Defence.Capital August 2020 Edition

Defence.Capital

BUSINESS AND POLITICS OF ARMING INDIA

AUGUST 2020

Independence Day Special

STANDING GUARD

As India celebrates Independence Day this month, we salute the Indian armed forces personnel, who guard that freedom with their blood and sweat, including in Ladakh against expansionist China

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EDITORIAL Dear Readers, It is now over three months since China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) troopers began a conflict at the de facto border in eastern Ladakh, a newly formed Union Territory of India. It would be naïve to think that neither India nor China did not perceive such a development at the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh or any other sector.

For years, India and China have been war gaming the scenarios that could emerge along the yet-tobe demarcated 4,057-km Line of Actual Control running across the Himalayas from East in Arunachal Pradesh to West in Ladakh.

Not surprisingly, China has claimed both these territories as extension of Tibet, a territory it has occupied and held for seven decades now. Defence.Capital has argued in its earlier editions and through webinars that Tibet was never part of China and that Beijing, under the Chinese Communist Party, has illegally annexed the Tibetan region, to change geography and to establish new boundaries with other nations, including India, that never existed.

This is also true with regard to another territory called Xinjiang, which in Mandarin means ‘New Frontier’, a give-away that the region, once called East Turkestan and a separate nation at that, was annexed illegally by China.

Coupled with the territorial disputes that China has been pursuing in South China Sea, President Xi Jinping is now being seen as the world’s worst villain. Again, Defence.Capital was the first to call Xi, for his territorial expansionist ambitions, the 21st Century Dr No, a villainous character in James Bond flick of 1962.

Since then, taking a cue, the world has begun to identify Xi as the 21st Century Hitler, the German dictator blamed for the catastrophic World War II that claimed millions of lives. Xi’s political rise has been compared with that of Hitler and that has got the Communist Party of China’s goat.

The Chinese embassy in New Delhi has even gone on to threaten a media outlet that is run by an admired friend and senior journalist with “consequences”. Let Communist China, which is a single party dictatorship, remember that their writ does not extend to Indian media. Let Xi practice his ‘Iron Curtain’ and ‘Great Wall’ policy on disallowing freedom of speech with CCP’s mouthpieces such as Global Times and CGTN, and not try this trick outside of Communist China.

Indian media will criticise and continue pointing out the violation of the global rules-based order by Communist China and will never spare Xi or his stooges for their commissions and omissions.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry also has the temerity to question India’s administrative action of Aug. 5, 2019, establishing the Union Territories in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.

Communist China would do good to look at the bipartisan support that the Government of India’s move obtained in Parliament for rendering ineffective Article 370 in the Constitution.

It would also do good to Communist China if its gazes inward at its own dismal human rights record and the number of border conflicts, be it on land or at sea, that it is battling at this point in time.

Communist China leadership, in particular Xi Jinping, should hang the head in shame for the kind of atrocities that it has been perpetrating against peace-loving Tibetans, and against pro-democracy activists in East Turkestan, apart from the use of draconian laws against protesting Hong Kongers to violently suppress dissent against its political shenanigans.

As they say in Sankrit in India, Vinasha Kale Viparita Bhudhi (Bad times and destructive ideas go handin-hand). The time seems right for Communist Party of China’s destruction!

N. C. Bipindra Editor

Editor: N. C. Bipindra Creative Editor: Shajan C. Kumar Assistant Editor: Aadithya Contributing Editors: Amit Agnihotri, Deepak Sharma, Ayaskant Das, Atul Kumar Administration: Rashmi Sharma Website: https://defence.capital Email: defencecapitalmag@gmail.com Phone: +91 9871050869 Edited, Published & Printed by N. C. Bipindra IndoStrat Enterprises, 67D, 3rd Floor, Pocket A, DDA SFS Flats, Mayur Vihar Phase 3, New Delhi 110096.

Views expressed are those of individual writers and do not represent the policy of this publication.

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CONTENTS

TECHNOLOGY

Facial surveillance takes baby steps, yet to prove fool-proof viability Facial recognition, once considered a revolutionary technology and having positive applications and usage, is now facing intense scrutiny after inaccuracies, including potential bias, were reported when the police in the US used it to track down people. P 7

India makes progress in space-based capabilities as a military aid Spaceborne sensors are strategically vital for military forces due to battlefield transparency that facilitates a better situational awareness and intelligence mechanism in a multi-dimensional warfare scenario. P 13

Make China fear India and follow aggressive policy against Beijing Congress Party leader Abhishek Singhvi calls for a change in the mindset of the Indian military leadership, bureaucracy, and diplomats in providing strong, deft, and resolute handling of the Chinese challenge on all fronts. P 15 4

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India-made weapons and systems ready for Air Force induction Indigenisation of Indian Air Force assets can solve the defence capabilities predicament.

Indian-designed and developed military gear could play a vital role in boosting capabilities of the IAF, as homegrown technology gets cheaper and reliable. P 19

CHAKRAVIEW

Bull in a China shop: Beijing attempts to induce chaos in new world order In the United Nations General Assembly session of 2015, China introduced its vision of a world order called “Community with a Shared Future for Mankind”.

The vision document contained a lot of high-principled words such as consultation, dialogue, inclusivity, consensus, and cooperation but was vague and ambiguous on the specifics regarding the nature of the world order.

The only point, which had some correlation with facts on ground, was the reference to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the likely benefits that would accrue to participating nations. History, however, is replete with examples where calls for such ‘community’ led to colonisation. The chasm between the rhetoric of a global society and the coercive reality of China’s actions in the world is wide open.

China’s actions in its neighbourhood and afar have been far from inclusive or based on cooperation. BRI, though touted as a panacea for the world’s economic woes, is just a way for China to use its excess manufacturing capacity, having saturated its domestic market long back, to create dependent economies using ‘debt traps’ and then using them as leverage to

gain land and concessions of strategic nature. This amounts to ‘salami slicing’. Sri Lanka is one of the best examples of Chinese ‘debt trap diplomacy’ where the Sri Lankan government was inundated with a massive Chinese loan in the form of infrastructure development and when the government was unable to pay the loan back, China took control of the port for 99 years.

China’s aggressive move in eastern Ladakh has been matched and mirrored by the Indian armed forces, which have blocked its further ingress into Indian territory in Ladakh. Under the garb of a military exercise, it attempted to wrest control of more land in the Ladakh sector.

China must also remember that its military advantages all come to naught when facing India in the high-altitude terrain and any aggressive intentions will have a downward spiraling effect on its bilateral economic relations with India.

With a trade surplus with India and access to an aspirational and prosperous Indian market, China must stop and contemplate: Was this misadventure worth the likely cost of this economic relationship?

