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

Sukhoi SU-30 MKI ( Source- Wikimedia Commons / Chanakya  The Great) Source- Russia & India Report Author- Rakesh Krishnan Simha How many fighter squadrons does the Indian Air Force need to fight a war, and more importantly, win it? A senior IAF commander says the current fleet strength of 33 squadrons – approximately 600 aircraft – is not enough to fight a two-front war. The “sanctioned strength” is quoted at 42 squadrons and anything below this will impact national security. Where did this number come from? In the 1950s, the defence brass had recommended 64 fighter squadrons for the IAF. That was revised to 42 in the 1960s. There is nothing magical about this number and only those who fail to recognise that the nature of air combat has changed will cling to it. Back in the 1960s; when the supersonic era was in its infancy; jet fighters were smaller, accident prone, required longer maintenance hours and had low endurance. For instance, it was said about the MiG

Image credits- Indian Navy Source- Russia & India Report Author- Dmitry Sikorsky, Rueconomics.RU India will, over the next decade, face the task of building a modern naval industrial complex, able to implement all the technologies already available to Delhi. Pyotr Topychkanov, Senior Researcher at the Security Centre of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations RAS, believes modernization of the Indian military-industrial complex, in order to develop the country’s naval forces, is long overdue. “The Indian naval doctrine and plans for the development of its Navy are greatly outpacing the current development of the country’s defence establishment. As a result, India is forced to depend on suppliers of foreign technologies and on the direct supply of naval armaments,” said Topychkanov. Modernization of this sector should not only focus on improving the quality and increasing the capacity of the country’s military-industrial complex, but also

Image credits- VOA Source- The National Interest Author- Piyush Singh Starting in early 2013, Japan’s Foreign policy turned resurgent with an eye on China. After years of dormant foreign policy, Japan under Prime Minister Shinzō Abe has moved with vigor to secure its international and security interests, resolving the wartime sexual slavery issue with South Korea, securing a strategic partnership with India and opening up Japan’s defense industry after years of a self-imposed ban. This is done with a focus on China’s rise and its implications for the regional security architecture. Abe sees China as a revisionist power and is preparing for a future in which Japan has to contend with China as the main geopolitical force in the Asia-Pacific. He has concentrated his national and international policies on Japan’s changing national security objectives, with both a national and an international perspective regarding its foreign policy and security objectives. National Obsta

Russian Proton-M rocket  ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons/ Flickr) Source- Russia & India Report Authors- SVETLANA ARKHANGELSKAYA, RIR A Proton-M rocket with Russian and European instruments on board lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakstan at 12:31 p.m. on March 14. The primary aim of the mission is to find methane on the Mars, the red planet. Methane is often an indicator of primitive biological life. The rocket will also attempt to develop technologies for a soft landing amid dust storms. The launch date was not selected at random. March 2016 is when Mars and the Earth are at their closest, around 55 million kilometres from each other, as opposed to the normal average distance of 225 million kilometres. "This period is a 'window' of sorts,'' said Dr. Igor Mitrofanov, director of the department of nuclear planetology at the Institute of Space Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences. “This occurs once every two years a

Image credits- VOA Source- The National Interest Author-  Nikolas K. Gvosdev How are we to make sense of Vladimir Putin’s announcement that the bulk of the Russian expeditionary force in Syria is to be withdrawn over an as-of-yet undefined period in the coming weeks and months? Is this a Kremlin victory lap, or a way to extricate Russia from what might prove to be a dangerous and costly mistake? Here are five ways to view Putin’s surprise. 1) Mission accomplished The most straightforward explanation, based on an assessment that the Russian expeditionary deployment, which began last September, was always intended to be a short-term operation. At the time, the Kremlin made no grandiose promises about what its active involvement in the Syrian civil war would bring—no boasting about how the Islamic State would be destroyed or statements about restoring control over all of Syria to the regime of Bashar al-Assad. Like the Russian intervention in the Donbass the ye

South Asia ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / Sergio) Source- Eurasia Review Author- Chayanika Saxena/ South Asia Monitor It is often suggested that the only way out of an over-zealous competitive world order that is attended by threatening rivalries and lack of trust is to embed the countries in a relationship of economic interdependence. Appearing to be the best bet in a global order that is connected by boundary-transcending technologies, but where national rivalries are still rife, fostering of economic cooperation between countries can help pacify if not eliminate suspicion and mistrust that have often triggered conflicts between and within nations. Attesting to the harms that unchecked rivalries have the potential of creating, India, which shares its territorial and maritime boundaries with almost all the other South Asian countries, it has realized that the dividends accruing out of economic cooperation can outweigh the ills of political animosity that pervad

PLAN Aircraft Liaoning ( Source-Wikimedia Commons / Author- Simon Yang) Source- The National Interest Author- Peter Navarro “Anonymous sources within the U.S. Navy’s senior command have revealed that the U.S. is not concerned over any immediate threat from the introduction of China’s latest aircraft carrier in the Pacific, the Liaoning.” China’s only aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, is a great source of national pride. It is also a grim symbol of the arrogance of an American defense establishment that largely dismisses Beijing’s under-sized training carrier as an antiquated bucket of rusty Soviet bolts.  The prevailing Pentagon opinion is not wrong, at least when viewed through the keyhole of tactics and short-term thinking. The Liaoning is indeed a refurbished Soviet carrier originally launched in 1988 that the Chinese picked up for a rusting song from Ukraine in 1998. The Liaoning is also a bit undersized. Its deck is just shy of 100 feet shorter than an Amer

INS Tabar ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / Author- Deepak Gupta) Source- The National Interest Author- Dave Majumdar Russia is hoping to sell three of its six planned Project 11356-class frigates to India. Moscow is hoping to rid itself of those ships because of their Ukrainian-built engines. The Russian Navy commissioned the first Project 11356 frigate—Admiral Grigorovich—into service last week. While the Russian Navy is expecting to commission two additional Project 11356 frigates into service in May and August, both of these vessels—Admiral Essen and Admiral Makarov—will stay under Moscow’s control and serve with the Russian Black Sea Fleet. The remaining three vessels—which are still under construction—are likely going to be sold to India since New Delhi still has functional relations with Ukraine. A final decision on selling the ships, however, has yet to be made by Moscow. “So far, we are fulfilling the works under state defense order and building t