Indian Armed Forces at a glance

By: Kartikeya Semwal With the ever-increasing escalation by China on India’s eastern border, chances of India fighting China in the near future cannot be ruled out. With the growing air-space violation by Chinese helicopters & jets & the number of jets being regularly being inducted by Chinese airforce, the need of having more & more combat-capable jets is being felt by IAF (Indian Air Force).  Chinese choppers. We all know that the induction of LCA Tejas is going on and the 1 st squadron of Tejas Mk-1 IOC variant has already been inducted while induction of 2 nd squadron having an improved Tejas Mk-1 FOC variant has just started from 27 May 2020. The ‘good thing’ about Tejas is that its second squadron will be complete (18 jets) in the next 12 to 18 months.    Tejas Mk-1.  But in order to meet the Chinese aerial threat, IAF needs to induct more new jets & modify and upgrade the existing ones. One such similar and much needed modification and upgrade pr

By: Kartikeya Semwal With the ever-increasing threat posed by China’s PLA Navy in the IOC (Indian Ocean Region), neighbouring countries like Japan, South Korea and Australia have started feeling the need to induct and operate aircraft carriers of their own. Till now, none of these countries has an operational Aircraft Carrier (AC). Instead, they operate heli-carriers and/or ALS (Amphibious Landing Ships). But more than them, India feels the immediate need of operating at least 3 Aircraft Carriers (ACs). Currently, the Indian Navy has a solo AC called INS Vikramaditya, a 44,000-tonne behemoth brought from Russia. By 2022, India will get its 2 nd AC which is its own indigenous AC called INS Vikrant; a 45,000-tonne ship. Now since India has a vast coastline to guard, it needs 1 AC fleet to guard its western coasts & another to guard its eastern coast. INS Vikramaditya in battle mode. Guarding the western coast is easy when compared to the eastern coast as our foe Pakist

By: Kartikeya Semwal We all know that Indian Navy which operates 1 Aircraft Career INS Vikramaditya till date with a couple of Mig-29K fighters; & will soon get its first indigenous Aircraft Career in the next 2-3 years. And for that, it will need new fighter jets to keep up with emerging challenges put up by China’s PLZ Navy in the Indian Ocean region & in Bay of Bengal. New fighters will also be needed to replace the ageing Mig-29Ks on the other aircraft career keeping in mind that China is developing its own aircraft careers that will be well supported by indigenous J-15 & J-20 fighters, the latter of which is a modern day 5 th generation stealth jet. INS Vikramaditya with decked Mig-29Ks & Mi-26 choppers Indian Navy is gearing up to place an order of 57 fighter planes and a number of jet fighter manufacturing companies from various countries are in the race to get this deal. Now, we all know that India is not going to buy Lockheed Martin’s F-21, nor Eur

IAF says – “Ready for a 2-front war”. Really? By: Kartikeya Semwal It is good to see that IAF (Indian Airforce) is working hard to move from strength to strength by acquiring different types of fighter planes, transport aircrafts and different types of helicopters. But this doesn’t mean that it is ready to fight any type of war, especially when it is about fighting a two-front war on western and eastern fronts. Though IAF has been carrying out war games, operational exercises, joint exercises with friendly countries but it doesn’t mean that it is ready and well equipped for a two-front war. The most important point is still the same- lack of enough jet fighters to complete full squadron-strength of 45. We all know that the last of Mig-21s were retired a few months back in 2019 that had brought down IAF’s squadron strength to 33. But recently, with retiring of Mig-27 3 rd generation fighters lovingly called “Bahadur” by IAF, the current squadron strength is down to a dangerous l