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China always insists that it has been a perfect and peaceful neighbour, but its actions belie its false rhetoric. China has attempted to strangulate India by using the weaker and much more exploited Pakistan to contain India.

This has been done using two simultaneous processes: transfer of sophisticated missile and nuclear technologies in defiance of all non-proliferation regimes and indirectly promoting terrorism against India by condoning Pakistan’s actions and refusing to sanction terrorists sheltered by Pakistan at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).

When India changed Jammu and Kashmir’s map to reflect the present-day reality of it being an Union Territory, China and Pakistan colluded to raise the issue at the UNSC, though without any success.

BRI’s manifestation in Pakistan is the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which runs through Indian territory, a fact conveniently ignored by China despite its claims of not interfering in any country’s sovereign matters. CPEC itself has made Pakistan a neo-colony of China with no benefits accruing to the country at all.

India’s vision for its neighbourhood is that of seeking and cementing civilisational ties with littoral nations in the Indo-Pacific region, which, as per Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of SAGAR (Security and Growth for All in the Region) is progressive and believes in multilateral institutions.

India is a mature civilisational power that believes in promoting its national interest, but not at the cost of world peace.

India has always promoted and been a founder-member of a number of groupings such as the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), Bangladesh-Bhutan-India-Nepal (BBIN), BRICS and others. The United States may believe that India is ‘a part’ of its Indo-Pacific strategy, but India has always believed in and

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prized its strategic autonomy since independence.

China also feels that any grouping in the world that it does not form part of is automatically against it. However, it needs to understand that not all groupings are created with China in mind.

The invitation from US President Donald J. Trump to India, South Korea and Australia to join the G7 meeting he would host later this year, and expand it further, is to form a larger grouping of like-minded countries that share a common vision of a rules-based world order based on liberal principles such as democracy and free market, both of which are anathema to China.

Beijing, therefore, needs to introspect why the same invitation was not extended to it. Similarly, raising of the Quad’s interactions to the ministerial level is a natural reaction amongst powers that dominate the Indo-Pacific region and including China in it is not a prerequisite.

China’s vision of the world is based on its folklorist version of the Middle Kingdom, where it is the centre of the world, and everyone else is at the periphery.

This vision is impossible to achieve in practice given the multiple powers on the global stage. China has forgotten that the US’s supreme position is not purely because of its military capabilities but a reflection of acknowledgement by other countries of its stabilising factor.

In subjugating the freedom of Hong Kongers, threatening Taiwan with military action, and undertaking unilateral actions against India along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and nations in the South China Sea, it has forced the entire world to react.

In the midst of a debilitating trade and technology war with the US, China must think: has it bitten more than it can swallow?

TECHNOLOGY

Facial surveillance takes baby steps, yet to prove fool-proof viability

By Rajiv Prakash Saxena Police in Detroit, while investigating, were trying to figure out who stole five watches from a Shinola retail store. Authorities mentioned that the thief took off with an estimated $3,800 worth of merchandise. Investigators pulled a security video that had recorded the incident from cameras installed in the store and neighbourhood, which is quite common in the United States.

Detectives zoomed in on the grainy footage and ran the person who appeared to be primary through ‘facial recognition software’. A hit came back: Robert Julian - Borchak Williams, 42, of Farmington Hills, Michigan, about 25 miles northwest of Detroit. In January, police pulled up to Williams’ home and arrested him while he stood on his front lawn in front of his wife and two daughters, ages 2 and 5, who cried as they watched their father being taken away in the patrol car.

His wife, Melissa Williams, wanted to know where police were taking her husband. “Google it,” she recalls an officer telling her. Robert Williams was led to interrogation room and

police put three photos in front of him: Two photos taken from the surveillance camera in the store and a photo of Williams’ state-issued driver’s license. The police was shocked when it became crystal clear that they have got the wrong guy on the table.

Facial recognition, once considered a revolutionary technology, is now facing intense scrutiny after inaccuracies were reported when the police in the US used it to track down people who participated in the recent protests in ‘Black Lives Matter’ (BLM) campaign following the killing of George Floyd, a black American, which later turned out to be sheer hooliganism.

Despite having many positive applications and usage, facial recognition technology has been criticised for the allegation of potential bias, with some reports saying that the algorithms used in the technology identify the wrong persons as culprits and suspects.

Such instances are more likely in the case of ‘blacks’ compared to the ‘whites’. Facial recognition technology should not be conflated with other types of biometrics. It is a unique relative to other forms of 16-22 biometric identifications because AUGUST 2020

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the content of the medium is raw image of the human face.

Facial recognition is a way of recognising a human face through a mix of image processing and Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology. A facial recognition system uses biometrics to map facial features from a photograph or video or even a hand sketch. Facial recognition software is based on the ability to recognise a face and then measure the various features of the face. Every face has numerous, distinguishable landmarks, the different peaks and valleys that make up facial features.

FaceIt defines these landmarks as nodal points. It compares the information with a database of known faces to find a match.

Following the US incident, several technology majors have voluntarily imposed a ban on its use by the intelligence, police forces and airport security setup. The dangers of facial recognition pose a serious threat to online identities being misused by hackers for illegal activities. However, if the technology is abused by hackers, it can lead to potential financial and reputational damage to businesses.

Facial recognition has the potential to be dangerous. In practice, we see that it can be hacked or spoofed, databases can be breached or sold and sometimes it’s just not effective; as such, we should restrict facial recognition to viable use cases like airport and border security.

However, in many ways, the facial identity feature in devices only increases the level of security without compromising it. Facial identity verification has a high acceptability rate than fingerprints. They are also universal in nature, as every person has facial features but not everyone has fingerprints. Fingerprints may get blunted in many cases.

Research suggests that facial recognition systems can be accurate, at least under ideal conditions. A review of the industry’s leading facial recognition algorithms by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) found they were more than 99 per cent accurate when matching high-quality head shots to a database of other frontal poses.

Sometimes it may be difficult. Therefore, it is very difficult for a recognition system to identify them. These problems can be due to system faults used in face recognition, such as camera distortion, background noise, inefficient storage, and improper techniques. More than that, there can be network prob-

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lems due to environmental conditions.

But trying to identify a face from a video feed -- a potentially useful technique for detectives -- can cause accuracy rates to plunge. NIST found that recognition accuracy could fall below 10 per cent when using ceiling-mounted cameras commonly found in stores and government buildings.

Some cities are raising concerns that facial recognition technology misidentifies minorities. Others see its usefulness in law enforcement. Police departments around the US are asking citizens to trust them to use facial recognition software as another handy tool in their crime -- fighting toolbox. But some lawmakers -- and even some technology giants -- are hitting the brakes.

