National Security Strategy: News & Discussion

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dinesha
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National Security Strategy: News & Discussion

Post by dinesha »

National Security Strategy: India’s One-in-all Military & Strategic Doctrine – News, Views & Discussion

Defence Planning Committee, which was constituted in April 2018 by the Modi Government is likely to submit the National Security Strategy (NSS) to the government in October as being widely reported in media. The NSS would effectively be India’s military doctrine, will be focusing on future war fronts, requirement of naval expeditionary and the projection of comprehensive national power. The NSS is expected to defined India’s position on no first use of nuclear weapons in the current context as well as other red lines which could lead to strategic escalation. Furthermore, the report will also define military threats to India in terms of the possible number of fronts.

After the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) accepts the NSS, a unclassified version of the same is most Likely to be made public. It is a major event in India’s military, nuclear and strategic environment and thus IMHO it should have a space for a separate and specific thread here.
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Re: National Security Strategy: News & Discussion

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National Security Adviser Ajit Doval ready with India’s new military doctrine
https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-ne ... qAMyI.html
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Re: National Security Strategy: News & Discussion

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National security strategy to be part of 2030 goals
https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/natio ... 35118.html
The national security strategy, which will lay down the country’s future military policy, is to be part of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2030 laid down by the government. There are 17 declared goals in all. The security expenses are expected to be added as overarching parameters for meeting these goals.

This means a fund will be created or mandated by the 15th Finance Commission. The scope and ambit of the fund will depend upon what the framework of security strategy is suggested by the Defence Planning Committee (DPC), headed by National Security Adviser Ajit Doval.

The NSS will also be the foundation stone for the military doctrine and declare a foundational military and strategic posture of the country. It will be in two parts. The unclassified part is expected to be made public.

The Ministry of Defence has argued before the 15th Finance Commission chaired by former Revenue Secretary NK Singh to include defence as part of the SDGs for the fund creation. The NSS report could be out as early as next month. It will need to be ratified by the Cabinet Committee on Security. The NSS will also lay down the framework of the kind of threats that could emerge beyond the two-front simultaneous war scenario with Pakistan and China.
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Re: National Security Strategy: News & Discussion

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India’s military doctrine set to be submitted, likely to define no first use policy
https://www.oneindia.com/india/indias-m ... 50507.html
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Re: National Security Strategy: News & Discussion

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After CDS appointment, India needs a National Security Strategic document

https://southasiamonitor.org/news/after ... t/sl/31517
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Re: National Security Strategy: News & Discussion

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The Army in Indian Military Strategy: Rethink Doctrine or Risk Irrelevance
Arzan Tarapore
https://carnegieindia.org/2020/08/10/ar ... -pub-82426
The Indian Army’s prevailing doctrine leaves the military with two main choices: do nothing or risk wars it cannot win. The Indian Army needs to rethink its use of force to meet today’s new challenges.
This paper argues that the Indian Army—and by extension, Indian defense policy more generally—is dominated by an orthodox offensive doctrine. This is an approach to the use of force that centers on large army formations, operating relatively autonomously from political direction, seeking to impose a punitive cost on the enemy. The punitive cost often takes the form of capturing enemy territory as a bargaining chip, even though India usually pursues strategically defensive war aims to maintain the territorial status quo.
This paper advances four analytic propositions before concluding with recommendations for the Indian Army.

First, the orthodox offensive doctrine has been at the center of the Indian military’s wartime experience, organization, and doctrine. It defined India’s strategy during the wars against Pakistan in 1965, 1971, and 1999, and has shaped Indian crisis behavior since. Doctrinal innovations along the way, such as the Cold Start doctrine, have sought to optimize rather than rethink the orthodox offensive doctrine.

Second, India’s strategic environment has fundamentally changed since it fought its last war in 1999. Nuclear deterrence between India and its rivals, Pakistan and China, has reduced the likelihood of major war but simultaneously increased the salience of military coercion below the threshold of war. The extraordinary modernization of China’s military threatens India not only on their land border, but also in new locales like the Indian Ocean and new domains like space and cyberspace. Advanced military technologies are changing the character of contemporary conflict and levying new demands on the military’s organization, training, and doctrine.

