Manoj Ambat's Blog dealing with Defence, Foreign Affairs, Strategic Affairs and Politics

North Korean KN-08 Missile ( Credits- Internet Image) Source- The Diplomat Author- 38 North / John Schilling This article was first published at  38 North , a blog of the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins SAIS. It is republished with kind permission. The past year might seem to have been one of conspicuous inactivity in North Korea’s long-range rocket program. The last flight test was the December 2012 launch of an Unha-3 carrying North Korea’s first successful satellite. Since then we have seen only the usual Scuds and Nodongs and possibly an improved variant of the short-range, solid-fueled KN-02 “Toksa.” The Musudan and KN-08 missiles so proudly displayed in July 2013 have not been seen since, and neither has been flight tested. In short, one might be tempted to conclude that the regime has given up its pursuit of long-range weapons. But conspicuous inactivity can mask quiet activity, visible mainly to the sort of people who spend their hours scrutinizing satel

Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / Author- United States Military Source- The Russia & India Report Author- Rakesh Krishnan Simha  n the Russian view, there is another serious threat that should be discussed: Pakistan. Pakistan is a nation with nuclear weapons, various delivery systems and a domestic situation that is highly unstable. Russia assesses that Islamists are not only seeking power in Pakistan but are also trying to get their hands on nuclear materials. – Wikileaks, November 2010. The Russian assessment of the Pakistani nuclear threat has to be seen in the backdrop of Islamabad’s insecurity-fuelled weapons programme. The country has not only cranked up its production of nuclear warheads, it is doing so primarily in the area of battlefield nuclear weapons designed for use against the Indian Army’s armour and troop concentrations. While Pakistan’s strategic arsenal is said to be under constant scrutiny by US intelligence agencies, the tactical warheads wil

Chinese Air Craft Carrier Liaoning-CV16 ( Image credits- Internet Pic) Source- Want China Times In response to a New York Times pieces by Gregg Easterbrook on March 9, China's nationalist tabloid the Global Times, wrote a commentary of its own, saying that China is capable of defeating the US Navy in the Western Pacific with anti-ship missiles built at low prices. In Easterbrook's article, he said that China currently possesses only one outdated, conventionally-powered aircraft carrier and is rumored to be constructing two others. However, neither of those two vessels are likely to be nuclear supercarriers according to the author. Also, Easterbrook questions whether those two domestic carriers have "blue water" or open ocean-going capabilities. He said that the US Navy is more powerful than all other navies in the world combined in terms of aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines, naval aviation, surface firepower, assault ships, missiles and logistics

Augusta Submarine ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / Author- Yannik Le Bris) Source- The Diplomat Author- Franz Stefan- Gady Back in 2012, Pakistan announced the creation of a Naval Strategic Force Command and hinted that the country now possessed a sea-based second nuclear strike capability. Today, almost three years later, Pakistan’s alleged maritime deterrent continues to puzzle analysts. The overall consensus of opinion is that the country has not acquired a sea-based second nuclear strike capability just yet. Another thing that most experts agree is that the delivery vehicle of an ocean-launched Pakistani nuclear warhead would be a submarine-launched variant of the Hatf-7 (Babur) cruise missile. According to a 2013 policy brief on Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program, Pakistan already indicated in 2005, when the missile was first tested, that the system was designed to deploy in submarines. The Hatf-7 is a medium-range subsonic cruise missile with a reported

F-35 in wind tunnel tests ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons) Source- The Diplomat Author- Franz-Stefan Gady The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter will not receive the software package required to operate the Pentagon’s top close-air support bomb until 2022, according to military.com. The article also stated that the JSF office already had discovered earlier that the precision-guided air-dropped Small Diameter Bomb II (SDB II) does not fit onto Joint Strike Fighter Marine Corps variant without modifications to the aircraft’s weapons bay. Yet the Department of Defense will wait until the F-35 B (the Marine Corps variant of the F-35) reaches initial operability before modifying the F-35’s armament bay, since the weapon will be useless without the right software package. The various systems of the plane require more than 10 billion individual lines of code, all of which are broken down by the developers into individual blocks numbered 1 to 4, then further subdivided into

