Experts Speak
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June 4, 2018
Modi-Putin informal summit
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)With growing global challenges informal summits are becoming the norm in bilateral relations. Prime Minister Narendra Modi travelled to Sochi for an informal summit with President Putin.
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May 14, 2018
PM Modi's Nepal visit
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent two-day visit to Nepal on May 11-12 was described in media by some cross-sections for countering Chinese influence in Nepal, while some opposition parties in India alleged it was to influence the polls in Karnataka.
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May 14, 2018
Neemrana Dialogue – resumed
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Media reports suddenly appeared that government had agreed to revive the Track II diplomacy process with Pakistan despite its apparent aversion to 'conventional' talks with that country.
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May 14, 2018
ISI in Nepal
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)On April 17, 2018 a pressure cooker bomb went off outside an Indian Consulate office in Nepal's Biratnagar, damaging the wall of the premises. Biratnagar is the industrial capital of Nepal and 6 km north of the border of Bihar. Nepalese suspect cadres of Communist Party of Nepal (CPN) that is banned by US Treasury and gets support from Pakistan's ISI.
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May 14, 2018
S-400 – and the CAATSA waiver
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Russia's S-400 (nicknamed Triumf) is an upgraded version of the S-300 system, manufactured by Almaz-Antey and is in Russian military service since 2007.
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May 14, 2018
Border Patrolling – new rules for LAC?
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The message from the informal meet between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping at Wuhan on April 27-28 was both agreeing to strengthen communications between their militaries and keeping peace along the shared borders.
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May 14, 2018
K-9 Vajra-T Guns entering service
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)There is good news in the air – that the 155 mm/52 calibre tracked self-propelled gun system, K9 VAJRA-T will be entering service in the Army by end of this month - May 2018.
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May 2, 2018
Modi-Xi informal meet – how Xi acts is the key
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The informal meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping on April 27-28 is hot news that must have been watched with much interest globally.
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May 2, 2018
FICCI-ADB collaboration is the way forward
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The Indian Army set up its own Army Design Bureau (ADB) in August 2016 whose charter included: one, act as central repository of technical know-how for the Indian Army; two, collate operational requirements...
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May 2, 2018
Coming – military satellites by ISRO
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)On April 24, 2018, ISRO announced postponement of launch of satellite GSAT-11, a month after it lost contact with communication satellite GSAT-6A.
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May 2, 2018
National approach must beyond MoCA, CISF counter-drone moves
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)As per media reports, the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) has tied up with the Indian army to train personnel in identifying drones of Pakistani and Chinese origin, following a six-day training session conducted in Gopalpur, Odisha).
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May 2, 2018
Pak Defence Budget 2018-2019
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Pakistan announced a hike in the country's defence budget by 10 per cent (1.1 trillion), as the over 5.6 trillion federal budget for 2018-2019 was presented on April 28.
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May 2, 2018
Gadchiroli and beyond – Maoists under pressure
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)With 39 Maoists killed by Maharashtra police in Gadchiroli over 48 hours on April 22-23, 2018, and 10 Maoists killed in by Chhattisgarh Police in Sukma in south Bastar on April 21, the numbers of rebels gunned down has gone up to 49.
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April 20, 2018
Visit of Nepalese Prime Minister
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Nepal’s Prime Minister KP Sharama Oli’s three-day state visit to India from April 6 to 8 is being hailed as landmark albeit it was more about resetting relations after Nepal’s China drift, acrimony over the border blockade during the Madhesi agitation over amendment to the Nepalese Constitution...
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April 20, 2018
Terror labels worry Pakistan little
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The recently released UNSC consolidated list of individual terrorist and terrorist entities names 139 from Pakistan including prominent names like Dawood Ibrahim and LeT chief Hafiz Saeed. The list includes all individuals who have either lived in Pakistan, operated from there or have been associated with organizations that used Pakistani territory to carry out terrorist operations.
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April 20, 2018
UAV losses — Time to wake up
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The loss of a Heron Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) of the Indian Navy near Porbandar in March 2018 has taken the count of UAVs losses by the Indian Armed Forces to 14 since the Kargi Conflict.
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April 20, 2018
Defence Minister’s Russia visit
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s recent three-day visit to Moscow was primarily to attend the Seventh Moscow Conference on International Security. However, she also met the Russian Defence Minister, General Sergey Shoygu in a bilateral meeting, focusing on reinforcing defence cooperation with specific focus on military-technical cooperation.
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April 20, 2018
Defexpo 2018 — Not much headway
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)In his speech to the 10th edition of the four-day DefExpo 2018 held in April, Prime Minister Narendra Modi outlined the steps taken by his government to open up defence manufacturing to private sector companies...