On Apr. 15, 2013 at 2:49 p.m. EDT, two bombs exploded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three people, and injuring 264 others. The race was abruptly halted, and police cornered off a 12-block crime scene surrounding the location of the blasts.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) took the lead and initial forensic evidence indicated the explosive device was a pressure cooker packed with fragments of ball bearings and nails, possibly concealed in a dark-coloured nylon backpack.

The case was solved using facial recognition technology.

Are fears of an all-seeing, artificially intelligent security apparatus overblown? Not if one looks at China, where advancements in computer vision applied to vast network of street cameras have enabled authorities to track members of the ethnic minority groups for signs of subversive behaviour.

For instance, the Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence (BAAI), established in Nov. 2018 with support from the Ministry of Science and Technology, called for a harmonised set of AI governance frameworks built through international cooperation and pledged to serve all of humanity under the Beijing AI Principles.

Through a Western liberal lens, this may seem incompatible with the Chinese government’s unethical practices: after all, there are numerous reports of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) panopticon. The panopticon is a disciplinary concept brought to life in the form of a central observation tower placed within a circle of prison cells. From the tower, a

guard can see every cell and inmate but the inmates can›t see into the tower. Prisoners will never know whether or not they are being watched.

Such uses have been reported in CCP programmes, with oppressive regime of surveillance and suppression targeting the Uyghurs, a Muslim minority group and widespread use of facial recognition to nudge citizens to behave the way the state wants them to. However, in the eyes of the CCP, this is not a contradiction.

Liu Xiaoming, Ambassador of China to the United Kingdom, has defended the mass surveillance and extralegal detention of Uyghurs, using the rhetoric of “ethnic harmony”.

It should come as no surprise then that the AI principles are silent on the military and policing applications of AI. These inconsistencies are seen not only in non-democracy states.

The US police officials and their video surveillance industry partners contend that this will not happen here. They are pushing back against a movement by cities, states and federal legislators to ban or curtail the technology’s use. Surprisingly, recent events want even police to be disbanded. And the efforts aren’t confined to typical bastions of liberal activism that enacted bans this year: San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley and the Boston suburbs of Somerville and Brookline. Companies including Amazon, which markets a face identification system called Rekognition to law enforcement, have shown fewer qualms about selling their technology to police. Some law enforcement agencies feed images from video surveillance into software that can search government databases or social media for a possible match.

Todd Pastorini, General Manager at biometric forensics

company DataWorks Plus, said it’s important to distinguish between real - time crowd surveillance, which is rare in the US and the “extremely effective” method of running images through a pool of known police mugshots or driver’s license photos to help identify a suspect. “Society and the public are going to get frustrated” if governments block law enforcement from adopting a technology that keeps improving, he said.

Among his South Carolina company’s biggest face-matching clients are Detroit and New York City, the latter of which first adopted facial recognition in 2011 and also uses software from French company Idemia. “I’d absolutely be opposed to a ban,” New York City Police Commissioner James O’Neill told reporters in Nov. 2019. Bottom of Form O’Neill, who retired in early Dec. 2019, added that facial recognition hits are just one part of an investigation. “There is so much video in New York City today that to not use facial recognition would be irresponsible,” he said.

The world leaders in this technology are Amazon’s Rekognition, Lambda Labs’ Face Recognition and Face Detection, Microsoft’s Face API, Google›s Cloud Vision, and IBM’s Watson Visual Recognition.

IBM the technology giant will no longer offer its facial recognition technology to police departments for mass surveillance and racial profiling. In a letter to the US Congress, CEO Arvind Krishna said that the technology violates basic human rights and freedoms and is inconsistent with the 109-year-old company’s policy.

Following IBM, Amazon, too announced a one-year moratorium on the use of its facial recognition software Rekognition by the police. Rekognition can use artificial intelligence to AUGUST 2020

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quickly compare a picture procured from anywhere and try to match it with police database. It has urged the governments to put in place stronger regulations to govern the ethical usage of the technology.

Microsoft’s President Brad Smith, in a newspaper interview, said the company has been taking a “principled stand” on the proper use of the technology and will not be selling this tool to the police until there are changes in the national law.

Facing limited resources and a lack of adequate funding, Indian law enforcement agencies have been increasingly seeking technology based solutions to solve criminal cases.

The NCRB’s tender stated that the system will bring a “sea change” in investigating crimes, the handling of criminals and related operations by allowing security forces across India’s 28 states and nine federally administered territories access to a centralised database of images.

But facial recognition technology has been shown to be inaccurate in identifying darker-skinned women, those from ethnic minorities and transgender people. The images will be pulled from social media accounts, newspapers, CCTV cameras, passport photos, publicly available pictures and criminal records. Even artists’ sketches of suspects will be part of the database.

Facial recognition is a germane case. India’s DigiYatra project was announced in June 2018 with the mission to “develop a digital ecosystem that will deliver Indian customers a seamless, consistent and paperless service experience at every touch point of their journey.” As part of this project, the Hyderabad international airport launched facial recognition trials for certain domestic routes for the month of July 2019, with 180 volunteers registering for paperless entry on day one.

In the same month, the London Metropolitan Police were hit with a report from the University of Essex calling into question the accuracy, legality, and ethicality of the Met’s live facial

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recognition technology. Metropolitan Police Federation Chairman Ken Marsh dismissed the report’s findings; in the same media interview, he expressed admiration for the Chinese government’s surveillance system, which many have described as intrusive.

A friend of mine had the opportunity to visit Huawei headquarter in Shenzhen, China. He was awestruck to realise the technology infrastructure of the company and their Smart City Infrastructure prowess. However, they were very proud to ascertain and claim how they could recognise and track the movements of every citizen in the city with their respective Video and Visual Recognition algorithms.

A few amongst them raised questions relevant to individual privacy and relevant GDPR regulations, to which they exclaimed how it was in line with their government policies to ensure “security and safety” of its citizens and shared with him anecdote how they nabbed a kidnapper in six hours with their current Internet of Things infrastructure of the city. In short, they could track every citizen of the country correlating with their smart card.

The primary concern raised by citizens regarding facial recognition is the lack of user consent involved in the implementation process. CCTV surveillance systems are already being employed by many governments around the world. User consent is usually not sought in public places collecting citizens’ facial data. This enables automated live surveillance of people.

Governments can track each and every move of citizens compromising their privacy. If used carelessly, every citizen can turn into a walking identity card, which leads to privacy, ethics, and security concerns.

The right to privacy matters even in public places. Facial recognition methods employed by governments undermine the right to privacy, as it means any individual can no longer do anything in public without the state having knowledge

about it. A future with automated blanket surveillance may be possible due to the mainstream employment of facial recognition technologies.

Hong Kong protestors were continuously monitored for their anti-state protests and they were given water cannon attacks and that’s why people were using umbrellas to protect themselves. But later on, the Chinese government started using a dye which used to get stuck to the skin and office videos were demanded to find the colour sticking to the citizens and then strict action was taken against such protestors.

