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Source:- Delhi’s unpredictability unnerving Islamabad After Pulwama and the Balakot strike the security equations between India and Pakistan have changed. India had been absorbing the terrorist blows inflicted by Pakistan on India for almost three decades without retaliation except across the Line of Control (LoC) from Indian soil or some unannounced punitive action of a very limited nature on the Pakistani side of the LoC to avenge gruesome killings (beheadings) of our soldiers by Pakistani forces. In response to the terrorist attack on Parliament, India moved its forces to the border but did not cross it. In the case of Kargil, we acted defensively to recover the posts lost but the Armed Forces were under strict instructions not to cross the LoC. This caution, bordering on timidity, was on account of concerns about escalation, the economic costs of a conflict, the China factor, and, of course, western pressure. The Balakot strike has changed the paradigm. India struck not just ac

One of many artist’s impressions of Russia’s first hypersonic glide weapon, Avanguard, which Russia says entered service in late December; no-one outside Russia really knows what it actually looks like. (Internet image) MOSCOW --- A new intercontinental weapon that can fly 27 times the speed of sound became operational Friday, Russia’s defense minister reported to President Vladimir Putin, bolstering the country’s nuclear strike capability. Putin has described the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle as a technological breakthrough comparable to the 1957 Soviet launch of the first satellite. The new Russian weapon and a similar system being developed by China have troubled the United States, which has pondered defense strategies. The Avangard is launched atop an intercontinental ballistic missile, but unlike a regular missile warhead that follows a predictable path after separation it can make sharp maneuvers in the atmosphere on its way to the target, making it much harder to intercept

LEIPZIG, Germany --- The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency has devised technology to restrict the use of anti-aircraft missiles after they leave American hands, a researcher said, a move that experts say could persuade the United States that it would be safe to disseminate powerful weapons more frequently. The new technology is intended for use with shoulder-fired missiles called Man-Portable Air-Defense Systems (MANPADS), Dutch researcher Jos Wetzels told a cybersecurity conference in Leipzig, Germany on Saturday. Wetzels said the system was laid out in a batch of CIA documents published by WikiLeaks in 2017 but that the files were mislabeled and attracted little public attention until now. Wetzels said the CIA had come up with a "smart arms control solution" that would restrict the use of missiles "to a particular time and a particular place." The technique, referred to as "geofencing," blocks the use of a device outside a specific geographic area. Weap

Griffon is the first vehicle of the French Army’s Scorpion next-gen, connected combat system to enter service; the fact that 92 have already been delivered since July illustrates the fast tempo France has set for the program. (Arquus photo) On the 24th of December, the temporary company grouping EBMR received an inspection report for the delivery of the 92nd VBMR-GRIFFON from the quality department of the French Defence Procurement Agency (DGA/SQ). The team consisting of Nexter, Arquus and Thales meets its objectives for 2019, in accordance with the initial purchase notified in 2017 and as defined in the military programming law. Le GME ( @Nexter_Group , Arquus et @thalesgroup ) a livré les 92 #GRIFFON à la @DGA le 24 décembre 2019. Un succès qui n'aurait pas été possible sans le travail et la détermination de l'ensemble de nos collaborateurs ! #fildedefense #SCORPION pic.twitter.com/nvljydA2gk — Nexter_Group (@Nexter_Group) December 30, 2019 All Griffons, and indeed

🇦🇺 One Commonwealth event which I did not cover in the 2019 philatelic review in Blog 1571 is the shocking and devastating fires which have been affecting vast areas of Australia in recent weeks as the country experiences higher temperatures than have ever been recorded there before. The calamitous fires are being associated with the phenomenon of global warming though the Australian prime minister, who was dragged back from holidaying in Hawaii while Australia burned, seems to have his doubts about the link. Given the short political life of Australian prime ministers one cannot help but think that his time in office is probably now somewhat limited.   These almost apocalyptic fires are the latest in a series of dreadful natural disasters which have assaulted Australia in recent years and it seems likely that they will have philatelic consequences given that Australia Post has issued stamps on two previous occasions to help to raise funds to assist those affected by these natur

