Bharat Rakshak

Vinit

I've seen tactical nuclear weapons use by Russia mentioned more than once here. I'm not sure what that would gain, apart from the shock value. And the shock value is countered by: (a) that their use has been regarded as kind of a possibility (low though it may be), so any competent UKR commanders wo...

Vinit

I think the book gave a very real Indian pov in addition to a pov from every side in the conflict. Jeff does not portray any particular side as a villain, and thoroughly justifies the action of every side, especially in the case of the Chinese alliance. ..... I just finished reading the 800 pages o...

Vinit

We need at least 300 N-warheads to deter China alone. IMO, deterrence would be based on the loss-gain equation - how much an adversary is willing to suffer, and what it expects to gain for that loss. A nation led by extremist-jihadist types who are willing to gain paradise through mutual nuclear an...

Vinit

From NBC News: "From global bad boy to regional good guy: Pakistan overhauls its image" Looks like we might be going back to the bad old days, where the US interests in the region align with supporting Pakistan and turning a blind eye to whatever it does vis-a-vis India (or Afghanistan) as...

Vinit

Ironically, there is a precedence for this when we joined the West under the UN flag in Korea, where Indians fought and died as well As far as I know, India provided medical support in the Korean war, and Indian troops did not participate in actual fighting, nor did they take any casualties. Happy ...

Vinit

An article in today's NYT points to two interesting developments: (a) the growing Chinese influence in the Golden Triangle region (albeit for law enforcement rather than direct military) - so, soft power and (b) the suggestion that use of armed drones was considered, which if true, points to some ca...

Vinit

Suggestion: People who cannot, or do not wish to order from Amazon, can add the book to their wish-lists. This does not place an order, but indicates that you find the book of interest and are considering ordering it. I've been told (though am not sure) that this helps rankings as well. Vivek, heart...

Vinit

This debate about the "appropriate" level of response to a nuclear attack is decades old (cold war times), and does tend to boil down to doves, owls, and hawks. I don't believe there is a clear answer yet - if clear answers can indeed be expected of such scenarios. The doves are normally s...

Vinit

Thinking wild ... An "air-pacK' system of networked aircraft, consisting of: (1) Papa Bear: One command aircraft, dual-seat, single-engine, capable of high subsonic speed. Unarmed, no radar, light-weight. Low observability due to use of composites and design. Excellent comm gear capable of netw...

Vinit

Adding to the (idle) speculation ... If the defeat was a "minor" one, e.g. we fight a border war, we lose some territory, then: the government will fall, we'll see a renewed emphasis on defence expenditure for 4-5 years - and that's it. There would be commissions, enquiries, books, article...

Vinit

it seems to me most rafale and EF weapons and even radar mode integration took place after they entered IOC service with the AF. the tornado ADV also apparently flew for a few years with ballast in the nose until the foxhunter radar was fixed. there was a joke going around british military circles ...

Vinit

Helo crashes.There was a vital piece of info in AWST about the use of Apaches aboard UK carriers in recent wars,which has implications for the IN's ASW contest.An Apache sinks in 3 minutes! This gives the crew/occupants scarcely enough time to evacuate the helo if it ditches. Philip, I'm rather sur...

Vinit

rajanb wrote:Pak AF can beat the Israeli AF! That is an oxymoron, if I have ever seen one!

I think he said the PAF can "battle" the IsAF. On the same lines, I can 'battle' Lennox Lewis.
However, in both cases, what the outcome would be is a completely different matter....

Vinit

I am unable to see how stealth can be achieved by announcing an impending attack by having a refueller flying near the border to give a "top up" refuelling to all Indian aircraft about to cross the border. OK I accept that this can be done as a sort of "decoy" but it can hardly ...

Vinit

Clue in, you can't be that ignorant. Anything can be measured against GDP. If you measure toilet paper against it, you need lots of it and if you measure gold against it you need less of it. Now I've heard everything. There is a reason to link currency to GDP - this is basic economics (which you sh...

Vinit

I predict a return to honest money (gold & silver) within 5 years and the end of worthless paper money. I also predict... <snip> Just to show why I tend to disregard your views: The value of the world's gold inventories is currently $2.7 trillion, silver inventories is $23.68 billion. As agains...

Vinit

The crux of the disagreement lies here. You are suggesting that medicine may work, I feel that even surgery may not be able to cure this now. Maybe. Hopefully not. When one has a serious disease, an attempt at treatment/surgery (even if the cure probability is less than 100%) is better than throwin...

Vinit

The banking system is definitely here to stay but it has become this run-away monster. Do we want this banking system where private banks hold the controlling stake in a federal bank printing the "world's reserve currency"? Where efforts at economic recovery are mostly aimed at printing a...

Vinit

Neshant, As VikramS says, your arguments are one-sided and I'm sorry to say, lack even a basic understanding of economics, or how banks and central banks function. I frankly don't wish to get into a protracted argument with you if your understanding is truly as you post, but just to mention one poin...

Vinit

Theo, all banking arms are "legitimate" :-) This legitimacy, conferred by the regulators, is why the regulators are also to blame for the crisis. There is a lot of agreement on splitting the retail part from the investment banks, because as you correctly say, the riskier investment bank ca...