For all people, Chinese and foreign, there is a baseline of programmes that accomplish a routine surveillance, serving the administrative requirements of the Chinese state. Local police, working from municipal or county Public Security Bureaus (PSBs; see the Ministry of Public Security [MPS]), keep in view all People’s Republic of China (PRC) citizens within their jurisdiction via the national identification (ID) card (身 份, shenfen zheng) system that records each resident’s home and place of work.

Though not everyone strives to comply, especially those who move for a new job, this system is probably more effec-

tive than ever because of advancing technology and the CCP’s determination to improve and preserve, itself. Police maintain a large database that links each citizen’s identity card number with his or her name and date of birth, ethnicity, sex and address, with links to other data of interest such as the person’s residence permit (户, hukou) and the dang’an ( 档 案 ) file containing work - related information.

This can be termed a “baseline of surveillance” because it is applied to every PRC citizen, tracking the routine details of life, allowing authorities to detect the unexpected, and decide whether to investigate it. Foreigners are a less permanent fixture than PRC citizens but are nonetheless tracked with the same baseline goals in mind.

Those living semi permanently in China, typically on employment or marriage visas, must register with the local PSB in their place of residence and if employed, must also report their presence in the police district where they work. Some foreigners manage to avoid this but risk expulsion.

Foreign visitors on business, exchange students and tourists are not exempted, even if they visit the home of a friend. At hotels, every foreigner submits his or her passport to the front AUGUST 2020

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desk, where staff copies the important pages and sends them to the local public security bureau. If the foreigner is a student reporting for classes at a university, the school must similarly comply.

Just as Chinese must always carry their national identity cards, foreigners are required by law to carry their passports.

These steps enable PSBs to account for every resident and every visiting foreigner more easily in their jurisdiction.

While this may seem extreme to foreigners, place yourself in the shoes of a local PSB commander: if a person, be she or he a foreigner or Chinese, in your district, goes missing or commits a crime, the CCP will hold you accountable: you had better be able to provide full information on demand from higher-ups. PRC authorities view this system more as accountability than surveillance.

Beijing’s mindset about baseline surveillance helps explain why the CCP views universal human rights like privacy and freedom of expression, and religion, as canards intended to subvert its rule.

Lately joining these baseline programmes is the “social credit” system (社会信用体系, shehui xinyong tixi), scheduled to fully roll out by 2020. The system is enabled in significant measure by Alibaba (阿里巴巴), the highly successful online sales platform. It runs Alipay, which allows users to buy a wide range of products, even vegetables in a farmer’s market, with just a mobile phone.

Alipay also offers users entry into Zhima (芝麻) or Sesame, Credit. The company is assembling a “social integrity system” that has already integrated into Zhima Credit a government database of six million people, who have defaulted on court fines.

According to Lucy Peng, CEO of Ant Financial Services (the online finance arm of Alibaba Group), Zhima Credit will “ensure that the bad people in society don’t have a place to go, while good people can move freely and without obstruction.”

Alibaba will probably work closely with the CCP to meet its goals of societal control. The company not only has 2,094 par-

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ty members among its employees; it also upgraded its internal CCP organ to a Group Party Committee (集团党委, Jituan dang wei) at the same time in 2012 as it hired its first chief risk officer (首席险官, shouxi xianguan).

He is Shao Xiaofeng (邵晓), an award-winning twenty-year veteran of the MPS. Shao’s high post within his firm’s hierarchy is the envy of most corporate security executives outside of China, who occasionally rise to that level but are normally relegated to a much lower rung on the ladder.

AI experts and civil society have raised concerns about facial recognition technology’s broader implications. These include the risks posed by storing all of one’s biometric details on a database which could be vulnerable, as well as this technology’s unprecedented infringement of people’s privacy.

Yet, the implications are different in the few contexts described above. The acceptability of the facial recognition will increase for sure and safeguards will be added, and matching algorithms enhanced and reviewed periodically.

Many cities are planning cameras installed in the city along with command and control centres. Security requirement will grow and so will the need of such intrusive technologies.

During COVID-19 times, facial video along with AI technology was used to monitor infected patients.

The app is an AI-based image processing technology. With a selfie video of two minutes, it can find our all critical vitals required to diagnose Coronavirus. It extracts vital signs within 10 seconds to two minutes, with medical-grade accuracy. It applies motion compensation and illumination normalisation and supports any age, gender and skin colour.

Surveillance is normal in one country while it is privacy in others as per the ethos of the nation.

(The writer was a technocrat in the Government of India and a thought leader on eCommerce, eProcurement, eSign, DSCs and Internet Security. A graduate of UBC, Vancouver, Canada, he has written eight books and done United Nations assignments.)

SPACE SECTOR

India makes progress in space-based capabilities

By Atul Kumar Space is deemed the fourth dimension of military warfare after land, sea, and air, and it has been quickly advancing as the critical sphere for strategic advantage during war and peace.

As of today, no virtual action has ever materialised in space.

However, four nations -- the US, Russia, China, and India -have shown the capabilities to militarise outer space.

Last year, with the success of ‘Mission Shakti’, India has demonstrated its military and technological mastery in the fourth dimension.

Today, militaries around the world are heavily dependent on communication systems, reconnaissance and surveillance gears positioned in space.

Spaceborne sensors are strategically vital for military forces due to battlefield transparency that facilitates a better situational awareness and intelligence mechanism in a multi-dimensional warfare scenario.

Countries like the US, Russia and China hold massive digits of space-borne sensors including military communication, electronic intelligence, infrared and electro-optical as well as radar satellites.

Chinese military alone operates dozens of spy class sensors that include Huanjing and Yaogan series satellites.

The Yaogan series fitted with electro-optical digital imaging and high-resolution synthetic aperture radar sensors are the primary spaceborne reconnaissance and surveillance assets of People’s Republic of China’s military.

Set side-by-side, the Indian military had not invested substantially in space-based assets. However, with the sufficient increase in space budget over the years, India has brought in substantial progress in its space-based capabilities.

Indian build-up in Space After the successful development of indigenous navigation system christened ‘Navic’ that is currently accessible to Indian defence forces, India’s elite space research body, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), has been punctiliously working with DRDO, academia and industry for the development and launch of new-generation spaceborne detectors.

Several hi-tech military communications, electro-optic, ELINT and SAR-based satellites have already been launched

by ISRO for the Indian military since 2014. As of 2019, Indian military employs over a dozen spaceborne gears to support their airborne, maritime, and land-based operations.

In order to boost armed forces satellite-based communication and network-centric capabilities, ISRO has placed GSAT7 and GSAT-7A into the near-Earth orbit.

