Battle for information

August 17, 2016: YEH DIL MAANGE MORE! Shouts Captain Vijayant of 9th Para SF on his encrypted Satellite radio. The tactical HQ receives this message. Brigadier Bhardwaj - in charge of this whole operation - lets out a scream of joy and a silent 'thank you' to the almighty. The message sent by the young hotshot meant that Capn Vijayant and his platoon have just destroyed a terrorist camp located in jungles and are on their way to EZ (extraction zone). He could also see the current position of the unit on the huge display in front of him. Capn had just updated his location on the map grid using his SAATHI terminal.

SAATHI was first introduced to the troops involved in COIN ops in J&K in early 2000. It was a spin off of the Simputer developed by IISc Bangalore. With the time SAATHI became a potent tool with its small size and loads of features. IA integrated SAATHI in its 'Battlefield Management System’ (BMS) to increase situational awareness and increase the speed of decision-making.

A UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) sent in the area for damage assessment over the location of the camp. All of a sudden UAV operator finds something moving in the jungles just 1km south of Vijayant's EZ. He zooms in on the object and gets a shock of his life. Camouflaged using camo net was a SAM (Surface to Air Missile) launcher lurking in the jungle with 12 soldiers guarding it. SAMs can be dangerous for helicopters coming in to extract Capn Vijayant & Co. He immediately passes on this information to tactical HQ. Brigadier Bhardwaj receives the information and immediately takes a decision to task Vijayant & Co to take care of the SAM. He immediately contacts Vijayant and passes down the information about the SAM and soldiers guarding it. He updates the location of the SAM on his console. This update is immediately reflected Vijayant's SAATHI terminal. Once he has the location, Vijayant and his brave troopers plan their approach and take care of the SAM and its guardians. Once they give 'all clear' helicopters move in and extract them to their base to be welcomed with loud cries of "Bharat Mata Ki Jai". Availability and proper dissemination of information not only helped destroy the SAM but also saved lives of helicopter pilots and Vijayant's platoon.

The above scenario gives a hypothetical scenario where ability to conduct NCW not only increases efficiency of a unit but also minimizes loss of men and materiel. NCW is the latest buzzword in the military circles to enable forces to fight battles in future. NCW (Network Centric Warfare) or NCO (Network Centric Operations) is not about: changing the nature of war; substituting the network for military force; or replacing all other older forces and forms of warfare. Network-centric warfare is an emerging theory of war in the Information Age. It is also a concept that, at the highest level, exploiting information can be used as a weapon to gain advantage on a battlefield. The term network-centric warfare broadly describes the combination of strategies, emerging tactics, techniques, and procedures, and organizations that a fully or even a partially networked force can employ to create a decisive war fighting advantage.

NCW is about enhancing combat power through shared awareness. NCW generates increased combat power by networking sensors, decision makers, and shooters (ground troops) to achieve shared awareness, increased speed of command, flexibility, higher speed of operations, greater lethality, increased survivability, and a collaboration.

Network Centric Warfare (NCW) is not simply focused on technological solutions, but rather on how these solutions affect individual and collective behaviour in military organizations and the final outcome of any conflict.

Functioning

Network-centric warfare is like an engine with people, systems, and platforms as its components to form networked force that creates shared battle space awareness for information superiority and speed of command.

NCW has 3 key elements: sensors, command and control and shooters. They can be neatly arranged into 3 separate grids.

Sensor grid – connects the sensors into the system (Satellites, AWACS, UAV etc)

Information grid – connects the command and control function to the system (tactical HQ, AWACS etc)

Engagement grid – connects the shooters into the system (squads, tanks, artillery)

NCW lets all the participants (nodes in a network) share the information gathered by various platforms. Information is circulated in real time so as to give a ‘live’ picture of the battlefield. This helps the commanders take fast decisions so as to maximize combat effectiveness of involved units. E.g if a particular area is being defended, a commander knows who is defending it, what equipment they have and what threats are in the area. Since information is real-time, if there is any threat developing in the area, he can decide to send in more troops to reinforce the area. This cuts off the time taken to make a decision in conventional setup. In a normal setup ground troops will know about a threat only when they are attacked, then message is passed on to the commander who decides whether to send in the troops or not. This is time consuming and in a war, delays can mean losing lives.

Network-centric warfare is the product of the convergence of computers and communication. Unless you have a secure and very robust communication and information infrastructure – infostructure - on the ground you are not fit for the network-centric operations in a digitalized battlefield of tomorrow. Network should be capable of handling both data and voice. A picture with icons does not tell you the entire story. You need to listen it from horse’s mouth. Voice carrying capacity makes for effective communication between different levels of command. Voice provides meaning and context to the icons on electronic maps.

In simple words, NCW is a national level communication/IT infrastructure coming together to give a winning edge in warfare and other instances involving military forces.

Emergence

Benefits of having prior information about enemy movement have been known since ages. In earlier days information regarding enemy troop movements was gathered using Scouts and spies. This information used to be hazy and confusing. Another problem was passing on this information to commanders. This used to be done using runners, riders or messengers. Once commanders had the information, they would deploy their troops accordingly. The time gap between gathering of information and deploying the troops used to be several hours. In the meanwhile if enemy moved the troops in different pattern, this delay could be devastating. NCW gives information in real time so that commanders can change tactics as per the new developments on the field. NCW is not a new theory of warfare. Radar operators guiding aircrafts to intercept the enemy was a primitive sort of NCW where a single radar will give updates to many fighters far apart from each other. It is somewhat similar to maneuver theory of warfare where an army adapts its movement according to the movements of the enemy units. This is quiet close to what German called Blitzkrieg during WW II. NCW gives you real time information so that you can outsmart your enemy and move faster than your enemy to gain advantage on the battlefield.

