National Security and Strategic Studies
Defence
Changing Contours of Drone Warfare – Dawn of a New Reality

Introduction

Military drones have become an indispensable tool in modern warfare, and stand poised to shape the contours of all future wars. Use of drones in warfare is not new, they were used in Vietnam, in the Kosovo war, Afghanistan...

Red Sea Crisis and India’s Options

Introduction

Since mid-November 2023, the maritime security in the Gulf of Aden, the Red Sea and the larger Western Indian Ocean has been gravely upended due to the repeated attacks on merchant shipping by the Yemen-based Houthi rebels....

Contemporary Land-Centric Operational Environment: Need for Dynamism and Adaptability

It was half a decade ago, when the ‘strategic community’ commonly opined that conventional wars were passe, and if and when future wars did occur, they would ‘likely to be ambiguous, uncertain, short, swift, lethal, intense, precise, non-linear,...

The Magic of MANPADS- Making Sense of Indo-Russian Deal

The Driver

On 14 Nov 2023, the Russian media announced inking an arms deal with India which was a little different from the usual defence procurement cases. This deal is anchored on two provisions; the Supply of Igla S Man Portable Air...

Deterrence Exists, though Slender is the Thread!

This is an era of confused geopolitics. There were on horizon a transformation of West Asia, with Abrahams Accord, I2U2, Saudi-Iran thaw, IMEC; and then suddenly the fiercest of wars between Israel-Hamas with its other fallouts. The geopolitics...

Role of Defence Diplomacy in Shaping Favourable Strategic Neighbourhood

(The following is a summary of the talk given by the Director VIF at National Defence College, New Delhi on 04 Sep 2023)

  • Defence diplomacy plays a powerful role in shaping strategic environment. Military engagement, defence...

India and the Semiconductors’ Scenario

Abstract

These are exciting times. The world is in a scramble, trying to secure the ‘CHIP’ for itself. CHIP- that tiny wafer which controls all – from satellites to aircrafts, from weapons to telecommunications, from computers to...

What Goes Around Comes Around - Changing Contours of Air and Air Defence War in Ukraine

Abstract

The old cliché, ‘what goes around comes around’ best describes the changing contours of the air and air defence war as it unfolds in Ukraine and is now spilling into Russia. This work examines how this part of the conflict...

Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) in the Indo-Pacific and the Way Ahead for Indo-Pacific Partnership for MDA (IPMDA)

Introduction

Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) signifies a need for situational awareness at sea, which necessitates being cognisant of the position and intentions of all maritime actors in all dimensions - on, over and under the seas....

Drone Threat is Real: India Needs a Comprehensive Counter Drone Strategy

The Drone Threat

Unmanned vehicles, referred to as drones in this paper for ease, are unquestionably useful, but the problem is that this is true even for bad guys. The million-dollar question in the billion-dollar unmanned industry is...

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