Third, the Indian military has failed to keep pace with these strategic changes. Even though it carries powerful incentives for reform, its mechanisms to drive and implement change are problematic. India lacks a periodic strategic review process, the military services are resistant to change, and the civilian leadership has rarely exercised the will to implement reforms. The new Chief of Defence Staff position has already begun to reshape civil-military relations and should propel other organizational reforms—but there is no evidence yet of the Indian Army rethinking its orthodox offensive doctrine.

Fourth, the stubborn dominance of this doctrine renders the Indian military a less useful tool of national policy. The orthodox offensive doctrine is problematic because, given its powerful adversaries, the Indian Army probably cannot seize significant tracts of land or inflict a decisive defeat on enemy forces. This means India’s cost-imposition strategies are unlikely to deter its rivals from continued subconventional provocations. At the same time, India’s punitive strategies have had the unintended effect of motivating its rivals to pursue more destabilizing and provocative strategies of their own, including Pakistan’s tactical nuclear weapons and China’s fait accompli land grabs. And the doctrine exacts an opportunity cost, reducing India’s force projection and deterrence capabilities in the Indian Ocean region. The Indian military will continue to lack the resources required for long-overdue modernization as long as the army continues to emphasize its orthodox offensive doctrine.

The dominance of the orthodox offensive doctrine has distorted Indian military strategy, skewing it to fight large conventional wars and leaving it ill-equipped to manage more likely scenarios short of war. In several crises in recent decades, New Delhi has been left with an invidious all-or-nothing choice in the use of military force—either start a major conventional war or abstain from action.
To rebalance Indian military strategy, with more usable military options, this paper offers three recommendations for the Indian Army, which are designed to require relatively modest additional resources and generate minimal resistance among other services or the civilian bureaucracy.

Consider new theories of victory. To deter and defeat coercion, the Indian Army should consider rebalancing its doctrine with greater use of denial strategies. It should more frequently seek to make coercion and territorial revisionism prohibitively costly or unfeasible for the enemy rather than relying on ex post facto punishment.

Consider how to be the supporting element of a joint force. Indian forces will increasingly be compelled to deter and fight in multiple domains and different theaters, and the army should therefore consider how to play a productive role in new missions where it supports a main effort elsewhere.

Consider new niche capabilities. The army can make sizable and qualitatively different contributions to joint combat by developing more robust intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities and by increasing its capacity for long-range precision strike.
This is a very good paper, worth reading in full. It raises some very important questions regarding the options before us in the current scenario.
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Re: National Security Strategy: News & Discussion

Post by basant »

Don't know where to post this, but might be relavant anywhere! :D

Big boost for military as Modi govt gives officers powers of additional & joint secretaries
In a landmark move in the country’s armed forces history, uniformed personnel from the Army, Air Force and Navy have been for the first time formally appointed as additional secretary and joint secretaries in the Ministry of Defence.

In a late evening order Monday, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC), headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, appointed Lt Gen. Anil Puri as the Additional Secretary in the Department of Military Affairs (DMA).

Maj. Gen. K. Narayanan, Rear Admiral Kapil Mohan Dhir and Air Vice Marshal Hardeep Bains have been appointed as joint secretaries in the DMA, which began functioning in January 2020 as part of the defence reforms introduced by the government.

Gen Bipin Rawat holds the position of Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) and Secretary, DMA.
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Re: National Security Strategy: News & Discussion

Post by kit »

dinesha wrote:India’s military doctrine set to be submitted, likely to define no first use policy
https://www.oneindia.com/india/indias-m ... 50507.html
Dated article though
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Re: National Security Strategy: News & Discussion

Post by Vips »

Nuclear force: Why India needs to increase its nuclear stockpile.

Since the Cold War bilateral treaties between the United States and Russia like START- 1 ensured that the number of nuclear weapons in the world declines significantly. However, even today in order to maintain parity both the U.S and Russia continue to modernize their nuclear forces. The other United Nation P-5 nuclear powers notably China, United Kingdom and France have also earmarked billions of dollars to modernize their nuclear force. Thousands of U.S and Russian nuclear warheads continue to remain on high alert, ready for use on short notice. Most nuclear-armed states provide little or no information about the exact size of their nuclear arsenal. So, any information related to the size and composition of the nuclear weapon stockpiles of any country are just estimates.

