Rikeesh Sharma

Rikeesh Sharma is a serving Indian Naval Commander and a Research Fellow at the National Maritime Foundation, New Delhi. The views expressed are his own.

Publication

India’s Military Modernization: Strategic Technologies and Weapons Systems, edited by Rajesh Basrur and Bharath Gopalaswamy

The Oxford University Press could not have timed it better with its second part of the two-part project on Indian military modernisation in the field of advanced technologies like cruise missiles, nuclear weapons, anti-satellite weapons, missile defence, and information warfare. The adjoining regional countries of the Indian peninsula are flooded with new research vis-à-vis modern weapons and in utilising technology to develop even more advanced weaponry. It is, therefore, prudent for India to step up and be recognised for the power that it professes to be.

Transformation of Indian Naval Aviation Post New Inductions

The need for credible surveillance over the high seas forms the bedrock and foundation of infallible maritime security, and Maritime Reconnaissance (MR) is the basic input for any successful maritime operation. For the last two decades, Indian naval aviation assets have been dependant on the Ilyushin (IL), the Tuplov (TU) aircraft, the Kamov (KM) 31 and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). The Fleet Air Defence has also received a fillip by the induction of the MIG 29Ks.