Text Fwd: T-50 trainer jets in full service

A T-50 supersonic trainer jet sits on a runway of the Air Force’s 1st Fighter Wing in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, Thursday, after completing its ceremonial flight marking the acceptance of the last of the planned delivery of 50 T-50 aircraft to the service. / Courtesy of Air Force.

Korea Times
05-13-2010 18:50
T-50 trainer jets in full service
By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter

The Air Force said Thursday that it has received the 50th and last of the advanced T-50 Golden Eagle supersonic trainer jets from the aircraft's manufacturer Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI).

The delivery of the T-50 trainer jets jointly built by Lockheed Martin of the United States began in December 2005. KAI is the prime contractor, and Lockheed Martin is the principal subcontractor, assisting with development and international marketing.

The Air Force placed an order for 82 T-50 variants, including 50 advanced jet trainers, 22 TA-50 light armed aircraft and 10 other T-50Bs modified for aerobatic performances.

``I sincerely congratulate you on being fully operational with the world's best T-50 advanced trainer jet," President Lee Myung-bak said in a congratulatory message. "I expect the successful production of T-50 aircraft with outstanding pilot training capability will help achieve our dream of entering the world's seventh largest aerospace power within 10 years.''

The single-engine trainer aircraft features digital flight controls and a modern ground-based training system, which helps new pilots smoothly transition into advanced fighters, such the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightening II, as well as the F-16 Fighting Falcon.

It has a top speed of Mach 1.5. The per-unit price is about $25 million.

The government is accelerating efforts to make its first overseas sale of the``luxury'' T-50, tying the success of the jet to becoming a major arms exporter and reviving its economy.

The government aims to reach $3 billion in defense exports by 2012, and industry and government officials agree that sales of the T-50 are essential to attaining that goal.

But thus far, the marketing of the trainer has produced no tangible results.

The T-50 is competing with Italy's M-346 over deals in the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Israel and Iraq.

The United States is also said to be looking to open a bid for trainer acquisition in the near future.

gallantjung@koreatimes.co.kr

Text Fwd: U.S. not stopping arms sales to Taiwan: Military

* Text Fwd from Rick Rozoff (also in StopNATO)
Taiwan News
January 4, 2010
U.S. not stopping arms sales to Taiwan: Military

TAIPEI: The Ministry of National Defense denied media reports Monday that the United States was stopping plans to sell military hardware to Taiwan.

Not only the sale of advanced F-16 C/D jets and Black Hawk helicopters had been put off, but even the delivery of parts worth US$50 million was stalling, the Chinese-language Apple Daily said. If the military did not receive those parts by May or June, some of its most sophisticated weapons systems would be difficult to use, according to the paper.

The ministry rejected the reports, saying it had received no such notification from Washington. All military deals worth more than US$50 million needed the authorization of Congress, the ministry added.

Ruling Kuomintang lawmaker Lin Yu-fang said that last week’s decision by the Legislative Yuan to take measures against the imports of potentially risky U.S. beef products had provided State Department opponents of arms sales to Taiwan with an excuse to step up their obstruction.

On the opposite side, the Washington Post reported Sunday that the Obama Administration would soon announce the sale to Taiwan of a package worth billions of U.S. dollars including the Black Hawk helicopters, anti-missile systems and plans for diesel-powered submarines in a move likely to anger China.

In combination with an eventual meeting with the Dalai Lama later this month, the weapons announcement might lead to a strong reaction from Beijing, the paper said.

China might decide to cancel military exchanges with the U.S. or keep its President Hu Jintao away from a nuclear security summit in April, the Washington Post said.
....

Stop NATO

[국문 번역] Text Fwd: FR. MOON & RESISTANCE AT KUNSAN AFB

Planes inside hangers at Kunsan AFB
군산 공군 기지 격납고의 비행기들

Screaming planes overhead
소음을 지르며 머리 위를 날아가는 비행기들

Drying fish at the end of the Kunsan AFB runway
군산 활주로 끝 생선 말리는 곳, [새만금]

* 국문 번역은 영문 밑에 있음.

