Thursday, July 29, 2010

Israel's Fighter Aircraft- A Lesson for India


Photo Accredited By: Israeli-Weapons.com

IAI- LAVI

The IAI Lavi (which means "Lion Club" in Herbrew) was a combat aircraft developed in Israel in the 1980s. The Lavi was intended to become the IAF's standard-bearer and Israel's first line plane. It was to be one of the world's most advanced planes at the turn of the millennium.

The Lavi was a small, smart, highly robust fighter, that was to be the IAF's solution for the future battlefield. Its uniqueness lay in the combination of a physically small plane with very sophisticated, software-rich systems. This meant lower purchase, usage and maintenance costs, compared to other planes. Technically, the Lavi was a very advanced plane, with a modern aerodynamic shape that gave it excellent maneuverability, low armed drag, and the ability to carry a large payload at high speed to long distances. The Lavi could carry and deploy the most advanced weapons systems in existence. more to read...

It was a multi-billion dollar fighter aircraft project that was disbanded when the Israeli government concluded it could not finance production on its own, could not achieve a consensus on the Lavi's cost-effectiveness and received political pressure from the US government to cancel it, ofcourse americans are funding their (israel) flying birds and thus they did not want it to compete with American exports, Only three prototypes of Lavi are produced. more to read from wiki...

Now Israel is pleading for a chance to be allowed to acquire the F-35 aircraft, at subsidise price. Israel is told that the F-35 must be taken as is - no changes or modifications to suit Israel's specific needs (earlier uncle sam agreed to include israeli avionics to cut the production price), and absolutely no Israeli systems included. Take it or leave it, now they (Israel) are staring at a hefty $3 billion price tag for 20 F-35s, But it's not only the astronomical price but it`s about there dependency on foreign soil for future needs.

There was a time when aircraft manufacturers from west (especially USA) were lobbying there fighter aircrafts (F-15, F-16 etc.) against "IAI-Lavi Fighter" by giving lucrative offers (like Israeli terrain specific operational packages and moreover fitting these aircrafts with local indegnised stuffs), but the million dollar question is, suddenly "Why the ball has turned to others basket???, What went Wrong..??"

Definitely, that absurd question is important for Israel, but action on it`s remedy can prove to be a show stopper for India also, Just imagine where would Israel be today if they continued to develop platform (IAI-Lavi) by smashing all the nonsense about indigenisation? World Knows their capabilities and success saga in various home-grown efforts like unmanned-aerial-vehicle (UAV) and Avionics. The people who at the time foolishly led the crusade against the Lavi? Surprisingly, 23 years later, some are still involved in decision-making in Israel's national security. They were against the development of the Lavi, against the development of an Israeli reconnaissance satellite, and against the development of the Arrow ballistic missile interceptor. But unfazed, they continue on.


LCA Tejas- Photo Accredited By: Bharat-Rakshak

Since the policy makers of Israel are reluctant to change their mindsets after learning from their past inquities, but The moral of the story can be a Lesson for India- It`s good to work hand-in-hand with strong allies of west in defence sector (necessay procurements for urgent gap-filling like towed artillery guns, aerostat radars etc.), but policy makers and babus should not neglect local home grown efforts (LCA-Tejas, Arjun MBT etc). They should design their policies after keeping the word "INDEGINISATION" in their mind...at the same time they can work with other counterparts in other sectors like energy, nuclear, trade or it can be a "Fight against Terrorism".

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Nuclear Secrets- Israel

I am Your Spy

"I have sacrificed my freedom and risked my life in order to expose the danger of nuclear weapons which threatens this whole region. I acted on behalf of all citizens and all of humanity."

He is Mordechai Vanunu, born on 14, Oct 1954 as a son of Morrocan Jews, in 1963 his family emigrated to Israel, there he joined military services (1971-74) and fought bloody wars against arab world, later Vanunu worked as a technician at Israel’s Dimona nuclear plant in the Negev Desert from 1976-1985. Citing his opposition to weapons of mass destruction, revealed details of Israel's nuclear weapons program to the British press, On October 5, 1986, the London Sunday Times newspaper headlines boldly announced, "Revealed: The Secrets of Israel's Nuclear Arsenal." The startling story, based on interviews with Vanunu and the 60 photographs he provided showing Israeli plutonium spheres used for triggers in nuclear warheads, revealed that Israel was fast developing nuclear weapons.

In detail, Vanunu's data showed that Israel possessed over 200 bombs with boosted devices, neutron bombs, F-16 deliverable warheads, and Jericho warheads. The boosted weapons shown in the Vanunu photographs revealed a sophistication that inferred the requirement for testing. Vanunu revealed for the first time the underground plutonium separation facility where Israel was producing 40 kilograms annually, several times more than previous estimates. Photographs showed sophisticated designs which scientific experts say enabled the Israelis to build bombs with as little as 4 kilograms of plutonium.

