India (Superthread)

[CougarKing]

Defense News link

NEW DELHI - Commissioning India's first homegrown stealth frigate, Indian Defence Minister A.K. Antony emphasized India's need to modernize its shipyards.

The Navy is retiring warships faster than it is commissioning them, mostly due to a lack of modern shipyards.


"We must continue with our efforts to transform and modernize our shipyards, so that they can not only meet domestic demands but also achieve the latest international standards in quality construction," Antony said at the April 29 ceremony. "We must be able to produce quality ships in a shorter time frame at competitive costs. I strongly urge all the participants of the Indian industry to give their best in developing our shipbuilding programs."

Built by Mumbai-based Mazagon Docks Ltd. at a cost of more than $500 million, INS Shivalik has advanced radars, antisubmarine sonars, and arms, including Russian Klub surface-to-surface missiles and Israeli Barak air defense systems, said an Indian Navy official. The ship also has state-of-the-art defenses against nuclear, biological and chemical attacks, the official said.

The Navy is to get 16 stealth frigates in the next 10 years, with 10 being built at home and the remaining six imported.

Two more frigates, INS Satpura and Sahvadri, are under construction in India and due to be commissioned next year. Three more are being built in Russia.

The Indian Navy already operates INS Talwar, Trishul and Tabar.

The Shivalik class will be the Navy's mainstay frigates in the first half of the 21st century.

 

[George Wallace]

Reproduced under the Fair Dealings provisions of the Copyright Act.

Canadians warned of New Delhi danger

Article Link

CBC News

02/05/2010 9:43:02 AM

Canada has issued a travel warning for India's capital, New Delhi, saying there is a possibility of an attack soon in market areas frequented by foreigners.




The Department of Foreign Affairs warning specifically urged travellers to avoid the popular Chandni Chowk area.

"Credible and specific reporting indicates that a terrorist attack could be carried out in the following days or weeks," a notice on the department website said Saturday.

It urged Canadians to "exercise a high degree of caution, monitor their surroundings and minimize their presence in market areas of the city."

Similar advisories were issued Saturday by the U.S. Embassy and the Australian High Commission in New Delhi.

New Delhi police said they were aware of the warnings of possible attacks.

"The Delhi Police is taking appropriate measures in this regard," said police spokesman Rajan Bhagat, according to the Press Trust of India news agency. He did not elaborate.

Militants linked to Pakistan-based Islamist groups have been blamed for previous deadly attacks in the city.

With files from The Canadian Press

==================================================================================

In some circles, it is felt that the next major conflict nations, will be a Religious War with its roots in India.  There are numerous Religious factions currently warring with each other in India, that have not made much more than page 20 news in the MSM.

 

[MarkOttawa]

Slowly, slowly, almost reminds one of...FWSAR...
http://toyoufromfailinghands.blogspot.com/2010/02/new-fixed-wing-sar-aircraft-dont-hold.html

India Forces Fighter Rivals To Rebid
http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_channel.jsp?channel=defense&id=news/awst/2010/05/03/AW_05_03_2010_p42-222963.xml

India has proved once again that it cannot push the pedal too hard for speedy procurement of a major weapon system. It has been forced to notify vendors seeking the coveted 126 Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) award that they will need to rebid, prompting a schedule delay that might drive up costs.

The bidders represent the industry’s biggest fighter manufacturers—MiG Russian Aircraft Corp., Dassault, Eurofighter, Saab, Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

The vendors were expected to complete flight trials early last month, giving the Indian defense ministry time to complete its bid evaluation by April 28. Contract rules called for rebidding if that deadline was missed, pushing the start of the winnowing process to April 2011.

Downselect will probably name three finalists, although no specific number has been stated or schedule given. There also is no timeframe for when a winner will be chosen. Politics is partly responsible. The downselect will be reviewed by a parliamentary committee, and the possible lobbying could extend the selection process beyond next April.

