July 2021 – Air Marshal's Perspective

July 31, 2021September 27, 2021

Hypersonic China

Pic: Courtesy Sandboxx US

Introduction

Hypersonic projectiles and platforms are emerging as a highly valued weapon system for militaries world over, due to their unique combination of attributes. The characteristics of hypersonic missiles include sustained high speed (five times the speed of sound), increased manoeuvrability, and High altitude trajectory (in upper atmosphere – higher than cruise missiles but lower than the apogee of ballistic missiles). These attributes make them difficult to be intercepted by the existing missile defence systems.

As in the space race and other high-technology fields, China has made a major effort to match Russian and U.S. capabilities. PRC research into the military potential of hypersonic technologies used to lag far behind that of Russia and the United States. But during the past decade, China has invested heavily in new hypersonic research, development, test, and evaluation programs and facilities, and now her research may have surpassed that of the U.S. in some regards.

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July 26, 2021September 27, 2021

AIRPOWER IN GREY ZONE: My Article in USI Journal

The Grey Zone is characterised by intense political, economic, informational, and military competition more fervent in nature than normal steady-state diplomacy, yet short of conventional war. It is hardly new, however. The cold war was a 45-year-long grey zone struggle in which the west succeeded in checking the spread of communism and ultimately witnessed the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

– Unconventional Warfare in the Grey Zone

Joint Force Quarterly (1st Quarter, Jan 2016)

Introduction

Earlier days states or nations used to resort to open armed conflicts by declaring war, with the aim of achieving an objective through the use of force. Recent trends indicate that national political objectives are increasingly being achieved without official declaration of war. There are multifarious forms of state sponsored activities that are being carried out in the metaphorical zone between war and peace. These grey zone activities have become a norm in the recent years.

The grey zone warfare is best defined as an aggressor engaging in actions that circumvent traditional norms and laws of war, in the pursuit of political strategic objectives. The grey zone conflict operations are unclear and ambiguous in character, and are orchestrated in such a way that the threshold is maintained below that of conventional war. These conflicts are carried out in any of the multiple domains, using variety of means as a weapon.

Air power besides offensive use, can also be effectively utilised in many ways, in non-conventional hostile situations categorised above. Various aspects of grey zone operations need to be deliberated from the point of view of airpower involvement. Certain amount of reorientation would be required in application of airpower in these grey zone situations supported by capability enhancement in certain fields.

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July 24, 2021August 3, 2021

POT POURRI – 2

All in a Day’s Thoughts

Those Close air combat days with gun tactics.

I miss those wild air combat sorties – throwing the aircraft around.

Puzzle solving: SUDOKU

Interesting one called KROPI

Rules: All pairs of touching squares which contain consecutive values (such as 2 & 3 or 6 & 7) are marked with a white circle. Also, all pairs of touching squares which contain values where one number is exactly twice the value of the other (such as 2 & 4, or 4 & 8) are marked with a black circle.

Read an article in The Telegraph about migrant workers.

“URBAN NOMADS”

Is the term that came to the mind.

India & Russia Plan to Extended Range of Brahmos Missile

India and Russia plan to collaborate on improving the strike range of the Brahmos missile. The upgraded Brahmos will have a range of 800 kilometers (497 miles) compared to the present 280 kilometers (155 miles). The improved version of the Indo-Russian supersonic missile will also have a lot of new features.

The Brahmos is developed and produced by BrahMos Aerospace, a joint venture between India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Russia’s Mashinostroyenia.

At Mach 2.8, the Brahmos is the world’s fastest cruise missile.

Its land and ship-based versions carry a payload of up to 200 kilograms (441 pounds), while the air version can carry a warhead of up to 300 kilograms (661 pounds).