A Eurofighter Typhoon fighter aircraft in the full two-tone grey livery of the Royal Saudi Air Force. After unsuccessful campaigns in South Korea and Singapore, on 18 August 2006 it was announced that Saudi Arabia had agreed to purchase 72 Typhoons. In November and December it was reported that Saudi Arabia had threatened to buy French Rafales because of a UK Serious Fraud Office investigation into the Al Yamamah ("the dove") defence deals which commenced in the 1980s. However on 14 December 2006 Britain's attorney general, Lord Peter Goldsmith, ordered that the Serious Fraud Office discontinue its investigation in the BAE Systems' alleged bribery to senior Saudi officials in the al-Yamamah contracts, citing "the need to safeguard national and international security". The Times has raised the possibility that RAF production aircraft will be diverted as early Saudi Arabian aircraft, with the service forced to wait for its full complement of aircraft. This arrangement would mirror the diversion of RAF Tornados to the RSAF. However, The Times has also reported that such an arrangement will make the UK purchase of its tranche 3 commitments more likely. On 17 September 2007 Saudi Arabia confirmed it h
ad signed a GB£4.43 billion contract for 72 aircraft. 24 aircraft will be at the Tranche 2 build standard, previously destined for the UK RAF, the first being delivered in 2008. The remaining 48 aircraft will be assembled in Saudi Arabia and delivered from 2011. Saudi Arabia considers to order 24 additional jets in the future, more recent reports suggest that number may be as high as 60 or 72. *On 22 October 2008 an aircraft in the full two-tone grey livery of the Royal Saudi Air Force flew for the first time at BAE Systems’ Warton Aerodrome, marking the start of an initial test flight programme for RSAF aircraft.
Declining global fortunes have made the relatively stable, relatively cash-rich Middle Eastern nations even more attractive to international defence companies. The race is on to provide them with the most attractively priced, technologically advanced and well-designed weapon systems, complete with lucrative after-sale service and maintenance contracts.
Within the region, however, there is a wide spectrum of capability, capacity and cash flow that limits the effectiveness of sweeping generalisations about regional trends in procurement; poor countries such as Yemen and Lebanon cannot be equated with the immensely wealthy nations in the Gulf such as Saudi Arabia, which has long been ranked among the top 10 largest importers of weapons worldwide.
wants to get a better grip on its strategy before sending more troops, U.S. defense officials said Feb. 9.
A deployment plan was submitted last week to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, but he has not yet signed off on it, said a senior military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
"We believed two weeks ago that we would get something pretty quick," the official said. "Now we are waiting."
"We've got everything packaged and presented to the decision makers. We've made our recommendation," the official said.
But the official said the new administration "has signaled it wants to look at the (strategy) reviews under way."
The new U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, arrived Feb. 9 in Islamabad at the start of his first trip to the region.
U.S. combat brigades must undergo at least two to three months of specialized training for Afghanistan before being deployed.
The Pentagon plans to deploy an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan over the next year to 18 months, nearly doubling the size of its force there.
Currently there are 37,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, on top of another 70,000 international troops, serving in either a NATO-led force or a U.S.-led coalition.
Gates said at the end of January that the United States would send three brigades, each numbering between 3,500 and 4,000 troops, by mid-summer.
A Pentagon spokesman would not say deployment orders have been delayed, but acknowledged that the White House might decide to button down its strategy review before giving the go ahead, something the Pentagon appeared to rule out a week ago.
"I don't subscribe to the characterization of delay or postponement," said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman, recalling that Gates had never set a deadline for announcing the troop deployments.
"There is certainly a fairly unanimous understanding that some level of force increase is necessary in Afghanistan. How much, when, all those things are being looked at," he said.
"Is it conceivable that you could have some announcements about deployment orders before the strategy review is totally completed? Sure. Is it possible we might have to wait until the strategy review is completed? Sure."
Geoff Morrell, Pentagon press secretary, told reporters a week ago that the United States would begin deploying troop reinforcements to Afghanistan before the new strategy had been completed because of the worsening security situation.
