Attachment 26 -- Bid: Fill & Download for Free

This answer may contain sensitive images. Click on an image to unblur it.China did it because it is not stupid.It had to do it. It had no other choice. It has never had a choice.It is investing $60 Billion in Pakistan under CPEC and even more via its sundry companies, both public and private. That is mind-boggling arithmetic of money being invested unilaterally from China into a crippling and falling Pakistani economy.That's a very risky bet, where return on investment and earnings could go kaput anytime. Thus, dividends and returns have to be ensured for the massive investments to yield fruits, and that is where Masood Azhar comes into the picture.Let's understand how.If China is to successfully execute its partaken mammoth projects in Pakistan and benefit from them, then it has to ensure that the execution and manifestation of its investments are not hampered by any sort of bomb blasts or any other such terror attacks. It cannot afford such disruption and destruction.Also, China has to ensure that its men and skilled human resources deployed in Pakistan who are carrying out these projects are not threatened, kidnapped, maimed, killed or bombed while working on projects like the crucial Gwadar Port facility. Those mishappenings would only further increase the risks involved in reaping any meaningful benefits on their already highly risky investments in Pakistan.Ergo, it’s imperative for China to not do anything which could instigate and irritate men like Masood Azhar and Hafiz Saeed.Why?Given the clout and devout following that Masood Azhar receives from an enormous chunk of the Pakistani citizenry, any move against that one bastard Terror Lord would spook China's prospects and projects in Pakistan.One move against him and China could welcome Azhar's wrath in the form of its projects being attacked by bombs, guns and grenade laden terrorists, and well networked local militia and goons running on the support and largesse of Masood Azhar's sundry direct and indirect terror camps and radical Madrasas.It would therefore be catastrophic for China with all or a good part of that $60 Billion blowing up into smoke, ash and blood, or delaying the entire CPEC which would further escalate the project costs. That would be a big dent on the Chinese pockets, sentiments and geopolitical ambitions.Hence, China cannot afford to enrage the monster we know as Masood Azhar. It is a ransom China just has to pay to safeguard it's economic interests in Pakistan and geopolitical interests against India.It’s the cost of doing business in Pakistan.In the attached picture, just observe how Masood Azhar (Ji, as Rahul Gandhi would have preferred) walks amidst people, police and armed militia carrying hardcore military grade weaponry.That is a clear display of this man’s might in what they call the Democratic Pakistan.Thus, however many number of Pulwama, Pathankot, Mumbai 26/11 and other such deadly and mind-numbing terror attacks be inflicted on Indian soil, citizens and armed forces, nothing would be enough to push China to allow the UNSC to tag the terror focal, Maulana Masood Azhar as a designated and recognized Global Terrorist under UN Sanctions Committee.Hence, condemnation of terrorism of all forms is the maximum that can be expected of China in this regard, which we have been getting anyway, whether we ask for it, or not.After all, what matters more for China?It's massive monetary investments and geopolitical interests?Or the Indian call for justice?The answer is obvious.Its money and geopolitical interests matter more to it.Everyone works for their own benefits and China is doing nothing else, however much they might want to support India in its call for justice against terrorism its battling. Thus, as an Indian, despite wanting for China to walk the Indian talk, I accept the reality for what it is.China just cannot afford to walk the Indian talk in case of Maulana Masood Azhar. That's the hard and solid fact.Its a cost and unease of doing business in Pakistan which China has to pay.Self and national interest come first for all nations be it Pakistan, India or China, and every nation pursues every means to get their interests on the top.That's the harsh reality of Geopolitics.The world is not about securing peace and prosperity for all, rather about ensuring peace and prosperity for one's own nation. That's the geopolitical reality which majority of people hardly ever realize or accept. Period.Related: Now that China has vetoed the fourth attempt to declare Masood as terrorist, how should India proceed?Note: My book ‘Redemption of a Son’ is available exclusively on Amazon.Signing off,Shilanjan_/\_

