Indian Defence Review

The world is shifting towards multipolarity

Multipolarity is the new buzzword among political leaders. In the totality of geopolitical transitions during recent years, Indo-Pacific has emerged as the global strategic centre of gravity. Indo-Pacific has assumed strategic importance because of the rise of China as the economic and military power with a vast...

Iran and Saudi Arabia’s negotiations with China as a peace broker in light of the USA

The Middle East has long been a region fraught with conflicts and rivalries, with the Iran-Saudi Arabia rivalry being one of the most significant. Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Saudi Arabia has seen Iran as its most significant adversary in the Gulf’s quest for domination. Furthermore, the Saudis believe that Iran...

Mother of All Swarms

In the hunt to kill Osama bin-Laden, the US had fired its GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) bomb (thermobaric/aerosol bomb) in Afghanistan on April 13, 2017; unaware that Osama was merrily enjoying the hospitality of Pakistan, sheltered close to Abbotabad. First tested in 2003, the GBU-43/B is colloquially known...

The world is shifting towards multipolarity

Iran and Saudi Arabia’s negotiations with China as a peace broker in light of the USA

Finally, is Pakistan paying the price for its sins?

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its labourers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes...

Mother of All Swarms

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...

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...

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...

The Making of an Officer and a Gentleman: Customs and Traditions

The armed forces have through evolution been led by leaders either born or thrown up by situations. The erstwhile...

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 Ambassador to Egypt. We are presently witnessing a deepening of Indo-Egyptian ties as was evident from the recent visit of Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi to New Delhi as the Chief Guest of 74th Republic Day of India. In an exclusive interview with Manish Rai, Editor,...

Could have India won the 1962 war?

Although there is still much speculation about whether India could have won the 1962 war with China, the outcome would have probably been different, had the government of the day, described as ‘criminally negligent’ and mislead by intelligence agencies, heeded saner voices...

50 years of the Vietnam War

In 2012, President Obama signed a presidential proclamation, designating March 29 as the National Vietnam War Veterans Day to ‘thank and honour’ the US Army Vietnam Veterans for their sacrifice. By virtue of this proclamation, the Vietnam War Remembrance will continue over a...

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 search for the reincarnations of the Dalai Lama and Panchen Lama, who hold equal positions in Tibetan Buddhism. It emphasized that this religious ritual has been...