Sanjha Morcha

Eye on China, India goes for Heron tech upgrade, missile-firing Guardian drones

A representative image of an American weapon system that India has decided to acquire against the backdrop of the stand-off with China

A representative image of an American weapon system that India has decided to acquire against the backdrop of the stand-off with China

India has decided in favour of the weaponised MQ-9B Sky Guardian drone from the US and to upgrade its existing Israeli Heron fleet with satellite communication capability in an attempt to enhance its range as well as surveillance capabilities in the midst of the Ladakh military standoff with China.

At the same time, the face-off between the Indian Army and People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has spurred the Indian private sector and the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) to start manufacturing short-range tactical drones as well as anti-drone systems to boost border defences.

The three services have come to a conclusion that India should opt for a weaponised drone rather than the 22 reconnaissance and surveillance Sea Guardian drones approved in 2017 by the US administration for supply to India, according to authoritative government officials with knowledge of the matter.

The MQ-9B, manufactured by General Atomics, has a 40-hour endurance with a maximum altitude of 40,000 feet and payload or weapon carrying capacity of over 2.5 tonne, including air-to-surface missiles and laser-guided bombs. “We are in negotiations with the Trump administration, which is willing to provide India with the latest armed drone technology. In this, it is the prohibitive cost of the system that is a hurdle, not the Trump administration,” said a South Block official who requested anonymity.

Also read| Brahmos, Akash and Nirbhay: India rolls out its missiles to counter Chinese threat

Besides, India has asked Israel to upgrade its existing Heron medium-altitude, long-endurance surveillance drone by upgrading its communication links. Presently, due to lack of a satellite link in the Heron, two such unmanned aerial drones have to be flown in tandem with a time gap so that information is relayed back to base through the second drone in case of long-range surveillance.

The upgrade involves fitting the Heron drone with a satellite package so that the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) links with the satellite above and information is sent on a real-time basis. The upgrade will allow the Heron to conduct long-range surveillance without the fear of losing contact with the base or go into no contact zone. The Heron upgrade program was approved by the defence ministry last month.

Also read: Indian Army ready for winter endurance test at 5,800 metres on Finger 4 of Pangong Tso against PLA

The drone revolution in the Indian military has come after it was felt that India had no answer to Chinese armed drone and surveillance drone capabilities, with the PLA deploying the unmanned devices in significant capacities in the Ladakh theatre apart from sensors and surveillance cameras that provide advance warning on moves by the adversary.


Post Ladakh, PLA no longer a bogey for Indian Army | Analysis

Sixteen years later, the Indian Army has finally shrugged off the bogey of the PLA and is staring down at the Chinese at Ladakh with the sole objective of restoring status quo ante at all friction points along the line of actual control.

It is a contest between a volunteer Indian Arny and conscript PLA. Karakoram winters will decide the outcome.

It is a contest between a volunteer Indian Arny and conscript PLA. Karakoram winters will decide the outcome. (File photo)

On the eve of the 2004 general elections, a meeting of China Study Group (CSG) was held to review the status of border roads along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with the then Vice Chief of Army Staff briefing the apex group on strategic roads. At this meeting the then Home Secretary asked the Army general why we were not building strategic north-to-south roads and questioned the delays in doing so. The answer was that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could use these roads to come into India. The Home Secretary shot back that at this rate India should also stop building roads in Delhi.

Sixteen years later, the Indian Army has finally shrugged off the bogey of the PLA and is staring down at the Chinese at Ladakh with the sole objective of restoring status quo ante at all friction points along the line of actual control. The change in the mindset of the Indian Army came after the June 15 Galwan flare-up where Col Santosh Babu and his men engaged in hand to hand combat with their adversaries, who are projected as Shaolin Temple warriors by the Chinese state media.

