The Zardari government stalled a crucial deal with Germany for the purchase of submarines this year. And the main reason is that the Germans pay less commissions than the French, with whom Mr. Zardari has had a good prior experience, if French media reports are to be believed. Most observers agree Pakistan will pay dearly for not purchasing German submarines. India is using this Pakistani complacency to the hilt.
By Makhdoom Babar
Editor-in-Chief
(Additional reporting by Christina Palmer and Ajay Mehta in New Delhi)
WHILE the Pakistani Presidential palaces are echoing with blames on the President Asif Zardari for receiving high volume kickbacks in a deal to purchase Agosta Submarines from France for the use of Pakistan Navy, a long ago, country’s nuclear arch rival India is preparing to counter not only Pakistan navy but also the Chinese Navy in the region’s deep water through multi billion dollars endeavors with Israel, Russia, France etc and is set to come up with a supreme naval force in the coming few years, overpowering the might of both the Pakistani and Chinese Navies, reveal the latest finding of The Daily Mail.
India has a couple of days back, signed a new defence deal with Israel worth more than one billion US dollars through which Israel Aerospace Industries Limited would provide India with Barak-8 anti-missile and anti-aircraft system to be installed on Indian Naval Warships.
The Daily Mail’s findings further indicate that earlier, in one of the largest Indo-Israeli defense deals to date, the Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) agreed to provide 2,000 of the latest version of its Barak surface-to-air missile at an estimated price tag of US$1.4 billion. Under the terms of the agreement, a third of the value of the deal will be spent or invested in India, where the IAI will make offsetting purchases from Tata.
These findings reveal that the Mumbai-based multinational’s wholly owned subsidiary Tata Advanced Systems (TASL) is forging a direct partnership relationship with the IAI that is expected to be wide-ranging, involving missiles, drones, radars, electronic warfare systems and homeland security systems, all areas of Israeli defense industry specialization.
Under the deal,, the IAI confirmed that it would develop and manufacture seaborne and shore-based Barak anti-missile systems.
“The Barak has been fielded operationally by the Israeli navy for more than 15 years It has been refined over time and it could well be attractive for certain land-based applications”, says STRATFOR military analyst Nathan Hughes.
The IAI deal comes shortly after an agreement between the Israel Military Industries (IMI) and India’s state-owned Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) for the building of five munitions factories in the next three years in the Indian state of Bihar. The IMI has pledged to utilize both Israeli and Indian sub-contractors in the fabrication of the artillery munitions plants.
The IMI boasts that it is experienced in the production of both “western and eastern calibers,” of tank and artillery munitions, an important selling point for India given its long-established mass defense procurement relationship with Russia.
The Daily Mail’s investigations reveal that though Israel remains the biggest defense supplier to India, New Delhi continues to maintain its close ties with Russians for the defence supplies.
This findings indicate that Delhi has increased its Defense Budget to the tunes of billions of dollars, hiding behind the notions of ‘Defence Needs’ India is all set to introduce its new Naval Doctrine by announcing final assembling of a powerful electro-accelerating machine i.e. Kilo-Ampere Liner Injector (KALI), that would be South Asia’s first ‘Star Wars’ weapon whose beams could cripple the incoming missiles and aircraft, that would not only be disturbing the military balance in the region but would be a permanent source of threat and deterrence to all the Naval and Air Traffic in the region particularly the future sea traffic to Pakistan’s Gawadar Port, authoritative diplomatic sources confided this to The Daily Mail. A senior Western diplomat, who remained in touch with a high-profile intelligence agency of his country, disclosed on condition of anonymity that the Indians imported the said technology from Russia a few years back and conducted further research on it at the Bhaba Institute of Nuclear Research (BINR) in Mumbai for a further modification so as to suit their defence requirements and by 1999, it had made some major modifications in it.
The Daily Mail’s investigations reveal that the KALI is a “soft kill” weapon system, initially developed by both the US and the former USSR during the Cold War era as part of their Star Wars Programme.
Bursts of microwaves from KALI, packed with the gigawatts of water could ’soft kill’ the incoming aircraft and missiles by crippling their electronic systems and computer chips, contrary to the laser weapons which destroy the targets by drilling holes in metal.
KALI generates pulses of highly energetic electrons while its other components convert the electrons into the X-Rays or microwaves. According to some reports, India’s Defence Ballistic Institute at Chandigarh has already started using the X-Ray version of KALI to study the speed of projectiles.
