The MiG-21 episode demonstrates that procurement is always strategic.
Choices about what aircraft to acquire, who builds them, who supplies the spares, who trains the pilots and technicians are decisions with political consequences lasting for decades.
10 Heroes of the 1965 War which ended on September 23 60 years ago.
In what was perhaps the most critical meeting before full-scale war broke out, Shastri defined India's immediate war objectives to his defence minister, army, and air force chiefs: 'To defend against Pakistan's attempts to grab Kashmir by force and to make it abundantly clear that Pakistan would never be allowed to wrest Kashmir from India; To destroy the offensive power of Pakistan's armed forces...' A fascinating excerpt from Shiv Kunal Verma's must-read 1965: A Western Sunrise India's War With Pakistan.
Everybody talks of China as the real threat, but we aren't even building a decisive capability against Pakistan, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
Today, he lies in an unknown grave in a corner of a farmer's field in Pakistan, having given his all for his country. A riveting excerpt from Ian Cardozo's Beyond Fear: True Stories on Life in the Indian Armed Forces.
IAF Flying Officer Jawahar Lal Bhargava was forced to stayed in the POW camp at Rawalpindi for the year that followed only to be released in December 1972.
For all those auto enthusiasts who thought Mahindra have only been manufacturing Jeeps and trucks in the '90s, Timeless Mahindra offers plenty of interesting surprises, discovers Rajesh Kareka/Rediff.com.
'Anglo-Indians have played a significant role at the forefront, meeting every challenge to the security of the motherland.' A fascinating excerpt from Barry O'Brien's The Anglo-Indians: A Portrait of a Community.
Any Indian government at this juncture would have voted and spoken exactly this way. It isn't just about the vast Indian dependence on Russian-origin military equipment. It is also about trust, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
Admiral describes it as 'a path-breaking change'; defence ministry official disagrees.
The documents obtained by the National Security Archive, a private research agency, give an idea of the deep and longstanding strategic collaboration between China and Pakistan even when the US and Pakistan were wooing each other.
More than four decades ago, the Nixon administration knowingly broke United States law to help the Pakistani army against Bangladesh and encouraged China to mass troops on Indian border to oppose the strong stand taken by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, according to a new book.
'As the tanks roll down Delhi's Rajpath and the C-17s fly overhead, there could be a lot brewing in Hyderabad House,' says Surya Gangadharan.
'As the IAF kicks off another round of myth-making -- launching a year-long commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the 1965 India-Pakistan war -- it is worth remembering how little there was to celebrate in those September days when the underdog PAF got the better of the IAF in raid after raid, dogfight after dogfight.'
Glimpses of the final days of the 1965 War, as seen from the diary then defence minister Y B Chavan maintained during the war.
'India was in no position to wage another war in 1965, having suffered a morale-shattering defeat in 1962. The three services were in the middle of a modernisation and expansion phase and therefore not fully trained or battle-ready.'
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