Category Archives: Indian ecobomic situation

Taking Off

Posted on February 15, 2016 by Bharat Karnad

For an indigenous light combat aircraft (LCA) disparaged by the Indian Air Force brass as “overweight”, “underpowered”, “obsolete”, “a three-legged cheetah” and, in technical terms, as a plane that “cannot fly without telemetry, pull more than 6G or an angle-of-attack … Continue reading →

Posted in arms exports, Asian geopolitics, civil-military relations, Culture, Defence Industry, DRDO, Europe, Geopolitics, Great Power imperatives, India's strategic thinking and policy, Indian Air Force, Indian ecobomic situation, Indian Navy, Iran and West Asia, society, South Asia, Strategic Relations with the US & West, Technology transfer, Weapons, West Asia | 12 Comments

Tejas, Hawk and HAL

Posted on February 13, 2016 by Bharat Karnad

The decision of the Government to have HAL produce a combat version of the British Hawk originally procured from BAe as primary jet trainer for the air force (and navy) makes sense but only in a limited sense. HAL expects, … Continue reading →

Posted in Africa, arms exports, Asian geopolitics, Central Asia, civil-military relations, Culture, Defence Industry, DRDO, Europe, Geopolitics, Great Power imperatives, guerilla warfare, India's strategic thinking and policy, Indian Air Force, Indian Army, Indian ecobomic situation, Indian Navy, Internal Security, Latin America, Military Acquisitions, SAARC, society, South Asia, South East Asia, Strategic Relations with South East Asia & Far East, Technology transfer, Vietnam, Weapons, West Asia | 8 Comments

Tejas is operationally ready, Mr Parrikar. Now order IAF to induct it.

Posted on February 5, 2016 by Bharat Karnad

This afternoon a Tejas flown by Group Captain Madhav Rangachari, fresh from the aircraft’s stirring display in Bahrain, went up over the firing range in Pokharan and successfully fired the Israeli Derby air-to-air BVR missile integrated into its fire control … Continue reading →

Posted in arms exports, Asian geopolitics, Culture, Defence Industry, DRDO, Europe, Geopolitics, Great Power imperatives, India's strategic thinking and policy, Indian Air Force, Indian ecobomic situation, Israel, Military Acquisitions, Missiles, society, South Asia, Technology transfer, United States, US., West Asia, Western militaries | 13 Comments

FGFA deal by Feb-end & why Rafale is going nowhere fast

Posted on February 4, 2016 by Bharat Karnad

Real-life hare and tortoise story. The hare is the French Rafale combat aircraft, the tortoise the slow but steady Russian Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA). The tortoise is about breasting the tape — with the deal likely to be signed … Continue reading →

Posted in arms exports, Asian geopolitics, civil-military relations, Defence Industry, DRDO, Europe, Geopolitics, Great Power imperatives, India's strategic thinking and policy, Indian Air Force, Indian ecobomic situation, Military Acquisitions, Missiles, Relations with Russia, Russia, russian assistance, russian military, society, South Asia, Strategic Relations with the US & West, Technology transfer, United States, US., Weapons, Western militaries | 16 Comments

Dimwitted BAS organizers re: Tejas — but visuals here

Posted on January 23, 2016 by Bharat Karnad

For more private phone camera recordings of the Tejas performing on previous days in Bahrain, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CackdUGFfFg and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSY72-PIiR8 — both with very clear views of the Tejas making a low pass and then going vertical Charlie. These visuals are … Continue reading →

Posted in Afghanistan, Africa, arms exports, Asian geopolitics, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Central Asia, civil-military relations, Culture, Defence Industry, DRDO, Europe, Geopolitics, Great Power imperatives, Indian Air Force, Indian ecobomic situation, indian policy -- Israel, Iran and West Asia, Iran and West Asia, Maldives, Military Acquisitions, Myanmar, Pakistan, Pakistan military, SAARC, society, South Asia, South East Asia, Sri Lanka, Strategic Relations with the US & West, Weapons, West Asia | 11 Comments