As this year’s deadline approached, the Eurofighter Typhoon was still making its final flights and the Saab Gripen, the last candidate, was not even in India. Held up by other tasks for the Swedish air force, the aircraft is not expected until late May.

Ministry officials were not commenting last week about a re-bid. But the Indian air force does not see it as a setback. Its emphasis is on being able to evaluate all the contenders...

Mark
Ottawa

 

[CougarKing]

More than one terrorist group has threatened or promised to attack people at or around the 2010 Commonwealth Games, which are to be held in India.

"Delhi put on high alert" India Times article link

 

[CougarKing]

Defense Industry Daily link

India Reverses Gear, Put Arjun Tank Back in Production
18-May-2010 18:16 EDT

(May 17/10)

India’s indigenous Arjun tank project began in 1974, and originally aimed to replace the Russian T-54 and T-72 tanks which made up the bulk of that country’s armored firepower. As has often been the case in India, its DRDO government weapons development agency sought an entirely made in India solution, even though this would require major advances on a number of fronts for Indian industry. As has often been the case in India, the result was a long and checkered history filled with development delays, performance issues, mid-project specifications changes by India’s military, and the eventual purchase of both foreign substitutions within the project (now 58% of the tank’s cost) and foreign competitors from outside it (the T-90S).

The 58.5 tonne Arjun tank wasn’t fielded with the Indian Army until May 2009. In contrast, Pakistan’s much more time-limited, scope-limited, and budget conscious approach in developing and successfully fielding its T-80UD “Al-Khalid” tank is often cited by Arjun’s detractors.

The Russian T-90S will form the mainstay of its future force, despite that tank’s performance issues in hot weather. That won’t change, but the Arjun now has a clear future in India…

(...)

May 17/10: India decides that it will remove the production cap, and double production of the Arjun Mk I tank. So far, 75 of the 124 ordered Arjuns have been delivered, and the remaining 49 were to be delivered by mid-2010. Now, the production line will be extended:
“The Army has decided to place fresh order for an additional home-built 124 Main Battle Tank (MBT) Arjun…. [after] the success of the indigenous MBT Arjun in the recent gruelling desert trials. The project for the design and development of the MBT Arjun was approved by the Government in 1974…. After many years of trial and tribulation it has now proved its worth by its superb performance under various circumstances, such as driving cross-country over rugged sand dunes, detecting, observing and quickly engaging targets, accurately hitting targets – both stationary and moving, with pin pointed accuracy.”

Even so, the mainstay of India’s future tank fleet with remain the Russian T-90S. The government’s DRDO agency still wants a minimum of 500 Arjuns ordered, to stabilize production lines until it can develop a Mark-II version.

 

[CougarKing]

Maoists in India strike again?

Agence France Presse link

NEW DELHI (AFP) - The death of 80 people in a train wreck blamed on Maoist saboteurs will ramp up pressure on India's government, already facing calls to deploy the military against the leftist rebels, analysts say.

Federal authorities had been severely criticised for their handling of the insurgency even before Friday's disaster when a high-speed train packed with sleeping passengers was derailed on a remote stretch of track in West Bengal.


A series of deadly attacks in recent months had forced a review of the government's counter-insurgency strategy, with Home Minister P. Chidambaram saying he would seek a firmer mandate for dealing with the rebel threat.


Until now, the government has resisted pressure to bring the army into the equation, insisting that paramilitary and state police forces were capable of flushing the Maoists out of their jungle bases.

"A cornerstone of India's democracy has been not to use its military against its own people," said Mallika Joseph, a Maoist expert from the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies in New Delhi.


"But there is a growing clamour to get the military involved and the government is going to feel the pressure to pursue a more aggressive option," Joseph said

(...)

 

[MarkOttawa]

Meanwhile, back at one counterinsurgency that has been essentially won--though not using US-style COIN methods (usual copyright disclaimer):

Violence Escalates in Kashmir
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703279704575334423699050914.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

NEW DELHI—Indian security forces killed two protesters in Kashmir Monday as a tense standoff between security forces and separatists threatened to destabilize the Indian-held territory.

