BHUTAN DISPUTE : Answer to China - Make Dalai Lama as "HONORARY PRESIDENT OF INDIA"

SOURCE:
[A ]  http://www.defencenews.in/article.aspx?id=263212&t=1&cn=ZmxleGlibGVfcmVjc18y&iid=88c1d42448d147418837fe973e21f8e3&uid=84056334&nid=244+281088008
[ B ]  http://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/china-says-no-room-for-negotiations-on-standoff-ladakh-added-to-dispute-with-india/story-7ZD6hmRscxt9TqAUvGrn7I.html

BHUTAN DISPUTE: Answer to China -

Make Dalai Lama as

"HONORARY PRESIDENT OF INDIA"

                                                                                          - VASUNDHRA



   888888888888888888888888888888888888




China says no room for negotiations on Sikkim standoff, adds Ladakh to dispute with India

                         BY


   http://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/china-says-no-room-for-negotiations-on-standoff-ladakh-added-to-dispute-with-india/story-7ZD6hmRscxt9TqAUvGrn7I.html

With no end in sight to the standoff in the Sikkim sector, China on Saturday said there is “no room” for negotiations to resolve the military face-off and the only solution is the withdrawal of Indian troops from the Donglang or Doklam region.

India will face “embarrassment” if it does not withdraw its border troops to its own side and the situation could get “worse”, the official Xinhua news agency said in a commentary on Saturday night.

“China has made it clear that there is no room for negotiations on this incident, and India must withdraw its border-crossing troops from Doklam. For China, border line is the bottom line,” the commentary said.

The commentary sought to add yet another dimension to the face-off by bringing in the Ladakh region and linking it to Pakistan, China’s “iron brother” ally.
“India should not regard the existing situation as the same as or even similar to the previous two standoffs in 2013 and 2014 near Ladakh, a disputed area between China, Pakistan and India in southeastern Kashmir. Diplomatic efforts led the troop’s frictions there to a well-arranged end. But this time it is a totally different case,” it added.

It is rare for China to call Ladakh a “disputed” region and make a reference to Kashmir.

This is the first time that China has clearly articulated – through one of its primary official channels - that there is no room for parleys to resolve the weeks-long impasse in Donglang, which is under China’s control but claimed by Bhutan.

Until now, the foreign ministry had listed the withdrawal of Indian troops hinted as a precondition for resolving the face-off but had hinted there is an ongoing effort to end it through diplomatic negotiations.

Xinhua is an organ of the Chinese government and is affiliated to the State Council, the Communist country’s cabinet.

Commentaries published by Xinhua and the People’s Daily, the Communist Party of China (CPC) mouthpiece, are taken to be a reflection of the thoughts of the government and the all-powerful CPC.

“India has repeatedly ignored China's call for pulling its border-crossing troops from Doklam area back to its own territory. However, turning a deaf ear to China will but worsen the month-long standoff and put itself further into embarrassment,” the commentary said.

It added that India had “lied” to the world by saying it dispatched troops to Donglang to help its ally Bhutan, whereas “apparently” Thimphu had extended no invitation to New Delhi to intervene.

“New Delhi claimed encroachment of its own territory by China before saying it sent troops to ’protect’ its ‘ally’ Bhutan, a sovereign state which has apparently so far made no such an invitation for the sake of that boundary area,” it said.

Bhutan and China don’t have diplomatic ties but have held 24 rounds of talks to resolve a boundary dispute.

The commentary, however, described foreign secretary S Jaishankar’s remarks during a recent speech in Singapore as a “positive” sign.

“As an old Chinese saying goes, peace is most precious. It has been noticed that Indian Foreign Secretary Subrahmanyam Jaishankar recently has made positive remarks in Singapore, saying that ‘India and China should not let differences become disputes’,” it said.

“What China would like to see more are corresponding actions taken by India.

“China has a will to solve the problem peacefully by diplomatic means, and China also cherishes the peace and serenity in the border areas, but the precondition is that the trespassers of India must withdraw unconditionally.”




