Early access, exclusive content, special privileges - Discover the great benefits of being a Member of ThePrint’s TH-cam channel. Take a Paid Membership today. It costs just Rs 159/month. th-cam.com/channels/uyRsHZILrU7ZDIAbGASHdA.htmljoin
There’s a somewhat crude proverb in Kannada: “The person who is awake takes away the loin cloth of the person who is asleep!”. If our politicians and generals are not alive to the changes, it is India which is going to lose it’s loin cloth!
That is rather effective, if embarrassing, I must say. Someone has to quieten those load video with "hosts" shouting at guests. It is also crude, and gives a sense that India is not really a place for sober reflection.
Love the brevity with which you covered the topic Guptaji! However I'd like to point out a few things. 1 - General Naravane, from a military point of view is going to talk about military aspects of war(with the context that is active war, ie. Ukraine) rather than political one. 2 - We have had a few very well known instances, and maybe countless lesser known ones where Indian army has utilized man portable or jeep mounted anti - tank weapons against Pakistani formations. 3 - The importance of Air and Naval power can never be overstated. However, at the end you will need boots on ground that will do the home to home, street to street and man to man fighting, using high precision munitions is impractical in wars as big as these where there are too many targets. 4 - I think the point about denying Pelosi Taiwan visit by owning the land tells more about having proper objectives(which Russia does not have in current war). With the biggest(in number) navy in the world, China was not able to assert dominance in it's own backyard Ultimately the point is - Taiwan is not china because china does not control it - Successful invasion would be possible with heavy support from air and naval forces but if it were only for them, a possible hot war would stretch and not resolve.
Congrats to Mr. Shekhar Gupta for another honest picture! How I wished that you were advising our honorable Minister of Foreign Affairs and our honorable PM! Thanks so much. Jai Hind
Every war has the potential learning experiences to the neutral nations .... new strategies, innovative war machines, and how to keep forces' high morale in the prolonged confrontations...
7:10 Sir, Turkish drones didn't do that, Israeli loitering munitions destroyed most radar and SAM systems(Harop anti radiation drone to be specific which India uses as well). The Turkish drones could have been American, Israeli or even Chinese and they would have achieved the same goal once harops took out all the threats to aerial platforms. 9:20 That's a very broad statement that doesn't carry any deeper lessons. The lack of stand off weapons in Russia can be traced mostly to corruption and their economic woes rather than "cost effectiveness" alone.
I haven’t read former Army chief’s comments and don’t know in what context he made those observations.But Shekhar is right. Military power is an instrument of a nation to assert its will and further its interests. A nation has many instruments to further it’s will and interests. Military power is one of them. This fact was drummed in our heads from very early in military career. And when I use the world military I mean all dimensions of warfare- land, air, sea, nuclear, space and so on. In different situations different limb gets more important. Like in Falkland war was primarily a Naval intervention by Margret Thatcher. Having said that I must add that in our context both against China or Pakistan, traditionally, control of land been very important and often worked as a tool at negotiating table.
That's why we need small but well equipped, well trained, technically sophisticated Military rather than Big Elephant. #Agniveer is good for military. That's all matters.
Its a great thing for world peace that might of weapons becomes entirely futile and the newer weapons are equitable so that everyone can defend themselves.
Yes! The news have been full of accounts on how many Western military planners have been surprised and taken aback by the incredible drain on munition stores due to extremely rapid Ukrainian firing rates. This has also consumed artillery cannon barrel lifespans faster than projected, etc. The funny thing is that some Western planners have been aware of these risks (actual consumption or efficiency being found to be far worse than estimated) since the late Cold War in wargame exercises and practice. The soldier at the front doesn't know or care what someone scientifically calculated years ago as the "correct" or "sustainable" rate of usage. He only knows that he is in trouble right now with too many enemies in front of him, and he will use EVERYTHING he can get his hands on to defend himself and attack them. From estimates so far, it seems that logisticians may want to at least triple their estimated ammunition requirements. And that will take years to tool up additional manufacturing lines. I'm sure this has also revealed many other lessons in other areas of supply. Ammunition is just a high profile example that has been widely reported.
Thank you Sekar ji for your extraordinary journalism. You deserve much better reach as the work you put in for giving every post is commendable. I doubt any journalist in India is as well informed as you in anything. Government should make use of people like you!
Would request you to put a serial number for National Interest as you do for CTC. Helps in general referencing for later on. Great work as always. Thanks
The ones hurtling towards machine guns were at the start of the ww1 and during the trench warfare. Just because they invented tanks doesn't mean one can ignore douglas haig's meat grinder.
World War I wasn’t one battle. Nor was it over in 2 weeks. Please read about the entire course of the war that lasted 4 years. Which began without tanks and aerial dogfights but gave birth to both.
@@slashybluesy Sure, it was a meat grinder, but you ignore the different ways that were tried to break the front. Remember, before there were tanks, the battlefield was unsuitable for cavalry, aircraft were at their infancy and incapable of bombing a hole in a defence etc etc etc. So the only things that were available at that time were people and artillery. You seem to be under the misguided idea that every attack was done in the same way over and over and over. This wasn't the case, there was a constant evolution of artillery and infantry tactics throughout all of the battles, but yes, when all you have is people and guns, then people are going to die. But the idea that they just carelessly flung men at machineguns are simply wrong. Creeping barrages, different shell types, different pre battle formations etc were all tried out during this war, which eventualy ended up in a victory from the entente. And no the tank didn't win the war, the impact of tanks on that war were fairly limited overall, and far from decisive. In the end it was the infantry and artillery that won the battle. Another thing that ppl often forget are the difficulties of command and control. During an attack there simply weren't any radios going into the attack so tracking progress or failure mainly depended on someone staring through a pair of binoculars, pigeons, runners and at times airial reconnaisance. So obviously reports came in too late, or not at all, and by the time that any general could respond to a report and send reinforcements or order a retreat, the situation might already have changed so much that a good reply to the initial report could be the wrong one by the time it was able to be executed. Please look into how this war was fought, all the changes that took place etc instead of repeating this mantra of "men being sent forward just to be machinegunned". It is simply wrong. But yes, as infantry was the only weapon that was available to push forwards it was indeed going to get shot at, but the tactics changed all the time. You can see this when the americans fought their first battle, they refused to listen to the brits and french and pershing decided to just attack in the same way that the entente had 3 years earlier, the result of course being complete slaughter. After that they started to pick up on the lessons that had been learned by the entente in the years before, and casualties instantly dropped.
Long live Taiwan and India's much-cherished and precious friendship! ताइवान और भारत की दोस्ती अमर रहे! India🇮🇳 And Taiwan🇹🇼 Are Military League For 50 Years At Least!! 印度🇮🇳和台灣🇹🇼是至少50年的軍事同盟。 【 USA🇺🇸 India🇮🇳 Japan🇯🇵, South Korea 🇰🇷, Philippines 🇵🇭 Singapore 🇸🇬, France 🇫🇷, Australia 🇦🇺 Ukraine 🇺🇦 Europe 🇪🇺 Israel 🇮🇱 and China🇹🇼】
Don't know why, but I think the quality of words used in National Interest just feels like an written op-ed. Listening carefully as always. Thanks Mr. Gupta
The learning of technology being the primary reason for Ukraine strength is wrong. It is the autonomy at the tactical level that is allowing thr Ukrainians to integrate what ever it takes to win on a single grid on the map. Against this the monolithic centrally controlled Russian army with communication disruptions has brought multiple BTGs to a halt in the middle of nowhere to be picked off by drones.
All game theory scenarios and military strategies formulated in war are ultimately subservient to morale of the fighting army. There is no algorithm present yet that defines what drives and sustains this spirit. History is replete with incidents where armies completely outgunned or outnumbered turned tables on their aggressors! Do we have to even recall Thermopylae?!!