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The multi-band GSAT-7 , also known as Rukmini, is the first dedicated military communication satellite primarily utilised by the Indian Navy to expand its blue water span by transmitting precise real-time information among its shorebased systems, surface ships, airborne assets, bases and underwater submarines.

While new-generation GSAT-7A empowers Indian Air Force network-centric structure by interlinking its airborne fleet, airbases, radar stations as well as AWACS network.

Besides, it also equips the Indian Army with substantial transmission mechanism for land-based operations. Also, a more powerful GSAT-7R would supplant GSAT-7 by the end of the year.

For surveillance, Indian forces are heavily dependent on CARTOSAT and RISAT series of spacecraft. ISRO has put more than a dozen of these spacecraft into the Earth’s orbit.

Among the nine launched CARTOSAT satellites, the latest third-generation CARTOSAT-3 would be India’s most powerful Electro-Optical observer in space. This highly agile satellite is equipped with a high-resolution panchromatic payload that would provide Images at 0.25m ground resolution, better than any defence satellite currently operated by the Indian military.

While ISRO’s latest launched RISAT-2BR1 and RISAT-2B radar imaging spy satellites would provide surveillance by using ‘X-band’ Synthetic Aperture Radar. They would supplant the previous RISAT-2 equipped with Israel IAI-made X-band SAR sensors.

These spaceborne Indian assets would provide 24x7 surveillance to India’s land borders as well as maritime boundaries in all weather conditions. Both space assets operate an Indian-origin X-band SAR for imaging operations, and provide very high-resolution radar images of borders, military installations and hostile vessels in the region.

Furthermore, in the coming months, their capabilities will be enhanced by launching two new RISAT members, RISAT-2BR2 and RISAT-1A. In addition to this, India’s first-ever space-borne ELINT spacecraft, EMISAT, has also been activated by ISRO. Conceived and designed by Defence Electronics Research Laboratory of DRDO, the 436-kg EMISAT, suited with a pure

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military ELINT payload named ‘Kautilya’ operates in the electromagnetic spectrum, would deploy to uncover enemy radar sites and electronic warfare capabilities near borders and coastline.

Altogether, these indigenous space capabilities will significantly improve battlefield transparency for the Indian military, and eventually will benefit Indian weaponry to accomplish critical missions with full precision.

Besides, ISRO has also fielded its new HySIS (Hyper Spectral Imaging Satellites) series of spacecraft. The first of the HySIS series has already become operational. The HySIS, equipped with two infrared sensors (Visible near IR & Shortwave IR), would be used for civilian applications including agriculture, coastal zone monitoring and resources discoveries.

Besides, it would also be accessible to Indian defence forces. New GISAT (Geo Imaging Satellite) class of optical space sensors based on CARTOSAT will also be introduced this year.

Collectively, the entire constellation of Indian Low-Earth Orbit satellites will deny any kind of sanctuary to opponent forces anywhere in the region.

As of now, both the US and Russia have their space forces to supervise, maintain and protect their space-borne assets from hostile anti-space threats.

Thanks to Mission Shakti, New Delhi has also embarked on the groundwork for creating a robust command structure for its space-based operations to obtain a military edge to counter the hostile expansion of Beijing’s interest in the region.

In 2010, India established a nodal body for its space planning and operations called ‘Integrated Space Cell’ that jointly governs by specialists from Indian armed forces, ISRO and Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO).

In a move to further active its space-based doctrine, last year, New Delhi has also announced the creation of an elite ‘Defence Space Agency’ under the Integrated Defence Staff Headquarters of the Ministry of Defence.

This Bengaluru-based space-warfare agency will supervise and take care of India’s space-based strategic gears. Eventually, further robustness of these national assets would become the foundation of a definitive space command of the Republic of India.

EVENT

Make China fear India and follow aggressive policy against Beijing New Delhi: India needs to instill fear in the minds of Communist China if it has to achieve equilibrium in the bilateral relationship, Indian National Congress leader Dr Abhishek Singhvi said, calling for a comprehensive, aggressive change in India’s policy on China, against the Ladakh conflict backdrop.

Advocating a three-pronged shift in India’s strategy vis-àvis Communist China, Dr Singhvi said New Delhi has to invest in building military capability, diplomatic heft by aligning with like-minded groupings such as Quad, and inflict economic injury to China, all to instill fear in Communist China’s mind towards its Asian neighbour.

At a webinar organised by Law and Society Alliance, a Delhi-headquartered think-tank, and Defence.Capital, a national security and strategic affairs platform here last evening, Dr Singhvi said India and its polity has to grow beyond local party politics to usher in single-minded, focused, and unified response to the Communist China challenge.

He also called for a change in the mindset of the Indian bureaucracy and diplomats in providing strong, deft, and resolute handling of the Chinese challenge on all fronts, be it

geopolitical, economic, or military. The senior advocate in the Supreme Court of India was forthright in his assessment that India needs “to do more and talk less” on China and the challenges posed by the northern neighbour.

“India and China are two swords in one scabbard called Asia. There has to be forced respectability between the two. In the real world, both respect and outward likeability are consequences of fear. The need is to generate fear about India in China. Only this is going to set the equilibrium between the two giants,” the three-time member of Parliament of India from the Congress Party said.

On the military front, Dr Singhvi suggested that the Indian armed forces should unabashedly carry out joint military exercises with its interoperable friends and partners. “We have to be open and public about enhancing our military alliance and partnerships. India must focus on it and it is already doing so.”

That apart, India must focus on improving its defence budget and technological capabilities to counter the Chinese supremacy in the region on those fronts, he said. In particular, he talked of greater share of defence budget in Gross Domestic AUGUST 2020

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Product terms for the armed forces, and developing technologies to counter China, especially the military drone armoury technology apart from the missile capabilities and border infrastructure development.

Exploring possible diplomatic options for India, Dr Singhvi, who is the senior most national spokesperson for the Congress Party, said India should leverage and exploit the global anti-China sentiment and the unprecedented wave of anger that has swept across even those nations like Australia that had tilted towards China in the Pacific region under former prime minister Kevin Rudd.

“India’s power to name and shame China has always been less understood and even less considered. That naming and shaming China across the world is a vital tool in India’s armoury and I will expect India to unleash a blitzkrieg in which it should name and shame China on the global fora with forthrightness. Look at United States Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo. I might not agree with him on everything but his forthrightness on China should be applauded,” Dr Singhvi said.

Quoting Singaporean former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, the Indian politician from the opposition said, China is not going to become a liberal democracy; if it did, it would collapse.

On global alliances against China, Dr Singhvi said, “the ASEAN, the Quad, Malabar exercise, Democratic-10 grouping are all alliances of great use in the China equation, to the extent that India has some asymmetry with China on land and traditional defence forces.

