Experts Speak
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April 8, 2023
The Global Reset
By Major General Atanu K Pattanaik (Retd)The world is currently witnessing a great churn in geostrategic alliances resulting in a global realignment of security relations and partnerships.
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April 1, 2023
The Dragon-Bear Hug
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Meeting President Putin at the Kremlin, President Xi emphasised the China-Russia relationship reaching where it is today
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April 1, 2023
More Teeth for Army, Navy, Air Force
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The Chinese aggression during 2020 in Eastern Ladakh has caused the government to sit up and focus on defence, as well as 'Atmanirbhar' or the self-reliance initiative
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April 1, 2023
Stealth Technology for Mechanised Forces
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The objective of camouflage in mechanised columns is to disrupt the characteristic shape of the vehicle, to reduce shine, and to make the vehicle difficult to identify even if it is spotted
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April 1, 2023
Swarm of Swarms
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)China could employ drones in thousands or lakhs against our frontline troops at chosen points along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in conjunction with attacks by bigger drones, which could also be in swarms
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March 15, 2023
India-Italy Defence Cooperation
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)This was Italian Prime Minister Meloni's first visit to India during which she was accompanied by Italy's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani and a high-powered business delegation
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March 15, 2023
Indigenous ATGMs
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Indian Army requirements of fire-and-forget man-portable ATGMs would be colossal
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March 15, 2023
Man behind the Machine
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The problems in achieving effective soldier-machine mix are both technical and psychological in nature, especially when dealing with adaptive machines intelligence systems
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March 15, 2023
Army's Offensive Drone Swarm
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Indian Army has ordered offensive swarming drone systems under the emergency procurement (EP) powers and eventually aims at offensive swarm drone capability of 1,000 drones
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March 3, 2023
Stoking Khalistan
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Khalistan resurgence is being supported from abroad by countries like the US, the UK and Canada. Hindu temples in the UK, Canada and Australia are being defaced and vandalised to create Hindu-Sikh divide.
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March 3, 2023
Very Short-Range Air Defence
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)According to the Ministry of Defence, recent developments along the Northern borders requires a focus on effective Air Defence weapon systems which are man portable and can be deployed quickly
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March 3, 2023
Modular Bridges
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The indigenously-designed and manufactured modular bridges shall have many advantages over the MGB such as increased span, less time for construction and mechanical launching with retrieval capability
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February 23, 2023
A Year into the Ukraine War
By Major General Atanu K Pattanaik (Retd)The narrative about the war in Ukraine is hugely lopsided with the US led west deploying every imaginable form of propaganda, information, disinformation and misinformation
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February 17, 2023
Lebanisation of Pakistan
By Major General Atanu K Pattanaik (Retd)Lebanon's post-war era militia leaders became the political leadership and have kept a lock on power ever since. The country remains a nation without an effective governing dispensation. Pakistan seems to be going the same way!
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February 14, 2023
Spy Balloons
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The US has accused China of violating its airspace while Beijing has accused America of violating international norms by shooting down the balloon
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February 14, 2023
Export with Care
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)We need to be careful about which countries we are exporting indigenous equipment to and have sufficient safeguards in place to ensure the technology is not passed on to our adversaries
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February 14, 2023
Stealth Vehicles
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mandi is working on developing materials that can be used for developing ‘stealth’ vehicles. The materials being developed can reportedly absorb more than 96 per cent of radar waves in a wide range of frequencies, coming simultaneously from multiple directions.
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February 14, 2023
Private Industry Innovations
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying “It is our collective aim to establish India as one of the key partners in global semiconductor supply chains” has increased India’s focus on producing semiconductors
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February 14, 2023
Indigenous Tapas-BH & Archer-NG Drones
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Induction of these indigenous drones will give a tremendous boost to the combat potential of our Armed Forces. These would fall much cheaper and cut drone import costs drastically.