I am a non-Indian viewer interested in non-US and non-Western perspectives on the Ukraine Russia war and other broader geopolitical issues. Your channel's videos and analysis have been informative. A common mistake I see in Western or 3rd party analysts is in assuming that the individuals within an institution share the same results-oriented goals as the institution. We each only have to look around our daily workplace to often see this is NOT the case. In many companies and organizations, we will see only a minority of the people doing the majority of the best work, while the majority are just there for the paycheck. And conversely, a minority of the people will often be guilty of the worst infractions, laziness, or otherwise counterproductivity. This problem is often more pronounced in military organizations due to the rigid and compartmentalized nature of their hierarchies. The average apples or the bad apples are often in control of greater control or authority over their personal influence domain than their civilian counterparts. Employees in a company can sometimes seek recourse from a higher manager/boss or the human resources department. In a military organization, the chain of command is stricter and can often be exploited to be repressive or obscuring. This means that individuals or sub-groups with personal agendas, motivations, vested interests can act more strongly to protect their interests. This applies to everyone, from defense industry contractors and certain military officers with personal or economic ties and incentives, to politicians and connected military leaders, to low level support personnel or soldiers looking to score a few extra dollars or replace missing cold weather clothing and boots. These institutional vulnerabilities have been collectively exploited and reinforced in the Russian military for decades since the Soviet era. The stakes and risks of failure have concurrently been kept high by their oppressive security and unrealistic demands and quotas. I forget the Russian word for it, but their culture has institutionalized the art of all involved parties knowingingly lying and accepting the lie, for the safety and benefit of all parties. So when we talk about Russian (or British) generals' laziness or incompetence, we have to view it in terms of how the institution permits self-serving individuals to hide and protect their own interests at the expense of the overall organization. A proud general who has inherited command and responsibility for well-trained cavalry troops feels a real duty and obligation to his men, to uphold their honor and skill as elite equestrians and soldiers IN THE TRADITION THEY UNDERSTAND. They are invested and MUST BE invested in their skill set, in order to maintain the high morale of elite troops willing to charge into danger. In the context of the previous 200 years of warfare, it would have been unthinkable to train your men to think critically about the wisdom of running into the face of enemy guns. And also, prior to the machine guns and repeating cartridge rifles from the Crimean War onwards, cavalry had already been slowly declining in the face of increasingly efficient and effective firearms, but as of the mid 1800s, had yet to be fully overwhelmed by defensive fire. A well-placed heavy cavalry charge that was confidently sent could still achieve breakthroughs in infantry lines. The Russian military, in the context of larger Russian economic distress since the USSR's collapse, has in actual practice incentivized its individual members to steal anything that's not nailed down, lie in their reports to say that everything is at 100%, and avoid being caught in the lie. Nowhere in that military/economic ecosystem has there been a coherent incentive to focus on results-based and verified testing of practical military effectiveness in field exercises or otherwise. Similar to the US/global financial crisis in 2006-2008, the entire financial industry/Russian military spent so long telling itself lies that everything is going well, until an actual reality check occurs and calls out the systemic failures of the entire construct. Whether subprime meltdown or Ukraine invasion, these realities could no longer be lied to or papered over. Just as Rommel and Guderian had to take on the role of advocates for novel forms of mobile, mechanized warfare against entrenched older German generals and staff, the British, US, and Russian militaries all need individuals whose official duties give them real responsibility and commensurate authority to advocate for new developments that can run in opposition to entrenched military doctrine and multi-billion dollar legacy investments. So far, it appears that the civic mythos of democratic participation has helped some military cultures to permit and foster this environment of self-challenging growth and critical inquiry more than other more authoritarian societies and their militaries. That said, I am aware that even the US military, for all of its extremely expensive and intensive investments into new training, technology, etc still sees rampant problems with gray types of insider deals, near-corruption, and other sources of friction and excess cost that hinder military efficiency and innovation. Interwar 1930s Germany and 2014-2022 Ukraine were and are both in an inferior military position, forcing them to desperately and constantly seek out potential new areas of investment and training. Losers are harshly taught that their prior approach was wrong, and they MUST seek out new methods to fight. Winners are taught to reinforce the last thing they did, because they weren't punished for it. That's why the French and British learned the wrong lesson from WW 1, and spent the inter-war years preparing to fight WW 2 as an even bigger version of WW 1. This was due to them believing their own armistice propaganda that they "won", when Germany had militarily achieved numerous quantitative successes against them in WW 1 (overall casualties, doctrine, etc). Since 2014, Ukraine had the truth of its military impotence and inferiority relative to Russia's "little green men" forced upon it. Being unable to prevent the Russian information war and seizures of Crimea, Luhansk, and Donetsk drove Ukraine to look forward at how it could prevent the next phase of Russian aggression whilst suffering from inferior military-industrial resources. The Australian channel Perun has some excellent videos on these issues of corruption and innovation, from a military procurement perspective that touches on organizational behavior and leadership.
Meanwhile Rahul Gandhi having secret meetings with CCP and PLA when Indian Military was standing off them on border in Doklam, Taking Millions of $ Dollers in donation for Rajiv Gandhi Fund from CCP. Wouldn't there be any conflict of interest and interfere in domestic politics of India by China??
Pakistanis & urban naxals/traitors have to grateful to Rahul Vinci Gandhi, his ancestors & Congress for creating Pseudo secular & Hindu phobic India & societal echo system!!
This is highly romanticized in India because we are a status quo defensive state. It may be true for Ukraine but won't be for India. The enemy considers those territories as his. Also troop morale is high when they are winning ex india in Bangladesh
The simple thing is to think of war with a clean slate. You have the hotchpotch of every technology coming at you and now you have to counter it with scratch. If we start from existing armor and helicopters then inertia will be too great and our army is too big that we will be able to make those large changes required.
Mr. Gupta, this is useful information for Indian civilians. India owns and in the process of buying even more Russian weapons, such as tanks! Why? Times have changed. Why are the Indians so nostalgic for the USSR? I say this as too many in India are transposing affection for the USSR to Russia... they are not the same. Then worse to Putin, who has been a war criminal for some time. When the Indian establishment wake up? When are you going to cover this issue of blind support for Putin by India?
You are 100% correct! Honorable MFA and PM completely fell for the conventional wisdom that Ukraine will fall in 3 days and we and rest of the world will happily move on! We should have taken the morally correct position that no matter who, no Nation has any right to invade and try to take over another sovereign neighbor! Jai Hind
people also forget that Ukraine was a massive part of the USSR indians love so much. Not just that but its people and its cities are largely responsible for the advancements loftily claimed by the RF today (even the USSR flag photo over the german reichstag russians love so much is of ukranians), their key space race scientist Korolev was ukrainian, they made rockets, aircraft engines, and marine gas turbines that india uses, from scientists to naval yards, ukraine was the powerhouse of the USSR, and it gets no love from ignorant rus fans.
@@veerchand8968 Absolutely. What is tragic is that India is gaining a bad reputation now. In a world where military power is demonstrably a bad idea to use in terms of aggression, it is 'soft' power that India is losing quickly. Indian citizens are being manipulated by Zee news, etc., to be pro-BJP, and with that the country is losing its secular authority around the world. This dangerous drift is sooooo 19th century. What a shame that people cannot wake up and understand that the far right is not to be trusted anywhere, especially when they say they are for the common man. In reality, they are out to remove the small farmer for a corporate farm, crush labor, etc. Loads of propaganda, but little for the poor who are supposed to transfer their effort via cheap wages so there can be rich Indians.
Hello SIr , One request .. Could you do a CTC episode on the drama happening in Delhi between Conman Sukesh and the CM. There are a lot of miscommunications and allegation floating around, the story merits decluttering , dont you think ?
I believe china is not going to be careless like Russia and will not go to war unless it has to defend itself or is absolutely sure can win. China has never participated in any wars far from its borders. Any other country would have already invaded Taiwan for example, Argentina invaded Falkland Islands and British went to take it back but China has been patient.
1. India may not have to attack and enter deep into enemy territory in future wars but rather hold and beat back the aggressor. So we need to certainly learn some lessons in tactics used by Ukraine. 2. However, power of drones in case of ground attack should not be overemphasized and can be handled quite effectively as we have the anti drone systems now. But Navy must be able protect against unmanned submarine vessels. 2. The book by Ranade must be worth reading!
Yes, you are correct that India will never be in an invading force like Putin’s. We do need to learn the biggest lesson from Ukraine, having many good, powerful allies, not having losers as Russia as our main ally! This fraud of neutrality is dangerous. We will have no useful friends when we need help the most! Jai Hind
@@m.r.r8408 India wont invade anyone unless the enemy provoked us to do so . What India need is not some kind of allies but huge defence manufacturing ability.That can sustain a war for years without affect the economy.
@@m.r.r8408 India wont invade anyone unless the enemy provoked us to do so . What India need is not some kind of allies but huge defence manufacturing ability.That can sustain a war for years without affect the economy.
Why India won’t invade other countries? In fact we should learn to invade and fight wars on foreign soil like Russia and US does. Need to get rid of defensive mindset of Congress governments. India needs to attack first and win wars swiftly.
@@jayarajnair Correct!! Spot On!! India needs explosive economic, military/naval & general Industrial growth!! That will create the required safe environment for Bharat & it's civilization!! Else, how can British/Western or Mughal/Islamist invaders who killed, pillaged, raped & enslaved Indians/Hindus can somehow become true Indian friends & allies??!!
Perhaps a parallel can be draws between the state of our armed forces and our cricket team. Change cumbersome, like turning an aircraft carrier. Drastic actions requires now in this new insight.
You only have to look at how the US changed their tactics in Afghanistan ...heavy use of drones to bomb targets. Countries are already training their army in networked warfare integrating army, navy and airforce with emphasis on avoiding face to face fighting to reduce human casualties. Future armies will have smaller footprints but use advanced technology to inform them of distant targets to guide bombs and short range missiles.
I think Prime Minister Modi understands the importance of military power of the country better than all the previous governments. As all Indians feel. Because, despite the occupation of India's precious land by China in 1962, the Gandhi family had stopped considering China as an enemy.
Sir your counter arguments are really educative and very good to hear. But again what today's generation says in hinglish " aapki baat sunne Mai Achi hai par practical nhi hai" is very much applicable for your counter agreements. Almost everyone would agree today that Anti tank missiles and Unarmed combat vehicles including UCAVs and RPVs enabled with AI, Data computing and what not is the requirement of today. This would not require any military expertise to come to these conclusions. But are you ready to provide these technological advancements to army. Indian army is currently short of even very basic war fighting equipments. The points explained by former army chief were keeping these aspects and nature of our conflicts with our neighbours. It is more important to bring out relevance with our situation rather than just learning the lessons which are neither fully applicable on us nor feasible in terms of equipment that army will not get even in next 20 years.
