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

Image source- Wikimedia Commons / Credits- Sauood 007 Source- Eurasia Review Author- Brig Anil Gupta (Retd) The recent twin terror attacks at Kathua and Samba have evoked strong public outrage against Pakistan — both its army and civilian establishment. The legislative assembly of Jammu and Kashmir currently in session has also passed a unanimous resolution condemning the unfriendly neighbouring country. Unhappy with the formation of an alliance government in partnership with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Pakistan is hell bent upon fomenting trouble in the state. Apart from spreading terror, the aim of these twin attacks appears to be to foment communal tension and hit Jammu’s economy. Hence, the time chosen for the terror attacks coincided with the Navratra festival that is not only celebrated with great devotion by the locals but also attract large number of pilgrims from the rest of the country to the holy shrine of Vaishno Devi. It is to the credit of the peo

INS Chakra ( Image source- Wikimedia Commons / Credits- Ajai Shukla) Source- The National Interest Author- David Brewster While the world focuses on the dangers that a nuclear-armed Iran could present in the Middle East, a potentially more dangerous and unstable nuclear proliferation is occurring in the Indian Ocean. In the coming years India, Pakistan, and perhaps China will likely deploy a significant number of nuclear weapons at sea in the Indian Ocean. This could further destabilize already unstable nuclear relationships, creating a real risk of a sea-based exchange of nuclear weapons. Observers have long seen India-Pakistan nuclear rivalry as the most unstable in the world, and South Asia as the most likely location of nuclear conflict. This is not just academic speculation. Foreign diplomats have been evacuated from Islamabad on several occasions from fears of an impending nuclear exchange with India. India has a “no first use” (NFU) nuclear-weapons pol

Image credits- Presidency of Russia  Source- The Diplomat Authors- Nhina Le and Koh Swee Lean Collin t all began with apparently innocuous activity reported in both the Russian and Vietnamese press citing the Russian Defense Ministry on January 4. According to the reports, Russian Air Force Il-78 Midas tanker planes were granted access last year to Vietnam’s aerodrome facilities in Cam Ranh Bay, located in the southern Vietnamese province of Khanh Hoa. The Il-78s enabled the refueling of Russian Tu-95 “Bear” strategic bombers, which coincided with intensified Russian military flights in the Asia-Pacific, including “Bear” sorties that circled the major U.S. military redoubt in Guam. These flights, claimed to be a show of strength and for intelligence-gathering purposes, were deemed “provocative” in the eyes of Washington. A request was made to Hanoi “to ensure that Russia is not able to use its access to Cam Ranh Bay to conduct activities that could raise tensions in

Image source- Flickr / Credits- Presidency of Sri Lanka Source- The Diplomat Author- Nilanthi Samaranayake Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent trip to Sri Lanka highlights New Delhi’s reawakening to the strategic position that Sri Lanka holds in India’s neighborhood. Since 2008, India has watched as China built port facilities, highways, and other major infrastructure in Sri Lanka. People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy warships have also paid port visits to Sri Lanka, even taking in Trincomalee, where India has been sensitive to any extraregional presence for decades. Most recently, in September and October 2014, New Delhi became unsettled at the sight of a conventional Chinese submarine and a tender ship openly paying port visits in Colombo on the way to counter piracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden. Despite the public nature of the docking and advance notice, Indian policymakers appeared to be taken by surprise and feared India had lost strategic ground to China re

Param Super Computer  ( Image source- Wikimedia Commons / Credits- CDAC) Source- The Diplomat Authors- Asit K. Biswas & Kris Hartley “Everyone under 18 has only one guru, Google guru,” said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a Nasscom event in early March. He insisted that India’s IT industry, where innovation plays a critical role, is successful because government is “not there anywhere.” By implying that state participation stifles industry growth, this widespread sentiment belittles industrial planning and the promotion of particular sectors or corporate champions. Does Modi’s statement about the absence of government support India’s commitment to R&D and innovative capacity? Innovation is a driver of national competitive advantage, and ultimately the individual is the primary source of innovation. Therefore, connecting human development and government intervention becomes a crucial task in supporting growth strategies. Following India’s latest budget,

INS Kamorta ( Image source- Wikimedia Commons / Credits- Indian Navy) In continuation of our series "Make In India", today we feature Kamorta class Corvette. She is the first of a new class of corvettes designed and built in India with high level indigenous content. Built as an Anti Submarine warfare corvette, Kamorta is highly capable and a real force multiplier.  Kamorta class corvettes are the Indian Navy's next-generation anti submarine warfare platform, built under Project 28. They are being built at Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE), Kolkata. All the four corvettes are planned to be handed over to the Indian Navy by the year 2017. Project 28 is the primary project for driving localisation and developing the warship construction industry in India. The aim with this project is to stipulate unprecedented standards while providing opportunities to Indian vendors to develop expertise with the technology. The project, driven by the Navy's D

Kilo Class Submarine ( Image source- Wikimedia Commons / Credits- United States navy) Source- The National Interest Author- Lyle J. Goldstein After a brief respite, the South China Sea cauldron is starting to boil once again. This time, the hub-bub concerns not a close call between aircraft, nor dueling flotillas of coast guard vessels surrounding a mysterious oil exploration rig, nor the precarious resupply of a rusted out hulk of a ship grounded purposefully on an obscure reef Rather, the current frenzy among journalists, strategists, and now legislators concerns a variety of new structures that Beijing has undertaken to build up in and around its occupied reefs in the Spratlys. These structures will likely include an airfield. While this recent construction makes for interesting satellite photos, the impact on the actual naval balance of power seems quite minimal: limited to perhaps somewhat improved Chinese surveillance in the southern part of the South China