The North Jetty of the Southern Naval Command (SNC) will be rebuilt on a bigger scale by October 2024 to berth the augmented fleet of naval ships that operate from the Naval Base in Kochi, Vice Admiral M.A. Hampiholi, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Southern Naval Command, has said.
This is in keeping with the induction of next-generation offshore patrol vessels, shallow water craft, and other ships, and the impending replacement of the existing cadet training ships in two to three years. Altogether, the operational availability of 80% of the 17 big ships based in Kochi was made available, thanks to joint efforts by the Navy and civilian defence personnel, he told the media onboard INS Tir, a ship of the Navy’s First Training Squadron, on Saturday.
He added that the Navy was awaiting the Centre’s nod to place order for the third aircraft carrier (following the construction of indigenous aircraft carrier Vikrant at the Cochin Shipyard).
On concerns about the increasing presence of Chinese vessels in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR), Vice Admiral Hampiholi said ships of extra-regional navies were being tracked with maritime domain awareness (MDA). On the fate of eight ex-Indian Navy personnel who were awarded death penalty by a Qatari court, he said efforts were on at the highest level to ensure their return to India.
He said women sailors recruited under the Agnipath scheme were deployed across 29 trades in the Navy. The Navy is planning circumnavigation of the globe with a solo-woman crew member.
Regarding suicides by naval personnel, including a recent instance of a woman Agniveer from Kerala taking her life, the Vice Admiral said armed forces were a microcosm of society. However, the divisional system in the Navy has been strengthened to lessen stress and to prevent such incidents, with around 15 personnel being placed under a supervisory officer. Regular counselling sessions too are done.
On coordination with fishers, including in intelligence gathering, the Vice Admiral said fishers were the eyes and ears of the Navy. “We have regular campaigns to sensitise them on their personal safety and other security issues. There is also a mechanism to report and forewarn of anything unusual,” he added.
He said the Navy had been cleaning the Venduruthy Channel once a month, although it was beyond the force’s core tasks. In addition, mangroves, tree saplings, and Miyawaki forests are being planted on the coast.
Rear Admiral Upal Kundu, officiating Chief of Staff of the Southern Naval Command, and Cdr. Atul Pillai, Defence PRO, Kerala, too were present.

Tribune News Service

Mohali, December 2

Governor, Punjab & Administrator Chandigarh, Banwari Lal Purohit, conferred degrees on 100 BA LLB and LLM students of Army Institute of Law (AIL), Mohali, during the ninth convocation held on Saturday.

The Governor applauded the students for the laurels they brought to the college and motivated them to act as a beacon of hope and provide justice to the under-privileged. Guests of Honour Lt Gen MK Katiyar, AVSM, GOC-in-C, Western Command & Patron-in-Chief, AIL and Prof (Dr) Arvind, V-C, Punjabi University, Patiala presented Awards of Excellence to students.

The Military Literature Festival (MLF), first held in 2017, has come of age and is an eagerly awaited event in Chandigarh every winter. The Tribune has been MLF’s media partner since its inception and is committed to its continuing success.

Discussions on varied national security challenges, and how the arising problems need to be tackled, can no longer be confined to the conference rooms of the North and South Blocks in New Delhi. It is necessary that every citizen of our country is made adequately aware of the serious threats confronting our country, internally and externally. It is equally important to ensure that every necessary initiative is taken to engender an environment of strong national fervour that enthuses our people to get involved in safeguarding the unity and integrity of the country.

In this context, the MLF is playing an extremely valuable role in spreading awareness about national security issues, besides providing a durable platform for veterans, journalists, security analysts/experts and others to deliberate on the nature and scale of preparedness required to deter external aggression and, if that were not possible, how best to defeat the aggressor and meet the growingly frightening consequences of future wars.

I wish the 7th Military Literature Festival great success.

