Monthly Archives: August 2018

Speaking to ANI here Singh said, “In the Indian Navy on most of our aircraft, there’s an observer with the pilot. All weapon and tactical control, the sensors on the aircraft will be under my control when I take my position. Deciding, designating enemies and pointing out targets will be my job.” Sub Lieutenant Kumudini Tyagi and Sub Lieutenant Riti Singh were selected to join as ‘Observers’ (airborne tacticians) in the helicopter stream.

They were awarded ‘Wings’ on graduating as ‘Observers’ at a ceremony held at INS Garuda, Kochi on September 21.
Meanwhile, Kumudini Tyagi said the force prepares its cadets in such a way that everybody is mentally and physically prepared to deal with any situation.

“The Navy has prepared in such a way that we are prepared mentally and physically for whichever situation we come to face. We’ve had 60 hours of flying training including sorties and simulator flights. Our instructors have never discriminated against us for our gender,” Tyagi told ANI.

Also read: 14 hours of India-China talks fail to break logjam, more rounds of negotiations ahead

Flt Lt Singh, who was commissioned into the IAF in 2017 as part of the second batch of women fighter pilots, is currently flying a MiG-21 Bison.

New Delhi: Flight Lieutenant Shivangi Singh will be the first woman pilot to fly Rafale, India’s most modern multi-role fighter aircraft, sources said.

It has been known for a while that the IAF is training a woman fighter pilot to fly the Rafale, which was inducted into the force at the Ambala base earlier this month, but her name has come to light only now.

Flt Lt Singh is posted at the same base as Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, who rose to national fame with his participation in the dogfight between the Indian and Pakistani air forces in February 2019, and his subsequent 60-hour captivity across the border. Wing Commander Varthaman was Singh’s flying instructor, sources said.

Flt Lt Singh, who was commissioned into the IAF in 2017 as part of the second batch of women fighter pilots, is currently flying a MiG-21 Bison, the oldest combat aircraft in the force’s inventory.

She has been undergoing conversion training — the course pilots undertake when they switch from flying one aircraft to another — since August.

Once the training is completed, she will join the Ambala-based 17 Squadron, home to the Rafale fighters.

Also Read: I trained IAF’s 1st batch of women pilots. ‘Gunjan Saxena’ gets a lot wrong

‘Fly like a free bird’

In 2017, The Hindu had reported that becoming a pilot was a childhood dream for Flt Lt Singh, who wanted to “fly like a free bird”.

She is inspired by Flying Officers Mohana Singh, Bhawana Kanth and Avani Chaturvedi, the first women fighter pilots of the IAF who were inducted in 2016.

Flt Lt Singh, a graduate of the Banaras Hindu University (BHU), was also a cadet of the 7 UP Air Squadron in the National Cadet Corps.

The IAF has inducted 10 women fighter pilots since 2016, with more in training.

Also Read: How a woman officer helped IAF hit back when Pakistani jets targeted India after Balakot

The two countries issued a joint statement Tuesday evening, after the sixth round of military commander-level talks the previous day, in which they agreed to stop sending more troops to the frontline, refrain from unilaterally changing the situation on the ground, and avoid taking any action that may complicate the situation.

The India-China standoff has been continuing since April-May, and took another turn earlier this month when shots were fired along the Line of Actual Control for the first time in 45 years. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s statement in Parliament last week was the government’s first formal, high-level statement on the standoff. He said the India-China relationship could not progress if there was trouble and instability on the border, but also blamed China for violating past protocols when it moved large bodies of troops, equipment and ammunition to the LAC in April.

An unusually candid Rajnath also said there was no commonly delineated LAC and that China did not recognise traditional or geographical boundaries. His statement just went to show how complicated the situation at the LAC in eastern Ladakh really is. ThePrint tries to simplify things with the help of a few maps of the region.

Depsang Plains 

While the Chinese incursion into Indian territory began in April (see map above), the People’s Liberation Army had started transgressing key points in the Depsang Plains much before.

The Depsang Plains, located in the northern part of eastern Ladakh, are close to the strategically important Daulat Beg Oldie (near the Karakoram Pass), where India’s highest airstrip is located. The plains come under India’s sub sector north (SSN), and lie between the Siachen Glacier on one side and Chinese-controlled Aksai Chin on the other.

For months now, China has been denying Indian troops access to patrol points 10 to 13 in Depsang from a strategic bottleneck called the Y junction.

Defence sources say China is blocking Indian soldiers’ access to a large tract of land, which adds up to 972 square kilometres.