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February 10, 2023
A Turkish Tragedy
By Major General Atanu K Pattanaik (Retd)Death toll from the earthquake is expected to be very high as thousands of houses and aparment blocks have been reduced to rubble
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February 3, 2023
Republic Day Parade and Atmanirbhar Bharat
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Building on the 75th year of Independence celebrated as 'Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav', the Republic Day parade depicted India's growing indigenous capabilities, Nari Shakti and emergence of a 'New India'.
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February 3, 2023
Cutting Army Flab
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Reports are that Army has been asked to reduce its strength by about 1.5-2 Lakh. How much Army manpower should be slashed and what constitutes “flab”?
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February 3, 2023
New-Age Drones, Jet Packs and Robotic Mules
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The Army is seeking the above technologies in line with the need to modernise and upgrade its combat capabilities
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February 3, 2023
Western Tanks in Ukraine
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The supply of these modern tanks indicates direct involvement of US-NATO in the war
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February 3, 2023
Humans in Space and Western Fear of China
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg said that Ukraine needs NATO's continued support, because if President Putin wins, the message to Beijing will be that they can achieve what they want with the use of brute force
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February 2, 2023
Defence Budget 2023-2024
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The Defence Budget 2023-2024 is 5.94 lakh crore, an increase of about 12.5 per cent over last year
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January 15, 2023
WMD Terrorism
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)A shipment containing “several kilogrammes” of Uranium was seized at UK's Heathrow Airport, the package originated in Pakistan before landing at Heathrow's Terminal Four
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January 15, 2023
GSP 2022 – Military Ignored
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Geospatial Policy (GSP) 2022 is good for promoting digital economy, private industry, innovations, blue economy, integrating multiple agencies dealing with geospatial data, innovation and the like but the requirements of national security and of the Armed Forces have been totally ignored
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January 15, 2023
Analysing Rajouri Killings
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The twin terror attacks by terrorists, suspected to belong to the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), in Dangri hamlet of Rajouri in Jammu & Kashmir, left seven people of the minority community, including two children, dead and 14 others injured
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January 15, 2023
Ending Maoist Insurgency
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)There are no quick fix solutions in counter-insurgency, it requires a mix of hard and soft options to tackle both the hard core and eliminate the root cause
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January 15, 2023
Missile Systems Procurement
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)All the proposals for procurement of missile systems are under the Buy (Indian-IDDM) category
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January 2, 2023
The Catch 22 in Ukraine's Elusive Peace
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The US has always used war to benefit economically. Peace is unlikely in Ukraine with Zelenskyy dancing to the tune of the Biden Administration.
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January 2, 2023
Pralay Induction
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The system meets the tactical ballistic missile requirements filling the gap of a conventionally armed ballistic missile that is not hampered by the 'No First Use' nuclear policy
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January 2, 2023
End Connectivity of Border Roads
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Without proper and reliable road/track connectivity right up to our frontline posts, we will remain at serious disadvantage at the tactical level
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January 2, 2023
The Downside of SPARSH
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)SPARSH has become the bane of ex-servicemen and veer naris, especially those who are not computer savvy and living in remote areas
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December 26, 2022
China in Southern Nepal
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)China has managed to install Prachanda as the third time Prime Minister of Nepal by some deft maneuverings behind the scenes. This is bad news for India.
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December 23, 2022
2022: A Tumultuous Year
By Major General Atanu K Pattanaik (Retd)As 2022 draws to a close, here is a snapshot of the year gone by and the changed geopolitical world that it leaves behind
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December 14, 2022
Egyptian President at Republic Day Parade 2023
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)India and Egypt share close political understanding based on long history of contacts and cooperation on bilateral, regional and global issues. Both countries were the founding members of the Non Allied Movement (NAM) and have co-operated on multilateral forums.
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December 14, 2022
Tawang Clash-Prelude to Conflict?