— NN Vohra, President, The Tribune Trust

MILITARY LITERATURE FESTIVAL

Need to revive diplomacy with Pakistan: Mani Shankar Aiyar

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 2

Saying that diplomacy should be the principal weapon to deal with neighbours, political leader and former diplomat Mani Shankar Aiyar today stressed the need to revive diplomatic relations with Pakistan that are based on people to people contact.

Need to build on Goodwill of Pak people

Our single biggest asset in Pakistan is the goodwill of its people and we need to build up on this, which makes the prospects of relations with the country viable. — Mani Shankar Aiyar, political leader & ex-diplomat

Speaking online at a session on “Strategy India should follow to deal with a declining Pakistan and a Taliban bent upon expansion”, at the Military Literature Festival here today, he pointed out that during the last 10 years, there had been no dialogue of any significance with Pakistan.

He said the most important strategic change in recent times was that the Chinese were no longer behind the Himalayas but were now on the Indus at the same point where Alexander was in 326 BC. So there would not need to be a pincer movement by Pakistan and China to attack India, but they could join hands to attack India on the western front, which would lead to a truly difficult military situation, he said.

“These circumstances reinforce the need to resume diplomatic contact and uninterrupted dialogue with Pakistan as past experience has shown that dialogue has resulted in solution to difficult situations,” he said. “Our single biggest asset in Pakistan is the goodwill of its people and we need to build up on this, which makes the prospects of relations with the country viable,” he said.

“There are elements in Pakistan that will continue to support proxy war and terror attacks in India and this makes it more important for diplomats to be given the opportunity to talk to their Pakistani counterparts. We have to keep ourselves militarily ready, but the most important arrow in our quiver should be diplomacy and negotiation,” he said.

Pointing out that “we were wrong not to militarily challenge Pakistan earlier for what it did in Punjab and Kashmir”, Ajay Bisaria, former High Commissioner to Pakistan, said there had been a paradigm shift in policy where India was beginning to find the instruments to convey to Pakistan that a Pulwama-type incident was not acceptable.

He said, “We have a situation where Pakistan has refused to reform because of the stranglehold of the army on its economy.” He said the geo-political good times for Pakistan ended with the American withdrawal from Afghanistan and the overall relevance of Pakistan declined. The failure of its Afghanistan policy aimed at creating strategic depth because of the Afghan Taliban not being compliant with Pakistan and keen to deal with India added to its security crisis, Bisaria said.

Stating that elections in India and Pakistan next year open a political and diplomatic window that present an opportunity to normalise relations, he said three possible scenarios emerging in the next few months that India needed to look at were the situation in Pakistan getting worse and the country collapsing, Pakistan muddling through with the help of last-minute loans and Pakistan normalising with some economic reforms taking off, he added.

INS Arihant

• Capable of carrying N-tipped missiles, can be launched from under sea
• By far the most complex indigenous make for a military platform
• Two more of its class being made under a top-secret programme

INS Vikrant

• Commissioned in 2022, biggest-ever indigenous military project
• India now sixth nation to make warship of 45,000 tonnes or more
• Expands combat-arch of Navy, provides more attack options at sea

Tejas

• Some 40 single engine jets made by HAL inducted into the Indian Air Force
• Another 83 of its upgraded version, Tejas Mark 1A, are on order
• IAF looking at 100 more of upgraded Mark 1A tanks, besides 130 Mark 2

Light combat helicopter

• Both Army and Air Force have inducted indigenous LCH in small numbers
• Bigger deal for some 165 more helicopters awaiting government nod
• Uses Shakti engine manufactured byHAL-Safran joint venture

Dhanush

• Country’s first long-range artillery gun, a success story for ‘make in India’
• Built on drawing and design of Bofors guns imported from Sweden in 1987
• Ordnance Factory Board tasked with producing it, first batch already inducted

Air Vice Marshal Manmohan Bahadur (retd)

Helicopters, before they proved their mettle in battle, were labelled “egg-beater” and “whirly bird”. The Indian Air Force (IAF) started off in the 1950s with Bell-47 and Sikorsky-55 copters. And then went onto using Russian-origin Mi-series helicopters (Mi-4/8/17/25/26/35) and exploiting Chetak/Cheetahs to limits their designers had not dreamt of. The IAF now has 30-plus helicopter units (HUs) operating across its territory. It was baptism by fire during the 1962 India-China war. In his book, “Unknown and Unsung”, Air Marshal Bharat Kumar (retd) tells the details on the role of IAF’s helicopter fleet in the critical 30-day period, starting October 20, 1962.

