J-10's coming to Pakistan

Perhaps the best news after Pakistan's win at World T-20 Cricket World Cup. Pakistan Air Force is finally entering into the high-tech club by inducting J-10's (hopefully these are the upgraded J-10B's), most advanced Fighter Jets China has in it's arsenal.

The news is China has agreed to sell Pakistan at least 36 advanced fighter jets in a deal worth as much as $1.4bn. Pakistan is looking to get two squadrons of J-10 fighter planes in a preliminary agreement, which could lead to further sales in future.

This is a much needed boost to a weekend Pakistan Air Force after decade long sanctions from West on high-end weaponry and with first of the locally produced JF-17 rolling out shortly alongside F-16C/D's this could prove to be a lethal combination.

China who has supplied Pakistan with fighter jets for more than three decades has again proved herself to be more than a reliable friend.

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War against terror, my foot!!

It is a bit late to say that it is getting out of hands but today’s attacks on a university just made it impossible for me to keep quite anymore.

Before today maintaining this blog was an on/off thing for me but I just can’t stand our Government’s inability to tell US and its allies on their faces to stop supporting Indian & Israeli backed TTP (Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan), that we are not blind and can see what they are trying to achieve by supporting these factions and if this situation continues, Pakistan will stop its support, block their supply lines on which they are so heavily dependent upon in their war against the original lunatic but incorruptible Taliban.

It just not make any sense to target TTP terrorists on US’s demand when they are in fact being backed by US and are being helped by US in their unjust and un-Islamic war against Pakistan.

A very recent and clear example is the desertion of PAKTIKA province bordering South Waziristan as Pakistan Army launched a military offensive on Saturday. As Pakistan was preparing to launch a full-scale offensive, the US and NATO forces were quietly pulled out of Afghanistan’s PAKTIKA province that is situated on the Afghan side of South Waziristan.

Not just that they vacated more than half a dozen key security check posts to give a safe passage to TTP terrorists, even the drone attacks have stopped against terrorists when TTP are in the open and exposed and there are also reports of unmarked helicopters air lifting militants from TTP regions to safety of deep Afghan territory.

If these are not US or Indian or Israeli or UN helicopters, then who does these Helicopters belong to. Does TTP have helicopters too parked on Afghan bases?? It is now clear that as Pakistan army close in on the TTP bases, their secret patrons in CIA / RAW are scrambling to extricate them.

Also, I just can’t understand what Pakistani Armed Forces are waiting for, why are they not pressurizing our Govt. to take some sort of stance against all this nonsense. If US can attack its targets over the borders, why can’t we just blow up a couple of Indian consulates operating from Afghanistan, responsible for this grave headache? What could be the worst possible consequences? We will go into a war against India? India does not have the backbone to attack a nuclear capable Pakistan. Even US and Israel does not have that strong backbone as long as we are nuclear capable. We have missiles capable of striking deep inside India and as far as Israel and a single nuclear missile is enough to wipe complete Israel off the map and they know it as well, that is the reason they fear us.

I hope that People sitting at the helm of decision making could think of something else other than money for a while and if not of this nation just think about future of their children, where else would they be able to indulge in this inherited habit of corruption if Pakistan is there no more.

FOR GOD SAKE LEAVE SOMETHING FOR YOUR CHILDREN AT LEAST !!!!

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Baitullah Mehsud’s death: Raises more questions than it answers

Some people might begin to question why all of a sudden there is this shift in United States’ policy? What made them target Mehsud now when Pakistan has been pressing US to take him out for the last many years?

United States has been going after anything and everything that remotely looked like Al-Qaeda or Taliban. There were instances where their drones attacked weddings because the people there were firing in the air, celebrating as they do in that part but were attacked on suspicion of targeting their drone.

On at least one occasion a US drone had had Mehsud in its sights but had not fired despite requests from Pakistan. That and some other incidents made people in Pakistan believe that either United States is, as always, only here for their own interests or has a hidden agenda of it’s own and is actually supporting these factions.

Then why all of a sudden US started thinking of Mehsud as a threat? Why a $5 million bounty put on his head when he had not attacked any American forces in or out of Afghanistan? Was there any suspicion of him being used by Al-Qaeda in the future or simply his job was done and he was beginning to be more of a hurdle as there were more and more questions being raised in Pakistan and around the world on US’s reluctance to attack Mehsud and to counter that opposition it was deemed necessary to remove this obstacle.