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The clash happened during a regular border patrol when Chinese troops were intercepted by their Indian counterparts
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December 14, 2022
Coming – Zorawar Tanks
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The proposal is that 59 of the 354 light tanks will be reserved for the tanks developed by the DRDO and the remaining 295 tanks will be manufactured under the 'Make-1' category of the Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP)
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December 2, 2022
Weaponisation of Winter
By Major General Atanu K Pattanaik (Retd)Russian missile and drone attacks on energy and other infrastructure means that large parts of Ukraine people are now living without light, water, or heating. This is becoming increasingly unbearable as the country begins to face temperatures below freezing.
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December 1, 2022
Zero Covid and Maverick Xi Jinping
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)There has been some relaxation in the Covid restrictions but taking these as the weakness of the CCP or of Xi would be wrong
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December 1, 2022
3D Printed Defence Works
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The Indian Army is perhaps the first one to create permanent defences using 3D technology and has conducted successful trials
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December 1, 2022
Turkey-Pakistan Defence Cooperation
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Turkey-Pakistan defence cooperation is getting stronger. During the recent two-day visit of Pakistan Prime Minister to Turkey, Sharif and Erdogan jointly inaugurated a corvette warship PNS 'Khyber' built by Turkey for the Pakistan Navy under a strategic cooperation project between the two countries
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December 1, 2022
TTP Sheds Gloves
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Pakistan has been facing a serious security situation in its border provinces adjoining Afghanistan because the 'Durand Line' was never accepted by the Afghans. The situation has been aggravated because of the border fencing by Pakistan, which is not acceptable to the Afghan Taliban and the TTP.
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November 18, 2022
Ukraine conflict and Paralysed Global politics
By Lt. General J.K. Sharma (Retd)The G-20 summit offered a snapshot of a somewhat paralysed international system, ill-equipped to mobilise around solving major shared challenges
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November 15, 2022
No cold war; Tensions may still flare
By Lt. General J.K. Sharma (Retd)The meeting between President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the G20 summit may cool temperatures for now. But while Washington and Beijing can try to put guardrails on their relationship, sensitivities over Taiwan are high and the risk for misunderstanding acute.
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November 14, 2022
Pakistan – No Postmortem
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The attempted assassination of Imran Khan followed by nationwide protests by the PTI has thrown Pakistan into more chaos. The economic situation remains grim, to which political turmoil is now added. On top is the internal security situation because of increasing attacks by the Baloch separatists and the large number of heavily armed cadres of TTP streaming into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
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November 14, 2022
Canistered Loitering Munitions for Army
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The Canister Launched Anti-Armour Loiter Ammunition (CALM) System is known as a drone that once fired can remain airborne for a period of time and after the target is sighted it can be guided to destroy the target with an explosive payload
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November 14, 2022
New Interceptor Missile for BMD
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)On November 2, 2022, India successfully tested its new interceptor missile for Phase-II of its indigenous BMD system, which is capable of intercepting incoming long-range nuclear missiles as well as slow-moving aircraft
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November 14, 2022
CPEC extension into Afghanistan
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Beijing has Pakistan in its pocket and good relations with the Afghan Taliban to whom it has promised help to rebuild Afghanistan. However, Chinese workers remain under threat in Pakistan, so what will happen in Afghanistan when the CPEC is extended to that country.
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November 14, 2022
India-Armenia Defence Relations
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Taking into account the ancient ties with Armenia and its ongoing conflict with an aggressive Azerbaijan supported by Turkey and Pakistan, India would do well to meet all defence requirements of Armenia as requested by them.
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October 31, 2022
China Decries Exercise 'Yudh Abhyas'
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)China is opposing it by saying it is an interference in the bilateral boundary issue and a violation of agreements between New Delhi and Beijing that no military drill will be held near the Line of Actual Control
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October 31, 2022
ARBEL AI-based Firing System
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Indian policy makers and the military have acknowledged AI as a key component of national security strategy and are focused on AI-based research
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October 31, 2022
India-UK Defence Relations – The Sunak Factor
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)With signing of the FTA on the anvil, two-way trade between India and the UK should flourish under Sunak's premiership. India-UK collaboration in defence trade is being supported by a new export licensing arrangement intended for shortening delivery times for defence procurement.
