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

IRINS Jamaran ( Pic courtesy- Wikimedia Commons/ Author-Aspahbod) Iran has a significant history of long-distance seafaring in pursuit of trade with Asia. The presence, to this day, of wealthy and influential families of Iranian descent in some Asian countries, notably India and Thailand, is lingering evidence of early Iranian maritime ambitions in the region. Tehran’s recent foreign policy has been aimed mainly at countering the isolation brought about through international sanctions, by prioritizing official contacts with a relatively small number of friendly nations, and demonstrating that Iran retains credible international reach. The Iranian leadership is, therefore, keen to demonstrate its country’s continuing blue water capability. Over the past seven years, Iran’s offshore naval force, the Islamic Republic of Iran Navy (IRIN), has undertaken about 30 increasingly ambitious overseas deployments. IRIN’s focus is firmly on offshore waters, as coastal operations are the r

RQ-4 Global Hawk ( Pic courtesy- Wikimedia commons/US Navy) With additional North Korean saber-rattling on Saturday and China  pushing against its South China Sea boundaries  last week, Japan and the U.S. have announced a plan to increase drone patrols over North Korea and the East China Sea  starting later this month . The U.S. will deploy two Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles from Misawa Air Base in Aomori Prefecture, and the Japanese Air Self-Defense Forces plans to acquire three of those same UAVs from 2015. While the Japanese procurement  and the  stationing of both countries UAVs  in Misawa have been known since January this year, regional tensions have prompted officials to be more vocal about their intended use. A senior Self-Defense Force official said the drones, “will be effective in surveying the activities of North Korea and the Chinese military.” North Korea has been threatening a new round of nuclear tests since March, and on Saturday through its official KCNA

PLAN Sailors (Image courtesy- Wikimedia commons/ Author-Jiang) Collisions between  ships of Vietnam and China following the latter’s  installation of a deep water oil rig  in the disputed South China Sea mark a dangerous escalation of simmering tensions. Simultaneous to this fracas near the contested Paracel Islands, maritime authorities of the  Philippines have arrested Chinese fishermen  close to another coveted portion of the South China Sea, the Spratly Islands, triggering a war of words between Beijing and Manila. China, Vietnam and the Philippines represent a triad of instability and tension in the Asia-Pacific with their incompatible nationalistic claims over islets and energy-rich water bodies. (The South China Sea is  estimated to hold 11 billion barrels of oil and 190 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.) So deeply entrenched is the animosity among the three that even the nomenclature of the terrain on which they make their shows of force is subject to controversy. For

Sabarimala Sri Dharmashastha Temple ( Image Courtesy- Wikimedia Commons/ Author-Sailesh) I am dedicating this blog in the lotus feet of Lord Ayyappa: Sabarimala  is a  Hindu   pilgrimage  center located in the  Western Ghat  mountain ranges of  Pathanamthitta District ,  Perunad  grama panchayat in  Kerala . It is the largest annual pilgrimage in the world with an estimated 100 million devotees visiting every year. [1] [2] Sabarimala is believed to be the place where the Hindu God  Ayyappan  meditated after killing the powerful demoness, Mahishi.  Ayyappan 's temple is situated here amidst 18 hills. The temple is situated on a hilltop at an altitude of 468 m (1535 ft) above mean sea level, and is surrounded by mountains and dense forests. Temples exist in each of the hills surrounding Sabarimala. While functional and intact temples exist at many places in the surrounding areas like Nilackal, Kalaketi, and Karimala, remnants of old temples survive to this day on remaining

INS Vikramaditya (R-33), Image courtesy- Wikimedia Commons/ Indian Navy Aircraft Carriers are the Capital Ships of any navy today, the presence of one in the navy brings immense prestige and power to the navy.  An  aircraft carrier  is a  warship  with a full-length flight deck and facilities for carrying, arming, deploying, and recovering aircraft, that serves as a seagoing airbase. [1]  Typically, it is the  capital ship  of a fleet, as it allows a  naval force  to project  air power  worldwide without depending on local bases for staging aircraft operations. It is extremely expensive to build and important to protect. Aircraft carriers have evolved from converted cruisers to nuclear-powered warships that carry numerous fighter planes, strike aircraft, helicopters, and other types of aircraft. There is no single definition of an "aircraft carrier". [2]  and modern navies use several variants of the type. These variants are sometimes categorized as sub-types of a