they loose the captured ground to ISIS. during the offensive the Rebels scored high value hit. they killed the Iranian Revolutionary guard commander Brig Gen Hossein. he is the one who commanded all the Iranian activities inside Syria, more than 2000 Iranian light infantry Soldier operating under his command, killing the general is a big victory to the Rebel side. however it's still unknown who killed the Iranian General whether the ISIS or the Syrian rebels.

    The Russians using what Americans doing inside Iraq, the known good offensive is the coordinated attack over ISIS grounds in Tikrit, the Tikrit battle is one of the Biggest battle in the 2015, led by the US Air force, US Military advisers, Iranian Ground troops headed by Gen Qasem, and the Iraqi soldiers, the offensive spearheaded by the US. the US and British air strikes who supported the Ground troops push towards the ISIS stronghold, makes a wonderful victory, 

    however the same is not working with the Russian air support, even the FSA don't have any anti sir capabilities, also it's clear the US spearheaded operation held by two phases and lasted more than a month, so we have to wait for a month to conclude how much the Russian air strike proving.

   Russia not only attacking the Syrian Rebel positions in Aleppo, their Fighter aircraft dropping Satellite guided bombs over ISIS positions too, Raqqa is the ISIS's stronghold in Syria, which is way longer from the Syrian capital, and no sight of coordinated strikes over ISIS positions in  Raqqa, Syria and Russia planned for retake the western side first before entering towards ISIS positions, the Russian air strikes will continue in coming days as Russian Military leaders said, and it could be major war against ISIS, and Syrian Rebels.

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

Countering Chinese S 400

Countering Chinese S 400

      It's been confirmed that Russia deliver first batch of S 400 Advanced Air Defense systems to China, the First batch comes with a Single Battalion, while China ordered Eight battalions to protect it's Territory from any Airborne Targets, A single battalion of S 400 comes with  set of 8 Missile  lunchers, a command and control post, Resupply vehicle, and a Powerful Radar and Fire control System. 

   Unlike other modern Missile systems like American PAC 3 and Indo Israeli Barak NG, the S 400 remains most powerful long range Air defense missile, it's hard to penetrate through any kind of modern anti radiation missile system, while China plans to field it's first  S 400 Battalions near Taiwan makes entire Taiwan comes under Chinese S 400 umbrella.

         The Powerful S 400 bird acquisition Radar named 92N6 can capable of detecting any flying objects at the radius of some 400 kilometers, which cover almost entire Taiwanese Air space, from Chinese mainland. it's believed that the new Radar can capable to withstand powerful jamming too, also one can't jam the Radar from Standoff distance, the source of the jammer should be near to the Radar to make the Jamming makes problems in the Radar.

      The Israeli's the only one who flown successfully above the S 300 system and it's Bird acquisition radar, even from their experience it's bit difficult to manage jamming the S 300 Radar, but the new Radar comes with S 400 even more powerful than the older system, So there is no option to defeat the Chinese Air defense umbrella , it's the Threat to Taiwan now, but sure the threat expanded to New Delhi in coming years,  means China eventually field more systems, the Eight Battalions of S 400 gives good coverage from their Enemy's air asserts.

      The Deployment planned as each for, Taiwan, Senaku Diayou, Sparatly Parcel, South China sea, Tibetan AR, another for Protect their mainland.

        The Taiwan Already stocking bunch of Anti Radiation missiles, but they need to approach the S 400 systems. also it's hard to find the Radar posts in the Battalion, like some eight launchers positioned some 10 mile Radius and Radar and command post inside the heart of the circle, so first It's hard to find the Radar.

     Second, Even if you managed to fly very low without detected, The S 400 contingent comes with three different  missile sets, first one Specially for ABM, it can't engage other air borne targets mainly one of two launchers comes with Such missiles, another set comes with Long Range interception, can intercept any kind of flying object within 200km Range, that means which can kill even smaller Loitering UAV's to Heavy Stealth Bombers, since that uses semi active radar Homing. it can kill almost all flying wings, one should remember China has good numbers of land based CIWS. to protect high value threats from enemy attacks.

