India Beefing up its Military

What`s behind the sudden surge in India`s defense spending

India`s been making headlines recently as it openly signed deals and contracts to procure significant military hardware, namely for its navy and airforce. The deals announced between, now the primary arms supplier Russia and India are staggering and the pacts have been valued at more than $10 billion which on top of previous deals still on the books. The high profile deals were officially signed during Prime Minister Vladmir Putin`s visit to India on March 12, 2010. Military hardware aside, the recent pacts additionally call for more increased cooperation and partnership in areas of developing nuclear reactors, equipment for GPS systems and airplane and truck assembly plants.

Russia additionally wants to increase annual trade with India from the current level of about $8 billion to $20 billion by 2015. Russia now currently supplies 60-70% of India`s defense equipment. On the nuclear side, Russian deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said Russia will build up to 16 nuclear reactors for power stations in India. Russia nuclear reactors have been cited as one of the best and safest in the world.

Over the next 12 years, India is set to spend a whopping $200 billion on defence acquisitions to replace its outdated inventory. In this regard, on February 15, 2010, a report of the Indian strategic defense magazine (India Strategic’s DefExpo) revealed that 70% of the inventory of the Indian armed forces is 20-plus years old, and needs to be replaced with modern technology. It explained that nearly half of this funding ($100b) will go to the Indian Air Force (IAF), which would need to replace more than half of its combat jet fleet as well as the entire transport aircraft and helicopter fleet. The army needs new guns, tanks, rocket launchers, multi-terrain vehicles, while the navy needs ships, aircraft carriers and new range of nuclear submarines.

During a recent visit of the US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to New Delhi, American Defence officials, however, have said that US weapons sales to India would not be a focus of the trip. Regardless of such denials, the key reason for the Gates’ visit can be found in the fact that India is planning to raise its military budget by 50% to almost $40 billion, making military expenditure 3% of the annual GDP. In contrast to India’s planned defence expenditures, Pakistan’s entire 2009-10 budget amounts to little over $30 billion!

The fact of the matter is, India wants to become a mini-superpower of the region and hence it uses the pretext of deterrence against Pakistan and China. In this context, New Delhi with the dual support of the US and Israel has presumed peace-loving Pakistan and China as their arch enemies, but it does not admit it officially.

Recent major military acquisitions:

-Signed $1.5 bln contract on 29 additional MiG-29K Fulcrum carrier based fighter jets (this is in addition to a contract for 12 single-seat MiG-29k and 4 double-seat MiG-29KUB to India navy)

-Deal to upgrade the Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier at a cost of $2.3 bln. (The Gorshkov is a Kiev-class carrier, displaces 45,000 tons, 32 knots and endurance of 13,500 nautical mi. The carrier will be rechristened the Vikramaditya)

- Deal to deliver 42 Su-30MKI jet fighters to Indian airforce, at a cost of $3 bln (This is in addition to 69 jets previously ordered by India and set to be delivered in 2011. The new air-superiority fighters will come on top of the 230 already contracted from Russia in three deals worth a total of $8.5 billion.)

-Joint venture to produce GPS equipment, the Glonass, for the use of defense needs (Glonass- the Global Navigation Satellite System is the Russian equivalent to the US Global Positioning System or GPS.

More to Dr. J. Allen Hynek and UFO`s

Above: Report cover for Project Grudge

This is in conjunction with an earlier post on Dr. J. Allen Hynek: http://rubaiatahmed.blogspot.com/2009/12/more-proof-to-ufo-and-alien-existence.html

To refresh your memory, Dr. Joseph Allen Hynek (5/1/1910 - 4/27/86) acted as a scientific advisor to UFO studies undertaken by the USAF under 3 consecutive names: Project Sign (1947-1949), Project Grudge (1949-1952) and Project BlueBook (1952-1969). For decades afterwards, he conducted his own independent UFO research - which began a turnaround on the UFO question. Only after Project BlueBook was finally dissolved did Hynek speak more openly about his "turnaround."