Urgent! See Tejas perform live! LCA impact

Posted on January 23, 2016 by Bharat Karnad

Tejas while scheduled to be front stage and centre at the Bahrain Air Show at 1810 hrs (6:10 PM) Indian Standard Time on the last day of the Bahrain International Air Show, the Indian fighter may actually go up 10-15 … Continue reading →

Posted in arms exports, Asian geopolitics, civil-military relations, Defence Industry, DRDO, Europe, Geopolitics, Great Power imperatives, India's strategic thinking and policy, Indian Air Force, Indian ecobomic situation, Military Acquisitions, society, South Asia, Strategic Relations with the US & West, Technology transfer, United States, US., Weapons, West Asia, Western militaries | 3 Comments

LCA maneuvers in Bahrain and Tejas’ immediate prospects

Posted on January 21, 2016 by Bharat Karnad

The stalwart fliers who will be piloting the two Tejas LCAs at the Bahrain Air Show (BAS) every afternoon post-lunch in the time slot 1300 hrs- 1600 hrs for the duration of the BAS are, from the Navy — Cmde. … Continue reading →

Posted in arms exports, Asian geopolitics, Bangladesh, China, China military, civil-military relations, Defence Industry, DRDO, Geopolitics, Great Power imperatives, India's strategic thinking and policy, Indian Air Force, Indian ecobomic situation, Indian Navy, Iran and West Asia, Military Acquisitions, Myanmar, Pakistan, Pakistan military, SAARC, society, South Asia, South East Asia, Sri Lanka, Strategic Relations with South East Asia & Far East, Technology transfer, Weapons, West Asia | 2 Comments

1st video of the Tejas at Bahrain

Posted on January 20, 2016 by Bharat Karnad

For the first video of the Tejas performing aerobatics at the Bahrain Air Show, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=oQ_ZnWbQk74, or slightly better at https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=oQ_ZnWbQk74 . One can (1) see right away why the PAF chose to withdraw the Sino-Paki JF-17 Thunder from the … Continue reading →

Posted in arms exports, Asian geopolitics, China, China military, civil-military relations, Culture, Defence Industry, DRDO, Europe, Geopolitics, Great Power imperatives, India's strategic thinking and policy, Indian Air Force, Indian ecobomic situation, Iran and West Asia, Military Acquisitions, Pakistan, Pakistan military, society, South Asia, Strategic Relations with the US & West, United States, US., Weapons, West Asia | 2 Comments

Pathankot mysteries and “befitting” reply

Posted on January 5, 2016 by Bharat Karnad

Like after every intruding terrorist induced-crisis, in the latest one in Pathankot, that’s perhaps seeing closure now, one discerned a despairing pattern of prior intelligence, wrong cues, and absence of coordination between a multiplicity of agencies — Border Security Force, … Continue reading →

Posted in Asian geopolitics, civil-military relations, Culture, domestic politics, Geopolitics, Great Power imperatives, India's Pakistan Policy, India's strategic thinking and policy, Indian Air Force, Indian Army, Indian democracy, Indian ecobomic situation, Indian para-military forces, Indian Politics, Internal Security, Pakistan, Pakistan military, SAARC, society, South Asia, Terrorism | 7 Comments

How Modi can make his Pak venture profitable

Posted on December 25, 2015 by Bharat Karnad

The biggest opportunity Prime Minister Modi has created to drag India-Pakistan relations into a semblance of normalcy some 17 months after inviting Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif to his over-grand investiture ceremony is his decision to accept the latter’s invitation to … Continue reading →

Posted in Asian geopolitics, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Central Asia, China, China military, civil-military relations, Culture, domestic politics, Europe, Geopolitics, Great Power imperatives, India's China Policy, India's Pakistan Policy, India's strategic thinking and policy, Indian Air Force, Indian Army, Indian ecobomic situation, Indian Navy, Indian Ocean, Indian Politics, Internal Security, Maldives, Military Acquisitions, Missiles, Myanmar, Pakistan, Pakistan military, Relations with Russia, Russia, society, South Asia, Terrorism, Tibet, United States, US., Weapons, West Asia, Western militaries | 18 Comments