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05 Oct 18. India, Russia Sign USD 5bn S-400 Deal. India and Russia signed the USD5bn S-400 air defence system deal on Friday after wide-ranging talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin, official sources said. The agreement was signed in the presence of both the leaders at the 19th India-Russia annual bilateral summit. The S-400 missile defence system deal could result in US sanctions under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) instituted by the US Congress on arms purchases from Russia. The US has urged its allies to forgo transactions with Russia, warning that the S-400 missile defence system that India wanted to buy would be a “focus area” for it to implement punitive sanctions against a nation undertaking “significant” business deals with the Russians. American lawmakers, however, have allowed the possibility of a presidential waiver. India wants the long-range missile systems to tighten its air defence mechanism, particularly along the nearly 4,000-km-long Sino-India border. S-400 is known as Russia’s most advanced long-range surface-to-air missile defence system. China was the first foreign buyer to seal a government-to-government deal with Russia in 2014 to procure the lethal missile system. Moscow has already started delivery of an undisclosed number of the S-400 missile systems to Beijing. (Source: defense-aerospace.com/Press Trust of India)
04 Oct 18. Saudis seek wide-ranging deals with South African arms firms. Saudi Arabia is in talks with South Africa’s major arms manufacturers and is considering taking an equity stake in the struggling state-owned defence firm Denel, the head of the Saudi state defence company told Reuters. Saudi Arabian Military Industries’ (SAMI) chief executive Andreas Schwer said he expected to conclude the first partnership deals with South African companies by the end of the year, though he would not identify those initial partners. South Africa’s Department of Public Enterprises, which oversees Denel, acknowledged the talks with SAMI but said it was too early to give details of any potential partnership arrangement. The Paramount Group, a privately held South African company, has already said it is in talks with Saudi authorities.
“To make it clear, we are in discussions with all major South African companies, not only Paramount, not only Denel,” Schwer said in a telephone interview on Wednesday.
South Africa’s defence industry once played a major role in the country’s economy, but more recently it has suffered from the impact of a squeeze on defence spending globally and a weak home market.
Saudi Arabia is the world’s third largest defence spender behind the United States and China with an estimated military budget last year of nearly $70bn. Since 2015, the Gulf state has been fighting a war against the armed Houthi movement in Yemen in support of the internationally recognised government there. With little local manufacturing capacity, however, it has long been forced to import the bulk of its military hardware. The Saudi government is now seeking to develop its own domestic defence industry with the goal of localising half of its military spending by 2030. Schwer said SAMI aimed to have all its foreign partnerships in place by the end of next year.
“We are in discussions with the South African government in order to identify opportunities to set up strategic partnerships which could include an equity investment from our side into Denel. It’s not decided yet, but it’s one option,” Schwer said.
STRUGGLING INDUSTRY
Over 60 percent of Denel’s revenues come from exports. But the company has been grappling with a liquidity crunch after becoming embroiled in corruption scandals during the presidency of Jacob Zuma.
“We hope to get access to their technology. They have to commit to transfer their technology to Saudi Arabia and to build up together with us local capabilities, not only manufacturing but also engineering,” Schwer said.
He said those same conditions would apply to all of SAMI’s partners, and in return Saudi Arabia would offer preferred or exclusive market access to companies.
Denel did not pay senior staff their salaries in full this month. Labour unions say it is critical that Denel receives financial support – either via additional government guarantees or a capital injection.
A Denel spokeswoman said she was not aware of the discussions with SAMI and the Saudi government.
“Denel would welcome any country that looks at South Africa for procurement of defence material,” the spokeswoman Vuyelwa Qinga, wrote in an emailed response to Reuters’ questions.
President Cyril Ramaphosa visited Saudi Arabia in July and subsequently announced that the Saudi government pledged to invest at least $10bn in South Africa.
Department of Public Enterprises spokesman Adrian Lackay said there had been discussions between SAMI and various state bodies about Saudi Arabia’s interest in defence technology.
“But at this stage it would be premature and speculative for the DPE to attempt to provide details of any specific transactions,” he said.
A United Nations arms embargo imposed on South Africa’s apartheid government in 1977 forced the country to produce all its own military hardware.
By 1994 when Nelson Mandela was elected president, the industry employed over 100,000 people. But defence spending has steadily declined and just 15,000 work in the sector today, a trade association official said earlier this year.