Sqn Ldr Vinod Sehgal, Commanding Officer, 104 HU, became the first IAF casualty in NEFA (Arunachal Pradesh) on October 20. His helicopter later featured in Chinese media, but he was not in the POW list, having been killed in cold blood.

Sqn Ldr AS Williams, commanding 105 HU tasked to locate Sehgal’s copter, also got shot and was forced to land. Ten days prior, Sqn Ldr Williams had flown at night with the instrument panel being illuminated by a torch held by the casualty he was evacuating.

In a rescue mission, Wing Cdr KK Saini flew 37 personnel (in peacetime, the limit is 12) in a single Mi-4 sortie from Walong.

Air Marshal Trevor Osman, who was then a young Flying Officer in Tezpur, said, “The helicopter pilots were overworked and tired with sleep deprivation. We, young fighter pilots, flew as their co-pilots and took over control of the helicopter after take-off while they grabbed some sleep till just before landing when they were woken up to do the touch down.”

A similar story played out in Ladakh where 107 HU flew combat missions to supply outlying posts, especially in the Daulat Beg Oldie sector. When a withdrawal was ordered, casualties were brought back under very difficult conditions. In the Galwan sub-sector (yes, the same one that garnered limelight for the bloody skirmish in 2020), a record of sorts was created as “a whole battalion of the 5 Jat was replaced by the 1/8 Gurkha right under Chinese nose”.

Mi-4 and Chetak helicopters were extensively deployed in the 1971 India-Pak war for ferrying troops. Well-known is the Meghna river crossing in which a “heli bridge” was established to help the Army leapfrog its way to Dhaka forcing a Pakistani surrender on December 16.

In the 1970s, India decided to counter Pakistan on Siachen Glacier. Col Narendra ‘Bull’ Kumar lead an Army expedition in 1978, with the lone IAF Chetak helicopter of 114 HU on detachment at Leh giving logistics cover. The first copter landing on Siachen took place on October 6, 1978, in which I was the co-pilot to Sqn Ldr ML Monga. History apart, Op Meghdoot, launched on April 13, 1984 to establish a permanent foothold of the Army on Siachen was supported by the IAF’s copters — Cheetal, Dhruv and Mi-17.

Copters are not just about military logistics and medical evacuations, they have been first responders for disaster relief. IAF helicopters have been deployed after earthquakes, floods or tsunami. In military diplomacy, the Indian flag has been flown by helicopters in numerous UN missions in Africa. Hard power was exploited through Mi-25 gunships in Sri Lanka peace keeping operations in 1980s. In today’s age, Apache and indigenous Prachand attack helicopters help maintain a deterrent posture in the eastern Ladakh crisis.

Since copters doing such multitasking, it would only be right that the common Presidential logo given to all IAF helicopter units with the motto “Aapatsu Mitram” (a friend in need) be changed to reflect the specific operational task allotted to each HU. Hopefully, the government and Air HQ are alive to this long pending acknowledgement of the work put in by these flying machines and those who operate them.

The writer is a former Additional Director General, Centre for Air Power Studies, New Delhi

Lt Gen PR Shankar (retd)

A few years back, it was postulated how future wars would be short. Technology-dominated multi-domain operations were the flavour and conventional war was considered passe.

Recent conflicts indicate that violent and long-drawn wars are back with a vengeance and that artillery is still holding centre stage. Victory goes to the side with big guns. This adage was proven conclusively in the Indian context in Kargil when the Pakistanis were pulverised into defeat in 1999. Since then, artillery has evolved from being an arm based on guns and rockets to one which has embraced missiles – guided, cruise, hypersonic and the works.

