RBT's Defense Blog

On April 1 2024 Iranian Embassy in Damascus, Syria was attacked. A fleet of F-35 of IDF that took off from Nevatim Airbase fired missiles at a building inside the diplomatic premises killing 7 IRGC men including 2 top generals. This was a clear violation of the Vienna Convention that states ‘no matter what diplomatic premises are the sovereign territory of a country’, and ‘whoever is inside the diplomatic premises must be accorded diplomatic immunity and must never be touched’. But Israel which gives a middle finger to everything be it law or convention or rules, didn’t give a damn and attacked it. Iran immediately asked the world to condemn it, but no one came forward, which basically implies, that Israel’s godfather USA either knew about it and gave tacit approval or got wind of it when it couldn’t do anything to stop it. Iran wanted the world community at the UN to condemn Israel and its strike, the same way it did in 1996 when the Iran Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan was raided by

Iran has taken REVENGE for Israel’s attack on its embassy in Damascus, Syria on 1 April 2024; by launching retaliatory strikes on the intervening night of 13-14 April 2024. Iran used a range of drones, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles to target a major intelligence centre and an airbase. Under ‘Operation True Promise’ Iran launched over 300 of them in total, with the slowest kamikaze drones first, followed by cruise missiles and then hyper/supersonic ballistic missiles. The 1st ever direct assault by Iran on Israel as a response to the Damascus attack that killed 7 top IRGC officials, covered a distance of around 1700 km or 1000 miles. This revenge attack amply proves that Iran not only has the capability but the means ready to hit Israel. This attack has left the major intelligence centre decimated and the NEVATIM airbase completely out of operation for a good enough time. Reportedly Iran had informed the USA through its NATO ally Turkey, of the impended strike 24 to 36 hrs i

It’s been 6 months since the Gaza War started after Hamas in a surprise attack on Oct 7, 2023, raided Israel and killed more than 1200 people. While Israel says Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other organizations from the Gaza Strip killed them, my observation says at least 30 to 40 % of those were killed by IDF itself, which in its attempt to get rid of Hamas militants killed its own people (Israelis) by firing indiscriminately. Hamas on the other hand as per my observation almost exclusively targeted the Gaza border Kibbutz's (farming communities just for its name), whose sole reason for being right on the border was to keep an eye on movement inside Gaza and fire on them (being manned mostly by IDF reservist). Besides the Kibbutz’s, Hamas also targeted the remote-controlled observation posts, and its control rooms were almost exclusively womaned by IDF women soldiers, who also managed the informer networks inside the Gaza Strip. Hamas reportedly targeted the control r

Mistake 1   1.   Sometime back we heard the news that the US Navy decided to scrap an amphibious ship. The US Navy decided to de-commission and scrap the USS Bonhomme Richard after a damage assessment found restoring the ship damaged by fire while sitting on a dock.   2.   The cost of resorting to the ship was pegged at US$ 1 billion, instead the scrapping will cost US$ 30 million. This brings us to the mistake made by the Indian Navy. Indian Navy decided to acquire the fire-damaged Admiral Gorshkov for US$ 932 million in 2003 initially but after detailed inspection, it was decided to buy the ship for US$ 2.3 billion in 2008. It was inducted into the Indian Navy's INS Vikramaditya .   3.   The mistake is that instead of spending so much money on a fire-damaged aircraft carrier, the Indian Navy could and should have spent the same amount of money on buying Next Generation Minesweepers. IN’s minesweepers were starting retirement by 2005 and today we don’t have a single minesweepe

As India and China stare down each other in various locations in Ladakh and across LAC, it is all about how well the Indian tiger is prepared to take on the Chinese dragon. Not only is China is numerically at an advantage against India, in terms of troops but its weapons systems are also vast and numerically more than that of India. Situation Add to that the psychological advantage of having captured over 38000 sq. km of Indian territory in Aksai Chin and being gifted 5200 sq. km of territory in the Shaksgam valley Karakoram tract by Pakistan. Not to mention the slow creeping capture of territory in Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim by first sending in the nomads to graze cattle and sheep and then moving in the troops to permanently capture the grazing lands. However, none of these make China 9 feet tall, India has the resolve and its troops have the capability to inflict not only serious damage but actually seize territory inside China-occupied Tibet and China-occupied Xinjiang ( htt

