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

SU-35 ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / Author- Aleksandr Markin) Source- Russia & India Report Authors- Nikolay Litovkin , Nadezhda Ustinova , RIR Asian countries, particularly China and India, are Russia’s top partners in the sphere of defence cooperation, officials have repeatedly stated. At the moment, there are contracts in place with a number of countries in the region for the supply of military fighter aircraft, air defence systems, submarines, and other weapons. The Asian continent is the global leader in terms of growth in defence spending today, and a huge market for arms exports has opened up in these countries. “Interest in Asian countries can be explained by the fact that their armed forces are familiar with our weapons, and the Syrian campaign has shown their effectiveness in actual combat. This applies primarily to aircraft, submarines armed with cruise missiles and air defence systems,” said Igor Korotchenko, chief editor of the magazine Nat

Image credits- YouTube/ Author Source- The National Interest Author- Dave Majumdar The House Armed Services Committee is directing the U.S. Air Force to examine the possibility of expanding the Northrop Grumman B-21 Long Range Strike Bomber program. While the Air Force wants to buy between 80 and 100 B-21 stealth bombers, others including former service intelligence chief Lt. Gen. David Deptula—dean of the Mitchell Institute—have called for as many as 175 aircraft to be built. “The committee directs the Secretary of the Air Force to submit a report to the congressional defense committees by February 1, 2017, that estimates the number of B-21 bomber aircraft needed to meet the combatant commander requirements,” reads the bill text. The report will include: -  A Detailed explanation of the strategy and associated force sizing and shaping constructs, associated scenarios and assumptions used to conduct the analysis. - A range of numbers to meet requirements

Russian Special forces ( Source- Wikimedia Commons / Author-   http://eng.mil.ru/en/index.htm ) Source- Russia & India Report Author- Nikolay Litovkin , RIR How much is Russia spending on defence? The Stockholm International Peace research Institute (SIPRI) said Russia has increased its defence spending by 7.5 percent in 2015, with the Defence Ministry’s budget reaching $66.4 billion, How does this compare with other countries?   According to SIPRI, the world’s biggest military spender, the USA, spent $596 billion on its defence in 2015. Next was China, with $215 billion; and Saudi Arabia, with $87 billion. India spent $51 billion on defence in 2015. What share of GDP does it constitute? Percentage-wise, Russia is among the leaders in terms of the share of GDP spent on defence. The USA’s defence spending makes up 3.3 percent of the country’s GDP. China spends around 1.9 percent, whereas Russia’s amounts to 5.4 percent of GDP. The Russian figure is the wo

OIC Summit ( Image credits- OIC) Source- Eurasia Review Author-  Kaveh L. Afrasiabi The 13th summit of the heads of state of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) took place under the overall theme of “unity and solidarity for justice and peace” and, yet, because the Saudi-led bloc managed to turn into an Iran-bashing forum, the summit’s important final communique reflected deep cleavages and disunity in the abode of Islam. As a result, the Iranian delegation headed by President Hassan Rouhani, who urged real unity of Muslims in his speeches at the summit, boycotted the final closing session of the summit and in a post-summit meeting with the Turkish Prime Minister Davutoglu, Rouhani complained that the OIC has not fulfilled its mission. The summit’s final document contains some 200 items covering a broad range of issues, such as Palestine, the Arab-Israeli issue, terrorism, poverty, unemployment, economic cooperation, etc., including four anti-Iran points as

Image credits- Wikimedia Commons Source- The National Interest Author-  Christopher A. Preble In a recent discussion at the Center for the National Interest, the University of Chicago’s John Mearsheimer and former U.S. ambassador to Germany Richard Burt talked about the role of allies and alliances in U.S. foreign policy. Mearsheimer spelled out his familiar critique of the dominant grand strategy of liberal hegemony (which others have called primacy), and made the case for an alternative of offshore balancing, which I think bears a strong resemblance to restraint—though John might disagree. He explained that the defenders of liberal hegemony who dominate the bipartisan foreign policy establishment don’t worry much about allied free riding (aka buck passing). They might complain about it for public consumption—indeed, it has become something of a ritual—but most foreign policy elites privately prefer that America’s many allies follow Washington’s lead. And that isn’t