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

INS Vishal ( Credits- You Tube screen capture) Source- The Diplomat Author- Ankit Panda India’s second indigenous aircraft carrier (IAC-2), the INS Vishal, the second Vikrant-class carrier, is slowly taking shape. Recently, the Indian Navy outlined the specifications of this carrier in a letter of request issued to shipbuilders worldwide. Many of the details, including the tonnage and the physical dimensions of the carrier, are in line with older expectations. For example, the Vishal will displace 65,000 tonnes—25,000 tonnes more than the first indigenous carrier, the INS Vikrant. The Indian Navy’s Naval Design Bureau clarified other features: the carrier will travel at 30 knots, a hair above the Vikrant, and come in at a length of 300 meters, longer than the 262 meter Vikrant. The Navy’s letter of request also outlines plans for the carrier to field between 30 and 35 fixed-wing combat aircraft and 20 rotary wing aircraft. In many ways, though this carrier will be the

The CGI of INS Vikrant ( Source- Wikimedia Commons / Author- Srikar Kashyap) Source- The National Interest Author- Zachary Keck India’s Navy has outlined the some of the specifications for a second indigenous aircraft carrier (IAC-2) in a letter of request to global shipbuilders. According to several Indian newspapers, last week India’s Navy sent out a Letter of Request to four global shipbuilding companies asking for help in designing India’s second indigenous aircraft carrier. The LoR specifies that India would like to build a 300-meter long aircraft carrier that displaces 65,000 tons. The Navy also said that the ship should be able to travel at 30 knots. In addition, the LoR says that the aircraft carrier will carry 30-35 fixed wing combat aircraft and about 20 rotary wing aircraft. In contrast to India’s existing aircraft carriers, which utilize ski-jump launch systems, the LoR for IAC-2 says the ship will have a catapult launched but arrested landing

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe  ( Source- Wikimedia Commons / Author- United States Embassy, Tokyo) Source- The Diplomat Author- Franz Stefan-Gady Today, the cabinet of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe approved the 2015 defense white paper compiled by the Ministry of Defense entitled “Defense of Japan 2015.” The approval came after a week-long delay due the Liberal Democratic Party’s demand for the document to name additional examples of China’s “one-sided” maritime actions, such as the construction of an offshore gas platform in the East China Sea. China’s naval ambitions and its overall maritime activities remain Japan’s top national security concern. Beijing’s activities take up a third of a section in the 429-page white paper discussing Tokyo’s security concerns and trends. ”China, particularly over maritime issues, continues to act in an assertive manner, including coercive attempts at changing the status quo, and is poised to fulfill its unilateral demands

INS Sahyadiri ( Source- Wikimedia Commons / Author- Saberwyn) Source- The Diplomat Author- Prashanth Parameswaran Indian Chief of Naval Staff Admiral R.K. Dhowan will be paying a five-day visit to Singapore and Thailand this week in a bid to strengthen naval cooperation and boost India’s ‘Act East Policy’ in the region, according to an official government statement seen by The Diplomat. Since Narendra Modi took office last year, India has been attempting to further boost cooperation with Southeast Asian states as part of its ‘Act East Policy’, a variation on the ‘Look East Policy’ first formulated under Narasimha Rao in 1991. As I have noted before, the Modi government’s use of the ‘Act East Policy’ is designed to signal a more action-oriented policy toward Southeast Asia (See: “Modi Unveils India’s ‘Act East Policy’ to ASEAN in Myanmar”). This applies to defense relations as well, and Dhowan’s trip is being publicized as a case in point. In Singapore, Dhowan will

Bombay stock exchange ( Source- Wikimedia Commons /Author- Niyantha Shekhar) Source- Want China Times India's nominal gross domestic product (GDP) might surpass China's in 2015, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), reports Nihon Keizai Shimbum, a Japanese news outlet based in Tokyo, cited by Beijing-based Reference News. However, India has many issues to resolve in order to spread wealth across the whole country, the fund said. The IMF predicted that India's real GDP growth will be 7.5% in 2015, said the report. India's nominal GDP in 2015 will reach US$1,800 per capita, which is the same as China's GDP per capita was in 2005. India will see a shift from consumption-led growth to investment-led growth, according to the IMF. This transition will give India the chance to surpass China's predicted 6.8% growth in real GDP in 2015, according to Reference News. In terms of nominal GDP, however, China's growth figure will still

Image credits- USNI Source- The National Interest Author- Nong Hong The Hague hearing on jurisdiction and admissibility of the South China Sea arbitration case has come to an end on July 13 after a weeklong process without China’s participation. The hearing has become a heated headline for medias, governments, and scholars for the past week. Questions include whether the Arbitral Tribunal will issue a decision on the jurisdiction and admissibility on July 13, who the decision might favor, to what extend the Tribunal may render its jurisdiction, if there is any, the reaction of China and the Philippines might be, and what might be the take-away for countries who sent observers to the hearing, including Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Japan. China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman has reiterated China’s position of “no accepting and no participating” in The Hague process, and accused as usual the Philippines’ of violating its commitment through the 2

Image credits- Flickr / MEA Official, Government of India Source- The Diplomat Author- Karan Pradhan On July 2, the U.S. Department of Defense released the ‘National Military Strategy of the United States of America 2015,’ and a few weeks earlier, on May 26, China too unveiled its defence white paper, titled China’s Military Strategy. Both reports are an annual exercise, and this year’s documents reflect adjustments in military strategy necessitated by geopolitical changes, such as China’s growing global power status, the proliferation of Islamist terrorist organisations, and a resurgence of Cold War rivalries. Soon, Japan too will release its annual defence paper, and the Japanese media has already carried reports about an outline of the paper; Russia is also adjusting its existing defence strategy. All these white papers provide an insight into how each country now perceives a changing world, geopolitically and technologically, and how its policies will adapt to

Iranian Matla-ul-fajr radar ( Image source- Wikimedia Commons / Author- M-ATF) Source- The Diplomat Author- Robert Farley The recent deal between the P5+1 and Iran over the latter’s nuclear program means, reportedly, that Iran will once again be on the market for advanced weapons technology, and that (eventually) it will have money to spend. There is little question that both Russia and China have been looking forward to this moment. Indeed, Russian and Chinese forbearance has been one of the miracles of the sanctions process, evidence that neither, however much they like to tweak the United States, actually favors a nuclear Iran. But even if the deal fails to make its way through the U.S. and Iranian diplomatic process, the arms embargo has a very limited lifespan. What does Iran need? Pretty much everything. Thirty years of sanctions and war have left the Iranian military with an arsenal of obsolescent weapons. The Iranians have done good work in a few areas, bu

Malabar Exercises ( Image source- Wikimedia Commons / Credits- United States Navy) Source- The Diplomat Author- Prashanth Parameswaran The United States and India should consider permanently expanding their annual naval exercise to include other like-minded partners as part of their joint cooperation in the Asia-Pacific, a U.S. defense official said earlier this week. Exercise MALABAR, which initially began as a bilateral naval exercise between the United States and India back in 1992, has at times been expanded to include other partners as well. The 2007 iteration included Japan, Australia, and Singapore, while Tokyo also participated in 2009 and 2014. This year, Japan has been included but Australia has reportedly been left out (See: “Japan to Join US, India in Military Exercises This Year”). But Robert Scher, the assistant secretary of defense for the Office of Strategy, Plans and Capabilities, told an audience at a Washington, D.C.-based think tank on July 13