Bruce Gagnon blog
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
FR. MOON & RESISTANCE AT KUNSAN AFB

Father Moon is a 73 year-old retired Catholic priest who move to Gunsan 10 years ago in order to build resistance around the expansion of the US Air Force Base in the city. The base, called Kunsan AFB, served as a Japanese airfield during the time of their colonization of Korea. Gunsan is located along the southwest coast of South Korea, as close to China as one can get.

Today the base hosts 58 F-16's and will soon see two Apache helicopter units move here from another base farther north. F-15's from Idaho and also here on temporary duty and 16 Patriot missile batteries are located on the base as part of the US Missile Defense expansion in this region.

Fr. Moon has a long gray flowing beard and walks with a cane. He has a bad knee after being roughed up by the national police at one of the many protests he has attended over the years. He has spent a couple of years in prison, like so many of the most dedicated South Korean activists have, but he sheds no tears over his time in jail. He remarks with a laugh that he liked being in jail because he could read so many books. I gave him one of mine and signed it with the words, "For your jail reading library."

These days Fr. Moon is spending alot of time away from his work against expansion of Kunsan AFB because he feels the need to stand with the suffering widows in the Yongsan neighborhood of Seoul. He is largely responsible for bringing many Catholic priests and nuns into that struggle and for helping to encourage many other progressive organizations to get involved.

I asked Fr. Moon to give me some words for other activists and this is what he said:

It is one Earth - we must have peace amongst all the villages of the Earth - we must show solidarity with all who are suffering, open our hearts to people like those at Yongsan. We must show concern, participation, and solidarity.

The US Air Force is now building three new eight story barracks on the Kunsan base. Six villages of 547 households will be lost to the base expansion by 2013. It is obvious that big plans are being made here. I asked Fr. Moon who the enemy is for such a massive base expansion. He answered: China.

Along the outer fence line of the base I could see one housing area for the American base families who are essentially moving onto the land that was once lived on by fishermen and rice farmers. Visible as we drove around the base was the "Haven Baptist Church". My first thought when I saw the church is the growing fundamentilization of those in the military today. They are being told they are on a mission from God to bring true religion to the world. Knowing that God is on their side makes it easier to kill anyone who gets in the way.

We went to a red-colored marshland yesterday at one end of the 4 kilometer base runway which is located next to the sea. Here fishermen and their wives were drying small fish on netting raised off the ground on saw-horses. Just above our heads roared 4 F-16's and one F-15 as they took off from the base. We had to cover our ears and I could feel the vibrations of the plane inside my body. Think of living with this everyday of your life.

Once a year one of the planes crash.

Fr. Moon told me that police call him the "gangster". They do that because he refuses to give in to the corruption of policy and spirit inside his nation. The people of South Korea are being told to submit to US military authority and to the corporate driven consumer culture that now rules South Korea. But he is unrelenting in his resistance and for that he is seen by the "authorities" as an outlaw. It was an honor to meet this outlaw and to call him a friend. He is a role model for all self-respecting people.

posted by Bruce Gagnon


* Related blogs

http://nobasestorieskorea.blogspot.com/2009/11/text-fwd-screaming-eagles-coming-home.html
Tuesday, November 03, 2009
[Bruce Gagnon blog] SCREAMING EAGLES COMING HOME TO ROOST

http://nobasestorieskorea.blogspot.com/2009/10/photos-fwd-kunsan-stop-budget-for-war.html
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Photos Fwd: Kunsan: “Stop the Budget for the War Air Show!”

http://nobasestorieskorea.blogspot.com/2009/09/kunsan-peace-march-sept-12-2009.html
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Kunsan Peace March, Sept. 12, 2009



브루스 개그논 블로그
2009년 10월 21일
문신부님과 군산 공군 기지의 저항

문신부님은 73세의 은퇴하신 카톨릭 신부로 10년 전에 시의 미군 기지 확장 일대 주변에 저항을 조직하기 위해 군산으로 옮겼읍니다. 군산 공군 기지로 불리는 그 기지는 일본이 Korea를 식민화했을 때 일본의 비행장으로 쓰였읍니다. 군산은 남한의 남서 해안을 따라 중국에 가능한 한 가까운 곳에 위치해 있는 곳입니다.

