Explosives-laden drones were used to carry out attack on Jammu Air Force station on Sunday

Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria. Photo credit: Twitter/IAF

New Delhi, July 2

The drone strikes in Jammu airbase was an act of terror that was aimed at targeting key military assets, Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria said on Friday asserting that the Indian Air Force is in the process of bolstering its capabilities to deal with such security challenges.

Also read: Drone spotted over Indian mission in Islamabad; India lodges protest

BSF opens fire after Pakistani drone spotted over international border in Jammu

The Chief of Air Staff said the IAF has carried out a detailed analysis in terms of implications of drones and other similar capabilities falling into the hands of non-state actors, and taking a series of measures to counter them.

“What happened at Jammu was essentially a terrorist act which attempted to target our assets there. The attempt failed of course. The assets were not damaged. Two explosives were used,” he said in an interactive session at a think tank.

Explosives-laden drones were used to carry out an attack on the Jammu Air Force station on Sunday in the first such instance of suspected Pakistan-based terrorists deploying unmanned aerial vehicles to strike at vital military installations in India.

The Chief of Air Staff said a detailed investigation into the attacks was under way and that all sets of measures would be on the table based on the findings of the probe.

“We have gone over the subject in terms of the implications of this kind of capabilities in the hands of non-state actors and the kind of effect the armed drone capabilities would have in future conflicts,” Air Chief Marshal Bhadauria said.

He said the IAF analysed a large extent the requirements in terms of planning and required systems and infrastructure to enhance its abilities to go for “soft kill” and to have a counter-drone system.

“It should be possible to react in the short notice; detect, quickly react and be able to target it and that targeting is essentially directed energy kind of targeting in terror attack kind of a situation,” the IAF Chief said.

“All these issues have been looked at and many of the projects have already been undertaken and some of the systems were already fielded,” he said.

He said the Jammu Air Force station did not have critical assets and systems to detect drones were not fielded there.

Referring to the attacks, he said there was no visibility when the incident took place.

“Very soon we will have enough systems and we will target.. we will find ways to tackle this threat,” the Air Chief Marshal said. PTI

For first time, selection process introduced for foreign cadets

Photo for representational purpose only. iStock

Vijay Mohan

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 2

The National Cadet Corps (NCC) will be inviting youth delegations from 15 new countries for the Republic Day Camp—2022 celebrations, in addition to such contingents from 10 friendly countries that have regularly been attending the camp in the past.

The new countries are USA, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Japan, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Brazil, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, Mauritius, Mozambique, Nigeria and Seychelles.

As part of its youth exchange programme, members of similar organisations in Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Singapore, Kyrgyz Republic, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Vietnam have been attending the Republic Day Camp in India while selected NCC cadets make reciprocal visits to these countries.

About 300 cadets or members of organisations similar to the NCC from these 25 countries would be in India from January 15 to 29 next year, which coincides with Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’ for commemorating 75 years of Independence.

Ten cadets along with their supervisors from each country will attend important events of the Republic Day celebrations. Visits to various places of historical and cultural importance have also been planned, as part of the program and they would also be exposed to yoga and ayurveda.

For the first time, the cadets or youth participating in the Republic Day Camp from foreign countries will compete to get selected based on a process to be organised by the NCC in those countries in association with the Ministry of External Affairs, Defence Attaches in Indian Embassies overseas as well as the youth organisation of the respective country. Partner youth organisations have also been identified. The selection competition will adjudge candidates on their knowledge about India, its achievements in last 75 years, culture and people.   

The Republic Day Camp is the most prestigious annual event of the NCC and provides several life-time experiences for the cadets, including the Republic Day Parade on Rajpath and the Prime Minister’s NCC Rally. They also interact with top dignitaries, including the President, Prime Minister, Defence Minister and the Service Chiefs.

Last year, 2,155 cadets, including 710 girls from all 17 NCC directorate in the country had attended the Republic Day Camp. This year however, the number had come down to about a thousand cadets due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

To ensure safety of the youth participating in the program, all protocols and safety aspects of Covid-19 will be followed at the forthcoming camp. The participating countries have also been requested that all the cadets visiting India should be fully vaccinated and have health insurance.

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Sandeep Dikshit

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 2

A drone was spotted hovering over a late-evening get-together on the Indian High Commission premises in Islamabad on June 26, a day before explosives-laden drones were used to carry out an attack on the Jammu Air Force station, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Friday.

Lodging a strong protest, India has asked Pakistan to investigate the incident. “We have taken up the matter officially with the Pakistan government and expect it to investigate and prevent breach of such security,’’ said an MEA spokesperson.