Asked why additional troops might be deployed before a final strategy is ready, Morrell said improving security was a vital first step to any new approach in Afghanistan.
"But no matter what your overall strategy may be, we need to reverse the trend that we are seeing in some parts of the country, in terms of a deteriorating security situation.
"That is accepted as the foundation on whatever we - whatever the president decides to develop in terms of a further strategy."
A Mid Range Munition destroys a T-72 tank in a test at Yuma Proving Ground, Ariz., after using its infrared seeker to guide itself to the target.
The December test at Yuma Proving Grounds, Ariz., was staged to prove that the guidance system of the Mid Range Munition (MRM) would work when fired.
The MRM has two guidance modes.
The first is laser designation, in which the round follows a laser spot generated by some other target seeker to the target, or in so-called offset mode, near the target.
The second is with its 3-inch infrared camera. The guidance system compares the IR images to a target library stored in electronic form.
"The algorithm running through the round is looking at the environment and differentiating the target from items that might be in range in a normal desert environment," said Jeff McNaboe, Army MRM program manager.
In the December test, the round used only its infrared seeker, the first time it had destroyed a target without laser-guided help, said David Rigoglioso, deputy product manager for large caliber ammo, Picatinny Arsenal, N.J.
In the fall, another test will be used to evaluate the airframe, the guidance electronics unit and the control section, said John O'Brien, Raytheon MRM program director.
The Raytheon-General Dynamics-built MRM is 13 months through a 63-month, $232 million development deal with the Army. Initial production is scheduled for 2012.
246 million contract for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to provide spare parts for the new Patriot systems Raytheon is building there.
The United Arab Emirates is now the biggest customer for Patriot, thanks to an agreement in December worth up to $3.3 billion for Raytheon to build Patriot Configuration 3 systems, the latest Patriot air and missile defense system, and provide whole life support and related training for those systems.
The latest deal is a Foreign Military Sale through the U.S. government. Raytheon will provide spare parts to support the 10 Patriot fire units the Emirates ordered in December.
The system will replace the medium-range Hawk Air Defense System the United Arab Emirates bought in the 1980s. Raytheon also is upgrading the U.S. Army's Configuration 2 systems to Configuration 3 systems.
Company representatives said this is probably the last UAE Patriot contract this year, but Raytheon also is hoping to win a contract this year to provide the country with Surface Launched Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (SLAMRAAM) systems.
"We won Patriot [for the Emirates] and SLAMRAAM, we think, is next," said Sanjay Kapoor, Raytheon's vice president of Patriot programs.
The company sells Patriot systems and services to 12 countries including the United States, but is looking to expand sales for additional countries in Asia, Europe and the Middle East.
The December deal to provide the United Arab Emirates with Patriot systems is the first deal in some time under which Raytheon will build those systems from the ground up, Kapoor said.
"The UAE is brand-new, ground-up fire units. By default, it makes it easier for the next country or buyer because now the line becomes 'hot,' " Kapoor said. "We get geared up, we get facilitized. We're going through a massive amount of technology refresh[ing] and modernization. The supplier base is getting restarted; test equipment is all getting reset. All that up-front cost, all that up-front work is being done now. Obviously, subsequent countries will benefit from that."
The Saab JAS 39 Gripen is a 4.5 generation fighter aircraft manufactured by the Swedish aerospace company Saab. Gripen International acts as a prime contracting organisation and is responsible for marketing, selling and supporting the Gripen fighter around the world. The aircraft is in service with the Swedish Air Force, the Czech Air Force, the Hungarian Air Force and the South African Air Force, and has been ordered by the Royal Thai Air Force. A total of 236 Gripens have been ordered as of 2008.
India, which will begin trials in April of the shortlisted jets including the Gripen, has said it will buy about two dozen units in flyaway condition and manufacture the remaining 100 or so planes at a local state-run facility here.