Sir In your concluding comment on India’s foreign secretary : Gautam Bambawale - did not become foreign secretary. Please correct your error ! Another interesting episode from your desk .
Someone pointed out the effectiveness and technology advancement of the American weapons during the recent Pakistan-India fight as compared to the Russian ones. And he was LAUGHED AT.
To all the comments in chorus to, 'we are like this only', down below: having a carrier is not about taking it to offensive war with another country. India has vast coasts on either side. It is about having a piece of land out in the ocean hundreds of miles away from your own cities, from where aircraft carrying all kinds of weapons can be launched when your real land needs to be defended. Last I checked, India has not exactly been sitting on its haunches with respect to development of missiles either.
Ye!! India should listen to Rahul Vinci Gandhi/his ancestors & Congress who created Islamic Pakistan, Pseudo secular & Hindu Phobic India, colonial societal echo system & WAQF Islamist LOOT Board!!
Brilliantly explained.However while boots on the ground are Ukrainian and full credit for their unwavering courage,I feel this is a victory of US intelligence, technology and weapon systems. The events have caused many a wannabe conqueror to pause in his tracks and rethink. While the pullout from Afghanistan was chaotic, events in Ukraine demonstrate that the stops will be out when it comes to defending US interests in Europe. Afghanistan was logistically a drain and hasty withdrawal could have been due to early intelligence on the likelihood of conflict in Europe.
@@prajasena1 Basically Russia has been checkmated by Nato No question of Nato occupying Russian territory. They are quite happy if Russia does not occupy Ukraine.. Though Crimea will be ticklish issue especially if Ukraine tries recapturing it which it lost in 2014.
May I add to Gen. Naravane's point from a wider angle lens: land is not just about direct ownership, i.e., a country's own landmass. And political will is not just about making a point, like Clint Eastwood or Amitabh Bacchan in the movies. It is more hard-nosed. It is about which column a piece of land (i.e. a country) will fall into - our side, or the other side. In that sense, when America promises to defend Taiwan, it is promising to defend land in its column (and a massive contributor to world GDP). Loss of land, once removed, were what the existential anxieties of the 'west' were about with communist expansion toward Europe, and of Russia about 'western' expansion toward Russia.
@@kdblr Dr G D Bakshi is PhD and authored books and an Army Veteran -- to put it straight and more specific -- your comments are totally misplaced and figment of your imagination or ignorance ?
For a country which is surrounded by adversaries and fathoms ambition in IOR and indo pacific the military power land air and water is grossly inadequate
The statements about the British Army give them a slightly incorrect portrayal. British were actually the ones who accepted tanks with open arms, and the French copied them. On the other hand, one of the best and most competitive armies (that is Germany), kept ignoring tanks till the very end. They didn't give their infantry anti-tank weapons or even failed to assign enough artillery to anti-tank puropse. But, I do agree the British kept using cavalry till very late, even in the last year of the war, they tried to use cavalry to exploit the success opened by tanks and failed. And as another young fellow interested in defense, I will definitely read "On the physiology of Military Incompetence" :)
Very important topic. Why any of the TV channels do not carry such valuable topics and just focus on politics always. Has average Indian human development has shrunk so much that they cannot think any thing else than local politics. Looks Print is the only Torch bearer left to enlighten whatever is left of Indian intelectual thinking. Appreciate Print and SG to have enlightened us on an important war tactic change.
Why was this article not in my TOI newspaper dated 27/28 October 2022? I know it's behind a firewall online, but I pay for my paper! Miniscule amount but still!
Shekhar ji, what are your views on these observations of mine Lessons India needs to learn from the Ukraine invasion 1. Streamline our weponary to ease logistics (i mean how the hell are we even managing Russian, American, Israeli, french and Indian weapons all at the same time) 2. We need to step up our logistics game, our border areas are not well connected to our heartland by roads, trains, fibre optics etc, and can be cutoff very easily and we don't even have a proper department in our military services which deals with logistics (See the Americans, how well they manage logistics) 3. We need a better chain of command in our military. Our military is based on Soviet style bureaucracy (red tapism) and it's killing our military from inside out (I don't know what was the Indian leadership thinking for the past 20 years for not having a theatre command, when it could have greatly reduced our redtapism) (even a simple decision moves between 100 tables, to rectify that) Timing is key in a war. Israel should be our role model their army is one of the most efficient and red tapism free army in the world while simultaneously being free from corruption. (Something that even the Americans could not achieve) 4. We need better and more advanced weapons not more soldiers (we have a lot more army personnel than we need, causing us to spend more of our budget on their salary and pension and also the logistics nightmare is there too) China is a great example of this, we can see how they put great emphasis on modern weapons and are slowly reducing their soldiers 5. We need a better and more efficient and professional military industrial complex (one that is free from red tapism and corruption) to sustain a long war. all of our indigenous weapons are produced by a small set of incompetent government owned companies like ofb or hal, (and they are not efficient, their weapons are of low quality and they never deliver on their promises on time) what we actually need is a big and versatile military industrial base with private and government companies alike which can sustain us in wartime. both china and WW2 america are great role model for us here, we saw how greatly the industries of US helped US win the 2nd world war. Also in case of china we saw how they made a whole freakin destroyer in less than 2 year 6. No country is coming to your aid during a war specially if your opponent is more economically and militarily powerful than you 7. We need better communication and synergy among the members of our armed forces and other related department because it takes ages for a decision to reach the ground troop properly and vice versa (I mean how bad are your communications that you shot down your own helicopter) 8. We need new specialised divisons like space & cyber force (They are the new war frontier)China US and Russia already have them 9. We need more modern and creative military strategies, (we have no military school dedicated to teaching and forming new military strategy) additionally we need to update our military doctrine of pure self defence to offensive self defence (we have seen in 1971 what we can do if we go offensive) 10. Days of large battle groups are over (in their current form they are sitting ducks), now is the era of agile, flexible and fast reacting small battle groups who are well connected to each other and work in synergy 11. Why are we always playing testing testing, and not inducting weapons in large numbers even when we are in dire need of them, take lch for example it was ready for induction and large scale production for atleast 4 years, and what did the military do order abysmally low amount of helos and that too in 2022. And when an enemy comes knocking down our door we are caught with our pants down and run for emergency procurements from foreign vendors. Army's import lobby literally cockblocked the induction of ATAGS, if it were not for the government shoving down indigenous products down army's throat, army would have made sure that atags goes back to the drawing board (by citing that stupid barrel burst) and they would have imported athos. Army's weapons inductions methods need to change 12. We need to up our spy game. I mean r&aw is great but it is still not at par with the CIA or mossad, Western intelligence agencies have greatly aided ukraine in this war 13. We need to up our asymmetric warfare tactics like • economical warfare (see how Russia forced Europe into buying Russian oil and gas by making them dependent on himself) • Law warfare (see how west used various international institutions to like human rights council, un etc to pressure Russia) • information warfare (we all are seeing how west and Russia both are using propoganda) 13. We need to improve the quality of our weapons, I know they are better than the Russians and at par with th Chinese (I am saying this because we never get to know about their failures), but still we are not at par with the Americans. Sometimes I wonder whether Chinese weapons are as sub standard as we claim it to be, because china as a country has huge industrial output with a vast manufacturing base. We need to learn from Israel how to make quality equipment at a low price. Quantity means very less in front of quality. 14. As much as we would like to deny, We are not prepared for a long and stretched war, and our offensive capabilities are very limited. I mean see the Chinese how rapidly they are improving their military by making it more streamlined, are creating new military divisions, are fully indigenised, their military industrial complex in huge and they are logistically at par with the Americans. We need a lot of catch-up to do
@@nnbg8000 ah, I wish but given the fact that many of my observations are already present in the Kargil review committee report that the defence ministry already has, it is clear that they already know these shortcomings, but for some reason they are not working on mitigating these problems
Except on the matter of RAW. I agree on many points. I have question. What does the best bait against Chinese if we cannot match them equipment by equipment? Drones are definitely option but we are not industrially as capable as Chinese. They would chunk out more drones than us with less cost.
@@IndiaTides would you please explain why do you not agree on the RA&W point because report after report have shown that RA&W's presence in SE Asia and China is near negligible and they only focus on South Asia and middle East. And we all know right now china is our biggest enemy. We can not afford a hostile china as of right now, we need atleast 10 more years before we can even think of comparing ourselves against them weapons wise The biggest leverage we have against china is Allies. The best way for us to compete against them would not be in quantity rather quality
SG it is alright to discuss views of uniformed persons about warfare. My take. In this age of internet and digital media there are no secrets. The context has to be correct. A war, broadly, has two aims. 1. Defence. 2. Offence Defence is self-explanatory. There are two aspects to offence. 1. A deterrent 2. Occupation of territories. Equipping and strategies are different in each of these scenarios. The Russian invasion of Ukraine is for occupation of territory. India has a stated position of not occupying foreign territory (loosely said). Hence the “lessons” from the war and battles in Russia - Ukraine should be tempered. India strategies and equipping should be centered on defence on land, air and sea. Defence does have an element of offence but does not include conquering and occupation. Also, roughly three times more resources are required for offence than for Defence. Tailpiece: Let us not read too much into the lessons from Russia-Ukraine conflicts. Maybe we can learn from the efficiency of technologies employed on and off the battlefields. More specifically on those employed away from the battlefields.
