'If the Chinese intent is to be gauged based on its aggression in the South China Sea, greater forays in the Indian Ocean, a hawk's attitude towards Taiwan, flying its fighters repeatedly over the Senkaku islands in the East China Sea and creating strategic assets globally, there would be a requirement for strategic partnerships for India,' says Brigadier S K Chatterji (retd).
'In India, China's capacities to conduct new types of warfare is critically underestimated,' says Claude Arpi.
Apart from battle tanks, Pakistan Army is also procuring 245 150mm SP Mike-10 guns from Italy out of which it has already received 120 guns.
Excerpts from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's speech at the Combined Commanders Conference on board the INS Vikramaditya at sea, off the coast of Kochi.
He said that those who have surrendered and returned to the mainstream are being rehabilitated by both the central and Assam governments and they will participate in the development journey of the state.
The commander said the situation in the region has been stable and no major "changes or palpable shift of stance has been noted" even as the Indian and Chinese troops are engaged in a stand-off in Demchok and Depsang in eastern Ladakh.
Has the army confronted China, equipping itself with emergency purchases that have been largely paid for by pensioners, asks Ajai Shukla.
'The wise men learn lessons in war.' 'The smart men learn lessons from others, it's only the foolish who learn the wrong lesson.'
The current fleet of BMP-2/2Ks was first inducted into the Army in 1985 and it has been the mainstay of the mechanised infantry since then.
Currently women are allowed in a number of select areas including in medical, legal, educational, signals and engineering wings of the army.
According to the report, Russia tops the table with 6,375 warheads, followed by the United States with 5,800, and the United Kingdom with 215 warheads.
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.
In the Union Budget presented in Parliament by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, a total of Rs 1,52,369 crore has been set aside for capital expenditure that includes purchasing new weapons, aircraft, warships and other military hardware.
The nine nuclear-armed states -- the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) -- together possessed an estimated 13,080 nuclear weapons at the start of 2021.
UAVs are an intrinsic part of today's technology driven battlefield. Indians don't seem to be taking the challenge with the degree of urgency that is required, says Brigadier S K Chatterji (retd).
The government is undertaking a comprehensive modernisation programme to prepare the police and paramilitary forces of the country for newer challenges of terrorism, cyber crime and border security, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said in New Delhi on Wednesday.
The reforms include relocation of 229 officers from the Army headquarters, creation of a new post of deputy chief for military operations and strategic planning.
The US, China and the UK remain the top three defence spenders while India has the fourth largest military budget, followed by Saudi Arabia and Russia, according to the '2016 Jane's Defence Budgets Report', released by research firm IHS Markit.
The reality is that Indian defence modernisation is lagging behind and the government and the present defence minister is largely responsible for the sad state of affairs today in the military realm.
The Taliban has its backers, notably Pakistan and China. Their purpose is to have a monstrous entity near India's northern borders to keep democratic, secular India off-guard, observes Amulya Ganguli.
The demand for OROP has been projected as an unambiguous issue but a good policy argument must have a sound economic element.
'Clarifying that modernisation of national defence and armed forces should be completed by 2035, Xi Jinping asserted the goal is to make the People's Liberation Army a "world class force" that "can fight and win" by 2050,' points out former RAW officer Jayadeva Ranade.
The Indian and Chinese troops are engaged in a five-month bitter standoff in eastern Ladakh.
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.
The onus today is on China, but it also requires a little diplomatic finesse from India, backed by a modernised armed force, argues BJP MP Subramanian Swamy in this excerpt from his new book, Himalayan Challenge: India, China And The Quest For Peace.
The CDS will have a significant role in higher defence planning and operational aspects of India's nuclear arsenal.
Terming military might as the biggest deterrent to war, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said the defence forces will be modernised to ensure that "nobody casts an evil eye" on the nation.
A hike in China's defence budget has got defence experts and analysts debating the country's rising military power and clout.
'If you behave like a nail, the adversary will behave like a hammer.'
India has become the 37th country to join the list of Strategic Trade Authorization-1 category, the only South Asian nation.
The nation has the fifth largest defence budget in the world, at $52.5 billion in 2017 ($51.1 billion in 2016), overtaking the UK whose defence budget fell from $52.5 billion in 2016 to $50.7 billion in 2017.
Xi, the most powerful leader in recent decades heading the ruling Communist Party and the military, will now be the first Chinese leader after the founder chairman Mao Zedong to remain in power lifelong.
Future conflict will involve bypassing of frontiers to strike at critical vulnerabilities directly and in the hinterland at the appropriate time, explains Lieutenant General Anil Chait (retd), who served as chief of the Integrated Defence Staff and Central Army Commander.
India will maintain territorial integrity in Doklam, the Raksha Mantri said.
In a late night statement, the White House said completion of these sales would increase bilateral defence trade to nearly USD 19 billion, supporting thousands of US jobs.
The govt hiked defence budget by 7.81 per cent over last year's Rs 2.74 lakh crore.
Vice Chief of Army Staff Lt Gen Sarath Chand had told the parliamentary panel that inadequate allocation of funds in the defence budget for 2018-19 will hit the army's modernisation plan.
The army also stated that allocation of Rs 21,338 crore for modernisation is insufficient.
The new minister must commit himself to supporting long-term defence plans or else defence modernisation will continue to lag and the growing military capabilities gap with China will assume ominous proportions, warns Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
The force also stated that such incidents happen due to differing perceptions of the LAC and there are established mechanisms to resolve such differences.
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