Most U.S and Russian SLBMs carry MIRVs. The only exceptions were MARV, or very large warhead models designed for hard targets like deeply buried bunkers. Russia’s Topol Inter Continental Ballistic Missile was a single warhead missile by design, but later generation Russian missiles are designed for more than one warhead. One version of the R-36M ICBM (NATO reporting name: SS-18 Satan) had a 20-megaton single warhead.

Anti-Ballistic Missile Defense: The grey area

It is extremely difficult to shoot down an incoming missile warhead with an anti-ballistic missile (ABM) because not only are missile warheads small but they travel at great speeds, faster than even a rifle bullet. Then there are several other variables related to the incoming warhead like trajectory, characteristics, decoys that will not be known to the ABM operators. Many ICBMs can carry 5 to 10 warheads and about 30 or more decoys. If a single ICBM with ten warheads and 100 decoys were launched against India, no less than 110 interceptors would be required to destroy them preferably outside the Earth’s atmosphere. Warheads can also be made to maneuver, and they can do so in a variety of ways making interception almost impossible.

India’s nuclear weapons: Requirement for credibility

For the Indian government the primary purpose of nuclear weapons has always been to dissuade any possible adversary from attacking India or our vital interests.

Western intelligence community are of the opinion that China has many more nuclear warheads than the commonly quoted figure of 350. China’s missile force is the most diversified on the planet, with more ballistic missiles launched for testing and training than the rest of the world combined. China’s recent decision to outfit some of its ICBMs with MIRVs, as well as Pakistan’s announcement in January 2017 that it had successfully test-fired a new 2000 kms range ballistic missile called Ababeel with MIRVs are both noteworthy because for Pakistan it reflects a strategy to quickly strike multiple targets across India. The long-range strategic missile that China has developed include DF-41, DF-31, DF-31A, DF-4, and DF-5 ground-based missiles, and JL-1 and new JL-2 submarine-launched missiles.

In the case of a nuclear strike, India’s leadership should focus on a comprehensive counter-offensive strategy aimed at removing an adversary’s ability to cause further harm to Indian interests. For this strategy to be successful India needs to drastically increase its stockpile of nuclear weapons so that it dwarfs the combined nuclear stockpile of both China and Pakistan. Such strike capability needs to be backed up by advanced real-time imagery and data fusion powered by Edge Computing that will allow precision strike of even the adversary’s road mobile and rail mobile missiles. Some of the missions now assigned to nuclear weapons may be addressed by conventional precision strike weapons, but not all of them. Some targets, such as missile silos and command and control centres, are so difficult to destroy that no conventional weapon will be able to do it. Many hard targets could be defeated with nuclear explosives with lower yields if they are delivered with precision.

Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) had published their radio-chemical analytical estimate of the S-1(Fusion Weapon) yield shortly after POKHRAN II. The raw data has been withheld because it could reveal weapon design details. It does, however, provide a qualitative technique of determining the tests’ efficacy. It will be difficult for India to field a new, highly optimized, nuclear warhead design without nuclear testing. Therefore, existing nuclear designs will have to be maintained. Simulations of nuclear explosions can only go so far: and that confidence in the performance of a system can only be gained by actual testing. The simulation is worthless without the empirical validation. The K-5 Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile (SLBM) that is currently being developed should be able to carry at least 3 MIRV and once the weight of these warheads is further reduced thereby improving the yield-to-weight ratio the K-5 as well at the Agni 5 should be able to carry 5 MIRVs.

The survivability of India’s nuclear force to the possibility of a disarming first strike is a crucial requirement for credibility. India does not need to threaten cities or population of the adversary although that’s a potent element of the deterrent calculus. The Indian government must view nuclear weapons as part of a comprehensive national security strategy that includes diplomacy, arms control initiatives, and conventional forces to maximize stability and peace in the region.
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Re: National Security Strategy: News & Discussion

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India’s new Maritime Security Coordinator is 22 years too late. But it ticks many boxes.

In what is clearly a step in the right direction, the Narendra Modi government on Wednesday appointed former Indian Navy vice chief Vice Admiral G Ashok Kumar as the country’s first National Maritime Security Coordinator. Vice Admiral Kumar will report to the National Security Advisor Ajit Doval through the National Security Council Secretariat.

The Navy officer, who retired last year, will be responsible for coordinating between all government agencies on maritime security and maritime civil issues, and also providing crucial inputs on the same to the political and security leadership. This move signals the growing importance of the Navy in the overall security and defence matrix, considering how the maritime domain will be a crucial element in any future wars.