With the emerging technologies, armed forces world over are moving from industrial age to information age. This is very similar to business transformation we have seen in last couple of decades. The three main points for transformation both in business and armed forces are:

- The shift in focus from the platform to the network.
- The shift from viewing actors as independent to viewing them as part of a dynamic environment.
- The importance of making strategic choices to adapt or even survive in such dynamic environment.

How can it change the battlefield?

NCW gives ability to bring down combat power at right time on a target with far greater intensity than the past. Due to all its virtues, NCW increases combat effectiveness of all units. These can mean that a force with NCW capabilities can achieve similar goals using lesser resources (men and materiel) compared to a force that relies on conventional means.

General unreliability of all information presents a special problem in war: During heat of combat, the information pouring in may not be very clear and goes on to create a very hazy picture of what’s going on. This can hamper the decision making process slowing it down. In such scenarios, a commander needs to trust his talent or luck. NCW eliminates the need to rely on talent or luck by giving objective information that leads to faster and more effective decision-making. It aids the commander to increase the speed of command through enhanced situational awareness.



To check how well network centric operations increase the efficiency, USAF conducted a test between F-15s using conventional voice communication and F-15s equipped with Link 16 secure data-link. F-15s with Link 16 saw 2.5 times improvement in kill ratio both during daytime and nighttime. Using conventional voice communication, pilot needs to build up a mental picture of the position of friendly (Blue) and enemy (Red) aircrafts. Air battles are very dynamic and 3-dimensional. Due to this a mental picture of Red & Blue positions becomes obsolete within 10-15 seconds. Link 16 gives a visual picture of the battle to all the nodes. They can also share the picture created by any one of the platforms say an AWACS. This data can be circulated among all the nodes. Once a pilot has a visual picture, he can directly go to the planning phase increasing the combat effectiveness. A pilot can engage multiple targets as he knows the location, wingman can be used in offensive role instead of ‘watch my six’ duties and ambushing enemy aircrafts from blind side.

Where is it implemented?

Network Centric Warfare (or Network Enabled Capability as called in UK) has been effectively utilized by some of the advanced military forces across the globe. With the increasing threat of terrorism, many countries are building capabilities to conduct NCW. Within a decade armed forces of all major countries will boast ability to conduct NCW. US armed forces have been the pioneer in building NCW infrastructure and using it in locations like Iraq. Listed below are some of the examples from practical implementation of NCW.

The Cooperative Engagement Capability (CEC) system commissioned by US Navy creates a grid where Navy ships and aircrafts operating in a particular area are integrated into a single overlapping air-defense network. It works something like this. Radar data collected by various platforms is available to all the participants in real-time, giving a more accurate and composite picture of what’s happening in the air. This information can allow a ship to launch missiles at targets that its radar cannot see by using the data passed on by other units in the grid. The biggest advantage is what is called ‘hand-off’ capability. A missile fired by a ship/aircraft can be guided by other ship/aircraft in the network. This pushes the air-defence envelope further out than was possible with conventional means. CEC is designed to protect USN carrier battle groups. It is installed not only on the aircraft carrier but also on Aegis-equipped cruisers and destroyers, amphibious ships and E-2C Hawkeye aircrafts that operate from aircraft carriers.

The Joint Fires Network is a system conceived by US Navy and later expanded to integrate US Army, Air Force and Marines with their own sub-systems. It links all the players in particular area into a single targeting grid to provide real-time targeting information to co-ordinate artillery and missiles to attack surface and land targets - particularly mobile and time-critical targets - like warships or land-based missile launch vehicles. US Navy’s sub-system is called Tactical Exploitation System-Navy (TES-N), US Army uses Tactical Exploitation System-Forward (TES-F), US AF has Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Manager (ISRM) while USMC’s version is called Tactical Exploitation Group (TEG). All these sub-system use same baseline software but are tweaked as per requirements of the particular arm. Interoperability of these sub-systems help carry out coordinated and time-critical strikes on targets maximizing the damage caused to enemy and achieving expected results.

Stryker Brigade is the newest unit in the US Army. Stryker – a medium weight, fast and stealthy vehicle – is the basic ingredient of this unit. From its very inception it was conceptualized to carry out Network Centric Operations. Inclination towards NCO is obvious from operational concept, structural design and its networking capabilities. Even its organizational structure is designed so as to take maximum advantage of information as a weapon by conducting NCO.

What are we doing about it?

Enough of ranting about US. I am sure most of you would like to know what is India doing about the whole deal. All of you armchair Generals out there, you need not scramble. Our forces are in tune with the times. Just like in US where US Navy pioneered the effort for NCW, Indian Navy has pioneered the move towards NCW. Indian Navy has plans to cover entire IOR (Indian Ocean Region) using various assets like satellites, ships and land-based sensors. IN has already started building its network by linking ships, submarines, aircrafts, helicopters and shore-based installations with high-speed data links creating a seamless flow of information between all the assets. Since IN has a very large AOR (Area of responsibility) stretching from Gulf of Aden to Malacca straits this network will help IN to patrol this whole region in a much better way. Malacca strait is notorious for piracy and gunrunning. Considerable naval assets are deployed for patrolling in that area. If IN has a 24/7 watch in the area using satellites and UAVs, IN can just deploy a QRF (Quick Reaction Force) on Andaman & Nicobar islands so whenever miscreants are identified, QRF can get into action taking care of the situation. This will free up additional resources like ships and aircrafts for other duties. Thus same results can be achieved with only a fraction of assets deployed earlier. With setting up of a new tri-service command in Andaman & Nicobar islands, there will be enough assets to reinforce QRF in case things get ugly.

