Articles in Vol. 32.4 Oct-Dec 2017

Force Multipliers for the IAF: Enhancing Aerial Power and Reach
By: Gp Capt Joseph Noronha | Issue: Vol. 32.4 Oct-Dec 2017 | Date: 07 Oct , 2018
With the IAF on track to become a true strategic force, it cannot content itself with increasing the strength and capability of its fighter squadrons alone. Carefully selected force multipliers...

Role of the IAF in a Two-Front War
By: Gp Capt AK Sachdev | Issue: Vol. 32.4 Oct-Dec 2017 | Date: 01 Sep , 2018
The White Paper on China’s Military Strategy 2015 states, “In line with the strategic requirement of building air-space capabilities and conducting offensive and defensive operations, the...

Modernisation of the IAF’s Helicopter Fleet
By: Gp Capt AK Sachdev | Issue: Vol. 32.4 Oct-Dec 2017 | Date: 04 Aug , 2018
The IAF began with US helicopters in the fifties and expanded gradually to include license-built French and Soviet helicopters. The circle is coming round once again with planned induction of the...

Surface Air Defence Missile Systems – Potent and Relevant
By: Air Marshal Anil Chopra | Issue: Vol. 32.4 Oct-Dec 2017 | Date: 19 Jul , 2018
Air is increasingly the medium for launch of offensive operations as it offers the advantage of inter-continental range, short-notice employment, high speed of delivery, high accuracy of weapons...

Army to Get Its Own Apaches Attack Helicopters
By: Lt Gen BS Pawar | Issue: Vol. 32.4 Oct-Dec 2017 | Date: 30 May , 2018
The article first published in Indian Defence Review (Vol 32.4 – Oct-Dec 2017) The Army’s long pending demand for requirement of state-of-art American Apache Attack Helicopters for its Strike...

The Nuances of Air Threat and Its Implications
By: Lt Gen (Dr) VK Saxena (Retd.) | Issue: Vol. 32.4 Oct-Dec 2017 | Date: 29 Mar , 2018
The multi-dimensional growth of air threat over time has taken place mainly along two major verticals. The first of these is the multiplicity of air threat vehicles. In that, the erstwhile duo of...

Fifth-Generation Fighter Aircraft for the IAF: A Mirage or Reality?
By: Gp Capt Joseph Noronha | Issue: Vol. 32.4 Oct-Dec 2017 | Date: 14 Feb , 2018
In military planning, it is essential to keep abreast of the potential adversary’s capabilities. The main reason the Indian Air Force (IAF) needs a fifth-generation fighter is to maintain...

Electronic Warfare: Emerging Trends in Technology
By: Subhasis Das | Issue: Vol. 32.4 Oct-Dec 2017 | Date: 14 Jan , 2018
The realm of Electronic Warfare (EW) has traditionally been kept in the classified domain, even within the security community. It was a domain handled by experts, in dedicated units equipped with...

Logjam in Indigenous Aircraft Production
By: Prof (Dr) SN Misra | Issue: Vol. 32.4 Oct-Dec 2017 | Date: 12 Jan , 2018
There is a swirling discomfiture that the ‘Make-in-India’ initiative, a signature tune of the NDA government, involving a large number of defence projects valued at more than $60 billion, is...

Indian Military Doctrine: An Analysis
By: Gp Capt Johnson Chacko | Issue: Vol. 32.4 Oct-Dec 2017 | Date: 11 Jan , 2018
A doctrine is for the future, but is based on past experiences and takes into account the present conflicts/wars with available technology and anticipated technological advances. From doctrine,...

Integrated Simulators for Training of Mechanised Forces: The Way Ahead
By: Maj Gen Rajiv Narayanan, AVSM, VSM | Issue: Vol. 32.4 Oct-Dec 2017 | Date: 08 Jan , 2018
As India improves its economic index, areas available for conduct of large scale exercises will become even more restricted. Furthermore, the need for modernisation, force sustenance, capability...

The New Line-Up in China’s Defense Forces
By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Vol. 32.4 Oct-Dec 2017 | Date: 07 Jan , 2018
Xi Jinping the Winner At the end of the 19th Congress, Xi Jinping appears to emerge the winner on most fronts. First and foremost, the 19th Congress approved an amendment to the Party...

Virtual Currencies: Bitcoin as an Emerging Terror Financing Threat to India
By: Dr SV Raghavan | Issue: Vol. 32.4 Oct-Dec 2017 | Date: 25 Dec , 2017
There are various segments of customers who may be interested in buying and selling Bitcoins. It ranges from traders to freelancers to online web market spenders to Hackers. The Bitcoin address...

Oil – Is It a Dying Resource?
By: Air Marshal Dhiraj Kukreja | Issue: Vol. 32.4 Oct-Dec 2017 | Date: 11 Dec , 2017
Countries that consume large amounts of energy have been coping with oil prices hovering around $110 per barrel since the beginning of 2011, as most of the developed and developing nations have...

The Space Race, The Cold War
By: Martand Jha | Issue: Vol. 32.4 Oct-Dec 2017 | Date: 09 Dec , 2017
The zeal the US and the USSR had to outperform one another, proved quite beneficial to the progress of science. The work culture of the two superpowers was poles apart yet each one was trying to...

The World after the 19th Party Congress
By: Lt Gen (Dr) JS Bajwa | Issue: Vol. 32.4 Oct-Dec 2017 | Date: 05 Dec , 2017
Planet Earth, it seemed, held its breath for these seven days in October to see what emerged from the secret parleys of the 19th Party Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC). Like a...

LCA Tejas: Still a Long Way
By: Air Marshal Anil Chopra | Issue: Vol. 32.4 Oct-Dec 2017 | Date: 01 Dec , 2017
Originally intended to serve as an air superiority aircraft, the LCA Tejas has a secondary ground-attack role. The wing and fin are made of carbon-fibre-reinforced polymer. It is one of the...

Infantry’s Day As It Was
By: Danvir Singh | Issue: Vol. 32.4 Oct-Dec 2017 | Date: 25 Nov , 2017
On October 24, India got the first news of invasion of Kashmir. It was through a formal dispatch from Pakistan Army Headquarter informing the supreme commander of all British forces in India and...