• India and France are all set to hold their largest-ever naval exercise with aircraft carriers, destroyers, submarines and fighters early next month
• Indian defence sources said the two countries will be deploying their aircraft carriers, INS Vikramaditya with its MiG-29K fighters and FNS Charles de Gaulle with its Rafale-M naval jets, and other warships for the exercise

India and France are all set to hold their largest-ever naval exercise with aircraft carriers, destroyers, submarines and fighters early next month as part of their expanding strategic partnership, even as the political slugfest between BJP and Congress over the Rs 59,000-crore contract for 36 Rafale jets continues.

Indian defence sources said the two countries will be deploying their aircraft carriers, INS Vikramaditya with its MiG-29K fighters and FNS Charles de Gaulle with its Rafale-M naval jets, and other warships for the “Varuna” exercise off Goa and Karwar from May 1.

“It will be a top-level naval exercise, with intensive dual carrier task group operations and anti-submarine warfare manoeuvres. India and France are also working to implement their action-oriented joint strategic vision for cooperation in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR), which was finalised in March 2018,” said a source.



The two countries have operationalised their reciprocal military logistics support agreement, which saw French anti-aircraft destroyer FNS Cassard docking at the Mumbai naval port in January. Under the pact — the second one after India inked the first with the US in 2016 — Indian warships can access French bases like the Reunion Islands near Madagascar and Djibouti on the Horn of Africa.

France also has a naval air station in Abu Dhabi (UAE) and a military base at Mayotte in the Comoros archipelago off the coast of south-east Africa. With such mutual logistics pact with the US and France, India intends to counter China’s expanding strategic footprint in the IOR, which includes its first overseas military base at Djibouti established in August 2017.

For the Varuna exercise, apart from its nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, France is dispatching destroyers, FNS Forbin, FNS Provence and FNS Latouche Treville, nuclear attack submarine FNS Amethyste and tanker FNS Marne. The 42,500-tonne carrier will have its complement of Rafale-M fighters, E2C Hawkeye early-warning aircraft, AS-365 Dauphin and other helicopters.

India, in turn, will be fielding the 44,400-tonne INS Vikramaditya, with its integral MiG-29K fighters and helicopters, diesel-electric submarine INS Shankul, guide-missile destroyer INS Chennai, stealth frigate INS Tarkash, tanker INS Deepak, P-8I long-range maritime patrol aircraft and Dornier-228 planes.

Steadily cranking up naval engagements to build “interoperability” with like-minded countries, India has just concluded its biggest-ever exercise with Australia called “AUSINDEX” off the Visakhapatnam coast. Then, the trilateral high-voltage “Malabar” exercise with the US and Japan is slated to be held later this year.The Navy also continues to deploy around a dozen warships on regular patrols near “choke points” in the IOR under its “mission-based deployments” from the Persian Gulf to Malacca Strait, apart from several overseas deployments.

Destroyer INS Kolkata and tanker INS Shakti, for instance, have just finished an exercise with Vietnamese warships off the Cam Ranh Bay, as part of the deployment to the contentious South China Sea. Interestingly, the two Indian warships are now headed for Qingdao in China to participate in the International Fleet Review there.

Chinese Defence Minister's India visit;

Chinese Defence Minister's India visit

Chang Wanquan

India and China will attempt to resolve differences in setting up of a hotline soon between the armies of the two countries, during Chinese Defence Minister Wei Fenghe's upcoming visit here, official sources said. 

After the Wuhan summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in April, both sides revived the long-pending proposal to set up the hotline so as to avoid flare-ups between the two militaries along their disputed border. 

But, the initiative hit a roadblock over differences between the two sides on issues relating to protocol and technical aspect of the hotline. 

China's State Councilor and Defense Minister General Wei Fenghe is scheduled to visit India later this month. 

However, the Indian side feels the protocol must be maintained and equating the Indian Army headquarters to PLA's Western Theatre Command in Chengdu was not proper. 

