Indian Armed Forces at a glance

Rafael or Mig-35 which fighter is best suited for IAF? By: Kartikeya Semwal Rafael Vs Mig-35 For long Indian Air Force (IAF) has been having the requirement of 114 fighters after it scrapped the 126 MMRCA (Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft) deal and purchased 36 Rafael fighters from France. The new MMRCA-2 called the MWF (Medium Weight Fighter) will acquire 114 new medium combat jets from a foreign company along with full TOT (Transfer of Technology) to manufacture the jet fighters completely in India, including it’s spare parts. For this, the winning foreign company will also have to partner with an Indian defence firm, & share their technical know-how with them. Now we all know that there are as many as 6 foreign companies from as many countries, which are vying to get the MWF order of 114 fighter jets. Here, we will focus on just 2 of them namely- Dassault Aviations of France & Mikoyan Consortium of Russia. While Dassault brings it’s most advanced combat jet R...

Tejas Mk1 in action.  Should HAL boost production of Tejas Mk-1 & Mk-1A? By:- Kartikeya Semwal Now that we all know that by the end of 2019, IAF will be down to just 30-32 squadrons as against the sanctioned strength of 42; it’s high time that the Govt. of India (GOI) & HAL should focus on addressing the issue of falling fighter squadrons of Indian Air-Force (IAF). HAL that has been tasked with producing the indigenous LCA (Light Combat Aircraft) Tejas Mk-1 & 1A has just produced 16 of the first 40 Tejas Mk-1s. So ironically, HAL has failed to produce even 1 full squadron of Tejas jets despite passage of 1 & ½ years which is very slow. While our threatening neighbours Pakistan & China are adding new fighters in considerable numbers every year. The latest news about Pakistan was that, it would start getting JF-17 block-III from July-August this year. Similarly, China too is adding J-20 5 th generation fighters at a good pace while India lags behind i...

Should India pursue a 3 Fighter Program? Indian Air Force (IAF) is facing a shortage of jet fighters as its squadrons have gone down from 38 to 33, while the required sanctioned strength is 45. In order to get the sanctioned strength, IAF should pursue a 3 Fighter Program while asking HAL to boost production of LCA Tejas Mk-1A. U nder this, it should have 3 different types of fighters.   ·         Type I- Light Combat Aircrafts like Tejas Mk-I and Mk-IA for light attack and short-term based war, to counter Pakistan’s JF-17 Thunder and China’s J-10C. ·         Type II- Medium Combat Fighter like JAS-39 Saab Gripen and medium weight combat aircraft based on best characteristics of Tejas Mk-IA and Rafael, both of which are 4 th + generation advanced fighters. ·         Type III- Medium Heavy Fighters like Su 30 MKI and Rafael for medium combat to heavy bombardme...

Expansion Theory of China & Its Effects  By: Kartikeya Semwal In the past few years, we have seen China trying to expand its physical boundaries in the eastern part of the Asian continent. It is trying to acquire Taiwan and has increased its maritime boundaries in the name of South-China sea, where it has made about half a dozen artificial islands. On them, it has deployed anti-ship and anti-aircraft missiles and warships to not only protect them, but also to increase its war capabilities. Indian army checked PLA army’s intrusion and effort to forcefully acquire Doklam and reach India’s LAC (line of actual control) in the east, and stopped them from doing so. Half a dozen Asian countrirs such as Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Phillipnes and Singapore have disputes with China and are opposing its expansion in South-China sea. But what’s the reason behind China’s expansion theory? What does it wants to achieve by expanding its maritime boundaries. Experts are...

The Achievements of ISRO By: Kartikeya Semwal ISRO (Indian Space research Organization) doesn’t needs any introduction. Till date ISRO has successfully launched many satellites in the earth’s orbit. Today we will discuss some of its major achievements which have made it a leading space organization in the world. ISRO recently launched 104 satellites in a single launch using its PSLV-C37 rocket. Of the 104 satellites, India owned CARTOSAT-2 & 2 other Nano satellites while the remaining 101 were 1 each from UAE, Netherland, Kazakhstan, Israel, Switzerland and 96 from USA. ISRO’s big success stories started from October 2008 when it launched its first Moon Mission ‘Chandrayan-1’ successfully. The mission lasted 312 days and ended in August 2009. It mapped the moon’s surface and discovered water on it in the form of condensed ice.  In November 2013, ISRO launched ‘Mangalyaan’ or Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM). This made it only the world’s 4 th space agency acros...

The Paris Agreement & its Importance By: Kartikeya Semwal The Paris Agreement also known as ‘Paris Climate Change Agreement’ or the ‘Paris Climate Change Accord’ is an agreement under the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) which will deal with greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2020. Till June 2017, 195 countries have signed it and 153 of them have ratified it.  Under the agreement, each signatory country will determine, plan and report its contribution in reducing the greenhouse gas emissions to in turn reduce global warming and rise in global temperature. USA is the only country that has not signed the agreement due to its aggressive industrial policy.  The Paris Agreement aims at keeping the global temperature rise in this century to below 2 degree Celsius. The agreement also aims to strengthen and improve the ability of all signatory countries to effectively deal with the impacts of climate change. To achieve this goal, the ...

Why India needs Israel & US? By: Kartikeya Semwal India, a developing nation moving forward to become a developed one; shares its borders with 2 nations that are considered as threat to its sovereignty- namely China and Pakistan. Throughout the time, India faces a threat of fighting a two-front war on any given day with its twin neighbors. In order to deal with them effectively, India needs help of Israel and US in terms of weapons and technologically superior defense systems; that will help it to win the war. Israel has recently signed a deal with India to provide it with its latest Barak-8 missile defense system and armed UAV Heron TP. Israel will also provide India with close to 800 anti-tank missiles named ‘Spike’. Already, India is using AWACS early warning airborne missile defense system to guard its borders.  US is equally important for providing high tech weapons and systems for India. US has already provided C-130J Super Hercules transport aircraft and w...