“In the beginning, we will pump in lots of additional capacity into South Africa to expand the capabilities and capacities in order to serve our needs and, yes, progressively we will build up capabilities here in the kingdom,” Schwer said.
He said even though the Saudis were pursuing the partnership to build their own domestic industry, the end result for South Africa would be a much bigger defence industry. (Source: Reuters)
05 Oct 18. North Korea joins South Korean protest over Japan’s ‘Rising Sun’ flag. Japan should refrain from flying the “Rising Sun” flag on a warship in a fleet review planned in South Korea next week, a North Korean propaganda website said on Friday, joining South Koreans in the latest spat over the countries’ colonial history. Relations between the neighbours and Japan have long been strained by lingering resentment over Japanese colonization, territorial disputes and the issue of girls and women forced to work in Japan’s wartime brothels. Many people in both Koreas see the red-and-white flag as a symbol of Japan’s past military aggression and its occupation of the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945.
“The ‘Rising Sun’ flag is a war-crime flag that the 20th-century Japanese imperialists used when executing their barbaric invasions into our nation and other Asian nations,” North Korea’s state-controlled Uriminjokkiri website said. “Planning to enter flying the ‘Rising Sun’ flag is an unbearable insult and ridicule to our people.”
In South Korea, which has formally asked Japan to reconsider flying the flag, articles about the controversy are among the most widely read on social media, with the president’s office receiving 250 petitions for the Japanese ship to be barred.
The South Korean Navy said on Friday that Japanese naval ships flew the ensign when they participated in fleet reviews in 1998 and 2008, but it has asked all ships at this year’s naval review to display national flags and the South Korean flag.
The “Rising Sun” ensign, used by the Japanese Imperial Navy in campaigns around Asia and the Pacific before and during World War Two, was adopted by the Maritime Self-Defense Force in 1954.
Variations of the flag are used by the ground Self-Defense Force and on the fatigues of some Japanese sailors, but some South Koreans liken the ensign to Nazi symbols such as the swastika.
Japanese officials have signalled the flag will be flown, despite the protests.
“Hoisting of the Maritime Self-Defence Force ensign is required by law,” Katsutoshi Kawano, the chief of staff of Japan’s Self Defence Forces, told reporters on Thursday.
“Members take pride in the ensign, and we will never go there with the flag unhoisted.”
South Korea’s foreign ministry had “conveyed our stance that the Japanese side should fully consider the Rising Sun flag’s emotional connotation to our people,” Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said on Thursday.
Japan is a key player in United States-led efforts to isolate and punish North Korea over its nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.
But it has remained a major target of criticism, despite warming ties between Pyongyang and Seoul as the North’s leader Kim Jong Un engaged in a flurry of diplomacy this year, during which he also met leaders of the United States and China. Japan and South Korea often trade barbs over disputed islands known as Takeshima in Japan and Dokdo in Korea. (Source: Reuters)
05 Oct 18. India, Kazakhstan agree to boost defence cooperation. India and Kazakhstan agreed to bolster their cooperation in the defence sector. The agreement came during Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s three-day visit to Kazakhstan capital Astana from October 02. During the visit, Sitharaman met her Kazakh counterpart, Nurlan Yermekbayev and Minister of Defence and Aerospace Industry Beibut Atamkulov. They discussed a wide range of issues relating to defence and military-technical cooperation and took stock of the progress that the bilateral relationship has made since the renewal of the MoU on defence cooperation in January 2017. India and Kazakhstan’s Defence Cooperation includes military-technical cooperation, military education and training, joint military exercises, bilateral exchange of visits and cadet youth exchange programs. Over 200 Kazakh defence personnel have undergone military training in India till date.