오늘날 그 기지는 58개의 F-16기를 지니고 있으며 더 북쪽의 또 다른 기지로부터 두 개의 아파치 헬리콥터 부대가 이동해오는 것을 곧 보게 될 것입니다. 아이다호로부터 F-15기들이 역시 임시로 이 곳에 올 것이고 16개의 패트리어트 포대가 이 지역내 미국 미사일 방어망 확장의 일부분으로 이 곳에 위치합니다.

문신부님은 흩날리는 긴 회색 수염을 갖고 있으며 지팡이에 의지해 걷습니다. 그는 수년간 그가 참석했던 많은 시위의 하나에서 경찰에 의해 거칠게 밀린 후로 무릎이 상했읍니다. 그는 가장 헌신적인 많은 남한의 활동가들처럼 감옥에서 2년간을 보냈으나 그가 감옥에 있었던 시간에 대해 눈물 한방울 흘리지 않습니다. 그는 그가 너무나 많은 책을 읽을 수 있었기에 감옥에서 보냈던 시간을 좋아했다고 웃으며 말합니다. 저는 그에게 “도서를 읽는 당신의 감옥 [기간]을 위해”라는 말과 함께 서명한 제 책을 한 권 주었읍니다.

최근 그는 서울 용산 동네의 고통받는 과부들과 함께 있을 필요를 느껴 많은 시간을 군산 공군 기지 확장을 막는 그의 일로부터 떠나 있읍니다. 그는 많은 카톨릭 신부님들과 수녀님들을 그 투쟁에 끌어들이고 많은 다른 진보적인 단체들이 참여하도록 격려하는 것을 도우는 데 크게 기여했읍니다.

저는 문신부님께 다른 활동가들을 위해 한마디 하시라 했고 이 것이 그가 한 말입니다:

하나의 지구입니다-우리는 지구의 모든 마을들간 평화를 가져야 합니다-고통받는 모든 이들과 연대하고 용산의 분들과 같은 사람들에게 우리의 마음을 열어야 합니다. 우리는 관심, 참여 그리고 연대를 보여야 합니다.

미 공군은 현재 세 개의 8층 짜리 새로운 병영건물들을 짓고 있읍니다. 547가구의 6개 마을이 기지 확장으로 2013년까지 없어질 것입니다. 큰 계획이 이 곳에서 만들어지고 있는 것이 분명합니다. 저는 문 목사님께 그렇게 거대한 기지 확장을 하도록 하게 하는 적이 누구냐고 물었읍니다, 그는 대답했읍니다. 중국이라고.

기지 외곽 철조망선을 따라 저는 근본적으로 어부들과 쌀농사 농부들이 한때 살았던 땅으로 옮기는 미군 기지 가족들이 사는 한 주택 지역을 볼 수 있었읍니다. 우리가 기지 주변을 운전할 때 “ Heaven Baptist Church 천국 세례 교회”가 눈에 띄었읍니다 . 제가 그 교회를 보았을 때 처음 든 생각은 오늘날 군대에서 자라고 있는 근본주의 입니다, 그들은 신으로부터 세계에 진정한 종교를 가져오는 임무를 행하고 있다고 들어집니다. 신이 그들의 편에 있다고 아는 것은 그들의 길을 막는 어떠한 이도 쉽게 죽이게 할 것입니다.