Artillery used to merely neutralise the enemy in the bygone days. It is now being used interchangeably with the air force to effect destruction in depth or with nuclear forces to impose deterrence. This was evident in the Ukraine war where the side which could ensure preponderance of firepower held the upper hand. Significantly, artillery in the form of crude mortars, rockets and missiles is the source of power and battlefield mainstay of militias like Hezbollah, Hamas, and Houthis. This is visible in the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. China’s PLA too has been employing its rocket arsenal to demonstrate its political goals, resolve and strength during repeated drills around Taiwan as a precursor to its eventual annexation by force.

Clearly, the fate of nations and their ambitions will largely hinge upon their respective artilleries. Artillery will have to be sustained through adequate ammunition production and supply. Overall, it emerges that artillery remains the king of the battlefield.

The increased versatility in the role and tasks of artillery has been driven by technological factors. The first being that the range of guns, rockets and missiles has increased exponentially due to advances in material, propulsion, aerodynamics, control and guidance technologies. Precision technologies have spawned warheads with pinpoint accuracy which when combined with dumb or semi-precise ammunition have enabled a plethora of targets to be engaged appropriately to the effect desired. This trend has been force multiplied by increasingly lethal warheads. The latest factor is that speeds of engagements are being upped through hypersonic systems to evade enemy countermeasures.

Firepower, integrated with space platforms, GIS, weapon locating systems, special forces and traditional observation systems to home in on an intended and unsuspecting target leads us to a concept of smart artillery. Seamless employment of mortars, guns, rockets, missiles (guided, cruise, and hypersonic) interchangeably through networking is all about smart artillery. It is also about doctrinal integration where old tenets are built upon to evolve new doctrines consistent with time and technology. Track-and-kill operations, firepower ambushes and spoiling attacks by artillery are pointers in this direction. The next war will be different from the last one and smart artillery will make it possible.

The Kargil War experience enabled Indian artillery to recognise this trend. It embarked on a modernisation programme whose mainstay was terrain specific 155mm guns with a healthy mix of rockets and missiles. This planned mix included procuring new equipment and upgrading old platforms keeping affordability and practicality in view. Around 2012, the programmes stabilised to bear fruit. Since 2017, four modern 155mm gun systems — M777ULH, K9 Vajra, Dhanush and Sarang (upgraded 130mm guns) — with a high level of indigenisation commenced induction into service. The ATAGS, an indigenously designed gun, is also set to enter service. The Army is in the process of procuring additional indigenously manufactured towed and mounted 155 gun systems. The Army in conjunction with IIT Madras is on the verge of greatly increasing the range of 155mm guns through pioneering Ramjet technology. The indigenously designed Pinaka and Russian Grad BM 21 systems are now in their second upgrade cycle to further increase their range. The range of BrahMos missile is also being extended.

Indian artillery is expanding its envelope significantly. This effort is backed by integration with drones in service and under procurement as also by indigenous Swathi weapon locating radar. Importantly, India has built capacities to produce ammunition as per its operational necessity. Last but not the least, Indian artillery is networked through the artillery combat command and control system which is a major force multiplication factor.

Smart artillery is not just about hi-tech systems or latest weapons, but blending them with experience. That is what makes Indian artillery smart. Stalin once said “Artillery is the god of war”. It is heartening to note that the Indian god of war is in good nick.

The writer is a former DG, Artillery, and Professor, Aerospace, IIT Madras

Lt Col Akshat Upadhyay

The use of artificial intelligence (AI), which relies heavily on data, algorithms and computation, was seen in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict. AI as a field started as an attempt to create machines that could think or mimic human intelligence. It has diversified and been through phases since its start in the 1950s. Initial attempts focused at identifying different facets of human intelligence — planning, reasoning, problem solving, perception and natural language understanding, solving them separately and finally fitting them together. The lack of advanced computing power and data, hindered it. In the 1980s, systems were created with embedded domain knowledge.

