Weapontechno

India detected a Chinese spy ship disguised as a fishing trawler in the Indian Ocean a few months ago. By the time the ship figured on Indian radars, it had operated already for about 22 days and was positioned off-the cost of Little Anadaman - an area which is considered sensitive and crucial in the ongoing battle for supremacy over the Indian Ocean region between India and China.

Immediately after detection, an Indian Navy Ship was sent after it. However, since the Chinese ship was in international waters, no punitive action could be taken against it. The Indian Naval ship, instead, tailed the Chinese ship sending out a clear message that India was aware of its actual mission. In order to avoid the Indian Navy tail, the Chinese Ship moved towards Sri Lanka and docked at the Colombo. Inquiries by the Indian security agencies revealed that ship as many as 22 Laboratories on board.

A report sent up to government, which NDTV has access to, claims that the Chinese ship was mapping the Indian Ocean and picking up crucial Bathymetric data. Other Laboratories on board the ship were designed to collect data on the currents of the Indian Ocean, the temperature at various depths and also very crucially, underwater obstructions and obstacles. Bathymetric data is crucial for submarine and Carrier based operations. Information about ocean currents, on the other hand, is crucial if torpedoes are to be used.

India's assessment is that China will be able to carry out Aircraft carrier based operations by 2017. China doesn't have an operational aircraft carrier yet. The collection of data from the Indian Ocean is designed towards this. Once the Chinese Carrier Battle Group is ready for operations the Indian Ocean region will be one of the main focus areas of China. This will not only help China secure the shipping lanes that carry it's exports towards Europe and North America but protect oil and coal imports. However, the presence of the Chinese Navy in the Indian Ocean region cannot be altogether benign for India. In fact the presence of a Carrier Battle Group in Indian Ocean region is a serious military threat for India. Chinese ground forces already have an edge over their Indian counterparts along the land borders. Chinese naval presence in Indian Ocean region is, therefore, a cause of serious concern for India.

What is also worrying Indian security agencies is the presence several Chinese fishing trawlers along Wheeler Island off the Orissa coast during test launches of missiles. All Indian missiles are tested from Wheeler Islands. Security agencies have told the government that fishing trawlers are most likely monitoring the Indian missile test launches and colleting telemetric data of the missile. Telemetric data is crucial to build effective counter measure against missiles.

In the wake of a recent Pentagon report that China is moving advanced CSS-5 ballistic missiles to areas close to the Sino-Indian border, New Delhi is clearly taking no chances.

The government is now ready to induct the nuclear-capable Agni-III ballistic missile — with a range of 3,000-3,500 km and capable of hitting targets in China — into the Indian armed forces. It is also in the process of acquiring 42 more Russian-origin Sukhoi-30 MKI frontline fighters to “populate” airbases at Tezpur and Chabua in Assam to bolster the eastern sector.

The government is also reportedly moving the strategic Agni-II missile inducted earlier to areas near the Chinese border. These have a range of around 2,000 km.

Extra land is reportedly being procured in West Bengal and elsewhere to deploy these missiles. India is also developing the Agni-V missile (with a range of 5,000 km) that could hit targets deep within China.
When contacted, Army sources on Tuesday denied that missile units had been moved to the Eastern Command due to the Chinese threat perception.

The government is also taking other steps, including raising two more Army mountain divisions (30,000 troops) that will probably be deployed on the China border.
The Cabinet Committee on Security is considering the proposal for further troops augmentation near the Sino-Indian border.

China has deployed more advanced and survivable solid-fuel nuclear capable CSS-5 MRBM missiles against India as a 'deterrent posture', Pentagon has said warning that a high degree of mistrust continues to strain their bilateral ties.

The PLA has replaced liquid-fueled, nuclear-capable CSS-2 IRBMs with more advanced and survivable solid-fueled CSS-5 MRBM systems to strengthen its deterrent posture relative to India, the Pentagon has said in its annual report on Chinese military build up to the Congress.

The report also says that Beijing is pumping in huge investments on border infrastructure developments laying more roads and rail network along the Sino-Indian border.

