As NATO races to supply Ukraine before Trump takes office, Europe is struggling to touch two percent of its GDP on defence expenditure while Russia plans to spend more than 32 percent of its national budget on its military.
Germany stopped selling weapons to Saudi Arabia over the war on Yemen’s Houthi militia. It has now started selling weapons to Saudi Arabia again, to intercept missile attacks from the same Houthis aimed at Israel.
Israel has two objectives: dismantling of the Hamas regime in Gaza and safe recovery of the hostages abducted on Saturday. Israel will have to prioritise between the two because it is doubtful if both objectives can be pursued and achieved at the same time.
With the selection of the Rafale Marine by the Indian Navy, here’s a look at how it happened, and the challenges and consequences ahead.
The acquisition of the S-400, differing points of view on the war in Ukraine, eye-watering costs, a domestic 5th gen fighter program and never having operated any U.S. fighter aircraft are some of the reasons why India can’t and shouldn’t consider the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter.
The Shangri-La Dialogue 2022 comes on the heels of an eventful visit by India’s defence minister to Vietnam, speaking far more eloquently about India’s intentions in the region than a speech at conference could manage.
![First ever ski-jump take-off of U.S. Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet [VX-23 SD213 E/A-18E] by Michael "Sting" Wallace on August 13, 2020 at NAS Patuxent River, MD | USN Photos by Erik Hildebrandt](https://i0.wp.com/stratpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/200813-N-UZ648-019-copy.jpg?fit=150%2C87&ssl=1)
The U.S. Navy and Boeing made presentations to the Indian Navy on December 18th explaining how the trials proved F/A-18 Super Hornet could operate from Indian STOBAR carriers.
Nine missiles have been tested since September, an unusually high number. In addition, the defence ministry is playing up something that bothers China — the creation of extensive border infrastructure.
As China menaces India’s access to the Karakoram Pass, Sujan Dutta explains that Delhi needs to defend its ground or end up papering over the changed reality.
Saab’s Mats Palmberg gives the details about their INAC/Indian Aircraft Company proposal that is part of their offer of the Gripen to India.
Brigadier Rajiv Williams (retired) explains the problems with the recently floated idea of a three-year Tour of Duty in the army and recommends, instead, a greater focus on increasing the flexibility and attractiveness of existing entry channels into the Indian Army.
The IAF’s new contest for fighter aircraft is expected to get underway over the next few months. But there remain a number of significant outstanding problems ahead, that could delay or derail the process.
Part III of this analysis examines the implications of the single most interesting data point to emerge from the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India. This date has never been mentioned in earlier media reports, and what is almost startlingly significant is not only what transpired on this date, but the fact of the date, itself.
Part II of this analysis examines how the defence ministry’s Contract Negotiation Committee (CNC) interpreted an inflated cost analysis of the Eurofighter bid and undervalued the cost of the Rafale bid, five times.
Part I of this three-part analysis is a contextual reading of the February 2019 CAG report and outlines how the IAF’s MMRCA contest was fixed to get the Rafale back into the contest after it was rejected, three times, and how the threats to a Rafale win were removed.