Indian Army and Air Force may not have kept pace with the Navy, but they are taking some firm steps to catch up. Indian Army has already inducted the Artillery Command and Control System (ACCS), built by Bharat Electronics, Bangalore. ACCS circulates the targeting information among the artillery units in a particular area. It keeps updating the database as and when a target is destroyed or a new threat emerges. This allows a commander to keep track of whats going on in the field. In addition to providing information about the targets, it also provides the firing solution that helps a gunners setup their guns to destroy a particular target. IA has initiated a $ 700 million project called ‘Battlefield Management System’ (BMS) for infantry to integrate information at command HQ with the soldier on the ground. BMS will provide real-time situational awareness to commanders by collating information generated by various assets. In the due course IA will integrate ACCS and BMS to provide artillery support to infantry and eliminate enemy assets threatening friendly infantry.

IAF has made a huge leap towards NCW with induction of force-multipliers like Israeli PHALCON (Phased Array L-band CONformal) AWACS. PHALCON can give real time updates to friendly aircrafts using secure data links. These aircrafts can then plan their attacks or launch weapons at enemy assets without turning on their radars. In a air war turning on radar means giving out your location. So an aircraft with radar turned off would not give out its location unless it comes within radar range of hostile radar. Using a data link, friendly aircrafts have the visual picture in front of them without turning on their radars. They can attack enemy units without going into their radar range. This can instill fear and confusion in enemy forces, as they don’t know what hit them.

IAF has already launched an ambitious project to link different aircrafts, ground stations and satellites to conduct NCW. Estimated cost of the project is around $ 1 billion and total time for integration will be 5 years. This project will be supervised by HAL (Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd.) and is divided into 4 phases.

Phase 1 – development and installation of software to link ground station and aircrafts.

Phase 2 – field trials to check how well the systems perform in a real scenario

Phase 3 – modification and optimization based on field trials

Phase 4 – networking of aircrafts, ground stations and satellites to conduct NCW

Networked aircraft will be able to share information in real time. All 3 ingredients of NCW viz sensors (satellites, UAVs, AWACS etc), command and control (ground station, AWACS etc) and shooters (fighters, gunship helicopters etc) will be integrated in these network.

Though building these capabilities requires lots of money and time, they are badly required. With India’s ambition to be a global player, such capabilities are very necessary if our forces are to operate in foreign lands for peace keeping duties or protecting friendly countries from invasion.

Peaceful applications

If you thought that Network Centric Operations are only meant to conduct war, you are in for a mild shock as NCO has been used for civilian use as well. NCO was deployed in aid of relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina and to check SARS outbreak in Singapore.

During the relief operations after Hurricane Katrina, US Army National Guard soldiers relied on AFATDS’ (Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System) command and control functions to coordinate the relief effort. AFATDS provided them with chat and instant messaging to increase the efficiency of the relief effort by giving a clear picture of what resources were needed in their area of operations.

Similarly, during SARS outbreak in Singapore, government realized that it was an epidemic beyond the control of health ministry and required involving other departments. Departments like immigration, education, economy, tourism, border control etc were involved. All the involved departments shared information so that SARS patients could be identified and people in his/her contact can be checked for the disease. Immigration control received updated lists of people served with home quarantine orders. Immigration control could check the list and deny exit to a person found on the list. This not only helped prevent disease from spreading across Singapore, but also across the world.

Mythbuster–1 "Megapixel is deciding factor for a digital camera"

Thanks to my earlier stint with India’s best consumer technology magazine and my personal interest in gadgets, I get lot of queries from friends and acquaintances for their tech needs. Most irritating and most frequent statement they make is, “I like camera X because it has higher megapixel (MP) than camera Y”. Agreed that they don’t know a lot about such stuff, but then why can’t refrain from making such statements at all. My standard response to this statement is long, but educating. And that is what I’ll deliver here for benefit of my audience. 

A good camera has more to it than just megapixels. Agreed that resolution of a camera – measured in MP – is a deciding factor but it is not THE deciding factor. First let me delve into what exactly MP means and how it affects your photos. If you keep zooming in on a digital photo of gorgeous Katrina Kaif, you’ll notice that her picture is made up of ugly little dots known as pixels. These pixels are building blocks of any picture. Just like we measure bytes of data and for convenience count it in terms of Megabytes (MB) and Gigabytes (GB), even pixels are counted in terms of Megapixel (meaning a million pixels). MP is counted by taking an image size into account. Say if size of an image is 2048 pixel x 1536 pixel; image resolution translates to roughly 3.1 MP. Simply put, image resolution is product of length and breadth of any given image. Hence an image with a higher resolution means that it is a larger image and it can be printed in larger size. 

