Volume 3  Number 2 ● Summer 2006 (Apr-Jun 2006)

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MANAGEMENT OF OUR DEFENCE:ROLE OF THE COSC

The Group of Ministers had concluded in February 2001 that the Chiefs of Staff Committee (COSC), the highest military authority in India, had been ineffective and had not fulfilled their mandate. Air Commodore Jasjit Singh AVSMVrC VM (Retd) examines the institution of the COSC from the historical perspective and the past record to make the case that the COSC has functioned well in spite of serious infirmities in the framework in which it is to function and absence of understanding of its role, that need addressing.

BUDGETARY REFORM FOR SUSTAINED MODERNISATION

In all the recent budget speeches, the finance ministers, while indicating the allocations for the defence budget for the year, have invariably stressed that the process of modernisation will not be allowed to suffer. Specific references have been made to the increased allocation for capital expenditure.

SATELLITE RECONNAISSANCE, ISR AND COUNTER-MEASURES

The future regional crises and conflicts may require swift reaction in the form of cold start strategies and unconventional responses. The urgent response itself may underline the critical need to quickly collect, process, and disseminate operational and tactical information. Likewise, the enemy’s ability to obtain information on own force deployments, order of battle, movements, and logistics, could jeopardise our ability to stage and deploy combat forces and successfully execute combat operations. Therefore, the capacity to control information has become decisive in conflict situations.

UAVs: CAPABILITIES AND TRENDS A CASE STUDY OF THE USA, EUROPE AND ISRAEL

The recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have proved that acquisition and rapid dissemination of information is the key to successful warfighting. It is also a well established fact that these campaigns benefited immensely from the contributions of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in this field. The emergence of missile carrying UAVs like the Predator and autonomously flying Global Hawk in these wars has unleashed a revolution in warfighting.

ETHICS AND VALUES IN MILITARY LEADERSHIP ETHICS AND VALUES IN MILITARY LEADERSHIP

In our relentless quest for success, recognition and even fame in an increasingly consumerist competitive world, the military also seems to have become obsessed with "Doing a Thing Right" rather than "Doing the Right Thing." Intense competition to climb the ‘Pyramid’, numerous environmental compulsions, and the desire for quick results in the face of complex pressures have possibly resulted in ethics, values and principles falling by the wayside.

INDIAN DEFENCE INDUSTRY:INSULATION GRADUALLY MELTING INDIAN DEFENCE INDUSTRY: INSULATION GRADUALLY MELTING

Kirby Place in the heart of Delhi’s Cantonment area glazes from the reflections of a multi-storeyed tinted-glass building standing testament to a new evolution in India’s defence industrial movement. This barren military area has a visible paradox in this new edifice that houses the corporate office of a private joint venture company with foreign stake, called BrahMos Aerospace. Being India’s first privately registered military aerospace joint venture with Russia, BrahMos nevertheless, is very much under government control, but stands to epitomise the new transformations in the Indian defence industrial base.

BEYOND UTILITY TARGETING: TOWARD AXIOLOGICAL AIR OPERATIONS

Weighed in the balance, our hypothesis is a simple one. We argue that today the dominant mechanism and measurement for targeting is industrial age (or "second wave") utility and that in the information age (or "third wave") future, an equally important method should be targeting based on value. Today, we target infrastructure to deny warfighting utility. Tomorrow, we should target to deprive leaders of the capacity to meet their needs: things that leaders must value.6 We must move beyond utility targeting.