------------------------------------------



           TIBET IS AUTONOMOUS  REGION

                                  OF

                              INDIA

                   BEWARE  CHINKS 

               TIBETANS ARE COMING

   BY ANY STRETCH OF IMAGINATION                           THIS WAS CHINA

                               IN 

                             1932

     TO DAY CHINKS ARE CLAIMING 

               CHUNKS OF INDIA

Pakistan’s Long History of Duplicity(R)

SOURCE:
http://poe.house.gov/2017/7/pakistan-s-long-history-of-duplicity

   Pakistan’s Long History of Duplicity

                                 By 

                             Ted Poe 

Monday, July 10, 2017

Backing terrorists while proclaiming U.S. friendship is not the act of an ally

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

The United States has many complex foreign relationships. Being the world’s only superpower requires dealing with the good, the bad and the ugly of nation-states. The good are obvious. They are America’s allies and partners who we share common interests and values. The bad are America’s adversaries, who often sponsor terrorism, undermine our goals, and flaunt their disdain for the United States. Then there are the ugly. The Benedict Arnold of states that say they are our friends, take billions in U.S. aid, then back the very terrorists that are killing Americans. The ugliest of the bunch is Pakistan.

Pakistan has a long duplicitous relationship with the U.S. Throughout most of the Cold War, America and Pakistan worked closely to contain Soviet advances in South Asia. This working relationship peaked in the 1980s when the CIA and Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, partnered to bleed the Soviet Union in Afghanistan by providing covert assistance to the Afghan anti-communist rebels. But even as the U.S. bolstered Pakistan’s own defenses, Islamabad was covertly developing a nuclear weapons program that it would later use to proliferate nuclear technology to Libya, North Korea and Iran — the who’s who of bad actors.

After the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, Pakistan continued to back militants in the country, giving rise to the Taliban. By 1996, after receiving extensive support from the ISI, the Taliban managed to seize much of the country and institute a strict and repressive form of Islamic law. In this jihadi paradise cultivated by Pakistan, al Qaeda was able to take shape and plan its war on the United States. Pakistan didn’t just turn a blind eye to al Qaeda’s ambitions — it assisted by providing ISI advisers. Some of these ISI agents were killed in 1998 when American cruise missiles struck an al Qaeda training camp in response to the terrorist attacks on U.S. embassies in Africa. Yet, Pakistancondemned the strikes and may have even tipped off Osama bin Laden beforehand, allowing his escape. If Pakistan was a true ally, it would have assisted the U.S. to kill bin Laden after the embassy attacks and Sept. 11 may have never had happened. Instead, Islamabad sided with the terrorists.

After the September 111 attacks, as the U.S. rained justice on bin Laden, his al Qaeda thugs and the Taliban in Afghanistan, Pakistan provided the escape route. Despite pledges of support, Islamabad opened the door to thousands of terrorists fleeing American forces, including bin Laden himself. According to former CIA officer Bruce Riedel, the ISI’s support was critical to the survival and revival of the Taliban after 2001. Sixteen years later, the Taliban along with its al Qaeda allies are retaking parts of Afghanistan as the Pentagon prepares to send thousands of U.S. troops to beat them back. Pakistan is at fault.

The U.S. has been reluctant to cut ties or meaningfully confront Pakistan over its treachery because the supply line that keeps the coalition fed and equipped in Afghanistan runs through Pakistan. However, this key link does not come free and has even been severed by Pakistan on multiple occasions after violent incidents between their forces and our own. The Government Accountability Office found in 2008 that of the $2 billion the U.S. had given Pakistan to run that key supply line, more than a third could not be accounted for, possibly because of fraud. Moreover, the Pentagon decided last August it would not pay Pakistan $300 million in reimbursement because it could not verify Islamabad was taking steps to combat the Haqqani network — another terrorist organization with ongoing ties to the ISI that is actively targeting Americans in Afghanistan.

When the U.S. finally tracked Osama bin Laden to Abbottabad in May 2011, it was clear Pakistan had been playing us for fools. For a decade, Pakistani officials denied his presence in their country, while the al Qaeda leader lived comfortably directing his network of terror. By this point, however, the U.S. military and intelligence community knew Pakistan could not be trusted. To prevent bin Laden from being tipped off by his hosts, the U.S. excluded the Pakistanis from the raid and ordered the use of secret stealth helicopters to evade Pakistani radars. It worked, and the world’s most wanted terrorist finally met American justice. When Pakistan learned what was happening, it immediately dispatched F-16 fighters we had generously given them to shoot down our Navy SEALs as they flew back to Afghanistan. Fortunately, they were too late.

In the aftermath of the raid, Pakistan struck back. They invited their Chinese allies to collect samples of our crashed stealth helicopter, poisoned the CIA station chief in-country, and jailed the Pakistani doctor who assisted U.S. efforts to locate bin Laden.