"Although this construction is primarily aimed at facilitating economic development in western China, improved roads could also support PLA border defense operations," it said.

Pentagon said that New Delhi remains concerned by China's close military ties with Pakistan and its growing footprints in the Indian Ocean, Central Asia and Africa.

The crash of an unmanned Progress cargo spacecraft in eastern Russia has become the third space launch accident in the world within a week and raises questions about the future of space travel.

Dr. Robert Williams, an astronomer and professor at the Space Telescope Science Institute based in Baltimore, believes that space is a risky business and says anyone who has been involved with the space industry may confirm this.

“First of all, space is a hostile environment,” he said. “Secondly, it requires lots of energy to put something into orbit. Those two factors are a recipe for danger. No matter how careful we are there will be accidents.”

“[The accident] simply highlights the fact that, like getting into your car and driving to work, there is risk involved,” he added. “And it is hard to quantify it.”

But despite the risks involved and the hostile environment, Dr. Williams believes that humankind is hardwired to space travel.

“It is part of evolution, which is genetically driven,” he said. “We try to accommodate to environments that are somewhat different than the one we are currently comfortable in. Obviously we have not evolved to the point where we can accommodate to space, but I believe that we are genetically wired to explore.”

However, Williams speculates that the accident may have a positive effect and speed up competition from other rocket developers.

“I am sure that there are people out there who would like to be responsible for pursuing alternatives and this will give them some impulse to do so,” he said.

IBM has developed a microprocessor which it claims comes closer than ever to replicating the human brain.

The system is capable of "rewiring" its connections as it encounters new information, similar to the way biological synapses work.

Researchers believe that by replicating that feature, the technology could start to learn.

Cognitive computers may eventually be used for understanding human behaviour as well as environmental monitoring.

Dharmendra Modha, IBM's project leader, explained that they were trying to recreate aspects of the mind such as emotion, perception, sensation and cognition by "reverse engineering the brain."

The SyNAPSE system uses two prototype "neurosynaptic computing chips". Both have 256 computational cores, which the scientists described as the electronic equivalent of neurons.

One chip has 262,144 programmable synapses, while the other contains 65,536 learning synapses.

Man machine

In humans and animals, synaptic connections between brain cells physically connect themselves depending on our experience of the world. The process of learning is essentially the forming and strengthening of connections.

A machine cannot solder and de-solder its electrical tracks. However, it can simulate such a system by "turning up the volume" on important input signals, and paying less attention to others.

IBM has not released exact details of how its SyNAPSE processor works, but Dr Richard Cooper, a reader in cognitive science at Birkbeck, University of London said that it likely replicated physical connections using a "virtual machine".

Instead of stronger and weaker links, such a system would simply remember how much "attention" to pay to each signal and alter that depending on new experiences.

"There's a a whole bunch of tasks that can be done just with a relatively simple system like that such as associative memory. When we see a cat we might think of a mouse.""Part of the trick is the learning algorithm - how should you turn those volumes up and down," said Dr Cooper.

Some future-gazers in the cognitive computing world have speculated that the technology will reach a tipping point where machine consciousness is possible.

However, Dr Mark Bishop, professor of cognitive computing at Goldsmiths, was more cautious.

"[I] understand cognition to be something over and above a process simulated by the execution of mere computations, [and] see such claims as verging on the magical," he said.

IBM's work on the SyNAPSE project continues and the company, along with its academic partners, has just been awarded $21m (£12.7m) by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

IBM has been investing in supercomputers like the Blue Brain and the Blue Gene project into making a virtual brain, or a brain made out of computer but still functions like a human brain, for scientific and medical research and advancement. But these projects are quite cost inhibitive. So, by making a chip that acts like a human brain, since it’s smaller, it will cost less in its production stage, though the research stage surely consumes a greater amount of funding.

New military and civilian aircraft from all over the world are showcased at the 10th International MAKS-2011 Air Show, which opened at Zhukovsky Airfield near Moscow, on August 16. Photo: Russian MiG-35 multirole fighter during a demonstration flight at the MAKS-2011 air show.