Articles in Vol. 30.4 Oct-Dec 2015
Indian Air Force: 2025
By: Air Marshal Anil Chopra | Issue: Vol. 30.4 Oct-Dec 2015 | Date: 05 Oct , 2017
With the Middle East in flames and Pakistan military-terrorist nexus routinely triggering border skirmishes, India is virtually at war. China now has a vibrant aircraft industry and routinely...
India’s Military Might: The Real Truth
By: Lt Gen Amarjeet S Chabbewal | Issue: Vol. 30.4 Oct-Dec 2015 | Date: 18 Jun , 2017
No country has become a regional or global power without the ability to project military power in the region or across the globe. The Navy and the Air Force are major players in developing this...
The IAF and its Need for Close Air Support
By: Sqn Ldr Vijainder K Thakur | Issue: Vol. 30.4 Oct-Dec 2015 | Date: 12 Nov , 2016
The outcome of the next war is going to be determined less by the IAF’s deep strike or air combat capability, more by its ability to support own troops in mountainous terrain. No matter what...
Future of Rotary Wing Craft
By: Gp Capt AK Sachdev | Issue: Vol. 30.4 Oct-Dec 2015 | Date: 30 May , 2016
Technological advances have brought impressive improvements in rotorcraft technology albeit without eliminating the intrinsic limitations. The classic helicopter design has been mutated into newer...
Will Advances in UAVs Edge Out Manned Aircraft?
By: Gp Capt AK Sachdev | Issue: Vol. 30.4 Oct-Dec 2015 | Date: 23 Apr , 2016
The term ‘drone’ has hummed itself into aviation lexicon and is universally used to describe flying objects not carrying a human pilot; some other terms in general use for them are Unmanned...
Pakistan Air Force Today: Implications for India
By: Gp Capt B Menon | Issue: Vol. 30.4 Oct-Dec 2015 | Date: 19 Apr , 2016
The IAF has lost the qualitative edge vis-a-vis the PAF and the PLAAF, and may descend into numerical parity with the PAF for the first time in the near future because of our failure to induct...
No Place To Hide: Latest Developments in Air Defence Missiles
By: Gp Capt Joseph Noronha | Issue: Vol. 30.4 Oct-Dec 2015 | Date: 28 Mar , 2016
In air combat, numerical superiority generally wins over quality, meaning much larger forces of inferior aircraft may swamp even superior forces while suffering surprisingly small losses. That is...
MSMEs in Defence Production: A Neglected Sector
By: Air Marshal Dhiraj Kukreja | Issue: Vol. 30.4 Oct-Dec 2015 | Date: 25 Mar , 2016
The defence industry, more so the aviation sector has been in a state of excitement ever since the announcement was made of “Make in India” with policies to support the slogan. The FDI limits...
PLAAF: Rising Challenge for the IAF
By: Gp Capt B Menon | Issue: Vol. 30.4 Oct-Dec 2015 | Date: 21 Mar , 2016
The PLAAF has evolved from a territorial air defence force to one of offensive and defensive power projection beyond borders. It has also downsized by 40 per cent from the 1990s in terms of...
Flexible Reach: Balancing the IAF’S Air Transport Fleet
By: Gp Capt Joseph Noronha | Issue: Vol. 30.4 Oct-Dec 2015 | Date: 19 Mar , 2016
No country can be a true aerospace power without a defence aerospace industry and no country can have a powerful aerospace industry without involving the private sector. The Airbus-Tata C295...
What Ails India’s Defence Industrial Complex?
By: Lt Gen Prakash Katoch | Issue: Vol. 30.4 Oct-Dec 2015 | Date: 12 Mar , 2016
Though the call for “Make in India” was given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 15 last year, the Defence Minister admitted on the sidelines of the Aero India held at Bengaluru in...
Need for an Indian Marine Force
By: Col JK Achuthan (Retd.) | Issue: Vol. 30.4 Oct-Dec 2015 | Date: 21 Feb , 2016
Our continued neglect of the maritime frontier and the opportunities that it provides reflects the thinking of a ‘landlocked’ power. If we create a master plan to devote one per cent of our...
India-Taiwan Relations: A Comprehensive Security Perspective
By: Tien-Sze Fang | Issue: Vol. 30.4 Oct-Dec 2015 | Date: 19 Feb , 2016
Greater cooperation between India and Taiwan could prove critical in helping New Delhi and Taipei achieve their economic goals at home and their strategic aims in the region. It is time to...
Splintering Naxalism in India: Maoism or Money?
By: Dr V Balasubramaniyan | Issue: Vol. 30.4 Oct-Dec 2015 | Date: 31 Jan , 2016
Inter-group rivalry has a multi-dimensional impact both at strategic and tactical levels. These groups rewrite state boundaries as they attempt to control areas under different states, thus...
BRICS: A Strategic Self Appraisal
By: Dr Rajasimman Sundaram | Issue: Vol. 30.4 Oct-Dec 2015 | Date: 19 Jan , 2016
BRICS was carved out of a group formally initiated by Russia in 2002 – Russia-India-China (RIC) to address the challenges it faced after the break-up of Soviet Union.1 China and India’s...
LCA Tejas: The Never Ending Wait!
By: Air Marshal Anil Chopra | Issue: Vol. 30.4 Oct-Dec 2015 | Date: 12 Jan , 2016
As things stand, the IAF will, at best, have a full Tejas Mk1 operational unit only in 2019 and a Tejas Mk II squadron around 2025. In view of the uncertainty and further delay with the LCA there...
Petro-Jihadism: The Conspiracy within the Imperishable War in the Arab World
By: Maj Lal Ananth | Issue: Vol. 30.4 Oct-Dec 2015 | Date: 22 Dec , 2015
The solution to counter petro-Jihadism1 has to be multi vectored. It has to be a sagacious blend of military action, economic policies, social rehabilitation and reconciliation and, technological...
Propping up Proxies: India’s Inimical Neighbourhood
By: Lt Gen (Dr) JS Bajwa | Issue: Vol. 30.4 Oct-Dec 2015 | Date: 09 Dec , 2015
“The enemy of my enemy is my friend” seems to be the quintessential truth with regard to India’s neighbourhood, despite the well-meaning olive branch extended under the initiative of...
Taiwan – Why Shy Full Relations?
By: Lt Gen Prakash Katoch | Issue: Vol. 30.4 Oct-Dec 2015 | Date: 04 Dec , 2015
If Taiwan is annexed by China, the PLA Navy would be able to extend its reach to the second island chain, right down to Guam, the Marianas and even some other smaller islands in the central...
Russian Domination of the Syrian Battleground
By: Danvir Singh | Issue: Vol. 30.4 Oct-Dec 2015 | Date: 25 Nov , 2015
For the past so many years, the NATO had been making all decisions about war and peace unilaterally but now the situation appears to have changed. The most striking part of the Russian campaign is...