Despite all these cases of bad behavior, we still give Pakistan hundreds of millions of dollars every year in aid. We don’t need to pay Pakistan to betray us — they will do it for free. That is why I have introduced two bills that would put pressure on Pakistan. H.R. 1499, the Pakistan State Sponsor of Terrorism Designation Act, would require the State Department to assess Islamabad’s long history of cooperating with terrorists and determine whether or not Pakistanis a state sponsor of terrorism. H.R. 3000 would revoke Pakistan’s Major Non-NATO Ally status, an exclusive and preferential designation that Pakistan definitively does not deserve. We must hold Pakistan accountable for the American blood on its hands.

• Ted Poe, a Texas Republican, is a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee and serves as chairman of the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Non-proliferation and Trade.

HINDUTVA KRSNA : THE SUPREME PERSONALITY OF GOD HEAD

SOURCE:
http://vedadev.ru/images/SB%20Family%20Tree03.jpg






  PROJECT  SARASWATI





THE  GODs  AND  GODESSESS

Chart  of Hindu Gods and Goddesses

PSY WAR PAK OPERATION SMEAR: GHQ-ISI’s Global Effort to Defame India Falters (r)

SOURCE:
http://www.sundayguardianlive.com/news/10083-ghq-isi-s-global-effort-defame-india-falters

    PAK  OPERATION SMEAR: GHQ-ISI’s   

     Global Effort to Defame India 

                                  By

                      MADHAV NALAPAT 

 

As yet the Central government seems                       unaware of the extent 

                                  to 

        which there has been GHQ-ISI 

  penetration of so-called Hindu outfits.

New Delhi 

9 July, 2017

Worried at the growing distance between Islamabad and Washington and the readiness of Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India to craft a security partnership with the United States, GHQ Rawalpindi tasked the ISI with working out and putting into operation a plan designed to smear the image of India with the colours of “intolerance” and “fascist majoritarianism”. This, it was hoped, would ensure that the US administration would adopt a cold posture towards Modi, the way Bill Clinton did with P.V. Narasimha Rao. It was also planned to generate through motivated NGO-reporting that India would come to be regarded in the US, and much of the EU, as a country with values and systems wholly contrary to their own. Since beginning work on the project “Operation Smear Modi’s India” in November 2014, after it became clear that Modi’s concessions to Pakistan would not dilute security interests, the ISI has been successful in locating several hundred funders for the project, most of whom are non-resident Pakistanis, plus citizens of those GCC states that officially encourage Wahhabism. Thus far, credible estimates are that around $218 million has been expended in “Operation Smear”, and it must be acknowledged that there has been some success in this effort. Note the several dozen articles and news reports in globally prestigious publications such as Washington Post, New York Times, Guardian, the Economist and others (especially in German and Arabic media) that portray India as a cesspool of discrimination against several elements of the population. These alleged victims include minorities, Dalits, women and children. The actions of cow vigilantes (some of whom have been receiving funding from sources having access to GHQ-ISI cash through Dubai, Kathmandu and Bangkok) have been particularly helpful in seeking to showcase India as a nation filled with Hindu bigots, indulging in murder and mayhem at the slightest provocation. The effort to “prove” that the Hindu population is as much a reservoir of terrorists and fanatics as the Wahhabi population in Pakistan, has a long history, beginning with the initial planting of “Hindu terror” stories in sections of the Indian media in 2002, but has been accelerated since the close of 2014. Interestingly, in almost every report on lynching of minorities (any such deed on the majority community is airbrushed over, as it goes counter to the created narrative of a fanatic and crazed majority), the blame is placed at Prime Minister Modi’s office door, despite law and order being a state subject. The ISI is also using its channels of communication with the global media to accuse India of being the aggressor with Pakistan and China, and of “interference” in Afghanistan. Widespread use is being made of social media to reinforce such views on the world’s most populous democracy, and clumsy counters by boorish trolls are only having a negative effect on global perceptions.

