Articles in Vol 24.3
India can make major defence equipment
By: Col JK Achuthan (Retd.) | Issue: Vol 24.3 Jul-Sep 2009 | Date: 16 Aug , 2020
The Central Govt in India accords very high priority and funds allotment to cater for the equipment requirements of the Armed Forces. Yet the bulk of the major equipment requirements are neither...
Lessons from Sri Lanka's War
By: VK Shashikumar | Issue: Vol 24.3 Jul-Sep 2009 | Date: 19 Nov , 2014
Terrorism has to be wiped out militarily and cannot be tackled politically. That’s the basic premise of the Rajapakse Model. Conduct of Operations This is how the Sri Lankan government...
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...
Reflection on Conflict Duration
By: Ali Ahmed | Issue: Vol 24.3 Jul-Sep 2009 | Date: 14 Sep , 2012
The new Indian Army doctrine dilating on the nature of future wars reads: ‘Emerging at short notice, being of short duration and being fought at high tempo and intensity.’ These are valid...
Pakistan's offensive against the Taliban
By: Lt Gen Vijay Oberoi | Issue: Vol 24.3 Jul-Sep 2009 | Date: 03 Aug , 2012
The Pakistan Army itself hardly fights. Instead, it directs others to do its bidding! The Pakistani generals consider the Taliban and other terrorist groups as the vanguard of the nation’s...
Nervous China may attack India!
By: Bharat Verma | Issue: Vol 24.3 Jul-Sep 2009 | Date: 10 Jul , 2012
China will launch an attack on India before 2012. There are multiple reasons for a desperate Beijing to teach India the final lesson, thereby ensuring Chinese supremacy in Asia in this century....
Pakistan military’s Swat offensive
By: Col Rajinder Singh | Issue: Vol 24.3 Jul-Sep 2009 | Date: 03 Oct , 2011
Most people and even some military minds do not appreciate the difference between fighting a conventional war and an unconventional war. The former is against a known enemy with well-defined...
Pakistan military’s Swat offensive
By: Col Rajinder Singh | Issue: Vol 24.3 Jul-Sep 2009 | Date: 01 Oct , 2011
Most people and even some military minds do not appreciate the difference between fighting a conventional war and an unconventional war. The former is against a known enemy with well-defined...
Evolving Maritime Challenges
By: Vice Adm RN Ganesh | Issue: Vol 24.3 Jul-Sep 2009 | Date: 25 Jul , 2011
The naval strategy of the Western powers led by the USA during the Cold War was centred on the location and tracking of Soviet ballistic missile-firing nuclear submarines (SSBNs). When the Cold...
Revolt in the New Dominion
By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Vol 24.3 Jul-Sep 2009 | Date: 14 Feb , 2011
It was a few days only after I had written an article on the instability of the situation in China that the news flashed that in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang (The New Dominion in Chinese),...
Perilous roads to Kabul
By: Air Marshal AK Trikha | Issue: Vol 24.3 Jul-Sep 2009 | Date: 28 Jan , 2011
Any General tasked to lead an expeditionary force to subjugate Afghanistan would not like to be reminded of the fate that befell the British in a similar attempt in the 19th century. Lady...
Guns versus Butter
By: Vice Admiral Arun Kumar Singh | Issue: Vol 24.3 Jul-Sep 2009 | Date: 28 Jan , 2011
India, with limited resources and rising aspirations, faces the age old “guns versus butter” question, which has become even more complex in the era of terrorism, piracy, insurgency, in the...
Rapidly changing military sociology
By: RSN Singh | Issue: Vol 24.3 Jul-Sep 2009 | Date: 28 Jan , 2011
The post-independence Indian Army continues to struggle with the British colonial model, ways and traditions, which served us well to a point. In fact, we were so enamored by the British ethos...
Neglect of India's frontier areas
By: Maj Gen Mrinal Suman | Issue: Vol 24.3 Jul-Sep 2009 | Date: 17 Jan , 2011
Defence Minister of India, Mr AK Antony visited Nathu La in East Sikkim in the first week of December 2007 and was visibly taken aback to see the difference between infrastructure on the Indian...
Defining Victory: The Dilemma in Anti-Terrorism and Counter-Insurgency
By: Col Harjeet Singh | Issue: Vol 24.3 Jul-Sep 2009 | Date: 12 Jan , 2011
The usage of the term, ‘war’ when battling terrorism or insurgency raises several issues. An important one is the use of the term ‘victory’ to delineate the desired objective in this...
China: Harmony or chaos?
By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Vol 24.3 Jul-Sep 2009 | Date: 12 Jan , 2011
China suffers from a superiority complex. This is not new. Genetically, it must have been there for ages, but in recent years due to the rapid economic development, the tremendous advances in the...
Left Wing Extremism
By: Maj Gen GD Bakshi, (Retd) | Issue: Vol 24.3 Jul-Sep 2009 | Date: 12 Jan , 2011
The Assembly elections in J&K in 2008 was peaceful and witnessed record voter turnouts. In sharp contrast the very first day of the Lok Sabha Polls in 2009 witnessed an upsurge of Naxalite...
Communication Technologies and non-state Actors
By: Ajey Lele and Gunjan Singh | Issue: Vol 24.3 Jul-Sep 2009 | Date: 12 Jan , 2011
Technology brings development. However, every new technology comes with few drawbacks. At times the drawbacks of new technologies are so serious that they could change the strategic focus of the...
Kargil and the Decade Since
By: Rohit Singh | Issue: Vol 24.3 Jul-Sep 2009 | Date: 18 Nov , 2010
It has been ten years since valiant Indian soldiers achieved the impossible feat of evicting Pakistani intruders from the dizzy heights of Kargil. Frontally assaulting peaks over 15,000 feet in...
Trajectory to regional and global power
By: Anand K Verma | Issue: Vol 24.3 Jul-Sep 2009 | Date: 26 Oct , 2010
Many observers have commented that the 21st century belongs to India (and China). Since economics is increasingly becoming the currency of power, this statement acknowledges the changing balance...