Now u understand how military power is important to control a territory. That the idea behind Modi Agniveer to control India,s territory in the event of war emergency.
I feel sad though for Russia, because you can't live under economic sanctions and isolation and not expect the reaction that we saw in Ukraine. Everyone has the right to counter in the way they same fit. One can not be forced into a corner and expected to live there.
@Yugesh Patnaik I see China and the USA as the the last two Expansionist powers in the world, so a nato expansion coupled with US and EU sanctions, will call for a counter. For your perspective let's say: from today onwards upto the next 10 years india faces economic sanctions from China and say the OIC , later the OIC collectively militarises it self and Pakistan is set to join. What will india do. As far as The UN... they only do lip service nothing changed only the areas of conflicts, pace of wars who you can touch and who you cannot thats all the UN is good for.
Somewhat agree with Shekhar Ji's Comment, but somewhat disagree. People have the habit to draw too much of conclusions from one ongoing event as if it is the last event or only event. First, for context, Ukraine & Russia both are not the best capital asset or technology-rich military power. But Ukraine is assisted day & night by far more superior information or awareness of the battlefield which any military can only dream. This war has seen a maximum number of people I mean military personnel on the ground. In an ideal big power conflict, it won't happen that way, for ex., If it were to be China Vs India or Pakistan, the first few hours would be a battle between capital assets, sensor Vs Sensor, etc., of course, there are people who drive them & there will be casualties but first few hours or days it would be far fewer people but more machines. The remaining battle is always bare down to people which they will fight with all over asymmetrically or symmetrical depending upon the resources available. The point is, I don't think that capital assets are wasted because of Ukraine's experience, we should all give up them & just recruit more people & asymmetrical weapons like MANPADS.
What's true for politics is true for war too, mostly. It's the size of the economy (the fuel in the tank) and level of technological advancement (the smarts in the tanks) that determines win on loss. The 'west' is a monolith and there was no way Russia was going to match them in either resource or tech in Ukraine, and neither is China anywhere close to matching them. Tactics only come into play for adversaries with comparable sized economies and war tech. (To be honest, there is a hefty dose of hindsight in that opinion).
Drones,hypersonic missiles,atgms are much more important in war than army personnals....india need to reduce army size and focus on weapons....its the weapons that wins the war not the people
Its Just that powerful alliance which has control of economy of the world cannot be messed with. Ukraine could have hardly stood without any West's help.
Ukraine only got substantial help after they defeated Putins army in Kiev. Before that western analysts were predicting that Ukraine will lose in 10 days. The Ukrainian President also showed courage, he stayed in Kiev and put on his Army fatigue. Ukraine had managed to best an emeny with has a 7 to 1 numerical superiority, Western technology and weapons has helped but they are defending their independence against a cruel imperialist enemy.
@@vinay7397 They had been getting active military advice and intelligence. and Ukrainians were being trained by the western forces since 2014. All the Russian generals that were killed in the beginning was to mess up their Kiev plans. And all was done based on intelligence fed by Americans. This was not denied when asked in a press conference to the US defence secrterary. Zelensky's army stood up, true. But in the long run, they would have folded. And ten days? Americans needed 300,000 soldiers to occupy take over Bhagdad in more than a month, a heavily sanctiond country. But its not good, we have control of one super alliance, both economically and militarily and all the countries sooner or later would have to fold in front of that alliance. A Russian win would have established a multipolar and multilateral world.
@@amritpalsingh3293 I don't know where you live, I am in Europe I am British. The West is power because it's institutions are not corrupt relatively speaking, the education system innovates, and there is a pragmatic approach to economics. A Putin victory would not established anything, except set a precedent for more war: China would have been more inclined to invade Taiwan, and might even started a war against India, these event might still happen. People like you are happy to back Putin, because of your anti-western stance, maybe in your mind you are still fighting the British empire. The British have moved and our new PM is Rishi Sunak, he there because his party judged him to be the best man for the job understand the current economic crisis. This the strength of the Western system, a democracy and meritocracy compared to other civilisations. You seem have to see Ukraine turn into Putin's imperial possession, for you own perceived benefit. Your mentality belongs in the 19th century.
indians had learned very little from their huge loss to chinese in 1962 war and the gulf war... The chinese quickly studied US led assault using long range missiles and stealth bombing of iraqi positions.. Before the massive chinese intrusion into ladakh in 2020, there were numerous reportings by locals about chinese activities near the LAC.. B It was reported india consulted the russians on chinese build up at the border but was told nothing to worry. And the indian army let loose the guard and many went to leh for covid screening.. The chinese army at the border saw the oppurtunity and just dash through into ladakh few kms inside at multiple points before the indians came back to confront.. The subsequent events including galwan clash are history Till now the chinese refuse to go back to pre 2020 positions ..
@ Mister Bean -- dear, Misadventure by China's PLA and more than expected & befitting response by our brave soldiers in Galwan is unforgettable for times to come by China and its ecosystem ?
But supreme leader even refuses to acknowledge that they've entered the territory let alone occupying it.. lots of political will there by the 56 incher🤪🤣
SG and others are not lecturing to our military leaders but to the political leaders who are above the military and make all political and investment decisions! I hope you can understand that!
@@m.r.r8408dear, our military is perfectly on the right track and direction.Wsap warriors are not needed to teach them on war tactics and related strategies ?
The British army lost far fewer men in WW1 than either the Germans or the French. The British also invented the tank, which broke the deadlock of the trenches. It was mainly the British, which included troops from Canada, Australia and NZ that broke the back of the German army in 1918, a period when the French army was in near continuous mutiny. Don't believe or swallow everything you read in lopsided and biased historical "novels". I accept that Indians have a natural animus towards the British because Britain ruled India for 200 years, but that does not mean you have a right to distort history with a fair amount of ignorance. I'm sorry, not all Indians, there are about 2 million Indians in the UK who seem to quite like it there.
Only Ethnic Groups are fighting for Russia..like Chechens ..mainstream Russians are surrendering !! India also depends on ethnic groups for serious military operations .. Recent example. Capturing Kailash Range with the help of Tibetan regiments. Sikhs , Gorkha and Naga’s are only fighting forces of Indian Army. Drones are secondary.. Russians have no well to fight.
Early access, exclusive content, special privileges - Discover the great benefits of being a Member of ThePrint’s TH-cam channel. Take a Paid Membership today. It costs just Rs 159/month. th-cam.com/channels/uyRsHZILrU7ZDIAbGASHdA.htmljoin
Shekhar Chacha ko defence minister bana dena chaiyye ;)
There’s a somewhat crude proverb in Kannada: “The person who is awake takes away the loin cloth of the person who is asleep!”. If our politicians and generals are not alive to the changes, it is India which is going to lose it’s loin cloth!
you big-mouth, that time of your father jawahar lal nehru, or your uncle manmohan ch utiya sardar is OVER . . !!!
Sir I did not understood this point
That is rather effective, if embarrassing, I must say. Someone has to quieten those load video with "hosts" shouting at guests. It is also crude, and gives a sense that India is not really a place for sober reflection.
Spot on. Great takeaways. Thank you.
Love the brevity with which you covered the topic Guptaji!
However I'd like to point out a few things.
1 - General Naravane, from a military point of view is going to talk about military aspects of war(with the context that is active war, ie. Ukraine) rather than political one.
2 - We have had a few very well known instances, and maybe countless lesser known ones where Indian army has utilized man portable or jeep mounted anti - tank weapons against Pakistani formations.
3 - The importance of Air and Naval power can never be overstated. However, at the end you will need boots on ground that will do the home to home, street to street and man to man fighting, using high precision munitions is impractical in wars as big as these where there are too many targets.
4 - I think the point about denying Pelosi Taiwan visit by owning the land tells more about having proper objectives(which Russia does not have in current war). With the biggest(in number) navy in the world, China was not able to assert dominance in it's own backyard
Ultimately the point is - Taiwan is not china because china does not control it - Successful invasion would be possible with heavy support from air and naval forces but if it were only for them, a possible hot war would stretch and not resolve.
Congrats to Mr. Shekhar Gupta for another honest picture! How I wished that you were advising our honorable Minister of Foreign Affairs and our honorable PM! Thanks so much. Jai Hind
Every war has the potential learning experiences to the neutral nations .... new strategies, innovative war machines, and how to keep forces' high morale in the prolonged confrontations...
SG is every where, you have so many fascinating stories to tell ❤
7:10 Sir, Turkish drones didn't do that, Israeli loitering munitions destroyed most radar and SAM systems(Harop anti radiation drone to be specific which India uses as well).
The Turkish drones could have been American, Israeli or even Chinese and they would have achieved the same goal once harops took out all the threats to aerial platforms.
9:20 That's a very broad statement that doesn't carry any deeper lessons. The lack of stand off weapons in Russia can be traced mostly to corruption and their economic woes rather than "cost effectiveness" alone.