"We will transfer technology and competencies to TCS, which will play a key role in the development of the next-generation Gripen and other products," Moller said ahead of the air show this week in Bangalore.
"The contract will continue irrespective of us getting the Indian order," the Saab vice president said.
U.S.-based Lockheed Martin's F-16 and Boeing's F-18 Superhornet have emerged as the front-runners for the Indian contract, industry sources said.
The European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) has offered its Typhoon Eurofighter. France's Dassault, which makes the Mirage, has put forward its Rafale.
Russian manufacturers of the MiG-35 and MiG-29 are also in the race along with Saab.
The Indian air force - the fourth largest in the world - has 51 Mirage-2000 war planes made by Dassault with electronics from Thales that need a major upgrade.
Local residents examine a damaged school, wrecked by Islamic militants in Mingora, main town of Pakistan's Swat Valley, Monday, Jan. 19, 2009. In recent months, militants have blown up or burned down some 170 schools, most of them for girls, and demanded in December that all schools for girls be closed by Jan. 15.
In a report coinciding with US special representative Richard Holbrooke's visit to Pakistan, the newspaper said the Obama administration believes Pakistan is key to its aim of 'pacifying Afghanistan' and hunting down Al Qaeda terrorists.
Leaks of a US military review conducted under David Petraeus, the head of US Central Command, say he has concluded that Pakistan - not Iraq, Afghanistan or Iran - is the most urgent foreign policy issue facing Obama.
The report described Pakistan as 'Al Qaeda's headquarters'.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev walks near RS-12M Topol ballistic missile at the Plesetsk space lunch pad. Russia fired three long-range missiles and pronounced its nuclear deterrent strong in an extraordinary show of force experts said had not been seen anywhere since the days of the Cold War. Two of the missiles were fired from nuclear submarines in the Asian and European extremes of the sprawling country while a third was watched by Medvedev on land in northwest Russia. It was the second Russian intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test in as many days and the latest in a series of high-profile military exercises of conventional land, sea and air forces as well as strategic nuclear units.
Russia apparently wants the number reduced to a thousand, rather than the current 2,000. This would save hundreds of millions of dollars a year in maintenance and security costs.
The government has again warned neighboring countries (like Estonia and Ukraine) to stop being ungrateful for what Russia did for them during World War II.
This is a long standing sore point. The Baltic Countries and Ukraine consider themselves forcibly made a part of the Soviet Union. All four nations contributed troops to the Nazi war effort against the Soviet Union. Although reviled in Russia and the West, these troops are local heroes, for having fought against the hated Russians (not for supporting the Nazis.) The Russians don't get it, ignoring the fact that Russian secret police and death camps killed millions of people from the Baltic States and Ukraine.
Russia considers these dead to be criminals, while the countrymen of the victims consider Russians homicidal maniacs, with delusions of grandeur and selective memories.
Speaking of delusions, hundreds of Russian MiG-29 fighters remain grounded after one of these aircraft crashed last December 5th. The cause was structural failure (the tail separated, in flight, from the rest of the aircraft). The Russian Air Force has been investigating, but has not announced anything yet. It's believed that poor maintenance and a shortage of spare parts is the main cause.
It's gets worse. Russian arms exporters see sales to China falling up to 40 percent this year. The reason is partly the poor quality of Russian weapons, and partly Chinese theft of Russian technology to build their own versions of Russian weapons (complete with flaws, but the Chinese don't seem to mind as long as they save lots of money).
Russia is proposing a new treaty between itself and the West. The main idea is that the West would promise not to invade Russia, or mess with Russian internal affairs (which tend to get messy). Russia, in turn, would stop acting like a paranoid bully.
NATO has told Russia that it is not happy with the way Russia has absorbed two portions (Abkhazia and South Ossetia) of neighboring Georgia, and is building a military base in Abkhazia. Russia ignored the criticism. Meanwhile, Russia continues to have problems governing some of its border areas, that would rather be independent.