우리는 어제 4 킬로미터되는 기지의 활주로 끝에 있고 바다 바로 옆에 있는 붉은 갯벌로 갔읍니다. 여기서 어부들과 그들의 아내들은 지상으로부터 톱질된 나무들로 받쳐진 그물망위에서 작은 생선들을 말리고 있었읍니다. 우리 머리 바로 위에서는 4개의 F-16기들과 한대의 F-15가 그들이 기지를 이륙할 때마다 굉음을 질렀읍니다. 우리는 우리의 귀를 막아야 했고 저는 제 몸안에서 비행기 진동을 느낄 수 있었읍니다. 여러분의 삶을 매일 이렇게 사는 것을 생각해 보세요.

매년 그 중 한 대의 비행기가 추락합니다.

문신부님은 경찰이 그를 “깡패”라 부른다고 저에게 말했읍니다. [경찰은] 그가 그의 나라 안의 정책과 영혼의 타락에 굴복하는 것을 거절하기 때문에 그를 그렇게 부릅니다. 남한의 사람들은 현재 남한을 지배하는 미군 당국과 기업이 주도하는 소비주의에 굴복하라고 듣습니다. 그러나 그는 그의 저항을 굽히지 않으며 그것 때문에 “당국”으로부터 무법자로 보입니다. 이 무법자를 만나고 그를 친구라 부른 것은 영광이었읍니다. 그는 자존심이 강한 모든 이들의 한 역활 모델입니다.


* 관련 블로그들

http://nobasestorieskorea.blogspot.com/2009/11/text-fwd-screaming-eagles-coming-home.html
Tuesday, November 03, 2009
[Bruce Gagnon blog] SCREAMING EAGLES COMING HOME TO ROOST
[브루스 개그논 블로그] 소음지르는 독수리 비행기들 (EAGLES), [미국] 국내에 보금자리를 치러 오다.
2009년 11월 3일

http://nobasestorieskorea.blogspot.com/2009/10/photos-fwd-kunsan-stop-budget-for-war.html
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Photos Fwd: Kunsan: “Stop the Budget for the Combat Air Show!”
사진 전송: 군산: “전투 쇼를 위한 예산 지원 반대!”
2009년 10월 29일

http://nobasestorieskorea.blogspot.com/2009/09/kunsan-peace-march-sept-12-2009.html
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Kunsan Peace March, Sept. 12, 2009
2009년 9월 12일 군산 평화 대행진
209년 9월 13일

[Text fwd]: [Exclusive] Swedish Firm Probed Over Fighter Development Plan

A model of the KF-X fighter jet

Korea Times
A model of the KF-X fighter jet
By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
10-05-2009 17:51

Saab, a Swedish defense firm, is being investigated here over alleged illegal lobbying of a defense research institute affiliated with the National Assembly regarding a South Korean fighter development program, sources said Monday.

Prosecutors recently raided both the firm's branch office and the headquarters of the Security Management Institute (SMI) in southern Seoul to seize documents and computer files as part of its three-month investigation into their alleged connection, the sources said.

Prosecutors have also traced the bank accounts of Saab officials and the SMI president to uncover alleged financial transactions between the two sides, they said.

SMI has served as an influential research agency regarding major South Korean arms acquisition and development programs since it was established as an advisory agency to the Assembly in 2005.

It was also designated by the Defense Acquisition Program Administration last October as an agency for studying weapons programs, cost analyses and defense technology development plans.

"The prosecution has almost completed its investigation of Saab and SMI and is closely analyzing confiscated material," a source told The Korea Times on condition of anonymity.

"It is a rare and intensive probe into a foreign defense firm and is expected to affect future arms improvement programs involving foreign manufacturers, depending on the results," he said.

Prosecutors said SMI was suspected of having offered classified information on the KF-X indigenous fighter development program to Saab or written up parliamentary documents on the KF-X partnership in favor of the Swedish company, in return for compensation.

A Saab official declined to comment on the issue, while an SMI representative denied the allegation and argued the investigation was merely a routine inspection of the parliamentary advisory institute.

"This incident may deal a blow to Saab in its ongoing and future businesses," the source said, adding the firm is considering cancelling its participation in the Seoul Air Show slated for Oct. 20 to 25.