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April 20, 2018
New Think Tank for military strategy planning?
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)This is to make defence preparedness much more than an acquisition-centric exercise. The Committee will reportedly have a cross-ministry mandate, headed by the National Security Advisor (NSA), and members being the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, three Service Chiefs, Defence Secretary, Foreign Secretary and Chief of Integrated Defence Staff to Chairman Chiefs of Staff Committee (CISC) as its members.
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April 16, 2018
A Powerful Impetus for Make in India
By Air Marshal B.K. Pandey (Retd)Production of a fighter aircraft in India through a joint venture, will provide a major impetus to the Make in India programme in the Indian aerospace industry.
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April 4, 2018
Military's manpower shortages
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Responding to questions by two MPs, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman recently informed Parliament that the Armed Forces had a total shortage of approximately 60,000 personnel excluding those belonging to the medical and dental streams.
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April 4, 2018
Coming – Chinese robot tanks
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)In October 2017, media reports confirmed the government seven-point strategy as prelude to India's strategic plan for using AI, covering issues like developing methods for human machine interactions, ensuring security of AI systems...
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April 4, 2018
The Chinese challenge
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Post being anointed President for life, Xi Jinping told 3,000 legislators of the Chinese Parliament on March 20, 2018, "The Chinese people have been indomitable and persistent.
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April 4, 2018
Hoax call of integrated theatre commands
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Headlines like 'Govt moves on integrated theatre commands; amends rules to bring three forces under single leadership' appearing in the media on March 19, 2018, caused considerable excitement in the public domain.
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April 4, 2018
The fiasco of GSAT-6A
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)On March 29, 2018, ISRO launched the communication satellite GSLV Mk-II (GSLV-F08); carrying the 2,140kg GSAT-6A, it took off from Sriharikota and some 17 minutes later the three-stage rocket injected the satellite into a geosynchronous transfer orbit.
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April 4, 2018
The bogey of 'Bajwa Doctrine'
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The Bajwa Doctrine was first mentioned by Asif Ghafoor, DG ISPR and later by Qamar Javed Bajwa, army chief himself while briefing a group of journalists and anchorpersons, but it is not documented as such.
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March 15, 2018
20 Years of Indo-French partnership and Macron’s India visit
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)France was the first country in the world with which India signed a strategic partnership in 1998; between French President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. Indian space scientists received initial training in France after Pokhran-II, France recognizing India as responsible nation while balance West blocked out India.
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March 15, 2018
Visit of Vietnam President boosts India-Vietnam strategic partnership
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The three day visit (March 2-4) this year by Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang’s was testament to the growing closeness in the bilateral security ties between India and Vietnam. His visit came just few weeks after Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc’s visit to India as chief guest at India’s Republic Day Parade 2016 along with heads of states of all other ASEAN countries.
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March 15, 2018
Indo-US 2-by-2 dialogue
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Post US President Donald Trump called Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 15, 2017, congratulating him on India’s 71st Independence Day, the White House announced that India and US will start a new 2-by-2 ministerial dialogue to enhance “peace and stability across the Indo-Pacific region...
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March 15, 2018
Coming — Drone swarm attacks
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)There have been many instances of the Islamic State or ISIS using commercial drones for ‘attacking’ regular forces in Iraq and Syria. But in January 2018, the Russia’s Khmeimim air base and Tartus naval facility in Syria came under coordinated attack by “swarms” of home-made drones carrying bomblets / improvised explosive devices (IEDs,) as reported by the Russian Ministry of Defence.
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March 15, 2018
MoD shown the mirror
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)In end February 2018, public become aware that MoD for once was shown the mirror to recognize its ugly face. According to media reports, MoD had deduced internally that the much publicized ‘Make in India’ initiative is floundering...
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March 15, 2018
Pakistan in FATF crosshairs
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Pakistan find itself in the crosshairs of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), founded in 1989 on the initiative of the G7 to combat to ‘combat money laundering and terrorism financing’. It is an intergovernmental organization, also known as Groupe d'action financière, with its secretariat housed at the OECD headquarters in Paris.
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March 5, 2018
Rouhani’s visit boosts Indo-Iranian construct
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Iranian President Hassan Rouhani arrived at Hyderabad on February 15, 2018, visited Hyderabad for two days and arrived New Delhi on February 17.
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March 5, 2018
Chandrayan II — Seeks Moon’s South Pole
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)In October-November 2018, ISRO is scheduled to attempt what no country has done before. Chandrayan-II will carry an orbiter, a lander and a rover to the moon, with the rover spending 14 days on the surface of the Moon’s ‘South Pole’.