While the main flashpoints of the India-China tension lie further south, including the heights and other features near Pangong Tso, satellite images have shown an additional deployment of troops from both sides at the Depsang Plains. The Chinese have deployed additional tanks and artillery guns and moved them forward from their usual positions, while India has deployed additional men, tanks and other equipment into the area in response to the build-up.

As reported by ThePrint, the tensions in the Depsang Plains go back to China’s 18-km incursion into the area in 2013, followed by the 2017 Doklam standoff near India’s tri-junction with China and Bhutan to the east.

In 2013, despite talks in which both India and China agreed to go back from their positions, PLA troops never went back completely across what India perceives to be the LAC.

India has created a separate brigade to look after the SSN following 2013.

Also read: Why Depsang Plains, eyed by China, is crucial for India’s defence in Ladakh

Galwan Valley, Hot Springs and Gogra Post

A violent clash between Indian and Chinese troops on 15 June had brought the Galwan Valley into focus. The violence, in which no firing took place, killed 20 Indian soldiers, including the commanding officer of 16 Bihar, Colonel Santosh Babu.

 Map: Soham Sen | ThePrint

Sources said this area could give the Chinese unfettered domination of the strategic Darbuk-Shyok-Daulat Beg Oldie (DS-DBO) road. “The Galwan clashes were an attempt by the Chinese to dominate these areas,” a defence source told ThePrint.

It is for the same reason that the Border Roads Organisation has stepped up work on an alternate route to DBO, which will run along the Nubra river to the vital locations of Sasser La and Gapshan before joining the existing DS-DBO road.

Since the incident and multiple levels of military and diplomatic talks, Chinese troops have moved back from their positions in Galwan Valley, but a buffer zone has been created on either side of the LAC. As a result, Indian troops are not able to access patrol point 14.

At Hot Springs and Gogra Post, however, Chinese troops have not fully pulled back, and have left some elements behind.

India continues to carry out constant surveillance of the area. Additional troops have been deployed along the DS-DBO road, which passes close to the Galwan Valley, for faster movement of reserves and a quicker response in case of an operational requirement.

Also read: The story of what really happened when Chinese troops ‘withdrew’ from Galwan Post 58 years back

Northern bank of Pangong Tso and its fingers

The 134-km-long northern bank of the Pangong lake has turned out to be the most crucial flashpoint in the current standoff.

The northern bank juts out into the lake like a palm, and the various protrusions or mountain spurs are identified as ‘fingers’ to demarcate territory.

While India asserts that the LAC lies at Finger 8, China claims it starts at Finger 2, which India dominates.

Since the beginning of the standoff, China has come to dominate the area between Finger 4 and Finger 8, a distance of about 8 km, which India has repeatedly asserted lies on its side of the LAC.

Defence officials said while China committed to pull back its troops after the military-level talks between the two sides, they have refused to vacate Finger 4 completely, though some troops were pulled back initially.

Sources say holding Finger 4 offers the Chinese troops a better visual on Indian troop positions further west. As a result, the talks between the two sides also hit a roadblock and reached an uneasy stalemate before Indian troops captured some key heights on the southern bank of Pangong Tso, pre-empting Chinese military mobilisation near the Spanggur lake.

This move, sources had said, gives better bargaining power to the Indian side during talks.

The situation at Finger 4 is tense after Indian Army troops took control of heights overlooking Chinese army positions.

Just before Jaishankar and Wang Yi’s meeting in Moscow on 10 September, multiple rounds were fired in air by troops on both sides at the overlapping heights of Finger 3 and 4, making it the second such incident at the LAC in 45 years.

Also read: Why the serene Pangong lake lies at the heart of India-China border dispute in Ladakh

Southern bank of Pangong Tso

The latest flashpoint in the tensions saw the Indian Army occupy key heights on the southern bank of Pangong Tso. This is where Chinese troops are said to have fired shots for the first time in 45 years.

Indian and Chinese troops were at a distance of barely 300 metres from each other, with a group of 40 Chinese soldiers staying put at one location, sources said.

Aside from firing, Chinese troops at some places had also moved in with clubs, machetes and spears among other sharp weapons — similar to what they carried during the Galwan clash on 15 June. The Chinese have deployed tanks and artillery guns near the Spanggur Gap. India has also put in place troops and equipment to counter the Chinese deployment.

Sources said the southern bank of Pangong Tso emerged as a new front after Indian troops pre-empted Chinese military mobilisation and occupied around 30 dominating heights and terrain features close to the LAC — including Rezang La, Rechin La and Magar Hill among others — on 29-30 August. There were reports of action at a feature called Black Top too, but sources in India’s defence and security establishment underlined that the forces had not crossed the LAC.

