Category Archives: Indian Navy

A-5 test launch cancelled

Posted on March 16, 2016 by Bharat Karnad

Just learned that the test firing of the canisterized Agni-5 that was earlier scheduled for yesterday and postponed virtually at the last hour, has now been cancelled altogether, at least in the present time window. This decision at the highest … Continue reading →

Posted in Asian geopolitics, Defence Industry, DRDO, Geopolitics, Great Power imperatives, India's strategic thinking and policy, Indian Navy, Military Acquisitions, Missiles, Nuclear Weapons, Strategic Forces Command, United States, US., Weapons | 13 Comments

India in America’s coils?

Posted on March 11, 2016 by Bharat Karnad

This is a piece on the likelihood and the ramifications of the Modi govt signing the so-called “foundational agreements” starting with the Logistics Support Agreement (LSA), published today (March 11, 2016) in thecitizen.in — ‘India’s First Independent Online Daily’, at … Continue reading →

Posted in Afghanistan, Africa, arms exports, Asian geopolitics, China, China military, civil-military relations, Culture, Cyber & Space, Defence Industry, domestic politics, DRDO, Europe, Geopolitics, Great Power imperatives, India's China Policy, India's strategic thinking and policy, Indian Air Force, Indian Army, Indian democracy, Indian Navy, Indian Ocean, Indian Politics, Internal Security, Military Acquisitions, nonproliferation, nuclear industry, Nuclear Policy & Strategy, Nuclear Weapons, Pakistan, Relations with Russia, Russia, russian assistance, satellites, society, South Asia, South East Asia, Strategic Forces Command, Strategic Relations with the US & West, Technology transfer, Terrorism, United States, US., Weapons, Western militaries | 49 Comments

K-4 launched but media not informed

Posted on March 9, 2016 by Bharat Karnad

As anticipated in previous blog, the K-4 SLBM was successfully test-fired from an underwater pontoon off Vizag on Monday, March 7. The govt/DRDO have still to inform the media/press about it. The logic behind such rationing of publicity, however, escapes … Continue reading →

Posted in Asian geopolitics, Defence Industry, DRDO, Geopolitics, Great Power imperatives, India's strategic thinking and policy, Indian Navy, Military Acquisitions, Missiles, Nuclear Weapons, South Asia, Strategic Forces Command, Weapons | 6 Comments

Slew of Missile firings?

Posted on March 6, 2016 by Bharat Karnad

In the next week or so, a slew of missile test-firings will take place. The submarine-launched K-4, which other than its publicized launches has been test-fired a number of times without public notice, will be triggered again. The most important … Continue reading →

Posted in Asian geopolitics, China, China military, Culture, disarmament, domestic politics, DRDO, Europe, Geopolitics, Great Power imperatives, India's China Policy, India's Pakistan Policy, India's strategic thinking and policy, Indian Navy, Indian Ocean, Japan, Missiles, nonproliferation, Nuclear Policy & Strategy, Nuclear Weapons, Relations with Russia, Russia, russian assistance, society, South Asia, South East Asia, Strategic Relations with South East Asia & Far East, Strategic Relations with the US & West, Terrorism, United States, US., Weapons | 12 Comments

Reasons Why the Modi govt stuck on Rafale

Posted on February 19, 2016 by Bharat Karnad

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar in a TV interview (to Karan Thapar) yesterday evening sounded very determined that 36 Rafales would be brought from Dassault Avions, France, and that Paris would have to meet Delhi’s stated price (not exceeding $7 billion, … Continue reading →

Posted in Africa, arms exports, 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, Indian Navy, Indian Ocean, Japan, Military Acquisitions, Missiles, Pakistan, Pakistan military, Russia, russian military, South Asia, Strategic Relations with the US & West, Weapons | 35 Comments

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

A “Trident Strategy” to tackle the ‘Islamic State’

Posted on February 9, 2016 by Bharat Karnad

This is, perhaps, a slightly over-long blog on the subject of tackling the threat from the ‘Islamic State’. It’s my piece titled “A Trident Strategy for Pre-empting Daesh from South Asia” just published in ‘Aakrosh: Asian Journal on Terrorism and … Continue reading →

Posted in Afghanistan, Africa, Asian geopolitics, Bangladesh, Central Asia, China, China military, civil-military relations, Culture, Cyber & Space, domestic politics, Geopolitics, Great Power imperatives, guerilla warfare, India's Pakistan Policy, India's strategic thinking and policy, Indian Air Force, Indian Army, Indian democracy, Indian Navy, Indian para-military forces, indian policy -- Israel, Iran and West Asia, Indian Politics, Internal Security, Iran and West Asia, Pakistan, Relations with Russia, Russia, SAARC, society, South Asia, South East Asia, Special Forces, Strategic Relations with South East Asia & Far East, Strategic Relations with the US & West, Terrorism, United States, US., West Asia, Western militaries | 4 Comments

Arihant to fire K-15 very soon

Posted on February 8, 2016 by Bharat Karnad

As part of its weapons firing tests, the Arihant SSBN will go out to sea and very soon fire, submerged, the 750km range,solid fuel, K-15 SLBM, some two years after the last (from 20 meters) underwater pontoon launch off Vizag. … Continue reading →

Posted in Asian geopolitics, DRDO, Geopolitics, Great Power imperatives, India's strategic thinking and policy, Indian Army, Indian Navy, Military Acquisitions, Missiles, society, South Asia, Weapons | 6 Comments

Arihant SSBN pulled from IFR

Posted on February 6, 2016 by Bharat Karnad

It was announced yesterday in the nick of time, on the eve of the International Fleet Review, in fact, that the indigenous Arihant SSBN would not be seen, leave alone showcased in the event at Vizag inaugurated this morning. Small … Continue reading →

Posted in Asian geopolitics, China, China military, Defence Industry, DRDO, Great Power imperatives, India's strategic thinking and policy, Indian Navy, Indian Ocean, Military Acquisitions, Nuclear Policy & Strategy, Nuclear Weapons, society, South Asia, South East Asia, Strategic Forces Command, Strategic Relations with South East Asia & Far East, Weapons | 1 Comment