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March 5, 2018
Milan 2018 — Setting China’s Tail Afire?
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)‘Milan’ is a multilateral naval exercise hosted by the Indian Navy under aegis of the Andaman & Nicobar Command (ANC) on biennial basis. Naturally, it is held in Andaman & Nocobar Islands.
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March 5, 2018
Aura to fly in 2018
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Our military’s requirement of UAVs has suffered past several years because of lack of industrial expertise, combined with delays and cost overruns.
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March 5, 2018
ICV procurement approved
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)On January 20, 2018, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman cleared the proposal for procurement of 156 infantry combat vehicles (ICVs) to meet the requirement of the mechanized infantry and troops for rapid deployment.
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March 5, 2018
IAF’s Next Fighter Aircraft — One step forward, two steps back?
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The Standing Committee for Defence while presenting its report to the Parliament in December 2017 slammed the government for neglecting military modernization. The report pointed out that persisting critical military operational gaps have adversely affected the country's defence preparedness.
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February 19, 2018
PM Modi’s West Asian outreach
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Just before Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent visit to Palestine, the UAE and Oman, MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar, while briefing media had outlined that the visit would be of strategic importance in terms of energy and security...
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February 19, 2018
Mujahids to fuel Indo-Pak border more?
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)As per recent reports, Pakistan is deploying several battalions of its Mujahid Regiment, along the Line of Control (LoC) and the International Border (IB) to infiltrate terrorists and target Indian security forces. According to intelligence sources, these Mujahid battalions are 641, 647, 654 and 655. Mujahids are equivalent to our Territorial Army and these four battalions now are permanently embodied.
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February 19, 2018
JeM attacks rouse MoD
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Continuing terrorist attacks, especially the recent ISI-backed JeM terrorist attack of Sunjwan Army Camp in Jammu appears to have roused the MoD into action. The Ministry okayed 1,487 cr to boost the security of Army camps on Saturday, February 12 - same day as the terrorist attack on Sunjwan Army Camp...
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February 19, 2018
Terrorist attack on Sunjwan military camp
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)On February 10, 2018, the army camp at Sunjwan in Jammu was attacked by JeM terrorists in early hours of the morning. Sneaking in, the terrorists entered family quarters of Junior Commissioned Officers (JCOs) and firing began at 5 AM. The encounter continued over three days resulting in the death of five army personnel including two JCOs, and seven injured including civilians. Three terrorists were killed.
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February 19, 2018
The Faux Pas in Maldives
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The strategic importance of Maldives to India needs no emphasis; located in the Indian Ocean, the Maldives archipelago comprising 1,200 coral islands lies next to key shipping lanes which ensure uninterrupted energy supplies to countries like China, Japan and India. But happenings in the recent past indicate, Maldives has been sucked into the gravitational pull of China, away from India, just like Nepal.
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February 19, 2018
Perimeter security of military establishments
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Post the terrorist attack on IAF’s Patahnkot airbase on January 2, 2016, the MoD had appointed a committee headed by Lt Gen Phillip Campose, then Vice Chief of Army Staff, to review the security set-up for the military bases and suggest ways to improve it. The Committee found gaping holes in the security set up of many installations and submitted its report to the then Defence Minister in May 2016.
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February 5, 2018
Indo-ASEAN relations – Get strategic boost
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Republic Day 2018 was unique and very special with 10 leaders of ASEAN nations gracing the occasion with ASEAN completing 50 years of its formation and India completing 25 years of India-ASEAN partnership that commenced in 1992.
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February 5, 2018
Artificial Intelligence in Defence
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The next level of strategic cooperation between India and Japan has become apparent with the news that India and Japan are to work together to introduce artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics in the defence sector.
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February 5, 2018
ISIS caboodle – Headed which way?
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Call it ISIS, ISIL or Islamic State, the organization continues to maintain the top spot as the most dangerous terrorist organization of the world. Over 40 militant groups alleged allegiance to ISIS. These include the Boko Haram of Nigeria and the Tehrik-i-Talban (TTP) of Pakistan ranked the 4 and 6 respectively in the global ranking of the most dangerous terrorist organizations.
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February 5, 2018
India in Australia Group – Looking at NSG
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)January 19, 2018 saw India becoming a member of the Australia Group. The Australia Group restricts trade in materials used to make chemical and biological weapons.
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February 5, 2018
Coming – Long range BrahMos
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)When India successfully test-fired its nuclear capable Agni-V ICBM on January 18 this year, China had made no official statement, but after the December 2016 Agni-V test China had stated it hoped India's testing of the nuclear-capable Agni-V ICBM...