No proof given: Pak

Dismissing the claim as “preposterous”, Pakistan said Indian diplomats had not shared any facts to substantiate these allegations.

The Indian High Commission too has taken up the issue strongly with the Pakistani authorities through a note verbale. Sources said the drone was spotted twice over the High Commission’s premises around 10 pm when the get-together was in progress.

However, spokesperson of Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri dismissed the claim as “preposterous” and said Indian diplomats had not shared any facts or proof whatsoever to substantiate these allegations. Chaudhri went on to describe the allegations as “diversionary Indian tactics” and then diverted the topic to Kashmir by stating that Islamabad will continue to stand by the people of J&K in their “struggle for the right to self-determination”.

The drones over Jammu Air Force station and the Indian High Commission’s premises were the first such instances of unmanned aerial vehicles being used against government assets. The MEA said the Jammu drone attack was still being investigated and reiterated its demand to Pakistan for credible, verifiable and irreversible action against terrorist networks on its soil.

BSF targets Pak drone at Jammu border

The BSF on Friday opened fire at a suspected Pakistani surveillance drone after it tried to venture into the Indian territory along the International Border (IB) in Arnia sector of Jammu region. Spotted around 4.25 am, the drone returned to the Pakistani side when the troopers fired half a dozen rounds to bring it down, said BSF officials.

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 2

Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat on Friday cleared the air on creating theatre commands, saying the Northern Command of the Indian Army for the time being would remain as it is while there would be dedicated integrated commands for China and Pakistan.

These would have the Air Force component, separate from the Air Defence Command that would be the exclusive mandate of the IAF. General Rawat was speaking at a ‘Global Counter-Terrorism Council’ webinar on artificial intelligence and other modern technologies. He also talked of the existing counter-drone systems. He said as far as the Indian Air Force was concerned, the country’s entire airspace would be looked after by the Air Defence Command.

The theatres with the northern and western adversary (China and Pakistan) would be land-based, General Rawat said. Offensive air support for these would be provided by the IAF. On the Northern Command of the Army, he said: “The Northern Command looks after both the fronts — the China front in Ladakh and the northern front in the Kargil sector. This is one area that would witness a two-front war.”

A new short span bridging system designed and developed by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has been inducted into the Indian Army.

The structure is 10-m long and is expected to play a crucial role in bridging the gaps, ensuring faster movement of troops and equipment across canals and waters bodies.

The first lot of 12 bridges was inducted by Army Chief Gen MM Naravane at a ceremony at Delhi Cantt on Friday. The Defence Minister congratulated the DRDO. tns

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 2

The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain a PIL seeking action against Union Minister Gen (Retd) VK Singh for allegedly violating oath of office by making certain comments on the India-China border stand-off.

“Are you a scientist? Use your energies to find a solution. If he is not good, the Prime Minister will look into it,” a Bench led by Chief Justice of India NV Ramana told the petitioner’s counsel after he insisted that Singh made statements against the Army.

“If the Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways has done something it was for the Prime Minister to act and the court can’t pass any order in this regard,” the Bench said.

“If you don’t like a statement by a minister, you file a plea and ask him to be removed,” it told the counsel for petitioner Chandrasekaran Ramaswamy, who cited various events where Singh made controversial statements.

Ramaswamy, an activist, had sought directions to declare that Singh breached of his oath for his recent statements on the Line of Actual Control in which the former Army Chief allegedly claimed that India transgressed the LAC many times, as per its perception, and the Chinese had taken advantage of the statement made and used it to blame India for encroaching upon its perceived territory.

14 drones were launched reportedly from across the International Border and LoC in the recent past. (Representational Photo:AFP)

SRINAGAR: Three more flying objects — possibly drones — were spotted over strategically important areas of Jammu on Wednesday. Security forces opened fire at them following which they withdrew, officials said.

The unnamed officials quoted by local newsgathering agencies said that the drones were seen hovering over Miran Sahab, Kaluchak and Kunjwani areas of Jammu where several military bases and sensitive installations are located.

They said that the first “unidentified flying object” at a height of about 1,000 meters was sighted near a place called Goswami Enclave in Kaluchak area at around 4.40 am. The second one was spotted near the Indian Air Force ‘Signal’ in the neighbouring Kunjwani area and the third at Miran Sahab at around 6 am. “All these activities on the third consecutive day were witnessed near defence installations but the alert security personnel quickly swung into action and opened fire at these objects,” said an official.