I haven’t read former Army chief’s comments and don’t know in what context he made those observations.But Shekhar is right. Military power is an instrument of a nation to assert its will and further its interests. A nation has many instruments to further it’s will and interests. Military power is one of them. This fact was drummed in our heads from very early in military career. And when I use the world military I mean all dimensions of warfare- land, air, sea, nuclear, space and so on. In different situations different limb gets more important. Like in Falkland war was primarily a Naval intervention by Margret Thatcher.
Having said that I must add that in our context both against China or Pakistan, traditionally, control of land been very important and often worked as a tool at negotiating table.
That's why we need small but well equipped, well trained, technically sophisticated Military rather than Big Elephant. #Agniveer is good for military. That's all matters.
This is one of the best National interest
Congratulations on IPI India award for Excellence in Journalism. @theprint.🥳 Very well deserved!
If anything I have learned from this life that change is inevitable and we must adapt to it
Its a great thing for world peace that might of weapons becomes entirely futile and the newer weapons are equitable so that everyone can defend themselves.
Most important thing nations can learn from Ukraine war…. Logistics are more important than strategy
“Amateurs talk strategy and professionals talk logistics” Omar Bradley (U.S. General)
@@dpillai13 thats y chinese building many roads around our indian border. their infra is far more sophisticated
Yes! The news have been full of accounts on how many Western military planners have been surprised and taken aback by the incredible drain on munition stores due to extremely rapid Ukrainian firing rates. This has also consumed artillery cannon barrel lifespans faster than projected, etc.
The funny thing is that some Western planners have been aware of these risks (actual consumption or efficiency being found to be far worse than estimated) since the late Cold War in wargame exercises and practice. The soldier at the front doesn't know or care what someone scientifically calculated years ago as the "correct" or "sustainable" rate of usage. He only knows that he is in trouble right now with too many enemies in front of him, and he will use EVERYTHING he can get his hands on to defend himself and attack them.
From estimates so far, it seems that logisticians may want to at least triple their estimated ammunition requirements. And that will take years to tool up additional manufacturing lines.
I'm sure this has also revealed many other lessons in other areas of supply. Ammunition is just a high profile example that has been widely reported.
Wonderful presentation
I always love your analysis sir. Thanks.
Thank you Sekar ji for your extraordinary journalism. You deserve much better reach as the work you put in for giving every post is commendable. I doubt any journalist in India is as well informed as you in anything. Government should make use of people like you!
Would request you to put a serial number for National Interest as you do for CTC. Helps in general referencing for later on. Great work as always. Thanks
Brilliant analysis as expected.
Great as always !
One of the fantastic episodes of CTC! Kudos.
This is not CTC. It's National Interest.
Its the British Generals who first came up with the first Tanks, the same generals whom Shekar accuses of hurtling towards the machine guns.
The ones hurtling towards machine guns were at the start of the ww1 and during the trench warfare. Just because they invented tanks doesn't mean one can ignore douglas haig's meat grinder.
World War I wasn’t one battle. Nor was it over in 2 weeks.
Please read about the entire course of the war that lasted 4 years. Which began without tanks and aerial dogfights but gave birth to both.
@@slashybluesy Sure, it was a meat grinder, but you ignore the different ways that were tried to break the front. Remember, before there were tanks, the battlefield was unsuitable for cavalry, aircraft were at their infancy and incapable of bombing a hole in a defence etc etc etc. So the only things that were available at that time were people and artillery.
You seem to be under the misguided idea that every attack was done in the same way over and over and over. This wasn't the case, there was a constant evolution of artillery and infantry tactics throughout all of the battles, but yes, when all you have is people and guns, then people are going to die.
But the idea that they just carelessly flung men at machineguns are simply wrong. Creeping barrages, different shell types, different pre battle formations etc were all tried out during this war, which eventualy ended up in a victory from the entente. And no the tank didn't win the war, the impact of tanks on that war were fairly limited overall, and far from decisive. In the end it was the infantry and artillery that won the battle.
Another thing that ppl often forget are the difficulties of command and control. During an attack there simply weren't any radios going into the attack so tracking progress or failure mainly depended on someone staring through a pair of binoculars, pigeons, runners and at times airial reconnaisance. So obviously reports came in too late, or not at all, and by the time that any general could respond to a report and send reinforcements or order a retreat, the situation might already have changed so much that a good reply to the initial report could be the wrong one by the time it was able to be executed.
Please look into how this war was fought, all the changes that took place etc instead of repeating this mantra of "men being sent forward just to be machinegunned". It is simply wrong. But yes, as infantry was the only weapon that was available to push forwards it was indeed going to get shot at, but the tactics changed all the time.
You can see this when the americans fought their first battle, they refused to listen to the brits and french and pershing decided to just attack in the same way that the entente had 3 years earlier, the result of course being complete slaughter. After that they started to pick up on the lessons that had been learned by the entente in the years before, and casualties instantly dropped.
Greatest analysis as always, love to watch your show sir keep it up 👍
Long live Taiwan and India's much-cherished and precious friendship! ताइवान और भारत की दोस्ती अमर रहे! India🇮🇳 And Taiwan🇹🇼 Are Military League For 50 Years At Least!! 印度🇮🇳和台灣🇹🇼是至少50年的軍事同盟。
【 USA🇺🇸 India🇮🇳 Japan🇯🇵, South Korea 🇰🇷, Philippines 🇵🇭 Singapore 🇸🇬, France 🇫🇷, Australia 🇦🇺 Ukraine 🇺🇦 Europe 🇪🇺 Israel 🇮🇱 and China🇹🇼】
Don't know why, but I think the quality of words used in National Interest just feels like an written op-ed. Listening carefully as always. Thanks Mr. Gupta
SG is one of the best journalist in India
The learning of technology being the primary reason for Ukraine strength is wrong. It is the autonomy at the tactical level that is allowing thr Ukrainians to integrate what ever it takes to win on a single grid on the map. Against this the monolithic centrally controlled Russian army with communication disruptions has brought multiple BTGs to a halt in the middle of nowhere to be picked off by drones.
Good point
@@neo-noiranathubronthan6045 Really?? One Lion fighting 30+ US led NATO dogs is somehow a defeat for the Lion??!!
All game theory scenarios and military strategies formulated in war are ultimately subservient to morale of the fighting army. There is no algorithm present yet that defines what drives and sustains this spirit. History is replete with incidents where armies completely outgunned or outnumbered turned tables on their aggressors! Do we have to even recall Thermopylae?!!
@@prajasena1 wt lies
@@prajasena1 Wikipedia is a biased American/western media outlet which is NOT a reliable source; at least, for Indian/Hindu or world/Human history!!
@@rka-truthalwayswins5127 Typical gavar andhbhakt.
I am a non-Indian viewer interested in non-US and non-Western perspectives on the Ukraine Russia war and other broader geopolitical issues. Your channel's videos and analysis have been informative.
A common mistake I see in Western or 3rd party analysts is in assuming that the individuals within an institution share the same results-oriented goals as the institution. We each only have to look around our daily workplace to often see this is NOT the case. In many companies and organizations, we will see only a minority of the people doing the majority of the best work, while the majority are just there for the paycheck. And conversely, a minority of the people will often be guilty of the worst infractions, laziness, or otherwise counterproductivity.
This problem is often more pronounced in military organizations due to the rigid and compartmentalized nature of their hierarchies. The average apples or the bad apples are often in control of greater control or authority over their personal influence domain than their civilian counterparts. Employees in a company can sometimes seek recourse from a higher manager/boss or the human resources department. In a military organization, the chain of command is stricter and can often be exploited to be repressive or obscuring.
This means that individuals or sub-groups with personal agendas, motivations, vested interests can act more strongly to protect their interests. This applies to everyone, from defense industry contractors and certain military officers with personal or economic ties and incentives, to politicians and connected military leaders, to low level support personnel or soldiers looking to score a few extra dollars or replace missing cold weather clothing and boots.
These institutional vulnerabilities have been collectively exploited and reinforced in the Russian military for decades since the Soviet era. The stakes and risks of failure have concurrently been kept high by their oppressive security and unrealistic demands and quotas. I forget the Russian word for it, but their culture has institutionalized the art of all involved parties knowingingly lying and accepting the lie, for the safety and benefit of all parties.
So when we talk about Russian (or British) generals' laziness or incompetence, we have to view it in terms of how the institution permits self-serving individuals to hide and protect their own interests at the expense of the overall organization. A proud general who has inherited command and responsibility for well-trained cavalry troops feels a real duty and obligation to his men, to uphold their honor and skill as elite equestrians and soldiers IN THE TRADITION THEY UNDERSTAND. They are invested and MUST BE invested in their skill set, in order to maintain the high morale of elite troops willing to charge into danger. In the context of the previous 200 years of warfare, it would have been unthinkable to train your men to think critically about the wisdom of running into the face of enemy guns. And also, prior to the machine guns and repeating cartridge rifles from the Crimean War onwards, cavalry had already been slowly declining in the face of increasingly efficient and effective firearms, but as of the mid 1800s, had yet to be fully overwhelmed by defensive fire. A well-placed heavy cavalry charge that was confidently sent could still achieve breakthroughs in infantry lines.