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February 5, 2018
Navy's minesweeping capability – Going kaput
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Military strategy demands the ability to present adequate force wnenever and wherever threats emerge in quick time. Ironically, India appears happy with moving from crisis to crisis.
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February 3, 2018
Defence Budget 2018-2019
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Defence Budget for 2018-2019 stands at 2,96,511.41 cr (1.58 per cent of GDP).
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January 19, 2018
Visit of Israeli Prime Minister
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's six-day visit to India has very smoothly taken India-Israel relations to the next level.
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January 19, 2018
Agni V raises Chinese concerns
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)India successfully has test-fired its nuclear capable Agni-V ICBM from the Abdul Kalam island, off the coast of Odisha, on January 18. This 17m long ICBM with a payload of 1.5 tons, can transport a fusion-boosted fission weapon - nuclear device.
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January 19, 2018
China's aggressive moves – Will persist
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Army Chief General Bipin Rawat stated on January 12, 2018 that focus of the Army will shift to the country's border in the north as opposed to the long-standing focus on the western border.
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January 19, 2018
Assault Rifles, Carbines coming
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)On January 16, 2018 the defence acquisitin council (DAC) headed by the Defence Minister, has cleared fast-track procurement of 72,400 assault rifles and 93,850 carbines for 3,547 cr from the global market.
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January 19, 2018
ISRO's centurion leap
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)ISRO launched its 100th satellite in space on January 12, 2018 as its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C40) successfully placed 31 satellites in two different orbits in one of the longest missions.
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January 19, 2018
China's military base in Maldives
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)An article in the China Daily during 2014 stated China plans to build 18 "Strategic Support Bases" in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR), outlining a blueprint for the establishment of 18 Chinese "Overseas Strategic Support Bases" like in Djibouti, Aden, Salalah, Seychelles, Gwadar in Pakistan etc.
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January 16, 2018
“Sentiments from a General at the occasion of Army Day”Lt General V K Kapoor (Retd), Editor - SP’s Land Forces
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January 10, 2018
Foreclosure of Army's Battlefield Management System
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)As per news reports of early December 2017, the MoD and the Army were looking at closing down the Battlefield Management System, despite its prototypes being developed by two Indian consortiums.
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January 9, 2018
Trump Twitter-bombs Pakistan
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The dawn of New Year in Pakistan was twitter-bombed by US President Donald Trump accusing Pakistan of double-dealing by saying, "The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies and deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools.
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January 9, 2018
AAD Interceptor Missile — Assisting BMD
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)India successfully tested its AAD (Advanced Area Defence) Interceptor Missile on December 28, 2017 by successfully intercepting an incoming ballistic missile.
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January 9, 2018
Advance Base Workshops — MoD takes control
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The government-appointed Committee of Experts (CoE) on "Enhancing Combat Capability and Rebalancing Defence Expenditure of the Armed Forces", headed by Lt Gen D B Shekatkar, had submitted its report to the Defence Minister on December 21, 2016.
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January 9, 2018
Neglecting welfare — Affecting soldier's morale
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)A recent editorial in a national daily titled 'An Unhappy Army' states that unflattering information on the internal "atmosphere" in the armed services is seldom made public: the bad-for-morale argument serves to keep things under wraps.
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January 9, 2018
Jiwani PLA base — Major strategic gain for China
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)According to a recent report in The Washington Times, China is constructing its second overseas military base in Pakistan at Jiwani in the Gulf of Oman, as part of a push for greater power projection capabilities along strategic sea routes.
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January 9, 2018
Defence Budget 2018-2019 — Another negative in actual terms?
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Defence Budget 2018-2019 is to be unveiled shortly. What will be allocated to the Armed Forces is awaited with trepidation considering successive defence budgets...
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January 8, 2018
Visit of Israeli Prime Minister - Expectations
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to visit India commencing January 14.
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January 8, 2018
The faux pas of counter Maoist operations
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)As per new reports of end November 2017, some 155 Maoists have been killed in the Dandakaranya region by security forces during 2017.
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January 8, 2018
The drone crash - And beyond
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)China went wild with accusations when an Indian drone recently crashed in China occupied Tibet in first week December 2017, days before the visit to India by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. The Heron drone, made by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), had taken off from a base in the Siliguri Corridor on a training mission over India when it developed technical problems and crashed in Chumbi Valley near the Doklam Plateau where there is a concentration of Chinese troops.
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January 8, 2018
Army's Battlefield Management System - Dumped?
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The news about Army having foreclosed the Battlefield Management System (BMS) is appalling, especially when BMS were being developed by two Indian consortiums.