My personal experience tells me that I have always turned down my camera resolution to around 3 MP. There are some reasons for this preference of mine. First and foremost is that a 3 MP image uses less memory compared to a 7 MP image. This way I can store more number of images on my camera than I would be able to with highest resolution setting. A smaller image size also allows faster uploading over internet. Since most of the time we end up sharing our photos online rather than printing them out, it is very convenient especially to those of us with sad broadband connections. For those pictures that I have got printed I usually get them printed in 5” x 7” size. Although once in a while I have got them blown up to larger sizes, I have never noticed any loss of quality. A higher resolution would simply mean that you can get your images printed in larger sizes without loss of quality. 

Point of all the gyaan I just delivered is; don’t just keep MP in mind while buying a camera. You don’t need those fancy 10-12 MP cameras unless you are going to use them for shooting portrait sized photographs. “Higher resolutions makes a better camera”, this half-truth and marketing gimmick has been circulated by camera companies who want to sell their wares and create a craving for the same among customers. In fact, there is a more to a camera than just resolution. If you are an outdoorsy person like me, make sure that you get highest optical zoom on your camera. A higher optical zoom will allow you to click pictures of far off objects as if they were close to you. While looking for zoom, stay clear of another gimmick called Digital Zoom. In addition to optical zoom, there are factors like shutter speed, low light performance, swappable lenses and lot more. Other factors will be discussed in later posts as this post was meant to burst the myth surrounding mysterious Megapixel.

New Age Diplomacy

Mao, the great leader of China once said “political power grows out of the barrel of a gun”. When he said that, he might not have known how his successors would stand true to it. China’s biggest export after toys and cheap electronics is arms and ammunition. Interesting that this business is mostly illegal and conducted with under-developed or developing countries. Most of the time these weapons are given out for free or at very cheap prices (China’s forte) to various nations. Countries that benefit from such deals are usually poor African nations or pariah states like Zimbabwe or North Korea. Looks forget the military aspect of such deals and concentrate on political implications.

Most nations purchasing their military equipment from China are usually short on cash or politically sensitive. These weapons are not the latest weapons but based on old Soviet era designs. As we all know, China has a thing about reverse engineering everything may it be a simple pistol or a complex system like a fighter aircraft. Since they have been building such dated equipment for a long time, their production cost is very low. Low cost allows China to give military equipment as gift to a really poor nation. By providing such gifts, China ensures that receiving nation depends on China to keep its armed forces operational. Such an arrangement not only gives China leverage over that nation but also creates a market for their goods. In most cases, these impoverished nations have political problems and countries with bloated moralities – like India – are not willing to trade with them. In such a case, military aid and civilian goods are a blessing for them. Another interesting fact is that China is never shy of dealing with any country. They are not really bothered about legitimacy of rulers or political inclination of their client state. Unlike erstwhile USSR, China has no intentions of spreading communism or meddling with internal affairs of a country. A very recent example would be recent operations conducted by Sri Lanka against LTTE. Although China is a major supplier of arms to Sri Lanka, they never sent military advisors to advise them or train them. Instead it was Pakistan that sent its officers to train Sri Lankan forces. And Pakistani officers have been training them for last three years (phew).

Point of all my rants is, India also has large production lines for churning out Soviet era equipment and some newer equipment too. Moreover we help many countries with foreign aid and stuff, but we hardly provide them with any military equipment. Instead of just putting our money down the drains – that’s the case when you help some very poor nations – we would do better to provide them with military equipment like weapons, military vehicles and aircrafts/helicopters. This way we can literally get a bang for our bucks in terms of diplomatic advantage. Closer ties lead to more business with such countries, both in terms of military equipment and civilian goods. We need more and more such deals and there is a financial angle to it. While we import military equipment worth Rs. 30,000 crores every year, our defence exports are pathetic 1% of our imports. Yes our export figures just stand between Rs. 300-400 crores. Most of our military imports consist of cutting edge systems. So it only makes sense to export military hardware and use that money to fund building our own defence industry and churning out latest equipment for our forces. This way we can not only save lot of foreign exchange but can build competencies and generate more employment.

Exporting weapons to such rag-tag countries busy killing each other might sound unethical to many. Yes it is unethical if you just look at the smaller picture. But it is completely OK if you consider interests of our country and her citizens. In case such deals have to be kept under the wraps so as not to invite international attention, such deals can be conducted under names of shady organizations. Try and watch Lord of War starring Nicholas Cage to get an insight in the world of illegal arms trade. In earlier times, countries used to play gunboat diplomacy, where they would send their powerful warships to 'persuade' non-complying nations. Since times have changed can play gun-trade diplomacy to extend our sphere of influence. All said and done; our bureaucrats are doing a wonderful job of killing such exports. Recently one such deal worth Rs. 300 crores with Bolivia was shot down by Ministry of External Affairs on stupid grounds. If that deal had gone through, our military exports would have just doubled.

O Lord, protect my country from those suffering from myopia.

Chapter 2: Emergence of LTTE

Sri Lankan government was not really forthcoming to deal with the situation. They did not try to handle the situation on a domestic basis by negotiations. Instead it stepped up its brutalities. This cornered Tamils in Sri Lanka and things began to change rapidly.

Initially there were many different organizations fighting for rights of Tamils in Sri Lanka. There was not much co-oridnation between them and there were turf wars too. Prabhakaran eliminated/merged such units to form the strongest organization - LTTE. His focus was to get a separate country carved out of Sri Lanka for Tamils. He consolidated his grip over the organization and started marching towards his goal of separate country. He had unconventional thinking, so while rest of the organizations sent their cadres to be trained in India, Prabhakaran sent his top guys to train in Israel.