Euro Fighter Typhoon ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / Source- Airlines.net, Gordon Zammit Photography) Source- The Defence World The United Kingdom is ready to offer Eurofighter aircraft if India scraps deal to acquire French Rafale jets, UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said Thursday. British authorities are aware that the “deal with Dassault has not gone smoothly,” Hammond was quoted as saying by Sputnik News on Thursday. The UK sees this as an opportunity to offer Eurofighters if India opens an official competitive bidding, Hammond added. The Eurofighter Typhoon is a multirole fighter aircraft jointly produced by three companies based in United Kingdom, Germany and Spain, and Italy. Hammond is currently on a two-day trip to India. He said he has not raised the issue with Indian authorities in the course of the ongoing meetings. India chose France’s Dassault Aviation in 2012 to supply it with 126 Rafale fighter jets, scrapping a rival proposal from the produc

Image credits- RT.com Source- The Diplomat Author- Andrew Collier, Arthur Peng and Abigail Collier  China has been increasingly willing to help countries experiencing financial distress. This is part of a larger attempt to follow President Xi Jinping’s desire to make China “more engaged with the world.” Stepping in to help Russia would be another notch in China’s bailout belt. However, despite China’s increased economic support for Russia, China’s support is likely to remain indirect and limited. Chinese bank loans and natural resource imports have provided Russia with some substantial economic advantages. Despite energy demand sinking to its lowest level since 1992, China’s imports from Russia have climbed in price and volume. This has been accompanied by Beijing’s promises for substantial infrastructure projects and long-term agreements. Likewise, several Chinese banks, including the Export-Import Bank of China, Bank of Harbin, China Export & Credit Insurance, a

Credits- Internet Image Source- Want China Times The cruise missile DH-10 may be China's deadliest, stealthiest weapon, according to a report from US monthly Popular Science. The missile deserves much more attention than the DF-15 and DF-21, two of China's ballistic missiles, said the report. The PLA could attack Pacific targets, such as Hawaii, with the missile if it is carried by an H-6K bomber. The Chinese military could also attack a target across 90% of the world's land mass if the missile was launched from a 052D guided missile destroyer and Type 0930A nuclear attack submarine. The 1-1.5 ton missile, debuted during China's National Day Parade in 2009, has an attack range of 2,500km and can hit targets as small as a garage door, said the report. The variety of payloads that can be loaded into the missile is one of its greatest strengths. It can carry, for example, 500kg of highly explosive warheads, submunitions, nuclear warheads and fuel air

Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / Author- Ranjith Mohan Today will probably go down as a the darkest day in the history of Kerala Assembly. There was mayhem  inside the assembly. The reason being that the finance minister of the state who is tainted by the corruption charges was hell bent of presenting the budget. Now what made the situation more chaotic is the fact that the opposition had stated that this will not allowed and they wanted somebody else to present the budget. This seemed to be a legitimate demand as the minister could have easily stepped aside and could have come back after clearing his name. But it seems his ego played the better of him.  What as a citizen enrages me more is the fact that these leaders once they get elected thinks that it is their fundamental right to do what they want with scant regard for the common who on the first place had elected them. They think they are above and beyond the law. What else can explain the crass regard for the well

Image credits- Xinhua Source- Want China Times Despite opposition from the United States and the Philippines, China has begun to build an airstrip on Fiery Cross Reef in the disputed South China Sea, according to a satellite image released recently, the Shanghai-based Guancha Syndicate reports. Jen Psaki, spokeswoman for the US Department of State, openly criticized China's extensive land reclamation in South China Sea at a press conference on March 9, saying it is causing great anxiety among neighboring countries in the Southeast Asia who are concerned that China plans to establish military facilities on reclaimed islands and reefs for the People's Liberation Army to more strongly assert its dominance over the disputed region, which China claims in its entirety. The satellite image taken on March 10 shows a grey straight line on the northeast corner of Fiery Cross Reef in the Spratlys, known as Yongshu Reef in Chinese. The size of a lake on the island is also

Liaoning CV-16 ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons) Source- The National Interest Author- Zachary Keck The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is building its second aircraft carrier, several senior Chinese military officials have confirmed, a Hong Kong daily is reporting. On Monday, Taiwan Focus News Channel cited the Chinese-language The Hong Kong Commercial Daily in reporting that China has begun work on its second aircraft carrier, which will have a more advanced launch system the one currently used on China’s only aircraft carrier, the Liaoning. According to Taiwan Focus News Channel, the initial report cited Liu Xiaojiang, the former political commissioner of the PLA Navy, as saying that the “government's industrial and manufacturing agencies are now in charge of the ship's construction.” The report also cited Ding Haichun, who was promoted to the position of deputy political commissioner of the PLA Navy back in January, as confirming that China’s second a