Microsoft chief Bill Gates has cautioned Russia against competing with India in the software business stating that it might lose out due to high production costs. Gates was in Moscow on Tuesday and Wednesday, meeting with the country’s software developers and government officials.
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November 9, 2006
An annual study for the U.S. Congress finds that in 2005 Russia, for the first time, sold more arms to the developing world than the United States did, UPI said.
Russia’s sales included eight new aerial refueling tankers to China and surface to air missiles to Iran, The New York Times reported. Both deals make the U.S. government nervous because of the possibility of a crisis with China over Taiwan and with Iran over its nuclear ambitions.
The report, “Conventional Arms Transfers to Developing Nations,†found that Russia’s arms agreements with developing countries came to $7 billion, up from $5.4 billion in 2004. France was second with agreements totaling $6.3 million and the United States just behind at $6.2 billion.
India was the largest buyer among developing countries. Russia’s largest customers were India and China.
The United States continued to rank first in total arms sales, followed by France and Russia.
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October 30, 2006
India has signed a fresh contract with Russia to buy 330 T-90S main battle tanks (MBTs) in complete sets of components for local assembly, a leading British defense journal is quoted by Indo-Asian News Service.
Citing military-diplomatic sources, the authoritative Jane’s Defence Weekly declared that the order for the additional T-90S kits would in no way impinge on the agreed scope of the license program to construct the MBTs at the Heavy Vehicles Factory (HVF) at Avadi, near Chennai.
India bought 310 T-90S in 2001 for around $800m — 124 in completed form and the remaining 186 to be assembled at Avadi in response to Pakistan inducting the Ukrainian-built T-80 UD MBT into service 1997 onwards.
The Indian Army was the first export customer for the T-90S which had been in Russian army service since the mid-1990s. Deliveries of the initial 124 T-90S tanks began in December 2002 and were completed within 12-14 months while another 180 MBTs have since been assembled at Avadi and the first part of the order is nearing completion. The T-90S tanks have been inducted into six armored regiments in northern and central India.
The associated license agreement provides for the assembly of up to 1,000 T-90S tanks in India with production scheduled to begin sometime in 2007. This was supposedly also to lead to a gradual increase in the share of components made locally in an effort at enhancing the T-90S indigenization.
But, Jane’s reports that the order for the 330 sets of T-90S components is driven by the fact that the Indian Army desperately needs modern MBTs due to chronic delays in the production schedule of the domestic Arjun MBT. In addition, official sources said the upgrade of the army’s Soviet and locally built T-72 MBTs, that form the backbone of the armored regiments, was delayed by several years due to bureaucratic vacillation.
Delivery of T-90S kits from Russia, Jane’s adds, would “speed up†the fielding of new MBTs as assembly using Indian-made components is more time consuming.
But army officers complained that the existing T-90S tanks faced “recurring†technical problems which were adversely impinging on the force’s operational preparedness. Senior armored corps officers said the Catherine thermal imaging (TI) camera supplied by Thales of France that is the “heart†of the T-90S’ fire control system (FCS) had “repeatedly malfunctioned†in the excessive summer heat of the western Rajasthan desert where the MBTs frequently exercise and will eventually be deployed.
Officers operating the tanks said temperatures in excess of 60 degrees Celsius inside the tank had rendered between 80-90 FCS “unserviceable†over the past four years. Attempts to rectify them had so far largely proven unsuccessful.
In one armoured regiment in Punjab, an alarming 30 of 40 tanks were “off-roadâ€, lamented an officer, declining to be named.
Army chief Gen J J Singh recently declared that the Defense Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) was considering proposals to “partially†air-condition the T-90S to overcome the overheating problem. But he did not elaborate as to how a cooling plant could be successfully engineered into the tank.
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October 27, 2006