Here I will write about the current status of whole Tejas program (Tejas mk1, mk1A, mk2, trainer, naval version, LIFT, Unmanned etc.)Tejas Mk1:Tejas Mk1 received ‘Initial Operation Clearance’ (IOC) certificate in 2013 and it was inducted into Indian Air Force in 2016. IAF recommended some improvements over IOC version to give it ‘Final Operation Clearance’ (FOC) certificate. IAF ordered 40 Tejas Mk1. 20 IOC (16 fighter+4 trainer) and 20 FOC (16 fighter+4 trainer) version.Later, IAF changed the order a little and wanted 4 IOC trainer to be FOC standard i.e. now the order is: 16 IOC fighters, 24 FOC aircrafts (16 FOC fighters, 8 FOC trainers).Now HAL is manufacturing Tejas Mk1 IOC. 16 IOC has been built. So IOC order delivery is complete. HAL has delivered 9 Tejas in last one year (2018 March-2019 March).Also, ADA and HAL have completed most of the improvements for FOC (and FOC has been given in 2019). Tejas Mk1 took part in big war exercises of IAF ‘Gagan Shakti’ (2018) and Vayu Shakti (2019) and performed nicely. In Aero India 2019 Air show in February, Tejas received FOC certificate. IAF Chief has announced it to be ‘fully battle ready’.HAL has started preparation to manufacture 16 FOC fighters. All are likely to be delivered in one year as HAL is opening another production line and production will go up to 16 Tejas/year. Also, most of the component manufacturing work will be outsourced to private firms and HAL will be assembling them.Within that time, FOC upgrade for trainer is likely to be completed. HAL will start building 8 FOC trainer in 2020. So it’s very likely that all 40 Tejas Mk1 ordered will be delivered within 2020–21.Tejas Mk1A:Tejas Mk1A is to address some technical deficiency present in Mk1. The basic design and framework will remain same but will have major upgrade like AESA radar, self-protection jammer (SPJ), improving the ‘maintainability’ and mid-air refueling capability.It’s in development. AESA radar and EW Suite (SPJ should be a part of that) ordered to Israel. External re-fueling is already tested successfully. An indigenous AESA radar is also developed.Tejas mid-air re-fuelingAero India 2019: Tejas with indigenous AESA radar (and Brahmos NG)The MoD accorded “Acceptance of Necessity” and IAF issued a ‘‘Request for Proposal’’ for 83 Tejas Mk1A in December 2017. HAL submitted its technical bids in March 2018. Now commercial bid and price negotiation are to be done and then MoD/IAF will place the final order. According to HAL, if order is placed this year, 1st Tejas Mk1A will come in 2022. Mk1A will not require IOC or FOC. It will be accepted directly.HAL wants to open a 3rd production line if 83 Mk1A order is placed. It will take the production up to 24/year. HAL has shown confidence to deliver 83 Mk1A in 3–4 years (i.e. all will be delivered within 2025/26).Tejas Mk2:It is not our good old LCA (Light Combat Aircraft). Tejas Mk2 will be a MWF (Medium Weight Fighter). It is being developed to replace IAF’s Jaguar, Mirage-2000 etc. It will be a far more advanced and powerful fighter than Mk1 and Mk1A.New features are:1) Close-coupled Canard (has many positive aerodynamic effects)2) 17.5 ton Maximum take-off weight (4 ton higher than LCA, 3.5 ton higher external payload capacity)3) 14.65 m length (1.35 m longer than LCA)4) More powerful engine than LCA (GE-F414)5) Indigenous AESA radar6) More advanced cockpit7) Better body-wing blending8) Infra-Red Search and Track (IRST)9) More advanced and internal EW suite (LCA has external EW Suite)10) 11 hardpoints (LCA has 8)11) More advanced Flight Control System12) Network-centric capability using datalinketc.MWF Tejas Mk2 design phase is completed. In Aero India 2019, a model is shown. The first flight of the prototype will be in around 2023. Production will be started after Mk1A delivery is completed i.e. around 2026/27.Naval Tejas:No this program is not dead (sorry haters!). First 2 Naval Mk1 was