Serving Indian Army officers say that once the Prime Minister of India went to Ladakh to boost the morale and the Indian public gathered to honour the fallen — in contrast to the PLA’s hush-hush burial of its dead— the mood changed. Despite the raging pandemic that has origins in Wuhan, the honour bestowed on fallen Indian troops including a brave Junior Commissioned Officer of the elite special frontier force in August 29-30 operation on south Pangong Tso has boosted the morale of Indian forces.

ALSO WATCH | Ladakh | Tanks, combat vehicles: Indian Army ready to counter China amid tension

While both armies are now stocking up for the polar winter on Ladakh heights, the PLA with its troops largely made of conscripts who were sent to Aksai Chin as part of an annual exercise must be asking questions of their military commanders. The conscripts are sole children of their parents in China, who join the army for a limited period to ensure State funding of their college education. The idea of spending their winters in Ladakh’s rarefied heights will surely test not only their endurance but also their commitment to PLA as the exercise has the potential to take the turn for the worse at any given moment.

Although the situation is tense on the border, India’s national security planners say that the grossly mis-calculated aggression ordered by Commander in Chief Xi Jinping in Ladakh has finally removed the Chinese bogey from Indian backs. In the past two decades, China had become Lord Voldemort or he whose name shall not be taken in Indian diplomatic, military and intelligence circles. Former Indian defence minister George Fernandes had to face the brunt for merely telling the truth that China was a threat. This has now changed with the Modi government not mincing words on China and seriously examining the penetration of Beijing into the Indian system. India is using software mining to identify parent companies and their country of origin from the details of front companies investing in India. This is a sea change from the 2000s when Chinese workers were given business visas in thousands to come to India. And when mandarins in the Ministry of External Affairs believed that the Tibet issue was like “flogging a dead horse” and had lost its relevance.

While predicting the military or diplomatic outcome of the LAC exercise is more difficult than reading tea leaves, the PLA aggression this summer in Ladakh, South China Sea, Taiwan and Senkaku Islands has revealed China’s true colours to the world. It has revealed the weakness of European powers and the pusillanimity of the so called Tiger powers of South East Asia in taking on China due to their economic dependency on that country. It has shown that if you have money to throw around then not even a single Muslim power will question you on concentration camps for Sunni Uighurs in Xinjiang even as they rant over the treatment of Rohingyas by Myanmar. It has shown while the world will happily chant “om mani padme hum”, it will maintain dead silence over the overt and planned Sinicization of Tibet.

In the run up to the 100th year of founding of Chinese Communist Party (CCP), its paramount leader Xi Jinping has bared China’s strategic ambitions to become the sole global power under the mask of coronavirus pandemic.

The world has taken note of this. How it reacts is not difficult to predict.


Military tales that run in the family

Military tales that run in the family

NJ Ravi Chander

My maternal grandfather, Lt M Dharmalingam, who served in the Madras Sappers, had an array of military stories in his repertoire. He fought in World War II not only in the lush, tropical jungles of Burma, but also in the searing sands of the Middle East. The war came at a terrible cost, with millions of casualties on both sides.

Grandfather was engaged in war duty in places as distant as Rangoon, Peshawar and Cairo. Away from home for interminable periods, his family had no clue about his whereabouts. With strict protocols in place, the regiment never disclosed the fate of the men until the war ended.

The North African Campaign beckoned him. Two battleships sailed out from the Madras port towards the Suez Canal. A bomber belonging to the Axis forces swept overhead and sank one battleship. On hearing the news, the alarmed relatives flocked to the Records Office of the Madras Regiment in Bengaluru, seeking details of the dead. But they returned empty-handed, given the strict disclosure norms in place. Grandfather’s fate remained unknown too, but he got to Cairo in one piece. During a fierce hand-to-hand combat, a captured Axis soldier had his head severed, the grisly trophy kicked around before adorning a pole in the middle of a street circle.

A hero’s welcome greeted the soldiers after their return home following the war. Regimental bands played ceremonial music, and eager friends and relatives thronged the railway station to garland them. There were scenes of jubilation, but one saw distraught faces too — reason: missing kin killed in battle or taken Prisoner of War (PoW). Thousands of Indian soldiers, taken PoW during the war and held in various parts of the world, arrived back home later and were presented letters of commendation by the government.