The southern bank also gives the Indian troops an advantage in terms of monitoring activities on the northern bank of the lake.

Also read: Why southern bank of Pangong Tso is the new flashpoint in India-China stand-off

New Delhi: A Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report tabled in Parliament Wednesday pointed out irregularities in the purchase of aero engines for Unmanned Aero Vehicles (UAVs) by the Indian Air Force from Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI).

The report states that the IAI gained undue benefits of Rs 3.16 crore from the contract.

The average price of the engine in the international market is between Rs 21-25 lakh, the report says.

“As a result, the vendor gained an undue benefit of Rs 3.16 crore as it supplied the five contracted UAV engines at more than three times the market price or the  price offered to the DRDO unit,” reads the report.

Speaking on the report, a senior Indian Air Force officer said that while acceptance of “mislabelled” engines will be looked into, price negotiations are not in the domain of the IAF.

“Price negotiations are conducted by the ministry,” the officer said.

Also read: HAL ties up with Israeli firm & Dynamatic Technologies to manufacture drones

‘Mi-17 chopper fleet could not be upgraded even after 18 years’

The CAG report also noted that the upgradation of Medium Lift Mi-17 Helicopters, proposed in 2002 to overcome their “operational limitation”, could not be achieved even after 18 years.

“As a result, these helicopters were flying with limited capability, thus compromising operational preparedness during these years,” it said.

The CAG further said that due to poor planning by the Ministry of Defence and indecision at various stages of procurement, it took 15 years to enter into the upgradation contract of 90 Mi-17 helicopters with an Israeli company — in January 2017.

The audit also states that while the contracted delivery of these upgraded helicopters had to begin July 2018 and was to be completed by 2024, 56 of these helicopters, even after upgradation, would be left with less than two years of life and would be phased out by 2024.

Also read: HAL helicopter not for us — Indian Navy doesn’t want PSU to be part of $3 bn chopper deal

Administrative and financial irregularities

The CAG also noted administrative and financial irregularities at the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) and HAL.

It said the ADA increased the sanctioned strength for the posts of flight test pilots and flight test engineers by four posts without mandatory approval of the General Body and Ministry of Defence.

“This resulted in irregular payment of additional allowances attached with these posts amounting to Rs 4.79 crore for the period November 2008 to March 2018,” it said.

Allowances to IAF personnel

The report also states that the IAF had irregularly authorised certain allowances to IAF personnel such as “Modified Field Area Allowance”, “Counter Insurgency Allowance” and paid ‘Acting Rank’ of Group Captain in violation of norms.

“Audit noted that during 2014-19, the grant of these allowances and acting rank had a financial burden of Rs 20.02 crore. This amount is due for recovery from the concerned IAF personnel.”

It also said that the HAL had incorrectly fixed the new pay scales for all executives and non-unionised supervisors w.e.f. 1 July 2017. As a result, the report said, the HAL had incurred excess payment of pay amounting to Rs34.58crore to its employees for  the period from July 2017 to June 2018.

Also read: India’s quest for armed drones gets a boost as US looks to ramp up arms sales

The CAG made the observations in its latest report, which was tabled in Parliament Wednesday.

Offset contracts are those struck as part of a defence deal involving imports. Under this arrangement, a vendor chosen for a contract is required to invest a certain share of the purchase sum into the importing nation. The offsets proposal in question dealt with technology-transfer for the development of an indigenous engine for light combat aircraft (LCA).

“For instance in the offset 4 contract relating to 36 Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA), the vendors M/s Dassault Aviation and M/s MBDA initially proposed (September 2015) to discharge 30 per cent of their offset obligation by offering high technology to DRDO,” the CAG noted in its report.

The DRDO, it added, wanted to obtain technical assistance for the indigenous development of an engine, Kaveri, for LCA. “Till date the vendor has not confirmed the transfer of this technology (ToT),” it said.

Safran, the engine manufacturer that serves as a supplier to Rafale, had earlier this year said it remains committed to the ToT, and has restarted negotiations with the DRDO. The offsets deal had flown into a rough weather due to pricing issues.

From 2005 to March 2018, CAG said, 46 offset contracts had been signed with foreign vendors that were together valued at Rs 66,427 crore.

According to the auditor, by December 2018, Rs 19,223 crore worth of offsets should have been discharged by the vendors under these contracts. However, only offset claims worth Rs 11,396 crore, or 59 per cent, were submitted by that time.

