Manoj Ambat's Blog dealing with Defence, Foreign Affairs, Strategic Affairs and Politics

PSLV launch ISRO successfully launched it's work horse the venerable Polar Satellite Launch vehicle (PSLV). The PSLV C-23 launch successfully injected five foreign satellite into the orbit. This mission is crucial for ISRO as this launch was a commercial launch with only foreign payloads.    The 230-ton Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) lifted off at 9:52. The rocket's main luggage was the 714 kg French earth observation satellite SPOT-7. Piggybacking on the main luggage were the four small satellites viz: 14-kg AISAT of Germany; NLS7.1 (CAN-X4) and NLS7.2 (CAN-X5) from Canada each weighing 15 kg; and the 7-kg VELOX-1 of Singa pore. We would like to congratulate ISRO on this success and wishes them more success in coming years. May they reach greater heights and may they make India the predominant power in space and take India into the forefront of cutting edge space applications. Congratulations  once again to ISRO. 

India-China Border ( Image credits- Indian Express) Reacting strongly to reports that China has in its recent map shown Arunachal Pradesh as its territory, India on Saturday said "cartographic depiction" does not change reality on the ground and asserted that Arunachal Pradesh was an integral part of the country. Asked about recent China maps which show disputed areas in Arunachal Pradesh and South China Sea as its own, the Spokesperson in the External Affairs Ministry said, "The cartographic depictions do not change the reality on the ground. "The fact that Arunachal Pradesh is integral and inalienable part of India has been conveyed to Chinese authority at several occasions including at the very highest level."  He also indicated that this may be raised by the Indian delegation, headed by Vice President Hamid Ansari, currently in China to participate in an event to commemorate the 60th Anniversary of Panchsheel or Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence.

Image credits- Reuters/Ali Song This year has seen a spate of retrospective analyses of the horrific war in Europe that began July 28 a century ago, so named the Great War for its unprecedented scale, death count, and destabilizing aftershocks reverberating as far as Asia. How this could have happened, should Britain have entered the war at all, and what was the ultimate meaning of the war are still the stuff of intense controversy and debate. The Britain-Japan-China part of the story, a sidelight to the war engulfing Europe, has gotten less attention. Yet it, too, begs for further explanation of policy choices and cascading consequences that led to a disastrous turn in East Asian politics in the decades to follow. Britain and Japan in 1914 were linked by treaty obligations under the Anglo-Japanese Alliance (1902-1923), the first-ever reciprocal agreement between a Western and an Asian power. The relationship was already showing signs of strain, chiefly over access to the vast

US Army in Iraq ( Image credits-Wikimedia Commons/United States DOD) Over the past two weeks, the militant group ISIS has launched an almost unchallenged blitz across northern and central Iraq. Iraqi Army units vastly outnumber the jihadists and are far better armed than them - but for the most part Iraq's uniformed military melted away after putting up only minimal resistance. But ISIS fighters stopped when they reached the borders of autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan. They were facing an opponent that wasn't going to back off from a fight: the Kurdish Peshmerga, Iraqi  Kurdistan's own highly trained and battle-hardened paramilitary force. The Peshmerga, whose name translates as "those who face death," number anywhere from  35,000 to 190,000  fighters, are unlikely to retreat before an ISIS assault - especially if they are defending what they see as their homeland. The Peshmerga was first officially organized into a  nationalist fighting force  in 1943, al

Image credits- Wikimedia Commons On the  podcast yesterday , Ankit and I briefly discussed how India’s sizeable Muslim population might impact its position on the ongoing sectarian tensions between Shias and Sunnis in Iraq and throughout the Middle East. I noted that India has the second largest Shia population in the world after Iran, and wondered if this might affect how Delhi handles the Iraq crisis and the rest of the Middle East. This would not be wholly unprecedented — although the situation is somewhat different, it’s worth noting that India’s Tamil population  has wielded enormous influence  on how  India handles ties with Sri Lanka . There are now signs that in fact India is being dragged into the sectarian tensions, whatever the position of the central government may be. Specifically, Anjuman-e-Haideri —  a Delhi-based Shia organization  — has begun enlisting India’s Shia population to travel to Baghdad to defend the Iraqi government. According to  the latest statemen

People's Liberation Army ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons/ United States DOD) Events over the past week in Iraq, where the radical group known as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant ( ISIS ) took control of Mosul and its surrounding environs, have drawn renewed attention to the fragility of much of the Middle East. These events also reinvigorated the debate about the continued viability of a unified Iraq, the role of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and subsequent occupation in today’s instability, and the overall strength of U.S. Mideast policy. Such  debate  is valuable, particularly in relation to U.S. foreign policy towards the Middle East moving forward. Yet, the events in Iraq have global implications and little attention has been directed towards the impact of ISIS’s advances on another nation-state with major interests in the Middle East – China. Whereas a weak and unstable Iraq will constitute a loss-of-face for the U.S., the same scenario represents a strategic im