Protesters in Sopore, a town in northern Kashmir, pelted Indian security forces with stones to protest the deaths of three civilians in clashes over the weekend, a senior Kashmir policeman said.

Personnel from the paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force and regular local police retaliated by opening fire on the demonstrators, killing two people, said Farooq Ahmad, inspector-general of police in Indian-held Kashmir. "They came under tremendous pelting of stones. They had no alternative but to open fire," he said.

In Srinagar, Kashmir's largest city, hundreds of people planned to march to Sopore to show their solidarity but were blocked by security forces.

Authorities closed schools and universities for two days across the territory of 10 million people. Shops remained shuttered and cars kept off the roads. The violence was the worst in the state since 2008.

Tension has been mounting in Kashmir since a youth was killed just over two weeks ago by a tear-gas canister fired by security forces during a protest march in Srinagar's old town.

The violence has sparked debate over the Armed Forces Special Powers Act which gives the half-a-million security forces operating in India-held Kashmir immunity from prosecution [emphasis added]. A number of politicians, including Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, an ally of India's government, have called for changes to the law to stop abuses...

Critics say militant violence is at its lowest ebb since the insurgency against Indian rule began in 1989 and security personnel are using disproportionate force to put down separatist protesters armed only with stones. Just over 50 civilians were killed in clashes last year, down from 1,300 deaths in 1996 at the height of the conflict [emphasis added[, according to the South Asia Terrorism Portal, a New Delhi-based research group.

Mark
Ottawa

 

[CougarKing]

US to offer F-35 fighters to Indian Navy

New Delhi US defence major Lockheed Martin today said it will offer its latest fifth generation F-35 fighters to meet Indian Navy's requirements for carrier-based combat aircraft.

"We have received the Request for Information (RFI) from the Navy seeking information about the F-35 aircraft, which are capable of taking off from aircraft carriers. We are going to offer our aircraft to them," Lockheed Martin Vice President Orville Prins said here.

He said presentations had been given to the Indian Navy about both the 'B'and 'C' versions of the aircraft in the recent past.

The B version the F-35 is a short take-off and vertical landing aircraft and the C version is an aircraft carrier-based version.

The Navy, which will acquire the under-construction Indigenous Aircraft Carrier around 2015, is likely to build another larger-size carrier and is looking to procure fighter aircraft for it.

American Boeing, Swedish Saab, European EADS and the French Dassault Aviation are also likely to offer their aircraft to the Navy.

Commenting on other projects of the company in India, Prins said the C-130 J Hercules aircraft are likely to be delivered to the IAF by February next year, two months ahead of the original schedule.

He said IAF is also planning to order six more aircraft as the construction of ground infrastructure is also going on schedule at the Hindan air base near here.

Prins said the IAF has also shown interest in the air to air refuelling tanker-version of the C-130J, which can be offered to it by the company.

The Lockheed official said that talks are on with agencies such as the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) for supplying another C-130J variant known as the 'weather-bird' WC-130J, which can be used to study cyclones and other weather phenomenon.

He said the aircraft might be brought to India for the next edition of Aero India show in February 2011.

Express India link

 

[MarkOttawa]

Very interesting.  US is really going full bore to move India as far as possible away from Russian defence orbit--offering their newest fighter (how stealty for India one wonders?) to a non-ally before it is even in US operational service.  LM also needs the bucks.

Mark
Ottawa

 

[CougarKing]

The Register link

3-page story...

"Indian defence chiefs have approved $11bn of funds to boost the country's submarine fleet. The cash is intended to see India become the first non-Western nation to deploy long-touted, much feared "air independent propulsion" (AIP) submarine technology. According to the paper, "all the six new submarines will be equipped with air-independent propulsion (AIP) systems to boost their operational capabilities"."

