Pakistani nuclear weapons scientist and dealer AQ Khan is now waying that the Paklistani military, then headed by Pervez Musharraf, signed off on the shipment of uranium enrichment equipment to the DPRK.
Musharraf is done. In fact, Khan may have signed his death warrant.
It appears that the Indian defense establishment has noticed that something is wrong when a small, relatively austere fighter program enters its 25th year without any fielded aircraft. (Paid Subscription Required)
Development started in 1983 for a very unambitious program, as compared to the 1981 for the F-22 with a formal entry into service in 2004, and India still needs to use a foreign engine, the F-404, to power the the aircraft, because the indigenous engine the Kaveri, is still not ready for prime time.
It’s somewhat reassuring to see a procurement process more screwed up than that of the good old USA.
You can read the story. They claim that there are issues of risks to the soldiers and diplomatic repurcussions, but I think that the real reason that they are holding off from authorizing special forces to try to find and apprehend/kill bin Laden is that they want it closer to the November elections.
So, as a result of the backlash starting from Jimmy Carter buying a civil war in Afghanistan in the 1970s, we now have a city of more than 3 million in Pakistan that is at real risk of a military takeover.
In Pakistan, we have a nuclear armed failing state. Delightful.
If this pans out, then the European missile consortium MDBA will have scored a major sales coup.
India is looking to upgrade its 70s vintage SAMs purchased from the USSR, and the market is in the thousands.
Typical. Money that was supposed to be spent on counter-terrorism was spent on…lord knows what.
Of course Pakistan has been spending our money down south, to counter the Indians, as opposed to up north, where the Taliban is, anyway.
Once again, I am compelled to make the repeat the wisest thing that I’ve read this century:
But it does inspire in me the desire for a competition; can anyone, particularly the rather more Bush-friendly recent arrivals to the board, give me one single example of something with the following three characteristics:
- It is a policy initiative of the current Bush administration
- It was significant enough in scale that I’d have heard of it (at a pinch, that I should have heard of it)
- It wasn’t in some important way completely f#$@ed up during the execution.
Seriously. I’ve yet to see anything wiser yet, and I’m using the loose definition of the 21st century which includes the year 2000.
They are looking at a two tiered system, and have some demonstration vehicles for their missile defense system.
The two tiered system mirrors that of the US Safeguard system of the late 1960s, and has me wondering if their system, like Safeguard, uses nuclear warheads.
In Safeguard, the upper tier had an exoatmospheric interceptor, Spartan, with a megaton sized warhead that killed thermally, and an endoatmospheric interceptor, Sprint, with a kiloton sized warhead that killed through neutron pulse.
In either case, they have purchased Israeli phased array radars for the system, along with Raytheon and Lockheed, and there is either some Russian involvement, or an extensive marketing effort by the Russians to get their foot in the door.
These appear to be the crown jewels of Pakistani nukes, with warheads small enough to fit on missiles.
Profoundly disturbing, and according to the story above, it’s freaking out the Pakistanis too.
Go figure. A trigger happy, “shoot first and ask questions later”, doctrine, and when we kill their soldiers, it pisses off our nominal ally Pakistan.
They called it a “cowardly act”.
Actions like this put all aid from Pakistan at risk.
In addition to demonstrations regarding reinstating the Pakistani supreme court judges, now you have constitutional amendments to curtail his power and a bill of impeachment being drawn up.
I do not think that he is long to Pakistan.
The leader of the Pakistani Taliban, Baitullah Mehsud, just held a news conference to show that he was in charge:
The impunity of Mehsud’s behavior has outraged the administration of George W. Bush, which is pressing the Pakistani government to arrest and prosecute him.
But the Pakistani government, which at times has considered Mehsud an ally and is now fearful of his power, appears reluctant to hunt him down. Days before his news conference, Pakistani forces pulled back from his realm in South Waziristan as part of the peace deals.
Yes, Bush and His Evil Minions™ are losing two wars simultaneously, not just one, as evidenced by the press conference of the man who likely whacked Benazir Bhutto.
The Constituent Assembly there has voted to abolish the monarchy.
This is a good thing. The real question is what will happen when the Maoists actually start facing a competent political opposition, which should happen in the next 5-10 years.
Given the range, and location, of these missiles, my guess is that they are primarily directed toward India, with whom China has had border disputes for some time.
It appears that Nawaz Sharif’s party has quit the Pakistani government ruling coalition over the issue of reinstating judges.
It appears that at the center of this disupte is deposed Chief Justice, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, who has committed the sin of being a judge:
He held the ruling elite to account. He rattled the security establishment by pursuing the case of the “missing” – alleged terror suspects abducted and held incommunicado by Pakistan’s intelligence services.
And he took up legal challenges to President Musharraf’s re-election.
Additionally, there are indications that the Pakistani high court would likely rule that the state of emergency, and possibly Musharraf’s grant of amnesty to PPP head Asif Zardari who would otherwise be charged with corruption.
It appears that India is making a major push into manned space flight. (Paid subscription required)
They are looking at a first flight in the 2015 time frame with some significant collaboration with the Russians.
This to my mind is the least sensible way to spend money of space flight. They are already spending significant amounts on reconnaissance and imaging satellites, which meet actual needs, as opposed to perceived status in the world.
The Pentagon assigned Major General Jay W. Hood as the senior military officer in Pakistan, where he would be crucial to fighting al Queida.
The problem was that because of his role as commandant at the Guantanamo gulag, the Pakistanis did not want him there.
When Bush leaves office, I think that there will be a slew of senior officers who will be told to retire because of their involvement in torture. They are simply too toxic to remain militarily useful.
Hood is just the tip of the iceberg.
India has tested a nuclear capable ballistic missile with a range in excess of 300km, which puts much of China firmly in range, and Pakistan test fired a nuclear capable cruise missile with a 350 km range.
While I understand the threat that al Queida in the region poses, the fact that we have two nuclear armed powers who might actually pull the trigger on each other seems to me to be far more pressing, particularly since it could not involve the Chinese.
But he is demanding that it be done by amending constitution.
The calculus is simple. If the judges get reinstated, they can rule his candidacy illegal, so he’s throwing up a road block, where the opposition needs to pick up a couple of votes to pass it.
My point here is the same as always. This lack of stability in a nuclear state is very troubling.
This is a major step, because reinstating the judges fired by Musharraf required a supermajority.
One wonders if the Supreme Court there will now rule on the legality of his election as president of Pakistan.
Proposals for the Indian Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) competition were sent in recently. See my earlier post here)
A good rundown on the competitors is at the link, though I count the IAF’s familiarity with Russian equipment as a plus, not a minus.
The competitors are the MiG-35 (a Mig-29 derivative), Gripen, Rafale, Typhoon, F-16 and F-18E.
I think that the US fighters may be ruled out because of the effects of possible sanctions in the future, the US is much more aggressive in these actions than the French or British.
The Rafal and Typhoon are too pricey.
This leaves the MiG-35 and Gripen, with the former being cheaper to buy but more expensive to operate. The upgraded Gripen closes some of the gap in payload and range, but both are far superior to the MiG-21s that they would replace.
Then again, we know how good my predictions are.