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By the end of the year India is expected to begin a process of satellite launches that will give it sovereign capability of using space to facilitate navigation and guidance of its military as well civil airborne assets very much as is done currently through the American-owned Global Positioning System (GPS) and the Russian Global […]

After what the Chinese have just done to us in the Ladakh sector of Jammu and Kashmir, talk of an “Aerospace Command” raises visions of castles in the air while terrestrial bastions on earth are being assaulted and violated. While there will, eventually, be a need to set up such a command headquarters to administer […]

Outer space is slowly but surely emerging as a new battlefield where future wars could begin and end. Indeed, the possibility of space becoming altogether a new battle zone became evident in the hunter killer satellite tests that the erstwhile Soviet Union had carried out in 1960s with a high degree of success. And not […]

India has always found France to be a hassle free partner in wide ranging areas of strategic importance including defence, high technology and scientific research. Significantly, Indo-French defence and high-tech partnership has not been marred either by the kind of ‘sanctions and technology embargo’ that US administration has been accustomed to slapping off and on […]

For long, the fortunes of the Indian aerospace sector remained closely tied to the state owned defence and aeronautical major Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). However, the opening up of the defence and aerospace sectors to private participation in 2001 meant a certain loosening of HAL’s monopoly over the Indian aerospace sector. With many private players […]

The political-bureaucratic nexus in New Delhi which lords over the Indian defence establishment seems to be dithering over giving clearance to the long overdue Indian aerospace command. Though it is well over five years, since the Indian Air Force (IAF) has been pressing for the creation of an aerospace command which is essential to lay […]

Satellites are the eyes and ears of any national aerospace command, but sadly India has not yet deployed an independent dedicated satellite for its armed forces. Since space has now become the fourth dimension of modern-day combat, powerful nations have already set up an aerospace command, but Indian defense bosses are still mulling over the […]

It can be extremely disconcerting for a fighter pilot to know that there is a missile on his tail. It is fortunate that aircraft manufacturers have learned from the improvements in capabilities of missiles of all kinds-air-to-air and surface-to-air (SAM) in particular-to be able to install early warning systems against the means by which the […]

Air defence, perforce, is a multilayered concept. Till India went nuclear it was sufficient to be able to detect and engage low-flying aircraft and medium range missiles armed with conventional warheads.   No more. India now has to ensure that all means of ingress into its airspace are well covered by sensors so as no […]