 

[MarkOttawa]

Something useful if biased from a usual suspect (long piece, usual copyright disclaimer):

Not Crushed, Merely Ignored
Tariq Ali on the recent killings in Kashmir
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v32/n14/tariq-ali/not-crushed-merely-ignored?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=3214

A Kashmiri lawyer rang me last week in an agitated state. Had I heard labout the latest tragedies in Kashmir? I had not. He was stunned. So was I when he told me in detail what had been taking place there over the last three weeks. As far as I could see, none of the British daily papers or TV news bulletins had covered the story; after I met him I rescued two emails from Kashmir informing me of the horrors from my spam box. I was truly shamed. The next day I scoured the press again. Nothing. The only story in the Guardian from the paper’s Delhi correspondent – a full half-page – was headlined: ‘Model’s death brings new claims of dark side to India’s fashion industry’. Accompanying the story was a fetching photograph of the ill-fated woman. The deaths of (at that point) 11 young men between the ages of 15 and 27, shot by Indian security forces in Kashmir, weren’t mentioned. Later I discovered that a short report had appeared in the New York Times on 28 June and one the day after in the Guardian; there has been no substantial follow-up. When it comes to reporting crimes committed by states considered friendly to the West, atrocity fatigue rapidly kicks in. A few facts have begun to percolate through, but they are likely to be read in Europe and the US as just another example of Muslims causing trouble, with the Indian security forces merely doing their duty, if in a high-handed fashion. The failure to report on the deaths in Kashmir contrasts strangely with the overheated coverage of even the most minor unrest in Tibet, leave alone Tehran.

On 11 June this year, the Indian paramilitaries known as the Central Reserve Police Force fired tear-gas canisters at demonstrators, who were themselves protesting about earlier killings. One of the canisters hit 17-year-old Tufail Ahmad Mattoo on the head. It blew out his brains. After a photograph was published in the Kashmiri press, thousands defied the police and joined his funeral procession the next day, chanting angry slogans and pledging revenge. The photograph was ignored by the mainstream Indian press and the country’s celebrity-trivia-obsessed TV channels. As I write, the Kashmiri capital, Srinagar, and several other towns are under strict military curfew. Whenever it is lifted, however briefly, young men pour out onto the streets to protest and are greeted with tear gas. In most of the province there has been an effective general strike for more than three weeks. All shops are closed.

An ugly anti-Muslim chauvinism accompanies India’s violence...

...A local NGO, the International People’s Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Indian-Administered Kashmir (IPTK), states that extrajudicial killings and torture are a commonplace in the valley and that Western institutions don’t even try to do anything about this for fear of damaging relations with New Delhi. The figures provided by the IPTK are startling. It claims that the Indian military occupation of Kashmir ‘between 1989-2009 has resulted in 70,000+ deaths’ [rather high, still...]... 

Public opinion in India is mute. The parties of the left prefer to avoid the subject for fear that political rivals will question their patriotism. Kashmir is never spoken of, and has never been allowed to speak...

The Zardari government is silent on the issue of Kashmir and there has been little media reaction in Pakistan to the recent killings. For the ruling elite Kashmir is just a bargaining counter. ‘Give us Afghanistan and you can have Kashmir’ is the message currently emanating from the bunker in Islamabad [rather exaggerated, I think]...

...Pakistan’s indifference also suggests that Indian allegations that recent events in Kashmir were triggered by Pakistan are baseless. Pakistan virtually dismantled the jihadi networks it had set up in Kashmir after the 1989 withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan not long after 9/11. Islamabad, high on the victory in Kabul, had stupidly assumed that they could repeat the trick in Kashmir. Those sent to infiltrate Indian Kashmir were brutal and mindless fanatics who harmed the Kashmiri case for self-determination, though some young people, tired of the patience exhibited by their elders, embraced the jihad, hoping it would bring them freedom. They were wrong...

