Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict: Implications for India
Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict in September-November 2020, was followed keenly by military strategists across the world. It was the firsttime a nation had been comprehensively defeated by the use of drone warfare. The changing nature of warfare and the use of disruptive emerging technologies to change the tide of battle was an issue of interest across the world. The employment of drones on the battlefield of Nagorno-Karabakh had been a game-changer for Azerbaijani forces which destroyed the Armenian air defence (AD) resources, mech columns, and arty guns. The low-cost option of employment of drones by Azerbaijan in non-contact yet highly kinetic warfare resulted in minimizing their own casualties and ensuring a crushing defeat for Armenia. As India embarks on the modernization of its Armed Forces in line with its growing stature on the world stage, there has to be a balance struck between the acquisition of conventional weapon platforms and the embracement of new emerging technologies in India’s strategicsecurity calculus. There is a need for the building of anti-access bubbles as deterrence which are difficult to penetrate and the use of technologies that provide leverage in this competitive space.
Centre For Land Warfare Studies (CLAWS), New Delhi, India
Copyright (c) 2021 Center For Land Warfare Studies (CLAWS), New Delhi, India
Non-Contact Warfare: Lessons from the US National Defence Strategy
The 2018 National Defence Strategy (NDS) unveiled by the Pentagon can be encapsulated in three words ‘compete, deter and win’. Keyquestions that arise are: What does it mean and how it gets manifested? NDS as the capstone document has been guiding the geopolitical discourse and global security developments. The Pentagon’s efforts to redraw its dominance strategy and course correct its two decades of distraction due to endless wars in Afghanistan and West Asia have already manifested in Sino-US relations. A decade of ‘pivot to Asia’ policy put in place by Obama’s administration gathered storm during Trump’s tenure. 2018 NDS declared China and Russia as strategic competitors. Washington’s assertion of widening the competitive space is based on the premise of seamlessly integrating the US “multiple elements of national power—diplomacy, information, economics, finance, intelligence, law enforcement, and military”. A closer examination of how the game gets played by the various national power elements under the new Biden administration will determine future policy directions against China and Russia. The lessons for India are ominous as it helps it to navigate the geo-strategic labyrinth.
CLAWS Journal; Vol. 14 No. 1 (2021): Summer 2021; 67-84
The Future of Artillery in 21st Century Warfare
The article visualises the future of Artillery in the 21st century. It brings out the requirement of Artillery in the nine conflicts till datein the 21st Century. It is observed that Artillery is required to perform three primary tasks: First, Surveillance and Target Acquisition; second, engagement of targets; and third, post-strike damage assessment. The future battlespace would be non-linear with the need for simultaneous engagement in the close, intermediate, and depth areas. Based on these aspects, one arrives at the future profile of Artillery and the equipment needed for the task. This results in the type of regiments and their equipment in the Indian context. The Surveillance and Target Acquisition (SATA) Regiments, Gun Regiments, Mortar Regiments, Rocket Regiments, and BrahMos supersonic Cruise Missile Regiments would compose the future set up of Artillery. In view of this, the paper will discuss, ammunition, the weapon of the Artillery; and the aspects of Precision Guided Munitions, Loitering Munitions as also the Long Range ammunition being developed by BAE System, and Lockheed Martin.
CLAWS Journal; Vol. 14 No. 1 (2021): Summer 2021; 51-66
Biological Warfare: An Emerging Threat of the Future
We are living in a geo-politically transforming world, forcing nations to persistently engage in cooperation, competition, cooperation, and even conflict. While the potential global threat and disastrous consequences of biological warfare were known to the domain and few security experts, this threat has come to the forefront and greater scrutiny ever since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The mind-boggling numbers of human fatalities and casualties, it's spiraling and continuing destructive potential (evolving mutations), along with consequences to the global economy and way of life has clearly illustrated that the biological threat can be even moredevastating than nuclear, because they can persist, propagate, and spread through a population globally. Unfortunately, the existing agreements/conventions specially the Biological Warfare Convention (BWC), signedand ratified almost universally (183 nations), is widely acknowledged, butlacks compliance monitoring and verification mechanisms- making it farfrom effective in controlling biological weapons (BW). In this perspective,the paper examines the emerging threat of biological warfare and theimplications it holds for the world at large and India in particular.
CLAWS Journal; Vol. 14 No. 1 (2021): Summer 2021; 30-50
The Design in China’s Actions and Behaviour: An Assessment
On its foundation in 1949, securing its strategic periphery and annexation of Tibet and Xinjiang was one of the primary goals of thePeople’s Republic of China (PRC). With the multiple aims of achieving economic, strategic, and political dominance, China has furtherenhanced its connectivity with Asia, Africa, and Eurasia by its Belt and Road initiative (BRI). Considering the rapidly changing geopolitics and economic challenges, the Chinese, as part of their long-term designs, have whipped up ‘nationalism’ by multiple means. The military interventions, assertiveness, and expansionism have been based on a design to serve its national interests—especially the economic, political, and strategic ones. The boundary dispute between India and China continues to remain unresolved, due to certain designs of the PRC. It is important to analyse the strategic significance of Eastern Ladakh, especially when additional security personnel has been inducted into the Gilgit Baltistan region by China as part of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).Despite the border management mechanisms and confidence-building measures (CBMs) in place and the periodic engagements at different levels, the PLA surprised the Indians by contacting and/or transgressing across the Line of Actual Control (LAC) on a wide front in Eastern Ladakh in May 2020. Thus, China’s designs call for India to improve its preparedness, and review its policy, pursue its goals and maintain peace and stability in the region.
CLAWS Journal; Vol. 14 No. 1 (2021): Summer 2021; 1-29
With 2021 marking the commencement of the third decade of the 21st century, the world has been in a state of flux defined by the rapidly changing security environment. With the envelope of geopolitical and geostrategic challenges continuously expanding in form and magnitude, it has broadened the context of national security. The changes in the geopolitical and the geostrategic contexts have also transformed the understanding of warfare. The nature, character, and form of warfare and war are constantly evolving. In this process, the use of ‘technology’ has been an integral factor in changing the nature of the conduct of warfare thus, further expanding the nature as well as the scope of the unwarranted risks.
CLAWS Journal; Vol. 14 No. 1 (2021): Summer 2021; v-vi
How India Manages Its National Security: by Arvind Gupta
Published by Penguin Random House, 2018ISBN 978-0670090686, pp. 410
Copyright (c) 2018 Centre For Land Warfare Studies (CLAWS), New Delhi, India
Steven I. Wilkinson explores how India has succeeded in keeping the military out of politics when so many other countries have failed. He uncovers the command and control strategies, the careful ethnic balancing, and the political, foreign policy, and strategic decisions that have made the army safe for Indian democracy. Published by Harvard University Press, 2015, pp. 304
Ours Not to Reason Why: with the IPKF in Sri Lanka: by Brigadier R.R. Palsokar (Retd.)
Publisher: Sunidhi Publishers, 2017Edition: 2ndISBN: 978-93-85262-16-6 / pp 260
Copyright (c) 2018 Centre For Land Warfare Studies (CLAWS), New Delhi, Indi
“Reflections on American Grand Strategy in Asia” By Ash Carter, October 2018
Ash Carter, an academic with considerable experience in the Pentagon as also United States (US) Secretary of Defence from February 2015 to January 2017, is a strategic thinker. This is evident from his treatise on “Reflections on American Grand Strategy in Asia”; which is easily one of the better essays on US President Barack Obama's rebalance' and what should be done for its implementation. It is logically presented and charts the course to be followed to fulfill the medium and long-term interests of the US.