In a related move, the Defense Security Command investigated the state-funded Agency for Defense Development earlier this year over a possible information leak to Saab, which was conducting a joint feasibility study on key arms development programs.

Saab has engaged in various weapons procurement projects in the country, such as the integration of a naval radar system and the export of its artillery-detecting radar system.

The KF-X project, aimed at creating an indigenous combat aircraft in partnership with a foreign aircraft giant to replace the Air Force's older F-4s and F-5s, has drawn proposals from major Western fighter houses.

Saab has been among the most active bidders by offering a new design for a super-cruising stealth fighter. It also asked South Korea to join its Gripen next-generation program to forge a broader fighter development partnership.

Other foreign manufactures that have shown interest in the KF-X include Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Eurofighter. The KF-X has been controversial, however, since many defense analysts see it as unviable economically and technically.

The KF-X was cut again in next year's defense budget proposals submitted by the Ministry of National Defense earlier this month.

The Weapon Systems Concept Development and Application Research Center of Konkuk University commissioned by the government to examine the feasibility of the KF-X is known to have suggested lower operational requirements for the new fighter jet.

In its interim report revealed earlier this year, the center recommended a plan to produce about 250 F-16-class fighters after 2010 with the help of foreign firms.

The center asked foreign firms about their views on the per-plane cost estimate of $50 million, as well as budget-sharing ideas and technology transfer.

In a 2007 feasibility study by a local economic policy think tank, the KF-X project was assessed as unsound economically as it would cost at least $10 billion, but would reap only $3 billion in economic benefits.

gallantjung@koreatimes.co.kr

Text Fwd: Korea to Develop F-16 Simulators

Korea Times
08-07-2009 21:00
Korea to Develop F-16 Simulators
By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter

South Korea will develop a dozen of its own F-16/KF-16 fighter flight simulators by 2014 as part of efforts to help pilots keep up with fighter upgrades and conduct sustainable flight training amid high oil prices, according to the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) Friday.

The agency awarded Korea Aerospace Industries, the country's only aircraft maker, a 130-billion won ($106 million) contract to develop up-to-date flight simulators and unit training devices for F-16/KF-16 pilots, as well as upgrade existing simulation systems, DAPA officials said.

Previously, airmen used flight simulators developed by Raytheon.

The new systems will help pilots train skills in tactical flight, landings and take-offs, and emergency landings, the officials said.

Production will begin after the development of the new simulators is completed by November 2014, they said.

``Once entering service, the new simulators are expected to not only help resolve the shortage of flight trainings for pilots, resulting from high oil prices, but also improve pilots' aircraft operational capabilities to an extent,'' a DAPA official said.

The Air Force operates an older fleet of 34 Block 32 F-16s purchased in the 1980s and a newer fleet of 135 KF-16s manufactured locally to the Block 52 standard from the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s.

Earlier this year, the Air Force unveiled plans to upgrade its KF-16 fighters. The upgrades will include arming the aircrafts with precision-guided JoJoint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM) and other guided weapons.

Another key upgrade will be a replacement for the fighter's radar systems.

jsungki@defensenews.com

Text Fwd: Seoul may form attack chopper unit

2009.08.03
By Kim Ji-hyun (jemmie@heraldm.com)

South Korea may be moving forward with plans to form a separate unit of attack helicopters over the next four years for defense reinforcement purposes, military sources said yesterday.

The absence of two U.S. Apache attack helicopter battalions are seen to have accelerated the move.

Further exacerbating the concerns are predictions that the sole remaining battalion of 24 choppers may depart following the 2012 transfer of wartime operational control.

The Defense Ministry, however, said upgrading the current choppers would come first.

"Our priority lies in upgrading our choppers as they are outdated. We may not actually be seeing the formation of a new division of such choppers," said Col. Lee Bung-woo of the ministry's public relations office.

The Defense Acquisition Program Administration is in the midst of a feasibility study for indigenously developing helicopters. It is slated to announce the results by late next year.