The Russian military, in the context of larger Russian economic distress since the USSR's collapse, has in actual practice incentivized its individual members to steal anything that's not nailed down, lie in their reports to say that everything is at 100%, and avoid being caught in the lie. Nowhere in that military/economic ecosystem has there been a coherent incentive to focus on results-based and verified testing of practical military effectiveness in field exercises or otherwise. Similar to the US/global financial crisis in 2006-2008, the entire financial industry/Russian military spent so long telling itself lies that everything is going well, until an actual reality check occurs and calls out the systemic failures of the entire construct. Whether subprime meltdown or Ukraine invasion, these realities could no longer be lied to or papered over.
Just as Rommel and Guderian had to take on the role of advocates for novel forms of mobile, mechanized warfare against entrenched older German generals and staff, the British, US, and Russian militaries all need individuals whose official duties give them real responsibility and commensurate authority to advocate for new developments that can run in opposition to entrenched military doctrine and multi-billion dollar legacy investments. So far, it appears that the civic mythos of democratic participation has helped some military cultures to permit and foster this environment of self-challenging growth and critical inquiry more than other more authoritarian societies and their militaries. That said, I am aware that even the US military, for all of its extremely expensive and intensive investments into new training, technology, etc still sees rampant problems with gray types of insider deals, near-corruption, and other sources of friction and excess cost that hinder military efficiency and innovation.
Interwar 1930s Germany and 2014-2022 Ukraine were and are both in an inferior military position, forcing them to desperately and constantly seek out potential new areas of investment and training. Losers are harshly taught that their prior approach was wrong, and they MUST seek out new methods to fight. Winners are taught to reinforce the last thing they did, because they weren't punished for it. That's why the French and British learned the wrong lesson from WW 1, and spent the inter-war years preparing to fight WW 2 as an even bigger version of WW 1. This was due to them believing their own armistice propaganda that they "won", when Germany had militarily achieved numerous quantitative successes against them in WW 1 (overall casualties, doctrine, etc). Since 2014, Ukraine had the truth of its military impotence and inferiority relative to Russia's "little green men" forced upon it. Being unable to prevent the Russian information war and seizures of Crimea, Luhansk, and Donetsk drove Ukraine to look forward at how it could prevent the next phase of Russian aggression whilst suffering from inferior military-industrial resources.
The Australian channel Perun has some excellent videos on these issues of corruption and innovation, from a military procurement perspective that touches on organizational behavior and leadership.
Nice analysis 🙌 by Mr Shekhar Gupta on Military topics
Meanwhile Rahul Gandhi having secret meetings with CCP and PLA when Indian Military was standing off them on border in Doklam,
Taking Millions of $ Dollers in donation for Rajiv Gandhi Fund from CCP.
Wouldn't there be any conflict of interest and interfere in domestic politics of India by China??
Pakistanis & urban naxals/traitors have to grateful to Rahul Vinci Gandhi, his ancestors & Congress for creating Pseudo secular & Hindu phobic India & societal echo system!!
India should completely switch its military supplies away from Russia ASAP
Also the resolve of the Ukrainian v/s the forced Russian army also counts.
Men will only lay there lives when it really matters.
This is highly romanticized in India because we are a status quo defensive state. It may be true for Ukraine but won't be for India. The enemy considers those territories as his. Also troop morale is high when they are winning ex india in Bangladesh
Change is the only Constant !!
Excellent💯 Analysis!
The simple thing is to think of war with a clean slate. You have the hotchpotch of every technology coming at you and now you have to counter it with scratch. If we start from existing armor and helicopters then inertia will be too great and our army is too big that we will be able to make those large changes required.
Mr. Gupta, this is useful information for Indian civilians. India owns and in the process of buying even more Russian weapons, such as tanks! Why? Times have changed. Why are the Indians so nostalgic for the USSR? I say this as too many in India are transposing affection for the USSR to Russia... they are not the same. Then worse to Putin, who has been a war criminal for some time. When the Indian establishment wake up? When are you going to cover this issue of blind support for Putin by India?
You are 100% correct! Honorable MFA and PM completely fell for the conventional wisdom that Ukraine will fall in 3 days and we and rest of the world will happily move on! We should have taken the morally correct position that no matter who, no Nation has any right to invade and try to take over another sovereign neighbor! Jai Hind
people also forget that Ukraine was a massive part of the USSR indians love so much. Not just that but its people and its cities are largely responsible for the advancements loftily claimed by the RF today (even the USSR flag photo over the german reichstag russians love so much is of ukranians), their key space race scientist Korolev was ukrainian, they made rockets, aircraft engines, and marine gas turbines that india uses, from scientists to naval yards, ukraine was the powerhouse of the USSR, and it gets no love from ignorant rus fans.
@@veerchand8968 Absolutely. What is tragic is that India is gaining a bad reputation now. In a world where military power is demonstrably a bad idea to use in terms of aggression, it is 'soft' power that India is losing quickly. Indian citizens are being manipulated by Zee news, etc., to be pro-BJP, and with that the country is losing its secular authority around the world. This dangerous drift is sooooo 19th century. What a shame that people cannot wake up and understand that the far right is not to be trusted anywhere, especially when they say they are for the common man. In reality, they are out to remove the small farmer for a corporate farm, crush labor, etc. Loads of propaganda, but little for the poor who are supposed to transfer their effort via cheap wages so there can be rich Indians.
Hello SIr , One request .. Could you do a CTC episode on the drama happening in Delhi between Conman Sukesh and the CM. There are a lot of miscommunications and allegation floating around, the story merits decluttering , dont you think ?
HIMER HIMER HIMER - just 20 Himers were enough to turn the tide of war in favor of Ukraine.
I believe china is not going to be careless like Russia and will not go to war unless it has to defend itself or is absolutely sure can win.
China has never participated in any wars far from its borders. Any other country would have already invaded Taiwan for example, Argentina invaded Falkland Islands and British went to take it back but China has been patient.
1. India may not have to attack and enter deep into enemy territory in future wars but rather hold and beat back the aggressor. So we need to certainly learn some lessons in tactics used by Ukraine. 2. However, power of drones in case of ground attack should not be overemphasized and can be handled quite effectively as we have the anti drone systems now. But Navy must be able protect against unmanned submarine vessels. 2. The book by Ranade must be worth reading!
Yes, you are correct that India will never be in an invading force like Putin’s. We do need to learn the biggest lesson from Ukraine, having many good, powerful allies, not having losers as Russia as our main ally! This fraud of neutrality is dangerous. We will have no useful friends when we need help the most! Jai Hind
@@m.r.r8408 India wont invade anyone unless the enemy provoked us to do so .
What India need is not some kind of allies but huge defence manufacturing ability.That can sustain a war for years without affect the economy.
@@m.r.r8408 India wont invade anyone unless the enemy provoked us to do so .
What India need is not some kind of allies but huge defence manufacturing ability.That can sustain a war for years without affect the economy.
Why India won’t invade other countries? In fact we should learn to invade and fight wars on foreign soil like Russia and US does. Need to get rid of defensive mindset of Congress governments. India needs to attack first and win wars swiftly.
@@jayarajnair Correct!! Spot On!! India needs explosive economic, military/naval & general Industrial growth!! That will create the required safe environment for Bharat & it's civilization!!
Else, how can British/Western or Mughal/Islamist invaders who killed, pillaged, raped & enslaved Indians/Hindus can somehow become true Indian friends & allies??!!
Good...
Not all armies take forever to change , case & point : Wehrmacht in WW2 & US army in Afghanistan
It seems India is always learning lessons
For Vishwaguru, one has to first be a Vishwa-Vidyarthi
Perhaps a parallel can be draws between the state of our armed forces and our cricket team. Change cumbersome, like turning an aircraft carrier. Drastic actions requires now in this new insight.
Very interesting
Dear SG when you read from notes it touches to the heart. Reading from teleprompter seems less effective. Give a thought.
niceee
You only have to look at how the US changed their tactics in Afghanistan ...heavy use of drones to bomb targets. Countries are already training their army in networked warfare integrating army, navy and airforce with emphasis on avoiding face to face fighting to reduce human casualties.
Future armies will have smaller footprints but use advanced technology to inform them of distant targets to guide bombs and short range missiles.
I think Prime Minister Modi understands the importance of military power of the country better than all the previous governments. As all Indians feel. Because, despite the occupation of India's precious land by China in 1962, the Gandhi family had stopped considering China as an enemy.
Sir your counter arguments are really educative and very good to hear. But again what today's generation says in hinglish " aapki baat sunne Mai Achi hai par practical nhi hai" is very much applicable for your counter agreements. Almost everyone would agree today that Anti tank missiles and Unarmed combat vehicles including UCAVs and RPVs enabled with AI, Data computing and what not is the requirement of today. This would not require any military expertise to come to these conclusions. But are you ready to provide these technological advancements to army. Indian army is currently short of even very basic war fighting equipments. The points explained by former army chief were keeping these aspects and nature of our conflicts with our neighbours. It is more important to bring out relevance with our situation rather than just learning the lessons which are neither fully applicable on us nor feasible in terms of equipment that army will not get even in next 20 years.
Nice 👍
Sir
In your concluding comment on India’s foreign secretary :
Gautam Bambawale - did not become foreign secretary.