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October 31, 2022
Army Seeks Large Drone Induction
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The Army is seeking 1,000s of surveillance copters to be operated in the Himalayas and provide a live feed to the battle commanders. All these UAVs and RPAVs will be sourced from Indian companies.
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October 15, 2022
SMASH Anti-Drone Weapon Sight
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The SMASH 2000L/3000 is the lightest handheld operated fire control system using artificial intelligence, computer vision, and advanced algorithms making it an ideal hard-kill solution against drones and small UAS
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October 15, 2022
Indigenous Armoured Vehicles
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The Kalyani M4 is a Quick Reaction Fighting Vehicle, indigenously developed and manufactured by Bharat Forge Ltd. It offers unprecedented levels of security and protection to the occupants in case of high Kinetic Energy threats, like severe mine blasts and grenade attacks
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October 3, 2022
Priorities for the newly appointed CDS
By Lt. General Abhay Krishna (Retd)The Nation eagerly looks at General Anil Chauhan, the new CDS, for successfully taking forward the initiatives taken up by the Late General Bipin Rawat
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October 1, 2022
China's FH-901 and Russia's new EW System
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The increasing importance of unmanned platforms, loitering munitions and electronic warfare is more that apparent in the Ukraine conflict. India will need to build these capabilities speedily to cope with and win future conflicts.
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October 1, 2022
Indigenous Loitering Munitions
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Loitering munitions have revolutionised the battlefield in recent years and more of these can be expected to fill up the airspace in future
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September 24, 2022
Lawlessness in a Unipolar World
By Major General Atanu K Pattanaik (Retd)There is worrisome compromise of international institutions, agreements, treaties and arrangements that do not serve the domestic agenda of the US
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September 14, 2022
Army Chief Visits Nepal
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)General Manoj Pande's visit to Nepal was largely ceremonial though it did provide an opportunity to review bilateral defence relations and explore new avenues of cooperation
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September 14, 2022
CWG 2022 and ASI, Pune
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Medal winners from the Army have bagged 4 gold, 1 silver and 3 bronze medal in CWG 2022, which is a commendable feat considering that there were only 18 participants from the Army
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September 14, 2022
PP-15 Disengagement is No Loss to China
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Chinese side has pulled back northeast of PP-17A while the Indian troops have pulled back to PP-17. In between is the no-patrol zone which means that India troops can no more patrol up to PP-15 which was our forward PP in this sector.
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September 1, 2022
Taliban at Loggerheads with Pakistan
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Thousands of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) cadres are undergoing rigorous combat training and also undergoing sea training for naval combat in order to take on the Pakistani Navy. Pakistan-TTP war may break out in the near future and this time Pakistan will likely experience much more instability and violence than before.
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September 1, 2022
Indigenous Light Tank – Zorawar
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)DRDO is working on a Light Tank named 'Zorawar', fitted with High Altitude Operable Power pack (Engine + Transmission) of 1,000hp and capable of firing multiple ammunition to meet the Army's requirement of light tanks
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September 1, 2022
Western Regulars in Ukraine
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)It has become clear that the US and NATO are not only waging a proxy war but also a high-risk secret war against Russia in Ukraine. CIA, MI-6 operatives and Western Special Forces in the garb of mercenaries and civilians continue to operate inside Ukraine.
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September 1, 2022
Loitering Munitions
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Loitering munitions are in a category of their own. They are more akin to a smart missile. Once airborne, the system is designed to “loiter” for an extended time. Loitering munitions are one-time-use weapons designed to find a target and crash into it, “kamikaze” style.