“That asymmetry is much less on our water and ocean fronts. The joint exercises, maritime policing, patrolling, and

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all the things that happen in the Indian Ocean give superiority to India when it combines with all these global entities. These alliances have become powerful tools.

“Quad is a very important formation that is now being reformulated and reconfigured, and it should be taken towards consistency.”

Strongly proposing that India should work towards leveraging its ties with Tibet and Taiwan, the Indian parliamentarian said the divinity and glory of His Holiness the Dalai Lama needs to be given the right place that he deserves in India, and New Delhi must unhesitatingly enhance diplomatic relations with Taiwan.

“We have increased our trade from US$66 million to US$6 billion with Taiwan in the recent past. Foxconn Technology Co. Ltd., Wistron, and Megatron Electronics Corp. and Megatone Electronics Corp. are Taiwanese companies that have great potential in India. Our shyness towards Taiwan needs to be dropped. We are underestimating the power of frequent and multiple messaging,” Singhvi said.

He also supported the idea of giving more room and space in India, if not on the government platforms but on non-governmental stages like Law and Society Alliance for Communist China-persecuted communities. “People like Hollywood star Richard Gere on Tibet and Dolkun Isa on Uighurs should be given their due place in India. The continuance of artificial restrictions on these activities are niceties that China itself exploits. China opposes India on Kashmir and on the Nuclear Suppliers Group. We should say that we are not opposing China, but we are allowing the practice of free speech of human rights activists. According to Article 19(A) of Constitution of

India, let them speak until or unless they do not harm India.

The calibration is required.”

Calling for vocal, diverse, and comprehensive criticism of China on matters such as the Belt and Road Initiative and South China Sea and Indian Ocean aggression, Dr Singhvi said these actions of China are colonial designs with a coating of economic assistance.

On the economic front, Dr Singhvi called for selective boycotting of China, a practice that Beijing itself adopts and implements vis-à-vis South Korea, Japan, and Indonesia. “The need of the hour is of judiciously crafted focus and targeted mix of import substitution, discriminatory tariff, steep anti-dumping duties, and arbitration in certain areas. And let me remind you – these are not World Trade Organisation (WTO) breaches or foul practices, as recent WTO judgements show.”

He said, “India needs to be more adventurous. India has nothing to lose but its lethargy. There is also a major difference

in the basic natures of India’s and China’s economies. China’s economy is based on exports and India’s is based on its own consumers. We need to break this. We need to jam and exploit it as China remains to be an export-dependent economy.”

Pointing out the personality-driven Communist politics in China today, Dr Singhvi noted that President Xi Jinping has tried to project himself as a cult leader. “It all happened in the last 8 years. He became Chinese Communist Party general secretary in 2012 and sidelined all top leaders. The defence, security and the policy apparatus is controlled by Xi and has become its commander-in-chief, which even Mao Zedong did not do, and removed all powerful military commanders.”

Noting that China has never given any concession to India on any issue, including the ‘One India’ principle on Kashmir, Aksai Chin, and even on terrorism such as declaring Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed’s Masood Azhar as a global terrorist in the United Nations, the Congress Party leader said AUGUST 2020

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India has nothing to lose with regard to China, Arunachal Pradesh Congress Party Membut can certainly push Beijing to rethink some ber of Legislative Assembly and former Union of its opposition to New Delhi.

Minister Ninong Ering said he was touched Dr. Singhvi concluded by saying, “Today, by the story of Kokbore and talked about China is not the problem, but the Chinese his long fight against Communist China. ErCommunist Party is. More than the party, Xi ing said there were no political differences Jinping is the problem.” in Arunachal Pradesh between the Congress World Uyghur Congress director for China Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party on fightAffairs Ilshat H. Kokbore, in his presentation, ing Communist China together. highlighted the human rights abuses by Chi“We don’t say ‘Namaste’ in the morning, na on the minority Uighur community in East rather we greet people with ‘Jai Hind!’ and Turkestan (Xinjiang, occupied by Communist that is the nationalistic spirit in Arunachal China). He said in 2014, Tibetans organised Pradesh.”

Abhishek Singhvi an event on persecuted communities of China.

Raising the issue of stapled visas that were “Out of many leaders, only I was able to attend issued by Communist China to Indian citizens while all others were not allowed.” from Arunachal Pradesh, Ering said that in Recalling the intolerable human rights vio2016, he refused to visit China when stapled lations on him and his family, Ilshat said bevisas were issued to him for an official visit. cause he was outspoken against the CommuRegarding Communist China’s military innist regime in China, his family was broken, cursions into the Indian territory in Arunachal his brother killed in 2004, his sister arrested in Pradesh, Ering said the Indian citizens in his 2014 and his father died of shock. state picked up hammers and chisels to chase He said his two sisters, their husbands and away the Chinese military personnel at Tuting children were all thrown in to a concentration when the troopers ventured into Indian tercamp, and when he called his mother last Auritory. gust, she bluntly told him not to call again as “There was a big reaction from us in the Communist China’s agencies were watchArunachal Pradesh and we captured Chinese ing and that the family had suffered enough vehicles and bulldozers, to destroy them.

Avinash Godbole as all their lives were torn apart and were haWith slogans of ‘Jai Hind’ and ‘Bharat Mata rassed daily. ki Jai’, the locals took over the vehicles of the “Today is EId-Ul-Adha and I could not call Chinese military.” my mother. She is 82. It is not only my story, Dr Avinash A. Godbole, a professor at but the story of millions of Uighurs. It is a genothe O. P. Jindal Global University at Sonecide happening in East Turkestan and along bepat, said Xi Jinping’s rise to power, the press ing targetted are Kazakhs, Uzbeks, and all other conferences by the Premier and the foreign Turkic communities living there.” minister of China are attacking – which need Ilshat said no other Muslim nation, be it the to be noted. “China has started to believe Turkic countries or others have raised a voice that it is going to be at the forefront of the against Uighur genocide and their plight. “Panew world order, and it will lead the world kistan is the worst country. When Imran Khan through technology.” was confronted by a journalist on Uighurs, he He said a new alliance had been emergignored the issue, and said that he does not ing, of the Memes war between China and know about the Uighurs.” other nations in the region. “The new Memes Ilshat H. Kokbore Seeking platforms like what Law and Society war between China and Thailand led to the Alliance had given him in India, Ilshat said with formation of the ‘Milk Tea Alliance’ against a big Muslim population, let Indians cheer for China’s ‘Green Tea’. Can we take the idea of us, including its Islam practitioners, who will the ‘Milk Tea Alliance’ between India and get to know how Communist China is treating South East Asia to take on China? The ‘Milk their Muslim brethren and the genocide of UiTea Alliance’ is an informal term coined by ghurs. social media users, because in the region, tea “India and East Turkestan have a historical is consumed in many nations with Milk, with connection. India can train Uighurs on demothe exception of China, where only Green Tea cratic principles. We also have a lot of Uighur is consumed. refugees. India can give them temporary shelDr. Godbole also highlighted the need ter, if not permanent one. It would be a big to strengthen our strategic communication. boost for the Uighur community. India is a gi“We have to have a similarity of tone in difant democratic country in the region.” ferent locations to send a coherent strong Ninong Ering He said India can play an important role in message. The best foreign policy is 10 per the Muslim world and in Central Asia. “You are cent economic growth. India should try to exposing the reality. Give us more support and opportunity to bring the marginalised communities in the economic mainpresent ourselves in the media and civil society.’ stream,” he concluded.