Mainly, it's the Caucasus provinces of Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan. Long unstable because of clan and ethnic differences, the situation has been made worse by Russian economic mismanagement, and the appointment of corrupt provincial officials. The national government has sent in special police units, but that has done nothing for the unemployment and corrupt officials that anger the locals the most.
The violence (weekly assassinations and raids on police stations) is spreading to Moscow, where in one recent week, there were four Caucasus related murders. The northern Caucasus has been a headache like this, for centuries. No one has ever come up with a lasting solution.
Russia has restored aid to Cuba, but at only a tenth of the Soviet era largess (which amounted to over a billion dollars a year), which ended in the early 1990s (and had been declining through the 1980s). Russia is doing this mainly to annoy the United States.
January 28, 2009: A DDOS attack coming from Russia, temporarily shut down Internet access in neighboring Kyrgyzstan. This was apparently the Russian government using its unofficial Cyber War militia to help shut down critics of a new cooperation deal between Russia and Kyrgyzstan. Russia is paying Kyrgyzstan a bunch of money ($180 million in forgiven debts, a $150 million loan that doesn’t have to be paid back, and $2 billion that does) to follow the party (Russian) line, and shut down the American air base there.
January 27, 2009: A Coast Guard patrol boat seized a Japanese fishing boat off the Pacific coast, in disputed waters. The ten man crew was arrested. It's been three years since Russia has done this, although the last time they also shot a Japanese fisherman. This time, the boat and crew were held for 11 days and then freed.
January 23, 2009: The sharp drop in raw materials prices (especially oil) has hit the Russian economy hard. The global recession has further depressed demand for Russian raw materials. Thus unemployment shot up by a million, to six million, in December. This has caused dozens of public demonstrations, which the police declared illegal, and the state controlled mass media ignored. Many people were arrested. But the Internet is not state controlled (despite attempts) and the word got around that the economy is not well all over.
People blame the government, because the government has been taking over everything in sight, and there doesn't appear to be anyone else to blame. It is the governments fault, if only because government policy has made it difficult to make needed reforms (like rebuilding Soviet era infrastructure and obsolete factories). Instead, the government spent billions of dollars trying to prop up the stock market (which lost over 70 percent of its value last year.)
In this image made from a video handed to an AP reporter in northwest Pakistan on Sunday Feb. 9, 2009, Polish hostage Piotr Stanczak sits between two masked men, before apparently being beheaded with a knife. Armed men pulled Stanczak from his car on Sept. 28 after killing three Pakistanis traveling with him near the city of Attock in northwestern Pakistan. Stanczak was surveying oil and gas fields for Geofizyka Krakow, a Polish geophysics institute A spokesman for the Taliban in northwestern Pakistan said Saturday that they killed the Polish captive because the government missed a deadline to release 26 prisoners.
Success against the Taliban is largely dependent on the quality of the senior police and army commanders in the area. Most of these officers are not up to the job, and get shown up by the few that are. This doesn't say much about the overall quality of the Pakistani armed forces.
For the first time since the 2002 murder of reporter Dan Pearl, Islamic terrorists have murdered another Western captive (Polish engineer Piotr Stanczak) in Pakistan. Held captive for five months, terrorists beheaded Stanczak when the government refused to released jailed terrorists in return for the Pole's freedom.
Compared to Pakistan, India has its religious (Islamic and Hindu) and political (communists) fanatics under control. But radical Moslem politicians in India are pressing for affirmative action for Moslems, while radical Hindu politicians was conversion to another religion made illegal. Most Indian Moslems and Christians are from families that were once lower caste Hindu. One way out of that sort of mandated poverty, was to stop being a Hindu. This sort of thing still is a problem, even though the caste system has been outlawed for decades.
February 6, 2009: Pakistani courts have freed A.Q. Khan from five years of house arrest. Khan is the nuclear scientist who stole nuclear weapons technology from Western firms, and bought the rest from China, in order to build Pakistan's nuclear bomb in the 1990s. Khan then got rich when he organized a black market organization that sold nuclear weapons technology to countries like Iran, Libya and North Korea. Khan confessed when he was caught, but now says he is innocent. He is a national hero in Pakistan, because he was largely responsible for making Pakistan a nuclear nation.
