News Story: Red tape and taxes put brakes on 'Make In India' push

By Megha BAHREE

When Saurabh Ahuja tried to import a $600 3D printer for manufacturing drones in his Delhi workshop, he ended up spending another $900 in taxes and bribes and waited three months for it to clear customs.

"We lack in technology and industry to make the smallest things, so we have to import," Ahuja said as he listed the frustrations entrepreneurs still encounter since the government launched its "Make In India" project.

"If my business grows, the country grows with me. But the government won't let me grow."

Since coming to power in 2014, Narendra Modi has been looking to overhaul India's image as an awkward country in which to do business and instead emulate China by becoming a global manufacturing hub.

In September that year, the right-wing premier unveiled "Make in India" as a flagship initiative which would have an "unprecedented overhaul of out-dated processes and policies" at its core.

The government has tried to woo investors by promising to simplify the tax regime and liberalise rules on foreign direct investment (FDI).

But in the World Bank's most recent chart ranking countries for their ease of doing business, India came 130th out of 190.

While much of the focus has been on the travails of foreign firms, local entrepreneurs who should be the poster boys of Indian manufacturing are also struggling.

Read the full story at TerraDaily

News Report: China Eyes Breakthrough R&D Defense Plan to Take on US Technological Dominance

Recently, China established a new central commission for joint military and civilian development. The new institution will be chaired by Chinese President Xi Jinping.

"The commission will be the central agency tasked with decision-making, deliberation and coordination of major issues regarding integrated military and civilian development," read an official statement issued by Xinhua news agency.

According to military expert Vasily Kashin, the fact that the commission is overseen by the Chinese leader proves that it is expected to play an important role in China’s far-reaching defense modernization plans.

The conception of integrated military and civilian development was first presented in China back in the 1980s, at the early stage of China’s economic reforms.

News Report: Lt. Gen. Bailey Says F-35, Closer Partnerships Will Enhance Operations in 2017

A US Marine F-35B Lightning in hover as it lands

By: Megan Eckstein

THE PENTAGON – Marine Corps operations are set for some big changes in 2017 with the deployment of the F-35B Joint Strike Fighter overseas, a move towards distributed operations as called for in the Marine Corps Operating Concept, and the potential addition of more ships to move Marines around high-threat areas, the deputy commandant for plans, policies and operations told USNI News.

As the Marines’ first operational squadron of F-35Bs prepares to move to Japan in the coming weeks, “we intend to fully incorporate the F-35 into the [U.S. Pacific Command] area of operations,” Lt. Gen. Ronald Bailey said in a Dec. 22 interview.

“When you start talking the things that it will do in terms of its range, its capacity, I think that will change the whole environment and change how we view not only exercises and operations but how we will train,” he said of the new airplane.

“So I call it a crawl, walk, run; we have to get out there and start learning some lessons, which we will. VMFA-121 will go out with 10 aircraft, and six additional aircraft will go out as part of the [31st Marine Expeditionary Unit’s fall patrol from Japan]. So they’ll get out on ground and just start doing what I call familiarization, and then they’ll learn some lessons from that. Then they’ll go and participate in a couple exercises in calendar year ’17; one of the exercises that they’re going to participate in the PACOM region will be in Alaska. … That’ll be approximately 6,000 Marines, sailors and soldiers that will be in the exercise, and it will give them the opportunity to get in the air and test its capability” in a contingency response-type exercise, he said.

The Alaskan exercise, called Exercise Northern Edge, is a U.S.-only biennial exercise that U.S. Pacific Command holds “to replicate the most challenging scenarios in the Pacific theater to ensure joint U.S. forces are trained and prepared to respond to crises in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region, with over 6,000 U.S. service members and 200 aircraft from across the continental United States and Asian-Pacific,” Bailey’s office explained.

Additionally, the F-35 is expected to participate in Exercise Forager Fury in Guam this calendar year, and in Exercises Ssang Yong and Max Thunder in the Republic of Korea, Exercises Pitch Black and Southern Frontier in Australia, and Exercises Forager Fury and Valiant Shield in Guam in 2018.

Bailey said bringing the aircraft to the Pacific allows the squadron to exercise in training ranges much larger than those available at home, and eventually it will allow the squadrons to begin testing interoperability with allies in the area such as Japan and Australia.

For the time being, these allies won’t work directly with the F-35B but instead will open their airspace for training purposes. Once the Marine Corps learns best practices and gets farther along in writing tactics, techniques and procedures, then the service will begin sharing lessons learned with its allies – such as Japan and Australia, who are both buying the F-35A conventional take-off variant.

Megan Eckstein is a staff writer for USNI News. She previously covered Congress for Defense Daily and the U.S. surface navy and U.S. amphibious operations as an associate editor for Inside the Navy.