A third attempt at AI — the one operating today — uses data to help machines identify patterns, learn, perform specific tasks and predict. This is known as machine learning (ML) and requires substantial human labour in terms of classifying, cleaning and labelling data to be fed to algorithms. One of its subsets is deep learning (DL) which uses a neural network or a simulation of how human brain seemingly functions to find patterns in unstructured data. However, DL needs a massive amount of data to find patterns.

Today, AI is synonymous with facial recognition, robotics, lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS), pattern recognition, data fusion and predictive maintenance in the military realm. Underlying these advances is algorithms of ML and DL. Facial recognition is a force multiplier for troops in counterinsurgency and counterterrorism operations. AI can help segregate terrorists from ordinary citizens. Combined with other indicators like last known geolocation, call history and human intelligence, this data can create a “pattern of life” profile. The US used a similar system in Afghanistan to monitor and, if needed, liquidate high-value targets.

Ukraine contracted Clearview, a US firm specialising in facial recognition for detecting infiltrator checkpoints, identifying more than 2,30,000 Russian soldiers and officials who have taken part in the conflict, prosecute members of pro-Russia militias and collecting evidence of Russian war crimes.

Extending the autonomy of weapons systems is another AI usage, especially unmanned aerial systems (UAS). Autonomous systems without AI are used such as loitering munitions (LMs), the presence of AI “provides” aerial systems with a controversial of capability — to select and target humans without any intervention from humans. Emphasis is on “provide” since most AI-based autonomous systems use their autonomy only to select a target, the decision to kill still rests with a human. However, in Ukraine the Saker Scout drone was reportedly used to kill Russian soldiers in an autonomous mode.

The Indian Army has started of absorbing AI within the organisation. Close to 140 AI-based surveillance systems have reportedly been deployed along the disputed borders. Real-time natural language processing (NLP) systems, translating Mandarin to Hindi, English and local languages are being field-tested.

With increasing use of AI and autonomous systems by India’s adversaries, forces need to transition to embrace this technology, own it to transform structures and doctrines.

A recent iteration of AI in the commercial realm is generative AI which uses generative adversarial networks to create new images and videos. Combined with the transformer model based large language models, this has given rise to a new category of virtual reality (VR) where users can dynamically interact with new characters and which can respond to the user’s questions and actions. VR and AI, when combined together for the military can be used to simulate combat scenarios – stress-testing soldiers for real-life operations. VR is also used for understanding, learning and operating on many platforms and inculcating new skills. Commanders are learning and making operational plans in VR. In effect, VR as a training, learning and planning aid holds great potential for the military.

The writer is a research fellow, strategic technologies, Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies & Analyses

Air Marshal Anil Chopra (retd)

Combat aviation continues to remain the most preferred means of prosecution of war. The one who controls air and space will dominate all operations. Military aviation continues to see the fastest growth of technology.

Agility – speed and manoeuvrability — remains important, but it has become less consequential. Occasions for close-combat engagements are reducing. Long-range beyond-visual-range (BVR) combat requires sensors and weapons that allow ability to “see first, shoot first, hit first”. High-exposure close air support can now be taken on by drones and unmanned platforms. Long range and precision strike ability has become more important. Information superiority and shortened decision loop will decide the victor.

The next generation fighter aircraft technologies will enhance survivability in contested well-defended environment, and yet deliver arsenal for effect-based results. Integration with other aircraft will require secure, highbandwidth, datalinks, connecting sensors across platforms and terrafirma in multiple domain environment. Intelligent “data-to-decision” (D2D) capability will be crucial.

System-of-systems approach will greatly enhance situational awareness. AI will support decision-making and autonomy. Helmet-mounted or even retina displays will givethe aircrew all-hemisphere picture, allowing more complete threat assessment and attack or response options.