Please correct your error !
Another interesting episode from your desk .
Someone pointed out the effectiveness and technology advancement of the American weapons during the recent Pakistan-India fight as compared to the Russian ones. And he was LAUGHED AT.
Pakistan will lose no matter which weapons they use. As they are led by religious extremists.
To all the comments in chorus to, 'we are like this only', down below: having a carrier is not about taking it to offensive war with another country. India has vast coasts on either side. It is about having a piece of land out in the ocean hundreds of miles away from your own cities, from where aircraft carrying all kinds of weapons can be launched when your real land needs to be defended. Last I checked, India has not exactly been sitting on its haunches with respect to development of missiles either.
Another lesson for India is not to listen to Gen. GD (Vladimir) Bakshi who still toes the Soviet era strategy
Well said!
Ye!! India should listen to Rahul Vinci Gandhi/his ancestors & Congress who created Islamic Pakistan, Pseudo secular & Hindu Phobic India, colonial societal echo system & WAQF Islamist LOOT Board!!
Brilliantly explained.However while boots on the ground are Ukrainian and full credit for their unwavering courage,I feel this is a victory of US intelligence, technology and weapon systems. The events have caused many a wannabe conqueror to pause in his tracks and rethink. While the pullout from Afghanistan was chaotic, events in Ukraine demonstrate that the stops will be out when it comes to defending US interests in Europe. Afghanistan was logistically a drain and hasty withdrawal could have been due to early intelligence on the likelihood of conflict in Europe.
@@prajasena1 Basically Russia has been checkmated by Nato
No question of Nato occupying Russian territory. They are quite happy if Russia does not occupy Ukraine.. Though Crimea will be ticklish issue especially if Ukraine tries recapturing it which it lost in 2014.
can somebody please share the link to General Naravane's article.
May I add to Gen. Naravane's point from a wider angle lens: land is not just about direct ownership, i.e., a country's own landmass. And political will is not just about making a point, like Clint Eastwood or Amitabh Bacchan in the movies. It is more hard-nosed. It is about which column a piece of land (i.e. a country) will fall into - our side, or the other side. In that sense, when America promises to defend Taiwan, it is promising to defend land in its column (and a massive contributor to world GDP). Loss of land, once removed, were what the existential anxieties of the 'west' were about with communist expansion toward Europe, and of Russia about 'western' expansion toward Russia.
Has GD Bakshi managed to read what Gen Navarane has penned? Doubt
@ kdbir -- doubt is doubtful and funny 😂😘😀?
@@AmitJhamb the man is like an old World War II Katyusha rocket. More light and sound, than application of mind. Absolute relic.
@@kdblr Dr G D Bakshi is PhD and authored books and an Army Veteran -- to put it straight and more specific -- your comments are totally misplaced and figment of your imagination or ignorance ?
@@AmitJhamb yup. He predicted the fall of Kiev in 3 days flat 👍
For a country which is surrounded by adversaries and fathoms ambition in IOR and indo pacific the military power land air and water is grossly inadequate
Right 👉
Future technology. Misiles +Drone tech. Most important is Electronic Warfare.
The statements about the British Army give them a slightly incorrect portrayal. British were actually the ones who accepted tanks with open arms, and the French copied them. On the other hand, one of the best and most competitive armies (that is Germany), kept ignoring tanks till the very end. They didn't give their infantry anti-tank weapons or even failed to assign enough artillery to anti-tank puropse. But, I do agree the British kept using cavalry till very late, even in the last year of the war, they tried to use cavalry to exploit the success opened by tanks and failed.
And as another young fellow interested in defense, I will definitely read "On the physiology of Military Incompetence" :)
Psychology* not physio
Very important topic. Why any of the TV channels do not carry such valuable topics and just focus on politics always. Has average Indian human development has shrunk so much that they cannot think any thing else than local politics. Looks Print is the only Torch bearer left to enlighten whatever is left of Indian intelectual thinking. Appreciate Print and SG to have enlightened us on an important war tactic change.
You are right. The avg human intellect has dropped after the invention of tiktok, insta etc
#ThePrint #ShekharGupta
Why was this article not in my TOI newspaper dated 27/28 October 2022?
I know it's behind a firewall online, but I pay for my paper!
Miniscule amount but still!
Don't mix. Only go forward.
Please keep yourself updated about Russia.
Shekhar ji, what are your views on these observations of mine
Lessons India needs to learn from the Ukraine invasion
1. Streamline our weponary to ease logistics (i mean how the hell are we even managing Russian, American, Israeli, french and Indian weapons all at the same time)
2. We need to step up our logistics game, our border areas are not well connected to our heartland by roads, trains, fibre optics etc, and can be cutoff very easily and we don't even have a proper department in our military services which deals with logistics
(See the Americans, how well they manage logistics)
3. We need a better chain of command in our military.
Our military is based on Soviet style bureaucracy (red tapism) and it's killing our military from inside out (I don't know what was the Indian leadership thinking for the past 20 years for not having a theatre command, when it could have greatly reduced our redtapism) (even a simple decision moves between 100 tables, to rectify that)
Timing is key in a war.
Israel should be our role model their army is one of the most efficient and red tapism free army in the world while simultaneously being free from corruption. (Something that even the Americans could not achieve)
4. We need better and more advanced weapons not more soldiers (we have a lot more army personnel than we need, causing us to spend more of our budget on their salary and pension and also the logistics nightmare is there too)
China is a great example of this, we can see how they put great emphasis on modern weapons and are slowly reducing their soldiers
5. We need a better and more efficient and professional military industrial complex (one that is free from red tapism and corruption) to sustain a long war.
all of our indigenous weapons are produced by a small set of incompetent government owned companies like ofb or hal, (and they are not efficient, their weapons are of low quality and they never deliver on their promises on time)
what we actually need is a big and versatile military industrial base with private and government companies alike which can sustain us in wartime.
both china and WW2 america are great role model for us here, we saw how greatly the industries of US helped US win the 2nd world war.
Also in case of china we saw how they made a whole freakin destroyer in less than 2 year
6. No country is coming to your aid during a war specially if your opponent is more economically and militarily powerful than you
7. We need better communication and synergy among the members of our armed forces and other related department because it takes ages for a decision to reach the ground troop properly and vice versa
(I mean how bad are your communications that you shot down your own helicopter)
8. We need new specialised divisons like space & cyber force (They are the new war frontier)China US and Russia already have them
9. We need more modern and creative military strategies, (we have no military school dedicated to teaching and forming new military strategy) additionally we need to update our military doctrine of pure self defence to offensive self defence (we have seen in 1971 what we can do if we go offensive)
10. Days of large battle groups are over (in their current form they are sitting ducks), now is the era of agile, flexible and fast reacting small battle groups who are well connected to each other and work in synergy
11. Why are we always playing testing testing, and not inducting weapons in large numbers even when we are in dire need of them, take lch for example it was ready for induction and large scale production for atleast 4 years, and what did the military do order abysmally low amount of helos and that too in 2022. And when an enemy comes knocking down our door we are caught with our pants down and run for emergency procurements from foreign vendors.
Army's import lobby literally cockblocked the induction of ATAGS, if it were not for the government shoving down indigenous products down army's throat, army would have made sure that atags goes back to the drawing board (by citing that stupid barrel burst) and they would have imported athos.
Army's weapons inductions methods need to change
12. We need to up our spy game. I mean r&aw is great but it is still not at par with the CIA or mossad, Western intelligence agencies have greatly aided ukraine in this war
13. We need to up our asymmetric warfare tactics like
• economical warfare (see how Russia forced Europe into buying Russian oil and gas by making them dependent on himself)
• Law warfare (see how west used various international institutions to like human rights council, un etc to pressure Russia)
• information warfare (we all are seeing how west and Russia both are using propoganda)
13. We need to improve the quality of our weapons, I know they are better than the Russians and at par with th Chinese (I am saying this because we never get to know about their failures), but still we are not at par with the Americans.
Sometimes I wonder whether Chinese weapons are as sub standard as we claim it to be, because china as a country has huge industrial output with a vast manufacturing base.
We need to learn from Israel how to make quality equipment at a low price.
Quantity means very less in front of quality.
14. As much as we would like to deny, We are not prepared for a long and stretched war, and our offensive capabilities are very limited.
I mean see the Chinese how rapidly they are improving their military by making it more streamlined, are creating new military divisions, are fully indigenised, their military industrial complex in huge and they are logistically at par with the Americans.
We need a lot of catch-up to do
I don't think "Shekhar" can do much with your advice. Perhaps it would be best if you get in touch with someone within the appropriate Ministry.
@@nnbg8000 ah, I wish but given the fact that many of my observations are already present in the Kargil review committee report that the defence ministry already has, it is clear that they already know these shortcomings, but for some reason they are not working on mitigating these problems
When the problem is important enough - you must keep trying.
Except on the matter of RAW. I agree on many points.
I have question.
What does the best bait against Chinese if we cannot match them equipment by equipment?
Drones are definitely option but we are not industrially as capable as Chinese. They would chunk out more drones than us with less cost.
@@IndiaTides would you please explain why do you not agree on the RA&W point because report after report have shown that RA&W's presence in SE Asia and China is near negligible and they only focus on South Asia and middle East. And we all know right now china is our biggest enemy.