technology demonstrators. It had less thrust and other issues which Navy pointed out. The program is ongoing.Basically Naval Tejas is more advanced and complex than Air Force Tejas in some ways and program started only in 2009 (altered external structure, strengthened to handle the stresses of landing on carrier, different landing gear, additional surfaces on its wings to slow down in time of landing on carrier, arrestor hook, significantly modified software for oceanic environment etc.).Now work is going on to enhance the Naval Tejas. Last year landing using ‘arrestor hook’ test was successfully conducted. (this is used for landing on Aircraft Carrier)Arrestor hookNaval Tejas will go through take off and landing test from Aircraft Carrier INS Vikramaditya in late 2019 or 2020. Naval Tejas will take some time to be ready and as Admiral Sunil Lanba expressed his support towards Naval Tejas program[1], Naval Tejas may operate from Indian Navy’s future carrier INS Vishal (planned).Lead-in Fighter-trainer:HAL has designed a ‘Supersonic Omni Role Trainer’ (SPORT) as a ‘lead-in Fighter-Trainer’ (LIFT) based on Tejas. LIFT is advanced jet trainer with combat capability. Many Air Forces in the world have demand of such aircraft. IAF hasn’t wanted a LIFT but HAL themselves wanted to create such an aircraft considering world market. The attached link has a detailed video on it.[2]SPORT aircraft cockpit simulatorUnmanned Tejas:Yes Tejas will also have an unmanned version. ADA has been cleared by Government of India (GOI) to commence work on the development of Unmanned Tejas. Unmanned Tejas just won’t be a simple exercise of converting a sophisticated manned aircraft into an unmanned drone with an addition of remote pilot system onboard, but aircraft will also be a testbed for Command and sensor systems which will find its way into Ghatak UCAV program.Thank you!Footnotes[1] Indian Navy Rules out Tejas Fighter Jet on New Aircraft Carrier[2] Airforce's Test Pilot Explains India's First Supersonic Trainer Aircraft 'SPORT' Built By HAL

Here are some of those big sales that lead to nowhere.The Ticking ManA bomb expert must prevent the human nuclear bomb he created from getting into and destroying Moscow.This spec script is remembered as one of the pinnacle spec sales from that time period. It was sold for $1 million and written by a much younger Brian Helgeland (L.A. Confidential, Mystic River) and Manny Coto (Dexter, 24). Bruce Willis was close to starring but chose to make The Last Boy Scout instead — a script that Shane Black sold for $1.75 million. The marketing of this script was famous because agents literally sent out ticking clocks to executives before the script went out wide.After being sold, it got caught in development hell after Willis left. There were rewrites for different stars; then the stars wouldn’t commit. Eventually, the momentum the script had faded into oblivion and was never produced.Read Scriptshadow’s review of the spec HERE.Hell Bent… and BackWWII GI soldiers attack a Nazi train, thought to be holding stolen Italy treasures, only for them to find Jewish children on their way to a concentration camp.Another $1 million sale picked up by Disney. The script was written by Rick Jaffa (Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Jurassic World) and Doug Richardson (Die Hard 2, Bad Boys).Then Disney studio head, Jeffrey Katzenberg, wasn’t a fan of the script, despite the head of Disney’s Hollywood Pictures loving it. It was later mired in studio notes, which shifted the focus of the story. Disney still owns it.CLICK HERE to Doug Richardson’s own post about the experience of getting the million-dollar call.The Cheese Stands AloneA loveless man who believes he’s dying meets a woman that turns his life upside-down.In 1990, this romantic comedy was the first script written by a woman to sell for $1 million. It was Kathy McWorter’s first sale. Earlier that year, she had reached the Academy’s Nicholl Fellowship quarterfinals with a different screenplay.The script led to a massive bidding war with Paramount nabbing it for producer Scott Rudin. One industry insider stated: “It sold for $1 million because [Paramount in 1990] wanted to make a statement to the town: ‘We’re buying scripts. And we’ll go toe to toe with any other studio.'”It sold for $1 million. Kathy’s only writing credit is for the Kevin Costner and Elijah Wood film The War.Read Scriptshadow’s review of the spec HERE.Sea WolfA reworking of Jack London’s classic “The Sea Wolf.”Another $1 million spec script. It was thought that Tom Hanks would star. He was either never fully attached or eventually left. Columbia Pictures, now owned by Sony, still has it.MangoA cop is allergic to animals, including his orangutan partner.New Line purchased this script in the mid-nineties for a rumored million. It was written by Miles Millar, a Cambridge graduate who had moved to Los Angeles, wrote the script and then sold it for $1 million. Warren Zide, who would later become a prominent producer of the American Pie and Final Destination franchises, was the manager that took it out.Once purchased, the film was put on the back burner because Fox was developing what would become Dunston Checks In.Miles Millar would go on to write such films as Shanghai Noon, Spider-Man 2, and Lethal Weapon 4, among many others. He would also become the co-creator of Smallville.CLICK HERE to read all about Millar’s inspiring story of how this strange concept — and his first script — sold for a million dollars.PincushionA female courier in a plague-ridden future has to take a cure across state lines.The spec script was said to be a female The Road Warrior. It has been reported that the script sold from $500,000 to $1 million, shortly after the 1988 strike. Columbia purchased it, hoping to sign Cher, but nothing ever came of it. Sharon Stone was also attached at one time. Written by John Raffo, Carlos Carlei and Peter Rader. John Raffo was later credited with writing Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story and The Relic. Carlei went on to write some smaller films, including a 2013 update of Romeo and Juliet. Rader eventually wrote Waterworld.Read Scriptshadow’s review of the spec HERE.Nuclear FamilyA comedy about a family that inadvertently camps out in a nuclear waste site.Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment put up a reported $1 million for the spec. The comedy was written by Blake Snyder and James Haggin. Snyder was famous for his many unproduced spec sales, as well as the produced Blank Check and Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot. He was then somewhat immortalized by his screenwriting book Save The Cat.Married in the MorningThe story of an ambitious small-town newscaster who dreams of being the next Katie Couric. She gets a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity when she’s picked to host a morning-show segment about a young couple on their way to the altar, but things get complicated when she falls for the groom.Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont sold the romantic comedy pitch Married in the Morning to Columbia Pictures and Neal Moritz’s Original Films for $1 million against $3 million if the film were ever to be made. That’s right. It was sold on pitch for them to also direct. And sadly, the film was never made.The writing and directing partners were behind Can’t Hardly Wait and Josie and the Pussycats. They also wrote Surviving Christmas and 1996’s A Very Brady Sequel.Bad DogA werewolf-comic-horror-thriller.The horror-comedy was written on spec by Dale Launer and sold to DreamWorks for a whopping $3 million in 1997.DreamWorks then co-heads Jeffrey Katzenberg and Steven Spielberg handled the negotiations because production lead Walter Parkes was in a screening and their new president of production Robert Cooper was out of town. So, responding to a time-sensitive offer from CAA, Spielberg and Katzenberg jumped into the fray with Launer and CAA.According to Launer himself, speaking to the Hollywood Reporter, “It got caught in a downward spiraling vortex of constantly changing development execs who were confused by Mr. Spielberg’s notes and couldn’t admit to him, me or themselves that they had no clue as to what he wanted.”Launer is known for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Ruthless People, and My Cousin Vinny.Superconducting Supercollider of Sparkle Creek, WisconsinA secret supercollider underneath Sparkle Creek, Wisconsin starts wreaking havoc on the town.This spec, written by David Koepp (Jurassic Park, Mission Impossible, Spider-Man, Panic