February 5, 2009: In southeast Pakistan, a bomb went off in a Shia mosque, killing at least 25 people. Sunni radical groups have been attacking Shia around here for decades. Radical Shia groups strike back and there's no end in sight. In this case, a Shia mob responded by burning down a local police station. The police tend to be Sunni, and not very aggressive at going after the Sunni radicals.
February 3, 2009: Nearly 50,000 people have fled growing Taliban violence in the Swat valley. Once a popular tourist attraction, just to the northwest of the capital, the mountain valley has been overrun by the armed followers of a charismatic Taliban cleric, Maulana Fazlullah, who is out to turn Swat, then the rest of Pakistan, into a religious dictatorship. The government has been unwilling to use the army aggressively enough to shut down the Taliban in Swat, and as a result, the police have been terrorized (and outnumbered) into ineffectiveness. The army has four brigades in the Swat Valley, but the officers in charge appear uncertain about what to do, or unable to do it.
resident Hamid Karzai called Sunday for a process of reconciliation with the Taliban, and urged foreign forces in his country to do more to halt civilian casualties. (Photo/Image: Afghan President Hamid Karzai)
With elections approaching in August, Karzai also denied that Afghanistan was a narco-state or a failed state and insisted that vast progress had been made over the last seven years.
"This is the right time for me to call for a process of reconciliation," he said at a major security conference in Germany, addressing an audience that included top US and European officials.
"We will invite all those Taliban who are not part of Al-Qaeda, who are not part of terrorist networks, who want to return to their country, who want to live by the constitution of Afghanistan and who want to have peace in their country and live a normal life, to participate, to come back to their country."
Karzai is set to stand again in presidential elections on August 20, but his popularity has waned amid allegations of government corruption, growing opium production and an ever-more tenacious Taliban-led insurgency.
NATO nations and their partners fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan have had mixed reactions to Karzai's proposals to talk to the insurgents, with many saying they reject talks with militants who have blood on their hands.
"I would request the international community to back us in this, fully, and be of one view on this, not of divided views on this," Karzai said.
Karzai raised eyebrows in November when he said he would protect the fugitive leader of the insurgent Taliban, Mullah Mohammad Omar, in return for peace whether his international partners liked it or not.
He insisted though that the extremist Islamic leader, who is wanted by the United States, would have to accept the Afghan constitution, a pro-democracy document drawn up after the US-led forces ousted the Taliban regime in 2001.
The second-in-command of the Al-Qaeda terror network, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, has said that Afghanistan's attempt to negotiate with the Taliban showed weakness.
Karzai also renewed calls for international troops fighting the Taliban to do more to avoid civilian casualties, which have also served to damage his popularity among Afghans.
"The Afghan people consider themselves partners, and partners must not find themselves under attack," he told the conference participants, including US National Security Advisor General James Jones.
There are regular allegations of civilian casualties in operations, most often air strikes by US forces, but there are conflicting statements about how many people have been killed or wounded.
International commanders have confirmed a little more than 200 ordinary Afghans died in military operations last year but the figure given by the United Nations is about four times as high.
Jones acknowledged the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) faced a major challenge in confronting the Taliban, but he insisted the alliance could not afford to fail.
"Given the nexus of terrorism and extremism, drugs and proliferation, we cannot afford failure in Afghanistan," he said.
Jones underlined that the administration of US President Barack Obama "will work closely with NATO and with the Afghan and Pakistani governments to forge a new comprehensive strategy to meet achievable goals."
Despite the challenges, and in the face of widespread criticism both inside Afghanistan and abroad, Karzai insisted that he could turn the strife-torn country around.
"We are not a narco-state," he said. "Afghanistan was a destroyed state, not a failed state."
"With the right approach, and the adoption of a new strategy as I envision, Afghanistan is a true and sure success, and we already have it," he concluded.
without strings attached, Pakistan's ambassador to the US said in a newspaper interview published Saturday Feb. 7, 2009.