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AIR FORCE

India-made weapons and systems ready for Air Force induction

By Atul Kumar On May 12, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced an indispensable demarche named ‘Atmanirbar Bharat’ (Self-Reliant India) under his second term to develop, support and galvanise homegrown industry amid Coronavirus pandemic worldwide.

The ‘Atmanirbar Bharat’ campaign is a strategy to design, develop and manufacture indigenous solutions to overhaul the giant Indian economy, the 5th largest globally.

Even as Coronavirus has utterly destroyed the world economy, the Prime Minister urged Indian industries and entrepreneurs to use this COVID-19 crisis as an opportunity to secure strategic and economic advancement for the future of India, and axe the dependency on expensive foreign imports.

This ‘self-reliance’ campaign would be the cynosure of government’s flagship ‘Make in India’ strategy. And, to drive Modi’s ambitious desi campaign, the Finance Minister of India Nirmala Sitharaman has also unveiled a massive $266 billion booster package to power the Indian economy combating the Wuhan virus.

Essentially, an indigenous, self-reliant defence and aerospace industry ecosystem is the spearhead of India’s ‘Atmanirbar’ campaign, as the Indian military is the second-largest importer of foreign military systems and weapons globally now, according to a SIRPI report earlier this year.

While present capital budget outlay for the Indian military is inadequate to address ongoing defence modernisation, today’s fast-developing security concerns along the frontiers and in the Indian Ocean Region have pushed New Delhi to adopt a reliable strategy to well equip its armed forces in the shortest possible time.

Modi’s positive indigenisation thrust could be a key to deal with both the current budget dilemma as well as military modernisation. Woefully, the most vital element of the Indian military, the Indian Air Force (IAF), is largely dependent on foreign imports.

The IAF, fourth largest in the world, presently operates an air fleet that integrates over 95 per cent of foreign-designed aircraft and weapon systems. Besides, it has been suffering from a massive aircraft shortage, including fixed-wing combat AUGUST 2020

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jets, trainers (both intermediate and basic), AEW aircraft, attack and utility helicopters for many years.

The present IAF combat jets squadrons have dropped to almost thirty from a sanctioned strength of 42 squadrons. Similarly, IAF needs hundreds of trainers and helicopters to restore its full operational capability.

To address this capabilities shortage, IAF has sealed multiple high-end big-ticket agreements with foreign OEMs to procure advanced weaponry including Apache and Chinooks from Boeing, Rafale fighter jets from French Dassault Aviation and S-400 Triumf from Russia in the last few years.

The 36 Rafales and five regiments of S-400 air-defence system alone cost more than $14 billion to the IAF, which is now struggling to pay for these systems due to weak capital outlay.

Yet even after these big-ticket purchases, IAF still is far from having reasonable firepower and mission capabilities to tackle hostile aggression from two unsettled borders.

While the ongoing Coronavirus crisis will clearly strike hard at India’s military expenditure, multiple gigantic foreign procurement pacts worth tens of billions of dollars are still in the queue.

The 114 medium multi-role combat aircraft, 200 Ka-226T utility helicopters, two Israeli Phalcon AEW&C systems, NASAMS-II air-defence shield, five Raytheon ISTAR jets, 62 Airbus C-295 multi-mission transport aircraft, and Basic Trainer Aircraft are the major ones among these procurement deals.

Unfortunately, this would further leave critical plans of IAF upgradation in the lurch.

Accordingly, indigenisation of IAF arsenal can be the leading solution to this defence capabilities predicament. The indigenously designed and developed military gear could play a vital role to boost capabilities build-up of the Indian Air Force, as homegrown technology is quite cheaper and reliable compared to systems that are imported.

Likewise, it will also end the decades-old dependency on foreign technology and give autonomy in the strategic defence and aerospace technologies.

Systems of Critical Importance At present, the IAF needs at least 800 modern combat aircraft to counter the massive joint fleet of People’s Liberation Army

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– Air Force (PLA-AF) and Pakistan Air Force (PAF). Chinese PLA-AF alone holds a fleet of over 1,200 modern fighter jets including Su-35, J-10, J-11, J-16 and JH-7A as well as stealthy J-20, according to one estimate.

To maintain a potent fleet of modern fighters against gigantic Chinese PLA-AF and PAF, IAF decided to fulfil its 75 per cent of combat jets requirement through indigenously developed aircraft including Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Mk1 (IOC/FOC), LCA Mk1A, LCA Mk2 ,and fifth-generation Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) to boost its depleting fighter squadrons stremgth.

While IOC and FOC variants of LCA Mk1 have already been inducted into IAF, the development of LCA Mk1A has been progressing in full pace at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited’s (HAL’s) aircraft facility in Bengaluru.

Apart from the 40 IOC/FOC Tejas, HAL will supply 83 LCA Mk1As, a better advanced, equipped, and powerful variant of Tejas, to IAF between 2023 and 2027. However, the final contract to supply these 83 state-of-the-art homegrown fighters is yet to be signed.

Tejas is the smallest, lightest and most advanced multirole combat aircraft in its category. In addition to this, the latest underdevelopment ‘LCA Mk1A’ would come fitted with the latest cutting-edge digital avionics, sensors, and weapons package.

The Tejas FOC variant has most of the critical capabilities such as Beyond Visual Range (BVR) missiles, mid-air refuelling, modern guided munitions and a close-combat gun.

The LCA Mk1A will introduce technologies half a generation ahead including Elta’s E/M 2052 digital AESA radar, better-advanced next-generation WVR and BVR missiles, a modern intelligent multi-functional display, hot-refuelling and ability to launch multiple modern-age light and heavy munitions and cruise missiles.

It will also feature a full-fledged indigenous Electronic Warfare suite in combination with an external self-protection jammer (SPJ) being developed jointly with Israel’s Elisra Group to enhance survivability and low observability.

Overall, it will outmatch most IAF fighters in terms of technologies and some capabilities too. Even as LCA has demonstrated significant strength to execute precise air-to-ground

strike missions, the upcoming LCA Mk1A will also equip with the homegrown 100km+ Astra beyond visual range air-to-air missile (BVRAAM) to empower its air-defence muscles.

