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

INS Vikrant (R-44) under construction at Kochi ( Source- Indian Navy) Source- Russia & India Report Authors-  ILYÁ KRAMNIK, KONSTANTIN BOGDANOV, LENTA.RU Russia, France, Britain and the United States have been asked by the Indian Navy to participate in a tender and compete for a contract to develop a new aircraft carrier for it. According to some media reports, Russia and France have made it to the short list of bidders, while India is inclined towards the Russian version. Announcing the beginning of design work on a new Indian aircraft carrier, the ‘Vishal’ in 2010, then Navy Chief Nirmal Kumar Verma said the Indian Navy wants a “large aircraft carrier” from which they will be able to launch fighters, radar surveillance aircraft, and tactical tanker aircraft. Officially, the new Indian aircraft carrier ‘Vishal’ is the second ship of the ‘Vikrant’ type. However, given requirements for the project promulgated by the Indian military means building a fundamentally ne

Forbidden City, Beijing ( Source- Wikimedia Commons / Author- Mingzi Zhongqiu)  Source- The National Interest Author- Harry J. Kazianis  Twenty-five years ago, the mighty Soviet Union was finally thrown onto the ash heap of history—never to rise again. And yet, the fall of one of the most powerful empires in human history, we often forget, was never a sure thing. Indeed, looking back just ten years’ time, to 1981, very few people foresaw the demise of the USSR. In fact, many made predictions that it was America who was in for a rough patch in the years to come. Even a cursory survey of history from that era depicts an America still struggling to overcome a deeply ingrained malaise: the Soviets seemed on the march almost everywhere, the U.S. economy was in shambles, the nation was still reeling from the emotional scars of the Vietnam War as well as the resignation of a sitting president. The hits just kept on coming—a seemingly never-ending crisis, and what must have felt

Northrop Grumman B-21 Stealth Bomber ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / USAF) Source- The National Interest Author- Dave Majumdar The U.S. Air Force has disclosed a trove of additional details about its secretive Northrop Grumman B-21 Long Range Strike Bomber (LRS-B), but is refusing to divulge information about how much the stealthy new warplane will cost, despite congressional pressure. The Air Force is worried that disclosing the price might compromise the bomber’s capabilities. The service’s assertions were meet with skepticism on Capitol Hill, however. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), took the Air Force to task for hiding trivial details about the B-21 for the sake of secrecy. “Why would you not ever want to tell the American people how you’re going to spend their dollars?” McCain asked on March 8. “We’re trying to balance the transparency that we want to do with the public so that they understand what we’re

USAF F-22 Raptor ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / USAF) Source- The National Interest Author- Dave Majumdar The Pentagon erred in prematurely terminating the stealthy Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor air superiority fighter program—having miscalculated how quickly the Russians and Chinese would develop new aircraft. While the Raptor is not likely to brought back into production, the Air Force and Navy have started work on a next generation air superiority capability. The basic problem stems from a mistake that was made in the aftermath of the Cold War. During the 1990s and the early 2000s—with the Soviet threat evaporating—the Defense Department did not anticipate facing off against a near-peer threat in the foreseeable future. That assessment was wrong—as Russian and Chinese developments have shown. “The department and the Congress made a decision that we would not see a near-peer threat within a number of years, and that decision also proved to be—and that judgm

CNS Kunming ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / 海防先锋) Source- The National Interest Author- James Holmes There are worse things than fleeing the bleak New England midwinter for warmer climes—such as Jaipur, India’s famed “Pink City.” So cold was it when I departed Providence last month that the nozzle on my plane’s fuel hose froze shut, grounding the plane until the crew could unfreeze it. Frolicking around in shirtsleeves at a Mughal dynasty fort in Rajasthan was a welcome relief from frostbite. The occasion for the trip, though, was three days of “quad-plus dialogue” about sundry topics important to Indian Ocean powers. The “quad,” or standing membership for these unofficial “track II” gatherings, refers to India, Australia, Japan and the United States. Sri Lanka is the “plus,” or rotating participant, for this year. Maritime governance in the Pacific and Indian oceans was the subject of my panel. China came up repeatedly during the gathering, which should sho

Chinese Liaoning Aircraft Carrier ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / Simon Yang) Source- The National Interest  Author- Dave Majumdar The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) aircraft carriers won’t be able to conduct blue water operations in the way the U.S. Navy’s flattops do. Nor will the PLAN have global power projection capabilities akin to those afforded by America’s fleet of supercarriers. That’s the assessment of the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency. “The aircraft carriers that they’re building will not have the same blue open ocean capability that our aircraft carriers have,” U.S. Marine Corps. Lt. Gen. Vincent Stewart, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told the House Armed Service Committee on March 2. “Nor will it be able to execute air operations the way we use our carriers.” Chinese aircraft carriers—at least initially—will be focused on local operations in the seas surrounding China, Stewart said. Most of China’s efforts