The only one deal that is currently being mooted for signing has only one modification to it - The name has been changed from LSA to LEMOA. That one change will allow IAF to operate from Ramstein
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If people remember the apologists for these 'foundational' agreements used to say that we will get this and that once we sign LSA or LEMOA whatever. Well just a few posts above you have what happened. India dosen't just has to worry about sanctions to Indian entities, it also has to worry about sanctions on Russia. And all this happened just when Modi ji was visiting Obama for the 4th time and meeting him perhaps for the 7th, I think. And all this happened also exactly when the Americans were threatening to 'not export' F-16s to Pakis.
Anyhow, while LEMOA is only our headache. The CISMOA really is everybodies headache. For one the only country in South East Asia (Vietnam) that is really proactive in managing China has yet to come on board for anything. They had made their offers to Indian Navy several years back but our MEA is fixated on West for its shahi tukde. Then there is the problem of Russian equipment that is currently there in the Indian Inventory. For old timers who remember there was the old 'story' of Parakaram days when two of our ships came back to home port without there being any order from their Naval HQ. The GPS story is not there for Kargil only. There is the GPS blinking story during Obama swearing in, around, I think the 9th Brahmos test. Then the sudden capacity that Pakis acquired where their Anti Ship harpoons became land attack capable. God only knows how the P8I will ever search for submarines without any sensible ISAR. The Ex-navy 'entrepreneurs' on whose legs the whole of the Sonar codes stand, has already been contacted by Lockheed (the expose was by the 'entrepreneur' himself). Then there is the story about the Russian consultant to one of the weapons systems being 'contacted' while he was in India. Then there is the NRI rich with patents who helped source Russian nano-tech for his masters (I think MMI), leveraging the Indo-Russian good relations. The list goes on and on and on. We have had cases where Indian naval officers who were attached with the super secret SSBN projects, admitted to by American diplomats, to begin planted by Americans (old timers would know this well). Then there is the story of an Indian Navy sub in 1971 chancing upon a much much bigger submarine (possibly a nuke sub) in the Arabian ocean. While all these are stories only, there is always a fire somewhere, however small, controlled by whoever, if there is some smoke observed.
No sir the risk is too great not just for the Indian armed forces but also for others who use the kind of equipment that is being used by Indian armed forces. For example the Russians have had their LRMPs hooked up as nodes between their subs and their sats. And all the while these LRMPs can function even with the Sats being disabled. This has been so for ages. Coincidently the LRMPs that Indian Navy uses are of later generations. Already much of the so called armed forces network has been built by American companies. Only an idiot American would not try to put trap doors and backdoors in. You can rest assured, the Pentagon, State Dept., and Whitehouse know better about the picture that our armed forces are seeing then even our own armed forces. All you need is one slip by one of our own officers, done without any harmful intent, ending up compromising the very usage of the weaponry. Automation that is happening currently and which is actually required, will ensure that the Indian 'kill chain' will be accessed much more intrusively, if CISMOA is unrolled. And whatever the song and dance between USN and PLAN, they have never fired even a 0.56 bullet at each other. Only Indian kala angrez get horny about USN leading IN into naval fights with PLAN. What if Indian Navy actually has to put up a fight against the PLAN?
Similar is the case with IAF. Just to give you an example, during the earliest of Cope India Ex. there was suspicion raised by some that perhaps the Mig-21Bison was receiving information from outside also, in as yet unknown ways. Bisons had jammer, that is known even by panwadis. But what if they really had something else too. Now what if during one of the exercises this is simply briefed to somebody who is not pilot and instead, is a EW engineer. Such a planted engineer would not even require accurate information. Just a general hint at what bandwidth to scan or the carrier wave used or the repetition factor would be enough. What will happen to these black ops capabilities. And these black capabilities actually do exist with parts of our armed forces. Some time back the Indian Navy had admitted to some such tech in its subs that ended up surprising the PLAN (or was it USN?).
This has strategic implications too. For example the P8I has no OTH targeting capability but IL38SD do. Co-incidently the P8I is a large picture sensor platform. This platform will work over and above even the Tu-142M and IL38SD, whether its needed or not. So basically any missile ported or coordinated by to Tu-142M will get launched only after the same has been cleared for launch by P8I. In such a case how would you like the Americans to also have access to the datalink between the Tu-142M and IL38SD, which actually may be linked to the Brahmos that has passed out of the datalink horizon of the surface fleet that launched it? Actually even the Russian Helos in Indian Navy are datalinked for OTH targeting. Existence of these capabilities were perhaps the reason the Indian Navy agreed to P8I not having any of the OTH capacity. Now to say that inter-operability which in a, limited but practicable way, already exists for the Indo-US exercises and by way of American build C&C network, should be allowed into the realm of black capabilities is crazy.
In near future all of Indian Navy assets will be satcom enabled. That whole system of satcom enabled networking which is already observable from networks established by American companies will be accessible with our 'consent' in the real time to american task force commanders even if they are merely observing the IN battle it out with an enemy nation. At that time will the American task force commanders work to save Indian Navy or will they work to save American strategic interests?