Source:- Demise of Last MiG-27 Unit Stalls IAF 42-Squadron Plan The retirement of the last squadron of MiG-27s from Indian Air Force (IAF) has further reduced the overall strength of the service, with no immediate fix in sight. On Friday, the last 43 Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-27MLs (“Flogger Js”) in the IAF’s arsenal, the remnants of 165 machines license-produced by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) were mothballed. Their removal from the IAF’s order of battle further reduces the number of combat aircraft in the IAF’s arsenal, leaving a significantly capability deficit in comparison to aircraft fielded by India’s immediate rivals, China and Pakistan. Tellingly, however, the retirement of these venerable, Soviet-era, single-engined, swing-wing fighter-bombers, marks a doctrinal shift away from delineating combat aircraft by role. India is following the global trend of equipping air units with machines which can fulfill a variety of roles. Acquisition of multi-role aircraft has been a C

Source:- Naval LCA at striking distance for deck operations from INS Vikramaditya The naval variant of home-grown Light Combat Aircraft (NLCA) is at a striking distance from undertaking the much-awaited, maiden carrier landing and taking off on board INS Vikramaditya. The Indian Navy is currently studying all the data before giving the go-ahead to the team to undertake deck landing on the mighty aircraft carrier. According to military sources who are part of this ‘extremely complex’ mission, the ‘Test Pilots’ who are part of NLCA’s campaign in Goa have made several approaches to INS Vikramaditya in the last one month. This was part of the team’s (ADA, HAL, NFTC & Indian Navy) campaign from the Shore-Based Test Facility (SBTF) in Goa. (SBTF simulates an aircraft carrier with ski-jump and arrested recovery facilities. It’s a recreation of a ship on the shore. The SBTF in Goa replicates a static model of the Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (INS Vikrant) being built at the Cochin Shipy

Source:- India’s Advanced Towed Artillery Gun Achieves Milestone with Record Firing in A Minute Over the last 18 months, the Indian Army has inducted American M-777 and South Korean K9 Vajra artillery units as well as its domestically-made Dhanush howitzer. The army has plans to modernise its entire artillery system in the next seven years. India’s domestically produced advanced towed artillery gun system (ATAGS) has achieved yet another breakthrough, successfully firing five rounds in 62 seconds. The 155 mm x 52 calibre ATAGS achieved the milestone during evaluation trials at a firing range in the Pokharan region of India’s Rajasthan state. It offered the key parameters for the howitzer to pass the evaluation trials. The howitzer is being developed by the private firm Tata SED with support from the state-funded Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), the country’s premier military R&D organisation. In manned firing, the system surpassed 20 rounds in 12 minutes wi

🇸🇬 Singapore Post’s Chinese new year issue commemorating the Year of the Rat due to be released on 8 January 2020 includes a very attractive ‘Collectors sheet’. I like Singapore Post’s ongoing series of Collectors sheets which are usually beautifully designed and produced and very attractive and though sold at prices above face value usually look very pleasing on an album page. Rating:- ****. 🇨🇰🇹🇴 Further to Blogs 1565, 1566 and 1572, the USA-based, self-styled “Boutique philatelic agency”, Philatelic Collector Inc. , has added dates of issue for the numerous Birds of the World philatelic items it has released in the name of its client postal services, those of Cook Islands and Tonga . All of these items have been illustrated in the previous Blogs. Cook Islands - 15 November 2019 - Birds of Prey part 2                           20 November 2019 - Parrots Cook Islands Aitutaki - 15 November 2019 - Birds of Prey part 2                                          20 Novem

If you missed Frankie Boyle's New World Order: 2019   here's a selection of the jokes: Donald Trump will be running in 2020, sadly not from a pack of dogs. Boris Johnson: a man who looks like Hitler's DNA had been injected into a panna cotta. [On Prince Andrew]: The rapist formerly known as Prince.  Twitter has divided between those who say Frankie's no longer funny and those who say that those saying Frankie's no longer funny are a bunch of right-wing snowflakes.  I'm sure the BBC will be commissioning another series from him in 2020. Happy New Year!

Reflecting on his guest editorship of the  Today  programme , Charles Moore says that though he enjoyed it and found the staff "who do the basic work" charming and helpful, he can't help feeling "a little envious of the reverential treatment accorded to Greta Thunberg when she filled the same spot". He continues to find the BBC bureaucracy "astonishing".  He tried to get Roger Harrabin to interview two 'climate sceptics', and he tried to get Lord Hall to come on to account for "how they had got Brexit so wrong, and why they have becomes preachers for wokery", and he tried to get John Hales from BBC TVL to come on "to defend his methods of exacting the licence fee from the poor"......but, he says, "there were no takers".  It seems as if Roger Harrabin and the BBC bosses were frit. 

