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

INS Arihant ( Pic Courtesy-Wikimedia Commons and DRDO) India as far as the development of weapons are concerned is still at a nascent stage. Now when you compare the development of high end weapon system, naturally the comparison falls between India and China. But in all the articles that is circulated in the net that one reads, when ever these comparisons take place, India is castigated for the shoddy development cycle of weapon platforms while it is always stated that China is miles ahead of us. To a certain extent, it may be true. But are we so bad is the real question?  On a closer look, India has been in recent years making strides in the development of world class  LCA Tejas ( Pic courtesy- Wikimedia Commons and Author) weapons platforms. India has a robust missile development program that has seen the development of a whole family of new generation missiles. The same is the case with other platforms including the LCA "Tejas", ships like the Shivalik cla

Image courtesy- Wikimedia commons                                                    Today, five brave air warriors lost their live when an Indian Air force crashed. Our thoughts and prayers will be with their families. They answered the call of duty and made the ultimate sacrifice. May their soul rest in peace.

Image Courtesy- Wikimedia Commons Despite being involved in the fifth-generation fighter aircraft ( FGFA ) joint program with Russia, India is developing a next-generation fighter of its own–the advanced multirole combat aircraft ( AMCA ). The Indian defense ministry’s Defense Research and Development Organization ( DRDO ) showed a large-scale model of the  AMCA  at Aero India 2013 in February, in Bengaluru. The aerodynamic shape has been considerably refined in comparison to an earlier model exhibited at Aero India 2011, and even more so when compared to a model for wind-tunnel testing shown at Aero India 2009, at which time it was “ MCA ” without being “Advanced.” This provides evidence that  AMCA  is being developed in parallel with  FGFA .  DRDO ’s Aeronautical Development Establishment is leading the  AMCA  program. Addressing the next-generation fighter issue, Air Marshall Norman Anil Kumar Browne, the Indian air force chief of staff, declined to compare the  AMCA  and 

Image courtesy- Wikipedia Commons From "continued and rapid" modernisation of the armed forces to a strong indigenous defence industrial base (DIB), from a national commission for ex-servicemen to credible deterrence and second-strike capability, Congress promised all on the military front in its manifesto released on Wednesday.  "India's security preparedness will be based on a comprehensive security doctrine that combines conventional and strategic measures... The Congress pledges to make India's defence forces technology-enabled and equipped with modern weapons, aircraft, ships and delivery systems to repel any threat from land, sea or air," it said.  Experts, however, were left unimpressed. "There were no systemic reforms either to build a strong DIB, genuinely integrate the Service headquarters with the defence ministry or reform the cumbersome arms procurement procedures over the last 10 years of UPA rule," said a senior Army officer. Ye

Image Courtesy- Wikimedia commons and Pete Souza  Think Russia has no way to put pressure on the United States? Think again. The US relies heavily on Russia to furnish the engines that power rockets that deliver both military and civil payloads into space. This includes GPS systems in cars and cellphones, and even systems that allow ATMs to function. Weather satellites are launched into space via Russian-powered rockets, and military systems such as early missile detection also depend on our friends in Moscow. In addition, since NASA scrapped the space shuttle program in 2011, the US has to rely on Russian Soyuz capsules to get its astronauts to the space station and to bring them back home. As the crisis over Crimea deepens and tit-for-tat sanctions go into effect, conventional wisdom has held that the US is holding all the cards. Given the relatively small amount of  trade the US conducts with Russia  each year, and its pre-eminent position as the world’s largest econ

Image courtesy- Reuters/KCNA The UN Human Rights Council’s Commission of Inquiry  report  on the DPRK by the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) revealed in  excruciating detail  the horrors that are a regular part of the Kim Dynasty’s repressive rule. The systematic abuse of human rights by the regime is extensive, intensive, and appalling. Nevertheless, the report should not come as a surprise to those engaged with North Korea or, for that matter, anyone who is familiar with DPRK history. The report is also, as things currently stand, without consequence. The operative phrase here is “as things currently stand.” The report and  others like it  are crucial in terms of post-unification transitional justice, if and when unification comes on South Korean terms. Unfortunately, until then, the report and its recommendations are simply nonstarters. This is the case for several salient reasons. First, in terms of taking Kim Jung-un and the perpetrators of th

Pic courtesy- Wikimedia commons (This article originally appeared in The Strategist, written by Himanil Raina. Himanil Raina is a student of NELSAR and also a freelance writer of geopolitical and international affairs. Due credits is given to him) ‘We cannot afford to be weak at sea … history has shown that whatever power controls the Indian Ocean has, in the first instance, India’s seaborne trade at her mercy, and in the second, India’s very independence itself.’   Jawaharlal Nehru Indian strategic culture has been characterised by a  preoccupation with land based threats  (PDF), a bias evident from an examination of budgetary allocations to the three services. The Navy has traditionally got the least funding, resulting in it being called the  Cinderella Service . This has been due to several factors. First, India has a history over millennia of being repeatedly invaded from the Northwestern plains. Second, the British stymied the growth of the Indian Navy, seeing it as a po

The mighty Indian Ocean, where the Malaysian  airline is presumed to have gone missing God help us as we face mother nature's raw power

Image courtesy- The Diplomat and The Reuters “We love this country,” declared a Chinese Foreign Minister on a state visit to Sri Lanka in 1971, China “was ready to give its fullest co-operation to speed up the socialist march of Ceylon.” Sri Lanka’s socialist “march” didn’t ever quite catch up with China’s, but since the first Rubber-Rice pact was signed in 1952 China-Sri Lankan relations have been a source of unity and continue on an upward trajectory today. As China’s economic power has grown, investing overseas has been a tactic used across the world by China to help bolster the national interest. Its financial foreign policy rests on two strategies: “accumulating foreign currency reserves and sending money abroad in the form of FDI, aid, assistance and loans,”  wrote  U.S. economic advisor Ken Miller in  Foreign Affairs .  Sri Lanka is a model for the latter part of this strategy. The statistics alone indicate the inexorable rise of China’s financial stake in Sri Lanka.