Articles By Admiral Arun Prakash (Retd.)
Need for Reinventing India’s Aeronautical Industry
By: Admiral Arun Prakash (Retd.) | Issue: Courtesy: South Asia Monitor | Date: 22 Feb , 2021
Whether it was a scheduled visit, or happenstance, India’s Defence Minister Rajnath Singh was in Moscow, in June 2020 within days of the alarming sanguinary encounter between Indian and Chinese...
India Beefs up Air force with Indigenous Fighter Jets: Dawn of a New Era in...
By: Admiral Arun Prakash (Retd.) | Issue: Courtesy: South Asia Monitor | Date: 21 Jan , 2021
“Quantity has a quality, all its own,” is a phrase attributed to Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. He was referring to Russia’s numerical preponderance in men and machines, which had brought the...
Chuck Yeager: Aviation Legend who batted for the Pakistan Air Force
By: Admiral Arun Prakash (Retd.) | Date: 11 Dec , 2020
The 79th anniversary of Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbour on December 7, 2020, also saw the sad demise of US Air Force Brigadier-General Charles ‘Chuck’ Elwood Yeager, aged 97. An...
Credible Deterrence must remain Leitmotif of India’s Security Policies
By: Admiral Arun Prakash (Retd.) | Issue: Courtesy: South Asia Monitor | Date: 06 Sep , 2019
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Independence Day announcement on August 15 about the institution of a Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) has, justifiably, evoked hosannas from the armed forces...
INS Arihant and India's nuclear triad: Lessons to be learnt
By: Admiral Arun Prakash (Retd.) | Issue: Courtesy: South Asia Monitor | Date: 21 Dec , 2018
The surge of national pride at the recent completion of a ‘deterrent patrol’ by the Indian Navy’s (IN) first home-built, nuclear propelled, ballistic-missile armed submarine (termed SSBN),...
Better Civil-Military Relations Needed for Improved Security of Indian State
By: Admiral Arun Prakash (Retd.) | Issue: Courtesy: South Asia Monitor | Date: 22 Jul , 2018
Only a diehard optimist would expect that India’s elected representatives would find the time to reflect on national security. But, with Parliament in session, should the improbable come to pass,...
India’s Aviation Industry: In need of a New Model and Leadership
By: Admiral Arun Prakash (Retd.) | Issue: Courtesy: South Asia Monitor | Date: 09 Jul , 2018
India’s aviation industry traces its roots to December 1940, when industrialist Seth Walchand Hirachand (1882-1953) established Hindustan Aircraft Limited (HAL) in Bangalore, with American...
India must not abandon its LCA project
By: Admiral Arun Prakash (Retd.) | Issue: Courtesy: South Asia Monitor | Date: 12 May , 2018
In its pursuit of global maritime dominance, China has decided to create a force of three aircraft-carriers – one for each of its fleets. Like India, China first acquired an old Soviet-era...
Heed the Refrain: India's 'Half-Empty Arsenal' Endangering National Security
By: Admiral Arun Prakash (Retd.) | Issue: Courtesy: South Asia Monitor | Date: 03 Apr , 2018
India’s political leadership, preferring to accord priority to electoral politics, has seemingly distanced itself from national security issues. At the same time, the armed forces have been...
India, Australia must commit to cooperation in Indo-Pacific
By: Admiral Arun Prakash (Retd.) | Date: 30 Jan , 2018
Part of the same geographic hemisphere, India and Australia are key players in a shared strategic environment. Both countries also share the fraternity of the Commonwealth, speak the same...
Doklam denouement: India needs long-term strategies to counter China
By: Admiral Arun Prakash (Retd.) | Date: 03 Sep , 2017
Accustomed as we are to shrill hyperbole in India’s public discourse, the description of the tense Himalayan face-off as the “incident at Doklam” and its denouement as “expeditious disengagement...
India needs urgent national security reforms
By: Admiral Arun Prakash (Retd.) | Date: 30 Jul , 2017
A “security dilemma” in international relations represents a situation in which accretion of power — military and economic — by a state generates fear amongst its rivals, leading to tensions, a...
Rise of the PLA Navy and its implications for India
By: Admiral Arun Prakash (Retd.) | Issue: Courtesy: South Asia Monitor | Date: 06 Apr , 2017
“The traditional mentality that land outweighs sea must be abandoned,” says China’s 2015 Military Strategy, and goes on to add; “In line with the new strategic requirement of ‘offshore...
Whither Navy's LCA?
By: Admiral Arun Prakash (Retd.) | Issue: Courtesy: South Asia Monitor | Date: 07 Feb , 2017
The peremptory rejection of the shipborne variant of Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) by the Indian Navy (IN) seems to have surprised most navy-watching analysts. Their confusion has been...
Made-in-India Jet Fighter: Big Step in Weapons Self-Reliance
By: Admiral Arun Prakash (Retd.) | Date: 04 Jul , 2016
On July 1, 2016, No.45 Squadron IAF became the proud recipient of India’s first indigenous 4th generation+ fighter; the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) dubbed Tejas. This marks, not just an...
International Fleet Review 2016: Foreign Policy by other means?
By: Admiral Arun Prakash (Retd.) | Issue: Courtesy: South Asia Monitor | Date: 04 Feb , 2016
India’s first citizen, President Pranab Mukherjee, will be accorded a rare honor by the Indian Navy (IN), on Saturday, February 6. Embarked on the, white-painted, Presidential Yacht,...
India's Civil-Military Dissonance: Playing with Nation’s Security
By: Admiral Arun Prakash (Retd.) | Date: 29 Jan , 2016
India’s Republic Day on Tuesday (January 26) was celebrated with traditional pageantry and the citizen gets a panoramic view of the country’s military capability. Intelligence inputs warn that...
Planning for Tomorrow's Navy
By: Admiral Arun Prakash (Retd.) | Issue: Book Excerpt: From the Crow\'s Nest | Date: 07 Aug , 2014
Our racial memory has, with good reason, always been obsessed by the perpetual threat of invasion from the Himalayan passes; the Pakistani marauders who came across Uri in 1947 and the Peoples...
What the Armed Forces Expect from DRDO?
By: Admiral Arun Prakash (Retd.) | Issue: Book Excerpt: From the Crow\'s Nest | Date: 02 Jul , 2014
At the outset, I would like to say that there is a need to unequivocally highlight the importance of the DRDO in the Navy’s scheme of things, and our sense of pride in your achievements. What...
India's Quest for an Indigenous Aircraft Carrier
By: Admiral Arun Prakash (Retd.) | Issue: Vol 21.3 Jul-Sep 2006 | Date: 12 Aug , 2013
It was indeed fortuitous for our navy that at the moment of India’s independence, those charged with planning for the nation’s embryonic maritime force included many men of vision. In 1948,...