On June 27, the overly sensitive Air Force Station at Jammu had come under a terror attack when two low-intensity bombs believed to have been dropped by drones hit a barracks and an open space in quick succession, leaving two IAF personnel were injured in the explosions that took place within a gap of five minutes.

A day later, the Army averted two separate drone activities in Ratnuchak-Kaluchak belt close to the border with Pakistan in Jammu region and, thereby, as was claimed by it, foiled a possible threat in this extremely sensitive military area. The activity continued on Tuesday when the drone-like objects were seen flying at a couple of places in the same security belt.

The Jammu and Kashmir police and Indian Army officials in Jammu had said on Monday that as many as 14 drones were launched reportedly from across the International Border (called Working Boundary by Islamabad) and Line of Control (LoC) in the recent past.

They said that the areas which witnessed the activity include Jammu, Rajouri, Samba and Kathua districts of Indian-administered Kashmir. Six sorties with weapon payloads were found in Samba sector, three to four in Hiranagar sector and two each in Nowshera-Rajouri and Arnia sectors.

J&K’s director general of police, Dilbagh Singh, said that in the recent past drones have been used to drop weapons and narcotic consignments. He said that the twin blasts at the Jammu Air Force base was a “terror attack” in which IED payloads were dropped using drones. A security alert for all vital installations in the Jammu region as well as Kashmir Valley was issued on Sunday itself.

In view of the June 27 bombing at the Air Force Station Jammu and subsequent increased activity of illegal unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or unmanned aircraft systems (UASes) in Jammu region, director general (DG) of National Security Guard (NSG), M.A. Ganapathy, who is also DG, Bureau of Civil Aviation Security and Director General Central Industrial Security Force, Subodh Kumar Jaiswal arrived in Jammu to assess the situation.

Rajouri’s DC Rajesh Kumar Shavan has, through an order issued on Wednesday, banned the storage, sale or possession and use and transportation of the flying machines (drones). He has also directed those having drones or like objects in their possession to deposit them with the local police station.

However, the government agencies using drones for mapping, surveys and surveillance would get the local police station in-charge and executive magistrate informed, the order says.

Tags: drones, jammu, bombing, drone attack, air force station, indian army, pakistan, drone bombing