The main plank of “Operation Smear” is that (a) there is zero religious freedom in India for minorities, including Christians, Sikhs and Muslims. This line is being pushed by NGOs based in the US, Canada and Europe. In the US, several of the NGOs pushing this line are close to the dominant Clinton establishment of the Democratic Party, although there are others as well that are linked to proselytizing religious organisations in some of the southern states of the US, and which are Republican in their preferences. What they are seeking is a license to defame traditional faiths and convert on an industrial scale. This the present government opposes as having the potential to severely disrupt social harmony. Interestingly, these very NGOs have remained silent on the actual genocide of Yazidis, Druze, Shias and Christians taking place in Iraq and Syria at the hands of those Wahhabi organisations which have received cash and weaponry from within NATO, or on the inhuman suffering of the population of Yemen as a consequence of bombardments from air and land that are directed by US monitors assisting Wahhabi groups in that country, to overpower the rest. And unsurprisingly, the terror unleashed by illegal Bangladeshi migrants in parts of Bengal are being largely ignored by the international media, as is that caused by the “freedom fighters” in Syria, Libya and Iraq who kill Shias, Christians and other non-Wahhabis routinely, to silence from media outlets regularly apoplectic about conditions in India.

(b) That Dalits are being discriminated against in India, and their rights and practices affected is another plank. The leadership in this part of “Operation Smear” is being taken by certain Netherlands-based NGOs that have maintained silence so far on the systematic discrimination faced by the Romany community throughout Europe, as a consequence of which Romany employment and education rates (not to mention income) are far below national averages in EU member states. Making out Una and Saharanpur to be the norm, rather than the exception, keeps the spotlight away from discriminatory practices against the Romany community in Europe, as well as the squalid conditions in which those who have been forced to relocate from Syria, Libya and other Muslim-majority states—as a consequence of the Bush-Clinton-Sarkozy-Hollande-Cameron wars—are living in so-called human rights havens

(c) NGOs based in the UK have been particularly active in portrayals of India as a country rife with bonded labour, child slavery and sex slavery. An examination of such entities will show close relationships with politicians and members of civil society in the UK that are active in seeking to delink Kashmir from the rest of India by fair means or foul. Recently, joining hands with like groups in Canada, particular UK NGOs have been raising the issue of Khalistani independence. Of course, given the connections with the ISI and its financial accomplices, the “Khalistan” sought is entirely within the territory of the Republic of India, even though it was in territory now in Pakistan that massacres of innocent Sikhs was rampant during 1947 and 1948, and to this day, Sikh shrines in Pakistan do not have anywhere near the autonomy they enjoy in India.

(d) Interestingly, websites and organisations linked to particular political parties in India have joined parts of this campaign, especially in the matter of women’s rights and what they describe as a torrent of violence against women since 2014. Facebook platforms and Twitter posts have been particularly ubiquitous in this context. Since 2015, there has been increasing emphasis on tribal concerns, as also press freedom. Interestingly, several online publications based in India are themselves in the forefront of those alleging the absence of press freedom in India. These are the reverse of complimentary to the Modi government but they and their financial backers continue the tirade unmolested. Of course, it is a fact that thus far the record of the NDA II government in ensuring the conditions needed for press freedom have been less than complete. For example, criminal defamation (an odious colonial legacy) still gets routinely deployed by suspect officials and politicians to scare into silence the media, while Information Technology and other statutes work against the transparency needed to fight corruption in India and have not been eliminated by the new government, nor has RTI been freed of the grip of babudom.

An unceasing objective of GHQ “Black Propaganda” has been to depict the situation in Kashmir as “genocide”. However, now that violent deeds have become commonplace in Europe, there is less enthusiasm there to lecture India about the countermeasures being taken to constrain, contain and reduce terrorist violence in the state. Incidentally, these measures are far less kinetic than those employed by NATO members in similar situations. Neither are aircraft or even helicopters used, although several experts regard these measures as needing to be introduced in specific situations in Kashmir.

However, largely as a consequence of the energetic foreign policy of Prime Minister Modi, “Operation Smear” is not having the intended effect of taking the shine off the India story globally. Most global policy makers perceive that the faults being mentioned are not systemic, but sporadic. Of course, as yet the Central government seems unaware of the extent to which there has been GHQ-ISI penetration of so-called “Hindu” outfits, and how some of these are being goaded into violence that is causing harm to the image of India and indeed, that of the Hindu community. Earlier, this correspondent had pointed out how there was a systematic effort by elements linked to the ISI to vandalise Christian churches. These days, it is clear that the actual motivators of the criminal and terroristic acts of violence seen in the lynchings of those exercising their right to a diet of their choice, are in Dubai, Karachi, Bangkok and Kathmandu, with many close to the ISI operatives in these locations.

