Indian Navy probes leaked data of Scorpene subs

Indian Navy probes leaked data of Scorpene subs

At midnight on Tuesday, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar was woken up by a phone call to tell him that an Australian newspaper had just reported the leakage of key operational details of India’s newest submarines, the Scorpene.

A short while earlier, The Australian, a reputed Melbourne based daily, had broken the news that 22,400 pages of detailed documents relating to India’s Scorpene submarines has been leaked, apparently from the French shipbuilder, DCNS, which is the vendor for India’s six Scorpenes.

The report in The Australian says: “the DCNS documents detail the most sensitive combat capabilities of India’s new $US3 bn ($3.9bn) submarine fleet and would provide an intelligence bonanza if obtained by India’s strategic rivals, such as Pakistan or China.”

ALSO READ: Indian Navy analysing Scorpene data leak

Each page of the leaked documents, which are available on The Australian’s website, is annotated in red with the stamp: “Restricted Scorpene India”.

Parrikar says, upon learning of the leak at midnight, he ordered the navy chief personally to inquire into what this meant for the security of the Scorpene fleet.(more)

Air force, DRDO, pleased with Tejas performance at Bahrain

In a milestone for India’s Tejas light-combat aircraft (LCA), two Tejas fighters travelled from India to performed aerobatics at the Bahrain International Air Show (BIAS-2016) from January 21-23.

This official account comes from the Indian Air Force (IAF), which is overseeing the flight test programme of the Tejas; and from the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), the defence research & development (R&D) organisation responsible for the Tejas programme.

Visakhapatnam gears up to showcase Indian naval power

Once in each President's five-year term in office, he or she carries out a "naval fleet review", a deliberately public assembly of the entire fleet, except forwarships on essential patrols. Behind the ceremonial pomp and show lies a simple strategic signal: "Here is our fleet; it is ready for war."

In earlier days, fleet reviews were "a prelude to war or an explicit show of force to deter adventurism by a potential adversary", says Raghavendra Mishra of the National Maritime Foundation. Possibly the first ever fleet review was held in 1415, when British monarch, Henry the Vth, inspected his navy before embarking on war with France.

Hope brightens for Indo-Pak Jan 15 talks after arrest of some Pathankot suspects

The January 15 India-Pakistan foreign secretary level talks seemed on track after Pakistan made some arrests related to the Pathankot air base terror attack.

The Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif also ordered the setting up of a high-profile joint investigation team (JIT) to investigate the leads given by India that allegedly link the Pathankot air base attackers with Pakistan.

The decision to set up the JIT was set up at a meeting that Sharif chaired. Reports quoted unnamed sources in the Pakistan government who claimed that the Army was no board Sharif’s decision.

Pakistani security agencies raided places in Gujranwala, Jhelum and Bahawalpur districts and an unspecified number of people were arrested. The JIT comprises Intelligence Bureau, Inter-Services Intelligence, Military Intelligence, Federal Investigation Agency and Police.

Indian Navy successfully tests long-delayed air defence missile

In a giant capability boost for the Indian Navy, a naval warship on Wednesday test-fired a new missile that can shoot down incoming aerial threats – aircraft and missiles – whilst they are still 70 kilometres away.

A defence ministry press release stated: “Adding a quantum jump in its air defence capability, INS Kolkata, Indian Navy’s state of art, indigenous stealth destroyer, successfully test fired the Long Range Surface to Air Missile (LR-SAM).  Two missiles were fired on December 29 and 30 of on high-speed targets, during naval exercises being undertaken in the Arabian Sea.”

Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and India’s Defence R&D Organisation (DRDO) have jointly developed the LR-SAM. The Israelis call this cutting-edge missile system the Barak-8, while India calls it the LR-SAM. In earlier days, ship-to-ship battles were fought with heavy-calibre guns, requiring warships to come within gun range of each other. Once a shell was fired from a gun, there was no way of intercepting it in mid-flight.Read More.

Chennai Floods: When politics hijacks relief efforts

So I step out of my house and go from where I live in Chennai floods to one of the inundated localities. Just as I was about to step into a narrow street, a blaring horn scares the pedestrians, including me, away. And what follows is 14 SUVs, one after the other, repeating the honking, zipping past us. Except two, all the others have the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) party flag fluttering up front. The other two were police escort cars. It was the local MLA who had come to ‘tour’ the area. This exemplifies the sycophancy and hypocrisy of how the Chennai crisis caused by rains and floods have has been handled.

I am of the more fortunate Chennaiites who haven’t been affected by the flood waters. So, I tried my hand at helping those in need in whatever little way possible. One caveat before I get to what I really want to say: not often am I critical of the government machinery and this is not a bashing of the authorities I want to do but more of the anguish I have felt in the past few days.

Much has been written about the callousness of planning, coordination and rescue efforts during the flooding. But what has followed in the aftermath has been an utter disregard for the immediate concerns of the needy.

Take this, for instance: the INS Air avat, the naval vessel with tonnes of essential supplies and relief material reached Chennai port on Friday, December 4, but the officials and Navy personnel were scrambling to find out where the materials were to be transported. A relief worker who has been with them says, there was absolutely no way to contact any state government official. And he corrected himself, saying "We didn't know whom to get in touch with." They then contacted an Army officer who directed them to a place where they could offload the relief material; they found their way by themselves.

The most shocking part, though, is over 'owning' the relief materials and the politics behind it. Many of my friends, mostly professionals, from Coimbatore and Tirupur got together and prepared food, clothes and bought essential supplies. They sent all this to Chennai and Cudallore in different trucks. At key 'check points', these trucks were stopped to do – guess what? Stick posters of the Chief Minister on the trucks and carton boxes before being distributed. In fact, I was told that in one of the areas, a truck was made to wait for more than four hours because of a delay in printing these stickers!

Chennai Floods 2015,There are still areas that need volunteers, supplies, help and relief material. But there is not one official point of contact or a place to access necessary information. It's all hearsay or social media (which not entirely reliable) or through journalists' word of mouth. That's how ineffective coordination and planning has been. The head of one of the rescue teams which did exemplary service had an Army officer tell him "we do not know Chennai's geography at all and the information coming us from the local police or corporation officials was minuscule. It was better to liaise with such local volunteers." Make no mistake, some of the bureaucrats are among the best and capable lot. But it seems they have no authority and have to wait for orders at every step.

I'm reminded of the first media conference which was held in 2011 after the new government came to power and I was a journalist with a leading television channel. The question I asked was: "While there has been development and investments (are) coming into the state during previous stints, there is a thought that you tend to micro-manage every aspect. Will this change this time?" Pat came the reply: "The very charge in your statement is false." Perhaps we now the real answer. The unfortunate part is it took a tragedy of colossal proportions to make it obvious.