The Week that Passed By:
I thought last week was busy, but ...
I had genuinely thought last week was busy in the world of defence and geopolitics. This week just put last one to shame.
Let’s get to it.
1. Zorawar Light Tanks. The IA’s demand for light tanks for mountainous terrain has finally seen some movement, with reports and DRDO tenders suggesting that L&T has been given orders for the construction of the first prototype. It seems that the engine will be from MTU (no surprise at all given that the Arjun also sources its engine from MTU), and the turret will be a direct import from Cockeril of Belgium, sporting a 105mm rifled gun (same lineage as the British 105 of the Centurion/Vijayanta series) – a gun that the IA knows extremely well and whose history deserves a retelling here – sometime later.
2. INS VIKRANT continues with its advanced aviation trials, and pictures were posted recently by the Indian Navy of the ship with multiple MiG29Ks on board. The picture also showed the first INS Vikrant, with an assortment of Hawker Sea Hawks, Breguet Alizes and other aircraft onboard, a very potent reminder that the IN has been operating carriers uninterrupted since 1961.
3. French President Macron visited Beijing in an attempt to nudge China to mediate more actively and bring an end to the Russo Ukraine war. Instead of that, he declared that Europe should be careful in getting drawn into crisis not of their making.
In what now seems to be a self fulfilling prophecy, Dr S Jaishankar had stated that Europe needed to change this exact attitude.
Macron has been criticized both in France and by other European powers over this “Tour of Vanity”, but it remains to be seen what stance EU takes in the burgeoning New Cold War.
4. Chinese grey zone coercive tactics continue. In a mirror of the hostile deployments across the LAC, the Chinese Navy (PLA Navy) conducted a 3 day live fire exercise around Taiwan. 11 warships including an aircraft carrier surrounded Taiwan as multiple PLA Air Force jets conducted mock strikes on key defenses and airbases on Taiwan. The Chinese Military even went as far ahead as declaring that it was “ready to fight” to take control of Taiwan.
The Exercise was clearly intended as a tool of coercion and as a reaction to Taiwan President Tsai’s visit to the US mainland.
The risk of sudden unplanned escalation in such exercises remain very high, as they do in the ongoing border crisis in the Himalayas.
5. Speaking of Chinese coercion, evidence (in the form of satellite imagery) has emerged of fresh construction activities (including a large airstrip) on the Cocos Island in Myanmar. The island is located just north of the strategically crucial Andaman Islands, and India has lodged official protests with the Myanmar govt, given well founded fears that this is Chinese activity.
6. The USAF has arrived in India for phase II of COPE 2023 exercise with the IAF. The USAF is deploying F15E Strike Eagle fighters, as well as 2 B1B Lancer supersonic bombers (the first such deployment in India). The IAF is being represented by SU30MKIs, Tejas, Jaguars, and possible Rafales and other fighter jets. In addition, air to air refuellers, AWACS and other support aircraft will be present.
The units, aircraft and airbases involved (Kalaikunda and Panagarh) leave little doubt what this exercise is aimed at : building deterrence and practicing the entire gamut of air operations between the two partner nations against a hostile Chinese frontier.
7. Speaking of the IAF, Rafales from Hasimhara airbase arrived in France at Air Base 118 in Mont-de-Marsan, to participate in Exercise Orion, a multinational NATO air exercise. This comes after exercises in UK, Japan, UAE and the one in India. IAF is sending many messages with all of this activity. I wrote about that in this piece: Its Raining Exercises. The same Rafales also stopped over in Egypt for interaction with that nation’s air force.
Exercise Orion involves the Air Forces of UK, France, India, Spain, Germany, Singapore and the US.
A Russian T90A tank, captured in the Ukraine war, has appeared in the US.
The Tank is headed to the Aberdeen Proving and Testing Centre, which is the US Army’s premier unit for exploitation of Foreign Material. Its quite evident that the tank will be studied in detail and its strength, weaknesses and operational performance will be analysed by the US military.
The tank was visually identified by open source analyst group Oryx as having “belonged to Russia's 27th Separate Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade, 1st Guards Tank Army... It was abandoned in Kurylivka, Kharkiv Oblast (49.660195, 37.699288) around 25 September 2022. It was captured by Ukraine's 92nd Separate Mechanized Brigade, hence the yellow 9s on the tank while in Louisiana (this is the marking the 92nd puts on their equipment).”
The tank is mostly intact, with its armour (and Explosive Reactive Armor panels are intact) and has the Shtora - 1 Infrared Protection Jammers fitted. It is a veritable gold mine for US intelligence, as the T90A is a fairly modern tank.
The first C295 turboprop cargo airlifter for the Indian Air Force was publicly unveiled by Airbus Defence. The C295 is part of 56 aircraft contracted by the IAF to replace the ageing Hawker Siddeley HS 748s.
