Military Modernisation Archives - Page 2 of 4

Learning from Russia: Comparing Russian and Chinese Military Reforms

Understanding the Chinese Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) has been a challenge for military thinkers and planners due to opacity and secrecy within the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). This article delves into the traditional relationship between the erstwhile Soviet (now Russian) and Chinese militaries and draw parallels between the two RMA. It argues that in many ways the Chinese RMA has followed the Russian RMA, which was driven by the latter’s experiences in modern wars in Georgia, Ukraine, Crimea, and Syria. The article concludes that the PLA has suitably modified the Russian military doctrines, reorganisation and restructuring as well as the induction of military equipment to suit the threats and challenges that confront it. Military thinkers and planners would do well to study the Russian RMA to extrapolate the future trajectory of the changes that are underway in the PLA.

Assessment of Chinese Military Modernisation and its Implications for India by P.K. Chakraborty

China has had a chequered relationship with India since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1949. Beijing views India as a strategic rival and appears to consider India’s rise as an impediment to its own. The narratives, especially, convey or hint at India’s gain being China’s loss. Even though bilateral trade between the two countries has become substantial over the years and multiple linkages have been established post the 1962 Sino-Indian conflict, China still keeps India discomfited with its various overtures.

Cyber Exercises and the Indian Armed Forces

A cyber exercise – whether CyberEx or its successor – needs to be developed as a platform for practitioners and thinkers to test conceptual and technical skills under near-real-world whole-of-nation scenarios of cyber contingencies.

Is Indian Military Aviation Reorienting?

For the first time in the history of military aviation in India, helicopters have surpassed fighter aircraft in terms of sheer numbers. Are the Indian Armed Forces reorienting for helicopter dominated air operations?

Internet of Things Centricity of Future Military Operations

Since the last decade of the twentieth century, network centricity has profoundly transformed warfighting and the outlook of the military. The next level of the networking ladder is Internet of Things (IoT), which has already started to disruptively change the ways in the civil domain, bringing a considerable autonomy to various processes by linking of a plethora of smart devices that are talking to each other. Militaries, in the near future, are also likely to see similar proliferation of IoT, which will bring a material change to their functioning and conduct of operations.

Aerial Drone Swarms: The Next Generation Military Weapon

Affordability, software domination, reduction in mission costs and risk reduction are some of the advantages swarm technology promises in military campaigns.

Atul Pant
February 15, 2018
Issue Brief

Military Expenditure in Africa

An audit of required military capabilities and therefore, military expenditure in Africa, is essential. Efforts need to focus on scaling down of conventional military capabilities. An appropriate step taken in this direction at this juncture will assist Africa in achieving its visionary goal of Agenda 2063.

Military Change: Survival of the Most Adaptable

The Greek philosopher Thucydides famously stated the proximate words: ‘The only constant [in life] is change’. (Even the most stable isotope, Tellerium-128, changes; it will decay to half its mass in 2.2 septillion years!) Change, therefore, is inevitable and takes place in every animate and inanimate thing and becomes necessary to remain relevant in the environment that one lives in. If your enemy changes his way of fighting and you do not, then a dysfunction in countering your enemy is inevitable.

Would a Non-Lapsable Defence Modernisation Fund Work?

There is a plethora of evidence to show that the problem of establishing a Defence Modernisation Fund does not lie with any ‘rules of business’, but instead with its merit and workability.

Amit Cowshish
February 10, 2017
IDSA Comments

The Israel Factor in Honduras Efforts to Modernise its Air Force

Israel’s influence on the new Trump Administration might clear the obstacles that have stood in the way of Honduras’ efforts to modernise its airforce