RBT's Defense Blog

Indian Navy is looking to induct more conventional submarines. After the P75 project resulted in Scorpene submarines, 9 of which will be ultimately acquired; logic says Indian Navy must progress to SSNs under P76A under which 12 boats should be acquired. But for some reason it wants more conventional submarines after 9 under P75; these include 6 under P75I (to be acquired in collaboration from foreign nation) and 12 under P76 (to be completely built indigenously). So, under P75I bids were invited and ultimate TKMS U212A and Navantia S80+ remain in the fray. Both U212A and S80+ are notable examples of use of advanced maritime technology; but while TKMS U212A has been in service for about 20 years, Navantia S80+ has been in service for about 2 years. Below is a comparative analysis of the 2 submarines. ● India’s Experience Indian Navy has previous experience with TKMS having operated the 4 U209/Shishumar submarines since 1980s. These submarines are known for their modular design and bu...

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...

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...