US drops planned Pakistan F-16 fighter jet subsidy

Pakistani F-16 formation

The US will no longer subsidise the sale of eight F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan, a senior state department official has reported.

The decision means that Pakistan will have to pay more than $700m - two-and-a-half times the original cost - if it wishes to buy the aircraft.

It comes after Congress refused to approve funding for the deal.

Some US lawmakers had accused Pakistan of not doing enough to fight militants. India also objected to the sale.

However, Pakistan has argued that the jets are needed for anti-terror operations, and so the US should help with funding the purchase.

People close to the deal say it is highly unlikely that Pakistan will be willing to pay the full cost of the fighter jets, so it seems to be off for all practical purposes.

A spokesman for the Pakistan embassy in Washington, Nadeem Hotiana, told that the arms sales were a long process and that he would not comment on the deal's current status.

"F-16s provide precision strike capability to Pakistan's ongoing campaign against militancy," he said.
"Pakistan believes that the threat from terrorist networks requires continued capacity building and both governments continue to work together towards this objective through a range of measures including the sale of these aircraft."

The senior US state department official, who asked to remain anonymous as he was not authorised to speak on the matter, says the Obama administration is still very much in favour of selling the fighter jets to Pakistan as it believes it is in the national interest of the United States.

However, Pakistan would have to bear the full cost of the F-16 fighter jets if it wished to proceed, he said.

The original arrangement had been that Pakistan would pay close to $270m, with the US foreign military financing budget paying for the rest.

However, top US lawmakers have expressed concerns over the US government's decision to sell the jets to Pakistan, saying they could be used against India rather than for combating terrorism.

Speaking on Wednesday, Congressman Matt Salmon said: "India-Pakistan tensions remain elevated, and some question whether the F-16s could ultimately be used against India or other regional powers, rather than the terrorists as Pakistan has asserted."

All you have to know about India"s own Global Positioning System - NAVIC

NaVIC

Pakistani troops took positions in Kargil in 1999, one of the first things Indian military sought was GPS data for the region. The space-based navigation system maintained by the US government would have provided vital information, but the US denied it to India. A need for an indigenous satellite navigation system was felt earlier, but the Kargil experience made the nation realise its inevitability.

On Friday, the Indian Space Research Organisation took the nation closer to the goal, which it would achieve in less than two years. The result, the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) will be as good as any such space-based system, as India can keep a close watch of not just its boundaries, but up to 1,500km beyond that. It works on a combination of seven satellites which would 'look' at the region from different angles, and, in the process, helps calculate from relative data, real-time movement of objects by as less as 10m.

Isro launched the first of the satellites in the group, IRNSS-1A, in July last. "By mid-2015," said Isro chairman K Radhakrishnan, "we will have all the seven in place." The system will be functional by the beginning of 2016. Basic navigational services wouldn't have to wait that long—they can take off with just four satellites in orbit, which will be this year. "When we have four satellites by the end of this year, we will have an operational system and then we can go and test its accuracy to validate it," said K Radhakrishnan.

Three of the seven satellites will be in geostationary orbits and the other four in inclined geosynchronous orbits. From ground, the three geostationary satellites will appear at a fixed point in the sky. However, the four geosynchronous satellites moving in inclined orbits in pairs will appear to move in the figure of '8' when 'seen' from ground. Apart from navigation, the system will help in precise time keeping, disaster management, fleet management and mapping.

"Geopolitical needs teach you that some countries can deny you the service in times of conflict. It's also a way of arm twisting and a country should protect itself against that," said S Ramakrishnan, director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram. This is the reasoning behind two types of services that IRNSS will be offering. The first is called Standard Positioning Service (SPS) which is for civilian use. This will have an accuracy of 20m, while the second is called Restricted Services (RS), which can detect movement of objects by less than 10m.

"Many weapon systems like guided missiles and bombs also use such navigation systems. An indigenous system allows the development of such capabilities in a reliable manner," said Ramakrishnan. "There is also the need to have your own navigation system in the civilian and commercial domain since so many critical services and businesses depend on it. A system run by another country (like GPS) may be switched off in times of crisis leading to complete collapse of certain services."

It will put India in the company of select nations which have their own positioning systems. While the US operates the Global Positioning System (GPS), Russia has its own GLONASS and European Union, Galileo. China is also in the process of building Beidou Navigation Satellite System (BDS).

Laser walls activated along India-Pakistan border to plug gaps in vigil

Laser Walls along India-Pakistan Border

A dozen "laser walls" have been made operational along the India-Pakistan international border in Punjab to plug the porous riverine and treacherous terrain and keep an effective vigil against intruders and terrorists exploiting the frontier areas to cross over.

While eight infra-red and laser beam intrusion detection systems are "up and working" along as many vulnerable and sensitive areas of the international border (IB) in Punjab, four more will be operationalised in the next few days. A total of 45 such laser walls will be installed in these areas along the international border in Punjab and Jammu.

The laser walls have started working and their functioning is being monitored. Preliminary results in detecting illegal movements are encouraging. The sensors were being monitored through a satellite-based signal command system and armed with night and fog operability tools. Apart from these, four other pilot projects of similar kind in stretches of 30-40 kms of international border in Jammu and Gujarat and one in West Bengal along Indo-Bangla border have been approved by Home Ministry to secure Indian borders effectively. “laser walls” have been made operational along the India-Pakistan international border in Punjab to plug the porous riverine and treacherous terrain and keep an effective vigil against intruders and terrorists exploiting the frontier areas to cross over.

While eight infra-red and laser beam intrusion detection systems are “up and working” along as many vulnerable and sensitive areas of the international border (IB) in Punjab, four more will be operationalised in the next few days, a senior official of the Border Security Force (BSF) said.

A total of 45 such laser walls will be installed in these areas along the international border in Punjab and Jammu, a blueprint prepared in this regard and accessed by PTI said.

“The laser walls have started working and their functioning is being monitored. Preliminary results in detecting illegal movements are encouraging,” the official said.

He said sensors were being monitored through a satellite-based signal command system and armed with night and fog operability tools.