Room) and John Kamps (Zathura, Ghost Town, Premium Rush) was written and sold back in 2001. Koepp alone made $2.5 million dollars off the deal that also included future script commitments and a possible directing gig. The deal came less than a year after Koepp’s thriller spec Panic Room sold during a major bidding war to Columbia Pictures for $2 million plus another $1 million in producing fees and $1 million deferred. Barry Sonnenfeld and Gavin Polone were attached to produce, but the film was never made.Read Scriptshadow’s review of the spec HERE.Stalker: A Love StoryA man realizes too late that he let the perfect woman getaway. He then tries to win her back in all the wrong ways.Paramount purchased this spec for $1.75 million and at one time had Owen Wilson lined up to star. Written by Michael Carnes and Josh Gilbert (Mr. Woodcock, Furry Vengeance), a writing duo that in 2005 were named part of Variety’s 10 Screenwriters to Watch.Read Scriptshadow’s review of the spec HERE.The Worst ManA prospective groom is forced to select a best man among his three best friends.From the Stalker: A Love Story scripting team (see above) of Michael Carnes and Josh Gilber, Paramount bought the project on pitch for $1 million against $2 million in 2005. The script hasn’t seen the light of day.The Cross (also known as River Road)In an undisclosed future, one man will try anything to “cross” a border that cannot be crossed.New Line made a deal worth nearly $3 million for the writing and directing services of Andrew Niccol (Gattaca, The Truman Show) for his spec script in 1999.This is one of those unproduced million dollar plus specs that perhaps came the closest to actually getting made. It has lingered in development hell for years but has had some significant attachments. Variety reported in 2009 that Orlando Bloom was set to star. But alas, the film has not been made.Read Scriptshadow’s review of the spec HERE.The MarkAn ancient talisman falls into the hands of an ordinary guy, who now suddenly holds the world’s balance of good and evil.Written by Rob Liefeld (Deadpool), the script was purchased for a reported $2 million in 1996 and once had Tom Cruise attached with the now-defunct Cruise/Wagner Productions. Will Smith was then attached as well for a number of years at Universal. Glen Morgan and James Wong were hired to rewrite it at one time.AlphaA Navy SEAL must work with military canines to rescue their captured handler.Paramount Pictures purchased the spec from David Benioff (Game of Thrones) for a reported $2 million. The script is well known but has been in development for years and hasn’t managed to get the green light. Back in 2013, Martin Campbell (The Mask of Zorro, GoldenEye, Casino Royale) was in talks to helm the project.It has been rewritten by the likes of Scott Frank (Minority Report), Carl Ellsworth (Red Eye) and Graham Roland (Fringe), among others.Reliable SourcesA 22-year-old reporter’s actions covering a story leads to someone losing their life.Paramount bought the project for $2 million in the nineties from THE Joe Eszterhas (Basic Instinct) with an additional $2 million should the film make it to production. It didn’t.Eszterhas is known as the man who made a reported $26 million from his screenplay sales, most of which were never produced.Male Pattern BaldnessA Midwestern guy finds himself in a battle with all the precepts of political correctness and goes on a killing spree.Another Eszterhas one that sold to Paramount for $2 million against $2 million if it were to get made.ForeplayWhile investigating a recent murder spree, a cop gets lured into the unique lifestyle of his main suspect; an ex-rocker turned club owner.Another Joe Eszterhas spec deal. This spec sold back in 1994 to Savoy Pictures for $1 million upfront with another $4 million production bonus, plus 2.5% of the box office and video gross. The deal even had him netting 1% of the soundtrack sales.Joe would have to settle for his $1 million as the film was never made.Please follow The Tao of Screenwriting for more fun Movie/TV discussions, as well as screenwriting and film industry insights. Ask me questions. Come visit this “dojo” for screenwriting, movie, television, film/TV industry insights, inspiration, writing exercises & best practices, tips, advice, and industry hacks.