If New Delhi finds itself out in the cold in Afghanistan, both the Congress-led UPA and BJP-led NDA have only themselves to blame. Each has been in power for a full decade from 2001, without reaching out to the Taliban, points out Ajai Shukla.
'The Raksha Mantri's day at sea'/
'India is ahead only of Pakistan in the amount spent on each soldier a year.' 'The Indian military is a manpower-heavy throng that is poorly armed, equipped, and trained,' observes Ajai Shukla.
That would result in the military under-spending about Rs 80,000 crore over the financial year.
'There were a lot of abuses shouted at one another, but that was a waste in the absence of interpreters,' an Indian Army officer tells Ajai Shukla.
It is baffling how the PM chose the LCH as an indigenous product to celebrate on Rashtriya Raksha Samarpan Parv, even while his Cabinet holds up manufacturing clearance for 15 LCHs on the grounds that they are not Indian enough.
It has been argued that India should have held back on disengagement from the Kailash Range, using that as a trump card to force Chinese concessions in areas such as Depsang, where they hold the advantage.
With the two armies again in a face-off at multiple points, there is apprehension of renewed clashes.
The Afghan tradition of gaining control of areas does not necessarily involve combat. Most engagements are settled through negotiations and pay-offs before battle is joined. This style of fighting is peculiar to Afghanistan, explains Ajai Shukla, who witnessed such a transaction between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance in November 2001.
The LCH can provide our soldiers fire support in 15,000-16,000 feet-high contested areas like Depsang, Galwan and the heights north and south of the Pangong Tso, where Indian soldiers are facing off against Chinese intruders.
'We found the MiG-29s to be in excellent condition. They could make an excellent addition to our fleet,' a senior air marshal tells Ajai Shukla.
Officers responsible for preparing budgets say their detailed costing projections are mostly ignored. The defence ministry simply takes the previous year's budgetary allocations for each service and adds a small percentage to those.
Will the low cost Israeli Athos gun scuttle India's ATAGS gun?
China remains in firm control of an estimated 600-800 square kilometres of Indian territory.
Within the army, there is growing concern that New Delhi will allow the Chinese to retain the territory they have occupied in the last month.
With Honeywell demanding what Indian Air Force sources term an "exorbitant" price for F-125IN engines, the IAF has told HAL that it has abandoned its plan to upgrade 80 Jaguar fighters with new Honeywell engines, reports Ajai Shukla.
Army sources indicate the first Integrated Battle Groups would come up in the plains of Jammu, Punjab, and Rajasthan, providing New Delhi instruments of retaliation in the event of grave provocation by Pakistan, such as a 26/11-style terrorist attack.
Sukhoi-30MKI fighters will be based in Thanjavur. Tejas Mark 1 aircraft will be based in Sulur. The Rafale squadron will be based in Ambala.
Landing on an aircraft carrier deck is the ultimate and most daunting challenge for a fighter pilot. This takes India into a select group of nations -- the US, the UK, Russia, France, and China -- that have developed such jets.
Each Bhabha Kavach has four hard armour plates, which protect the wearer from the front, back, and either side. It can protect CAPF personnel from 7.62 mm bullets fired from AK-47 rifles -- the chosen weapon of terrorists from Kashmir to Bastar.
Insufficient technology has been transferred during the ongoing Project 75, which involves building 6 Scorpene-class submarines.
The gun is unique in its ability to fire a five-round burst, while no other contemporary The gun is unique in its ability to fire a five-round burst, while no other contemporary gun exceeds three-round bursts. This brings down a greater quantity of explosive onto the target before enemy soldiers can take cover
A salvo from a Pinaka battery brings down on the enemy more than seven tonnes of high explosive in just 44 seconds.
A large Dhruv order could significantly boost Indian defence exports. These have grown from Rs 1,940 crore in 2014-2015 to Rs 10,745 crore in 2018-2019.
The warships will be armed with BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles which can reach targets 295 km away.
Given the military's requirement for watertight cyber and communications security, L&T will establish a Security Operations Centre which will deal with security threats.
Top HAL sources say the AMCA, which is being developed as the IAF's next-generation stealth fighter, is slated to be assembled at HAL Nashik.
'It is not clear how the NDA government -- including Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, backed by senior IAF officials -- claimed that the 36 Rafale contract with Dassault in 2016 cost the IAF 20% less than Dassault's 126 Rafale offer,' notes Ajai Shukla in the first of a three-part series.
The military is 'totally prepared to stand up to the demands made by the government and the people.'
The Rafales could begin combat operations by September-October, reports Ajai Shukla.
In New Delhi's corridors of power, debate continues on whether the navy even needs a third aircraft carrier.
Exercise Tiger Triumph -- a full-scale, tri-service beach landing operation -- is a capability India is seeking to build.
An S-400 unit located near Delhi for protecting the capital would be able to shoot down Pakistani aircraft even before they cross the border to India, and Chinese aircraft while they were still in Tibetan or Nepalese air space.
IAF officers say they are keen to serve justice quickly and make an example of those found guilty of operational lapses.
The MiG29K and MiG29KUB, the aircraft carrier's primary fighters, spent more time in the hangar than in the air, with fleet serviceability remaining below 50 per cent, reports Ajai Shukla.
The biggest procurement green-lighted was the Rs 217 billion purchase of 111 naval utility helicopters.
Air Chief Marshal R K S Bhadauria's plan includes building 83 Tejas Light Combat Aircraft in quick time to fill the light fighter vacancies left by the retirement of MiG-21 and MiG-27 fighters.
Senior officers recounted extreme Chinese brutality to the Indian prisoners, with some of them being pushed over cliffs and soldiers' bodies being recovered from the Galwan River.
Capable of flying at Mach 2.5 (two-and-a-half times the speed of sound), the F-15EX is the world's fastest fighter aircraft. It carries 13.5 tonnes of weapons load, more than the Rafale or the Sukhoi-30MKI.
'We cannot understand why the government is facilitating the import of artillery when our indigenous guns are doing so well.'
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