Vinit

Since banks do not invent nor manufacture anything (other than scams), Many types of businesses in the service sector do not invent or manufacture anything themselves, including my travel agent and our neighborhood grocery-wallah. Most Western banks have been badly managed and have followed disastr...

Vinit

Vipul wrote:Air Force begins screening astronauts for maiden human space flight.

A very misleading headline by the news agency. I thought the IAF had actually started selecting future astronauts; what they're doing is setting up the facilities to do so, if those are needed at some time in the future.

Vinit

Not sure if this is the right thread, but interesting to know that this happens. Personally, I think handing out senior positions like this reduces the prestige associated with them. Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni [ Images ] and Olympic gold medallist shooter Abhinav Bindra [ Images ] have bee...

Vinit

Not sure if this is the right thread, but interesting to know that this happens. Personally, I think handing out senior positions like this reduces the prestige associated with them. Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni [ Images ] and Olympic gold medallist shooter Abhinav Bindra [ Images ] have been...

Vinit

^^ Shiv, thanks. I do understand the difference between commercial airliners and military combat jets; that was not my question. Pratyush, yes, simulators would play a part, agreed. If I assume that each jet caters to two pilots (I might be wrong here), then with 150 hours per annum, on average each...

Vinit

MMRCA deal: IAF might order 63 more jets But it will not be "a cut-and-dried" affair to determine the lowest bidder (L-1). "Calculation of L-1 will take around a month due to the huge amounts of mathematical and data verification of the lifecycle costs of operating the jets over a 40...

Vinit

Hence over a distance of 300-400 km, where maybe Prahaar would go upto 70-80 km height, Shaurya would still be below 50 km height, thus that much difficult to detect & counter. AFAIK, there is going to be hardly any difference in detection for missiles hitting 40km of altitude (Shaurya) versus ...

Vinit

In terms of organization, there are two ways to respond to the rapidly changing security-intelligence demands of today. Somewhat unfortunately we seem to be going down the road of the "alphabet-soup" approach, with multiple agencies all tripping over each others toes, reluctant to share in...

Vinit

The military-oriented nuclear scenario that you highlighted would only work as a completely unprovoked surprise attack. Any buildup to hostilities would have resulted in Indian ships, aircraft and other forces being too widely dispersed to make an attractive target. The actual kill zone of your typ...

Vinit

Question regarding a possible Pak response to the Arihant (this cuts across multiple threads - I thought this was the best place for this). I assume that the Arihant and her sister ships, when on patrol, would carry active missiles, viz. ready-to-fire missiles (subject to safeguards) with mounted wa...

Vinit

Vinit - the type of "counter force" strike you describe is a luxury afforded to nations with huge nuclear arsenals. Neither we nor the Pakis have enough warheads and delivery systems to strike each other in this fashion. . Kanan, the scenario is using 35-odd nukes and weapons, which is ac...

Vinit

Surviving an attack - a possible scenario RajeshA, thanks for splitting the thread. To put the word "surviving" into context, we need to do a quick exercise on what the actual impact of a massive Paki nuke attack would be. Only then can we determine what steps are needed to carry on (reta...

Vinit

I'll play devil's advocate here, and say that this whole concept of deterring Pak by threatening to nuke other countries does not work, and in fact may actually strengthen Pak. Let's say we somehow completely give up our peaceful-progressive-growth-economy image and make some extremely convincing th...

Vinit

Kanan, You are partly right. 20 Agni will not destroy the oil industry. But cluster bombs can do a lot of damage in Oil and chemical industry since they have plenty of raw material to sustain and nourish fires and it would probably shut down main refinery/oil depots for few weeks. But the whole poi...

Vinit

^^ Agreed, deterrence might work. That deterrence can take the shape of threats to destroy the attacker and X, Y, Z in addition, or even great diplomacy and strategy Perhaps we should have a separate thread on deterring nuclear attack and the subsequent retaliation in which we take out everything me...

Vinit

Neela, my question is: what exactly will India do to prevent a Paki attack if it detects a higher Paki readiness? The answer is, not much can be done. Yes, the examples I have given will ring warning bells. Forces will be moved to a higher state of readiness and the nuclear arsenal preparedness kick...

Vinit

So that leaves us with Shaheen and Ghauri. Out of the two Ghauri is liquid fueled and needs atleast 60 mins. for preparation. If not ours, atleast the Israeli/American intelligence should pick that up. So we will get an indication right away and gives us 1 hour of lead time to do something about it...

Vinit

Pakistani Nuclear Attack - Impact on the IAF Here I'm giving just one scenario of a nuclear attack by Pakistan on 15 IAF bases. All these bases are within the range of Pakistan's Shaheen and Ghauri missiles, and the assumption is each base is targetted by a 25kt warhead mounted on one of these missi...

Vinit

Why a Suprise Nuclear Attack is possible Some posters have stated that Pakistan cannot launch a surprise nuclear attack on India or that they do not have the capacity to do so. The second point is being discussed in the appropriate thread. I will only say here that they are acknowledged to have a n...

Vinit

Why a nuclear attack is possible Following up on Karna's post above, Pakistani mentality seems to revolve around the two Fs: Fear, and Fanaticism. Fear : Their leaders have been, for generations, drumming into their heads the refrain that the big bad country to the East is simply waiting to destroy...

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