How will India protect its national interests in Afghanistan in the midst of an increasingly murky Russia-China-Pakistan nexus that appears to be emerging in preparation for the 2014 deadline for the withdrawal of NATO troops? The nexus is murky in that the Russians appeared to snub India by postponing a joint conference scheduled for early October and instead attended to Pakistan Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Kayani’s visit to Moscow where defence cooperation was… Read More »Unpredictable future: Afghanistan quagmire and India’s options

With Pakistani Air Force acquiring the US supplied L-88 aerostat systems, India is also speeding up the induction of aerostats to its inventory. India has at present the Israeli made EL/M-2083 aerostat radars. It was first inducted six years ago and 11 more are in the process of acquisition. Indian armed forces fear that besides fighter planes, its air defences can also be breached by small micro-light aircraft which has been successfully used by the… Read More »Cheap scanner: Poor man’s AWACS

With the arrival of a whole new set of medium multi-role combat aircraft, the joint creation with Russia of the Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft, and the operationalization of the Tejas the Indian Air Force would have acquired the latest flying platforms but what would be the effect of their induction on the professed intention to create a largely indigenous aerospace industry to bolster national security well into the 21st century? Will India finally break out… Read More »Sustaining act: Aerospace industry

It needs to be remembered that an aerostat is not a balloon. As the name suggests it is a lighter-than-air vehicle that is so constructed that its aerodynamics keep the structure always pointed into the wind, that is, from the direction in which the wind is blowing. It swings on an axis created by the tether/cable by which it is anchored to the ground. The intention is to overcome the limitations to detection of airborne… Read More »Standing still: Low cost AWACS for modern military