       Interestingly, the S 400 systems Radar can track the Stealth Objects such as American high end B 2 Bomber and F 22 Fighter, once the missile gets command and inputs from radar, missile itself goes and kill the Target, also known as fire and forget mode, but its hard to the missile can find the Stealth targets such as F 22 and B 2, meaning  the same semi active radar guided missile easily jammable by most American systems, like E 2 D and other AEWCS planes, even the F 18 G growler can jam the missile, with the stealth and high ECM Characteristics it's difficult to get target lock because those missile uses Radar homing for Target lock.

      Without proper AEWCS support, the Chinese can't achieve the Kill, so the system is same like the other , another set in the battalion comes with even smaller  range missile variant, which also perform same characteristics but even more powerful for engage low flying objects, this missile uses Active Radar Homing, which can be counter-able.

       So the Chinese S 400 good for ABM only, but only good Pilots with supported Fighters and Planes can defeat such high end Radar system, like only Americans have such good systems to defeat the Chinese S 400.

        If the same battalion fielded into Tibet or near to Indian borders, It's clear we don't have the option to kill the S 400, we don't have enough number of dedicated Jamming Fighters, No Stealth Fighters, no good ARM missiles, so India need a Decade to makes it's muscle stronger to defeat the S 400. while China gets all it's S 400 before 2018.  

Indo American Para Drop Aero India 2015

Indo American Para Drop Aero India 2015

US Army Soldier Helps Indian Para to wear the Parachute

       It was during 2004, Bush administration and Indian Defense officials concluded a pact to counter the growing threat from China, US was also keen on checking the Chinese influence in South Asia. With a common interest both the countries signed several deals strengthening the ties between the countries. To share the enhanced warfare knowledge, USA and India agreed to be involved in joint military exercises on a yearly basis.  With formalities completed the joint exercises was named ‘Yudh Abhyas’ which in English meant ‘training for war’. The exercise involved both the elite forces from Indian and American forces which mandated them to carry out small counter insurgency threat exercise to large scale nuclear attack exercise. This is believed to have drastically helped improve the capabilities of the forces.

        These exercises would last for 15 to 30 days. ‘Yudh Abhyas’ was hosted by both the Indian and American counterparts. The strength of force involved varied from 60 to 300, this included the Infantry fighting vehicles, para jumping forces, Lone attack and CRBNE (chemical, radiological, biological, nuclear, and high-yield explosives). The last episode of Yudh Abhyas exercise was hosted by the Indian forces in Uttrakand.




        It was during the Aero India 2015 that pulic got a taste of what the forces would practise in a joint operation. The crowd was being thrilled by various jaw dropping manoeuvres being displayed by various fighter aircraft and helicopters. The crowd spotted a huge aircraft and the better part of crowd identified the plane as the Boeing C 17 Globematser. It was off course an US Air force Pacific commands C 17 Globematser, the aircraft flew over Yelenkha graciously and leaned out to make a sharp turn. What followed were the scenes of drop of unknown packages from the belly door of the C17. The sky was soon lit up with small dots which started to steer down towards the crowd.  When the packages neared the rendezvous, the crowd realized it was the elite Special Forces of the Indian Army and American forces. Dressed up in black jump suits and armed with their firearms the soldiers skilfully glided towards the rendezvous and quietly walked after putting a mind blowing show. Soon the elite forces attended a press conference and briefed the media about the joint operation. Indian Army’s 2nd Parachute regiment and U.S. Army Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 1st Special Forces Group was involved in the para drop. 

       Any information regarding the operation is classified and not much information is known about the mission other than the data shared by the SF’s in the press conference. Not even the information regarding the base of the Indian Army team and NSG forces involved in the operation is known. The C 17 may have been from the pacific command which has its HQ in Japan and Guam Island.

Indian Soldiers boarding into an USAF C 17, Location seems Yelenkha

NSG and Para Soldiers Boarding an another C 17 location unknown

US Army, Indian Army and NSG onboard an USAF C 17

Team Leader mission Briefing to the USAF C 17 Pilots

Army and NSG Soldiers walking for the Para Jump

Soldiers performing Para Jumping from an C 17

but the US Army released photos to the Public which was shot by Airman 1st Class Stephen G.Eigel


Editor Karthik Kakoor