The appointment also comes after the Navy got a huge hike in Union Budget allocation after years of neglect. I have been pitching for a renewed focus on the Navy through my column arguing that such an approach is the need of the hour. The sad fact is that while the Chinese Navy was planning ahead, the approach of India, which has a coastline of around 7,500-kilometres, did not match up, above sea or below.

Appointment after 22 years
While this is a welcome move, the appointment was made after a gap of 22 long years since it was first recommended. A Group of Ministers (GoM), set up in 2000, after the Kargil conflict, had first recommended setting up “an apex body for the management of maritime affairs”. It had said that such a body was needed for institutionalised linkages between the Navy, Coast Guard and the concerned Ministries of the Central and the state governments. “The MoD should take necessary action to constitute the apex body,” the GoM had then said.

After the 26/11 attacks, the defence ministry proposed a Maritime Security Advisory Board, which was again left pending. Even in 2014 and 2015, the issue was highlighted first in a report of a Standing Committee on Defence presented in the 15th Lok Sabha and then in another report by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which also probed the question of inter-agency communications again in 2020.

It is only on Wednesday when the proposal that was recommended 22 years ago saw the light of the day.

Part of larger defence and security reforms
Government sources said that the appointment of a Maritime Security Advisor is part of the higher military and security architecture reforms that are being carried out, including the earlier creation of the post of the Chief of Defence Staff.

Sources say that in the new global security architecture, the Navy plays a critical role as the maritime domain is the new focus. There is no denying that the world is witnessing a new surge in countries strengthening their maritime sector, thanks, mainly, to an aggressive China, which has the fastest-growing Navy in the world.

Maritime interests of India
For India, the blue waters are indeed critical. According to the Ministry of Shipping, around 95 per cent of India’s trading by volume and 70 per cent by value is done through maritime transport. Actually, India’s maritime history dates back to 3000 BC when the inhabitants of the Indus Valley Civilisation had a maritime trade link with Mesopotamia. While India’s maritime prowess has been a key part of its history, it slowly receded to the background.

Even on the military front, the Indian Navy had come on record to complain about the lack of budgetary allocations to it, which was affecting their modernisation even as China raced ahead. But government sources say efforts are now on to ensure the Navy gets the right focus. They point out that the capital budget of the Indian Navy has been enhanced by a whopping 44.53 per cent, with a total allocation of Rs 46,323 crore in FY 2022-23.

Incidentally, the Navy had this year outspent Rs 12,767.99 crore, more than what it was allocated in 2021-22 – Rs 33,253 crore. The majority of this expenditure was for committed liabilities, that is, payments that need to be done in connection with contracts signed in the past.

This high spending by the Navy, given its low overall budgetary allocation, comes even as it is yet to roll out critical, multi-billion dollar projects for building new conventional and nuclear submarines, over 200 of two variants of helicopters for its fleet, while also acquiring new vessels, including minesweepers, landing platform docks and possibly a third aircraft carrier.

Naval sources are happy with the creation of the National Maritime Security Coordinator and hope that this will bring a renewed focus on India’s maritime needs and the importance of having a strong blue-water force, not just for securing India’s commercial interest but also to further the country’s defence, security and diplomatic needs.
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Re: National Security Strategy: News & Discussion

Post by Aditya G »

Vips wrote:India’s new Maritime Security Coordinator is 22 years too late. But it ticks many boxes.

In what is clearly a step in the right direction, the Narendra Modi government on Wednesday appointed former Indian Navy vice chief Vice Admiral G Ashok Kumar as the country’s first National Maritime Security Coordinator. Vice Admiral Kumar will report to the National Security Advisor Ajit Doval through the National Security Council Secretariat.
.....
I read the article but confused on what boxes were ticked
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India, Vietnam ink military logistics support pact & vision document to expand defence ties.

India and Vietnam on Wednesday inked a vision document to further broad-base the "scope and scale" of defence ties by 2030 and sealed a mutual logistics support pact to allow militaries of the two sides to use each other's bases for repair and replenishment of supplies.

The signing of the two documents after Defence Minister Rajnath Singh's "fruitful" talks with his Vietnamese counterpart General Phan Van Giang in
Hanoi, is seen as a major upswing in India-Vietnam strategic ties amid common concerns over China's increasing muscle-flexing in the South
China Sea.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on mutual logistics support is the first such major agreement that Vietnam has signed with any country.
The pact will allow the militaries of the two sides to use each other's bases for repair and replenishment of supplies.

