Strategic Vanguard has moved to our new home

INS Viraat setting sail on her last voyage ( Image credits- Indian Navy)  INS Viraat hold a pride of place in the history of the Indian Navy. Joining the Indian fleet in 1987 as India's second aircraft carrier after her decommissioning as HMS Hermes from the Royal Navy, she played a critical part in the Indian Navy for over three decades. She was the flag ship of the Indian Navy until the mantle was passed on to INS Vikramaditya. INS Viraat was unique in many ways. She is the oldest serving Aircraft carrier in the world. She also has an illustrious carrier spanning well over five decades in active duty spanning from the Falklands war to the Indian Navy. As the Indian Navy prepares to decommission her in the later part of this year, an era will come to an end. As she is taken off the services, she also becomes the last carrier in the Indian Navy to have STOVL configuration which enabled her to deploy Sea Harrier jump jet. After her decommissioning, Indian navy i...

Image credits- VOA Source- The National Interest Author- East Asia Forum China’s reaction to the Permanent Court of Arbitration’s relatively harsh ruling against it on the South China Sea has been angry. The court upheld nearly all of the 15 points on which the Philippines approached the Court in 2013.China boycotted the proceedings, questioning the Court’s jurisdiction and publicly claiming historic rights to the South China Sea and its resources. The Court rejected this claim, concluding “there was no legal basis for China to claim historical rights to resources.” In the absence of China exercising its right of defence, the Court was left with little alternative than to give an ex-partè ruling based on United Nations Convention of the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS), to which both China and the Philippines, but not the US, are signatories. The Chinese Foreign Ministry in a defiant statement said “the award is invalid and has no binding force. China does not accept or r...

Brahmos Cruise Missile ( Image credits- Reuters / VOA) Source- The Diplomat Author- Saurav Jha Long among the world’s top importers of weapons, India now wants to turn its military related trade into a two-way affair by enhancing defense exports from its soil. This new emphasis on exporting military wares has yielded early results with Indian defense exports doubling over the course of the past year to about $330 million. India’s defense minister Manohar Parrikar, however, has set his sights higher and wants annual military exports to touch $2 billion in a couple of years. While the initial growth in sales has been driven by exports of military stores due to the removal of excessive controls, reaching Parrikar’s target would require Indian diplomacy to re-orient itself toward securing weapons contracts for major indigenously-developed systems under the aegis of the government’s “Strategy for Defense Exports” (SDE). SDE, which is overseen by the Department of Defense Prod...