“Further, only 48 per cent (Rs 5,457 crore) of these offset claims submitted by the vendors were accepted by the ministry. The rest were largely rejected as they were not compliant to the contractual conditions and the Defence Procurement Procedure,” the CAG noted.

Also Read: Dassault was not the lowest bidder — CAG report contradicts Modi govt on Rafale

Not the first report on Rafale

It was in 2005 that India adopted its Offset Policy for defence capital purchases of above Rs 300 crore made through imports. In such cases, the foreign vendor was required to invest at least 30 per cent of the value of the purchase in India.

In case of the Rs 59,000 crore Rafale deal, offsets agreements constitute 50 per cent of the contract value.

According to sources, offsets rules allow vendors the flexibility of completing their liabilities.

This CAG report submitted Wednesday is not the first time the auditor has made observations about the Rafale deal.

A CAG report submitted last year said that, a month before Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced India’s intention to buy 36 Rafale fighter jets from France, a Ministry of Defence panel had found that the deal could not be signed in 2012 because Dassault Aviation, the jet’s manufacturer, was not the lowest bidder.

This flew in the face of the Modi government’s claims that the deal was signed as an emergency purchase because Dassault had emerged as L1 (lowest bidder) in the UPA government’s Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) tender.

Sources in the MoD, however, sought to explain the contradiction by saying that the deal for 36 Rafales was a government-to-government contract, and L1 or any other company does not come into play.

Also Read: Modi govt’s Rafale deal cheaper than UPA’s, says CAG

With no signs of disengagement on the ground in Ladakh, where India and China have been locked in a stand-off since April, both sides will stay dug in during the region’s bitter winter too.

With no signs of disengagement on the ground in Ladakh, where India and China have been locked in a stand-off since April, both sides will stay dug in during the region’s bitter winter too, the sources added. The Chinese, they added, have deployed around 50,000 soldiers and equipment, including missile systems, tanks and artillery, at the border.

The sources’ comments come as the ground situation in Ladakh remains the same despite the Chinese seemingly adopting a reconciliatory approach during different levels of dialogue. They suggest that India has changed its rules of engagement for the Line of Actual Control (LAC), where firing of shots was thus far barred under a bilateral agreement, since the 15 June Galwan Valley clash.

The clash had resulted in the death of 20 Indian soldiers, including a commanding officer, and many Chinese troops.

“We have told our soldiers that they can open fire if there is a fear of their own safety. They can fire for self-defence,” a source said, adding that China has been told the same.

According to the sources, there is no question of believing Chinese words of peace unless their deeds on the ground match up. The sources also said China has given them a number for the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers killed in the Galwan Valley clash — a number Beijing has yet to publicly acknowledge.

The Chinese, sources said, have told the Indian side that five of their soldiers, including a commanding officer, had died in the clash. “If the Chinese are saying five, we can easily double it if not triple it,” a top South Block officer said.

Chinese soldiers far outnumbered Indian troops during the Galwan Valley clash, which took place after a disengagement effort went awry.

“According to the agreement, both sides are supposed to have a 15-20-member-strong patrol team. Over the last few years (since Doklam), the Chinese started increasing numbers,” the source added..

Sources said since the intervening night of 29-30 August, when Indian soldiers moved in to capture several heights near the southern bank of the Pangong Tso, there has been a number of occasions when shots were fired in the air.

Also Read: India, China say won’t send more troops to Ladakh frontlines, agree to avoid misunderstandings

‘Both sides preparing for winter deployment’

Both sides, sources said, are likely to stay deployed in the forward areas of Ladakh through the winter, with China insisting on disengaging from the southern bank of the Pangong Tso first while India has been clear that it has to happen in in all areas simultaneously.

“India is also of the opinion that since it was the Chinese who initiated the aggression, they should be the first one to start disengaging,” a source added.

The sources admitted that while India has been seeking complete disengagement and status quo ante (return to positions before the stand-off began, following Chinese incursions in April), the current positions will continue to be held for some time, as reported by ThePrint earlier this week.

“I can’t put a time-frame on when the disengagement will happen. The position stays as it is,” one of the above-mentioned sources said.

Also Read: 5 maps that tell you all you want to know about India vs China in Ladakh

‘Depsang issue predates current tensions’

Talking about Depsang Plains, one of the flashpoints in Ladakh, the sources said the issue there predates the current tensions between India and China. Without getting into a timeline, the sources said there are no Chinese soldiers camping at the Bottleneck, also known as Y-Junction.