Grandfather and his family moved into the spacious regimental accommodation in Jalahalli, after his transfer to Bengaluru — close to the tent camps housing Italian PoWs. A Subedar Major pressed the prisoners into levelling pathways, digging trenches, building barracks, laying bridges, tracks, roads and airfields, and even for extricating venomous reptiles. Besides, they tended to the kitchen, garden, pigs and sheep. The football matches at the Garrison Ground, where Italian prisoners clad in boots locked horns against barefoot locals, attracted a full house. The authorities repatriated them after the hostilities ceased.

War-weary, grandpa put in his papers at age 45, but he was called back to aid the Army in quelling disturbances that broke out post-Independence. He served out the emergency period of a year before calling it a day.

A paternal uncle, Major Sampangi Raju, who also fought in WWII, took pride in showing off ‘marks of war’ on his body. Once, when he and a fellow soldier were riding atop an armoured tank with its hatch open, they came under heavy enemy fire. He dived head first into the mouth of the container. He escaped with a bullet in the calf muscle. His mate jumped in leg first and was shot in the head.

For us, these military stories are priceless.


Chief’s helicopter did it!

Chief’s helicopter did it!

Maj Gen Partap Narwal (retd)

The coming week was to be the busiest for us. As I went to bed, only my body lay down and rested; my mind remained occupied — thinking, imagining, planning. Suddenly I got up — how can the helicopter land there!

In 2012, I commanded the Horse Breeding Farm, Babugarh, a 200-year-old sole Army unit next to Hapur. The acres of land and the number of horses are in thousands here; and the syces from generations work in hundreds. The farm boasts of a pristine ambience, for which the Commandant and his team has no eyes, as their sight was fixed on getting more and more fodder for mares and foals for the Army — the latter being harder.

The mares in wild are prolific breeders, but in husbandry surroundings, they find the process burdensome. The Commandant faces umpteen challenges daily. The problems begin with the breeding season in February, as mares don’t show their amatory overtures. After days of efforts, when they are roped in for encounter with the stallion, the process is often repeated the following month. Still, after holding the pregnancy, they may lose it anytime. The losses are attributed to even frivolous reasons which may sound convincing only when read in textbooks. Considering such uncertainties, the Army Headquarters (AHQ) has set a target of getting 60 per cent mares gravid yearly by autumn. The past record of 15 years then showed the highest figure attained at the farm was 65 per cent.

Earlier that day, I had received a message from the AHQ that the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) would visit us next week. He was to reach from Delhi by helicopter. I had thought of an open ground for landing, but lying in bed, I realised that the ground was close to mares’ paddocks and my memory flashed a textbook line: low flying aircraft can cause abortion in mares. How many pregnant mares out of hundreds may stick to this prophecy!

There was no other suitable landing site as the landscape was covered with trees, crops and electricity poles. The next morning, when I conveyed my apprehension, the AHQ also found it convincing. I suggested changing the mode of journey to the land route. But by evening, it was reported that the mode remained unchanged. When we contacted the flying staff, they reluctantly agreed to consider a crop-field for the landing site. Our search narrowed to an oat-field in the farthest corner, which was harvested for fodder. Ridges and furrows were levelled. The flying staff approved the site.

The dust storm from landing sent us scurrying behind staff cars. The visit went off as per the plan. Though the helicopter noise from that distance could not have threatened the mares, the thought of likely losses haunted us. When an AHQ-deputed team began checking each mare for pregnancy in November, we anxiously awaited the result. The team declared above 72 per cent mares in foal. The syces chortled, ‘We never heard of such results here… not even from our ancestors!’