Another viable plan is to purchase second-hand Apaches from the United States.

Amid concerns of the defense vacuum, the United States Forces Korea is to deploy a dozen F-15E fighter jets here to replace an equal number of F-16s.

"This would most likely be a move to assure South Korea," one military source said.

Washington will station the dozen F-15E Striking Eagle jets at the Gunsan Air Base by Aug. 20 to replace the 12 F-16 Fighting Falcon jets at the Suwon Air Base, sources said.

The deployment is part of a rotation and will last for six months, including a staff of 400 to support the move.

Washington's decision to pull out a second battalion of attack choppers earlier this year had many worried about the weakened defense posture.

Top defense experts are now predicting that the United States may decide to withdraw the remaining 24 Apaches to reinforce its anti-terrorism efforts in the Middle East.

The Apache choppers constitute a powerful combat deterrent as they are designed for anti-armor purposes, meaning their main mission is deterring North Korea's armored division.

The United States afterwards deployed a dozen F-16s, a multirole fighter jet, in the place of the Apaches amid criticism and concerns.

This is because the F-16s, despite thier capacity for conducting varied missions and precision strikes, are void of anti-armor features.

The F-15Es, meanwhile, are said to have superior all-weather ground attack capabilities compared with the F-16s and a greater operational range.

The jets also carry a wide range of munitions including anti-armor and precision guided bombs.

But experts said the distinction was not too significant, as they both are unable to sufficiently replace the Apaches.

The USFK maintains that the multirole jets would adequately fill the gap left by the Apaches.

* Realted
Yonhap News
2009/08/03 16:19 KST
U.S. says no plan to withdraw Apaches in foreseeable future
By Sam Kim

Text fwd: Pushing South Asia Toward the Brink

Text Informed by Bruce Gagnon on July 30, 2009

Foreign Policy In Focus
http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/6295
Pushing South Asia Toward the Brink
By Zia Mian | July 27, 2009


The contradictions and confusions in U.S. policy in South Asia were
on full display during Secretary of State Hilary Clinton's recent
visit to India. U.S. support for India, which centers on making
money, selling weapons, and turning a blind eye to the country's
nuclear weapons, is fatally at odds with U.S. policy and concerns
about Pakistan.

By enabling an India-Pakistan arms race, rather than focusing on
resolving the conflict and helping them make peace, the United States
is driving Pakistan toward the very collapse it fears.

America's New India

In an op-ed in The Times of India just before the start of her visit,
Clinton laid out U.S. interests in India. The first item on Clinton's
list was "the 300 million members of India's burgeoning middle
class," that she identified as "a vast new market and opportunity."

The emerging Indian middle class is large - for comparison, the
current total U.S. population is also about 300 million - and greedy
for a more American lifestyle. But the focus on India as
fundamentally a market for U.S. goods and services, and a source of
cheap labor for U.S. corporations, marks a remarkable shift. The
United States and other western countries have traditionally seen
India as the home of the desperately poor, deserving charity and
needing development. But no more. Clinton's article made no mention
of India's poor, which the World Bank recently estimated as including
over 450 million people living on less than $1.25 a day.

India is also seen as a new emerging power of the 21st century, one
that can be an ally of the United States and help it balance and
contain the rise of China. Under the Bush Administration, in 2004,
the U.S. and India signed an agreement called the "Next Steps in
Strategic Partnership." To make India a fitting strategic partner, a
senior State Department official later explained the U.S."goal is to
help India become a major world power in the 21st century," and left
no doubt what this meant, saying "we understand fully the
implications, including military implications, of that statement."

India is seeking both to modernize and expand its military forces. It
has dramatically increased its military budget, up over 34% alone
this year. India now has the 10th-highest military spending in the
world. It's becoming a major market for U.S. arms sales. U.S. weapons
makers Lockheed Martin and Boeing have already racked up deals worth
billions of dollars. But the real bonanza is still to come. India is
said to be planning to spend as much $55 billion on weapons over the
next five years.