Below: Vanunu revealed to press during imprisionment "Kidnapped in Rome by Mossad Agents and flight details"
A week prior to the interview’s publication, he was lured by a Mossad agent from London to Rome ( more details), where he was apprehended and whisked off to Israel. In secret proceedings, Vanunu stood trial for treason, was swiftly convicted, and sentenced to 18 years behind bars. He spent more than 11 of them in solitary confinement. He was released from prison April 21, 2004 with severe restrictions on his activities for at least the next six months and possibly indefinitely. Vanunu may not communicate with foreigners and may not travel into certain areas of Israel. more to read..

Vanunu has been characterized by some as a whistleblower and by others as a traitor (in israel). Daniel Ellsberg has referred to him as "the preeminent hero of the nuclear era", Amnesty International issued a press release that "The organisation considers Mordechai Vanunu to be a prisoner of conscience and calls for his immediate and unconditional release. moreover “He [Vanunu] has written letters to us this year and last year also, where he stated explicitly that he did not want to be a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize. The reason he gave was that Simon Peres had received the Nobel Peace Prize, and Peres he alleged was the father of the Israeli atomic bomb and he did not want to be associated with Peres in any way.” – Geir Lundestad, Director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute and Secretary of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, 24 February 2010.

"Dimona should be open to international inspections, should be shut down because it is past its age, beyond 25-30 years, it is now 40 years working. If the U.S. is looking for nuclear weapons in the Middle East, or a nuclear factory, it is here in Israel." - Mordechai Vanunu

Some Facts

1. French premier Guy Mollet is even quoted as saying privately that France "owed" the bomb to Israel- France and Israel signed a revised agreement (after Suez Canal crisis) calling for France to build a 24 MWt (now it is revised to 75 MWt, some fear it to be 200 MWt) reactor (although the cooling systems and waste facilities were designed to handle three times that power) and, in protocols that were not committed to paper, a chemical reprocessing plant. This complex was constructed in secret, and outside the IAEA inspection regime, by French and Israeli technicians at Dimona, in the Negev desert A new intelligence agency, the Office of Science Liasons,(LEKEM) was created to provide security and intelligence for the project. At the height construction, some 1,500 Israelis some French workers were employed building Dimona. To maintain secrecy, French customs officials were told that the largest of the reactor components, such as the reactor tank, were part of a desalinization plant bound for Latin America. In addition, after buying heavy water from Norway on the condition that it not be transferred to a third country, the French Air Force secretly flew as much as four tons of the substance to Israel. more to read..

2. Vela Incident- There is no evidence that Israel has ever carried out a nuclear test, although many observers speculated that a suspected nuclear explosion in the southern Indian Ocean in 1979 was a joint South African-Israeli test. more to read...

3. British Aid- Top secret British documents obtained by BBC Newsnight show that Britain made hundreds of secret shipments of restricted materials to Israel in the 1950s and 1960s. These included specialist chemicals for reprocessing and samples of fissile material—uranium-235 in 1959, and plutonium in 1966, as well as highly enriched lithium-6 which is used to boost fission bombs and fuel hydrogen bombs.The investigation also showed that Britain shipped 20 tons of heavy water directly to Israel in 1959 and 1960 to start up the Dimona reactor.The transaction was made through a Norwegian front company called Noratom which took a 2% commission on the transaction. Britain was challenged about the heavy water deal at the International Atomic Energy Agency after it was exposed on Newsnight in 2005. British Foreign Minister Kim Howells claimed this was a sale to Norway. But a former British intelligence officer who investigated the deal at the time confirmed that this was really a sale to Israel and the Noratom contract was just a charade. The Foreign Office finally admitted in March 2006 that Britain knew the destination was Israel all along.Israel admits running the Dimona reactor with Norway's heavy water since 1963. French engineers who helped build Dimona say the Israelis were expert operators, so only a relatively small portion of the water were lost during the years past since the first operation of the reactor.

4. South African Documents- In 2010, The Guardian released South African government documents that it alleged confirmed the existence of Israel's nuclear arsenal. According to the Guardian, the documents are minutes taken by the South African side of alleged meetings between senior officials from the two countries in 1975. The Guardian alleged that these documents reveal that Israel had offered to sell South Africa nuclear weapons that year. The documents appeared to confirm information disclosed by a former South African naval commander, who said there was an agreement between Israel and South Africa which involved an offer by Israel to arm eight Jericho missiles with atomic bombs, however Israel denied the reports, but later on Two South African journalists described that Eschel Rhoodie, the apartheid government's information minister, privately described in 1979 how he had transported "the trigger" (of a nuclear weapon) as hand luggage on a flight from Tel Aviv.

Now the real question is "Israel has fewer enemies (mainly Arab world), so 10-30 (at max) Nuclear Bombs are sufficient, but Why Israelis are making 100-200 Nuclear Bombs?"

May be they think that, Nobody has helped/protected them in World War II from Hitler and their Nazi allies, they suffered a lot during The Holocaust (was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored extermination by Nazi Germany). Nuclear Bomb is widely supported by many leaders of Israel but, they maintain nuclear ambiguity above perception can be firmly supported by the following statement by Israel Atomic Energy Commission (IAEC) chairman, Ernst David Bergmann in 1952, who had long advocated an Israeli bomb as the best way to ensure "that we shall never again be led as lambs to the slaughter."

