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 agenda was a possible partnership…

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, endeavour to gain air dominance…

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 Manufacturer (OEM) Avro which was…

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 land, over and under sea,…

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 mix, the most interesting one…

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 Force (IAF) above China’s People’s…

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 technologies. The Indian Air Force…

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 London, formally recognised space as…

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 revolutions in warfare. The third revolution…

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 war-making machinery. More than a…

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 power, he introduced the ‘Make…

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 as this is being written.…

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 and Space Administration (NASA) of…

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 introduced ‘Make in India’ as…

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 tremendous evolutionary changes. Modern military…

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 230kg empty weight aircraft capable…

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 accomplish his mission. The United…

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 and punctuality have been issues…

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 to the armed forces, just…

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) wants it done within his…

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 11 B1 Anti Tank Guided…

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 shortfalls in war-making materials and…

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 hobbled by policy dilemmas. Each…

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 interference. This legal right to…

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 was a UAV. Current definitions…

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 Babylonian culture. Indian 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 (JeM) training camp near Balakot…

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 made notable advances in technology.…

There is near unanimity in public perception of the Indian public sector involvement in aerospace and defence, be it the bloodsucking Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) gluttonously gorging itself…

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 future. Slow rates of progress…

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, it has to radically alter…

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 deliver them. The lack of…

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 since India was last subjected…

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 line is nowhere near producing…

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 ground. Since the 1930s,…

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 PLAAF will endeavour to…

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 again with planned induction of…

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 the programme thus, “When I…

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 Anglo-French Jaguar. The IAF…

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 assets on two fronts; that…

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 of Inquiry finds the old…

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 straining through the impassive hourglass…

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 1962 War. The boundary dispute…

“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 aerospace industry is concerned,…

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 last seven decades. On 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 of rotorcraft or hybrid VTOL…

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 in general use for them…

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 assigned roles and tasks. Meanwhile,…

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 astonishing. However, the means employed…

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 India may not come in…