Project Grudge supposedly operated under a debunking directive. Dr. J. Allen Hynek debunked many legitimate UFO incidents while he functioned as a scientific advisor of Project BlueBook. Dr. Hynek is the man responsible for the infamous "it was only swamp gas" statement. The final report of Project Grudge, which was co-authored by Lt. Col. Friend and Dr. J. Allen Hynek was about 600 pages long.

The Grudge report (conclusions)

Project Grudge issued its only formal report in August 1949. Though over 600 pages long, the report's conclusions stated:

A. There is no evidence that objects reported upon are the result of an advanced scientific foreign development; and, therefore they constitute no direct threat to the national security. In view of this, it is recommended that the investigation and study of reports of unidentified flying objects be reduced in scope. Headquarters AMC [Air Materials Command] will continue to investigate reports in which realistic technical applications are clearly indicated.

NOTE: It is apparent that further study along present lines would only confirm the findings presented herein. It is further recommended that pertinent collection directives be revised to reflect the contemplated change in policy.

B. All evidence and analyses indicate that reports of unidentified flying objects are the result of:

1. Misinterpretation of various conventional objects.

2. A mild form of mass-hysteria and war nerves.

3. Individuals who fabricate such reports to perpetrate a hoax or to seek publicity.

4. Psychopathological persons.

Not long after this report was released, it was reported that Grudge would soon be dissolved. Despite this announcement, Grudge was not quite finished. A few personnel were still assigned to the project, and they aided the authors of a few more debunking mass media articles.

Turnaround

Hynek began occasionally disagreeing publicly with the conclusions of Blue Book. By the early 1960s—after about a decade and a half of study—Clark writes that "Hynek's apparent turnaround on the UFO question was an open secret."Only after Blue Book was formally dissolved did Hynek speak more openly about his "turnaround."

By his own admission, the soft-spoken Hynek was cautious and conservative by nature. He speculated that his personality was a factor in the Air Force keeping him on as a consultant for over two decades.

It was during the late stages of Blue Book in the 1960s that Hynek began speaking openly about his disagreements and disappointments with the Air Force. Among the cases where he openly dissented with the Air Force were the highly publicized Portage County UFO chase (where several police officers chased a UFO for half an hour), and the encounter of Lonnie Zamora. A police officer, Zamora reported an encounter with a metallic, egg-shaped aircraft near Socorro, New Mexico. Zamora witnessed two humanoid occupants of the craft, and in its apparently hasty departure, the craft left physical evidence of its presence. As of 2007, no entirely adequate explanation has been presented that would contradict Zamora's account—in fact, in a secret memo for the CIA, Blue Book's director at the time, Major Quintanilla, expressed his own bafflement at the case. Hynek described the case as a potential "Rosetta Stone" that might unlock the UFO mystery.

In a 1985 interview, when asked what caused his change of opinion, Hynek responded, "Two things, really. One was the completely negative and unyielding attitude of the Air Force. They wouldn't give UFOs the chance of existing, even if they were flying up and down the street in broad daylight. Everything had to have an explanation. I began to resent that, even though I basically felt the same way, because I still thought they weren't going about it in the right way. You can't assume that everything is black no matter what. Secondly, the caliber of the witnesses began to trouble me. Quite a few instances were reported by military pilots, for example, and I knew them to be fairly well-trained, so this is when I first began to think that, well, maybe there was something to all this."

Regardless of his own private views, Hynek was, by and large, still echoing the post-Ruppelt line of Project Blue Book: There are no UFOs, and reports can largely be explained as misidentifications. Ruppelt is Air Force Captain Edward J. Ruppelt who was Project Blue Book's first director.

Its been alleged in William Cooper`s book, Behold a Pale Horse, that Dr. Hynek was cited as a CIA asset attached to Project Grudge.

Additional Resources:

Project Grudge/Blue Book, William Cooper: http://think-aboutit.com/ufo/project_grudgeblue_book.htm

Project Grudge: http://home.comcast.net/~tprinty/UFO/Grudge.htm

Project Grudge: http://www.ufoevidence.org/documents/doc1972.htm