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January 8, 2018
CPEC glitches temporary - But violence to continue
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)First signs of hiccups in the nearly $60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, inked during Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Pakistan in April 2015...
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January 8, 2018
The 3D Revolution
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)From 1984, when Chuck Hall of 3D Systems Corporation developed the first working 3D printer, the 3D industry has progressed at an unbelievable pace.
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December 11, 2017
Trump’s Af-Pak policy and India’s role in it
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)US President Donald Trump’s televised speech unveiling his new Af-Pak policy directly nailed Pakistan in sponsoring terrorism, exposing Pakistan’s double game. As of October 18, 2016, total US military casualties in Afghanistan were 2,386 killed and 20,049 wounded, in addition to 1,173 civilian contractor fatalities.
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December 11, 2017
India’s Border Control — Lopsided in extreme
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)According to the Department of Border Management, Ministry of Home Affairs, India has total of 15106.7 km of land border with neighbouring countries: 3,323 km with Pakistan; 106 km with Afghanistan; 3,488 km with China; 1,751 km with Nepal; 699 km with Bhutan; 1,643 km with Myanmar, and; 4,096 km with Bangladesh.
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December 11, 2017
Beyond Maoist attack in Sukma
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The ghastly ambush by Maoists at Sukma on April 24 killed 25 CRPF personnel killed and wounded some. While the heart goes out to the bereaved families, serious introspection is required as apparently we have failed to learn any lessons even after the April 2010 Dantewada massacre of 76 CRPF personnel by the Maoists and loss of all their weapons.
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December 4, 2017
Privatizing government defence industry
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The governmental has announced some disinvestment in the governmental defence industry like 10% in HAL, which does not amount to much change.
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December 4, 2017
Republic Day Parade 2018 will be special
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)That Republic Day Parade 2018 will be special is probably an understatement. Never have 10 heads of states been invited to this event, which India has done this time...
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December 4, 2017
Cartosat 2 and ISRO's multiple outreach
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Come later half of December and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is getting ready to launch the next remote sensing satellite of Cartosat-2 series along with 30 nano satellites of foreign countries.
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December 4, 2017
Brazenly Open: Pakistan Army-Islamists Nexus
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)With concerted efforts by the Pakistani military to radicalize the population at large, their handling of the recent protests is hardly surprising.
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December 4, 2017
Hafiz Saeed – Key China-Pak asset
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)In January 2017, when Qamar Javed Bajwa was appointed Pakistan's Army Chief superseding his seniors including the Zubair Mahmood Hayat, present Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee since November 2016, Pakistani scholar Ayesha Siddiqa wrote, "Even his (Bajwa's) epaulette weighs heavy.
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December 4, 2017
Ivanka Trump boosts Indo-US relations
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The 8th annual Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES), jointly hosted by the US and India and attended by 1,500 entrepreneurs, investors and eco-system supporters from 159 countries was held in Hyderabad from 28 to 30 November, 2017.
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November 15, 2017
India, US, Japan, Australia quadrilateral kicks off
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)November 12, 2017 witnessed the first meeting of officials of India, US, Japan and Australia meeting at Manila, giving shape to security cooperation...
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November 15, 2017
Continued US military assistance to Pakistan is unfortunate
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)When President Donald Trump unveiled his new Af-Pak policy on 21 August 2017 through a televised speech, he was most direct in telling Pakistan how it has been playing the double game with the US.
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November 15, 2017
No to Tejas and Arjun by military is misinformation
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The media is agog with the news that the Armed Forces have said no to the indigenous Tejas fighter and the Arjun Tank.
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November 15, 2017
Joint Training Doctrine
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)As a follow up to the ‘Joint Doctrine, Indian Armed Forces – 2017’ in April this year, the Headquarters Integrated Defence Staff (IDS) has now issued...
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November 15, 2017
Nirbhay-BrahMos Combo – Nemesis of adversaries
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)December 21, 2016 was bad for India when the trial test of the nuclear-capable ‘Nirbhay’ long-range cruise missile failed for the third time. According to DRDO officials, “The booster engine in Nirbhay’s first stage started working. The missile lifted off from its launcher.
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November 15, 2017
The Doodle of Indo-Pak talks
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Much speculation is in the air that Indo-Pak talks are round the corner and that foreign pressure will make Pakistan slowly come around. Nothing could be farther from the truth despite Pakistan’s sweet pill of granting wife of Kulbhushan Jadhav to meet him.
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November 8, 2017
Different rifle for infantry and others?
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Going by media reports, the Army is going in for equipping infantry soldiers with a world-class assault rifle, while non-infantry soldiers would get a cheaper, "less effective", indigenous rifle.
