India should not hesitate to use Air Force assets against the Maoists.
Former Air Chief S. Krishnaswamy dispels the notion that IAF cannot be trusted to be employed in the this war against the Maoists [LT: Kat].
First, it is the government’s prerogative to use the military in any manner towards a purpose which obviously would be [...]
The corrupt behaviour of IAF top brass (and their wives) is ignominious, inexplicable and demeaning to junior comrades.
The spirit of the organisation is created from the top. ~Peter Drucker
The Times Of India flags an observation contained in the CAG report — a misconduct by the military brass that has been regularly pointed out [...]
A pointer towards solving officer shortages in the Indian armed forces.
Malcolm Gladwell in the New Yorker:
Social scientists distinguish between what are known as treatment effects and selection effects. The Marine Corps, for instance, is largely a treatment-effect institution. It doesn’t have an enormous admissions office grading applicants along four separate dimensions of toughness and intelligence. [...]
There are no easy answers. The issue perhaps needs to be openly debated in the civil society.
An Indian Air Force NCO had challenged the IAF order of 2003 not allowing Muslims serving in the IAF to keep beards. Prior to that, Muslims serving in the IAF could do it with the sanction of a senior [...]
…that afflicts the Indian defence services.
Decisions without Actions are Pointless. Actions without Decisions are Reckless. ~Colonel John Boyd
Harsh Pant had hinted about the dissonance between the Indian strategic aims, military doctrine and the need for acquiring modern military hardware. Now former Navy Chief, Admiral Arun Prakash, while absolving his own service of any such mistakes, [...]
…and strengthens the case for reforming the Indian armed forces.
First it was the Army Welfare Housing Organisation [AWHO], which the army conveniently declared as a private body outside the ambit of the RTI. The next in line was Army Welfare Education Society [AWES], which met the same fate. Now comes the real big one — [...]
…to these innumerable stories on Lieutenant Colonel Purohit and Malegaon blasts in the media.
Truth is the best propaganda and lies are the worst. To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; to be credible we must be truthful. It is as simple as that. ~Edward R. Murrow
The Malegaon blasts, [...]
…raise some serious questions for India (and the US).
The Chinese economic juggernaut in the last decade has been driven by a burgeoning manufacturing sector, questions about quality-control and copying overseas technology notwithstanding. If the displays at the Zhuhai airshow 2008 are an indicator, Beijing is trying to expand its manufacturing reach to cover the military [...]
…and loses his job for rewriting World War-2 history.
Resurgent Japanese nationalism has been cited as the reason behind the strained relations between Japan and its Asian neighbours, China and Korea. The nationalist Japanese view suggests that Japan entered the conflict to free Asian countries from Western colonialism. That might have not been the reason for [...]
…is deceitful and designed to hide uncomfortable facts.
The directive issued by the Parliamentary Committee on Defence to stop the use of professional soldiers as personal sahayaks to army officers has taken the limelight away from another pressing issue raised by the Committee in its report on Stress Management in the Armed Forces. In Part-II of [...]
…in the Indian Army, says the Parliamentary Defence Committee.
From the recommendations contained in the 31st Report (pdf) of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence–
The Committee understand that the practice of utilizing services of Jawans as Sahayaks is prevalent in the Army in one form or other since British days. It is learnt that numerous Jawans [...]
While President Zardari is seeking bundles of Chinese cash to tide over Pakistan’s grave economic crisis, the Bush administration is trying its level best to finance the furnishing of ageing F-16 aircrafts.
The US government has already accepted Pakistan’s request to upgrade the aircraft, equipping them with modern technology and weapon systems to make them compatible [...]
The biggest hue and cry about the induction and role of women officers in the military was with the statement of the then Army Vice Chief a couple of years back- “We can do without them”. It ended with an unconditional apology from the General. The defence minister’s subsequent promise to the Parliament is going [...]
The contest for ages has been to rescue liberty from the grasp of executive power. ~Daniel Webster
A new book by Bill Murphy, In a Time of War: The Proud and Perilous Journey of West Point’s Class of 2002, recounts how life changed for him and his classmates at the US Military Academy at West Point [...]
Earlier post on the subject: Army Act – a sad remnant from 1857
10. The Armed Force personnel of the three services are subject to the Indian Army Act, 1950, Indian Air Force Act, 1950 and the Navy Act, 1957. In this connection several submissions have been received that the Acts suffer from inherent defects and [...]
Previous post on the subject – God only knows!
The TOI reports that-
Rattled by the stand of the armed forces that implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission for them be “withheld” till their parity with civilian and paramilitary counterparts is restored, the government has promised to look into the issue on “a fast-track basis”.
The more interesting [...]
Wow! The battle for more from the SCPC for the services is again being fought by the mainstream media. There is a report in the TOI, one at NDTV and there is also a front page story in the Indian Express. A look at the headlines for each of these stories:
TOI — Pay panel report: [...]
When push comes to shove, culture eats strategy for lunch. ~Jack Walsh
Previous post on the subject — Retaining officers, IAF style.
In response to the previous post, this blogger recieved an email from a friend. Some extracts:
…everyone loves to talk about the pilots, but what about the “bonded labour” situation being faced by engineers and other [...]
The number of officers seeking premature retirement also adds to the shortage of officers in the IAF. According to the highly placed sources in the IAF, more than 160 officers are annually permitted to opt for early retirement.
“The number of officers leaving the IAF prematurely has reached the levels it was around six years ago. [...]
The French Association for Military Rights (Adefdromil) website has a report of May this year. The report states that nearly 100 spouses of French military persons stationed in Djibouti held public protests on 26 May 2008 outside the French military headquarters there–
…in order to show their discontent against the incessant decline in overseas residence allowance, [...]
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