#SecurityScan 50: Rafale fighters for Indian Navy, Army Chief's visit to LoC and more
The decision to boost bilateral security cooperation was taken at the second security dialogue in Bishkek.
NewsBharati 22-Jul-2023 13:26:37 PM
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This article is a summary of important events that have taken place in last one week affecting, India's national security .
News In Brief
26 Rafale fighters selected for Indian Navy after successful trial campaign
India's Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) has granted the Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) for the purchase of 26 Rafale fighters from France for the Indian Navy. Alongside this, DAC also approved the AoN for the procurement of three additional Scorpene submarines under Buy (Indian) category.
Ashok Leyland bags orders worth Rs 800 crore from Indian Army
Ashok Leyland has secured INR 800 crore worth of orders from the Indian Army, which include the procurement of specialist vehicles FAT 4x4 and GTV 6x6 for towing light and medium guns. The vehicles are scheduled to be delivered over the next 12 months.The mobility platforms, ranging from 4x4, 6x6, 8x8, 10x10 & 12x12 are indigenously developed and manufactured by Ashok Leyland and that contributed significantly towards import substitution.
Army Chief Gen Manoj Pande visits forward areas along LoC
Army Chief Gen Manoj Pande visited the forward areas along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir to review the operational preparedness, officials said on Saturday. The Army also tweeted pictures from his visit and interaction with troops deployed in the forward areas.
China's top diplomat urges stable ties with India as military tensions simmer
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on the sidelines of ASEAN meetings and urged mutual support rather than suspicion between the two nations.
Two IEDs found in forest in Kashmir's Kupwara district
Security forces on Monday found two improvised explosive devices in the Handwara forests in Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir. The positive identification of IEDs was carried out by the Indian Army's highly trained explosive detection team equipped with explosive detectors army Dog.
Two terrorists killed as Army foils infiltration bid in J-KTwo terrorists killed as Army foils infiltration bid in J-K
It said two terrorists were eliminated while four AK rifles and six hand grenades were among the war-like stores recovered from the scene of the gun battle.
As interest grows in BrahMos missile systems, here's why it is the future of defence capabilities;
Argentina's interest in acquiring cruise missiles, specifically the BrahMos system, reflects its commitment to modernizing its defense infrastructure. As Argentina engages in talks with Indian officials, the potential for collaboration in this domain is promising.
Britain's MI6 chief says his spies are using AI to disrupt flow of weapons to Russia
In a speech that depicted artificial intelligence as both a huge potential asset and a major threat, Moore said his staff at Britain's foreign intelligence agency "are combining their skills with AI and bulk data to identify and disrupt the flow of weapons to Russia for use against Ukraine."
USS Stethem conducts cooperative deployment with Indian Navy in Goa
The US Navy's Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, USS Stethem (DDG 63), has conducted a Cooperative Deployment with the Indian Navy's frigate INS Tarkash (F-50) to strengthen their relationship and build interoperability. The two navies carried out manoeuvring and communication exercises on the West Coast in India as part of the cooperation.
India, Russia hold military to military talks on spare parts & maintenance issues
The third Meeting of the Working Group on Military Cooperation of the Indian-Russian Intergovernmental Commission on Military and Military Technical Cooperation (IRIGC-M&MTC) is being held at Manekshaw Centre in Delhi on Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss the issue of spare parts and maintenance issue of Russian origin defence equipment used by India.
India, Kyrgyzstan to intensify partnership to counter terror and combat radicalization
The decision to boost bilateral security cooperation was taken at the second security dialogue in Bishkek. Deputy National Security Advisor, Vikram Misri led the Indian delegation at the two day (July 17 and 18) dialogue while Marat Mukanovich Imankulov, Secretary of the Security Council of the Kyrgyz Republic.
Modi and Macron Agree on 25-Year Plan to Deepen Cooperation
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi pledged to boost cooperation with France in defense, nuclear energy and space as part of a 25-year plan to deepen ties as the South Asian nation presents itself as a bulwark against China.
Speaking alongside French President Emmanuel Macron during a trip to Paris, he said defense is a key pillar of the Franco-Indian relationship. India has said it plans to purchase three Scorpene submarines made by France’s Naval Group and 26 Rafale fighter jets built by Dassault Aviation SA.
