Indian Defence Review

Lessons learnt? A year after Pulwama

Almost a year after Pulwama on February 14, 2019, the following strike on Balakot on February 26 and the aerial engagement the day after that, I was happy to see that we seemed to have learned some lessons from these episodes. As has been widely debated and discussed in public forums, the basic intent and objective of...

Nailing Pakistan’s War on Terror Financing Farce

It’s neither appropriate nor civil to accuse the judiciary of being biased, but then, exceptions are always there and Pakistan is one such example where just a year and a half ago, Justice Shaukat Siddiqui who was then a sitting judge of Islamabad High Court judge made some very shocking revelations. The judge openly...

Sending troops to Afghanistan would be ludicrous

Suggestions are being injected through media that Hamdullah Mohib, National Security of Afghanistan during his recent visit to New Delhi “privately” requested that India deploy a Brigade or a Division to Afghanistan in peacekeeping role prior to a peace deal with Taliban which would likely lead to withdrawal of US...

Nailing Pakistan’s War on Terror Financing Farce

Sending troops to Afghanistan would be ludicrous

Reasons behind Sirisena’s Failure to Turn Sri Lanka Away from Pro-China Policy

Sri Lanka and its ports are strategically important to major regional and global economic powers, as they lie along one of world’s busiest and most important sea lines of communication (SLoC). This is why major powers, including China, always crave for establishing their economic and military presence in this...

Lessons learnt? A year after Pulwama

India’s Aerospace Industry: Structure, Strategies, Policies and the Road Ahead

The aerospace industry accounts for nearly 40 percent of global military expenditure which stood at $1,822 billion last year (Sipri 2018). The US is a major player in terms of military expenditure (30 percent), export of conventional arms (34 percent) and allocation to defence R&D (60 percent). Nearly two-thirds of...

Disorientations of National Defence – I

“Wisdom consists of the anticipation of consequences.” — Norman Cousins Key Neighbours: Innately Animus Inter-state and regional level political, economic and hegemonic rivalries have ever been the common features in the life of any nation. But the case with India is unique. In this case, rivalries stem from the...

J&K and Ladakh: Intense winter season highlights People-Army bond

The people of the Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh region have, along with the Army, faced great challenges to neutralise a diabolic foreign design of wresting the region from the Indian Union through the medium of a low cost Proxy war and cross-border terrorism. The mainstay of this epic fight has been mutual trust and an...

India Under a Hybrid Attack?!

“Be extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness. Be extremely mysterious, even to the point of soundlessness. Thereby you can be the director of the opponent’s fate.” —Sun Tzu In the aftermath of the dismemberment of Pakistan in 1971, Zulfikar Bhutto is quoted to have said “we will bleed India by a...

New Bodo Accord

Signing of the Bodo Accord on January 23 between the Government of India and Bodos is a significant step that would contribute greatly towards ushering peace in the turbulent northeast. The new Bodo Accord was signed with all the rebel factions: the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), the All Bodo Students’...

Marginal Increase in Defence Budget Could Mar Modernisation

The disappointing part is that there has been a very marginal increase in the capital outlay for defence for 2020-21 as compared to the budget estimates and revised estimates of 2019-20, which will affect several big-ticket projects of the defence forces that are being done for building capabilities against our two...

Drones: A Game Changer in Future Conflict

Drones have been called “the ultimate military growth industry”. Air, naval and land forces everywhere are striving to acquire these platforms. Herein lies the danger; thanks to advanced armed drones, aggression is becoming pain-free. Practically every military that has inducted UCAVs has sought to purchase even...

MBDA at DefExpo 2020: "Making in India"

“MBDA has two exciting focuses during DEFEXPO 2020: providing the highest performing missile technologies to India, and secondly delivering on Make in India as part of our longstanding partnership strategy with India. DEFEXPO 2020 is timely as it falls soon before the arrival in India of the first Rafale fighter...

Wrong person at wrong time

India’s controversial Defence Minister VK Krishna Menon was recently in the news, courtesy a well-researched book,...

Launch of an Orbit Surveillance Satellite by Indian Space Research...

Main Body The small satellite report performs a SWOT analysis and PESTEL study to uncover the stability,...

Orientations of National Defence - II

“If the wind will not serve, take to the oars” — Latin Proverb Hard Realities of Military Orientation India’s strategically envisioned community is conscious of the fact that the citizenry of a ‘new India’ aspires to wriggle free of the ever-inimical neighbourhood powers’ relentless hammering at our nationhood. Accordingly, a conscious Indian state has recently adopted many...

Pakistan: Where ‘Larger’ Interests Render Humans Disposable!

If Islamabad’s decision not to evacuate its students studying in Wuhan, which is the epicenter of the Coronavirus epidemic reflects sheer irresponsibility, then the reasons that it has given for doing so are even more appalling. How can a democratically government that’s...

The Army needs breathing space

“Pakistan is not an enemy country, our armies are alike too, their army kills their people and our army kills our people, there is no difference between them.” These words were spoken by Tapan Bose, an activist and film maker from West Bengal. For good measure he added that...

We have got it all wrong-India’s Chief of Defence Staff is a self-deceiving exercise

The Government release on the appointment of Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) issued on 24 Dec 2019[1] says the CDS will be in the rank of a four-star General with salary and perquisites equivalent to a Service Chief. He will also head the Department of Military Affairs (DMA), to be...

Situation worsens for Tibetans as China dictates terms to Nepal and Myanmar

While addressing a Chinese Lunar New Year reception held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, President Xi Jinping remarked: “From now to the middle of this century, the Chinese people will strive to build China into a great modern socialist country.” “It will be a great era in which a new splendid chapter of the Chinese civilisation will be written. Every Chinese person must feel proud of living in such a great era,” Xi...