What to do with T55 or Vijayanta Tanks in reserve/storage? This is a question we need to ask, as to why these tanks (even operational) were put in reserve. As per reports, the Indian Army operated around 2000 T55 and 2200 Vijayanta Tanks in their heydays. Currently due to advancements in protection, technology, and firepower; some T55 and Vijayanta Tanks have been relegated to secondary static artillery roles while the rest of them are put in reserve. As per reports (including Wikipedia), the India Army operates 200 Vijayanta tanks and 700 T55 tanks in secondary static artillery roles on the LOC mostly in the Jammu sector and some in the Kashmir sector. While the Vijayanta tank is a derivative of the British Vickers Mk.1 tank and after the initial lot was built in the UK the rest of the lot was built at the Heavy Vehicle Factory in Avadi, Tamil Nadu, and subsequent upgrades were done in India. The T-55 tank was built entirely in the Soviet Union/Russia and other Warsaw Pact countries l

  Admiral Kornilov FFG Logic says India must buy Admiral Kornilov FFG, it is an Admiral Grigorovich-class FFG, also referred to as Krivak V class frigate built by the Yantar Shipyard in Kaliningrad.  6 Krivak V or Admiral Grigorovich-class FFG were to be built for the Russian Navy at Yantar Shipyard to keep the shipyard busy from 2010 onwards so as to complement the Admiral Gorshkov class FFGs that were designed and construction started 2006 onward at Severnaya Verf shipyard. These 6 Krivak V FFGs were based on the 6 Talwar class FFGs that the Indian Navy ordered for itself and heavily customized as per its own requirements in the late 1990s. These ships were built in the Russian shipyards of Baltiysky Zavod and Yantar at 3 each from the early 2000s, and their engines were supplied by Ukraine. Impressed by the features of Talwar class FFGs that pack a lot of punch for their size, the Russian Navy decided to order the same FFGs in the same configuration and named them Admiral Grigor

  1. As Mazagaon Docks is building its last 1 Scorpene, Govt of India has given the nod to the P75I submarine project for 50000 crores. Ideally, it should have morphed into 6 SSNs but that project has been named P75A. MDL or L&T is supposed to build 6 SSKs in collaboration with foreign shipyards. Common Sense Dictates P75I be 9 Super Scorpene Submarine Built by MDL (Mazagaon Docks Ltd), why, ead below. 2. It’s all very well known that the 6th Scorpene submarine is about to come out of the Mazagaon docks by early to mid-2024, but after that, the yard at MDL will remain idle till 2026 at least when going by MoD’s decision-making history, a winner for P75I will be selected, but thanks to common sensical approach MoD has given nod or order for 3 additional Scorpene submarines, that will keep the production line busy till 2032 at least, and allow MDL to amortize the investment on that project and most importantly utilize human resource expertise developed for the project. Otherwise, exp

What is It? The TR-3B Astra is the name of a top-secret surveillance aircraft of the United States Air Force developed under a so-called "black project". The only evidence for such an aircraft is based on speculations about several reported sightings of mysterious triangular flying wing aircraft over Antelope Valley, an area of desert in southern California. TR-3B was manufactured by Northrop Grumman and Teledyne Ryan. The aircraft known for its low observability, was invented by Robert W. Wintersdorff and George R. Cota, employees at Teledyne Ryan, a firm specialized in building unmanned reconnaissance aircraft. On May 10, 1977, a design of the aircraft was patented by Teledyne Ryan. This design was made by Waldo Virgil Opfer, the first design being unmanned, the second manned. The TR-3B has been made using advanced composites, metamaterials, and titanium. TR-3B Astra Sighting The pitch black, triangular-shaped TR-3B whose operational model is 600 feet across on each s