After long time of fighting between Sri Lankans forces and LTTE, Colombo wanted India to interfere. Delhi was ruled by Rajiv Gandhi at the time. Following the path of his grandfather - Nehru - he authorized IPKF's entry in Sri Lanka without taking Prabhakaran in confidence.

IPKF initially did very good job of helping Tamils in war-torn region and was a welcome sight for almost all. IPKF was the only source of medical attention and administration for battle-scorched region.

But this was soon to change.

Next chapter: Relations go sour

Chapter 1: The background

Yesterday, a friend of mine said that LTTE was just a terrorist organization. War in Sri Lanka was their internal matter, just like J&K and Punjab are India's internal matter. As she said terrorism is terrorism. But that is what we think at macro level. To find the differences, we need to take a trip down the history and get into the details.

Sri Lanka can not be compared with J&K or Punjab. Issue in J&K and Punjab were that they were part of Indian union and wanted so called independence just because the leaders were under Pakistan's influence. It would be prudent to remind that they were never subjected to atrocities from Indian union.

Sri Lanka on the other hand was totally different. Tell me what would your thoughts be when all innocent females of your town are raped not because they were terrorist but just because they spoke Tamil ? Pregnant women are cut up their foetus removed just because they spoke Tamil. Your father, uncles and brothers - all law abiding and industrious citizens - are rounded up one night and dont return for weeks. When you go looking for them, you find some mutilated bodies. You finally manage to identify them by their birth mark ?

All this and more happened just because they spoke Tamil. No provocations at all. And this went on for a long time. Would you believe Sri Lankans didnt even allow India to send relief material to these tortured souls. Ships carrying relief material from India were threatened by Sri Lankan Navy and sent back. It was then that IAF carried out Operation Poomalai.

It was after the refugee influx and rising pressure that GOI finally acted. Camps were set up in India to train units that could fight back. And mind you, their fight was for equality and not a separate state initially. But brutality of Sri Lanka finally forced these organizations to put up a demand for total independence.

Next chapter: Emergence of LTTE

Kyonki Mirage bhi kabhi MMRCA tha!!!

Indian MMRCA (Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft) competition has been a long drawn affair. An affair that outlasted torturous K-series sops from Ms. Kapoor. Just like key characters in those sops, various contenders had sudden entry or exit as far as competition is concerned. Another analogy is that as in the sops, main characters span across various generations. Number of characters in K-sops is approximately equal to the number of aircrafts to be purchased under MMRCA deal (126 aircrafts as of now). A few weeks back, assault of K-series didn’t seem to be never-ending. Same can be said for MMRCA deal as no end seems to be in sight. At least not yet.

MMRCA competition is a child with many parents. The most important factor being the gap between retirement of various variants of MiG-21 and delay in introduction of Tejas (indigenous Light Combat Aircraft aka LCA). Another critical factor has been the reluctance of UPA government still haunted by Bofors ghost. Third factor has been a dramatic change in geo-political situation in this part of the globe. Last but not the least has been the fact that IAF is now seeing itself in a much larger role than before and wants the right tools to fulfill that role. Let us discuss all these one by one.

Originally MMRCA existed just as a term of reference. IAF just wanted additional squadrons of Mirage-2000-V as the MMRCA. This was due to the fact that due to crashes, a fine fighter like MiG-21 was being branded as “flying coffin” by not-so-investigative media. A big hue and cry was raised by media forcing IAF to ground certain variants of MiG-21 for some time. While Fishbeds sat in their hangars, their replacement LCA was facing major issues. Post-Pokhran, LCA was suffering from sanctions put up by USA and other countries. It was already running a decade behind schedule and the magic lamp that can turn it into a deadly fighter is yet to be found. Even now LCA is couple of years away from serving the IAF. This major gap brought down IAF numbers quicker than anticipated. So the quickest solution was to get an aircraft that would fill the gap created by MiG-21 crashes and delay in LCA project. IAF had an aircraft in mind which would do just that and more. This aircraft had proved its worth in Kargil conflict by bombing some high profile targets like Tiger Hill. It was none other than delta-winged Mirage-2000H (called ‘Vajra’ in IAF service). Purchased during the tenure of Rajiv Gandhi, M-2000 silenced those who claimed that India had paid a fortune for this tiny aircraft. So it was quiet natural that IAF was impressed by this aircraft and wanted to have some more squadrons flying this bird. It put up its intentions in front of MoD and almost got it approved. The then Defence Minister, Mr. George Fernandes clearly mentioned that next government would sign the deal for buying an advanced version - Mirage-2000-V - from Dassault.

New government came to power. This was a coalition led by Congress. As most of us know, history of independent India has seen Congress is power for a longer time than any other political party. It was during the tenure of Congress party that a deal was signed to purchase around 400 howitzers for the Indian Army. Alleged kickbacks from Bofors deal would haunt the Gandhi family and Congress for a very long time. Even exceptional performance of 155mm Bofors howitzers during Kargil conflict didn’t do much good to them. So when it was time to sign the deal for additional Mirages, Congress led coalition – UPA – faltered. Memories of past came rushing back. UPA was not ready to take any chances. So under the pretext of “avoiding a single vendor situation”, UPA created a saga popularly known as MMRCA competition. Initially the contenders were Mirage-2000-V, F-16 Block 50-52/60 and MiG-29 M2 (later renamed MiG-35). Most of the enthusiasts and IAF officers thought that it was just a tactic to pressurize France and eventually Mirage will be selected.

