There has been talk of improvement of infrastructure-helipads, airstrips for heavy-lift aircraft, roads, bridges and everything else that allows for easy passage and maintenance of a large body of fighting men all along the Line of Actual Control opposite that of the Chinese positions-since the middle of the last decade. The Government of India at that point of time abandoned its policy of deliberate benign neglect of the landscape adjoining the LAC in Arunachal Pradesh… Read More »Infrastructure along LAC

Difficult terrain in the early years of warfare (World War I and World War II) was that landscape that was serrated with trenches and cratered by the fall of heavy ball-type artillery which tended to obstruct passage of motor vehicles and towed and self-propelled guns thereby obstructing the momentum of the battlefield charge. Trench warfare was the norm rather than the exception in these two conflicts and the kind of obstruction they created to mass… Read More »Terrain warfare

The Indian Army is considered as among the best trained army in the world when it comes to mountain or high altitude warfare. India, due to the instability in the region, hostile neighbors with the need for permanent deployments in the mountainous regions, has come a long way since 1962. India’s mountain warfare units were vastly expanded after the 1962 war, with the creation of 6 Mountain Divisions. But it was the shortcomings and observations… Read More »Winter warfare

India is in the process of creating the Future Infantry Soldier As a System (F-INSAS). The conceptual framework of the project is to impart increased protection (survivability), lethality with a range of higher caliber infantry weapons, mobility and the ability to fight at night. It is, thus, an amalgamation of each of these capabilities on each soldier of the Indian Army from 2020 onwards. Of special interest is ‘protection’ given that lethality has increased in… Read More »Body armor

The efficacy of an attack helicopter or a helicopter gunship is best understood in pugilistic terminology. Where it enjoys the advantage of reach (the range of its onboard weaponry be it the gun or missiles/rockets) it is king but where the enemy has the greater reach the helicopter can become a coffin. As India learned to its dismay in Kargil where a helicopter and an aircraft were lost to shoulder-fired Stinger surface-to-air missiles after which… Read More »Chopper needs

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s brainwave to allow a transplantation of population in Arunachal Pradesh is a strategy that appears to have been only partially thought through. It appears to be moulded to the concept enunciated during border talks with China that populated areas would not be disturbed in any future border demarcation. In Arunachal Pradesh, Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself has spoken of populating the many open spaces that lie in that border State largely… Read More »Border settlement

In April 2010, Chinese Rear Admiral Zhang Huachen, then-deputy commander of the East Sea Fleet of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), declared: “We are going from coastal defence to far sea defence. With the expansion of the country’s naval strategy of the country’s economic interests, the navy wants to better protect the country’s transportation routes and the safety of our major seal lane.” This statement symbolized China’s departure from Deng Xiaoping’s dictum “Hide brightness,… Read More »Maritime challenges

The then Chief of Army Staff General V K Singh had warned almost three years ago that Indian Army’s air defence system has become obsolete. This was a startling admission coming from the Chief of Army Staff, who is generally not supposed to reveal such shortcomings openly on such sensitive issues relating to the actual position of the existing armaments. However, it is now known fact that he was just stating the truth as India… Read More »VSHORAD system

The scramble for the acquisition of the very short range air defence (VSHORAD) system began when it became known that Pakistan has developed the Nasr tactical nuclear missile. The four-barreled missile system is intended to pulverize mechanized infantry and armor as it is threatened by India’s ‘Cold Start’ doctrine. The doctrine was designed after the extremely long time it took to deploy Indian troops and its strike corps along the international border and the Line… Read More »SAM deployment

The Indian Navy’s Sukanya and Saryu class of offshore patrol vessels give India a trans-oceanic capability of sea control, sea denial and protection of vital sea lanes of communications. With the recent acquisition of the Italian built replenishment ships capable of transferring large amounts of food, water, fuel and ammunition, the Indian Navy can maintain a presence in either the Pacific Ocean or the Atlantic Ocean for considerable period of time. Lightly armed as a… Read More »Sea patrol