Another point of view is that Indian agencies have really been active in parts of Afghanistan bordering Pakistan since the demise of Taliban with more than 20 consulates in a country where other nations think twice before sending their delegations even for shorter periods. It is a point to note that a country with a bad record in human rights issues against minorities of all religions and 2^nd only to maybe Israel when it comes to animosity towards Muslims has 20 or so consulates in a country that has sent thousands of Mujahidins to fight in Kashmiri Freedom struggle but none of them ever been targeted raises a lot of questions about Pakistan’s foreign office woes and Indian influence in Afghanistan these days.

With Baitullah Mehsud out of picture now, for who will be India’s next man in charge we will have to wait and see because if our agencies can do it once they can always do it twice and with insurgents already on the back foot because of continuous pounding by Pakistani Armed Forces and the differences and struggle over the position vacated by Mehsud already visible between the contenders, the future seems bright for this struggling but fighting nation.

May Allah be with us all in these trying times and give us courage and strength to face all these threats.

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Arihant - India’s 40% Indigenous SSBN: Why there is no need for immediate worries

I need to start by pre-empting a reply against questions that would be raised about my 40% claim and here it is:

“We never had a nuclear submarine, and we needed design consultancy from them,” Vice Admiral Kannan, programme director, ATV (Advanced Technology Vessel) says. The Arihant has about 40 per cent indigenous content. The next two submarines of the same class that are planned are likely to have more.

So it has been going on for a couple of days now that since India has got itself an SSBN (Nuclear Powered Submarine capable of launching Ballistic Missiles) what should be Pakistan’s immediate reaction or more importantly what actions should Pakistan take to neutralize this threat.

For this very reason first thing we should note that:

1. July 26th launching of Arihant has only proved that the vessel is Sea Worthy by virtue of not sinking and is only ready for trial phase.
2. The nuclear reactor for the submarine hasn’t even been fired once yet after it’s installation. It will be at least a year before the reactor is fired with full system trails, followed by sea trails and then weapon system trials.

According to Indian Sources the submarine should be battle ready in 3-4 years or a little more.

But if we look at India’s past record in the development of such high-tech equipment, fortunately they have never been punctual. It took a mere 3 decades for them to deliver their first batch of 45 Arjun MBT’s to their eagerly awaiting forces, who now are going to begin it’s comparative trials against Russian T-90 tanks to assess it’s operational deployment role, which raises even more questions regarding Arjun’s capabilities.

So with a project which is many a times more technically demanding, we may not see the very first of these SSBN’s in action until 2nd half of next decade, which roughly gives Pakistan about 7-8 years to prepare.

Why Pakistan needs to prepare?

Whenever the question is raised about India building up it’s forces with Pakistan in mind, the immediate and ever ready reply from Indian side is that they are doing this in response to China. But the very date of its launch (July 26th), which is celebrated in India as their triumph against Pakistan in Kargil says something entirely different.

So for this reason alone we should not keep our eyes closed until the very last moment. Agosta’s are a very good acquisition and the deal with Germany for U Boats is also in its final stages. Keeping in view of above acquisitions we can safely say that we weren't actually sleeping as it seems. These might not be nuclear powered or as capable subs but are amongst the latest and closest to nuclear subs in terms to technology. But if we really need to get ourselves some nuclear subs then the obvious choice for Pakistan is our ever eager and old friend China, which carries a 4-decade experience in Nuclear Submarine technology.

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Stealthy Manned / Unmanned Aircrafts: Double trouble

On one hand we see US developing F-22's with costs as high as USD 350m per piece (unit +development costs off course) and capabilities far beyond any other competing party can come up with in near future. On the other hand they are achieving frightening results in Northern parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan while using UAV’s with per unit cost of around USD 4m with no risk to operators except for a few visits to Eye clinics here and there.

What does this high/low mix (pocket-wise) brings to the table:

1. Air Superiority to reconnaissance ability deep inside enemy territory

2. High speed undetected intrusion to maneuverability for longer periods of time

3. Element of surprise

How is everybody else planning / preparing to keep on par with such a formidable force?

While Russia and India currently are working on PAK FA / FGFA project, China on J-XX, Japan on ATD-X and South Korea on KFX, what European countires have done is to go for the next best and earliest available option F-35. Off course they couldn’t have done this in the first place if they weren’t on the good side of US.

As for UAV’s there are hundreds of projects going all around the world with variable degrees of success but here as well no proven performance records only speculations.

The question here is when will the Russians, Indians and Chinese are going to be able to question US’s authority in Air? Is there really a competition or is this only a one horse race? We can also question when will they be able to do that @ sea as well but here we are only talking about Air superiority.

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