Gwadar, which used to host the American P-3C Orion maritime reconnaissance aircraft during the Cold War days for keeping a watch over the Russian naval movements in the Indian Ocean, will now formally host the Chinese. Situated 200 kms away from Karachi, the Gwadar base offers tremendous strategic advantages to the country which has a naval presence on the port. The Chinese had eyed the Gwadar after the American Navy withdrew its presence from the… Read More »Enemy in courtyard: Gwadar port and its strategic importance

High Power Electromagnetic Pulse generation techniques and High Power Microwave technology have matured to the point where practical E-bombs (Electromagnetic bombs) are becoming technically feasible, with new applications in both Strategic and Tactical Information Warfare. The development of conventional E-bomb devices allows their use in non-nuclear confrontations. The prosecution of a successful Information Warfare (IW) campaign against an industrialized or post industrial opponent will require a suitable set of tools. As demonstrated in the Desert… Read More »Device to decimate: A weapon of electronic mass destruction

There are signs and signals galore that China wants to accelerate its passage across the Himalayas to the Arabian Sea. The increasing frequency of intrusions across the Line of Actual Control in the Ladakh sector of north-eastern Jammu and Kashmir and the arrival of about 9000 Chinese troops disguised as laborers in the contiguous Gilgit sector of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir drive a point in the direction. Further, the trenchant insistence that all developmental work on the… Read More »Collusive intent: Defending Ladakh

It is not just MMRCA fallout or temporary strategic incompatibility with once close partners of India that is rattling the Ministry of Defence, now it seems the MoD is facing challenges from all quarters at a time when the government is getting weak and directionless. The disease that is manifested today is something the MoD has been suffering from a long time. On the top of it, rampant corruption has already become a hallmark and… Read More »Uphill task: Defence procurement getting directionless

As the complaint against foul play in the basic trainer deal currently under the evaluation of Ministry of Defence is getting into a mired game, there are hectic efforts to clear the deal as quickly as possible to avoid delay in the whole process. But as it has been seen in some cases, it may affect the whole deal in the long run if one of the contenders decides to seek legal recourse. Once embroiled… Read More »Stuck in mud: Basic trainer controversy is similar to chopper deal

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