Aircraft will feature next-generation avionics, more efficient thrust-vectoring engines with in-built super-cruise, advanced stealth features, conformal weapon bays with extended long-range weapons with a high degree of post-launch autonomy.

Modern AESA radars will operate in heavy electronic counter measures (ECM) environment. Passive infrared search and track (IRST) systems will have higher tracking ranges. Improved onboard power-generation capacity will support powerful electronic warfare systems and DEW. Automated health monitoring and diagnostics suite will combine with self-healing options. The stealth will be inbuilt to support low radar cross section (RCS) over large spectrum of frequencies without trading flight performance. There will be a plug-and-play interchangeable hardware. 3D tools will be used for both design and manufacture processes.

Evolving aerial weapons will have greater autonomy. Air launched hypersonic cruise missiles (HCM) and hypersonic glide vehicles (HGV) will defeat air defences and bring game-changing vulnerabilities to strategic targets and large ships and aircraft carriers. Large platforms like airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) and mid-air flight refuelling aircraft will be kept farther away from tactical area due to the threat of long-range missiles.

In future, onboard mini-missiles on planes could shoot down incoming air-to-air and surface-to-air missiles and act as self-defence for the aircraft. High-energy onboard lasers will engage enemy aircraft and missiles, including those coming from behind, and also target on the ground.

Drones and uninhabited aerial systems (UAS) will proliferate. Dual-use (optionally manned) aircraft are evolving. Next generation UAS will be able to take on all roles of ISR, surface strike, air defence, aerial refuelling and air delivery. Offensive aerial drone swarms will overwhelm the enemy defences. Drone counters, including both “hardkill” and “soft kill”, are already evolving. These could be small arms fire, net guns, electro-optical weapons such as lasers, data-link jamming, electronic or cyber-attack, and directed energy weapons like microwave. A drone swarm may be engaged by a counter drone swarm. Manned and unmanned aircraft teaming will exploit the advantage of human in the loop with strength of numbers to take on well-defended target systems.

Future aircraft engine technologies will support reduced weight, improved engine propulsive efficiency, improved reliability and maintainability and reduced lifecycle costs.

Attack and combat helicopters have an important operational role. Other than flying surface target attack role missions, they are increasingly being used for air-to-air missions against other helicopters and UAVs.

India has already mastered most of the basic aircraft building technologies. India is currently at 4.5 generation technology stage with Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Mark2 and has mastered the composite materials technologies. Some other metal alloys, special metals, and single-crystal blades etc. are still a work in progress. India has more work to be done on AESA radars and electronic warfare. A joint venture route for aero-engines is being finalised.

India is gradually coming of age in aerial weapons. Private companies are already making part of the LCA front, central, and rear fuselage. India’s 5th generation aircraft, the advanced medium combat aircraft (AMCA), is still a work-in-slow-progress. It needs to be accelerated if India has to sit on the global high-table. India has also to accelerate the development of indigenous flight refuellers and AEW&C aircraft. India is already looking at sixth-generation technologies. Time to act is now, lest we get too far behind.

Lt Gen KJ Singh (retd)

Extremely high attrition unleashed by drones on tanks in recent conflicts in Ukraine and Azerbaijan has triggered a serious debate on continued primacy of this platform, which had been used in all major wars in the past century.

Armed drones like Bayraktar generated out of proportion, disruptive effect against tanks, which have been militarily, viewed as the ultimate weapon in land warfare. Like the proverbial David and Goliath analogy, limitations of invincible tanks have been exposed by much cheaper drones.Yet, it may be premature to write an obituary to the tank.

Militaries have shown remarkable resilience and used tanks in Ukraine and in Gaza with what are called “strap-on” protective kits used to ward off drones.

In an Indian context, tanks were in vanguard of preventive occupation of Kailash ranges along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in September 2020. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) was shocked at seeing tanks at those 14,000-plus ft altitude.

The Indian Army is engaged in fast-track development of a light tank, “Zorawar”. It is imperative to carry out an objective appraisal of efficacy of tanks as a fighting platform and examine their continued relevance, especially in the battlefield environment in which the Army operates.

