Jayeeta Basu, The editor of The Sunday Guardian and I had a discussion on the Indian Ocean Region. The strategies of China vis a vis USA and India in the IOR were focussed upon.
The Pakistani FM to BBC: War would be suicidal. Pakistan has already started negotiating with a gun to its head! Welcome home Wing Commander Abhinanadan. Well done. You flew into the Valley of Death and survived. India is proud. Sincere condolences to Air Marshal Waseem Ud Din on the loss of his son Shahaz Ud Din under most unfortunate circumstances. He was incredibly brave to continue his mission when others had turned around. Paradigm Emerged A lot has happened since Balakot. Some in focus some out. Some hyped. Some diffused. Time to sum up the situation and see where things are heading. Militarily it is called Review of the Situation. I will do it journalistically so that the intellectual western media understands it. They might or not buy our story. Incidentally it is not a story. It is not for sale. This is real live action. Nuclear exchange receding. Not ruled out. A fundamental paradigm has emerged. India’s fight is against terror. The D
"Indo-US Partnership" is a prospective marriage. The US is a high earning man and the bride is not beautiful. What’s in it for the US to marry and extend the vow of guaranteeing war against China if war were to erupt between India and China? India is expected to pay a huge dowry to the US in the form of non-purchase of Iranian and Russian oil forever. The purchase from alternative sources as far away as Nigeria no doubt adds billions of dollars per year to the oil import bill. It is a ceaseless demand for dowry and payments are required every year even after the wedding. By buying Russian oil over the last several months, India has missed a dowry payment. If not back into compliance with the payment schedule, India will be abandoned at the wedding hall. The wedding costs have already been paid for because India has not purchased Iranian oil since 2019. India will not get a refund.
ReplyDeleteLol, interesting way to put it. The solution is for the bride to be independent, i.e, genuine atmanirbhrtha as the good general repeatedly emphasizes. The groom is also a spendthrift and likely headed to personal bankruptcy in the not too far future. Best to treat this as a marriage of convenience :-) at best.
ReplyDeleteAtmanirbhrtha is a pipe dream because India doesn't have capable weapons scientists. The delays in the LCA project and retirement of MIG-21s prove the lack of competence.
ReplyDelete"The government launched the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) programme in 1983, to indigenously develop a new combat aircraft that would replace the MiG-21 variants.
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Unfortunately, even today, the LCA–which was later christened as the Tejas–is still powered by an American (General Electric) engine, an Israeli radar, and even has an imported electronics warfare suite.
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Accompanying the MiG-21’s life extension has been the Tejas’ agonisingly slow progress–it undertook its first flight in January 2001, Initial Operational Clearance (IOC) came a good decade later, and the final operational clearance (FOC) only in late 2018.
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The IAF is looking for at least 220 Tejas fighters in various configurations. But HAL is finding it impossible to produce even 16 to 18 Tejas per year.
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Two squadrons of LCAs at Air Force Station (AFS) Sulur (Coimbatore) have been plagued with serviceability issues. Even today, the Tejas variant flying in the two squadrons is yet to obtain a full FOC."
https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/the-mig-21-saga/article65764377.ece
It's not certain if the Mig-21s will be retired in 2025, could be extended to 2030. The cost of elusive Atmanirbhrtha is a lot of young dead pilots.
Hopefully you will be surprised within this decade. I suspect it will be unpleasant for you and pleasant for the rest of us.
DeleteI based my prediction for the decade on the Indian weapons development track record. DRDO, HAL, and domestic weapons factories have an absolutely disgraceful, bottom feeding record. Cost overruns, 20 year delays, performance failure, and faulty ammunition blowing up artillery and maiming gunners.
DeleteI think you prediction is based on prayer.
Look at the military development of any country. Their planes still crash and get delayed (heard of the F35 ?), gun barrels and ammo blows up , etc ... But, they soldier on till they get to the "good enough" point. China still isn't there, just take a look at their weaponry being shelved due to quality issues by even a vassal like Pakistan.
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