Whatever be the religion they profess, the ISI’s agents in India need to be identified and prosecuted, if “Operation Smear” is to fail comprehensively and India recognised as the inevitable next superpower, after the US and China. The “false flag” covert operations of GHQ-ISI in India need to be exposed and eliminated.

PROCUREMENT RAFALE: The Indian Rafale Is Evolution Itself [R]

SOURCE: 

CURTSEY
https://www.livefistdefence.com/2017/07/14696.html

          10 Reasons Why The Indian Rafale

                           Is Evolution Itself

                                    Shiv Aroor

Jul 03 2017   

PHOTO / Wojciech Mazurkiewicz

In September this year, a new building will begin to take shape at the Indian Air Force’s frontline Ambala base in the northern state of Haryana, home to the country’s Jaguar fighter-bomber fleet. Within this new building will be equipment Indian pilots have only encountered before at air shows demonstrations and bilateral exercises with foreign forces. The equipment is a set of synthetic collective training simulators built by French firm Sogitec and is almost absurdly ahead of anything IAF crews have had the luxury of calling their own.

If you’re wondering about the title of this report, we chose it after considerable deliberation. While a legitimate debate swirls over the economics of purchasing 36 Rafale fighter planes from France’s Dassault Aviation and the impact it will have on budgets and future procurement decisions, there is no question that the ecosystem and paradigmatic shift that the French fighter brings along gives the IAF tools it has never come close operating before. The ambit of this report is not to debunk or refute questions about the Rafale deal itself, but to provide the first detailed picture of what precisely the aircraft and its support system will do for the Indian Air Force. The short answer: a lot.

On a visit to the Paris Air Show at Le Bourget, Livefist was given the first ever tour of preparations for Rafale deliveries to India that begin at the end of 2019. Eighteen aircraft each will populate two squadrons at Ambala and Hasimara in the east. Here’s Livefist’s list of ten reasons why the Indian Rafale heralds the first substantive leap of transformation in decades.

1. First off, the Rafale for India is NOT part of the conventional fighter squadron bean count in the strictest sense. It is clear now that arguments against the small number of aircraft opted for by India don’t fully hold. While the Indian Rafale deal doesn’t have an options clause for more aircraft, top sources at Dassault clarified that it was conceivable for government to government discussions around the time of delivery in 2019 to yield a decision on additional orders at currently negotiated rates for 18 more Rafales. Top French government sources additionally told Livefist that they wouldn’t be surprised if the IAF chose not to grow its fleet beyond 36 (or 54 aircraft at the upper end) in the near term, since the real growth, they hoped, would be from the Indian Navy. It should be remembered, however, that both Dassault and rival Boeing both see a separate twin engine fighter requirement from the IAF down the line. Dassault is clear that a Make in India thrust will require bigger numbers either way. The reason is well-known: the Indian Rafale is a strategic delivery weapon for air-delivered nuclear missiles, and therefore doesn’t really count itself in the traditional 42 fighter squadron tally. This is not to suggest that the Rafales won’t perform their roles as a conventional deterrent too (especially given the armament they’re coming with and the location of their two squadrons on the Pakistan and China frontiers), but their unique mission as part of India’s nuclear triad stands clearly defined.

French Air Force Rafale with a nuclear ASMP-A missile.

In 2009, we had written (presciently, may we add) that the Rafale’s explicitly stated nuclear delivery capability was a marked strength in the then six-way fighter contest. With India’s upgraded Mirage 2000 jets to hold fort for another fifteen years as our nuclear delivery aircraft, the Rafales explicitly take on that onerous role next. Dassault recognises that. And that’s why its growth driver for the Rafale in India isn’t the IAF at all, but the Indian Navy, where it faces off in what promises to be formidable battle with Boeing’s F/A-18 Super Hornet (we’ll have a dogfight piece up soon).

2. The Indian Rafale will be a modified version of the F3R standard that is currently on track towards qualification and validation in 2018 by the French government and military. The F3R Rafale is centered around integration of the MBDA Meteor beyond visual range air-to-air missile, the Thales TALIOS laser designator pod and the laser homing version of Sagem’s AASM Hammer air-to-surface munition.