The Daily Mail’s findings further indicate that the Indian defence scientists, at secret defence institute established at Banglore are utilizing a micro-wave producing version of KALI to test the vulnerability of electronic systems being installed in the light combat aircraft under development by the Indian aeronautical development agency in collaboration with the Israeli experts and the engineers of the IAI and IMI.
Sources maintained that KALI would enable India to enhance its electronic systems used in its satellite and missiles against electro-magnetic impulses (EMI), generated by nuclear weapons. The EMI can wreak havoc by creating intense electric fields of several thousand volts per centimeter. According to the defence analysts, the electronic components used in most of the missiles can withstand electric fields of only 300 volts per centimeter.
The Daily Mail’s investigations reveal that the Indians are planning to ‘arrange’ a formal test firing of KALI during the next couple of months to complete their current anti-missile and anti-aircraft programme. It is believed that the Indians would install KALI initially on its Warships that it has recently deployed in the Persian Gulf.
Some other reports reveal that India is also interested in purchasing almost a fleet of Kilo-Class Submarines and one such Sub is still under construction at St. Petersburg and would reportedly be having the missile firing capability installed. Moreover, vertically launched versions of the 3M-55 El would arm three improved Krival III (project 1135.6) class frigates, which are still under construction for the Indian Navy at the Balitisky shipyard again in St. Petersburg.
Each frigate will be capable of boasting eight 3M-54E anti-ship missiles. The Russians have designed the frigate to meet the desires of New Delhi to counter Pakistani and Chinese Navies. The 3M-54 is reported to have a range of up to 3000 kms. The large part of the missile’s trajectory is flown at high sub-sonic speeds at about 6 kms from the target; the missile third solid propellant state starts.
Another report, originating from the US, says that the Indians have also signed a contract with the Russians for the upgrading f the MiG21-93 fighters and have asked them to install the radar guided ‘Vympel-77’ (NATO code name AA-12 Adder), a medium range air-to-air missile. The Russians are reported to have successfully test fired the same at the Akhubinsk Test Centre in the south of the country in 2004,2005.
Simultaneously, Indians are reportedly seeking an upgradation of MiG-21s by the Israeli Air Industry, installing them with state of the art avionics systems (earlier the IAF was planning to retire all the MiG -21 Squadrons). The Indians are also reportedly making desperate efforts to purchase top of the line “Rafale” combat jet fighters from France. The Rafale, is an advance production of the makers of the Mirage, the Dassaul Aviation France and was built to rival the Euro fighter by an EU conglomerate. The Indians are reportedly to have made a strong pitch for Rafale, while going simultaneously with Russian Sukhoi.
This development coupled with the launching of KALI and Brak-8,would disturb the defence scenario in South Asia and would be a permanent threat and sources of concern and havoc for all the civil air and naval traffic of the regional countries.
The Defence Attaché’ of an Arabian country, while talking to The Daily Mail, said that with this new defence extravaganza, India can mess with any one, any time and the move would force the rest of the countries in the region to boost their defence strategies. It may engage these countries into a missile and electronic race.
A senior European diplomat, when contacted said that in the wake of the downing of an unarmed Pakistan Navy plane ‘Atlantique’ by the Indians a few years back, any such added development can force Pakistan to go for obtaining a matching technology from any advanced country or to forma a Naval cartel with neighbouring China . He added that if such a development takes place in this part of the world, and if the Indians are not timely checked by powers that be, the situation would not remain under the control of the UN or the US.
More Shady deals with Israel
The Daily Mail’s investigations suggest that earlier this year, the UPA government quietly signed a massive, legally opaque, Rs10,000 crore defence deal with Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), ignoring a continuing probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and initial vigilance concerns. The contract, to supply medium-range surface-to-air missiles (MRSAM), has raised worrying questions of propriety, with key bureaucrats and former defence officers playing influential roles in creating and pushing the deal through.
The deal, which was signed into a contract , came at a time when India was already in possession a more powerful missile in the same class the advanced air defence (AAD) missile, part of India’s anti-ballistic missile shield.
The Daily Mail’s investigations indicate that the deal, which was kept under wraps, could have sounded the death-knell of India’s indigenous surface-to-air Akash missile system, into which hundreds of crores of rupees had already been invested over the years.