F-35 ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons/ USAF) It is only a matter of time before North Korea flaunts its ability to miniaturize a nuclear warhead, deploy intercontinental ballistic missiles and road-mobile missile launchers, and expand its plutonium nuclear arsenal with highly enriched uranium warheads.  The cumulative failure of diplomacy to rein in Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs begs the question as to whether it is time to turn the tables on North Korea.  Rather than buy into a losing competitive strategy, hasn’t the time come for the United States and the Republic of Korea (ROK), with the support of others, to pursue a strategy of active defense that alters the North’s cost-benefit calculus? The North Korean threat is inherently volatile and far more dangerous in the near-term than the sea skirmishes in the East and South China Seas.  Because the North threatens to escalate, however, democracies are reluctant to accept risk.  Former Secretary of Defense William P

LCA Tejas ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons/Rinju9) The government has spelt out the industrial licensing policy for defence production, listing items that will require permission to manufacture in a measure that industry and officials say would help encourage new players in the sector and boost investment.  Anything not mentioned on the list can be manufactured by the industry without a licence from the government. The government has reduced the items requiring industrial licences by about 60%. "All products like castings, assemblies, etc. have been removed," an official at the department of industrial policy & promotion (DIPP) said.  "It is a breakthrough in giving thrust to manufacturing in the economy." This clarification will open many defence goods not covered by industrial licensing to foreign direct investment (FDI). FDI in defence is currently capped at 26%, but according to experts, many of the goods previously classified as defence-related may n

SU-30MKI ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons/ Author) It's all about China in Asia these days. But enough about China and its dominance of the headlines. Let's talk about India. What does India think of China? One thing is clear: Indians do think about China, which has steadily expanded its strategic footprint in the Indian Ocean. And they worry about Asia's would-be Big Brother. Indian strategists see ulterior motives at work even in such nondescript endeavors such as the counterpiracy mission in the Gulf of Aden, where by most accounts, the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLA Navy) has been a valuable partner. Angst-ridden words have issued from New Delhi at times. Yet Indian leaders have modulated their rhetoric in recent years. They appear increasingly comfortable with the strategic outlook in South Asia. Anxieties have receded, though they haven't evanesced entirely and probably never will. And the leisurely pace (and fitful progress) of India's naval an

Image credits- The Spirit Science Welcome to the second issue of Ascend Academy. Today we will begin our ascent up the spiraling staircase that is the 7 Phases of Mastery. This spiritual framework is designed to unlock the potential within every human being by applying an understanding of self that is not limited by any particular belief structure and by providing hands on techniques and practices that raise your awareness of internal as well as external energies. Unlike our last article, each new issue will be focusing on a new phase so that we can glean a complete understanding of each set of concepts presented. This is the phase of Geometry, in which we learn of how Consciousness moves and interacts with itself through it’s various manifestations and conceptual archetypes. Find yourself a pen and paper, as you will be drawing and directly experiencing them. Before the universe came into being, there were only two things; existence, and non existence.  In actuality, there w

INS Vikramaditya ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons/ Indian Navy) One of the best analysis of INS Vikramaditya and it's importance for the Indian Navy that has come out in recent times. Had to share the same. : The Indian Navy faced this situation and wasn’t satisfied with any of the above options. They were already operating the second hand INS Viraat which had served them for 15 years and had completed nearly 50 years of total service. It just had a few years of life left and was becoming increasingly obsolete. With no other option, Indian Navy authorized the building of a carrier locally. But the construction would take 10 years to start, and once it started it would take 10 years to build the carrier and would be ready by 2017 as it would be India’s first attempt at building their own carrier. But India couldn’t wait 20 years for a new carrier and something had to be done to fill the gap when INS Viraat was scheduled to be retired by 2010. The blessing came in disguise o

JF-17 Thunder ( Image Credits- Wikimedia Commons/ Jetphotos.net) ISLAMABAD — Contrary to speculation, development of the JF-17 aircraft continues apace with avionics and weapons carriage capability improvements, work ongoing on future variants, and impending establishment of the third squadron. Chief Project Director of the JF-17 program, Air Vice Marshal Javed Ahmed, told Defense News the program was “as per schedule and there are no delays,” saying the current fleet had logged 10,000 hours and flown over 13,500 sorties. He also revealed the third squadron would be raised after Exercise High Mark 2014 toward the end of the year. Chief among these improvements are avionics, with Ahmed highlighting they are aimed at improving “situational awareness” and the “performance and lethality of the aircraft,” but still centered on the NRIET KLJ-7 radar which supports the SD-10 beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile. However, building on local capability, “integrating some additional smart