Location: India, Jammu and Kashmir, Srinagar

The drone attack on the Jammu airbase seriously escalates the threat of terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir from Pakistan. Earlier, drones from across the border have been used to drop weapons in Punjab for terrorist purposes. In those cases, the targets were not military. However, in the Jammu drone attack, the target was an Air Force base with the intention no doubt to cause serious material damage.
Even if this objective was not realised, the message that our air bases close to the Pakistan border are now vulnerable has been conveyed.
The drone used in the Jammu Air Force Station attack was a relatively less sophisticated one, but in future more potent drones with greater reach can be used. That will depend on the calculations of the Pakistani elements behind this escalation and how much they think they can get away with, as well as their assessment of the options available to New Delhi.
Because drones fly low, they escape detection by radars and interjection by air defence systems.
Drones have been used with deadly effect, for example, from Yemeni soil against the Saudi oil installations. They have also been used militarily with great success against the Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh by Turkey-supported Azerbaijani forces. The Chinese have used drones for aerial surveillance in Ladakh during the current stand-off. The Americans have used armed drones in Afghanistan and in Iraq to eliminate terrorists, and even a high-ranking serving military officer as in the case of the Iranian General Qasem Soleimani.
Drone swarms are now part of the panoply of a country’s military arsenal. India too has acquired armed drones from the US for maritime security.
This new security challenge that has surfaced has to be effectively met. It is not possible for local Kashmiri elements to, without external help, get access to drones and get trained to operate them with explosive charges and target acquisition. An in-depth investigation is needed to determine the trajectory of the drone used in the Jammu Air Force Station attack and the source of the technical support needed for operating it. It can safely be assumed that Pakistani elements are behind this one way or another. It is well to recall the attack on the Pathankot air base in 2016 wherein the Jaish-e-Mohammed was involved. Judging from the manner in which Pakistan treated the Pathankot investigation, there is no doubt that it was carried out with the connivance of Pakistan-based ISI.
Ceasefire: A Win-Win For Both Sides
India has to carefully evaluate its options. According to our Army chief, the ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC) has been holding well barring a minor infraction. He has acknowledged the absence of attempts by Pakistan to infiltrate terrorists with covering fire. The tenor of statements from the Indian side has been supple lately, suggesting that we see value in preserving the ceasefire, if for nothing else than protecting our civilian population from the firing across the LoC.
A ceasefire on our western border is also helpful in fully concentrating on the military stand-off with China on our northern border. For Pakistan, putting a stop to punishing fire from the Indian side would be a consideration, besides the need to concentrate on the developments on its border with Afghanistan. Pakistan may also be calculating that for it to exit from the Financial Action Task Force or FATF grey list a ceasefire with India and curbing terrorist infiltration would add to its credibility in making the case that it was seriously addressing the FATF concerns.
Pakistan’s Malevolence: A Permanent Feature
On the other hand, the anti-India political rhetoric from Pakistan has not significantly abated. In his recent interview with The New York Times, Imran Khan projected himself as someone who is loved and respected in India, a peace-maker looking for a civilised trade relationship with New Delhi. Durign the interview, he hit hit against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s RSS ideology.
Khan’s condition for a dialogue with India is a reversal of the 5 August, 2019, changes in Jammu and Kashmir. He is living in a fantasy world if he really believes what he says. If Khan thinks that this is the right propagandist line to take with the “liberal” US press, which is antipathetic towards Modi, he is exhibiting his lack of political maturity.
Pakistan’s foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has developed a new concept that the size of a diplomatic mission in a country depends on whether it is a neighbour or not. According to him, India, not being a neighbour of Afghanistan, has a larger presence in Afghanistan than what is necessary. He also alleged that India uses its presence in Afghanistan to promote terrorist activity against Pakistan.
Pakistan National Security Adviser Moeed Yusuf claims that Kashmir has never belonged to India and that after India inevitably reverses its 5 August, 2019, decisions, Pakistan will consider a dialogue with India. Pakistan seems to believe that India’s policy in Kashmir is failing, and that it can leverage opinion in the US administration against Indian actions in Jammu and Kashmir to its advantage. And this, even as its interventionist policy in Afghanistan is succeeding with the US consent.
It is not unlikely that Pakistan may have reasoned that with India embroiled with China in the north, the internal situation in Kashmir still unsettled, the cooperation of the old political class still needed to implement the post 5 August agenda of the Modi government, and the developments in Afghanistan which have compelled India to reach out to the Taliban contrary to long-standing policy ” no doubt to ward off concerns about an externally abetted revival of terrorist activity in Kashmir ” upping the ante on Kashmir was needed to put India on the defensive.
If India retaliated, it would be accused of violating the ceasefire and distracting Pakistan from constructively cooperating with the US to facilitate its withdrawal from Afghanistan. It will argue, as it has always done, that it is wrongly blamed by India for its own failures to control the insurgency in Kashmir.
Pakistan’s malevolence towards India remains a fundamental feature of its foreign policy.
It is most important that the result of India’s meticulous investigation of the drone attack is widely shared domestically and internationally. India could bring the incident to the attention of the Security Council of which it is currently a member. A clear warning should go to Pakistan that India reserves the right to react appropriately to such a dangerous provocation at a time of its own choosing.

CDS General Bipin Rawat with three armed forces chiefs
The proposed cyber command will marry the individual capabilities of all the three services to protect the military from being vulnerable to cyber-attacks from India’s adversaries.
With the threat of cyber attacks mounting against the Indian armed forces, the Department of Military Affairs (DMA) is planning to send up to 100 personnel to US to train in latest cybersecurity technology and artificial intelligence (AI) for future warfare.
According to South Block officials, the US, under the 2016 Cyber Framework and defence cooperation agreement, has offered to train up to 100 military personnel in Silicon Valley to give them first-hand experience on how to counter cyber warfare and AI role in future defence and warfare.
While India military has a tri-service defence cyber agency under the integrated headquarters, the government is in favour of setting up of a proper cyber command in the hinterlands of Madhya Pradesh to give the fighting edge to the proposed theatre commands. The proposed cyber command will marry the individual capabilities of all the three services to protect the military from being vulnerable to cyber-attacks from India’s adversaries.
The charter of the command will be also to ensure that Indian military communications are secure and systems are not contaminated with any malware by adversaries in the forward formations like the sensitive Siliguri Corps, Tezpur Corps and the Northern Command including the Ladakh Corps facing Tibet. The Siliguri Corps facing Chumbi Valley has in the past decade seen cyber attacks through malware for not only corrupting the software but also leakage of sensitive documentation to the adversary.
With AI, cyber warfare, armed drones and standalone weapon systems now being part of warfare, the cyber military command will have to dump the World War II concepts of strike and defending corps and prepare for a future where war shifts seamlessly from missile to cyberattacks. The cybersecurity is being taken seriously by national security planners as Chinese PLA and the Ministry of State Security have high end capability to target the adversary through new age weapons.