“We go by foot beyond Bottleneck as vehicles cannot cross that area. The Chinese observe our movement and they have deployed two vehicles that come and block our path well before Patrol Point 10. But we have been reaching our patrolling points using other routes,” a source said.

“But since the tensions began, we have avoided pushing ahead so as not to create fresh escalation,” the source added, saying both sides have built up in depth areas.

Also Read: Xi’s motivations behind LAC standoff and why China has been hyperactive since 2017

Top government sources said this has been the established practice on the countries’ border in the Northeast, and has worked well barring the occasional face-off. However, the sources said that border infrastructure development along the LAC, as planned by India, will continue since the activities are well within territory it controls.

“In the Northeast, both sides patrol every week to their patrolling points. We know when the Chinese are coming and they know when we are coming. This ensures that the troops don’t come face-to-face. This is something that can be done in the forward areas of Ladakh too,” a source said.

The source added that local commanders in the Northeast speak to each other regularly — a practice that has continued even during the Ladakh stand-off, with the Chinese even saying that both sides must ensure that what happened in the northern sector should not be allowed to develop there.

“However, we are not leaving anything to chance. Our strict vigil continues all along the LAC. There has not been any kind of aggressive deployment by the Chinese in the Northeast,” the source said.

However, the sources underlined that the formula being worked out will come into effect only when disengagement at the LAC is completed.

As reported by ThePrint on 22 September, India insists China needs to take steps for disengagement first, since it was the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) that moved in.

Also read: 5 maps that tell you all you want to know about India vs China in Ladakh

China’s aggressive patrolling started since Doklam

Sources said according to previous India-China agreements, each side is supposed to have a patrol strength of 15-20 troopers.

However, since the 2017 Doklam stand-off, when India stepped into Bhutanese territory and blocked China’s illegal road construction activity, the PLA started bring in bigger patrols along the LAC.

“From 15-20, the number increased to 30 and so on. It has been happening over a period of time. It came to such a point that they started coming en masse and surrounding our troops. This resulted in scuffles, and that led to stone throwing. Then, the Chinese started bringing in clubs and sharp weapons like machetes,” a source said.

The source added that this is what happened on 15 June in the Galwan Valley.

“It was a melee. We could not open fire because the bullets could have hit our own,” the source said.

India has made it clear to China that its soldiers will open fire to defend themselves, and Chinese tactics of “using mass” will not be tolerated.

China has more than doubled its air bases, air defence positions, and heliports near the LAC since the Doklam crisis.

“The 2017 Doklam crisis appears to have shifted China’s strategic objectives, with China more than doubling its total number of air bases, air defence positions, and heliports near the Indian border over the past three years,” a report by leading global geopolitical intelligence platform Stratfor had said.

Also read: India-China endgame in Ladakh looks costly unless both Modi and Xi get a face-saver deal

Less than a fortnight after External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi came up with a five-point roadmap to resolve the Ladakh standoff, the corps commander-level talks between the two countries seem to have made some headway. In a joint statement, Indian and Chinese armies have agreed to stop sending more troops to the frontline, desist from unilaterally changing the situation on the ground and avoid actions that may complicate matters. All that sounds good, but it’s the implementation that will count. China’s blatant disregard for previous agreements has led to renewed hostilities of late.

Disengagement of troops from the friction points on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) is a prerequisite for de-escalation of tensions. Over the past four months or so, eastern Ladakh has seen it all — bloody skirmishes, firing of shots, incursions by Chinese troops and pre-emptive action by Indian soldiers. Several rounds of talks at the military level didn’t bear fruit as the Chinese army persisted with its brazen misadventures. On the diplomatic front, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh recently conveyed India’s firm stand to his Chinese counterpart in Moscow, followed by the Jaishankar-Yi talks.

Adopting an unusually conciliatory tone, Chinese President Xi Jinping said in his pre-recorded address to the UN General Assembly that his country would ‘continue to narrow differences and resolve disputes with others through dialogue and negotiation.’ This should be music to India’s ears, but past experience has shown that China can be taken at face value only at one’s peril. India can’t afford to let its guard down along the entire 3,488-km-long LAC. With the Ladakh region bracing itself for a typically harsh winter beginning next month, the Indian troops would have to step up vigil to ensure that the Chinese army doesn’t try to capitalise on the bad weather to make mischief. India shouldn’t expect a quick end to the border standoff, which has remained under the glare of the international community. With the US and its allies calling China’s military actions unprovoked and provocative, India needs to cash in on this support to make the neighbour mend its ways.