Few years went without anything concrete happening on the MMRCA front. And then suddenly India found a new friend in USA. Thaw in relations was due to various economic and political factors and it opened lot many doors that were earlier off-limits to India. It seems IAF was told that they can’t have their Mirages. Instead, revised requirements for MMRCA were to be submitted. Huge shift in these requirements is clear from the entry/exit of contenders. While Indian government was courting USA, France announced that they would shut down assembly lines for Mirage. This and change in geo-political situation saw Mirage pulling out of the race, being replaced by Rafale. As if this was not enough, F-18 E/F Super Hornet, JAS-39 Gripen, and EF Typhoon joined the party. To a careful observer, this would be bit amusing. As most of us know, initial MMRCA competition was for a medium aircraft with MTOW (Max. Take-Off Weight) less than 25 tons. And since it was supposed to replace IAF’s workhorse – MiG-21 – it calls for good serviceability and lower maintenance cost. But the late entrants didn’t fit this criterion. Instead they are expensive and advanced aircrafts that might compete with Su-30MKI in terms of performance and maintenance.

IAF top brass, who was earlier content with just buying additional Mirages wanted to make the most of increased defence budget and newfound economic strength. They feverishly drew up requirements making it clear that nothing but the best will satisfy them. Terms like AESA, network centricity, swing role, etc. started taking up their slots in requirement sheets. This was the first time that IAF had a chance to get its entire wish list without having to worry about running out of money. IAF, after operating air dominance fighters like Su-30MKI and acquisition of force multipliers like IL-78MKI tankers and PHALCON AWACS is in the mood to make the most out of these assets. As India grows stronger, it is only a matter of time before we have to send our forces to distant lands to ensure safety of our commercial and political interests. This is evident from so many exercises held with various air forces across the globe. This has forced IAF to rethink its requirements and the end result is requirement for a highly capable aircraft with a good upgrade potential.

Military benefits from MMRCA deal are better known to IAF and Ministry of Defence (MoD). But economic benefits that will result from this deal will affect local industry in a big way, thanks to the offset clause. As per the offset policy framed by GoI in 2006, any deal worth more than Rs 300 crore should have an offset clause of at least 30%. This means 30% of the total deal amount will have to be invested in local industry. And the beauty of it is that, it has to be specifically invested in defence sector, eventually strengthening local industry. Since Transfer of Technology of advanced technology is also a deciding parameter of MMRCA deal, Indian defence sector will benefit in terms of funding and technology infusion.

With the recent global crisis, aviation majors like Lockheed Martin (makers of F-16/F-22) and Boeing (F-18/JSF) have been forced to lay off thousands of employees. The situation is not much better for RAC MiG and European aviation companies either. In such a scenario, all eyes are fixed on MMRCA competition. 126 aircrafts is a big deal by any standard, but at this time, such a deal can keep production lines open and give a welcome respite to the winning company.

Begaani Shaadi Main, Abdullah Deewana

Marriages are made in heaven. So are thunder and lightning. People just don’t understand it. And that’s why they embark on a quest to get married. While luckier ones opt for love marriage, unlucky ones are stuck with a torturous process which most of you know as ARRANGED MARRIAGE. In case you don’t share my opinion about arranged marriages, then you should contact your enemies or friends who have gone through bride/groom hunting routine. I happen to know one such unlucky soul – Mr. Q – and I am going to write about his adventures of bride hunting for next few posts.

I happen to know him since school days. He was one of the quietest guys in our class. We were not good friends during school so don’t know whether he had feelings for any girl or not. After school came college and we lost contact. Later we came in contact with each other through Offline Orkut – Anand Bhut. Mr. Q was posted out to Bangalore working with one of the most reputed software company. I could see that he had smartened up a bit but he was still the naïve, innocent and nice guy from school.

In Indian parlance ‘settle down’ means having a ‘naukri’ and ‘chokri’ (job and a wife) both. So unless you have both, people say that a guy hasn’t settled down yet. Unsettled tag applies even if you are just stacking up currency notes or dating a super model. So technically my friend was not settled and his parents wanted to marry him off so that he would settle down. Just like SRS (System Requirement Study) done at the beginning of designing of new software, Mr. Q and his family sat down to chalk out criteria for the ideal bride. Once the criteria were frozen, hunt began.

For those who are not familiar with bride/groom hunting, here’s a little insight. Hunting is usually done at various levels. First level is formed of relatives and friends. Players at this level try to match a guy and girl from their social circle. This is the best method as the mediator knows both sides and is acting selflessly. Next level is formed of family priests. They happen to know lot of people so they are quiet helpful in finding a match. They might be interested in little ‘dakshina’ (simply put consulting fees) to fix you up. Final and currently popular level is formed by various matrimonial websites. These sites charge you a small fee and provide a portal where you can look out for a person who fits the profile you are looking for. They allow you to share pictures and chat with other members. Best part about such sites is that you can contact people spread across the globe. Only glitch is that you might not have enough information about the person you met on such matrimonial website. This is where people need to hire mercenaries like me.

Next episode….coming soon….

Eid Mubarak to all Jihadis

Hello my fellow humans. Eid Mubarak to you and your families. I hope this letter finds you alive and sane. You’ll need little bit of sanity and reasoning power in order to continue reading this letter and understand its contents.

