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

Indian Navy Mig-29K ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / Indian Navy) Source- Russia & India Report Author- Rakesh Krishna Simha Former Air Marshal Sumit Mukerji holds a rare distinction. The Indian Air Force officer, who was Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Southern Air Command, is the only air force pilot to have commanded MiG-21, MiG-23, MiG-25, MiG-27 and MiG-29 units. "The only pilot," he says. "There’s no one even in Russia.” Mukerji’s achievement was possible because of the dominance of MiG aircraft in the IAF fleet. Currently the IAF has 245 units of the MiG-21 interceptor and 120 units of the MiG-27 ground attack jet. The MiG-23 fighter-bomber and the MiG-25, of which the IAF had eight units of the reconnaissance version, are long retired. Although MiG-21s are still in use in as many as 19 air forces worldwide, the frequent crashes of these older IAF MiGs led to a trial by media and furore in parliament, after which the IAF announced

Image  credits- Wikimedia Commons / Chris Samson Source- The National Interest Author- Josh Siegel The vote by Britons on Thursday to leave the European Union doubled as a referendum on how the country views the issue of immigration. With immigration at an all-time high in Britain, voters concerned about related issues such as economic uncertainty and sovereignty decided to shed their national identity by voting to upend 43 years of life inside the European Union. The tension over immigration is similar to what’s playing out in the United States, but different in an important way, in that Britain, as a European Union member, has no control of its borders. That’s because as long as Britain is in the European Union, it has to allow anyone from the 28-member bloc to live and work there. According to experts, Britain has experienced the changing face of immigration over the years. Stephen Booth, the co-director of Open Europe, a nonpartisan think tank bas

Brahmos Cruise Missile ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons /Hemant Photo79) India has one of the most powerful armies in the world. With an Army totaling more than 1.1 Million wit an equal number of reserves, a big air force and a navy, India has all the makings of a world class power. But India also holds the designation as the world's largest importer of weapon systems. In this article, I would like to analyse what went wrong for country like India that made it fail to develop indigenous capability in weapon systems and it remains the world's largest importer of weapon systems. The Past To get a correct picture, it is always better to revisit the past. Just after independence, a young nation faced it's first challenge in the form a of a Pakistani war on Kashmir. But this was much of a border war and the leaders of the time more concentrating on nation building paid little attention to the army. They had little or no strategic thinking and mostly decisions wer

PLA operations in South China Sea ( Image credits- VOA) Source- The National Interest Author-  Jacqueline Espenilla The Arbitral Tribunal in the Philippines-China case will likely release its much-awaited judgment in the next few weeks. For the Philippines—a veritable David to China’s Goliath in terms of economic, political and military might—a favorable decision serves as the best form of “lawfare” and will be an international legal validation of its main submissions, which are solidly anchored in United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) provisions and general principles of international law. Unfortunately, victory in this case will likely not lead to closure for a country that has pinned so much hope on its outcome. The obvious problem is that China has refused to participate in the arbitral process, and has even gone so far as to denounce the whole thing as “illegal.” Even though the tribunal has neatly disposed of China’s arguments pertaining to jurisd

Image credits- Flickr / MEA India Official Source- Russia & India Report Author-  VIKTOR LITOVKIN ,   IZVESTIA The Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi has returned from the United States. Over the past two years, the Indian prime minister has visited the States four times, and has been called “a key partner in the field of defence”, which opens for New Delhi unlicensed access to a wide range of US dual-use technologies and will help to establish co-production of new weapons. Some media immediately made a categorical conclusion: “Russia’s strategic partner turns to the United States.” But does it? Of course not. The statements made by some analysts, that “Russia is losing the Indian market”, are nothing more than a manifestation of incompetence or, if you call a spade a spade, a means of unfair competition, as well as the continuation of an information war against our country. India is not a fidgety woman who turns in one direction and then in another

Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / Al Jazeera Source- The National Interest Authors-  Aziz Amin Ahmadzai , Mona Naseer A sovereign state’s foreign policy changes with the times, and according to its domestic needs and external changes in global politics. Nations have national interests, and there are no permanent enemies and friendships in international politics. Neighboring states can be a boon or a bane, depending on the ability to recognize one’s long-term interests of sustainable peace on its borders. Pakistan’s recent relations with Afghanistan have been one such example, with Pakistan as a state unable to define its foreign policy and national interests beyond a Cold War paradigm. An India-centric foreign policy has stalled Pakistan’s foreign-policy evolution and tainted its worldview of international politics. Pakistan currently has strained and difficult relations with all its neighbors except China. Following the Kargil War in 1999 with India, Pakistan f

Image credits- VOA Source- The National Interest Authors-  Bonnie S. Glaser , Matthew P. Funaiole China’s transformation from an isolated, developing country into an economic juggernaut and emerging global actor is perhaps the most important power shift for twenty-first-century international politics. Its economy is now second largest in the world, while its military budget has ballooned from $20 billion in 1989 to $215 billion in 2015—an amount larger than the military budgets of Russia, Germany and the United Kingdom combined. Fear surrounding the consequences of China’s rise has engendered the spread of misinformation and hyperbole, much of which dominates public discussion of China in the United States. Several persistent “myths” about China overshadow its many problems, including its deeply ingrained corruption, slowing economic growth and aging population. These myths create an image of China as a dangerous usurper destined to displace the United States as t