Indian Defence Review

Chipping the Chip Industry

US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo’s four-day trip to India beginning March 7, 2023 was to participate in the US-India Commercial Dialogue and the US-India CEO Forum. She called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and held bilateral meetings with several leaders including External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Finance...

Are Servicemen, soft targets for all and sundry?

There must be something radically wrong with a society that prides itself on being one of the most robust and resilient democracies of the world, but virtually tramples on the rights of Indian soldiery with such insensitivity and disdain. Reports of the constant attacks on serving or retired Army men, their...

Will F-16s follow President Biden to Ukraine?

While US President Joe Biden’s historic surprise visit to Ukraine on the eve of the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of that country and his fresh offer of $460 million of military to boost the country’s defense have raised spirit of the Ukrainians enormously, Kyiv’s request to get F-16 fighter aircraft...

Chipping the Chip Industry

Will F-16s follow President Biden to Ukraine?

Fake Peaceniks

Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler’s Minister of Propaganda from 1933 to 1945 is known to have said, “Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth.” The war in Ukraine is witnessing two prominent lies (among thousands) propagated by the US through 3,000 CIA agents implanted in mainstream media under Operation...

Are Servicemen, soft targets for all and sundry?

The Big Takeaways from India’s Post-Independence Wars

A wise soldier learns from the past, both the successes and failures. Background Wars shape the destinies of nations and are characterised by tales of courage, resilience, and bravery. Military history or the study of past wars is thus, a fascinating subject. It has the added advantage of highlighting lessons for...

IAF will get 70 HTT-40 Basic Trainer Aircraft from HAL

The Union Cabinet has approved procurement of 70 HTT-40 Basic Trainer Aircraft from Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for the Indian Air Force at a cost of Rs 6,828.36 crore. The aircraft will be supplied over a period of six years. The HTT-40 is a turbo prop aircraft and is designed to have good low speed handling...

Indian Vision-2047 for Cyber Defence Security: Needs and Importance

In order to make the military into the “Aatmanirbhar” force that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had envisioned, the Ministry of Defence undertook ground-breaking reforms in 2022, led by Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh. The Ministry of Defence’s inaugural “AI in Defence” symposium and exhibition in New Delhi saw the...

Decoding Targeted Killings in Kashmir

The cold-blooded murder of 45-year-old Sanjay Sharma in Achan village of South Kashmir’s Pulwama district on Sunday serves as a grim warning that there’s no let-up in the despicable trend of terrorists targeting minority community members in Kashmir Valley. What’s really disturbing is that despite being a Kashmiri,...

The Kashmir ‘Solidarity Day’ Charade

While flaunting it as a solemn occasion called ‘Kashmir Solidarity Day’, Islamabad organises a comical extravaganza of sorts with emotional [as well as menacing] speeches and contrived protests [which includes the indispensable burning of the Indian national flag] on February 5 every year. However, despite all...

Future of Attack Helicopters: The Million Dollar Question?

Background Third of October 2022, was a memorable day for Indian Aviation as the defence minister presided over the formal handing over of the Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) to the Indian Air Force.[1] Designed, developed and manufactured by HAL, the induction of LCH aka Prachanda, was a momentous occasion signalling a...

Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems: Existential Threat to Humanity?

Early in January 1942, Project X-Ray of the United States of America (USA) envisaged using the Mexican Bat, endemic to South Western USA, as a retaliatory weapon against the Japanese for the attack on Pearl Harbour. The plan envisaged attaching incendiary bombs to the bats and releasing them from cluster containers,...

Defense Allocation, Reforms, Reality & The Way Forward

The Indian economy has been an outlier in terms of growth, clocking a 7.1% increase in GDP during 2022-23, and is expected to achieve 6.5% growth in 2023-24. Agriculture has proved to be a robust sector, registering an average growth rate of 3.5%, and most importantly provided much-needed food security when nearly 50...

Pakistan Army’s Undeclared War in Balochistan

Being mandated to ensure territorial integrity of their country, the armed forces of every nation are both...

India-Egyptian relations are now Strategic: Indian Envoy

Ambassador Ajit Gupte a senior diplomat from Indian Foreign Service (IFS) is currently serving as the Indian...

Westphalia in the Modern Context

Significance of the Treaty of Westphalia For many years Germany became the principal theatre of European diplomacy and war, and consequently,the development of German national unity was delayed. But the Treaty of Westphalia pronounced the dissolution of the old order in the empire andit facilitated the growth of new powers in its component parts, especially Austria, Bavaria, and Brandenburg....

The Balance of Power of early 18th Century India

Summary This article is the first of the two articles which concerns the balance of power in early 18th century India. The first article will discuss events preceding 1700 AD followed by the death of Aurangzeb induced chaos at Delhi. It will also detail the rise of Marathas from...

China is preparing the Dalai Lama’s succession

China is at it again: “Recognition of new Dalai Lama must be conducted in China”, asserted an article in The Global Times on February 22. The mouthpiece of the Communist Party explained that the China Central Television has already given a detailed historical account “of the...

The origins of the Russia Ukraine war and its Lessons

Carl Von Clauswitz, the great Prussian General and thinker, wrote in extreme detail over warfare. He bifurcated war into two types – Absolute and Real. According to him, the absolute war is irrational and illogical as it prohibits political mediation while the real war is both...

Khalistan Movement: Rising from the Ashes?

In the backdrop of Punjab’s political instability, owing to inner-fighting in the then ruling Congress party, that catapulted a comparatively new and inexperienced government of ‘Aam Aadmi Party’, Pakistan’s State and non-State actors, in collaboration with West-based extremist elements, have been desperately making attempts, to revive militancy in Punjab. It was manifested on February 23, when, hundreds of followers of a radical...