The two countries jointly conducted a company level military exercise ‘KAZIND-2018’ in South Kazakhstan, last month. India and Kazakhstan are bound by historical and cultural ties and this has laid a strong foundation for the multifaceted cooperation. Both countries have been Strategic Partners since 2009. Sitharaman also discussed issues relating to defence production with Atamkulov. The possibilities of joint production or co-production were discussed in this regard, based on the relative strengths and experience of both sides. She also discussed regional developments with the Kazakhstan Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov. The Kazakhstan FM appreciated India’s position and experience as a major force in UN Peace Keeping and contributor peacebuilding in various parts of the world under the UN mandate. Sitharaman also invited Yermekbayev and Atamkulov to visit India to attend the Aero India 2019 military aviation exhibition, to be held in Bengaluru in February 2019. (Source: Google/www.business-standard.com)
03 Oct 18. Israel can beat Russian-supplied S-300 air shield in Syria – minister. An Israeli official played down on Wednesday the Russian upgrading of Syria’s air defences, saying the newly supplied S-300 missile system could be defeated by Israel’s stealth fighters and possibly destroyed on the ground. Moscow said on Tuesday that it had delivered the S-300, a decision it took after accusing Israel of indirect responsibility for the downing of a Russian spy plane by Syrian forces as they fired on attacking Israeli jets last month. Damascus and its big-power backer describe the advanced addition to Syria’s arsenal as a major deterrent. Israel and Washington have both voiced misgivings about the S-300 handover. But asked in an interview if the Syrian acquisition of the S-300 would clip the Israeli military’s wings, Tzachi Hanegbi, the country’s regional cooperation minister and a non-voting member of its security cabinet, said: “Unequivocally, no.”
“The operational abilities of the air force are such that those (S-300) batteries really do not constrain the air force’s abilities to act,” he told Israel’s Army Radio.
Referring to F-35 Joint Strike Fighters that Israel began receiving from the United States over a year ago, Hanegbi said: “You know that we have stealth fighters, the best planes in the world. These batteries are not even able to detect them.”
Reuters reported in 2015 that Israel had trained against a Russian-supplied S-300 system in Greece.
Israel says its air raids on Syria are needed to foil deployments and arms transfers by Iran or Lebanon’s Hezbollah guerrillas, allies of Damascus.
Hanegbi said that Russia had previously stationed its own S-300 in Syria, so the system’s capabilities had long been factored into Israeli planning. Syria’s military would require “a few months” to get its S-300 operational, he said.
“We have clarified to the Syrians more than once that we will not step back from our commitment to prevent Iran’s entrenchment in Syria,” Hanegbi said, adding a veiled threat to take action against the S-300 on the ground: “We were already forced, a few months ago, to destroy Syrian missile batteries, and I hope they won’t challenge us in the future.”
Israel said on Sept. 4 it had carried out more than 200 air strikes in Syria in the previous two years – an average rate of twice a week – with Russia largely turning a blind eye. There have been no reports of such missions since the Russian plane’s downing on Sept. 17, however.
Any such hiatus was a “tactical situation over a week or two” rather than a strategic reassessment by Israel, Hanegbi said.
Asked if Iran and its allies had used the period to step up their activities in Syria, he said he had seen “no basis for that” in Israeli intelligence assessments. (Source: Reuters)
03 Oct 18. Indian Air Force chief defends Rafale fighter deal against claims of crony capitalism. Indian Air Force chief, Air Chief Marshal Birender Singh Dhanoa defended the decision of India’s ruling National Democratic Alliance to buy 36 Rafale fightersfrom France, calling it “a game changer” even as the opposition party criticizes the deal. Addressing annual news conference, Dhanoha said: “At the appropriate level, the Indian Air Force was consulted, but it is for the government to choose. It was decided to buy two squadrons through a government to-government deal, to meet up emergency requirements.”
India and France signed the €7.8bn (U.S. $8.99bn) inter-governmental agreement Sept. 23, under which 36 Rafale fighter aircraft will be procured from Dassault Aviation for Indian Air Force (IAF) in fly away condition. France will invest 30 percent of the total contract value in India’s military aeronautics-related research programs and 20 percent into local production of Rafale components to fulfil the mandatory offsets under the deal. The deliveries of Rafale fighters will start this month.
India’s main opposition party, Indian National Congress, has claimed on several occasions that the Rafale deal is grossly overvalued and tainted by crony capitalism. The Congress said the Modi government had failed to answer several questions on why public sector Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) had lost the manufacting deal to industrialist Anil Ambani’s Reliance Defence Ltd.
“The earlier deal for 126 medium multirole combat aircraft reached an impasse during negotiations,” Dhanoa said,, referring to a $12bn medium, multi-role combat aircraft program that was launched in 2007 but scrapped 10 years later. “We had three options: wait for something good to happen, withdraw the global tender and start over again, or do an emergency purchase. We did an emergency purchase.”
Dhanoa called the cost of 36 Rafale was “reasonable and adequate.”