These capabilities could be expanded as IAF also plans to integrate Rafael’s long-range I-Derby ER on LCA Tejas. Besides, an indigenous AESA radar (LRDE’s Uttam) on LCA could also enable MBDA’s Meteor BVR for Tejas fleet.

The Defence Research and Development Organisation’s (DRDO’s) lightweight ‘SAAW’ is also ready to be deployed on the LCA as the primary air-to-ground weapon, while an indigenous next-generation anti-radiation missile (NG-ARM) is also being developed to amplify LCA’s ‘Wild Weasel’ powers.

Collectively, all four squadrons of LCA MK1A will deliver a significant amount of vitality to depleted IAF squadron strength.

India has achieved greater and sufficient self-reliance in indigenous weapon systems. Conceived and designed by the DRDO, Astra BVRAAM is another significant addition to Air Force combat capabilities after LCA. Fitted with an array of modern indigenous technologies such as active Ku-band RF seeker, inertial navigation, ECCM and influential solid rocket motor, the DRDO’s ultra-supersonic long-range Astra is an outstanding answer to AIM-120C BVRAAM equipped on PAF’s F-16 fleet.

Besides LCA, it will bolster the air combat capabilities of IAF’s Su-30MKIs, Mirage-2000s and MiG-29UPGs, and it is

now fully ready to enter production, as all sets of trials have been now successfully completed.

The Smart Anti-Airfield Weapon (SAAW) is the next in the list now all set to enter the IAF service. The lightweight SAAW is a specially designed standoff strike weapon with over 100 km range to destroy deep ground targets including enemy bunkers, weapons facilities, airfields, and military bases with a high degree of accuracy (from 3 metre to 7 metre).

It already has been fired from Indian Jaguar and Su-30s and will soon be deployed on LCA and HAL’s Hawk-i trainer, while it is also well-suited for arming unmanned aerial combat vehicles (UCAV) due to its lightweight.

In the air-defence segment, while indigenous Akash and MRSAM are already in service with IAF, another critical indigenous anti-air missile system named Ballistic Missile Defence System (BMDS) is now all set to safeguard major Indian cities and strategic installations from high-level hostile aerial threats, primarily nuclear-capable ballistic missiles of Pakistan and China.

An array of Indian developed ground-based modern-age sensors would soon be available to expand lethality and accuracy of these air-defence missile systems. Besides, they will boost air surveillance capabilities of IAF. The ultra-long-range Swordfish will be the main eye in the sky of Indian BMDS, while Electronics and Radar Development Establishment’s other radar systems including new-genAUGUST 2020

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eration Medium Power Radar (MPR) ‘Arudhara’, Low Level Transportable Radar (LLTR) ‘Ashwini’ and 3D Low-Level Light Weight ‘Aslesha’ are meant to enhance IAF’s networking powers together with 24x7 watch of Indian air space.

Apart from combat planes, the IAF is also in the dire need of trainer aircraft as the current strength is now down to below 300 from a required figure of 400 aircraft. Besides 120 Hawk Mk-132 advanced trainers, IAF inducted 75 Pilatus PC-7 MkII BTA to balance its trainer fleet. It still requires over 100 training aircraft of this class, however.

To fill this gap, the Air Force now has decided to buy 106 modern, indigenous BTA. State-owned HAL has designed and developed the Hindustan Turbo Trainer HTT-40, which is now in the advanced operational validation stage. Once the certification is done, HAL would supply the HTT-40s to Air Force’s pilot training establishment.

The Defence Acquisition Council meeting chaired by Minister of Defence Rajnath Singh in August 2020 decided to purchase the HTT-40s for IAF at a cost of over Rs 7,600 crore ($1.01 billion).

Besides the basic flight training, indigenous HTT-40 will perform tasks involving aerobatic, instrument flying, close-formation flights, and navigation and night-flying. A light-attack version of HTT-40 armed with a close-combat gun and anti-tank munitions could also be developed quickly for the close air support role.

With only five AEW&C aircraft in service, IAF has been dealing with another significant shortage of mission-critical systems. These are the actual force-multipliers during war.

The PAF, with six Saab-2000 Erieye and four Chinese-supplied ZDK-03 Karakoram Eagles, has exactly twice the numbers compared to IAF. PLA-AF holds around 30 such systems including KJ-200, KJ-500 and KJ-2000.

To end the IAF dependence on foreign AWACS, DRDO has successfully developed and delivered India’s first ‘Eye in the Sky’ AEW&CS aircraft named ‘DRDO Netra’. Suited with indigenously developed modern-age fully digital AESA antenna and other electronic sub-systems, Netra is capable of delivering 270-degree coverage with 400-km detention capabilities.

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At present, two DRDO Netra are operational with IAF, and the last one is still with the developer for testing. The IAF still needs over a dozen Netra early warning systems to meet its operational requirement.

Now, the DRDO has been offering enhanced Netra on Airbus C-295 aircraft. In addition, DRDO is also ready with the systems to build a more capable and larger 360-degree AWACS based on Airbus A-330 for the IAF. To top it all, India has achieved a significant amount of indigenisation in the rotary-wing segment. After the success of ALH Dhruv helicopters, the latest bets are the Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) and Light Utility Helicopter (LUH), considered among the best in their classes developed by Indian engineers.

The LCH has been deployed operationally in the Ladakh region in the military conflict that is ranging with China since May this year. Designed particularly for adverse high-altitude manoeuvres of the Indian Army and the IAF, both the LUH and the LCH would serve as force-multipliers for Indian defence forces in the high mountainous terrain.

The Initial Operation Clearance (IOC) has already been given to both HAL-developed rotorcraft, and they are now gradually moving towards the final operational clearance (FOC) certification.

Light Combat Helicopter, the first dedicated indigenous gunship, in concert with armed Rudra will exceptionally bolster the firepower of IAF and the Indian Army along the Line of Actual Control. The IAF has called for nearly 65 of these combat machines, while total numbers including IAF and Indian Army are estimated for over 170 LCHs. The LUH will replace the decades-old Chetak and Cheetal utility choppers and will supplement in-service ALH Dhruv.

Besides utility duties, LUH would foster surveillance and reconnaissance, search and rescue, and special operations in the Himalayas.

As IAF is looking to acquire over 120 utility helicopters, around 60 LUHs will be supplied by HAL, and the rest will be Russian-origin Ka-226Ts that HAL will manufacture jointly with its Russian counterpart.

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BUSINESS AND POLITICS OF ARMING INDIA

AUGUST 2020

Independence Day Special

INDIA’S WAR MEMORIAL

People of India salute the brave soldiers, who laid down their lives for the nation, including the 20 army personnel in the Galwan Valley clash in June this year