RBT's Defense Blog

    Common sense dictates that India buy 2 Albion Class LPDs from the UK Navy that are up for sale. Why, simply because the Indian Navy currently operates just one LPD, which is INS Jalashwa, an ex-US Navy warship that was built way back in 1971 but was sparingly used, which allowed its prolonged use in the US Navy and the Indian Navy . But its time is almost up, and in the next 5-6 years, it will have to retire, after which the Indian Navy will be left with no LPDs in its fleet. Remember that in November 2024, the newly elected Labour government stated that it wants both ships to be removed from service by March 2025 and put them up for sale . There is a tender for building 4 indigenously built LPDs for the Indian Navy, but in all sense and purposes, those ships are a good 15 years away from entering the Indian Navy fleet. This is due to indecision on who will build, the design, and budget constraints. In the meantime the best idea is to buy the 2 Albion-class LPDs tha...

  Current Situation First thing first, do note that IAF is looking at a precarious situation about its fighter strength. The fighter strength of the IAF has come down from the highest ever of  47.5 squadrons  in the mid-1980s against sanctioned strength of 49 squadrons to a not-so-healthy 31 squadrons in 2025 and will be 29 squadrons at the end of 2025 when the last of 2 Mig 21 Bison squadrons are finally retired. This will go down further to 27 by 2032 end when the 2 oldest Jaguar squadrons are retired and most probably by 2035 all Jaguars are slated for retirement. Also, the entire fleet of 3 Mirage 2000 and 3 Mig 29 will also be retired from 2035 to 2036. This means IAF will have 21 squadrons by 2037 and when 5 squadrons of DARIN III Jagaurs are put up for retirement by 2040 then by 2045 IAF squadron number will touch 16. A recent report stated that IAF lost over 150 fighter jets due to de-induction/retirement in the last 10 years whereas Pakistan and China; the opp...

  Fall of Syria All my predictions have come true. Syria has fallen  and  President Bashar Al Assad  has been forced to leave the country with the Syria Arab Army fleeing to Iraq. So, what happens next? Mark my words the 1st declaration  Donald Trump  or  Don Trumpioni  gives upon assuming office on Jan 20, 2025 is the  annexation of Westbank by Israel  as part of   Dissolution of Palestine ,  and  renaming it Judea And Sumeria  and also give go ahead to  Israel to capture south and west Syria  for creation of  Greater Israel.  So how did Syria collapse so quickly? It is thanks to the betrayal of a morally corrupt nation of  Turkey . Turkey had previously funded and facilitated  ISIS  in previous decade and did this once again on orders of  Israel  and  USA . In return Turkey will get to keep the whole of  North Syria  for itself and can even get the F35 figh...

Air-launched/Ship-launched Version of Pinaka The Pinaka MLRS looks set to become the golden goose of the Indian defense industry. Unlike the Brahmos supersonic cruise missile which is very costly; Pinaka with a 300 km range variant (if developed) at a fraction of cost, might well do the same job although what a single Brahmos could do; at least 6 Pinaka MLRS needs to be fired at 300 km range to achieve the same result. While India needs to take care of MTCR regulations to export Brahmos to other countries like the Philippines (deal done), Indonesia, and Vietnam (deal expected), India won’t need to worry about MTCR to export Pinaka to other countries like Armenia (deal done), France, Greece, Morrocco (deal expected). I had predicted way back in 2023 that India needs to develop an air-launched variant of Pinaka for use by the  Indian Air Force . Thankfully the good guys of DRDO either read my blog on air-launched Pinaka   or someone fed the idea to them and that could become ...

            The Zigana pistol is a semi-automatic pistol manufactured by TİSAŞ, or Trabzon Silah Sanayi A.Ş. or Trabzon Arms Industry Corp. a Turkish firearm company. Unlike other pistols of Turkish origin that are usually copies of existing European pistols, Zigana pistol is a completely original design as claimed by the company. Zigana is sometimes called the AK 47 of Pistols due to the ease of use, fast, lightweight and swift action. All this make it an equivalent of AK 47 assault rifle, which is known for these exact qualities. The original version of the Zigana is the Zigana M16, which has a 5-inch barrel. Production of the Zigana pistol began in 2001. The Zigana pistol is used by Turkish military units and security companies as well as few other countries. In addition, Zigana PX-9 model is produced in Malaysia in partnership with Turkey. Zigana is imported by American Tactical Imports in the USA and marketed under the FS9 and FS40 brand names. In addi...

The Trajan® - 155 mm / 52 Calibre Towed Artillery Gun System (TGS), developed jointly by Larsen & Toubro of India and & KNDS (formerly Nexter) France, has bagged an export order from Armenia. In a move towards modernizing its military, Armenia after suffering a crushing defeat at the hands of Azerbaijan in the 2022 war is steadily modernizing its armed forces. It purchased the 18-ton ATAGS TGS when still not inducted into the Indian Army. Now it has selected India’s 13-ton Trajan® 155 mm/ 52 Calibre towed artillery gun system. Armenia has previously bought Pinaka multi-barrel rocket launcher, Akash 1S SAMs, and Arudhra radar systems to boost its artillery and aerial defense capabilities. This decision to buy Trajan® marks Armenia’s strategic pivot towards India for advanced defense technologies amidst evolving regional security challenges and the need to diversify its arms suppliers beyond Russia. The partnership signifies the deepening defense ties between India and Arme...