Articles By Air Marshal Narayan Menon
Recollections of the 1971 War
By: Air Marshal Narayan Menon | Issue: Vol 24.4 Oct-Dec 2009 | Date: 10 Dec , 2019
“Rockline Control from 202, request permission to start-up.” “202 from Rockline Control, standby for permission.” “202 from Rockline, permission denied, vacate cockpits and contact on...
Kargil Controversy: IAF on the Ghosts of Kargil
By: Air Marshal Narayan Menon | Issue: Vol 25.3 Jul-Sep 2010 | Date: 15 Jul , 2018
When the Pakistani Northern Light Infantry, officered by the regular Pak Army, reeling under incessant day and night attacks, both from air and surface, fled in complete disarray from the...
Ballistic Missile Defence System for India
By: Air Marshal Narayan Menon | Issue: Vol 27.3 Jul-Sep 2012 | Date: 31 May , 2015
India is at the learning stage for many of the complex technologies required to create a BMD system. DRDO’s record in producing weapon systems has not been encouraging as exemplified by the...
Chinese Air Force way ahead of IAF
By: Air Marshal Narayan Menon | Issue: Vol. 26.4 Oct-Dec 2011 | Date: 05 Jul , 2014
The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 proved to be a boon to China and the PLAAF. Apart from a formidable enemy being neutralised, many displaced scientists, engineers and technicians from the...
India's Special Operations Capability
By: Air Marshal Narayan Menon | Issue: Vol. 26.3 July - Sept 2011 | Date: 09 Feb , 2014
The relentless pursuit of Osama Bin Laden ever since 9/11 occurred and his elimination early May by US Special Forces in the spectacular ‘Operation Geronimo’ has been a landmark event in the...
Evolution of Ground-Based Air Defence Weapons
By: Air Marshal Narayan Menon | Issue: Vol. 28.4 Oct-Dec 2013 | Date: 18 Jan , 2014
In the not too distant past, the world’s most powerful military of the US was poised to mount a short duration campaign to punish Syria for allegedly crossing some undefined ‘red line’ of...
Weaponisation of Space
By: Air Marshal Narayan Menon | Issue: Vol. 28.3 Jul-Sep 2013 | Date: 19 Oct , 2013
Weaponisation of space would include space control and space-based systems that could destroy targets on the earth’s surface. Space control involves protecting own systems in orbit, attacking...
Downhill from Kargil
By: Air Marshal Narayan Menon | Issue: Vol 24.3 Jul-Sep 2009 | Date: 25 Jul , 2013
It is only ten years since the Kargil War, and it has already faded from public memory. ‘Tiger Hill’, ‘Tololing”, “Pt 5140”, Mushkoh Valley, and Muntho Dhalo are remembered only in...
Air Power against the Maoists
By: Air Marshal Narayan Menon | Issue: Vol. 27.4 Oct-Dec 2012 | Date: 30 Dec , 2012
Employment of air power to search and destroy targets has been carried out on a very large scale in Afghanistan and Pakistan by the US forces. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and Unmanned Combat...
Military Application for Unmanned Aerial Systems in India
By: Air Marshal Narayan Menon | Issue: Vol. 27.2 Apr-Jun 2012 | Date: 30 May , 2012
Undoubtedly the fastest growing segment of military aviation research and development today, Unmanned Aerial Systems offer a host of operational, technical, economic and environmental...
India Russia: Strategic Relations
By: Air Marshal Narayan Menon | Issue: Vol 23.1 Jan-Mar 2008 | Date: 03 Dec , 2011
The India-Russia strategic relations with its embedded military ties have been, in the past 15 years, buffeted by the turbulence of international upheavals and domestic events. The collapse of...
State, strategy, power & policy: China and India
By: Air Marshal Narayan Menon | Issue: Vol 23.3 Jul-Sep 2008 | Date: 30 Jun , 2011
The grand strategy of a state may be described as a long–term plan to accomplish its domestic and external objectives. Policies flowing from the grand strategy must aim to promote the vital...
The Chinese Conundrum: Friends and Foes
By: Air Marshal Narayan Menon | Issue: Vol 24.1 Jan-Mar 2009 | Date: 31 Jan , 2011
Indian Navy and its Chinese counterpart conducted a joint exercise for the first time in the seas off the Shanghai coast in November, 2003. The latest naval exercise between the two navies was...