 


A soldier-statesman departs

A soldier-statesman departs

Lt Gen GS Sihota (retd)

The chief ingredients in the composition of those qualities that gain esteem and praise are good nature, truth, good sense and good breeding. — Joseph Addison

INDIA lost a soldier-statesman in Major Jaswant Singh on September 27. After passing out from the Indian Military Academy in 1957, he joined the Central India Horse and served in the Army for 10 years. Jaswant Singh found his calling in public life after he first joined the Swatantra Party, later the Janata Party and then the BJP. He was one of the longest-serving parliamentarians. Atal Bihari Vajpayee utilised his talent by giving him the vital portfolios of Defence, Finance and External Affairs.

I came in contact with him as the Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) when he was the Defence Minister. A man with impeccable manners, he was able to put everyone at ease in his presence and accorded them equal respect. Once I was to accompany him to an all-party meeting regarding a militant attack at the Jammu railway station. I was humbled and touched when he came out of his Parliament office to receive me. I could see that his secretary had been instructed to inform him of my arrival. This lesson in courtesy remained with me forever. He was highly articulate and had an expression for every occasion. His notings were a reader’s delight.

The defence forces will remain indebted to him for introducing and sanctioning schemes for the welfare of serving soldiers and veterans, including their families. His personal equation with the Prime Minister brought in quick sanctions and implementation. The Ex-serviceman’s Contributory Health Scheme gave a new lease of life to the retired community. The introduction of Married Accommodation projects provided much-needed homes to the families in peace stations. It was a great morale-booster!

He was an active participant in military discussions for re-energising strategies and tactics in the battlefield. His inputs to the Army after his discussions with eminent leaders abroad proved to be extremely useful.

He sowed the seeds of the much-needed Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) by sanctioning the raising of the Integrated Defence Staff, the Andaman & Nicobar Command and the Strategic Force Command.

Major Jaswant Singh was a man of many parts. Though politics took up most of his day, he found time for horse-riding, which was his passion. He also found time to write. He left an indelible mark on the Indian defence forces and all those who knew him. As an Irving Berlin classic goes, ‘The song is ended, but the melody lingers on’.


Pak army resorts to heavy shelling along LoC in J-K’s Poonch The Indian Army retaliated befittingly

Pak army resorts to heavy shelling along LoC in J-K's Poonch

Jammu, September 29

The Pakistan army violated ceasefire by resorting to heavy firing and mortar shelling in forward areas along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district on Tuesday, a defence spokesman said.

The Indian Army retaliated befittingly, he said.

“At about 0430 hours today, the Pakistan army initiated unprovoked ceasefire violation by firing with small arms and intense shelling with mortars along LoC in Mankote sector,” the spokesman said.

The Pakistan army has violated the ceasefire 45 times this month.

An Army personnel was killed and two others, including an officer, injured as Pakistani troops violated ceasefire by using heavy fire and mortar shells along the Line of Control in Sunderbani sector of Rajouri district a fortnight ago, officials said.

On September 2, a JCO was killed in ceasefire violation by the Pakistan army along LoC in Keri sector of Rajouri. PTI


Defence Ministry approves acquisition of arms, military equipment worth Rs 2,290 crore

Defence Ministry approves acquisition of arms, military equipment worth Rs 2,290 crore

New Delhi, September 28

The defence ministry on Monday approved the procurement of arms and military equipment worth Rs 2,290 crore, including around 72,000 Sig Sauer assault rifles from the US for troops guarding the borders with China and Pakistan, officials said.

The proposals were approved at a meeting of the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), the defence ministry’s highest decision-making body on procurement of arms and other equipment for the country’s armed forces.

Besides clearing the proposal to buy assault rifles, the other significant acquisitions approved by the DAC include procurement of smart anti-airfield weapon (SAAW) systems for the Navy and the Indian Air Force at an approximate cost of Rs 970, the officials said.

“The DAC headed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh accorded approval for various arms and equipment worth Rs 2,290 crore,” the defence ministry said.

The cost of procurement of the Sig Sauer assault rifles for the frontline troops of the Indian Army will be Rs 780 crore, officials said.