Husain Haqqani told the Financial Times (FT) that "assistance that is conditional is never good".
His comments came after US Vice President Joe Biden said Friday the Obama administration would revive a plan to send 1.5 billion dollars (1.2 billion euros) of military aid to Pakistan, its key ally in (Photo/Image: Pakistan's ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani) the fight against Taliban forces in Afghanistan.
The US reportedly wants to triple civilian aid but impose conditions to ensure military assistance to Pakistan goes towards fighting insurgents in Afghanistan, not building up defences against India.
Biden is expected to give the first fully-fledged picture of Obama-era US foreign policy at a security conference in Munich, Germany on Saturday.
"Assistance that is conditional is never good," Haqqani told the FT.
"Our advice has been that while we can always discuss what the Americans would prefer... (conditional aid) is not going to serve US or Pakistani interests."
Haqqani pledged Pakistan would focus on fighting its "primary threat", which he said currently comes from "terrorism and not from our eastern neighbour".
But he warned: "There is no bullet that has been invented that Pakistan can be given to shoot at the terrorists that cannot be used in case there is a war with India."
Following the release of nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan Friday, Haqqani said his freedom "may cause a short-term perception problem" though added: "Pakistan now has a genuinely independent judiciary and we have dismantled the A.Q. Khan network."
g and the Virgin Group's new V Australia long-haul airline today celebrated the first 777-300ER to go to an Australian carrier. The airplane, delivered by Boeing to International Lease Finance Corp. and leased to V Australia, is one of seven leased and purchased 777-300ERs V Australia will deploy on trans-Pacific and other routes.
The Boeing Field ceremony included Virgin Group Founder Sir Richard Branson, Virgin Group Chief Executive Brett Godfrey, ILFC Chairman and CEO Steven F. Udvar-Hazy and senior Boeing officials.
V Australia will launch three-class Sydney-Los Angeles non-stop service on Feb. 27, building to daily flights by March 20. Brisbane-Los Angeles flights begin April 8. "This 777 completes the circle for guests wanting to fly around the world on the unique service provided by Virgin Group airlines," Godfrey said. "The combination of Virgin service and the 777's passenger appeal will be a winner on the South Pacific. "We're doubly pleased to be flying the most fuel-efficient aircraft in its class."
V Australia's 777-300ER carries 361 passengers in business, premium economy and economy classes, with advanced in-flight entertainment options.
Boeing has been eager to see an Australian airline using the 777's capabilities in the South Pacific region, according to Stan Deal, Boeing Commercial Airplanes vice president, Asia Pacific Sales.
"It is a great day to see this 777-300ER take on the job it was designed for," he said. "V Australia will be first with 777 service on the Sydney-Los Angeles route - exactly why we built this airplane. We congratulate V Australia for its visionary role."
John Wojick, Boeing Commercial Airplanes vice president, Leasing Sales, added, "ILFC is the world's largest 777 customer and, through its leadership and vision, has partnered with Boeing to expand the worldwide market for the 777, including this first 777 in Australia."
The 777 family is the market leader in the 300-to-400-seat segment. Since the 777 entered service in 1995, Boeing has grown the 777 family to include five passenger models and a freighter.
V Australia's 777-300ER is powered by the GE90-115B. Certified at 115,000 pounds (512 kilonewtons) of thrust, it is recognized as the world's most powerful commercial jet engine, while demonstrating superior efficiency and environmental responsibility.
To date, 56 customers around the world have ordered nearly 1,100 777s, making it the market's most successful twin-engine twin-aisle airplane. Boeing has 350 unfilled orders for the 777.
member of the Boeing 777 family, the 777 Freighter, on Feb. 06, 2009., received its formal stamp of approval from the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). 
The first 777 Freighter will deliver to launch customer Air France later in the quarter. 