But the big news of the Clinton visit was the announcement of an
India-U.S. Strategic Dialogue. This will include an annual formal
meeting of key officials, co-chaired by the secretary of State and
India's external affairs minister, and including on the U.S. side the
secretaries of Agriculture, Trade, Energy, Education, Finance, Health
and Human Services, Homeland Security, and others. But given the
difference in the power and range of interests of the two states,
this will be no dialogue of equals. The process is intended to align
Indian interests and policies in a wide range of areas with those of
the United States.

Nuclear India

In her press conference with India's minister of external affairs,
Clinton said, "We discussed our common vision of a world without
nuclear weapons and the practical steps that our countries can take
to strengthen the goal of nonproliferation." But there was no mention
here of India's nuclear buildup, or of the United States asking India
to slow down or to end its program. In fact, one would never guess
from Clinton's remarks that India even had a nuclear weapons program.
She seemed interested only in the prospect of U.S. sales of nuclear
reactors to India worth $10 billion or more.

India is one of perhaps only three countries still making material
for new nuclear weapons. The others are Pakistan and Israel (with
North Korea threatening to resume production). India is building a
fast-breeder reactor that is expected to begin operation in 2010 and
is outside International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards. It could
increase three- to five-fold India's current capacity to make
plutonium for nuclear weapons.

India seeks to become a major nuclear power. On July 26, it launched
its first nuclear-powered submarine. India plans to deploy several of
these submarines. Last year, it carried out its first successful
underwater launch of a 700 kilometer-range ballistic missile,
Sagarika, intended for the submarine. India joins the United States,
Russia, the United Kingdom, France, and China in the club of those
owning such nuclear-armed, nuclear-powered submarines. Israel is
believed to have nuclear-armed cruise missiles on diesel powered
submarines.

India is also developing an array of land-based missiles. In May
2008, it tested the 3,500 kilometer-range Agni-III missile, which was
subsequently reported to have been approved for deployment with the
army, and is working on a missile with a range of over 5,000
kilometer. In November 2008, India also tested a 600 kilometer-range
silo-based missile, Shourya. In 2009, India carried out several tests
of its cruise missile, Brahmos, which the army and navy are inducting
into service.

The U.S. silence on India's nuclear weapons and missile programs is
all the more telling, given that it was the Clinton administration
that proposed United Nations Security Council resolution 1172. In
1998, this unanimous Security Council resolution called on India and
Pakistan to "immediately stop their nuclear weapon development
programs, to refrain from the deployment of nuclear weapons, to cease
development of ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear
weapons, and any further production of fissile material for nuclear
weapons." The Bush administration ignored it. It seems the Obama
administration will too.

Pakistan v. India

Pakistan was noticeable for its near absence from Clinton's agenda in
India. It came up only in the context of the need to fight terrorism.
Forgotten was the brute fact that India and Pakistan are straining
harder than ever in their nuclear and conventional arms race. A
Pakistani diplomat responded to the Clinton visit to India by telling
The Washington Post that "What Hillary is doing there is probably
again going to start an arms race." This race drives Pakistan toward
collapse, the very thing the United States fears.

Pakistan is buying U.S. weapons as fast as it can, some paid for with
U.S. military aid, with arms sales agreements worth over $6 billion
since 2001, including for new F-16 jet-fighters. China, an old ally,
is also supplying the country with jet fighters and other weapons.
Pakistan is also boosting its nuclear program. It's building two new
reactors to make plutonium for nuclear weapons. It continues to test
both ballistic missiles and cruise missiles to carry nuclear weapons.

The principal U.S. concern about Pakistan, aside from the country
falling apart and its nuclear weapons falling into the hands of
Islamists, is the war against al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan
and in the border areas of Pakistan. It has been telling Pakistan to
focus its military forces and strategic concerns on this battle,
which requires moving more soldiers away from the border with India.
The generals who command Pakistan's army were bound to resist such a
redeployment. They worry about the new U.S.-India strategic
relationship, and what it may mean for them when the war on the
Taliban is over and the United States no longer needs Pakistan.

