Articles in Courtesy: IDSA
Agni 5 Tested: What Next?
By: Gp Capt Kishore Kumar Khera, VM | Issue: Courtesy: IDSA | Date: 26 Jan , 2018
On 18 January, 2018, the long-range Surface-to-Surface Ballistic Missile, Agni-5, was successfully flight tested to its full range from Dr Abdul Kalam Island, Odisha. This was the fifth test of...
Pakistan’s Dam Despair
By: Dr Priyanka Singh | Issue: Courtesy: IDSA | Date: 24 Jan , 2018
The Diamer Bhasha Dam (DBD) project to be built in Gilgit Baltistan in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir is showing signs of distress yet again with Pakistan’s November 2017 decision not to let the...
Fighting Falcon: The End of an Era?
By: Gp Capt Kishore Kumar Khera, VM | Issue: Courtesy: IDSA | Date: 21 Jan , 2018
On November 14, 2017, four decades of continuous production of the Fighting Falcon (F16) ceased at Fort Worth, Texas.1 The facilities are being relocated to South Carolina and would take...
The India-ASEAN Partnership at 25
By: Ashok Sajjanhar | Issue: Courtesy: IDSA | Date: 07 Jan , 2018
India and the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) are currently celebrating 25 years of their rapidly expanding partnership. They are also marking 15 years of their Summit...
Post Doklam, India needs to watch China’s bullish economics led cultural...
By: Shruti Pandalai | Issue: Courtesy: IDSA | Date: 04 Jan , 2018
The India China relationship in 2017 became defined by Doklam, now synonymous with the 73 day military standoff (between June and August 2017) in the tri-junction with Bhutan and defused through...
Two standoffs and some nuclear lessons
By: A Vinod Kumar | Issue: Courtesy: IDSA | Date: 02 Jan , 2018
The politics of nuclear weapons have always been complex and enigmatic. A testament to this reality came during the course of the current year, which not only saw a little over a quarter of UN...
To make Chabahar a ‘Game Changer’ Central Asian states need to be roped in
By: Ambassador P Stobdan | Issue: Courtesy: IDSA | Date: 14 Dec , 2017
Once again there has been a lot of hype about Chabahar becoming a strategic ‘game changer’ for India. Media reports had earlier highlighted the shipment of 1.1 million tonnes of wheat to...
Aerial Refuelling of Airborne Early Warning and Control Aircraft
By: Gp Capt Kishore Kumar Khera, VM | Issue: Courtesy: IDSA | Date: 08 Dec , 2017
The combat power of a nation is greater than the total potential of all the combat elements it possesses. This is because some combat elements magnify the potential of others. Such boosters are...
Weapons are the Combat Differentiators: The BrahMos Air Launched Cruise Missile
By: Gp Capt Kishore Kumar Khera, VM | Issue: Courtesy: IDSA | Date: 05 Dec , 2017
“Weapons differentiate between Air Forces and Flying Clubs” is an often heard adage. Weapons capability is an integral part of an Air Power matrix. In the last three months, a number of...
Blue Flag 2017 and Beyond
By: S Samuel C Rajiv | Issue: Courtesy: IDSA | Date: 03 Dec , 2017
A 45 member Indian Air Force (IAF) contingent took part in the multilateral air exercise ‘Blue Flag 2017’ held at the Uvda Air Base in southern Israel from November 2-16, 2017. This was the...
China's Belt and Road Initiative: Prospects and Pitfalls
By: Ashok Sajjanhar | Issue: Courtesy: IDSA | Date: 29 Nov , 2017
Chinese President Xi Jinping initially mooted the idea of Silk Road Economic Belt (SREB) and 21st century Maritime Silk Road (MSR) during his visits to Kazakhstan and Indonesia in September and...
Problems of Costing in Defence Procurements
By: Amit Cowshish | Issue: Courtesy: IDSA | Date: 22 Nov , 2017
The disputation over the price India will pay for the 36 medium multi-role combat aircraft, the contract for which was signed in 2016, brings into focus the vulnerability of the process of...
What the Inclusion of BRI in the Chinese Constitution Implies
By: Jagannath P Panda | Issue: Courtesy: IDSA | Date: 10 Nov , 2017
The recently concluded 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) amended the Party’s Constitution to include the promotion of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) as one of the...
The Indian Air Force’s Declining Squadron Strength – Options and Challenges
By: Dr Sanjay Badri-Maharaj | Issue: Courtesy: IDSA | Date: 03 Nov , 2017
At a meeting of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee on Defence on 27 October 2017, senior officers of the Indian Air Force, including Vice Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal S.B. Deo, were...
EMP Weapons and the New Equation of War
By: Gp Capt Atul Pant | Issue: Courtesy: IDSA | Date: 16 Oct , 2017
An electromagnetic pulse (EMP) is an intense burst of electromagnetic (EM) energy that causes, or can be used to cause, damage. Though natural EMP is always noticed as disturbances on the radio...
Comprehensive Integrated Border Management System: Issues and Challenges
By: Dr Pushpita Das | Issue: Courtesy: IDSA | Date: 05 Oct , 2017
On September 30, 2017, Border Security Force (BSF) personnel detected a cross-border tunnel in the forest area of Damala nullah in Jammu’s Arnia sub-sector. The tunnel, reportedly 14 feet long,...
Acquisition of single-engine fighter aircraft – A few suggestions
By: Amit Cowshish | Issue: Courtesy: IDSA | Date: 28 Sep , 2017
It may sound incredible but, according to official statistics, the number of fighter aircraft squadrons with the Indian Air Force (IAF) has gone up from 25 in 20141 to 33 in 2017.2 This has...
Barcelona Attacks: India has Cause for Disquiet
By: Prabha Rao | Issue: Courtesy: IDSA | Date: 16 Sep , 2017
Mohammad Adnani, the erstwhile spokesman of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Tunisian cleric Abu Muqatil, one of the main ISIS ideologues, were killed in 2014 and 2016 respectively....
Defence Reforms: Why is it Critical to Bite the Proverbial Bullet?
By: Col Vivek Chadha (Retd.) | Issue: Courtesy: IDSA | Date: 15 Sep , 2017
On August 30, 2017, the then Defence Minister, Arun Jaitley announced a series of defence reforms which will result in the ‘redeployment and restructuring of approximately 57,000 posts of...
Decoding Russia's 2017 Naval Doctrine
By: Rajorshi Roy | Issue: Courtesy: IDSA | Date: 28 Aug , 2017
On July 20, 2017, Russian President Vladimir Putin approved Russia’s new naval Doctrine.1 This is the third such pronouncement on naval activity, following the ones adopted in 2001 and 2012....