Gp Capt AK Sachdev

In January this year, the Defence Minister Rajnath Singh led a high level delegation to the UK; reportedly, one of the points on the visit’s...

The IAF’s squadron strength is less than three-fourths of its sanctioned strength and its stated doctrine mandates it to carry out its own strategic tasks,...

The Indian Air Force (IAF) inducted the HS 748 Avro in the 1960s. This twin-engine turboprop aircraft was initially designed by British aircraft Original Equipment...

Emerging technologies, with splendid assistance from Artificial Intelligence (AI), are driving remarkable Research and Development (R&D) in the area of unmanned systems for use on...

In the beginning of March this year, Russia launched its biggest aerial attack in its ongoing war with Ukraine. The attack comprised a variegated weapon...

In May last year, a report titled Global Air Power Rankings (2022) published by World Directory of Modern Military Aircraft (WDMMA) placed the Indian Air...

The nature of warfare and consequently, the conduct of air warfare, are undergoing significant and rapid transformation as a result of the munificence of emerging...

In December 2019, as per a declaration issued by the Heads of State and Government participating in the meeting of the North Atlantic Council in...

The discovery of gunpowder in the ninth century and the invention of the atomic bomb in the twentieth century may be considered the first two...

Unarmed Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) began as desirable supplements to military inventories, but these have grown rapidly in technological sophistication to become essential complements of the...

One of the first steps that Prime Minister Narendra Modi initiated after coming to power was self-reliance. A few months after his government came to...

Military drones are disrupting warfare in the three domains of air, land and sea. Their exploits in the Ukraine war continue to excite interest even...

Classification of fighter aircraft into ‘generations’ dates back to the 1990s and there are several diverse classification criteria applied by air historians, the National Aeronautics...

Self-reliance has been a prominent agenda for Prime Minister Narendra Modi since his ascent to the Prime Minister’s chair in 2014. Later that year, he...

The term avionics was first used in late 1940s as a portmanteau conjoining ‘aviation’ and ‘electronics’ but since then, both aviation and electronics have undergone...

The precursor to modern day Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) flew more than a century ago as the Curtiss-Sperry Flying Bomb manufactured in 1917 – a...

A military leader, as a pre-condition, must be able to exercise Command and Control (C2) over the forces subordinated to him if he is to...

The IAF as the largest captive client for HAL, as well as the other two services, have never been happy with HAL as quality, reliability...

On July 02, the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Bipin Rawat stated, “Do not forget that Air Force continues to remain a supporting arm...

There is a need for taking it slow and not plunging into a hastily set up arrangement just because the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS)...

Offensive rotary wing capability of the Indian Air Force (IAF) goes back to the 1960s when Chetak (Allouette III) helicopters were used with French AS...

The ignominious drubbing of 1962 was a shock for the Indian military, which was unprepared for a war due to its being ill-equipped and having...

This article delves into ‘Make in India’ and India’s aerospace industry, the two regimes have a lot in common. Each has immense potential, but is...

In the framework of international law, ‘sovereignty’ signifies the full right and power of a State to govern itself and its territory without any external...

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have contributed to the application of air power for decades; in a sense, the German V1 flying bomb of the 1940s...

The diligent researcher could trace back trade and cultural relations between present day India and Israel to the contacts between the Indus Valley Civilisation and...

The face-saving reprisal by Pakistan Air Force (PAF) in response to the Indian Air Force (IAF) aerial strike on February 26, 2019, against a Jaish-e-Mohammad...

While lagging behind fixed-wing combat aircraft that are stretching out to their sixth generation, military helicopters have yet cornered substantial attention and funding to have...

There is near unanimity in public perception of the Indian public sector involvement in aerospace and defence, be it the bloodsucking Defence Research & Development...

The DRDO has had some success with small UAVs but projects worthy of the IAF’s needs and wants appear to be very distant in the...

Given the opportunity, private enterprise is certain to outdo PSUs in the aerospace arena. If India is to achieve the status of an aerospace power,...

The Indian Army and the Indian Navy have elite forces for Special Operations while the Indian Air Force owns a majority of the platforms to...

India is now the world’s fifth highest defence spender, but statistics can be disingenuously deceptive. In terms of percentage of GDP, it is the lowest...

The LCA programme trundles along with new delays added at irregular points in time. Not only is the FOC unattainable yet, even the HAL assembly...

The term ‘battlefield helicopter’ continues to live on and conjure up visions of sleek, fierce looking rotary-wing craft shrieking their way over friendly forces on...

The White Paper on China’s Military Strategy 2015 states, “In line with the strategic requirement of building air-space capabilities and conducting offensive and defensive operations,...

The IAF began with US helicopters in the fifties and expanded gradually to include license-built French and Soviet helicopters. The circle is coming round once...

Inarguably, the most ambitious programme to design future battlefield helicopters is the US FVL. However, the Dutch Air Chief, Lt. Gen. Alexander Schnitger reportedly questioned...

In the absence of any indigenously produced combat aircraft discounting the non-operational Tejas, India’s current aircraft are Russian (MiG-21, MiG-27, MiG-29, Su-30MKI), French (Mirage-2000) and...

The threat of co-ordinated action by China and Pakistan is a distinct possibility and, under such a scenario, the IAF would have to spread its...

On November 30, 2016, an Indian Army Cheetah helicopter crashed at Sukhna in West Bengal, killing three officers and injuring a soldier. Whether the Court...

The Tejas is an aircraft the IAF can do without, although pressures to induct it have led to orders. Meanwhile, the sands of time, inexorably...

Both India and China began their march towards progress almost at the same time and have had an unwholesome antagonism towards each other since the...

“Make in India” has been around for some time now, both as a slogan and as a rallying point for industrial lobbies. As far as...

The Indian public sector aerospace industry, protected by successive governments, does not have much to show as results for all the money spent in the...

Technological advances have brought impressive improvements in rotorcraft technology albeit without eliminating the intrinsic limitations. The classic helicopter design has been mutated into newer types...

The term ‘drone’ has hummed itself into aviation lexicon and is universally used to describe flying objects not carrying a human pilot; some other terms...

During the past decade, India’s defence preparedness has steadily and inexorably deteriorated despite constant clamour by the defence forces for modernisation and upgradation to meet...

Reaching the leading edge in technological regimes is an objective purposefully being pursued by China and the velocity of development in some technologies has been...

The ‘inscrutable’ sobriquet for the Chinese is not so much because of their unsmiling faces but on account of their unpredictable actions. Military action against...