There was a time around the turn of the decade that a scare was created by reports that China has achieved the capability of sinking an aircraft carrier with a hypersonic cruise missile at a distance of nearly 2000 km. The Chinese preferred to call it the “carrier killer” and predicted the removal of the carrier from the order of battle because of its vulnerability, leaving China to push its geo-political ambitions (the assimilation) of… Read More »Torpedo capabilities
There are drones in the sky, in R(D centers and more varieties are making their debut as the advantages of pilotless aircraft are becoming more obvious by the day. India is involved in a plethora of experiments to create drones for different uses within the country but given the manner in which short-term requirements are being met with imports the chances of a ‘Made in India” product with an assured self-sustaining base in the marketplace… Read More »Use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
The Indian Air Force has projected a requirement of an additional 200 aircraft to be able to put up a credible defence of Indian airspace in the event of a two-front war. However, there is an acknowledged acceptance that the Chinese can overwhelm Indian air defences by sheer force of numbers but the IAF is sanguine that it will not be a cakewalk. The Indian dilemma has been the difficulty in quick replacement of fighter… Read More »IAF fighter requirement
Today, start-ups depict the growing entrepreneurial culture encouraging youth to become the leaders of tomorrow. Start-ups are increasingly achieving success in every sector-be it technology, healthcare, e-Commerce, services, etc. However, defence sector is yet to witness the entry of budding entrepreneurs as well as investors. Lack of funding, lack of trained technical manpower, unfavourable procurement policy of government and restriction on the export of defence items etc are some of the key challenges that affect… Read More »Defence start-ups in India
The one instrument that revolutionized warfare is the night vision device. Offensive and defensive operations no longer depended on natural light which meant that warfare became a 24X7 business giving rise to the concept of “surgical strikes”, a phrase that has caught the imagination of the Indian public. That, in spite of the ability to see the target quite clearly and to pick it out from among a clutter of other objects, modern warfare as… Read More »Evolving night vision
The anti submarine warfare operations are gaining a strong foothold as nations are facing acute threat from advancement of new technologies and more stealthy submarines which can defeat enemy defences easily. Recently, India and United States enhanced their naval cooperation as these types of basic engagements will be the building blocks for an enduring navy-to-navy relationship which will ultimately see a strong ASW capability for both nations. The entrant in this game is China. Since… Read More »Anti submarine warfare
The Indian Army’s surgical strikes along the Line of Control (LoC) recently has once again highlighted the significance of having specialised forces in the military to handle critical combat missions. After the terrorists attacked Uri army base of India, a team of special commandos of Indian Army carried out surgical strike in PoK along LoC. In its surgical strike in the month of October 2016, India destroyed seven terror launch pads and it was carried… Read More »Role of Special Forces
In the age of satellite warfare, guns and assault rifles are still the main chorus of the war fighting despite the advent of new technologies that can decimate the targets within minutes to pulverize the battlefield hurdles for faster movement of ground formations. Everything is going modular. Even though there is a sea change in the development of new technologies, standardized ammunition calibers and new plastic materials, over the years the assault rifle has evolved… Read More »New generation assault rifles
Going by the recent trend, in another 15 years from now the terrorists will be able to acquire the capability for new types of mass attacks as the potential availability of chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) materials are going to be easier to obtain. The potential future use of CBRN materials as weapons in the next 10 to 15 years is growing with rapid change in geopolitical atmosphere and some states are trying to… Read More »Nuclear warfare
India is in the process of replacing its military heavy lift capability to be able to manage, with some credibility, the emerging two-front war situation all along its Himalayan borders from Jammu and Kashmir in the west to Arunachal Pradesh in the east. The Indian Air Force has already acquired 12 C-17 Globemaster III and similar number of C-130J aircraft for Special Forces operations from the US, thereby augmenting exponentially the tonnage that can be… Read More »Modernizing platforms