Indian Armed Forces at a glance

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...

India improving Missile Inventory of it’s Amred Forces By:-Kartikeya Semwal We all know that India has 2 disturbing & distrustful international neighbours namely Pakistan & China. We have fought wars with both in different years in the past. And our army keeps having skirmishes on both- it’s eastern & western fronts. India remains under threat to fight a two-front war which is a national issue of great importance. In order to address this issue effectively, DRDO (Defence Research & Development Organization) has been working hard to develop a range of different types of missiles ranging from sub-sonic, super-sonic, SRBM (Short Range Ballistic Missile), AAD (Advanced Air Defence), QRSAM (Quick Reaction Surface to Air Missile) MRSAM (Medium Range Surface to Air Missile) & ASM (Air to Surface Missile). This will enable the Indian Army & give them teeth to fight a limited, quick & effective 2-front war, especially with China.  QRSAM test-fired.  ...

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...