The Defence Blog

Manufacturing components with an Indian partner for the proposed $700-million initial gun order of 145 M777 howitzers is set to benefit 40 Inidan Defense firms.It is focused on localised defence production. Talk with corporates like L&T, Punj Lloyd, Ordnance Factory Board, Tata Power, Kalyani Group, Mahindra Group and others are ongoing. Emphasis is mainly on State-owned defence public sector undertakings and medium, small, and micro enterprises in the defence arena. This deal will involve technology transfer in India and ensure capability in technical skills.

China leads the world in Secret Military spending, according to a recent report. By Secret Military spending I mean that there is no meaningful details are  released either to the public or parliament. This leads to corruption in China and mistrust in the Asia-Pacific region that could even go on to destabilize the area. Not only this, off-the-books spending in China could be as high as 50% of China’s official defense expenditure which is about $65 billion. To me it was no surprise, but I am happy to know that such news has started to get published. Nations like Russia and China are far more powerful than they would appear just by looking at the numbers, not only because personnel and purchasing are much cheaper in those nations, but because they under-report their defense spending far more than most democratic nations do.

As the news of one of Japan's plans of largest ever defence budget to counter China's reach hit the industry, Japan’s defence ministry has requested its biggest ever budget to bolster its ability to protect outlying islands in response to China’s growing military reach in the region. The ministry has asked for 5.09 trillion yen for the financial year starting in April 2016. If this gets approved, this would be Japan's BIGGEST EVER DEFENCE BUDGET Japan has been anxious about China’s expanding naval reach and hence had been making annual cuts to its defence budget for a decade up to 2013. The rise is also in line with Japan’s more assertive defence policy under the conservative prime minister, Shinzo Abe, as he seeks to check Chinese influence and expand the scope of his country’s military. We all know that Japan has not done any build up of its offensive capabilities until 2 years ago. Their only core production in the field of arms has been Stealth Jets. Knowing this ...