My Experiences

  Army insignias are used to denote the rank of the soldier and an officer. A soldier commands respect and authority both within army and outside among civilians as per their rank. The hierarchy within Army is depicted beautifully with gradual addition of the three basic insignias used in the Army. These are: 1.     Baton & Sword: It exemplifies the warrior and the leader for the soldier wearing it. Their skill in using the weapon and ability to perform their duty as part of the fighting unit is signified with this insignia. 2.     Star: This is used for JCOs today to signify the achievement of showing the proficiency in using weapons and merit achieved in officer training. It signifies leadership ability too and ability to inspire others. 3.     Ashoka emblem: This is the seal of the Government of India. It signifies the authority and leadership ability.      Below figure shows the arrangement of the above three insignias for the officers in the Indian army. We can see t

Both Navy and Indian Air Force are going to need a fighter jet to secure our skies both near land borders and maritime coast. This can be the  main peace time  workhorse to guard Indian skies.   Navy calls its version Twin Engine Deck Based Fighter (TEDBF) , while Air Force can call it as Medium Weight Fighter (MWF) or Omni Role Combat Aircraft (ORCA). Here, the need is to make a fighter using the existing research on Tejas Mk2 and AMCA. We are reaching the goal of making our own Multi-role fighter with Tejas Mk 2. At present it has been designed to be a single engine jet with General Electric F414-GE-INS6 turbofan, 58.5 kN thrust dry, 98 kN with afterburner. The present expected weight of Tejas Mk2 is as follows: 1. Gross Weight: 11,300 kg 2. Max Take Off Weight: 17,500 kg. That means payload capacity is 6,200 kg. But, Tejas Mk2 being a single engine fighter cannot be used by Navy as Twin Engine Deck Based Fighter. Similarly, Air Force cannot make Mk 2 in large numbers based on impor

Jointness at the top is a need that is long overdue. But Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) is just the beginning. At present there are 19 total commands in Indian Defence Forces including the two tri-services commands as below: 1. Strategic forces  2. Andaman & Nicobar Rest of the India and military is handled by the Army, Air Force and Navy operating as separate entities and the operations are executed independent of each other, at least in peace time. Normally there are three broad situations in which the military operates: 1.  Peace  - One can at least dream about it. 2.  Constant warfare  - Small scale conflicts and skirmishes as in the present situation of 2020. 3.  Full scale war  - Law of averages making it more and more possible.   Indian history started with full scale war with Pakistan, followed by brief peace, more wars and now constant warfare situation with both China and Pakistan. This has made creating and optimizing the theater commands a necessity as logistics becomes d

Till now Pinaka has been considered as attack weapon for blitzkrieg attack on surface to surface, but land based targets. But with Pinaka II and later having satellite based navigation available their accuracy can be increased. The CEP (Circular Error Probability) can be decreased to such an extant that individual targets can be hit effectively. This makes them ideal to use not only on land but to attack high value targets on sea. For 1000+ islands of India and 7000 km maritime border, we need an indigenous coastal defense system. This need has been fulfilled till now with imported systems like Russian Bal coastal defense system. This uses missiles like  Kh-35E to attack sea targets like enemy ships at a range of more than 100 km. With above facts in mind, Pinaka can be customized to hit enemy ships near Indian shores from Western and Eastern Ghats. The relatively higher ground will give ideal view to defend coastline from enemy sea based attacks. The large areas can be brought under

Indian Armed Forces are undergoing rapid modernization with latest indigenous and imported weapons and defense equipment. One of the most basic role played in protecting the soldier and increasing the offensive capability is the uniform worn by him or her. We have seen a variety of combat uniforms being used by various units of our military and para-military forces. Our soldiers are wearing a diverse set of uniforms, sometimes with no or conflicting camouflage on hats/bulletproof jackets. This defeats the purpose of camouflage. Another basic purpose of a soldier's uniform is to distinguish friend from foe. With possibility of conventional wars with Pakistan or China, we need to keep using uniforms which are quite distinct from those of these two military forces.  Indian army uniform is a disruptive pattern uniform and is called  Jungle Dress . Most of the armies of the world have already faced the disruptive pattern off. China has new starry sky uniforms of 5 different colours. The

Pinaka is India's fully indigenous multi barrel rocket launcher (MBRL) or multi launch  rocket   system (MLRS). At present a single Pinaka battery can neutralize an area of 1 sq km at a range of 40-100 km depending upon the version of Pinaka. A Pinaka battery, presently is made up of 2 command posts, 6 rocket launchers and a DIGICORA MET radar. The rocket launchers are mounted on 6 different BEML trucks, with each carrying 12 Pinaka rockets. Also loading vehicles are provided for each launcher. The whole battery can fire a single salvo in 44 seconds. So it can protect a boundary of 1 km and destroy the enemy behind it.  Now a regiment of Pinaka consists of 3 such batteries so in total 6 command posts are part of it. This is an overkill as the ratio of launchers to command posts is just (6*3)/6 = 3. This is not a productive usage of our radar equipment. This means a regiment can attack just 3 km of boundary of enemy with a depth of 1 km of enemy resources. Recently an order of Rs 5,