Experts Speak
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August 3, 2018
Chief Guest Republic Day 2019 – Donald Trump?
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Going by media reports, US President Donald Trump has been invited by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to be the Chief Guest at the Republic Day Parade 2019.
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August 3, 2018
Weapon upgrades for Special Forces
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Weapons and equipment are in the pipeline for the Special Forces. According to a MoD official, "More attention is being paid to Special Forces after Para (Special Forces) conducted cross-border surgical strikes on terror launch pads in Pakistan Occupied-Kashmir (POK) in September 2016."
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August 3, 2018
DTTI and futuristic weapons
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The 7th Defence Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI) meeting was held in New Delhi on 18 July 2018, co-chaired by, Ajay Kumar, Secretary Defence Production and US Under Secretary of Defence for Acquisition and Sustainment Ellen M Lord.
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August 3, 2018
Nuclear missile tracking ship
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)According to news in the media, India's secretive missile tracking / 'specialized' ocean surveillance ship 'VC11184' (yet to be commissioning) is undergoing harbour trials and is likely to be delivered to the Navy by December.
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July 16, 2018
Visit of South Korean President Moon Jae-in
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)South Korean President Moon Jae-in arrived on his first state visit to India on July 8. His four-day visit (8-11 July) marked the 45th anniversary of establishment of bilateral diplomatic ties.
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July 16, 2018
Arrived - hand-held Laser Weapons
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)China claims its newly developed ZKZM-500 laser assault rifle, a non-lethal weapon, can hit a target nearly a kilometer away.
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July 16, 2018
Choosing Assault Rifles and Carbines
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The Ministry of Defence (MoD) reportedly sent team of military experts headed by a Brigadier to five countries to scout for rifles and carbines on June 30, 2018.
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July 16, 2018
Visit of Chinese military delegation
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)In what was described as a "significant ice-breaker" by our media, a 10-member Chinese delegation led by Lt Gen Liu Xiaowu, Deputy Commander of Western Theatre Command (that controls China's borders with Myanmar, India, Nepal...
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July 16, 2018
Another Kargil Anniversary
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Come July 26, India will celebrate Op 'Vijay' Diwas; another anniversary synonymous with the date of culmination of the Kargil Conflict during 1999.
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July 4, 2018
Visit of Seychelles President – and Assumption Island
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Seychelles President Danny Faure arrived at Ahmedabad on evening of June 22 for a six-day visit to India. His visit included visiting Gujarat, New Delhi, Goa and Uttrakhand.
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July 4, 2018
ISJK in J&K
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Of the four terrorists killed in Anantnag area of J&K on 22 June 2018, police identified Dawood Ahmad Salafi, chief of ISJK (ISIS affiliate). Security forces cordon and search operation with inputs about presence of terrorists turned into gunfight after terrorists fired at security forces.
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July 4, 2018
New Chinese drones - formidable challenge
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)China is going full steam in developing drones. Its latest undersea drone 'Qianlong III' is an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), which has dived deep into the South China Sea covering a distance of some 160 km in 42 hours.
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July 4, 2018
Indo-US 2+2 Dialogue – and the trade war
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The Indo-US 2+2 Dialogue scheduled for July 6, 2018 at Washington DC, for which EAM Sushma Swaraj and RM Nirmala Sitharamn were to travel to Washington DC to hold discussions with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defence Secretay James Mattis, has been postponed for a second time.
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July 4, 2018
Pakistan on FATF grey list – and the hogwash counter?
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Pakistan was officially placed in the 'grey list' on June 28, 2018, after it failed to convince the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) that it has taken significant steps to curb terror financing on its territory.
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July 4, 2018
The Civil-Military Gulf
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)In her recent article 'The belief system, and some truths' published in The Hindu, IAS officer Dipali Rastogi has blown the lid off the IAS cadre, whom she describes as: meant to serve, but do not; not trained to handle vast sums of money and human resources...
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June 22, 2018
Indo-US 2+2 Dialogue
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The first Indo-US Dialogue is finally happening almost one year after US President Donald Trump called PM Narendra Modi on August 15, 2017, congratulating him on India's 71st Independence Day, after which the White House announced India and US will start a new 2-by-2 ministerial dialogue to enhance...