The Army is implementing a mega infantry modernisation programme under which a large number of light machine guns, battle carbines and assault rifles are being purchased to replace its ageing and obsolete weapons.

In October, 2017, the Indian Army began the process to acquire around seven lakh rifles, 44,000 light machine guns (LMGs) and nearly 44,600 carbines.

The world’s second largest standing Army has been pushing for fast-tracking the procurement of various weapons systems considering the evolving security challenges along India’s borders with Pakistan and China.

Officials said the government is fast-tracking procurement of 72,000 Sig Sauer assault rifles from the US, adding the weapons will be used by troops guarding the borders with China and Pakistan.

The government has accorded priority to the modernisation of the armed forces and the infantry modernisation has been initiated as part of the larger process to further enhance combat capability of the Army.

The officials said the DAC also approved the procurement of Static HF Tans-receiver sets under the buy Indian category at a cost of Rs 540 crore. The HF radio sets will enable seamless communication for the field units of the Army and the Air Force.

The military equipment are being procured at a time Indian Army is locked in a bitter border row with China in eastern Ladakh. — PTI


Security scenario in eastern Ladakh at uneasy ‘no war no peace’ status: IAF chief

Security scenario in eastern Ladakh at uneasy ‘no war no peace’ status: IAF chief

New Delhi, September 29

The present security scenario along our northern frontiers is at an uneasy “no war no peace” status, Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria said on Tuesday, referring to the prolonged border row with China in eastern Ladakh.

In an address at a conference, Air Chief Marshal Bhadauria said the Indian Air Force had responded to the situation with rapidity and was fully resolved to counter any “misadventure” in the region.

“The present security scenario along our northern frontiers is at an uneasy no war no peace status. Our defence forces are prepared for any eventuality as you are aware,” the Chief of Air Staff said.

Air Chief Marshal Bhadauria said the recent induction of Rafale jets along with previous acquisitions of C-17 Globemaster aircraft as well as Chinook and Apache helicopters had provided the IAF with substantial tactical and strategic capability enhancement.

“Airpower will be a crucial enabler in our victory in any future conflict. It is, therefore, imperative that IAF obtains and maintains a technological edge over our adversaries,” he said at the conference on energising the Indian aerospace industry.

Five French-made multi-role Rafale fighter jets were inducted into the IAF on September 10.

The fleet has been carrying out sorties in eastern Ladakh in the last couple of weeks.

The IAF chief also said that the raising of two squadrons of light combat aircraft Tejas and integration of some indigenous weapons on Su-30 MKI combat jets in a very reduced time frame had been the “most promising” development, reflecting the country’s capabilities to develop indigenous military hardware. PTI


Pak on a suicidal mission

Pak on a suicidal mission

Arun Joshi

Pakistan’s geopolitics revolves around Kashmir. It was obvious from Pakistan premier Imran Khan’s address at the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly on Friday. He devoted 15 minutes to Kashmir, spotlighting his delusional narrative on Kashmir, and exhausted all his vocabulary of name calling for India. This was the same old story that Islamabad and its leaders have been telling over the decades.

Imran Khan, whom the opposition parties identified as selected PM by the establishment (army) , sought to further the suicidal notion that Kashmiris wanted to be part of Pakistan. This unrealistic view of Kashmir and its people could prove suicidal for Pakistan. Its persistence that Kashmir is a “dispute” that had to be settled under the United Nations Security Council resolutions can pose an existential threat to it. This is the natural consequence of living with and perpetuating delusions.

The time is not far when Pakistanis would be asking serious questions to its leaders and army as to what happened about the narrative of “Kashmir banega Pakistan”. In fact, the public there has already started asking what is the Kashmir policy, and to what end it is being pursued and at what cost?

A seasoned diplomat of Pakistan Ashraf Jehangir has warned Islamabad that there are grave risks involved in its Kashmir policy and also highlighted the high costs involved in this directionless misadventure.