Evolution of tank design philosophy

Tanks made an appearance in 1916 in the Battle of Somme during the World War I and were heralded as game-changers, breaking the logjam of static trench warfare. The success of tanks has spawned movies giving it what would be a Rambo-type image.

The large fleet of armoured fighting vehicles (AFVs) — Russia 12,000, US 6,300, China 5,900, India 4,300 and Pakistan 2,500 — is a proof of proliferation, backed-up by proven combat trackrecord. Over the years, tank designing has remained complex interplay of optimising mobility, firepower and protection, increasingly referred to as agility, lethality and survivability respectively. Different countries have accorded varying importance to key parameters. Germany’s Leopard tanks highlights agility, whereas Merkava of Israel accords primacy to survivability, its additional weight curtails agility.

Russian and Chinese tanks follow the evolutionary approach of incremental up-gradations. To curtail weight and reduce silhouette, these compromise auto-loader and stowing ammunition in crew compartment. The Western tanks, stow ammunition in separate carousels insulating the crew against damages.

The Russian model has resulted in horrific incidents of turrets getting yanked-off and ammunition infernos within the crew compartments. In a quest to maximise ranges, designers have sought to boost gun calibre and currently are at 125mm and have added missile launchers. Optronics like night visiondevices, range finders and battle-field management system have added to the burgeoning costs.

Proliferation of anti-tank threat

The low-cost weapons used against tanks are changing warfare. The armour protection suite on tanks is based on probability of hits, derived from empirical studies like directional probability and simulation. Over the years, frontal arc around gun has got fortified and consequently top of turret, left with just the nominal protection.

Anti-tank weapons have exploited this very vulnerability through the new “top-attack mode” of targeting. A modern tank costs Rs 75-80 crore, whereas a drone around Rs 40 lakh.

The Yom-Kippur War in 1973 witnessed the introduction of wire-guided, first-generation, Russian Malyutka (AT-3 Sagger) missiles as a cost effective, anti-tank weapon system. This was further honed by Hezbollah against the mighty Merkava-4M tanks in 2006 in Southern Lebanon. At least 52 such platforms, each costing $2.5 million were disabled by Kornet missiles/rockets costing just $900. With cost differential and relative ease of operation, it is possible to saturate the battlefield with an array of anti-tank weapons like mines, shoulder-fired rockets, missiles and drones.

Countering these armoured fighting vehicles have sought to boost their protection by improvising tank urban survival kit (TUSK) and built-up area survival kit (BUSK). It incorporates cage-like structure based on the armour. AFVs also incorporate

Explosive reactive armour (ERA) panels, which disrupt penetrative jets of high explosive anti-tank (HEAT) attack by missiles and drones. Expensive automated active protection system (APS) like ARENA, Shtora and Trophy are being incorporated to detect and degrade threats. It would be seen that like the cat-and-mouse game, every new disruptive effect or weapon triggers an anti-dote.

The asymmetrical advantage like the current one in favour of drones is only temporary, till it is offset by an effective counter.

Way forward in Indian context

Employment of tanks or AFVs is based on the basic paradigms. Firstly, operating as part of combined arms teams, secondly, dispersion and thirdly, inexorable manoeuvre. Losses in recent conflicts have been due to disregarding of these factors coupled with marked lack of motivation of crews. Our terrain profile, large open deserts and plains on Western borders, coupled with plateaus in stretches of the Sino-Indian borders provide ample opportunities for mechanised forces.

Drones have limited efficacy in high altitude terrain. This apart, our adversaries have large fleet of similar Russian derivative tanks. Recently, China fielded light tanks ZTQ-15, which have been ordered by Bangladesh also. Above all, our crews have unmatched track-record despite asymmetry of equipment against us in various conflicts. In sum, tanks used in combined arms mode and skillfully employed will remain force multipliers in our context.

The writer is a former Western Army Commander