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

MIG-35 ( Source- Wikimedia Commons / Author- Dmitriy Pichugin) Source- Russia & India Report Author- Stas Kuvaldin After the Indian government opted to buy 36 Rafale jet fighters “off the shelf” during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to France earlier this year, the Indian Defence Ministry is preparing to acquire more fighter aircraft to fulfil the needs of the armed forces. According to the Indian news agency IANS, Indian authorities are preparing to issue an official tender proposal for the supply of 90 new medium-sized fighters for the Indian Air Force. According to IANS, participants in the earlier bid (to acquire 126 aircraft originally) for purchase of  medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA), which ended with the government deciding to buy only 36 Rafale fighters, will be invited to participate in the tender. This means that the Russian MiG-35, which lost out to the Rafale bid last time, can again take part in the bid. MiG-35: The plane that won’

Dessault Rafale ( Source- Wikimedia Commons / Credits- Capt. Jaison Smith) Source- The Diplomat Author- Ankit Panda As my colleague Franz-Stefan Gady reported earlier, India’s request-for-proposal (RFP) for 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft has been, as was expected, formally withdrawn. Following Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement in Paris earlier this year that New Delhi would opt to purchase 36 Dassault Rafale fighters off-the-shelf, it was only a matter of time before we received confirmation from the Indian Defense Ministry of the MMRCA’s demise. The government-to-government deal left little hope that long-standing disastrous negotiation process between France’s Dassault Aviation and the Indian defense ministry would go on. As I commented at the time, the “mother of all defense deals,” as India’s MMRCA tender was known, was effectively dead. What’s interesting at this juncture is what New Delhi plans to do to meet the Indian Air Force’s outsta

Credits- Narendra Modi Official Source- Eurasia Review Author- Preety Sahu / South Asian Monitor It is a happy beginning to the process of ending an old nightmare. Finally an end to the disputed Enclaves between India and Bangladesh, called the ‘Chitmahal’ that have kept thousands of its residents to live a life of hell for last many decades. Historically, the enclaves have been the result of a series of chess games between two kings of the area in the eighteenth century where villages were simply gambled away. After Independence, boundaries were drawn but the fate of these enclaves was never sorted. The Land Border Agreement (LBA) was signed by India and Bangladesh way back in 1974. While Bangladesh government ratified the deal in 1974, the agreement was not ratified by Indian parliament as it involved cession of territory which required constitution amendment before ratification. Hence they lived in the “no-man’s land” as ill-fated children of Asia’s border- problems

Credits- You Tube Source- The Diplomat Author- Robert E. Kelly In July, world powers and Iran finally struck a deal over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program. This set off speculation that perhaps the Iran deal might be a template for a deal with North Korea. Although the Iran agreement remains contentious in the United States, much of the world finds it a broadly acceptable compromise. Maximalist demands on Iran were never going to work unless the U.S. was prepared for major military action and a potential regional meltdown. Some of kind of diplomacy was ultimately necessary. North Korea is similar. At this point, almost any kind of deal seems preferably to the status quo: a spiraling nuclear and missile program with no oversight. As I have argued elsewhere, it is increasingly hard to see how North Korean nuclearization ends well. In March, when it became clear just how many nuclear weapons North Korea might build in the next decade, I argued in this space that Sou

USS Nimitz, CVN-69 ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / United States Navy) Source- Eurasia Review Authors- Scott N. Romaniuk and Marinko Bobić US President Barack Obama recently (albeit allegedly) put an end to America’s foreign policy that had resisted external influence and interference in the Western Hemisphere. The Monroe Doctrine originally stated that efforts by foreign (European) states to colonize and become involved in states either in North or South America would ultimately be seen as aggressive acts. These conditions were articulated clearly and concisely by former president James Monroe in his seventh annual message delivered to Congress in December 1823. Monroe declared, “we should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety. With the existing colonies or dependencies of any European power we have not interfered and shall not interfere. But with the governments who have

Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / White House official photos Source- The National Interest Author- Jeff M.Smith Since its historic rapprochement with Beijing in the 1970s, America has approached a rising China with an “engagement” strategy guided by two key assumptions: first, that political liberalization would ultimately follow economic growth; and second, that supporting China’s integration into the global order would preempt Beijing from forcibly challenging that order. While confidence in those assumptions has waxed and waned, never did a consensus emerge that they were fundamentally flawed—until now. Today, Washington is confronting the dreadful realization that with each passing year, the goals of political liberalization and peaceful integration appear to grow more distant, while the prospect for conflict with China draws nearer. Even advocates of engagement, like Dr. David Shambaugh, are warning that the strategy “is unraveling” while domestic repression in

Shenyang J-31 ( Source- Wikimedia Commons / Author-  Source- The National Interest Author- Ryan Henseler Throughout its history, the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has lagged behind the aerial programs of other world powers such as the United States. Now, the PRC has set its sights on producing indigenously designed “fifth generation” fighter jets comparable to the US F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning II. Many U.S. officials and pilots suspect that the Chinese have been using hacked U.S. technology to aid their indigenous development programs. The PRC is also leveraging additive manufacturing technology (better known as 3D-printing) in order to increase speed and efficiency in manufacturing aircrafts and compete with the U.S. The J-20 Black Eagle could be fully operational by 2018, and a second model, the J-31 Gyrfalcon, by 2020. If true, China’s new generation of fighters could have a substantial impact on its ability to e

Credits- Wikimedia Commons  Source- The Diplomat Author- Prashanth Parameswaran On 27 July, local media outlets reported that the Vietnamese Coast Guard had inducted a new patrol vessel into one of its commands. The new boat, numbered CSB 4035, is the fifth of the Vietnamese-built TT400-class vessels in the fleet and was inducted into the service’s Zone 4 command. The vessel was delivered by local firm Hong Ha Shipbuilding Company last month to the High Command of the Vietnam’s Coast Guard. According to IHS Jane’s Fighting Ships, the TT400, usually tasked with conducting maritime border patrols, surveillance and reconnaissance, can reach a top speed of 32 knots and a standard range of 2,500 nautical miles at 15 knots. The vessels can accommodate a crew of 35 and are armed with two 14.5 mm air-defense guns, one AK 176 76 mm automatic cannon, and one radar-guided, six-barreled 30 mm AK 630 close-in weapon system turret. The vessel will be part of the Zone 4 comm