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

Image credits- ISRO Source- Russia & India Report Author-  Yuri Karash , Vzglyad A couple of decades ago, the assumption that India was capable of claiming a part of the launch services market would have appeared too bold. Launch services had been securely divided between the US, Russia and Europe. At that time, India was only "learning" to fly into space, building sub-orbital vehicles, and light-class carriers that could deliver a few dozen kilograms of load to a low Earth orbit. The technology is not for everyone The situation changed in the early 1990s. India then developed and commissioned the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), a middle class launch vehicle, which has performed 35 test flights to date, of which all but one have been successful and one has been partly successful., making the PSLV’s reliability rating almost 95%, placing it on par with the best Russian, US and European carriers. The most major achievement of the Indian spa

Russian Cruiser Slava ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / United States Navy) Source- The National Interest Author- Miles Maochun Yu Squeezed in Europe by U.S-led sanctions and robust NATO reactions in the aftermath of the annexation of Crimea, Russia is now finding itself in a prime position to exploit the unfolding geopolitical dramas stirred up by China in East and Southeast Asia. Moscow has proactively demonstrated its determination to play a leading role in shaping the outcome of the highly explosive regional conflicts, at the expense of Beijing and potentially Washington as well. Until recently, President Vladimir Putin’s strategic priorities had heavily favored Europe and the Middle East, culminating in his reckless actions in destabilizing Ukraine, and his wholesale political, diplomatic, and military backing of Syria’s Assad regime. Asia Pacific has always been an important component of the Kremlin’s geopolitical calculation, but due to Russia’s multi-layer

Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / Jan Reurink Source- The Diplomat Author- Justin Cheung It is no secret that Tibetan independence movements have long drawn the ire of Chinese authorities. Alongside heightened rhetoric in recent years over Tibetan unrest and the growing publicity of riots and self-immolations, China has sought to augment its capacity for crackdown in the restive province. The swiftness of Chinese response to previous swells of separatist sentiment is best illustrated in the 2008 Tibetan unrest. During that time, the BBC reported that within days of the start of anti-government riots, over 400 troop carriers of the People’s Armed Police were mobilized. Ultimately, the speed with which the Chinese government was able to ferry troops into sites of unrest was a crucial factor in quelling the upheaval. In more recent times, China’s “One Belt, One Road” (OBOR) policy – Xi Jinping’s plan to expand the reach of Chinese trade routes to Europe through a la

Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / Jasper Rautell Balle Source- The National Interest Author- Abhijnan Rej Last week an enterprising, and unknown, far-right outfit in New Delhi performed a traditional Hindu puja, literally praying for a Donald Trump presidency. The Washington Post took this to mean that Trump has fans in India despite his tasteless rants about outsourcing. Britain’s Guardian quoted the fringe leader behind the religious ceremony describing Trump as “our hero.” The Hindu right’s Islamophobia is one that The Donald surely shares. They too, like Trump, are keen on restoring some putative long-lost national glory. But a far more sophisticated argument, beyond the trope of Islamic terrorism, can be made about the desirability of a Trump presidency for India. Simply put, the accession of Donald Trump to the White House offers India greater strategic space. It reduces the chances of India becoming collateral damage in American interventionism. A retrenched

Indira series of joint Indo-Russian exercises ( Image credits- Wikimedia Coomons / Mil.ru) Source- Russia & India Report / TASS A second round of consultations on planning the Russian-Indian war games Indra-2016 will be held in India in June, Col Alexander Gordeyev, the chief press officer of Russia's Eastern Military District said on Tuesday. "At the second planning conference that will be held in India, representatives of the Eastern Military District and the Indian Armed Forces will coordinate a calendar of the war games, the types and quantities of weapons and the procedure for the handover of arms, equipment and specialized technologies to the Indian army servicemen who will take part in the maneuvers," he said. Avia Indra-2014 teaches pilots tactics and precision The Russian-Indian anti-terrorist exercise Indra-2016 will take place in the second half of 2016 on the Sergeyevsky training ground located in the Far-Eastern Primorsky (Maritime)

PLAN Type- 54A Frigate Daqing ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / Simon Yang) Source- The National Interest Author- Dean Cheng There is a lot going on in Southeast Asia. The United States has conducted another freedom of navigation operation in the area of several disputed islands. The American Aegis destroyer USS William P. Lawrence sailed within 12 nautical miles of the artificial Chinese island built atop Fiery Cross Reef. Because Fiery Cross Reef began as a “high tide elevation (HTE),” (meaning: a rock) it is entitled to a 12 nautical mile zone of territorial waters. The United States therefore chose to conduct an “innocent passage,” sailing across the 12 nautical mile zone with its radars off, helicopter grounded, and weapons aimed fore-and-aft. Its main challenge to the Chinese was conducting its passage without giving the People’s Republic of China prior notification. So, the administration continues to conduct freedom of navigation operations at a de