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June 22, 2018
Dhanush – Ready for induction
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)On June 7, 2018, Dhanush reportedly completed the final round of user exploitation trials with a full battery of six guns firing 300 rounds at Pokhran ranges.
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June 22, 2018
UNHCR report – India in crosshairsy
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The recent report by UNHCR on Kashmir, though talking of both sides of the LoC, focuses mainly on serious violations in J&K between July 2016 and April 2018, alleging some 145 civilians killed (without mentioning terrorists including Pakistani terrorists) by security forces and up to 20 civilians killed by armed groups.
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June 22, 2018
NavIC – Rollout on the anvil
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)There is good news in the air. NavIC ('Navigation with Indian Constellation' whose English meaning is 'sailor' or 'navigator') or the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), our indigenous and fully autonomous regional satellite navigation system, is in the final stages of launch.
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June 22, 2018
Defence sector and cyber threats
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Addressing a workshop for formulating Cyber Security Framework on Jun 19, 2018, Defence Minister Sutharaman said that the defence sector is more prone to cyber threats and it was important to safeguard cyberspace with anticipation of possible attacks.
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June 22, 2018
The mess in Kashmir – Time we addressed it holistically
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Finally, the BJP pulled out from its alliance with PDP on June 19. The alliance had come about after the hung verdict in 2015. It was clearly a marriage of convenience.
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June 13, 2018
Singapore Summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The meeting between US President Donald Trump and North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore on June 12 was historic, with eyes of the world riveted on the live broadcast.
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June 4, 2018
Modi's three ASEAN nations visit
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Prime Minister Narendra Modi's three-ASEAN nation visit to Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia from May 29 to June 2 aimed at giving a substantive boost to India's ties with these countries in consonance with India's Act Eat Policy (AEP).
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June 4, 2018
Alternative Communication Network for Military
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)As per media reports, government on May 16, 2018, has cleared raising of budget by Rs 11,330 cr for defence projects; more than doubled the budget to 24,664 cr for laying an alternative communications network for defence services - for the Network For Spectrum (NFS) project.
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June 4, 2018
India-North Korea relations
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The visit by General VK Singh, MoS (EAM) to North Korea on May 15-16, 2018 was a surprise because in March 2018, India had imposed fresh restrictions on trade with North Korea, in line with the restrictions imposed by the UN.
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June 4, 2018
Kick-starting AI in Armed Forces
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)News reports of May 20, 2018 have reported the government has embarked upon an ambitious defence project for incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance operational preparedness of the armed forces in a significant way.
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June 4, 2018
Modi-Putin informal summit
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)With growing global challenges informal summits are becoming the norm in bilateral relations. Prime Minister Narendra Modi travelled to Sochi for an informal summit with President Putin.
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May 14, 2018
PM Modi's Nepal visit
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent two-day visit to Nepal on May 11-12 was described in media by some cross-sections for countering Chinese influence in Nepal, while some opposition parties in India alleged it was to influence the polls in Karnataka.
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May 14, 2018
Neemrana Dialogue – resumed
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Media reports suddenly appeared that government had agreed to revive the Track II diplomacy process with Pakistan despite its apparent aversion to 'conventional' talks with that country.
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May 14, 2018
ISI in Nepal
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)On April 17, 2018 a pressure cooker bomb went off outside an Indian Consulate office in Nepal's Biratnagar, damaging the wall of the premises. Biratnagar is the industrial capital of Nepal and 6 km north of the border of Bihar.
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May 14, 2018
S-400 – and the CAATSA waiver
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Russia's S-400 (nicknamed Triumf) is an upgraded version of the S-300 system, manufactured by Almaz-Antey and is in Russian military service since 2007.
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May 14, 2018
Border Patrolling – new rules for LAC?
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The message from the informal meet between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping at Wuhan on April 27-28 was both agreeing to strengthen communications between their militaries and keeping peace along the shared borders.
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May 14, 2018
K-9 Vajra-T Guns entering service
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)There is good news in the air – that the 155 mm/52 calibre tracked self-propelled gun system, K9 VAJRA-T will be entering service in the Army by end of this month - May 2018.
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May 2, 2018
Modi-Xi informal meet – how Xi acts is the key
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The informal meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping on April 27-28 is hot news that must have been watched with much interest globally.
