Indian Defence Review

Indo-US Military Ties in the Regime of Air Power

While the US needs India to contain China, India also wants to manage an increasingly assertive China. Rising China and common security concerns have brought the US, Japan, Australia, the ASEAN and India closer in adopting a strategic approach in the region. As the world economies need cheap Chinese goods, so does China...

Indian Brand of ‘Islam’ is the solution

In 2018, 44 militants were killed in the Shopian district in Kashmir. BurhanWani, killed in 2016 also had Shopian connection. The district is prodigious in producing jihadis as well as apples. The district with a population of 2.6 lakhs produces two lakh metric tonnes of apples annually. It is one of the most affluent...

The F-16 vs Mig-21 Bison: More Questions than Answers

The analysis of the much-reported dogfight between the IAF and the PAF on 27th February as a fall-out of the Balakot strike the previous morning has thrown up a number of theories, conjectures and scenarios particularly with regard to the brief and sharp dogfight between an F-16 against a vintage, though upgraded,...

Indian Brand of ‘Islam’ is the solution

Is China preparing for a conflict with India?

The Indian armed forces need not match the numerical superiority of the PLA in terms of manpower and equipment. There is no need for India to get into an arms race with China and match its inventory weapon for weapon. India needs to concentrate on maintaining a technological asymmetry to deter China from any attempts at...

China does it Again

The nation yet again is busy discussing China’s decision to block efforts at the United Nations to ban Jaish chief Masood Azhar for the fourth consecutive time. The discussion appears to be bordering on anger, raised anti-China sentiments and political slugfest highlighting a division on matters of national security....

Indian Air Force inducts first four Boeing CH-47F(I) Chinook helicopters

Boeing handed over the first four CH-47F(I) Chinooks to the Indian Air Force at an induction ceremony at the Air Force Station, Chandigarh. The ceremony was attended by the Air Chief Marshal B.S. Dhanoa, Chief of Air Staff, senior officers from the Indian Air Force and officials from Boeing. The CH-47F(I) Chinooks...

Indo-US Military Ties in the Regime of Air Power

The F-16 vs Mig-21 Bison: More Questions than Answers

Operation ‘Sunrise’

News of India conducting a ‘Third Surgical Strike’ in Myanmar has suddenly exploded in media on March 14-15. Over the last three years, all Indian military operations are prefixed with ‘surgical’. Operation ‘Sunrise’ was reportedly a joint operation with the Myanmar Army (Tatmadaw). This operation from...

Airstrikes wipe out decades of cowardice and humiliation

Fast paced events have overtaken the country, quite unprecedented in its post independence historical sweep, such as the devastating air strike on Balakot, the nerve-centre of Jaish-e-Mohammed’s diabolical terror network, in the small hours of February 26. In one fell swoop, the sledge hammer blows not only...

What Beyond Balakot?

The unprecedented use of image of Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthman, a serving IAF officer, indicates the low to which the ruling political party is prepared to stoop. This too after the deafeningly raucous politicization of the 2016 ‘surgical strikes’ and the recent cross border airstrikes. It is all the more...

Creating An Indian Weapons Industry

The monopoly of the West over the production of all industrial goods a hundred years ago has been taken over by Far Eastern countries such as China, Taiwan, Korea and Japan who have offered significantly better products at breathtakingly lower prices. Weaponry is the last bastion for the Western nations and they will...

AK203 production kicks-off in India

PM of India Narendra Modi opened a plant for production of 200-series Kalashnikov assault rifles, in Corva, Uttar Pradesh. The founders of the JV Indo-Russian Rifles Private Limited for production of Kalashnikov assault rifles in India are India’s Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) and Russia’s Rosoboronexport and Kalashnikov...

The true Import of C&AG report on Rafale

The C&AG report tabled on the Parliament is being considered as a victory by the NDA government and by the opposition too. The ruling party is gung-ho that the auditors have vindicated their claim that the cost of Rafale aircraft is around 2.5% lower than the contracted price of the UPA government. On the other hand the...

China Chooses to Stand with Terrorists for the Fourth Time

It’s not a big surprise for any strategist that China has blocked the bid to have Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood...

Anti India sentiments serve Pakistan’s interests

Politics makes strange bedfellows while destiny imposes difficult neighborhoods. The two nation theory being...

Pulwama-Balakot can be defining moment for India in a long drawn out war

The grenade attack in Jammu city on Thursday (March 7) that killed two people and injured more than 40 has been attributed to the Hizbul Mujahedin and comes a few weeks after the Pulwama attack. This draws attention again to the abiding and complex terror challenge that India has to deal with and what merits scrutiny is the degree to which the post Pulwama trajectory that includes the Balakot...

A Popular Revolt Suppressed in Blood

The origin of the Tibetan luni-solar calendar, composed of either 12 or 13 lunar months, each beginning and ending with a new moon, is not clear. However, many scholars attribute the 60-year cycle to India; it would have been introduced into Tibet by Chandranath and Tsilu Pandit in...

Pakistan’s posture: A lull before the storm

The respite since the handing over of Wing Commander Abhinandan to India by the Pakistani authorities is being viewed with a degree of relief by many. There is a perception of receding war clouds. The question here is – is this a lull before the storm? The situation along the...

OIC’s Invitation to India- A diplomatic Coup!

India has the second largest population of Muslims and yet it has been denied its rightful place in the OIC meetings so far. It was therefore a big diplomatic triumph for India when it was a invited to the OIC (Organisation of Islamic Cooperation) meeting this year for the first...

India reaping strategic dividend of enhanced ties with Saudi Arabia

In the subcontinental blame game that has broken out over the deadly terrorist attack in Pulwama and tit-for-tat air strikes, Pakistan appears to have blinked first with India applying sudden and unrelenting pressure with the help of a largely supportive international community. Part of this was visible in India’s invitation as ‘guest of honour’ to the foreign ministerial meet of the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC)...