Three commands of the Indian Army -- the Kolkata-based eastern command, the central command headquartered at Lucknow and the northern command, headquartered at Udhampur -- have been tasked to keep an eye on the nearly 3,500-km-long border with China. 

Troops of India and China were locked in a 73-day stand-off in Doklam in Sikkim sector last year which was the most serious military confrontation between the two sides in decades. 

At the two-day Wuhan summit in April, Modi and Xi decided to issue "strategic guidance" to their militaries to strengthen communications and build trust. The move was seen as aimed at avoiding a Doklam-like standoff between the two militaries. 

An eight-member Chinese military delegation led by Lt Gen Liu Xiaowu, Deputy Commander of Western Theatre Command, visited India in June as a follow-up to the Wuhan summit between Modi and Xi. 

China may deploy Next-Gen Catapult-propelled Rockets near India border

China may deploy Next-Gen Catapult-propelled Rockets near India border

                             Catapult-propelled Rockets

China is building rockets for its artillery units that will be propelled by “electromagnetic catapult” technology and can be used at high altitude locations in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), state media has reported, indicating the projectiles could be deployed against India.

Describing the innovation as “unprecedented”, the report said the catapult-propelled rockets can hit targets beyond 200 km and will be more powerful and effective than conventional artillery guns.

The report didn’t specifically mention India, though it quoted the military scientist developing the technology as saying such rockets could potentially have been used during a military incident on a plateau in southwest China’s border region.

That didn’t leave too much room for doubt about where such rockets could be deployed.

China and India were locked in a 73-day standoff on the Doklam (Donglang in Chinese) plateau near the Sikkim border last year.

The Communist Party of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) had repeatedly threatened to retaliate after Indian soldiers took position in Doklam to prevent Chinese personnel from building a strategic road in the region controlled by Beijing but claimed by Thimphu.

The standoff was resolved through diplomatic negotiations, partly because the Indian Army was said to be at an advantage in the area.

The “electromagnetic catapult rocket artillery technology” being developed at a PLA research centre in Beijing could negate that advantage, experts said.

The “research has made an important technological breakthrough and the development plan is becoming a reality”, the Global Times tabloid quoted a report by Beijing-based Science and Technology as saying.

The project leader is scientist Han Junli, a research fellow at the centre.

“Han reportedly mentioned a military incident that occurred in a border region on a plateau in Southwest China, where he saw the potential necessity of deploying rocket artillery,” the report said.“China has large plateau and mountainous areas where rocket artillery could destroy invading forces from hundreds of kilometres away without soldiers crossing mountains.”

The same technology will be used on warships and aircraft carriers.“Another is the electromagnetic railgun, which can fire projectiles via electromagnetic force at an incredible destructive velocity. It is expected to be mountedon China’s first domestically developed 10,000-ton class missile destroyer 055 in the future,” the report said.

An electromagnetic catapult system is widely expected to be used on China’s future aircraft carriers, allowing more fighter jets to take off in a shorter time and boost the carrier’s combat capabilities.

US offers THAAD Missile to India

                                 THAAD Ballistic Missile

The United States has offered India the Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) system, but India hasn’t warmed to it. The Indian Defence Ministry is not keen to begin discussions on the subject either during the 2 PLUS 2 meeting when the US secretary of state and US defence secretary will interact with the Indian external affairs minister and the defence minister on September 6. Even separate discussions aren’t on the agenda.

This decision comes in the wake of India successfully concluding negotiations with Russia for the transfer of the S-400 air-defence missile system. India is happy with the negotiations having shaved off $1 billion off the asking price.

The Defence Research and Development Organisation’s development of the anti-missile system is also taking place. A large number of tests have been successful.

On the other hand, India is prepared to begin discussions for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, armed and unarmed with the USA. The USA is keen on more weapons transfers to India. In recent months, there has been a decision to buy an additional C-17.