"In these times of increasing cooperative engagements between the defence forces of the two countries, this is a major step towards simplifying procedures for mutually beneficial logistic support and is the first such major agreement which Vietnam has signed with any country," the defence ministry said.

It further said that India and Vietnam continue to have the "most trustworthy relations in contemporary times with broader convergence of interests and common concerns."

Singh arrived in Vietnam on Tuesday on a three-day visit.

"Had an excellent meeting with General Phan Van Giang, the Defence Minister of Vietnam. We renewed interactions on expanding bilateral cooperation. Our close Defence and Security cooperation is an important factor of stability in the Indo-Pacific region," Singh tweeted.

The joint vision document provides for significant expansion of defence ties in diverse areas by 2030, officials said.

"We had wide-ranging discussions on effective and practical initiatives to further expand bilateral defence engagements and regional and global issues," Singh said.

"After our fruitful deliberations, we signed the 'Joint Vision Statement on India-Vietnam Defence Partnership towards 2030', which will significantly enhance the scope and scale of our defence cooperation," he added.

The signing of the vision document to expand bilateral defence and security ties came amid growing congruence between the two countries in the maritime security domain amid China's increasing muscle-flexing in the region.

Singh is also scheduled to call on Vietnamese President Nguyen Xuan Phuc and Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh.

Singh and Gen Giang also agreed for the early finalisation of the USD 500 million defence Line of Credit (LoC) extended to Vietnam by India.

The defence ministry, in a statement, said the implementation of the projects under the LoC will add substantially to Vietnam's defence capabilities and further Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of 'Make in India, Make for the World'.

Singh also announced gifting of two simulators and monetary grants towards setting up a language and IT laboratory at the Air Force Officers Training School for capacity building of the Vietnamese armed forces.

The defence minister began his visit by paying respects to late President Ho Chi Minh at his mausoleum in Hanoi.

He also visited Tran Quoc Pagoda, a revered Buddhist temple which reaffirmed the age-old civilisational and people-to-people linkages between the two countries.

Vietnam, an important country of the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), has territorial disputes with China in the South China Sea region.

India has oil exploration projects in the Vietnamese waters in the South China Sea. India and Vietnam have been boosting their maritime security cooperation in the last few years to protect common interests.

The defence ministry described Vietnam as an important partner in India's Act East policy and the Indo-Pacific vision, adding both countries share a rich history of civilisational and cultural linkages spanning over 2,000 years.

It said bilateral defence engagements have expanded over a period of time to include wide-ranging contacts between the two countries, including through defence policy dialogues, military-to-military exchanges, high-level visits, capacity building and training programmes and cooperation in the UN peacekeeping and bilateral exercises.

Relations between the two countries were elevated to the level of 'strategic partnership' during the visit of Vietnam's then Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung to India in July 2007.

In 2016, during Prime Minister Modi's visit to Vietnam, bilateral relations were further elevated to a 'comprehensive strategic partnership'.

Vietnam has become an important partner in India's Act East policy and the Indo-Pacific vision.
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Re: National Security Strategy: News & Discussion

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Defence expenditure is no ‘sunk cost’. It is a dangerous assumption to make
https://theprint.in/opinion/defence-exp ... e/1823632/
30 Oct 2023

By General Manoj Naravane (retd), former Chief of Army Staff - Indian Army
Increased allocations for defence should be seen through the prism of peace and development, with expenditure considered as an investment that yields handsome returns.
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Re: National Security Strategy: News & Discussion

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India walks alone, and beckons
https://schweizermonat.ch/india-walks-a ... d-beckons/
01 November 2023

By Saurav Jha
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Re: National Security Strategy: News & Discussion

Post by bala »

Jaipur Dialogues: Aadi Achint is moderator with Maj Gen Rajiv Narayana, Lt Gen PR Shankar, Yusuf Unjhawala, and Col RSN Singh provide insights into the military capabilities of India in the military conflicts and upheavals taking place around the globe. National security is the central theme.



One small anecdote by Lt Gen PR Shankar: APJ Kalam went to France searching gimbals, someone in France mentioned that gimbals are available in HBad, India!
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