No one in Pakistan knows how to wriggle out of the difficult situation in which it has landed due to its unending obsession with Kashmir.

Kashmiris know the reality of Pakistan better than Pakistanis would ever admit. They know how Partition migrants are treated with contempt and called “mohajirs”.

Pakistan also keeps harping on obsolete swan song that it “stands in solidarity with the people of Kashmir”. Imran Khan played this song yet against at the UNGA. It needs to answer how it has shown “solidarity” with Kashmiris. The answer is simple – by radicalising youth and giving them guns and grenades to spill blood and expand graveyards. It is a mockery of its claim that it has been in the frontline of fighting terrorism. In reality, it is in the frontline of nurturing and exporting terrorism and now is on a suicide mission of self-destruction.


Historian digs out story of lesser-known Bhagat Singh Like his illustrious namesake, the lesser-known Bhagat Singh too believed in socialism and wanted to drive out the British from India.

Historian digs out story of lesser-known Bhagat Singh

he Nau Jawan Bharat Sabha (a youth group founded in Punjab and influenced by the Ghadar movement) gained popularity among left inclined radical Sikh activists in Kolkata during the late 1920s and early 1930s.

Shubhadeep Choudhury
Tribune News Service

Kolkata, September 28

Shaheed-E-Azam Bhagat Singh, whose 113rd birth anniversary is being observed on Monday is an inspiration for many.

However, there was another Bhagat Singh who too was a freedom fighter. Thus Bhagat Singh is hardly known and would have remained so had Jadavpur University historian Suchetana Chattopadhyay not dug out his story from the state archives.

Like his illustrious namesake, the lesser-known Bhagat Singh too believed in socialism and wanted to drive out the British from India.

According to Chattopadhyay, the Nau Jawan Bharat Sabha (a youth group founded in Punjab and influenced by the Ghadar movement) gained popularity among left inclined radical Sikh activists in Kolkata during the late 1920s and early 1930s. From the beginning, their activities were closely monitored by the police.

On February 15, 1933, five Sikh men (all five originally belonging to Hoshiarpur) were arrested for being ‘terrorists’. The police accused them of having links with the banned Bengal branches of Nau Jawan Bharat Sabha and Kirti Dal, the older organisation of communists from Punjab and Bengal.

The arrested activists occupied a room on the third floor of 6 Ganga Prasad Mukherjee Road at Bhabanipur, a prominent South Kolkata neighbourhood. Two aluminium bombs and a phial containing strong sulphuric acid were found among their effects. On May 20, they were convicted and sentenced to six years’ rigorous imprisonment.

Bhagat Singh, the alleged ring-leader, and his four associates were suspected of having imbibed a toxic mix of militant Left-wing convictions and terrorist violence while living and working in the city.

Bhagat Singh, born in 1908 in Mahilpur, had passed middle school in 1923 and arrived in Kolkata in 1924. He had learnt driving in the city and worked as a bus driver till 1933 when he was jailed. Among his four co-accused, three were bus drivers while one drove a taxi for a living. They were all literate. Diaries, leaflets and handbills in Gurumukhi script were found in their possession.

Amar Singh, who was among the five arrested, died in Multan prison. Bhagat Singh, Pakkar Singh and Dhanna Singh were released from Bengal jails during 1938, having been granted remission after 5 years. Banta Singh vanished from the records. Pakkar Singh’s friendship with a Sikh warder in Rajshahi jail (now in Bangladesh) led to the latter’s dismissal.

Before his release from Dum Dum Central Jail, Bhagat Singh had written a secret letter in Punjabi which was intercepted by police. He had wanted to know the opinion of communist and socialist leaders regarding hunger-strike undertaken by the prisoners in Punjab jails.

From his photograph, it appears that Bhagat Singh had given up observing religious customs. Nevertheless, the gurdwara at Kolkata’s Rash Behari Avenue, out of empathy for the freedom movement, had promised to help him after his release.