The IAF has chosen for the moment to integrate the Israeli Litening pod on the Rafale for sensor commonality across platforms (it ordered 164 last year for its Su-30s and MiG-29s). Livefist can confirm, however, that the IAF has ‘optioned’ the TALIOS pod (which replaces the obsolete in-service Thales Damocles pod) for a possible future integration. The IAF has similarly optioned the Sagem AASM Hammer system for a possible decision once Rafale deliveries begin, though it will hit the ground running with Israeli Spice guidance kits to begin with. The Indian Rafale will sport the Thales AREOS recce pod. Rafale pilots on rotations over Iraq said the AREOS had been performing splendidly in the operational tempo there, especially with its ability to beam high resolution images back to the Charles De Gaulle aircraft carrier, allied units in the air and on ground, as well as decision-makers. The F3R also includes attendant software upgrades to on-board sensors and avionics.

Official image released by France’s DGA

3. India’s Rafales will operate the Meteor BVRAAM, which enters service with the French Air Force soon. France’s Direction Générale de l’Armement (DGA) announced two weeks ago that a final live guided firing of the Meteor from a Rafale had been successfully conducted at the Biscarrosse missile test range near Bordeaux in southwest France. In twin loadouts with the SCALP cruise missile that India has opted for, the two weapons give the IAF an unprecedented stand off air-to-air and air-to-surface capability in conflicts on either front with Pakistan and China. The timing of Rafale deliveries to India is such that the Meteor will be concurrently operational with both the French and Indian air forces.

4. India’s Rafale will deploy the in-development BrahMos NG missile in either a twin or single weapon load-out when the system is ready from 2021. The MBDA Scalp and BrahMos will provide planners with unique subsonic/supersonic stand-off attack options available to no other air force in the world. Modifications, coding extensions and testing will be conducted in India with assistance from Thales and Dassault. The Rafale deal also includes assurances for coding extensions to other in-development Indian weapon systems, including the Astra BVRAAM.

5. The Indian Rafale will sport the fully internal SPECTRA electronic warfare system, billed as the ‘cornerstone of the Rafale’s outstanding survivability against the latest airborne and ground threats’. The Spectra stands to be a major leg up for the Indian Air Force. Showcasing the system and its capabilities has been easy — the system has had a daily torture test over  the years in hostile airspace over Libya, Iraq and Syria. Several pilots from the French Air Force and Navy that Livefist interviewed praised the Front Sector Optronics (FSO) visual and infrared sensor that comes with the Indian Rafale. Described officially as ‘Operating in the optronic wavelengths, it is immune to radar jamming and provides covert long-range detection and identification, high resolution multi-target angular tracking and laser range-finding for air, sea and ground targets’, the FSO is a secondary sensor that the IAF saw great value in during field evaluation trials of the Rafale. The IAF’s current rules of engagement place a premium on visual contact, making the FSO a valuable addition to the combat system it will operate. Not counting the Israeli Elta ELM-2052 combat radar that’s under test on India’s Jaguars, the Thales RBE 2 AESA radar on the Rafale will be the IAF’s first default active electronically scanned array combat radar on a frontline Indian combat aircraft. A whole world of discovery awaits on that front.

Incidentally, the Indian Rafale will be the first IAF combat aircraft that stands technologically linked to improvements being progressively added to Rafales in the French military. The improvements under the proposed F4 standard, for instance, which was announced in March and is currently under discussion, will transfer to the IAF’s fleet when ready. Sources told Livefist that the F4 standard will focus not just on tweaks based on the Rafale’s combat experience in Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan, but also the first full effort to shorten and further simplify the time required to churn out a full-ops Rafale pilot. The IAF will be able to draw on any and all improvements made to the Rafale system.

The Sogitech collective synthetic training system.

6. The aircraft, its weapons and its on-board systems apart, some of the most transformative elements in the Rafale package involve the surround sound. At the heart of the training ecosystem coming with India’s Rafales is a set of room-sized computers built by Sogitec, a fully owned subsidiary of Dassault Aviation. Termed synthetic collective training, two Sogitec training centres will be installed at Ambala and Hasimara, each equipped with two Rafale simulators for initial and hands on training, flight and Weapon Delivery and Navigation System (WDNS) procedure learning including repetition of complete missions with complex tactical environments, two Unit Level Instruction System (ULIS) self-service trainers and one Part Task Trainer (PTT) for guided or free-access training on a restricted number of key procedures. The Ambala training centre will additionally have Rafale Maintenance Trainer and Computer-based Trainer rooms. The Indian military has had a taste of next generation simulation and planning equipment in the last few years with its new P-8I fleet principally and the C-130J & C-17 fleets, but this will be the first time that such complex and immersive systems will be available for frontline combat aircraft.

