Indian Defence Review

Emperor Lalitaditya: One Among India’s Greatest Soldier-Statesmen

With the ascendance of the Karkotta dynasty, the Hindu Kingdom of Kashmir reached great heights of power and prestige. Its influence and fame spread far and wide, in the process, attracting respect and receiving tribute from neighboring states/kingdoms. Durlabh Vardana extended his kingdom to Poonch, Rajauri, Taxila and...

Awakening to National Defence: Hope at Last?

Clausewitz had prophesized that it was mandatory for a nation’s political leadership to possess a fair understanding of the profession of arms. For the military institution to deliver commensurate to the resources committed to its war-worthiness, the Ministry has to free itself from abject dependency upon archaic...

Towards a More Vigorous Make-In-India in Defence Manufacturing

The government of the day must take the country out of its asphyxiating bureaucratisation that seriously afflicts its defence production segment. The UK did it in the 1980s by privatising British ordnance factories. This really turned around their performance in terms of cost, quality, timeliness and global...

Battle of Kasserine Pass: Lessons for China

In February 1943, US Forces, under the overall command of Gen Eisenhower, suffered a staggering rout at the hands of much feared Afrika Korps, in the Battle of Kasserine Pass, which holds vital strategic lessons today for the armies in general and China in particular. Even in complete retreat, a much harried Field...

War as a Multi-Dimensional Whole: A Framework for India in a Repolarizing World

As India celebrates the 19th anniversary of Vijay Diwas on 26th July – to mark our victory in Kargil war of 1999, there are much larger questions on Indian security, defence preparedness and military readiness that need to be answered. Couple of years back, in a workshop, a question that I asked to my audience was if...

Pakistan’s Blasphemy against its minorities

Pakistan’s Blasphemy Law is one among the most brutal and discriminatory legislations in the modern world. On the face of it the law prohibits Blasphemy against any recognised religion and provides for punishment ranging from fine to death. In actuality, it is being used to suppress and brutalise the minorities in...

Awakening to National Defence: Hope at Last?

Towards a More Vigorous Make-In-India in Defence Manufacturing

Poppies and Marigolds

The year 2018 marks the centenary of the end of World War I. ‘The War to End All Wars’ or ‘The Great War For Civilisation’ did not achieve what the belligerents or its protagonists imagined. Neither did it end ‘Before Christmas’, as the British expected, nor ‘Before the Leaves Fall’, as per the German...

Emperor Lalitaditya: One Among India’s Greatest Soldier-Statesmen

Beyond the Bomdila Episode

The Bomdila incident exploded in the media with video clip of the Commanding Officer (CO) of the 2 Arunachal Scouts, an Amy unit, warming a police officer to stay away from his men or face dire consequences. There was little mention of what instigated the CO, and why did he warn the said police officer. The police...

Sniper Rifles with J&K Terrorists

According to media reports sniper rifles being used by terrorists are those stolen by Taliban from US forces in Afghanistan and then handed over to ISI. These sniper rifles (same as used by NATO forces against Taliban in Afghanistan) have been passed them on to Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorists. JeM has been given a...

Vice Chiefs Financial Powers – and the intricacies within

The government has enhanced the financial powers of the Army, Navy and Air Force Vice Chiefs five times; from Rs 100 crore to Rs 500 crore for expediting the decision making process involved in the procurements of the Armed Forces. The MoD statement on the issue states, “The Defence Minister has taken this important...

Indian Army Inducts Its First M777 Ultra Lightweight Howitzers

The Indian Army celebrated receiving its first M777A2 Ultra Lightweight Howitzers (ULH) at an official handover ceremony today, a key step toward the modernizing and strengthening of the Indian Army’s artillery capabilities. The 155mm M777 systems will deploy to their first regiment in 2019. The gun systems, produced...

HTT 40 Successfully Begins Spin Testing

The HTT 40 (Basic Trainer Aircraft) began the most awaited phase of the `spin test’ by successfully entering in to two turn spin and subsequently recovering with the appropriate controls. Two test pilots undertook the first ever spin entry testing today at around 1.30 pm. The aircraft was piloted by Gp Capt (Retd)...

Hackers On The Rampage: Are We Ready?

Are we in India looking at the issue of ‘Hacktivism’ with the seriousness it deserves? Merely placing numerous...

Professional Mooring: The Making of an Officer

The Indian Army, the second largest in the world, is a voluntary organisation. A general conscription has never been...

Tampering with Military Assets

The present Government is the first in Indian history to eye military assets and use them to enhance vote banks or open doors to corruption. In the bargain they are denuding the capability of military organizations and enhancing security risks. The first act by the government to garner votes at the cost of the army was to open cantonment roads with an order from the MoD, without consulting...

The Chinese dichotomy

China is a country full of dichotomies. Take Buddhism. On one side, China promotes Buddhism; on the other hand, Beijing severely represses the Buddha dharma. On October 28, the World Buddhist Forum opened with fanfare at Putian, in Fujian Province. According to the official...

India’s presence at 'Moscow Format' on Afghanistan was imperative

The news about India accepting Russia’s invitation to participate in a multi-nation meeting in Moscow on Afghanistan on November 9 galvanized some Kashmiri politicians in Kashmir to say that if India is opening dialogue with the Taliban then India must open talks with Pakistan...

How old CIA reports reveal that China has been repressing Muslims since the 1950s

The Human Rights Watch (HRW) recently released a 117-page report entitled “Eradicating Ideological Viruses – China’s Campaign of Repression Against Xinjiang’s Muslims;” it gave fresh evidence of Beijing’s “mass arbitrary detention, torture, and mistreatment, and the...

Pakistan-China headed for Massive Shift due to Geopolitical Compulsions

Geopolitical compulsions seem to be bearing down heavily in steering Pakistan- China ‘All Weather Iron Brother Relations’ towards a massive shift in end-2018 whose first indicator has been the less than successful first visit of new Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan to Beijing from November 02-05 2018. In end 2018, Pakistan-China relations seems to be headed towards ‘climate change’ and the ‘iron’ that clad this strategic embrace...