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

SU T-50 ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons/ Author- Alex Beltukov) Source- The Diplomat Author- Franz-Stefan Gady India and Russia agreed in early 2007 to jointly develop a fifth generation fighter program. Ever since then, the Sukhol/HAL Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) or as it is called in India, the Perspective Multi-role Fighter (PMF) project, has been plagued by delays, costs overrun, and unsteady technology  In 2014, a prototype of the plane even caught fire during a demonstration flight for technical evaluation, causing heated arguments between India and Russia. “What added to the controversy … was Russia’s refusal to share any details of this failure, to the extent that a technical evaluation team of the Indian Air Force that reportedly was present at the site was refused access to inspect the damaged platform,” Monika Chansoria, senior fellow at the Centre for Land Warfare Studies think tank in New Delhi, was quoted as saying in a Defense News articl

Chinese Carrier Liaoning ( Image credits- Internet photos/ Author- In the image) Source- The Diplomat Author- Greg Austin According to public reports, China is building two aircraft carriers, with plans to increase that to four, according to one report, and possibly a new class of helicopter carrier for amphibious assault. For many in China, this has been a necessary evolution for a country of such wealth and international power. For the government, it is part of a techno-nationalist campaign designed to show that the country is arriving at the highest level of international power. The idea is that China can do anything the other great powers do. It can land jet aircraft on a carrier, it can put a rover on the moon, and it can put a man in space. This is the decade of impressive and inspiring achievement we have seen from China. Yet the challenge China faces is that it is copying innovations first undertaken more than a few decades earlier (China was four decades late

Image credits- Flickr / Prime Minister's office  Source- The Eurasia Review Author- Ali Ahmed At the Council on Foreign Relations last week two South Asia watchers Amb. Robert Blackwill and Stephen Cohen  were asked  the ‘unthinkable question’: ‘What happens if there’s another Mumbai attack?’ Both replied that there would be a ‘vigorous’ India reponse that would most likely be military. Both suggested that this owed to the personality of the new Indian prime minister and the sentiment within India. After the initial promise of an opening up to Pakistan in Nawaz Sharif’s India visit of May last year, India has since August been tough on Pakistan. It has engaged in an exchange of firing on the Line of Control and if Pakistani allegations are to be believed also been supporting Pakistani insurgents, Baloch and the Pakistani Taliban, from across the Afghanistan border. In so far as this hardline stance has been tactical it appears to have borne fruit. Former ISI head

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / Author- Sudath Silva) Source- The Eurasia Review Praising the Sri Lankan people for electing a new government, a top US official said it is time for Sri Lanka to return to its rightful place as a respected member of the international community. The United States Deputy Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said that Sri Lankans sent a clear signal at the elections that they want a change for a step forward for good governance. “The people of Sri Lanka – from Jaffna to Galle -sent a clear signal from the ballot box: that they wanted your country to take a step forward, to realize its tremendous potential, and to finally enjoy the fruits of peace,” Blinken said. The Deputy Secretary made the remarks  this past Thursday when he addressed a gathering at the Sri Lankan Embassy in Washington DC at a celebration to mark the 67th Anniversary of Sri Lanka’s Independence. The high-ranking U.S.

INS Kolkata- D63 ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / Author- Brehmemohan) In continuation of the "Make in India" series, each week we will be highlighting a particular technology or platform that is developed or being developed indigenously that will  act as the foundation for future platforms and technologies.  Today we feature the Kolkata Class Destroyers of The Indian Navy. The "Kolkata Class" is the next generation of Destroyers of the Indian Navy that is entering services right now. The class is a qualitative jump for the Indian Navy . With advanced weapons and sensors, the Kolkata class is the post powerful destroyers in the Indian Ocean rim. Highly capable with a high content of assorted weapon suites and sensors, the Kolkata class is capable of three dimensional warfare. Designed by the Indian Navy's Directorate of Naval design, the Kolkata class employs high degree of stealth with the reduction of radar cross section (RCS). It also employs

Image credits- Xinhua News Agency Source- The National Interest Author- James Jay Carafano Between complacency and confrontation there is a responsible way forward that keeps the Asia-Pacific a big enough place to accommodate the vital interests of both Beijing and Washington. The heavy lifting will have to be done by the United States. That's okay. The work will make America a stronger nation and a better Asian ally. In the last decade, the Chinese regime has shown itself to be anti-democratic, no friend of free markets, a first-class cyber bully and more interested in rewriting or ignoring international norms than in respecting them. Left unchecked, the Beijing method of managing international relations is not likely to make the world a better or safer place. If America didn't share the same neighborhood with China, it might well ignore Beijing's behavior and let others deal with it. But China and the United States are stuck with each other. Unfo

PLAN Sailors ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / Author- United States Navy) Source- The Diplomat Author- Franz-Stefan Gady Today, Defense News ran a very interesting piece attacking the often repeated assertion that China will soon be adding one additional fleet to the three existing ones (the North Sea, East Sea, and South Sea Fleets) it currently operates. This new fleet will allegedly be headquartered in Sanya on Hainan Island and project Chinese naval power into the Indian Ocean. One expert noted in 2014: “There have been reports that China is already creating a fourth fleet that would eventually consist of two Carrier Battle Groups based at Hainan Island. This fleet might be placed directly under the Central Military Commission, the highest military decision-making body, making it a powerful instrument of geopolitical signaling.” Yet, Defense News quotes a Ching Chang, former Taiwan naval officer who now is a fellow at Taiwan’s ROC Society for Strategic Studies

Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / Author- Kremlin Archives Source- The Diplomat Author- Artyom Lukin In 1904 the founder of geopolitics Sir Halford Mackinder famously pronounced the end of “the Columbian epoch” – that of the dominance of the Western sea power – and the advent of the age of land power, in which the Heartland of Eurasia, or “the pivot area,” would hold the key to the world domination. The pivot area largely corresponded to the territory of the then Russian Empire – occupying central and northern Eurasia. Mackinder’s main concern was that a rapidly industrializing and expansionist Tsarist Russia could successfully challenge the West’s sea-power-based primacy, taking advantage of the Heartland’s geostrategic centrality and harnessing the huge potentialities of Inner Eurasia’s vast landmass. In actuality, Russia was never able to pull off such a feat – neither under the Tsar, nor in its Soviet reincarnation. It seems even less capable of achieving it now,

JS Ashigara ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / Author- United States Navy by Mass Communication Specialist Michael A. Lantron) Source- The Diplomat Author- Mina Pollmann In the 1970s, when Japan first sought to craft a foreign policy identity independent of the U.S., it turned to Southeast Asia. Though Japanese Prime Minister Tanaka Kakuei’s 1974 trip was greeted with protests, relations quickly improved with the 1977 promulgation of the Fukuda Doctrine, which promised that Japan would never again become a military power. Since then, Japan has been seen positively in Southeast Asia as a mentor and constructive partner. However, despite this reservoir of soft power and major economic clout in the region, Japan has only been able to exercise marginal influence and has had difficulty being taken seriously. Part of the reason is that the U.S. remains the ultimate guarantor of security and stability in the region. And while the overall U.S. role will not change any time