Indian Defence Review

Kashmir Policy – questions for the hierarchy

While stating he and his other sons were also ready to sacrifice their lives for the country, Mohammed Haneef father of Sepoy Aurangzeb, recently abducted and killed by terrorists in J&K, questioned – why is Pakistani flag seen in Kashmir, why not the Indian Tricolour? For decades kith and kin of martyred soldiers...

IAF Exercise Gagan Shakti 2018 –Simple Attrition Estimates

The Indian Air Force Conducted its recent Exercise Gagan Shakti 2018 in April 2018. It was an exercise to learn meaningful lessons in a short and intense battle scenario. According to the press release, “lAF exercised its entire war fighting machinery to validate its concept of operations and war waging...

UN Human Rights Commission discredits itself

For the first time in the history of Kashmir question at the UN, the Chairman of Human Rights Commission Mr. Zeid Ra’d Al Hussein of Jordan has issued a 49-page tutored report spread over 20 paragraphs on “abuse and violation of human rights” in the State of Jammu and Kashmir mainly by India and peripherally by...

UN Human Rights Commission discredits itself

Has the US conceded more than gained from North Korea at historic summit

If there is one event in recent times that has taken the world by storm is the summit between North Korean President Kim Jong Un and his US counterpart Donald Trump at Singapore. The successful summit is likely to ease decades-long tensions in US-North Korean relationship. The world at large sees the summit as an...

Trump–Kim Summit: A Gamble beyond Optics

The world is talking of this Summit as a historic moment with hopes that it will bring peace to Korean Peninsula. Reading between the lines, beyond the niceties and magnificent optics displayed, some realities do emerge, which will indicate that it is beginning of a great gamble by both sides. This issue had crossed the...

IAF Exercise Gagan Shakti 2018 –Simple Attrition Estimates

Indigenous ‘Dhanush’ Clears Trials

The indigenous ‘Dhanush’ 155mm howitzer has cleared successful trials which is excellent news. The bad part is the headlines “It took 4,000 rounds and 5 Years for Dhanush to get Yes from Indian Army”. The public has no option to curse this organization called ‘Army’ which only wants phoren stuff. Who has...

Cantonments sans security

The recent Raksha Mantri’s ‘farman’ to open all cantonment roads drew its due share of reactions that any surprise and surreptitious order would. While the RM has to be responsible for her decisions, any experienced decision maker would have involved all stakeholders in the decision making process, where competing...

Kashmir Policy – questions for the hierarchy

Search for a lasting peace in Kashmir

The Home Minister of India Shri Rajnath Singh has repeatedly stated that the present Modi-led government is committed to look for a solution that will usher a permanent era of peace in the trouble torn Kashmir. Prime Minister Modi’s unambiguous statement from the rampart of Red Fort stating that Kashmiris need to be...

Policy of appeasement can backfire: Government needs to remain vigilant

Home Minister Rajnath Singh visited Kashmir on June, 7, with the stated objective of reviewing the situation in the wake of the unilateral suspension of operations implemented by the government during the holy month of Ramadan. “Even as we see the ceasefire bringing great relief to the people of J&K, militants seem...

Tata Boeing Aerospace delivers first AH-64 Apache combat helicopter fuselage

Tata Boeing Aerospace Limited announced the delivery of the first AH-64 Apache combat helicopter fuselage ahead of schedule from its state-of-the-art facility in Hyderabad. The fuselage will now be transported to Boeing’s AH-64 Apache manufacturing facility in Mesa, AZ, for integration into the final assembly line....

Commissioning of LCU, L-54

Vice Admiral GS Pabby, AVSM, VSM, Chief of Materiel commissioned IN LCU L54 into the Indian Navy today at Port Blair. IN LCU L54 is the fourth Landing Craft Utility (LCU) Mk-IV class to be inducted into the Indian Navy. The ship has been indigenously designed and built by Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers,...

Successful test firing of BrahMos to validate service life extension

BrahMos, supersonic cruise missile was successfully test fired at 1040 hours today from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) in Balasore, Odisha as part of service life extension programme. The life extension test firing of BrahMos was conducted from a Static Inclined Launcher, proving the efficacy and longevity of the...

The Khalistani Terrorism

In the first few years after India’s independence, the Sikh migrants from Punjab constituted the largest single...

Employment of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVS) and Need for Unmanned Combat...

Indian Perspective India’s three services have been operating UAVs for over 18 years. Surprisingly the Indian...

An Early Preview of Trump-Kim Summit

The much hyped June 12 Singapore Summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, is likely to herald a new epoch in the security architecture of Northeast Asia with far reaching ramifications. Much of the world’s attention will be focused not only on the personal chemistry between Trump and Kim, rather on who is going to extract more concessions in the high...

The Legend of Zoru

Last month, India lost its most decorated general; Lt Gen Zorawar Chand Bakshi, known as Zoru to his officers and friends, passed away at the age of age of 97. Very few noticed. No tweets from the Prime Minister or the Defence Minister. General Bakshi was born in 1921 in Gulyana...

India and Saudi Arabia: United against Global Terrorism

Saudi Arabia has faced more than 60 attacks by terror groups Al-Qaeda and Daesh, about half of them in the last two years alone. Daesh, also known as Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), called for the extermination of the Saudi royal family in three formal pronouncements...

Disruptive Technologies and Future Naval Warfare

Google’s decision to cancel Project Maven may be a disappointment for the US military who were hoping to use the company’s artificial intelligence (AI) and machine-learning (ML) techniques to analyse huge amounts of video footage captured by drones operating in Syria, Yemen...

India and the Shangri-La Dialogue

The Modi Government has time and again showed adherence to the rules-based order in international forums. What Modi said at the Dialogue was the reiteration of this principle without directly pointing a finger at China. Shangri-La is usually associated with a place in the Himalaya immortalised by James Hilton in his 1933 novel, the Lost Horizon; a mystical valley where people live in harmony under the compassionate direction of a lamasery:...