India is increasingly being confronted by a two-front war situation compounded by a Fifth Column of Pakistani trained jihadis operating behind Indian lines in the Jammu and Kashmir/Gurdaspur (Punjab) salient where lie India’s main lines of road and rail communications that maintain logistics to the forward areas. The capture of

As modern battlefields get more and more complex, lethal, diverse and multidimensional, the fighting infantry soldiers need to be armed accordingly to face the challenge of operating across the entire spectrum of conflict. Today’s battlefield scene may not appear in the classic sense, and in today’s world the soldiers may

Missiles in their surface-to-air configuration are dependent on their efficacy on range and a multi-layered nature of their deployment. Thus shoulder-fired man-portable (MANPADS) and fixed-launch “point-defence” missiles are considered the last shield against low-flying aircraft and, in the case of the latter, against surface-skimming projectiles. Missiles tend to shape the

There is evidence of a heartening improvement in maritime surveillance as seen in the pre-emptive interception of suspected Pakistani surface vessels to penetrate Indian territorial waters or indulge in criminal activity on the high seas. But true Indian maritime security lies in a capability to be able to find, track

Battlefield transparency under all types of conditions will hold the key to success of a military operation in the 21st Century. Militaries will need critical technologies and weapons which can provide the ability to overpower the adversary when he is most prone, and that is night. The Night Vision Devices

Anti-submarine warfare is a multilayered operation involving all elements ranging from the air, surface to the sub-surface domains. India’s dwindling anti-submarine infrastructure has been well-documented but there is little to show that any large-scale rectification is underway. From insufficient numbers of conventional hunter-killer submarines and surface fighting ships bereft of

The saga of the indigenous creation of an ab initio propeller driven trainer aircraft and an initial jet trainer (IJT) aircraft for the Indian Air Force and the Indian Navy by the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd reads like the script of a farce. HAL started the process of “indigenization” of these

The Indian armored regiment’s modernization is not as pathetic as the Indian artillery regiments, which has not seen the induction of single Howitzer gun since 1988. However, the modernization program of the armored regiments cannot be said to be satisfactory. The Indian Army has placed its full reliance on the

Though the sanction for 814 artillery guns worth Rs 15,750 crore ( US$ 2.56 billion) was cleared last November, by the Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar headed Defence Acquisition Council, the MoD is yet to issue a Request for Proposal. These guns would be acquired under the Buy and Make procedure,

The recently concluded Aero India 2015 was a much bigger show as compared to last decade and with Indian Prime Narendra Modi delivering inaugural address raised hopes among many international and domestic defence players that India is back on the race. The response was overwhelming and this could be considered