First of all I would like to admire your guts for sacrificing your life for a cause that you believe in. after all it takes lots of guts to face bullets and to blow a bomb strapped to your body. But then I won’t say that you are brave because brave people don’t kill innocent women and children. There is a wide difference between being gutsy and being brave. All brave people are gutsy but the converse is not true. You might argue that this is a war for you and everything is fair in love and war. Yes everything is fair as long as you fight your enemies but as soon as you start killing innocent people, you become a butcher instead of a soldier that you think you are. If you think you are a soldier defending Islam, then go and fight your enemy soldiers but not helpless men, women and children. And if you are so obsessed with soldiering then why don’t you don a uniform and fight. Why do you hide your faces and take cover of burkha? Bravery is in fighting for the oppressed and not in killing the innocent.

I am sure that you are well-versed with holy Quran and you know it by heart. What I doubt is your understanding of Quran and the Prophet. If you take a good look at history, Islam has embraced everybody in its arms. Till very recently that is. It is only recently that a handful of men with vested interest woke up one day to find Islam in danger. Whatever their selfish interests might be, they started brainwashing people and made them believe that killing innocent humans across the globe will open doors of heaven for them. I don’t believe in heaven or hell, but I don’t think those who kill people will ever go to heaven. It would be prudent to point out an event from Prophet Mohammed’s life. Prophet and his followers were resting in desert. Some of his followers burnt termite’s nest. On seeing this Prophet told them that fire is God’s weapon. Only he has the right to punish the offenders with fire. If you really believe in Prophet’s sayings then you would do good to keep this incident in mind.

From what I understand, Jihad means the holy war. But it has a deeper meaning. War is cruel and savage. It cannot be holy in true sense. But when you say Jihad, it means a war against oppression. This oppression might be in any form. Still that does not entitle you to kill people mindlessly. Because what you boys are doing is not war but it is genocide. I don’t say don’t defend yourself. All I am saying is don’t kill the innocent. Due to your killings, all Muslims across the world are seen as terrorist. All religions have their set of terrorists. For me any terrorist is a terrorist and deserves to be eliminated with extreme prejudice. There are certain differences between Muslim terrorists and terrorists from other religions. While most terrorists have a political aim, Muslim terrorists have religious issues. Muslim terrorists are most organized lot. Some of the worst terrorist strikes have been carried out by Muslim terrorist. All these reasons add up to create a sense of suspicion and hatred against other followers of Islam. It is because of few hundred disoriented men like you that entire Islam gets branded as a terrorist and intolerant religion. I know this is not the truth. But then entire world has seen such acts of hatred from so called Jihadis that they have built up this harsh opinion about Islam. This situation can only change if you start thinking and rationalizing about your acts instead of blindly following orders. Think about the true message of Islam before executing orders issued by those who don’t know what Islam is. Trust me, they themselves don’t know what Islam is all about. Their version of Islam is narrow, twisted and to their own liking. One glaring example of such personality is Mullah Omar. He has added the title of ‘Mullah’ even though he had failed the lessons to be a Mullah. Please don’t be disoriented by such people. Ghastly acts of terror not only kill people but makes life hell for those who lose loved ones.

So this Eid, enjoy with your family and think about what I said.

A rainy day

How it started

Yesterday evening was like any other evening. I was at a site supervising installation. And then it started. No not a mess up, but the rains. It has been drizzling in this area for almost a week. So we thought it would drizzle for few hours and when it stops we can go home. But it didn’t. Instead it started raining heavily after an hour or so. We waited for couple of hours and then gave up. Everybody took their raincoats (I don’t carry one) and started leaving one by one. I was the last one to leave after ensuring that all our equipment was neatly stored in a dry shelter. This site is 25 km from home. I enjoyed my ride back home. I felt the deep urge for a mad dash on deserted and well-maintained highway. But then I have promised someone that I would refrain from any such stupidity. So I maintained a slow and steady pace while rain God was in no mood to slow down. Now the route I took is great fun normally, but when it rains, it’s a great mix of danger, adventure and fun. This route passes through few villages and has couple of causeways. Finally I reached home and then everything went off normally.

Next day

I woke up and got ready like any other day. But today was not normal. It had been raining very heavily since early morning. I know this because I had woken up to call/sms a dear friend of mine to deliver my best wishes for a presentation. I called up my entire team in the morning to make sure that their homes were safe and asked them to stay put and not report to work. Soon after that I left for my site amidst protest from everybody. I wanted to check whether there were any problems at site. I was in no mood to risk out going in a car as reports of water logging were pouring in. So I took out my trusted steed (call sign ‘Sabot’) and rode on. On my way I could see that many houses were water logged. And negotiating through causeways filled with water is definitely tricky and thrilling. The best part was when I crossed a causeway just in front of a dam. Just a minute after I crossed that causeway, I could see overflow gates of that dam opening up. It was an awesome sight to watch overflow gates open up and water gush out of it. One after the other six gates opened up and massive flow of water raised the water level over the stream I had crossed before a couple of minutes. After watching this wonderful sight, I cranked engine and rode towards my destination. On my way I could feel raindrops hitting me like needles. This experience was simply great and refreshing. All said and done, I don’t suggest that any of you should do something crazy like this. Finally I reached my destination. I checked everything at site. There was nothing to worry about. That was when this idea of sharing my experience glowed in my head. I believe all of us have written an essay titled “a rainy day”. But this rainy day was just my kind of day – wild and tons of fun.