The new logo of Saraya Thair Allah, the youngest pro-Iran militia in Bahrain. The logo is meant to evoke more IRGC branding, much like the logos of Saraya al Ashtar and Saraya al Mokhtar. Several Iranian-backed Shia militias in Bahrain have joined the public chorus of various groups and political organizations denouncing the recent US airstrikes in Iraq against Kata’ib Hezbollah (or the Hezbollah Brigades, KH). The Bahraini groups include Saraya al Mokhtar, Saraya al Ashtar, Saraya Waad Allah, and Saraya Thair Allah. All outfits are believed to be supported by Iran in an attempt to foment an insurgency within the island kingdom. In a short statement, Saraya al Mokhtar, which is heavily tied to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) , denounced the strikes before saying that “We ask God that the year 2020 will be the great defeat of America and its rats in the Islamic region as a whole.” Saraya al Ashtar, Iran’s main proxy in Bahrain and a US-designated terrorist orga

  The USA-based ‘Boutique’ philatelic agency, Philatelic Collector Inc. , has updated its website and revealed that it has released more philatelic items in the name of its 2 client postal administrations, Tonga and Cook Islands . Apart from a set titled ‘Birds of prey Part 2’ with the name of Aitutaki inscribed on the products the numerous Birds of the World issues described in recent Blogs and which are being offered for ‘exclusive’ sale by an Internet dealer in Russia are not yet mentioned on the PCI website but I imagine they soon will be. The ‘date of issue’ of the Aitutaki birds set is stated to have been 15 November 2019.   Only 2 subjects are featured on the latest products - Chinese new year (Year of the Rat) and Christmas. In all there are 12 Chinese new year stamps and 10 Christmas stamps. Some of the Christmas stamps (Tonga, Aitutaki and Penrhyn) all look as though they have been printed on previously issued personalisable stamps. 🇹🇴 Tonga - 11 October 2019 - Chinese

The Taliban has denied press reports indicating the group was on the cusp of declaring a ceasefire in Afghanistan, saying this is “false and baseless.” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid issued an official statement (reproduced in full, below) denying the reports, which claimed that the group’s ruling council has approved a ceasefire, thereby opening the door for possible intra-Afghan negotiations. However, it was unclear if the reported ceasefire would include Taliban attacks against the Afghan government and security forces. The reported ceasefire agreement was sourced to “Taliban officials familiar with the negotiations” who “spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media,” the Associated Press reported on Dec. 29. Mujahid chastised the media for “publishing false and baseless reports about a ceasefire by the Islamic Emirate,” the name the Taliban calls its official government. Mujahid also denied that there is a “supposed schism within

An F-35B for the United States Marine Corps at Lockheed Martin's production facility in Fort Worth, Texas – the 134th F-35 delivered in 2019. F-35 Enterprise Has Tripled Production since 2016; 47% Increase from 2018 to 2019 Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) delivered the 134th F-35 aircraft for the year today, exceeding the joint government and industry 2019 delivery goal of 131 aircraft. One hundred and thirty-four deliveries represent a 47% increase from 2018 and nearly a 200 percent production increase from 2016. Next year, Lockheed Martin plans to deliver 141 F-35s and is prepared to increase production volume year-over-year to hit peak production in 2023. “This achievement is a testament to the readiness of the full F-35 enterprise to ramp to full-rate production and we continue to focus on improving on-time deliveries across the entire weapons system,” said Greg Ulmer, Lockheed Martin vice president and general manager of the F-35 program. “We have met our annual delivery t

  And so 2019 draws to a close. Here is a list of some of the notable events and anniversaries associated with The Commonwealth which resulted in stamp issues or which might have philatelic consequences in the future. 15 January - 🇬🇧 Royal Mail issued a miniature sheet containing 6 different stamps to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Royal Philatelic Society. 13 April - 🇮🇳 India Post issued 2 stamps and 1 miniature sheet to commemorate the Centenary of the Amritsar Massacre, one of the most shameful events in British colonial history. 26 April - 🇿🇦 The South African Post Office issued a miniature sheet to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the establishment of democracy in South Africa. 28 April - 🇬🇮 The Royal Gibraltar Post Office issued a set of stamps to commemorate the territory’s hosting of the 18th Island Games. 2 May - 🇨🇾 🇬🇮🇬🇬🇮🇪🇮🇲🇯🇪🇲🇹🇹🇷 The postal service of  Cyprus , Gibraltar , Guernsey , Ireland , Jersey , Malta and The