Indian Defence Review

Decoding Pentagon Report on China January 2019

Amidst sequential escalation of US-China ‘Heated cold war’, Pentagon has released a new report on 16 January 2019, airing US concerns about China’s growing military capability highlighting a contingency about a possible attack against Taiwan. This is sequel to the coercive/threatening speech of Chinese President Xi...

Dragon’s Flight: China’s Advances in Aerospace Technology

China’s leaders recognise that aerospace mastery is critical if it is to become a military superpower. The dragon is closing the technology gap with the US and Russia and it is likely to take a lead in niche areas before long. In future, America will probably judge the capability requirements of its armed forces –...

Talking to Pakistan

Both Omar Abdullah heading the National Conference (NC) and Mehbooba Mufti heading Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in J&K have been batting for India to talk to Pakistan and initiate dialogue with Hurriyat separatists. In September last year, India had agreed to a meeting between foreign ministers of both countries...

Decoding Pentagon Report on China January 2019

Talking to Pakistan

Trump’s enforced shutdown: No end in sight

The US Government partial shutdown is continuing since December 22, 2018 as the US Congress did not agree to the funding of the Mexican border wall costing $5.7 billion. This has been the sole dispute in passing funding bills for several Government departments required for the Federal operations in the new fiscal year...

Light Combat Helicopter Demonstrates Unique Capability; Completes Weapon Trials

The Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) indigenously designed and developed by HAL achieved a unique milestone by successfully carrying out air to air missile firing on a moving aerial target. During the tests conducted in integrated test range at Chandipur, Odisha recently, Wg Cdr Subash P John, VM (Retd), test pilot, Col...

Dragon’s Flight: China’s Advances in Aerospace Technology

Is Indian Defence Preparedness Adequate in 2019?

India is the world’s sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and the third largest by purchasing power parity (PPP). Since 2014 India’s economy has been the world’s fastest growing, surpassing China. India topped the World Bank’s growth outlook for the first time in fiscal year 2015–16, during which the economy grew 7.6...

How Secure will India be in 2019?

Although one year is too short a period for trending a serious subject like National Security, nevertheless speculating the immediate trends may be a useful exercise under the existing realities, because in the environment of high voltage political scenario in the country due to 2019 elections, the National Security...

Andaman & Nicobar – India’s Natural Aircraft Carrier

China makes no bones about her ‘Malacca Dilemma’ and ensures aggressive presence in Indian Ocean Region (IOR). She has listening posts in Coco Islands, has made strategic investments in Kyaukpu port of Myanmar and has coaxed Thailand to re-examine the Kra Canal Project. China is also acutely aware of the strategic...

J&K: A Counter Narrative

In my previous article “Battle of Perceptions: difference correct wordings can make,” I had emphasised the need of winning the battle of perceptions in J&K. Building an appropriate counter-narrative to the mischievous and false narrative spread by the power brokers of Kashmir is essential to view the entire issue...

6 predictions for the Surveillance industry 2019

Artificial Intelligence For all the attention and discussion, you could be forgiven for thinking that artificial intelligence (AI) is fundamentally changing every industry and sector. Though for the more cynical (and with reference to the Gartner Hype Cycle) you may feel that a lack of demonstrable applications of AI...

Mini-UAV to Aerospace: AD solutions to tackle Multi-Dimensional Air Threat

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), also known as drones, are aircraft that do not carry any crew, but rather, are operated remotely by human operators, or autonomously via pre-programmed software or robots. UAVs vary widely in size and capacity, and have become increasingly prevalent. Their use has increased exponentially...

LUH Clears 6 KMs Altitude Flight, Looks for High-altitude Cold Weather Trials

The Light Utility Helicopter (LUH) has achieved an important milestone of flying at 6 km altitude here in Bengaluru, recently. The chopper was flown by Chief Test Pilot Wg. Cdr. (Retd) Unni K Pillai and Test Pilot, Wing Cdr (Retd) Anil Bhambhani. The flight was carried out under the envelope expansion tests and flying...

Myanmar: Army Announces Cease-fire for four months

On 21st December, in a surprise move , the Army Chief Gen. Hliang announced a four-month ceasefire of operations in...

Preventing the Next 26/11: Intelligence and India's Security Apparatus

There is a long-standing debate on the role, means, and end goals of intelligence. Is dissemination the purpose? Do...

Kashmir: The Victim of a Non-Linear Conflict Trap

Strategy of Conflict Trap Civil wars have replaced conflicts between states as the most pervasive and violent armed struggles in the world. The conflict in Kashmir is also a by-product of the unending and forever war between India and Pakistan. The more extended the conflict, the greater the complexity. The most logical question should be: How did we get here? There is no simple answer to this...

Why is Iraqi Kurdistan Strategic for India?

India is one of the largest importers of oil and petroleum products across the globe. Being a developing nation and with a population of approximately over 1.2 billion, the demand for crude oil and allied products is at its peak. As a prudent consumer of oil, India is dependent...

China Prepares for War

On January 8, the Chinese State-owned Global Times reported that some units of the People’s Liberation Army Ground Force (PLAGF) stationed in Tibet have been equipped with a new vehicle-mounted howitzer to boost China’s combat capability and improve border security. The...

Russia-India Relationship Perspectives Beyond 2018

Russia-India relationship beyond 2018 in terms of perspectives does not offer the same optimism and generate the same fizz as it did till before the disintegration of the Former Soviet Union. Geopolitically and in terms of strategic embrace, Russia at turn of Millennium swung...

Kashmir's Separatist Movement: Rising Challenges, Shrinking Relevance

J&K’s separatist leaders are under pressure to keep their political relevance intact in the aftermath of the outbreak of violence beginning July 2016. Despite their personal and ideological differences, three top separatist leaders–Yasin Malik, Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq– were led to establish the Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) in late-2016 to streamline street protests and galvanise a united front regarding...