Your correspondent got a full demonstration of the collective training system that the Indian Air Force will get. The demo involved a Rafale in a complex tactical training scenario involving a surveillance drone and an NH90 helicopter operating together to rescue a pilot shot who had been forced to eject behind enemy lines. The demonstration involved the coordinated targeting of air defences using the AASM Hammer, a low-level attack of manned positions using the Rafale’s gun and the final extraction of the human survivor with drone eyes on the full tactical picture around the event.

The Indian Air Force is getting the Rafale Touch.

7. Traditional pre-mission tabletop planning and charting will be replaced by the Rafale Touch set of touch-screen simulation tools will allow IAF mission planners to easily and quickly project scenarios on true maps with dynamic constraints including load-out, fuel, area denial etc. The Rafale Touch systems that Livefist was given access to additionally had scenarios for a true comparison of capabilities within a chosen configuration and mission between the Rafale and other aircraft that may be available in inventory, including the Mirage 2000. Since the Rafales are currently deployed in Operation Enduring Freedom in alliance with other types, the system also includes a tactical comparison for specific missions between Rafales, F/A-18s, other NATO aircraft and Gripens. The Rafale Touch in India will come with modules for the Jaguar, Mirage 2000, MiG-29 and Su-30 MKI.

The IAF is being offered the FlightSphere fight pilot tab system.

8. Adding to the increasing app/tab quality that imbues modern fighter training is the very nifty system you see here: the FlightSphere pilot’s tablet system currently under final development for the Rafale, and to be offered to the Indian Air Force once ready. Based on a smaller customised version of the Microsoft Surface tab, the FlightSphere tab is a full personal mission and flight planning system for fighter pilots. Pilots will use the tab offline to conduct all tactical mission planning, then carry it with them into the cockpit where it plugs right into the aircraft’s mission computer. The system is being designed to be carried in a flightsuit pocket on the pilot’s lap. Showcased for the first time at the Paris Air Show this year, the FlightSphere is already active with the Dassault Falcon and will be soon with the Rafale. The Indian Air Force is understood to have already shown interest.

9. While the Ambala and Hasimara bases will be the IAF’s principal Rafale centres, the Gwalior Mirage 2000 station will be fully integrated right from the start for operations and cooperative training. The collective training and synthetic learning architecture being installed at Ambala and Hasimara will be linked directly to a similar module in Gwalior, being set up for the IAF’s upgraded Mirage 2000-5 fleet (eight have been upgraded so far out of 51). This will allow pilots at the three bases to fly cooperative simulated missions using both aircraft types on a long list of existing and fresh combat scenarios. These will, of course, include area denial combat air patrol operations on the Chinese front and northern sectors, close air support and interdiction missions in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, precision strike missions along the Line of Control and cooperative reconnaissance missions/anti-surface missions on both of India’s seaboards. The experience of the Gwalior squadrons, coupled with the new tools coming with the Rafale will be a huge mutual boost to both bases, types and fleets.

10. This point may be way down on the list, but it’s difficult to exaggerate the significance of the maintenance training tools that the Indian Air Force gets with the Rafale. To say that the the entire approach from training maintainers right down to the actual maintenance-friendly architecture of the Rafale system, Indian maintainers are all set to encounter a serious legacy leap. Indian maintenance crews will begin training in France next year. Your correspondent had a chance to try out two systems — one that’s definitely coming with the Rafale (the Rafale maintenance trainer) and the robustly impressive Microsoft HoloLens-based virtual/augmented reality hands-on documentation and training system (HADOC) that is being offered to the Indian Air Force. Livefist participated in an exercise to remove the HUD on a Rafale using the maintenance trainer and used the HADOC system (see photo) to inspect the interiors of a Rafale that was up for repair. The use of commercial off the shelf (COTS) gadgets for precision engineering tasks is something the Indian Air Force will be employing for the first time with the Rafale. The intuitive, videogame-like qualities to training will, in Livefist’s view, be one of the most compelling bringers of change in the IAF’s approach to its missions.

* This report has been updated with a clarification and additional detail on the options clause for Indian Rafales.

Coming up on Wednesday: Part II of our ‘In Rafale Country Series’ — True stories & lessons from the Rafale over Iraq & Syria

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