The modern militaries are getting trained to fight a conventional war which has highlighted the need to develop skills necessary to effectively conduct operations in any state-on-state conflict, characterized with force-on-force engagement. As traditional forms of warfare continue to develop and military operations become more complex in both scope and approach, the modernization of soldiers in order to combat such changes is an important focus point for militaries around the world. Today’s conflict situations require… Read More »Digital soldiers

The Indian Army’s Future-INfantry Soldier As System (F-INSAS) must conform to the Indian national nuclear doctrine of No First Strike but Massive Retaliation or Second Strike. The underlying logic behind this doctrine is the survivability of both the nuclear-tipped strike missile batteries/aircraft to effect retaliation and of troops to hold ground in either the offensive or the defensive mode. Therefore, survival in a nuclear, biological, chemical (NBC) environment must be the pre-eminent consideration in outfitting… Read More »Soldier modernization

Militaries around the world are looking for ways to introduce armoured unmanned ground vehicles to protect the soldier from boobytraps and improvised explosive devices (IED) and the increasing possibility of a chemical, biological, radiation and nuclear (CBRN) threat to ground forces. The experience of Iraq and Afghanistan is beginning to percolate into military establishments that have begun to realize that preventing manpower attrition could have a more direct effect in the successful outcome of a… Read More »Role of armoured vehicles

The cancellation of the contract for the 126 French Rafale medium multirole combat aircraft has drawn attention to the future of a very significantly important battlefield tool-head mounted display-that helps ensure a “first shot kill” from within a fighting platform. A burgeoning joint venture between an Indian private sector company Samtel Avionics and the French company Thales that specializes in high-end airborne electronic systems for supply of helmet mounted displays appears to have been nipped… Read More »Digital eyes

In the 21st century the Second Artillery’s nuclear deterrence force is facing new challenges. The United States and its allies in the region are paying increasing attention to put in place ballistic missile defence and long range precision strike capability. These developments might in the future upset the deterrence balance between the two countries. Hence China is continuously improving its nuclear deterrence capability by working on futuristic weapon technologies. Hypersonic is the emerging technology that… Read More »Hypersonic glide vehicle

A pilot flying a combat mission requires a high level of situational awareness to maintain safe altitude and airspeed, while avoiding obstructions, evading enemy weapons and, at the same time, executing the mission. To achieve the mission success in such a scenario the pilot may not risk the situational awareness while looking at flight critical instruments in the cockpit very frequently. Therefore to keep the pilots attention intact, militaries around the globe utilize the advanced… Read More »HMD system

Since Indian Ocean is being regularly visited by the navies of the world, Indian Navy has an onerous task at hand to keep a constant watch on them. Indian Ocean, named after India, is widely considered to be India’s courtyard. Hence It is imperative that India maintains a close vigil in the waters surrounding its coastal areas and far beyond. For this task to be effectively performed, the navy requires to drastically increase its current… Read More »Maritime surveillance

Recent events are pointing to an accelerated Pakistani intent to gain ingress into Indian territorial waters and offshore and harbour installations by clandestine means. India will have to correspondingly speed up its efforts to acquire unmanned underwater remotely operated vehicles to handle sabotage and deep submergence rescue vessels (DSRV) to deal with maritime disasters especially involving submarines. The accidents in Indian submarines have added to the general urgency to acquire rescue vessels most of which… Read More »Underwater vehicles

Given that missiles have now become capable of being launched in “beyond-visual-range” or “stand-off” mode it is imperative that nations seek to defend themselves by detecting these missiles through the use of “over-the-horizon” long-range radars and intercepting them well away from the intended target. Surveillance and target acquisition (SATA) radars have become de rigeur in every air defence situation. Similarly, to keep up-to-date with enemy deployment both on the forward edge of battle area (FEBA)… Read More »Surveillance systems

India has planned for three-aircraft carrier task forces based on the logic of sea control of either seaboard with one held in reserve. Obsolescence has overtaken the first Vikrant which has since been scrapped. Its replacement the Viraat (ex-British Hermes) is still in service though not expected to last up to 2020 and has recently been joined by the ex-Russian Gorshkov as the INS Vikramaditya. Meanwhile the second Vikrant is under construction in the Cochin… Read More »Aircraft carriers