Mark
Ottawa

 

[MarkOttawa]

Just about everything you might want to know about the Indian fighter, er, competition from Defense Industry Daily (F-35 also mentioned, might be worth reading in the context of our new fighter
http://forums.milnet.ca/forums/threads/39415.450.html ):
http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/mirage-2000s-withdrawn-as-indias-mrca-fighter-competition-changes-01989/?utm_campaign=newsletter&utm_source=did&utm_medium=textlink&utm_term=India%E2%80%99s%20M-MRCA%20Fighter%20Competition

...
Rather than attempting to predict, DID will simply summarize the strengths and weaknesses of the listed competitors. These aircraft also group into two very different categories: single engine lightweight fighters in the $25-50 million flyaway cost range (F-16 Falcon, JAS-39 Gripen, MiG-35); and larger dual-engine mid-range fighters in the $65-120 million flyaway range (Eurofighter, F/A-18 Super Hornet, Rafale)...

Mark
Ottawa

 

[MarkOttawa]

Meanwhile back at Kashmir:

Indian Forces Face Broader Revolt in Kashmir
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/13/world/asia/13kashmir.html?ref=todayspaper

SRINAGAR, Kashmir — Late Sunday night, after six days on life support with a bullet in his brain, Fida Nabi, a 19-year-old high school student, was unhooked from his ventilator at a hospital here.

Mr. Nabi was the 50th person to die in Kashmir’s bloody summer of rage. He had been shot in the head, his family and witnesses said, during a protest against India’s military presence in this disputed province.

For decades, India maintained hundreds of thousands of security forces in Kashmir to fight an insurgency sponsored by Pakistan, which claims this border region, too. The insurgency has been largely vanquished. But those Indian forces are still here, and today they face a threat potentially more dangerous to the world’s largest democracy: an intifada-like popular revolt against the Indian military presence that includes not just stone-throwing young men but their sisters, mothers, uncles and grandparents.

The protests, which have erupted for a third straight summer, have led India to one of its most serious internal crises in recent memory. Not just because of their ferocity and persistence, but because they signal the failure of decades of efforts to win the assent of Kashmiris using just about any tool available: money, elections and overwhelming force.

“We need a complete revisit of what our policies in Kashmir have been,” said Amitabh Mattoo, a professor of strategic affairs at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi and a Kashmiri Hindu. “It is not about money — you have spent huge amounts of money. It is not about fair elections. It is about reaching out to a generation of Kashmiris who think India is a huge monster represented by bunkers and security forces.”

Indeed, Kashmir’s demand for self-determination is sharper today than it has been at perhaps any other time in the region’s troubled history. It comes as — and in part because — diplomatic efforts remain frozen to resolve the dispute created more than 60 years ago with the partition of mostly Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan. Today each nation controls part of Kashmir, whose population is mostly Muslim...

Mark
Ottawa

 

[CougarKing]

Defense News link

India, China Deny Visas to Each Others' Officers
By VIVEK RAGHUVANSHI

Published: 27 Aug 2010 14:24     

India suspended defense exchanges with China Aug. 27 after Beijing refused a visa to an Indian army general from the Kashmir region, according to sources in the Indian defense ministry. In retaliation, New Delhi has refused visas to Chinese army officers, according to Indian foreign ministry sources.

But a senior ministry official said the incident has not affected bilateral defense ties.

Lt. Gen. B.S. Jaswal, who commands the Northern Area Command that has responsibility for the state of Jammu and Kashmir, had intended to travel to China in August for a high-level defense exchange.

"While we value our exchanges with China, there must be sensitivity to each others' concerns. Our dialogue with China on these issues is ongoing," an External Affairs Ministry spokesman said in a statement.

The Indian military has recently accelerated plans to buy arms and gear, such as BAE Systems ultralight 155mm guns, for deployment near the Chinese border.

The defense ministry has been concerned over the Chinese military buildup, a senior ministry official said.

India has stationed more multirole nuclear-capable Russian-built Su-30MKi aircraft near the border, and is improving roads and airbases in the region.