The latest comments from Dhanoa come after Indian defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman called baseless congressional allegations of a reduction in the number of Rafale jets being purchased from France. Congress has demanded the government explain why instead of 126 Rafale fighter jets, only 36 are being purchased if they were cheaper under the NDA deal than the prior deal.
Sitharaman is expected to hold the first annual defence ministers dialogue with her counterpart Florence Parly in Paris Oct. 12-13, as the two countries seek to expand bilateral defense and strategic ties.
In France, Dassault said the company had picked Reliance as its Indian partner to meet requirements for local offset established by the Indian Defense Procurement Procedure and Make in India policy. The statement followed controversy sparked by remarks by former French president François Hollande, who said the Indian government selected Reliance as the local partner and that the company “had nothing to say on the subject, we had no choice, we took the partner which was presented.”
Dassault put out its statement on the deal for 36 Rafale to India Sept, 21 statement, stating that, in accordance with the policy of Make in India, Dassault Aviation decided to make a partnership with India’s Reliance Group. (Source: Defense News)
03 Oct 18. Kremlin Says Putin Will Seal $5bn Missile Defense Deal on Trip to India. A key achievement of Russian President Vladimir Putin on a trip to India this week will be the signing of a $5bn deal to supply India with S-400 air-defense systems, a top Kremlin aide has said. The deal comes despite warnings from the Pentagon that India would run afoul of U.S. sanctions against Russia’s military and defense sector if it purchased the sophisticated weapon systems. Putin is visiting India on October 4-5 at the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Moscow has been negotiating to sell the S-400 long-range surface-to-air missiles to India for months.
“The key feature of this visit will be the signing of the agreement to deliver S-400 air-defense systems. The value of the contract will be more than $5bn,” Putin’s top foreign-policy aide, Yury Ushakov, told reporters in Moscow.
He called Russia’s military relationship with India “traditional and long-standing.” But the S-400 sale has raised concern in Washington, which is seeking to develop a defense relationship with India to counter China’s growing military presence in Asia, and wants India to reduce its reliance on Russian technology. Moreover, the Pentagon has warned India that the purchase would violate U.S. sanctions against Russia’s military that went into effect this year. India has signaled it will ask Washington for a special waiver from the sanctions to purchase the S-400 systems. Congress enacted legislation this year that would allow the president to waive the sanctions for countries that are developing defense relationships with Washington. While U.S. legislators said they had India in mind when they passed the waiver legislation, a senior Pentagon official warned New Delhi last month that there was no guarantee it will get an exemption from the sanctions. (Source: defense-aerospace.com/Radio Free Europe)
02 Oct 18. Russia: U.S. comments on possible destruction of Russian warheads are dangerous – TASS. Russia regards as dangerous a statement by Washington’s envoy to NATO who said Moscow must halt its covert development of a banned cruise missile system or the United States would seek to destroy it before it becomes operational. The U.S. ambassador to NATO, Kay Bailey Hutchison, said on Tuesday Washington remained committed to a diplomatic solution but was prepared to consider a military strike if Russian development of the medium-range system continued.
“It seems that people who make such statements do not realise the level of their responsibility and the danger of aggressive rhetoric,” TASS news agency quoted Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying. (Source: Reuters)
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About Lincad
Lincad is a leading expert in the design and manufacture of batteries, chargers and associated products for a range of applications across a number of different sectors. With a heritage spanning more than three decades in the defence and security sectors, Lincad has particular expertise in the development of reliable, ruggedised products with high environmental, thermal and electromagnetic performance. With a dedicated team of engineers and production staff, all product is designed and manufactured in-house at Lincad’s facility in Ash Vale, Surrey. Lincad is ISO 9001 and TickITplus accredited and works closely with its customers to satisfy their power management requirements.
Lincad is also a member of the Joint Supply Chain Accreditation Register (JOSCAR), the accreditation system for the aerospace, defence and security sectors, and is certified with Cyber Essentials, the government-backed, industry supported scheme to help organisations protect themselves against common cyber attacks. The majority of Lincad’s products contain high energy density lithium-ion technology, but the most suitable technology for each customer requirement is employed, based on Lincad’s extensive knowledge of available electrochemistries. Lincad offers full life cycle product support services that include repairs and upgrades from point of introduction into service, through to disposal at the end of a product’s life. From product inception, through to delivery and in-service product support, Lincad offers the high quality service that customers expect from a recognised British supplier.
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