The Pakistani army, which rules the country even when civilians are
in office, will not easily shift its view of India. The army and
those who lead it see the threat from India as their very reason for
being. The army has grown in size, influence, and power, to the point
where it dwarfs all other institutions in society and would lose much
if there was peace with India. But there is a personal dimension as
well. The partition of the subcontinent 62 years ago that created
Pakistan is in the living memory of many who make decisions in
Pakistan. General Pervez Musharraf, who was chief of army staff
before he seized power in 1999 and ruled for nine years, was born in
India before partition. General Musharraf, along with the current
chief of army staff, General Kayani, and others in Pakistan's high
command, fought as young officers in the 1971 war against India. The
war ended with Pakistan itself partitioned, as East Pakistan became
the independent state of Bangladesh, with India's help, and 90,000
Pakistani soldiers captured by India as prisoners of war.

As Graham Usher notes in the new issue of the Middle East Report,
before becoming president, Barack Obama seemed to understand that
resolving the conflict between India and Pakistan was critical to
dealing with the problems in Afghanistan and with the Taliban. In
2007, Obama claimed "I will encourage dialogue between Pakistan and
India to work toward resolving their dispute over Kashmir and between
Afghanistan and Pakistan to resolve their historic differences and
develop the Pashtun border region. If Pakistan can look toward the
east with greater confidence, it will be less likely to believe that
its interests are best advanced through cooperation with the
Taliban." There is little evidence that this view has yet informed
U.S. policy.

The Reality of Pakistan

In their rush to make money and to preserve American power in the
world by crafting an alliance with India, U.S. policymakers seem to
have averted their eyes from the reality that stares them in the face
in Pakistan. In March 2009, the Director of National Intelligence
summed up the situation in Pakistan:

The government is losing authority in parts of the North-West
Frontier Province and has less control of its semi-autonomous tribal
areas: even in the more developed parts of the country, mounting
economic hardships and frustration over poor governance have given
rise to greater radicalization.Economic hardships are intense, and
the country is now facing a major balance of payments challenge.
Islamabad needs to make painful reforms to improve overall
macroeconomic stability. Pakistan's law-and-order situation is
dismal, affecting even Pakistani elites, and violence between various
sectarian, ethnic, and political groups threatens to escalate.
Pakistan's population is growing rapidly at a rate of about 2 percent
a year, and roughly half of the country's 172 million residents are
illiterate, under the age of 20, and live near or below the poverty
line.

Things have worsened since then. The Taliban is now seeking to escape
U.S. drone attacks and major assaults by the Pakistan army in the
Tribal Areas by taking refuge in the cities. There are already no-go
areas in Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, where the Taliban controls
the streets. Meanwhile electricity riots have exploded in cities
across the country, with mobs attacking public buildings, blocking
highways, and damaging trains and buses. Each day seems to bring news
of some new failure of the state to provide basic social services.

The Obama administration believes that an increase in U.S. aid to
Pakistan can help solve the problem. The Kerry-Lugar bill (the
Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act) approved by the Senate in
June would triple economic aid to Pakistan to $1.5 billion a year for
five years. But as the Congressional Research Service noted in its
recent report on Pakistan, the United States has given Pakistan about
$16.5 billion in "direct, overt U.S. aid" up to 2007. More of the
same offers little hope for change.

A basic reordering of U.S. priorities in South Asia is long overdue.
The first principle of U.S. policy in the region should be to do no
more harm. This means it has to stop feeding the fire between India
and Pakistan. Only an end to the South Asian arms race can begin to
undo the structures of fear, hostility, and violence that have
sustained the conflict in the subcontinent for so long. The search
for peace may then have at least a chance of success.


Zia Mian is a physicist with the Program on Science and Global
Security at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International
Affairs at Princeton University and a columnist for Foreign Policy In
Focus.

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