India and China fought a brief battle in 1962 over a territorial dispute

 

[MarkOttawa]

Will be interesting to see how rapidly things move in a practical sense:

Russia Submits Draft Of FGFA Contract To India
http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_channel.jsp?channel=defense&id=news/awx/2010/10/07/awx_10_07_2010_p0-260171.xml

Russia and India are moving fast on the Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA), Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said Oct. 7 following the 10th Meeting of the India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Military Technical Cooperation here.

Military cooperation between the two countries is defined through an umbrella intergovernmental agreement covering 2011-2020. The document was signed during the visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Russia in December of last year.

While India and Russia have signed the shareholders agreement for a joint venture company for the development and production of the Multirole Transport Aircraft (MTA), they also have agreed to expedite the joint design, development and production of the FGFA. The deal is estimated at $25 billion. The agreement envisages India will receive about 250-300 FGFAs.

“We have done the design of the plane, we have developed the time frames, the price, and the draft of the contract has already been submitted to the Indian side, which is under their consideration,” Serdyukov said.

“India hopes to get 45 Medium Transport Aircraft and also finalize the FGFA,” Indian Defense Minister A.K. Antony said, adding that “technical formalities” of the deal should be cleared within a few months.

[More on MTA:
http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2010/09/16/347311/india-russia-launch-multirole-transport-aircraft-project.html ]

The FGFA is based on the Russian Sukhoi T-50 PAK-FA, which flew for the first time this January at the Komsomolsk-on-Amur facility in Siberia.

The 30-ton aircraft is priced at around $100 million each. “It would be a swing-role fighter with highly advanced avionics, giving 360-deg. situational awareness, stealth to increase survivability and smart weapons,” Indian Air Force Chief V.K. Naik said. He added the aircraft is expected to join the force by 2017 [emphasis added].

The FGFA will be capable of covering long ranges without air-to-air refueling and will have super-cruise features along with advanced mission computers, Naik added.

India's M-MRCA fighter competition has certainly dragged on:
http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/mirage-2000s-withdrawn-as-indias-mrca-fighter-competition-changes-01989/
http://www.brahmand.com/news/The-future-air-power-of-India-%E2%80%93-MMRCA/5105/3/15.html

Mark
Ottawa

 

[MarkOttawa]

C-17s now (WSJ):
http://www.google.ca/search?q=%22The+U.S.+is+aiming+to+sell+up+to+%245.8+billion+of+military-transport%22&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-GBfficial&client=firefox-a

NEW DELHI—The U.S. is aiming to sell up to $5.8 billion of military-transport aircraft to India and secure other major deals when President Barack Obama travels to New Delhi early next month, a visit that will seek to alter the tenor of an increasingly tense commercial relationship between the world's largest democracies.

India is set to buy 10 Boeing Co. C-17 transport aircraft in the country's largest military transaction yet with the U.S., people familiar with the matter said. The exact price is still to be determined. The total value of deals agreed to during the trip could reach $10 billion to $12 billion, including pacts for India to buy military jet engines from General Electric Co., freight locomotives and reconnaissance aircraft, these people said...

Mark
Ottawa

 

[MarkOttawa]

How a nuclear war may begin--this obviously planted story is a nice example of diplomacy by other means: giving the Indians an indirect, but clear, warning and at the same time re-assuring the Paks that the US is on the case.  Operation “Cold Start” could lead to a very hot war indeed.  Pakistan must really rein in certain Islamist terrorists it has backed in the past (one hopes the ISI has got a memo–and is acting on it):
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/06/world/asia/06india.html (usual copyright disclaimer)

    NEW DELHI — Senior American military commanders have sought to press India to formally disavow an obscure military doctrine that they contend is fueling tensions between India and Pakistan and hindering the American war effort in Afghanistan.

    But with President Obama arriving in India on Saturday for a closely watched three-day visit, administration officials said they did not expect him to broach the subject of the doctrine, known informally as Cold Start. At the most, these officials predicted, Mr. Obama will quietly encourage India’s leaders to do what they can to cool tensions between these nuclear-armed neighbors.