This story first appeared on USNI News & is reposted here under a Creative Commons license.

News Story: UN chief calls for eradicating weapons of mass destruction "once and for all"

UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 23 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday stressed the need to seriously refocus attention on nuclear disarmament, and called for the eradication of the weapons of mass destruction "once and for all."

Addressing an open debate of the UN Security Council on "non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction," the secretary-general noted that eliminating weapons of mass destruction was one of the founding principles of the United Nations and it was in fact the subject of the first resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly.

"I call on all States to focus on one overriding truth: the only sure way to prevent the human, environmental and existential destruction these weapons can cause, is by eradicating (these weapons) once and for all," Ban said.

"We -- the international community -- must ensure the disarmament and non-proliferation framework is universally and completely implemented, and is resilient and versatile enough to grapple with the changing environment," he said.

The success in preventing the spread of weapons of mass destruction offers some comfort and that multilateral treaties, including the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the Chemical Weapons Convention, the Biological Weapons Convention, and instruments, including Security Council Resolution 1540, are "robust and tested," Ban said.

Adopted in 2004, Resolution 1540 affirms that the proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and their means of delivery constitutes a threat to international peace and security.

The challenges to the disarmament and non-proliferation architecture are growing, the secretary-general said, adding that technological advances have made means of production and methods of delivery of these weapons easier and more accessible.

Read the full story at Xinhua

News Story: No plans for killer US military robots... yet

ACTUV: The USA's future Anti-Submarine Drone Ship

By Thomas WATKINS

Robotic systems and unmanned vehicles are playing an ever-growing role in the US military -- but don't expect to see Terminator-style droids striding across the battlefield just yet.

A top Pentagon official on Wednesday gave a tantalizing peek into several projects that not long ago were the stuff of science fiction, including missile-dodging satellites, self-flying F-16 fighters and robot naval fleets.

Though the Pentagon is not planning to build devices that can kill without human input, Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Work hinted that could change if enemies with fewer qualms create such machines.

"We might be going up against a competitor that is more willing to delegate authority to machines than we are, and as that competition unfolds we will have to make decisions on how we best can compete," he said.

Work, who helps lead Pentagon efforts to ensure the US military keeps its technological edge, described several initiatives, including one dubbed "Loyal Wingman" that would see the Air Force convert an F-16 warplane into a semi-autonomous and unmanned fighter that flies alongside a manned F-35 jet.

"It is going to happen," Work said of this and other unmanned systems.

"I would expect to see unmanned wingmen in the air first, I would expect to see unmanned systems undersea all over the place, I would expect to see unmanned systems on the surface of the sea," Work told an audience at a discussion in the capital hosted by The Washington Post.

The US military has over the past 15 years invested heavily in unmanned drone technology, used to surveil vast parts of the Middle East and Africa and sometimes conduct deadly strikes -- though remote human operators decide when to fire.

Read the full story at SpaceDaily

Think Tank: The changing face of warfare in the 21st century

Audrey Kurth Cronin

Warfare is changing, and not just in the most obvious and visible ways. Yes, there are new technologies, newly assertive foes, and new ideologies. But to fully understand how it’s evolving, you must examine the broader context in which we are fighting.

There are tectonic shifts underway, gradual yet persistent, that we rarely think about as being a part of war. Yet they directly affect what our armed forces face on the battlefield, now and into the future. Here are two underappreciated dimensions of change.

First, mobilisation. There’s been a transformation in the means and ends of mobilisation—i.e., how we tap into the popular passion that is the engine of war. This point isn’t new: I first wrote about it ten years ago, calling it ‘cybermobilisation.’

Think Tank: Flight Path (10-Mar-2015)

By Palmo Tenzin

This week’s post discusses the implications of UAV exports, F-35 production, the future of warfare, swarming and 3D printing.

Last week, we discussed the US export policy for unmanned aerial systems. This week, we look at the implications of that policy. Not surprisingly, US industry has welcomed the news. In Aviation Week Northrop Grumman’s Chairman and CEO, Wes Bush, argued cooperation with allies was a necessary part of future drone development. And the Council on Foreign Relations reported last year that ‘Russia, China, Iran, South Korea, and Taiwan, for example, have begun developing increasingly sophisticated indigenous [armed] drone capabilities’, with many more countries publicising intent for future development or purchase.

While fears of drone proliferation via the US export policy have been slightly subdued by the inclusion of ‘principles of proper use’, questions remain about how those principles will be implemented and monitored. Also, and potentially more problematic, are the specific constraints contained in the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR). While the debate continues, it’s interesting to reflect on a 2014 piece by Sarah Kreps, who warned that the US needs to carefully consider the precedent it’s establishing in the use and export of armed drones.