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

Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / Leon Panetta Source- Eurasia Review Author- Alireza Rezakhah Zachary Schreiber correctly predicted a drastic fall in global oil prices two years ago and is now issuing warnings over a financial catastrophe in Saudi Arabia. He has recently projected that Saudi Arabia will become bankrupt in terms of its financial structure because the country is facing two threats, that is, very high costs in the face of plummeting oil prices. Schreiber says that Saudi Arabia is undoubtedly suffering from high debts right now. According to his report, Saudi Arabia needs an oil price of over 100 dollars per barrel in order to make the ends meet. Schreiber has also noted that Saudi Arabia’s extravagant social programs are at loggerheads with reducing oil prices. The foreign exchange reserves of Saudi Arabia’s central bank previously stood at about USD 600 billion, but Saudis had totally squandered about USD 140 billion of those reserves between late 2014 an

Virginia Class USS North Dakota SSN ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / United States Navy) Source- The National Interest Author- Dave Majumdar Though Russia continues to develop and build newer and ever more capable nuclear attack submarines such as the Project 885M Yasen-class, the U.S. Navy continues to maintain its technological edge by incrementally improving its Virginia-class attack boats. “I think we have a very focused program called the acoustic superiority program to make sure that we in fact keep our technological lead—our acoustical advantage—and that's a focus of every one of our developmental programs,” Capt. Mike Stevens, Naval Sea Systems Command’s Virginia-class program manager told me at the Navy League’s Sea, Air and Space symposium on May 17. “It doesn't do any good to build submarines that aren’t up to par, so it’s a main part of our focus to make sure those submarine do maintain their acoustical advantage—not just today but 10, 20 years

USAF F-35 ( Image credits- VOA) Source- The National Interest Author- David Axe The U.S. Senate just confirmed what an Air Force general hinted at in February 2016 — and which should have been obvious for years to close observers of U.S. air power. The Joint Strike Fighter program is not developing one, common warplane for the U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps and the air arms of America’s closest allies. No, the Joint Strike Fighter is actually three different plane designs sharing a basic cockpit, engine and software and a logistical network. The Air Force’s F-35A, the Marines’ F-35B and the Navy’s F-35C should, in all fairness, be the F-35, F-36 and F-37. “Despite aspirations for a joint aircraft, the F-35A, F-35B and F-35C are essentially three distinct aircraft, with significantly different missions and capability requirements,” the Senate stated in its version of the National Defense Authorization Act for 2017. Before the act becomes law, the Se

Gwadar Port ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / Umar Gondal) Source- Eurasia Review Author- Alvin Cheng-Hin Lim It has just been over a year since Chinese President Xi Jinping announced the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) during his inaugural state visit to Pakistan in April 2015. What has been the progress of the construction of the megaproject since then? Zhang Baozhong, the chairman of China Overseas Ports, the company that will run the Pakistani port of Gwadar, stated in late April 2016 that Gwadar will commence full operations by the end of 2016. Gwadar is essential to CPEC as it will connect CPEC with shipping on the Arabian Sea; and being close to the Straits of Hormuz, will serve as a strategic gateway for Middle Eastern oil shipments to be transported overland to China via CPEC’s planned oil pipelines. Logistics will be transformed by CPEC, as container ships that today have to make the “the nearly 13,000 km sea voyage from Tianjin to the Persian Gulf t

Image credits- Indian Navy Source- The Diplomat Author- Pushan Das Last week, India’s first conventional submarine in over a decade and a half —the INS Kalvari—finally began sea trials, amid reports of Indo-U.S. cooperation in tracking Chinese submarine activity in the region. As sightings of Chinese submarines become more frequent in the Indian Ocean region, the Indian Navy is looking at innovative ways to gain an edge in anti-submarine warfare (ASW) capabilities. Can the Indian Navy effectively counter a modern Chinese submarine force, which is primarily optimized for regional anti-surface warfare missions near major sea lines of communication in the Indian Ocean? India’s expenditure on defense acquisition has remained largely static in real terms in recent years, resulting in constraints on not just the navy but the armed forces in general. The defense outlay for fiscal year 2016/17 was INR 2.49 trillion (USD 36.63 billion), but according to IHS Jane’s 360, th

China on the edge ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / Donuts Commonswiki) Source- The National Interest Author- Peter Navarro In July of 2001, Gordon Chang predicted an inevitable meltdown of the Chinese Communist Party in his best-selling book The Coming Collapse of China. Since then, China’s economy has increased by more than eightfold, to surpass even the United States on a purchasing parity power basis. Oops? In Chang’s defense, he could not have anticipated the colossal blunder of President Bill Clinton and a Republican Congress in paving China’s ruthlessly mercantilist way into the World Trade Organization just five months after his book was published. That mother of all unfair trade deals—a well-deserved target of both the Sanders and Trump presidential campaigns—kept China’s Great Walls of Protectionism largely intact. However, it also opened U.S. markets to a flood of illegally subsidized Chinese imports, and catalyzed the offshoring of millions of American

INS Arihant SSBN ( Credits- Indian Navy) Source- The Diplomat Author- Abhijit Singh Last week, the Kalvari, India’s first indigenous stealth submarine’s sea trials outside Mumbai Harbour created considerable excitement in India’s maritime circles. The Kalvari is the first of India’s six submarines based on the Scorpene-class being built under the much-delayed Project 75. Its sail-around was widely seen as an important step forward in meeting the September 2016 target for the submarine’s commissioning. Despite the absence of its “primary weapon” – the heavyweight “Black-Shark” torpedoes – the Kalvari’s presence in the open seas emphasized India’s efforts at rejuvenating its indigenous submarine production program. While the project has faced long delays, Indian naval technicians and project managers have worked tirelessly to meet construction deadlines. The Kalvari’s appearance in the open seas last week then created new hope for India’s submarine ambitions. The cheery

Image credits- VOA Source- The National Interest  Author- Abhijit Singh Has there been a recent shift in China's maritime strategy in the South China Sea? Has Beijing tempered its land reclamation and island building campaign, choosing to highlight positive aspects of its maritime security conduct? Is the PLAN becoming more accepting of the realities of the South China Sea, recalibrating its strategy to emphasise a more passive and benevolent presence? In a recent Lowy Institute Report, Rory Medcalf and Ashley Townshend point to an interesting evolution in China's maritime thinking. The duo contend that not only has China turned more conciliatory in its maritime policy, Beijing is now advocating confidence-building measures that until recently it had refused to consider, helping lower the risks of maritime incidents, miscalculations and accidental conflict. Yet this behaviour is also facilitating what the authors say is a form of 'passive assertiveness