    That would be a victory for India, which denies the very existence of Cold Start, a plan to deploy new ground forces that could strike inside Pakistan quickly in the event of a conflict. India has argued strenuously that the United States, if it wants a wide-ranging partnership of leading democracies, has to stop viewing it through the lens of Pakistan and the Afghanistan war…

    Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top commander in Afghanistan, is among those who have warned internally about the dangers of Cold Start, according to American and Indian officials. Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Richard C. Holbrooke, the special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, share these fears.

    The strategy calls for India to create fast-moving battle groups that could deliver a contained but sharp retaliatory ground strike inside Pakistan within three days of suffering a terrorist attack by militants based in Pakistan, yet not do enough damage to set off a nuclear confrontation [that's a hell of a gamble].

    Pakistani officials have repeatedly stressed to the United States that worries about Cold Start are at the root of their refusal to redeploy forces away from the border with India so that they can fight Islamic militants in the frontier region near Afghanistan. That point was made most recently during a visit to Washington last month by Pakistan’s army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.

    The administration raised the issue of Cold Start last November when India’s prime minister, Manmohan Singh, visited Washington, Indian and American officials said. Indian officials told the United States that the strategy was not a government or military policy, and that India had no plans to attack Pakistan. Therefore, they added, it should have no place on Mr. Obama’s agenda in India…

    Some administration officials have argued that addressing Cold Start, developed in the aftermath of a failed attempt to mobilize troops in response to an attack on the Indian Parliament by Pakistani militants, could help break the logjam that has impeded talks between the countries.

    But India has mostly declined to discuss the topic. “We don’t know what Cold Start is,” said India’s defense secretary, Pradeep Kumar, in an interview on Thursday. “Our prime minister has said that Pakistan has nothing to fear. Pakistan can move its troops from the eastern border.”

    Indian officials and some analysts say Cold Start has taken on a nearly mythical status in the minds of Pakistani leaders, whom they suspect of inflating it as an excuse to avoid engaging militants on their own turf.

    “The Pakistanis will use everything they can to delay or drag out doing a serious reorientation of their military,” said Stephen P. Cohen, an expert on South Asia at the Brookings Institution.

    India’s response to terrorist attacks has been slow-footed. After Pakistani militants attacked Parliament in 2001, India’s ponderous strike forces, most of them based in the center of the country, took weeks to reach the border. By then Western diplomats had swooped in, and Pakistan made conciliatory statements, deflating Indian hopes of striking a punitive blow.

    The military began devising a plan to respond to future attacks. The response would have to be swift to avoid the traffic jam of international diplomacy, but also carefully calibrated — shallow enough to be punitive and embarrassing, but not an existential threat that would provoke nuclear retaliation.

    For now, there are no signs that Cold Start is more than a theory, and analysts say there is no significant shift of new troops or equipment to the border.

    But American military officials and diplomats worry that even the existence of the strategy in any form could encourage Pakistan to make rapid improvements in its nuclear arsenal.

    When Pakistani military officials are asked to justify the huge investment in upgrading that arsenal, some respond that because Pakistan has no conventional means to deter Cold Start, nuclear weapons are its only option…

Mark
Ottawa

 

[Old Sweat]

This site provides a daily commentary on current affairs with emphasis on India and Pakistan. The author is an Indian national living in the US (Maryland) who, unfortunately, will not use one word if twenty will do. His insights on the region are useful, although he does tend to favour his homeland in the big picture. In the smaller picture he claims that the Indian military and political leadership is corrupt, incompetent and wimpy.

http://www.orbat.com/

 

[MarkOttawa]

The Indo-Pak-Afghan Great Game–and the US
http://unambig.com/the-indo-pak-afghan-great-game-and-the-us/

Two opinion pieces to suggest the complexities, starting with a typical piece of Pak paranoid fear-mongering...

Mark
Ottawa

 

[MarkOttawa]

Corruption? What stinking corruption? And what stinking torture?
http://unambig.com/corruption-what-stinking-corruption-and-what-stinking-torture/

Mark
Ottawa