Articles By Gp Capt Ajey Lele (Retd.)
Post ASAT: Should Indian Space Force be the next step?
By: Gp Capt Ajey Lele (Retd.) | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 29 May , 2019
On January 11, 2007, China conducted its first anti-satellite missile test (ASAT) by destroying a satellite with a mass of 750 kg at an altitude of 865 km. There was no official announcement by...
Mother of All Bombs: A New Age Weapon of Mass Destruction?
By: Gp Capt Ajey Lele (Retd.) | Issue: Courtesy: IDSA | Date: 18 Apr , 2017
The term Weapon of Mass Destruction (WMD) was probably used in the print media for the first time following the uproar over Germany’s aerial bombardment of the Basque city of Guernica in April...
North Korea’s ‘Chemistry’ with WMDs
By: Gp Capt Ajey Lele (Retd.) | Issue: Courtesy: IDSA | Date: 07 Mar , 2017
Post the 2003 Iraq war, the debate regarding weapons of mass destruction (WMD) was confined mostly to the realm of nuclear weapons for more than a decade. The perception that WMDs are not for...
Agni-V and Strategic Signalling
By: Gp Capt Ajey Lele (Retd.) | Issue: Courtesy: IDSA | Date: 13 Feb , 2017
Is China feeling threatened by India’s Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) capabilities? The way it has reacted to India’s recent back-to-back successful testing of Agni-IV and V, it...
China’s 2016 Space White Paper: An Appraisal
By: Gp Capt Ajey Lele (Retd.) | Issue: Courtesy: IDSA | Date: 08 Jan , 2017
On December 27, 2016, China’s State Council published a White Paper on “China’s Space Activities in 2016”. This is the fourth white paper on issues concerning China’s activities in the outer...
Cyber Menace and Elections in the Philippines
By: Gp Capt Ajey Lele (Retd.) | Date: 20 May , 2016
A controversial political leader, Rodrigo Duterte, has won the recently held presidential elections in The Philippines. He had undertaken an extremely inflammatory campaign, propagating draconian...
India’s Space Security Policy: A Proposal
By: Gp Capt Ajey Lele (Retd.) | Date: 05 May , 2016
Several advancements made in the field of space technology over the last few decades have significantly benefitted mankind. Today, space technology is considered critical to human survival and...
Satellite for SAARC: Pakistan’s Missed Opportunity
By: Gp Capt Ajey Lele (Retd.) | Date: 21 Apr , 2016
Recently, Pakistan’s high commissioner in Delhi Abdul Basit announced that the peace process between India and Pakistan stands suspended. Over the years the India-Pakistan bilateral talk process...
Bows, Arrows and Nuclear Weapons
By: Gp Capt Ajey Lele (Retd.) | Issue: Vol 24.4 Oct-Dec 2009 | Date: 14 Sep , 2012
Just few years before India got its independence an unhealthy collision took place between the worlds of physics and politics. In 1945 the Americans nuked Japan. Since then in some parts of the...
Unmanned Vehicles and Modern Day Combat
By: Gp Capt Ajey Lele (Retd.) | Issue: Vol 26.1 Jan-Mar 2011 | Date: 05 Jul , 2012
It is difficult to identify the exact nature of modern day warfare. The notion of modern day warfare is evolving with changing times. However, the purpose of fighting wars has more or less...
Militarization of Space
By: Gp Capt Ajey Lele (Retd.) | Issue: Vol 23.2 Apr-Jul 2008 | Date: 02 Jun , 2011
Use of ‘outer space’ (also referred as ‘space’) to fight wars is not a new idea. Rockets reaching high into the atmosphere was talked about since World War II. The investments made by the...
Technologies and National Security
By: Gp Capt Ajey Lele (Retd.) | Issue: Vol 24.1 Jan-Mar 2009 | Date: 11 Nov , 2010
The world has witnessed two significant events during last three decades which has changed the contours of global strategic thought. The first being the end of the Cold War and second is the...
Trends in Space Weaponisation
By: Gp Capt Ajey Lele (Retd.) | Issue: Vol 25.3 Jul-Sep 2010 | Date: 06 Oct , 2010
The first orbital flight of X-37B (called as USA-212) the United State’s (US) space plane was launched on an Atlas V rocket from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida on Apr 22, 2010....