In the early part of the Kargil operations, the army opted to more or less go it alone, sacrificing large numbers of men and officers in almost superhuman struggles against an enemy on higher ground. Some generals seem to think their predecessors would have succeeded better if they had had air resources at their disposal, points out David Devadas.
'The Pakistanis were not the mujahids or terrorists as claimed initially.' .'They were trained soldiers who held state of the art anti-aircraft missiles to shoot down our airplanes.'
The retreating Pakistani troops were heading towards Dacca and they had to be stopped at all costs. The Eastern Army Commander, in his orders to General Sagat Singh, had reiterated that he did not want the troops of 4 Corps to cross the Meghna river. But General Sagat had other plans to threaten Dacca and ensure that the pressure would make the Pakistani commanders capitulate. This is where the IAF helicopters came in.
The pilot killed in action was Wing Commander Harshit Sinha, the Indian Air Force (IAF) said.
Major General Sujan Singh Uban, a legendary veteran of the Second World War, was a natural choice to raise, train and command the Special Frontier Force and mould them into a well oiled fighting machine, recalls his son Inspector General Gurdip Singh Uban (retd), who led SFF troops during the Kargil War.
Arjan Singh, the Marshal of the Indian Air Force, was a fearless and exceptional pilot and remained a source of inspiration to all personnel of the Armed Forces through the years.
The IAF can take on any one as it has world-class aircraft like the Sukhoi-30 MKIs, Mirages and Jaguars, a senior IAF official said.
If the government of the day would like to set in place a smooth and well-planned changeover and facilitate the incoming chief to chalk out his action plan well in advance, the announcement of a successor needs to be done early, observes Colonel K Thammayya Udupa (retd).
'Naval Aviation has contributed through numerous humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations during which it has provided relief to fellow citizens like the recently conducted rescue operations off Mumbai during Cyclone Tauktae in May 2021.'
16 Indian Army divisions face China, 20 face Pakistan and two divisions are reserves. This powerful signal can hardly be missed in China or Pakistan, notes Ajai Shukla.
The military investigator's report found that more than 30 civilians not 5 to 7 as the military has long insisted died in the air strikes against a suspected Taliban compound in Azizabad in western Afghanistan on August 22, the New York Times reported.
India's voting pattern in the United Nations with regard to the Israel-Palestine conflict is lately marked by a calibrated distancing from Israel, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
He visited areas falling under the operational command of the Rising Star Corps, including Kathua, Samba, Jammu and Pathankot, to review the security situation.
The black box, comprising the flight data recorder (FDR) and the cockpit voice recorder (CVR), of the ill-fated Mi-17V5 helicopter of the Indian Air Force was recovered from the crash site on Thursday.
Claude Arpi reveals how Wing Commander Jag Mohan Nath won a second Maha Vir Chakra in the 1965 War.
Lt Gen Bakshi announced 'full support' to the new chief and made it clear that he won't resign.
'Unless India ups the ante, Beijing will continue to believe its transgressions are cost free and will feel encouraged to do more of the same.'
The unstated aim of a well-publicised airlift operation of this kind is to demonstrate India's ability to rapidly move troops and equipment over long distances.
Dhaka emerged as the free capital of independent Bangladesh on December 16, 1971 after the war between India and Pakistan broke out on December 3 when the Indian troops directly stood beside the Mukti Bahini soldiers.
Everyone at the camp was sleeping and Pakistani defence establishment had no clue that the attack was coming so deep into their country.
There was a 'fascist threat' to democracy in Sri Lanka and 'we can't let them tear up our Constitution', acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe told the crisis-hit nation on Wednesday, as he vowed to restore normalcy as well as stop the destruction of state property.
The black box of the Yeti Airlines aircraft has been recovered from the accident site on Monday, as a search is on for the four persons still missing after the plane with 72 people, including five Indians, on board crashed into a river gorge while landing at Nepal's newly-opened airport in the resort city of Pokhara.
Dreaded Islamic State terror group has purportedly opened its own 5-star hotel complete with 262 rooms, restaurants, ballrooms and gym in Iraq's Mosul city for its Jihadist commanders, according to a media report.
As counter-terrorism operations at the Pathankot air base continued for the second consecutive day, the Union government on Sunday said it was unsure if more terrorists were still holed up.
Defence experts have questioned the way the audacious terror attack on the Indian Air Force base in Pathankot was handled, with some even saying it was the result of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "high-risk" mission to Lahore where he met his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif.
'If we had sent a few airplanes (into Tibet), we could have wiped the Chinese out.' 'And everything could have been different in the 1962 War.' 'They did not believe me there was no Chinese air force.' 'Can you imagine what would have happened if we had used the IAF at that time?' 'The Chinese would have never dared do anything down the line.'
The US actions can be seen as a riposte to India's neutral position on the Ukraine crisis, its continuing import of Russian arms and oil thus undermining Western sanctions, argues Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
The air strike was launched after the Russian forces in Syria received intelligence that a meeting of Islamic State leaders was being planned, the defence ministry said.
India's historical focus on its continental borders has overshadowed its maritime ambitions, but that is changing quickly, notes Ajai Shukla.
Snubbed by his party leader Rahul Gandhi and panned by the Bharatiya Janata Party for questioning surgical strikes, senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh swung into damage control mode on Tuesday and said his questions were to the government and not the armed forces.
'We decided that we would fire our rockets and dive into the valley and get away, making it difficult for the missiles to be fired.'
Nepalese rescuers resumed their search on Monday for four persons still missing after a passenger plane with 72 people, including five Indians, crashed into a river gorge while landing at the newly-opened airport in the resort city of Pokhara, killing at least 68 people onboard.
About 30 airports have been either built or under construction in Tibet and Xinjiang provinces which will boost China's civil and military infrastructure in the remote regions bordering India, the country's official media reported.
As per the plan, each of the theatre commands will have units of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force, and all of them will work as a single entity looking after security challenges in a specified geographical territory under an operational commander.
December 3, 2021 marks 50 years since the beginning of the 1971 War which ended in a decisive military victory for India and the liberation of Bangladesh. Most analysts of the 1971 War agree that the IV Corps dash across the mighty Meghna river led by the brilliant General Sagat Singh was the turning point in the war, recalls military historian Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
The Indian Army bravely prevented the Chinese PLA's attempts to unilaterally change the status in the Yangtse area of Arunachal Pradesh's Tawang sector on December 9 and confronted it with firmness, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Tuesday.
Teams of the National Disaster Response Force started landing in Gujarat with the help of the Indian Air Force to undertake preventive evacuation of people living on the west coast, an IAF official said.
Gianiji had crafted his moves with the meticulous planning of a chess grandmaster. He did not know whether a checkmate was feasible, as his time was running out, but he wanted Rajiv Gandhi to smell the fear of loss. A fascinating excerpt from K C Singh's The Indian President: An Insider's Account of the Zail Singh Years.
The Chinese military, on the last day of its largest-ever military exercises to vent out its anger over United States House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan, carried out island saturation attack drills in the Taiwan Straits, amid global concerns of a full-scale attack to annex the breakaway island which Beijing claims is part of its territory.
Naik said the prompt and effective deployment of the Navy in the time of crisis has underscored India's vision of being the "preferred security partner and first responder in our region".
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