Sensex = Sense + sex

With stock market plunging lower than a starlet's neck line, everybody who invested in stocks is worried more than Sonia Gandhi is worried for UPA government. In this edition, I try to help those who have already invested or want to invest in stock market but are shocked by recent spikes. So fellas here's the guide to how to play the stocks without burning a hole in you know where.

1. Patience pays

Daily trading might be quick money, but it has created more losers than winners. Moreover daily trading takes up your time and energy, not to mention unwanted excitement of market trends can affect your work at office. So my advice, invest from a long term perspective. It’s a very safe way. Wait for the company you have invested in to grow. It takes a while for any company to grow big and strong. After all you can’t build an oil refinery or automobile plant in a week. While you won't become a millionaire overnight but then you won't lose all your investment either. Statics show that you tend to earn lot of profit if you are entrenched for long term. Ground rule is that stock markets will go anywhere but north. True that it might get sluggish for an year or two but eventually they pick up pace. Time frame of investment varies from person to person. For some, 5 years is long enough while others would stay put for 20 years (very rare).

2. Little bit of research on my side

Dedicating some time for research never hurts. I know you are too busy forwarding emails at work and have to watch movie or attend parties on weekends but this is your money and missing out a movie or party won’t hurt. Before you put in your money, ask this. How good is the company you are putting your money on? How is the management and what is their vision? How is the cash flow? How would be the demand of their products/services in future? Who are the promoters? Questions like these can help you zero in on "lambi race ka ghoda". These questions are also important so as to avoid fake operators.

3. Tips are not HOT, Giselle Bundchen is

Try and stay clear of 'hot tips'. Tips are like bollywood flicks. they might have a glittering star cast but they flop. Don’t trust any tip except the one that comes from Director of Military Intelligence. Tips in the market are no secret, so everybody has more or less the same plans about hoarding up hot shares. What people ignore while betting their money on such stocks is that value of a stock is more important than its current price. There are overnight operators who float fake companies and shut them down after duping people. So while price of a particular stock might be rocketing at that moment might drop faster than you can say "OH SHIT". So don't lose your sleep over some tip doing the rounds. Remember "play safe". Even outside the stock market.

4. Bura waqt, Commando sakht

Panic is your worst enemy followed by your immediate boss. It’s only human to panic, but to take some stupid decision due to panic is unforgivable, financially that is. Most of the people panic when their stocks shed their price. But if you have invested in fundamentally strong companies, you need not even bother. After all a small dip in stock prices does not mean that the company will shut down. Don’t forget share prices can go north or south depending on ‘n’ number of reasons. So don’t let drop in prices force you in to selling your shares. Who knows prices might shot up the next day. In fact if the prices are dropping and you are confident about your company, then you can put in some extra money and hoard it. Panic is good, provided you can utilize it to your advantage.

5. You are your best friend

Your friends don’t want you to lose your money, but their advice regarding stocks might not work for you due to several reasons. Lack of knowledge, short-sightedness, different risk profile and different investment plans being some of them. So the best way to invest is to do your own research. Stock investors never had it so well, with resources like internet, business channels etc. I don’t say that you should watch business news all day long, but please do your research before investing. Once you have done this you can relax, no need to check the stock prices every 5 minutes. You can check it once in a week to keep track of how your stocks are doing. The joy of getting a good return after couple of years is just great. More so if you had forgotten about the money you invested.

6. Financial profiling

Don’t forget to prioritize. You may be single or married with kids. Everybody has different priorities and risk profiles. You should do justice to other monetary commitments like insurance, loans, etc because they are more important for normal life. Stocks are good investment but they should never come first. Mostly people bet their money on stocks thinking that once they make good money out of stocks, they’ll take care of other commitments. This is totally stupid. What would they do if stock market crashes? You can’t tell your bank that you are unable to pay your EMI because stock market is down by 1000 points. I am sure no banker in his right mind would listen to that. You need to set your priorities and decide accordingly. So if you are still young and don’t have many financial commitments, you can be more aggressive. Don’t forget that if you start early, you can make good money over your investment period. If you are newly married and both of you have good jobs without extra financial burden, you both can pool in your money and be aggressive. But before plunging in, discuss it with your spouse so that one of you doesn’t have to sleep on the couch.

7. Don’t beg borrow or steal

Never forget that stocks should be viewed as investments and not as a magic lamp. One good friend of mine told me that he wants to get a personal loan at 13-14%. He planned to invest that money in stocks and was expecting returns to the tune of 30-35%. As per his calculation, he’ll take home a good chunk of money even after paying off his loan. Luckily he didn’t do it, or else he would be in a soup. See stock markets are not fixed income tool. Nobody can assure X% of returns. Stocks don’t assure to double your money but they can sure cut it to 50% if you are not careful. The bottom line is, never borrow money – even from your girlfriend – to invest in stocks. Safer way is to suggest someone and get a cut out of it. No amount is too small to invest in stocks. Remember that it’s not the amount you invest that counts. It’s all about your discipline and frequency of your investment.

I don’t believe in “garibi hatao” (eradicate poverty) but “amiri badhao” (increase wealth). And wealth is not generated overnight.

Well I am no financial analyst or a big shot. Whatever I said here is my own analysis and common sense. So if you lose your money following it, tough luck. But if you do get rich following my tips, invite me over to home cooked dinner and I’ll be more than happy.