Further research in this direction indicates that some former officers of the Indian Air Force (IAF) played a key role in limiting the large-scale induction of Akash into the force, pushing instead for the Israeli MRSAM. At least one of them is suspected to be working for the Israelis from New Delhi.
The Daily Mail’s investigations suggest that Joint development of the MRSAM between IAI and India’s Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) was cleared in July 2007 by the cabinet committee on security (CCS). But Defence Minister AK Antony did not give it his final administrative clearance because of the CBI’s continuing investigation into the Barak missile scam. The CBI had by then filed an FIR on the purchase of the Barak missile system in 2000 from IAI and Rafael, naming former defence minister George Fernandes and then navy chief Sushil Kumar.
The Daily Mail’s investigations further reveal that despite CCS approval, a cautious Antony sought vigilance opinion on the file. The Indian defence ministry’s vigilance department cited the CBI investigation to suggest that the deal should not go through, the DNA report said citing two different sources and adding that is why the defence minister asked the DRDO to keep the file pending.
But some time in the last week of March 2008, the DRDO was ordered to move the file again for CCS approval. This happened even though the CBI was still investigating IAI and had, in fact, found more evidence of Israeli firms engaging arms dealers for the 2000 deal with the Indian Navy.
Asked why the government did not blacklist the two firms despite the CBI’s FIR, a senior official remarked: “What do we do when we are neck-deep with the Israelis?”
In the past, whenever allegations about the involvement of arms dealers have cropped up, the government has moved quickly to blacklist the firms involved. These include Bofors, HDW, and Denel. In all three cases, the blacklisting was done even before the CBI had filed FIRs.
A senior defence ministry official, who defended the government on the contract, said the MRSAM file was sent to the solicitor-general, who felt that the CBI’s FIR was not a bar and the government could go ahead with the deal if it considered the missile essential. Similar, vague opinions favoring the deal were obtained by the ministry from other agencies. The Central Vigilance Commission said the deal could go through if it was in the national interest.
The defence ministry sought the opinion of the law ministry, which said much the same thing: if the equipment was essential to national security, the deal could go ahead.
After fishing for favourable legal opinion, the “IAF was asked to confirm that it was absolutely essential” for national security, the defence ministry official said.
The Daily Mail’s research further reveals that in 2008, despite the CBI investigation, vigilance guidelines, and lack of multiple vendors in contracts, the government and the air force pushed through several deals with IAI and Rafael. Besides MRSAM, it approved two others: a repeat order for Aerostat radars, and low-level quick-reaction missiles (LLQRM) to protect existing Aerostat radars. Both these purchases were cited as reasons for approving the MRSAM deal.
The fact is that there was no open tendering in any of these three contracts. IAI was the only participant from the beginning in the MRSAM contract, and no comparative pricing was done in the international market.
It may be added here that the Indians are launching a number of defense projects in collaboration with the Israelis and the Russians. Their aims are to nuclearize their all the three defence forces i.e. Army, Navy and Air Force and to attain a strategic supremacy in the region.
Increasing itself, the production of the missiles and creating added material to play havoc with humanity India has now started importing anti-missile and anti-aircraft systems. They just recently finalized a deal to attain the anti-ballistic missile system.
The Indians first purchased “Phalcon” from Israel, immensely disturbing the military balance and are aiming to further disturb this balance by opting for Russian originate ’soft kill’ system KALI coupled with upgrading its submarines. Naval frigates and Jet fighters with the help and assistance of Israeli and Russian partners while it has already deployed Warships in the Persian Gulf that are soon to be equipped with KALI.
The global defence analysts believe that such military muscle can insane the Indian defense forces and its political leadership, which can ultimately result a nuclear war between India and Pakistan or India and China, sabotaging all the efforts of Peace in South Asia.
The American and other Western nations have been slow to show concern over all such hostile ambitions of India. It is being feared that with such a military might and with the presence of such devastating technologies and a missile reservoir (with possible nuclear warheads), India is a constant threat to humanity and the world peace.
It is worth mentioning that the Indian government is spending not billions but trillions of dollars on defence purchase while the hundreds of millions of the general public lack even the basic living facilities. The international financial institutes including the World Bank and the IMF are contemplating upon withholding all the financial aids to India in wake of its extravagant defence purchases from numerous countries.
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