News Report: India, Japan Expected to Increase Maritime Activity Aimed at China

Ralph Jennings

TAIPEI, TAIWAN — India and Japan, anxious to keep Asia’s dominant power Beijing in check, may send patrols into the contested South China Sea or sell arms to rival states following a pair of high-level meetings this month, experts say.

Both Asian countries could sell or donate more weapons to China’s rival maritime claimants, such as Vietnam, so they can build a defense against Beijing. Japan may also use coast guard or naval ships to patrol the sea to show it’s open despite China’s claim to some 90 percent of it.

India will probably continue joint exploration with Vietnam for oil and gas under the 3.5 million-square-kilometer sea, analysts say.

“Delhi and Tokyo have both been stepping up their capacity-building efforts in the region, with Japan focused mainly on providing patrol vessels and training for Southeast Asian states and India selling arms to and training the Vietnamese navy,” said Gregory Poling, director of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative of the American think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies.

News Report: Has India Secretly Supplied Vietnam with 6,000-pound Supersonic Missiles?

Vietnamese state media claim Hanoi and New Delhi not only agreed on a deal to send BrahMos supersonic projectiles to Hanoi, but also say the weapons have been delivered. India’s Ministry of External Relations, though, denies such a deal exists.

When asked specifically about the acquisition of the BrahMos, Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Thi Thu Hang said on August 18 “the procurement of defense equipment by Vietnam is consistent with the policy of peace and self-defense and is the normal practice in self-defense.”

India’s External Relations Ministry said reports of BrahMos cruise missiles reaching Hanoi were “incorrect” August 22. 

Whether the deal has been completed could have major strategic implications. First, the short-range ramjet supersonic cruise missile has a 600-kilometer range that puts some Chinese-owned features in the South China Sea in range. The level of tension between Hanoi and Beijing peaked recently when the People’s Liberation Army threatened to attack Vietnamese posts in the South China Sea if a joint venture between Hanoi and Madrid to explore oil fields there wasn’t called off.

News Story: Indian army test-fires advanced version of Brahmos cruise missile

Original Brahmos land-attack cruise missile

NEW DELHI, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Indian army successfully test-fired an advanced version of Brahmos cruise missile on Tuesday, state-run broadcaster All India Radio (AIR) said Wednesday.

The Brahmos land-attack cruise missile was test-fired in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the broadcaster said, adding, "The land-to-land configuration of the missile was launched from a mobile autonomous launcher."

A senior army officer was quoted as saying that the test-firing of the missile demonstrated the weapon's unmatched lethality of hitting the center of a designated target with bull's eye precision.

Read the full story at Xinhua

News Report: Rolls-Royce Opens Service Center for Defense Forces in India

Rolls-Royce has opened a new defense service delivery center in Bengaluru. The first-of-its-kind center, outside the US and the UK, will provide localized engineering support and solutions for the Indian defense forces and public sector enterprise Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL).

New Delhi (Sputnik) – The center was officially inaugurated by Dominic McAllister, British Deputy High Commissioner, Bengaluru, with the senior leadership of Rolls-Royce from the region and the wider Asia-Pacific region present.

“We put our customers at the heart of our business, and the opening of our first Service Delivery Centre in India demonstrates our commitment to be closer to our customers to ensure they get the best possible aftermarket support and outstanding customer service which they have come to expect from us,” Lee Doherty, Senior Vice-President- Defence, Asia-Pacific at Rolls-Royce, said in a statement.

Rolls-Royce is looking to improve capability and provide faster front-line support for over 750 engines in a range of aircraft used by the defense as well as commercial aircraft such as the C-130J, Hawk advanced jet, Embraer and Jaguar, among others.

News Story: Indian navy test-fires land-attack Brahmos missile

INS Teg (File Photo)

NEW DELHI, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Indian navy Friday test-fired land-attack supersonic cruise missile Brahmos, defense officials said.

"Indian navy successfully undertook the firing of Brahmos land attack supersonic cruise missile from a ship today," a defense spokesman said. "This variant of long range Brahmos missile was fired from Indian naval ship Teg, a guided missile frigate, on a target on land."

Read the full story at Xinhua

India: India-Russia Military Industrial Conference

Minister of Defence, Finance and Corporate Affairs Shri Arun Jaitley while inaugurating the India-Russia Military Industrial Conference here today said relations with Russia are a key pillar of India’s foreign policy and Russia has been India’s long standing time-tested strategic partner since the last 70 years. The Minister stated that since the signing of the India-Russia Strategic Partnership in 2000, ties between the two sides have acquired new heights with enhanced level of cooperation in almost all areas including defence. Shri Jaitley further added that India-Russia Military Technical Cooperation has graduated from a simple buyer-seller relation to one involving joint research, development and production of advanced defence systems. The Brahmos Missile System as well as the licensed production of SU-30 in India are examples of such flagship cooperation, he emphasised. He called upon Russian companies to come forward for technology transfer to Indian companies and facilitate manufacturing of components/ parts and sub-systems at least for those cases where the requirement is in large numbers and is recurring in nature. The Minister was of the opinion that there is tremendous potential for collaboration between Indian and Russian companies for export, so as to become part of the global supply chain. 

News Report: Seven Countries Mull Buying Russian Su-30MKI With BrahMos Cruise Missiles

Six countries in Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Middle East consider buying Russia’s new Sukhoi Su-30MKI fighter jets armed with BrahMos cruise missiles, BrahMos Aerospace representative Previn Pahtak told Sputnik.

Chief executive of the Indian-Russian joint venture, Sudhir Mishra, earlier said that the test launch of an airborne version of the Supersonic BrahMos cruise missile from an Su-30MKI was slated within the next two months.

“We have requests from seven countries in Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Middle East, which already have Su-30s. They keep a close eye on the ongoing trials and once we are through, we are going to have many new buyers,” Previn Pahtak said.

He added that BrahMos Aerospace could simultaneously supply airborne cruise missiles for the Indian Air Force and customers abroad.