The question, whether Israel is the 6th Nuclear state after Big 5 (USA, China, Germany, France and UK) is what i left to the readers, because one possibility always remain there...may be Israel is feilding false believes or a Hoax, they want to bluff others about israel's nuclear programme, due to their violent and unfreindly neighbours (Arab World), i.e Mordechai Vanunu may be their agent or may be he is genuine but they had provided him with false information because its impractical that under the umbrella of most proffessional intelligence agency "MOSSAD" and "SHIN-BET", a guy can take 60 photographs without coming to the notice of others....that is why i left the answer to the readers to decide, whether Israel has Nuclear Secrets?

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Dealing with Pak Taliban


Dealing with Pak Taliban
(An article in DNA India)
R Vaidyanathan

It is no more a question of if, but when. My assessment is that there will be a Talibanised government in Pakistan within two to three years, after a prolonged civil war. Pakistan is currently a ferocious Doberman held on a leash by the US, and fed with exotic bones. It was meant to bark at and bite the USSR (and India) when the cold war was on, but the US realised recently that the dog has developed rabies and has become ferocious enough to bite the owner and the neighbours.

The US has no clue on what to do with its rabid canine. Running away from it is one option. The other is to try its best to force India, the eastern neighbour, to distract it with more bones like joint sovereignty of Jammu & Kashmir. The hope is that the dog will be distracted enough to allow the US to make its getaway from Afghanistan. Whatever the scenario, the net result will be an increasingly Talibanised Pakistan.

The problems faced by Pakistan are of its own making. It sees itself as a leader of the Islamic world. One Egyptian professor told me after visiting Pakistan in the 1990s that they gave him the impression that Islam was invented on August 14, 1947. During the recent Facebook prophet controversy, it was Pakistan which banned all internet media — something that wasn’t done by many countries even in the Middle East. Some sections of Pakistani society have embarked on a dangerous path of searching for pure Islam. First, they targeted Hindus and Christians using blasphemy laws. Then they targeted Ahmaddiyas (or Ahmadis) by declaring them to be non-Muslims.

The grave of Abdus Salam says he is the “First Nobel laureate in physics,” with the word “Islamic” being deleted after the word “first”.
For some radical Sunnis, Shias are less than pure Muslims. More recently, Sufis have been targeted. When Ahmaddiyas were butchered recently, the media categorised them as a religious sect and many “experts” absurdly argued that all this was done by the Ahmaddiyas themselves to abrogate the blasphemy laws which had banned them from calling themselves Muslims.
Pakistan is thus close to civil war.

Pakistan’s finance ministry (May 24, 2009) says that terror costs the country more than US$ 35 billion, but it is not clear whether this figure includes the amounts spent on instigating terror in Kashmir valley and in other parts of the world. Khaled Ahmed (2007) gave an estimate that Pakistan pays into Kashmir around US$ 2.6 billion annually to keep the All Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) and other radical organisations alive. This also includes an “infiltration budget”. Pakistan gets around 800 “incursions” annually for this money.

The economy of Pakistan, mostly owned by the army and completely dependent on US crumbs, is in a shambles. Singapore Airlines has closed shop and three foreign institutional investors (FIIs) who set up offices some years ago have closed down. The elites are trying to emigrate to the west after going through special ID checks.

India does not comprehend the impending denouement in the terrorist state of Pakistan. We absurdly mouth the belief that the rabid Doberman is also a “victim” a of terrorism and conduct talks with political leaders who do not wield any real power in Pakistan — as the shenanigans of foreign minister SM Qureshi in the recent India-Pakistan talks show. If at all, India should talk directly to Ashfaq Kayani, the army chief, and Shuja Ahmed, the ISI chief. But even they are unlikely to be able to control the army as the cadre that grew up during the Zia ul-Haq regime is now reaching the top. Their allegiance may be to Wahabi Islam, and not necessarily to the Pakistani state or army. They want to erase their Indic past and the primary purpose of existence is the destruction of India or become its equal.

The Indo-Pak hyphenation is gone in global discussions and Pakistan’s problems are not discussed, but Pakistan is recognised as a global headache. Of course, they will as usual argue with the US even though a pistol is held to their own head, but declining powers like the US can only bribe and beg with these blackmailers.
India should keep quiet and our civil society should avoid links with that medieval monster, especially if a Taliban government gets formed in Pakistan. It may take few years for such a government to implement its ideology. Some Wagah candle-kissers may want India to help the liberal society of Pakistan, but liberals are trying to leave Pakistan.
There is a possibility of Pakistanis trying to migrate to India, but efforts should be made to keep them on the other side of the border. A stable Pakistan is more dangerous to India than a dynamic disequilibrium. As long as there is internal strife and civil war they will be very busy wallowing in their own mess. Any stability will make them look east.


R.VAIDYANATHAN
PROFESSOR OF FINANCE
INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT
BANNERGHATTA ROAD
BANGALORE
INDIA_560076
TEL: 91-80-2699-3086
FAX:91-80-2658-4050
E mail:vaidya@iimb.ernet.in