The Indian Army ordered 124 Arjuns in 2000. The first five were delivered to the army in August 2004. The first 15 tanks have been activated. Of the remaining tanks, which are being manufactured in batches, 14 of these have been handed over to the Indian Army for winter trials. All 124 units will be delivered to the Army by the end of 2009. The planned production rate is currently pegged at thirty tanks per year, with the Army requesting fifty per year as the ideal.
Notably, the induction is coming almost 36 years after India announced its programme to build own tanks, and the process was laced with glitches and delays.
The tanks would be available at the Armoured Corps Centre and School (ACCS), Ahmednagar, Maharashtra, where training of personnel would be carried out. It would take a few months more before the Arjun is actually deployed in one of the armoured corps on field duties. It is likely that the deployment could be the Indo-Pak border where a majority of the 59 tank regiments of the Army are deployed.
The induction is coming despite stiff opposition from within the armed forces, which tested the tank to the hilt and agreed only after various parameters were met. Defence Minister AK Antony stood his ground and made it clear that the 58-tonne Arjun would be inducted, as it was working fine.
Well-placed sources in the government said the tanks earlier had to be handed over by January end, but the deadline was extended by a month. Sources in Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) confirmed that the tanks were ready for shipment and handing-over to the Army.
Rather, the move implies that the induction would be carried out without waiting for the much-awaited comparative trials of the indigenous Arjun tanks with Russian-made T-90s, as had been desired by the DRDO. .jpg)
homing (AGM-88C HARM) missiles and JDAM smart bombs. To get around this refusal, Taiwan has been building their own version of the American JSOW (Joint Stand Off Weapon) Also called the AGM-154A, the Taiwanese version is called the Wan Chien. 
arine, a legislator said Monday.
"There's always been a plan to purchase submarine and I've surveyed a few submarine workshops in Moscow, Russia. This submarine is to display our naval strength and also anticipate any armed conflicts," official Antara news agency quoted deputy speaker of the House of Representatives' Commission I on political, security and foreign affairs, Yusron Ihza as saying.
Ihza did not give the exact time for purchasing the submarine, but he said that due to the global economic downturn, the purchase would be made in stages.
However, he said, it's not necessary to own many submarines since they are expensive,
He added that the country's economic power needed enhancement as it correlated to the country's defense and security.
"My colleagues and I at the House have fought for an increase in defense spending, yet unfortunately this isn't possible now," he said, adding that only a third of the proposed budget was approved. 
company's press service said in a statement.
Sukhoi, which is part of Russia's United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), is the manufacturer of the famed Su family of combat aircraft, as well as the new Superjet-100 passenger airliners.
The Sukhoi office will support sales and maintenance of the aircraft delivered to India, and facilitate contacts with local authorities and companies, the statement said.
The Indian Air Force, after years of negotiations, purchased 50 Su-30 aircraft in 1996 and acquired the license from Sukhoi and Russia to manufacture an additional 140 Su-30MKI aircraft. Currently 116 Sukhoi-30MKI are in service.
Russia earlier said it had started talks with Indian firms on the delivery of SuperJet-100 passenger airliners and other civil aircraft to the country.
"The Indian civil aviation market is very attractive. It is very dynamic and has great potential," said Alexei Fyodorov, UAC's general director at a recent meeting of the Russian-Indian intergovernmental commission on military-technical cooperation.
Map locating the US airbase at Manas, Kyrgyzstan. Kazakhstan has become the latest nation to offer its territory for the transit of non-lethal cargo to US and NATO troops in Afghanistan, following Kyrgyzstan's shock decision to shut a key US airbase.
A car drives past a watchtower at the US airbase on the outskirts of Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Kazakhstan has become the latest nation to offer its territory for the transit of non-lethal cargo to US and NATO troops in Afghanistan, following Kyrgyzstan's shock decision to shut a key US airbase.
China has promised this year's event will showcase new weapons and equipment that have not been shown to the public since 1999, when the last military march was held for the 50th anniversary, but concerns have arisen over the cost of hosting such a huge event as the country suffers the effects of a serious economic downturn. 
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