MiGs from Moscow flank American planes, Russian Tank salutes Obama

[ruby007]

MiGs from Moscow flank American planes, Russian Tank salutes Obama






Tuesday, January 27, 2015

By : TNN




NEW DELHI: Barack Obama would've felt a tad disconcerted. A day after he slammed Russia for being a "bully" encroaching on Ukraine's sovereignty, he witnessed his country's frontline military aircraft being closely flanked by top-notch Russian fighters.

• NEW DELHI: Barack Obama would've felt a tad disconcerted. A day after he slammed Russia for being a "bully" encroaching on Ukraine's sovereignty, he witnessed his country's frontline military aircraft being closely flanked by top-notch Russian fighters.
  
  First, a Poseidon-8I longrange maritime reconnaissance aircraft of US make was escorted by two Russian MiG-29K fighters, codenamed "Fulcrum-D" by NATO forces.
  
  Then, the C-17 Globemaster-III strategic airlift plane was tailed by Sukhoi-30MKIs.
  
  The traditional Republic Day flypast must have been a bemusing sight for Obama and his entourage, including national security advisor Susan Rice. India, after all, is probably the only country that operates latest military aircraft from the two erstwhile Cold War rivals - patrol and transport aircraft from the US, fighters from Russia - still ranged against each other over Ukrainian.
  
  Both, of course, unabashedly woo India to buy more and more of their defence hardware and software.
  
  If Russia is supplying 272 Sukhoi-30MKI and 45 naval MiG-29Ks for around $14 billion, the US has notched up sales to India worth upwards of $7 billion since 2007 for the 12 C-130J "Super Hercules", 10 C-17s and eight P-8I aircraft.
  
  India inducted Russian, British and French fighters but refrained from acquiring American ones. It may be acquiring US transport planes, but ejected the F/A-18 Super Hornets and F-16 Super Vipers out of the $ 20 billion MMRCA (medium multi-role combat aircraft) project for 126 fighters.
  
  India has rebuffed overtures to join the US F-35 Lightning-II Joint Strike Fighter project. Instead, it has pitched for the Russian fifth-generation fighter aircraft (FGFA) project centred on the under-development Sukhoi T-50, which will eventually lead to an overall cost of $ 25 billion for 127 such stealth fighters. Both the MMRCA project for French Rafale jets and the Russian FGFA programme are stuck because of technical and cost issues.
  
  The US reluctance to sell its F-104 Starfighters to India in the early 1960s, led the Nehru government to pick Russian MiG-21s. Indian forces inducted over 1,200 MiG variants, as also main-battle tanks, warships, submarines and missiles over the years.
  
  In the last decade, the US has muscled back, clocking sales to India over $10 billion.
  
  Several more deals are in the pipeline, including for 22 Apache attack helicopters ($1.4 billion), 15 Chinook heavy-lift helicopters ($1.1 billion) and four more P-8I planes (over $1 billion).
  
  The new India-US Defence Trade and Technology Initiative, which has chosen four relatively simple products for co-production to begin with, is touted as the key element that'll take defence ties to a new level. But IAF inducting US fighters doesn't seem a possibility as of now.
  
  
  Russian-make tank salutes US President ::
  It's not always that a Russian tank points its barrel at the US President.
  
  On Monday, a fleet of three T-90S tanks lowered their turrets in salute to the VVIP enclosure, where chief guest Barack Obama was sitting.
  
  This is probably the first time that Obama, the first US President at the January 26 celebrations, saw such a display of Russian-origin weaponry.
  
  The VVIPs, led by President Pranab Mukherjee, were greeted with a shower of petals from three recently-inducted Mi-17 V5 helicopters.
  
  The IAF display was followed by a column of T-90S Bhishma tanks, which have been newly fitted with laser rangefinders and missile-tracking systems.
  
  Once the tanks reached the podium, they raised their 125mm guns and then lowered them as the customary tank salute.
  
  The American dignitaries may have heard of Brahmos missiles, got a first-hand glimpse of the supersonic cruise missiles when they were displayed with their indigenous radar tracking systems.

 

[Agent_47]

Loved the title

 

[Koovie]

 

[jaiind]