We can not afford a hostile china as of right now, we need atleast 10 more years before we can even think of comparing ourselves against them weapons wise
The biggest leverage we have against china is Allies.
The best way for us to compete against them would not be in quantity rather quality
SG it is alright to discuss views of uniformed persons about warfare. My take.
In this age of internet and digital media there are no secrets. The context has to be correct. A war, broadly, has two aims. 1. Defence. 2. Offence Defence is self-explanatory. There are two aspects to offence. 1. A deterrent 2. Occupation of territories. Equipping and strategies are different in each of these scenarios. The Russian invasion of Ukraine is for occupation of territory. India has a stated position of not occupying foreign territory (loosely said). Hence the “lessons” from the war and battles in Russia - Ukraine should be tempered.
India strategies and equipping should be centered on defence on land, air and sea. Defence does have an element of offence but does not include conquering and occupation. Also, roughly three times more resources are required for offence than for Defence.
Tailpiece: Let us not read too much into the lessons from Russia-Ukraine conflicts. Maybe we can learn from the efficiency of technologies employed on and off the battlefields. More specifically on those employed away from the battlefields.
Shekharji - You forgot effect of Shahed drones
Now u understand how military power is important to control a territory. That the idea behind Modi Agniveer to control India,s territory in the event of war emergency.
Without an army, there is neither political independence nor civil liberties - Napoleon.
I feel sad though for Russia, because you can't live under economic sanctions and isolation and not expect the reaction that we saw in Ukraine.
Everyone has the right to counter in the way they same fit.
One can not be forced into a corner and expected to live there.
@Yugesh Patnaik I see China and the USA as the the last two Expansionist powers in the world, so a nato expansion coupled with US and EU sanctions, will call for a counter.
For your perspective let's say: from today onwards upto the next 10 years india faces economic sanctions from China and say the OIC , later the OIC collectively militarises it self and Pakistan is set to join. What will india do.
As far as The UN... they only do lip service nothing changed only the areas of conflicts, pace of wars who you can touch and who you cannot thats all the UN is good for.
Great episode Gupta ji. But I felt like you were reading from a script unlike ur other episodes... I miss ur natural style...
0:30
Congratulations on the I P I Award, Print.
Why We are still buying light tanks and armed water drones not
Somewhat agree with Shekhar Ji's Comment, but somewhat disagree. People have the habit to draw too much of conclusions from one ongoing event as if it is the last event or only event.
First, for context, Ukraine & Russia both are not the best capital asset or technology-rich military power. But Ukraine is assisted day & night by far more superior information or awareness of the battlefield which any military can only dream. This war has seen a maximum number of people I mean military personnel on the ground. In an ideal big power conflict, it won't happen that way, for ex., If it were to be China Vs India or Pakistan, the first few hours would be a battle between capital assets, sensor Vs Sensor, etc., of course, there are people who drive them & there will be casualties but first few hours or days it would be far fewer people but more machines. The remaining battle is always bare down to people which they will fight with all over asymmetrically or symmetrical depending upon the resources available.
The point is, I don't think that capital assets are wasted because of Ukraine's experience, we should all give up them & just recruit more people & asymmetrical weapons like MANPADS.
What's true for politics is true for war too, mostly. It's the size of the economy (the fuel in the tank) and level of technological advancement (the smarts in the tanks) that determines win on loss. The 'west' is a monolith and there was no way Russia was going to match them in either resource or tech in Ukraine, and neither is China anywhere close to matching them. Tactics only come into play for adversaries with comparable sized economies and war tech. (To be honest, there is a hefty dose of hindsight in that opinion).
First thing india should be ally of usa rather than Russia
India and Russia are alike natural friends theirs army stormed almost all their neighbours
Why are you reading out an article?
Drones,hypersonic missiles,atgms are much more important in war than army personnals....india need to reduce army size and focus on weapons....its the weapons that wins the war not the people
If you make your video clips of 15 minutes more people will be happy to enjoy it.
Lesson for India is to beef up electronics and intelligence , and cyber technology…
What about Russia's use of Lancet drone and Shaheed drones.
Its Just that powerful alliance which has control of economy of the world cannot be messed with.
Ukraine could have hardly stood without any West's help.
Ukraine only got substantial help after they defeated Putins army in Kiev. Before that western analysts were predicting that Ukraine will lose in 10 days. The Ukrainian President also showed courage, he stayed in Kiev and put on his Army fatigue. Ukraine had managed to best an emeny with has a 7 to 1 numerical superiority, Western technology and weapons has helped but they are defending their independence against a cruel imperialist enemy.
Ur right but Putin is not less than any bulley
With the right weapons and infra.
@@vinay7397 They had been getting active military advice and intelligence. and Ukrainians were being trained by the western forces since 2014.
All the Russian generals that were killed in the beginning was to mess up their Kiev plans.
And all was done based on intelligence fed by Americans.
This was not denied when asked in a press conference to the US defence secrterary.
Zelensky's army stood up, true. But in the long run, they would have folded.
And ten days?
Americans needed 300,000 soldiers to occupy take over Bhagdad in more than a month, a heavily sanctiond country.
But its not good, we have control of one super alliance, both economically and militarily and all the countries sooner or later would have to fold in front of that alliance.
A Russian win would have established a multipolar and multilateral world.
@@amritpalsingh3293 I don't know where you live, I am in Europe I am British. The West is power because it's institutions are not corrupt relatively speaking, the education system innovates, and there is a pragmatic approach to economics. A Putin victory would not established anything, except set a precedent for more war: China would have been more inclined to invade Taiwan, and might even started a war against India, these event might still happen.
People like you are happy to back Putin, because of your anti-western stance, maybe in your mind you are still fighting the British empire. The British have moved and our new PM is Rishi Sunak, he there because his party judged him to be the best man for the job understand the current economic crisis. This the strength of the Western system, a democracy and meritocracy compared to other civilisations. You seem have to see Ukraine turn into Putin's imperial possession, for you own perceived benefit. Your mentality belongs in the 19th century.
Seeing this Pakistan will be preparing their drone fleet for mayhem as same is the case with India..
The stupid advertisement at the beginning is not only annoying but a put off for me.
Shouldn't India replace Rafael Fighters with Bayrakter Drone , S400 (Russian) India with Javelin (US).... Save $$$$ and country...
indians had learned very little from their huge loss to chinese in 1962 war and the gulf war...
The chinese quickly studied US led assault using long range missiles and stealth bombing of iraqi positions..
Before the massive chinese intrusion into ladakh in 2020, there were numerous reportings by locals about chinese activities near the LAC..
B
It was reported india consulted the russians on chinese build up at the border but was told nothing to worry.
And the indian army let loose the guard and many went to leh for covid screening..
The chinese army at the border saw the oppurtunity and just dash through into ladakh few kms inside at multiple points before the indians came back to confront..
The subsequent events including galwan clash are history
Till now the chinese refuse to go back to pre 2020 positions ..
@ Mister Bean -- dear, Misadventure by China's PLA and more than expected & befitting response by our brave soldiers in Galwan is unforgettable for times to come by China and its ecosystem ?
But supreme leader even refuses to acknowledge that they've entered the territory let alone occupying it.. lots of political will there by the 56 incher🤪🤣
Didn't your leader told that nobody had entered indian territory?
🤔🤔
@@wolverine9377? didn't your leader accepted heavy casualties of PLA ?
@@dheerajb1883 Tukde Tukde Gang's Ecosystem / Hypocrites possess infinite hypocrisy 😭😭😭?
Darwin always wins
If you apply the same fundas to our T20 disaster, our lumbering elephant (old men) when we should have had the young Turks (drones) in the team
Every body seems to be giving advice to Indian Army as if they are maroon and not keeping updated with changing war tactics
@Anup Rungta -- dear, right .
Maroon? you mean Moron. don't you?
SG and others are not lecturing to our military leaders but to the political leaders who are above the military and make all political and investment decisions! I hope you can understand that!
@@m.r.r8408dear, our military is perfectly on the right track and direction.Wsap warriors are not needed to teach them on war tactics and related strategies ?
The British army lost far fewer men in WW1 than either the Germans or the French. The British also invented the tank, which broke the deadlock of the trenches. It was mainly the British, which included troops from Canada, Australia and NZ that broke the back of the German army in 1918, a period when the French army was in near continuous mutiny. Don't believe or swallow everything you read in lopsided and biased historical "novels". I accept that Indians have a natural animus towards the British because Britain ruled India for 200 years, but that does not mean you have a right to distort history with a fair amount of ignorance. I'm sorry, not all Indians, there are about 2 million Indians in the UK who seem to quite like it there.
British army is shitty was ahitty and will remain shitty.
Only Ethnic Groups are fighting for Russia..like Chechens ..mainstream Russians are surrendering !! India also depends on ethnic groups for serious military operations .. Recent example. Capturing Kailash Range with the help of Tibetan regiments. Sikhs , Gorkha and Naga’s are only fighting forces of Indian Army. Drones are secondary.. Russians have no well to fight.
By the end of this conflict, Ukrainean Army will become most competent army of the West /world ! Russians are in for big trouble for years to come.