The two nations have released India-France Indo-Pacific Roadmap. The roadmap said that India and France are strategically located resident powers and key partners with vital stakes in the Indo-Pacific
India-US defence relationship robust, increasing in scope and sophistication, says General Brown
General Charles Q. Brown Jr. has told US Senators that the military-to-military relationship between India and America is "robust and increasing in scope and sophistication." As one of America's strategic partners, Brown expects to maintain the partnership by expanding the existing bilateral military-to-military dialogues and defense industrial and technology cooperation.
Bengaluru: CCB arrests 5 with firearms and raw materials used in explosives
Indian police have arrested five terror suspects with a large amount of explosives and firearms, including pistols, cartridges and materials used for explosives. The prime suspect behind the conspiracy, who was previously jailed, is currently absconding and communicating with the suspects via cell phone. The Central Crime Branch arrested them following a tip-off.
Information Security-Indian IT Giant Spending $1 Billion to Train Entire Staff in AI provider
Wipro plans to spend $1 billion to train its 250,000 employees in artificial intelligence and integrate the technology into its product offerings.
The spending, over the next three years, also involves bringing 30,000 employees from cloud, data analytics, consulting and engineering teams together to embed the technology into all internal operations and solutions offered to clients.
External Security
Anti-China melodrama toxic chicken soup for India: Global Times editorial by Global Times
China hopes that India can fully appreciate China's goodwill and sincerity and remain cautious about the "anti-China melodramas" becoming a toxic influence in Indian society.
China can't just keep building the world's biggest dam in secret
Brahmaputra project poses risks for India and Bangladesh. China is unmatched as the world's hydro hegemon, with more large dams in service than every other country combined. Now it is building the world's first super dam, close to its heavily militarized frontier with India.
This megaproject, with a planned capacity of 60 gigawatts, would generate three times as much electricity as the Three Gorges Dam, now the world's largest hydropower plant. China, though, has given few updates about the project's status since the National People's Congress approved it in March 2021.
Opacity about the development of past projects has often served as cover for quiet action. Beijing has a record of keeping work on major dam projects on international rivers under wraps until the activity can no longer be hidden in commercially available satellite imagery.
The super dam is located in some of the world's most treacherous terrain, in an area long thought impassable.
Technological Security
India blasts Chandrayaan-3 lander toward moon's south pole
India's space agency launched a rocket on Friday that sent a spacecraft into orbit and toward a planned landing next month on the lunar south pole, an unprecedented feat that would advance India's position as a major space power.
The Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) LVM3 launch rocket blasted off from the country's main spaceport in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh on Friday afternoon, leaving behind a plume of smoke and fire.
About 16 minutes later, ISRO's mission control announced that the rocket had succeeded in putting the Chandrayaan-3 lander into an Earth orbit that will send it looping toward a moon landing next month.
If the mission succeeds, India would join a group of three other countries that have managed a controlled lunar landing, including the United States, the former Soviet Union and China.
The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft would also be the first to land at the lunar south pole, an area of special interest for space agencies and private space companies because of the presence of water ice that could support a future space station.
Countering Chinese Multi domain war
Chinas Multi Domain War against Own Citizens-Hong Kong Takes Its Crackdown Abroad
Authorities question families, place hefty bounties on overseas activists. After crushing dissent at home, Hong Kong is turning its focus to activists who have continued their resistance to the Beijing-led crackdown from overseas.
Why Chinese entities are turning to People’s Daily censorship AI to avoid political mines
Companies, organisations and even individuals are increasingly using content moderation services to pre-screen online material
Experts predict that the use of artificial intelligence to identify risks will only grow, but could the technology miss ‘implicit’ meanings?
US Secretary Blinken vows to keep the Indo-Pacific region free and open amid ‘complex’ challenges
United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday vowed to keep the Indo-Pacific region free and open, and hopes to deepen efforts with South-east Asian nations to tackle “complex challenges” affecting the region.
“We share a vision of an Indo-Pacific that is free, open, prosperous, secure, connected and resilient,” he told foreign ministers in Jakarta at the 56th ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting and related meetings, which started on Tuesday and ended on Friday.
“That means a region where countries are free to choose their own paths and their own partners, where problems are dealt with openly, not through coercion, where rules are reached transparently and applied fairly.
China and the Chinese mafias overseas: quid pro quo
A vast alliance of diaspora gangsters with Chinese authorities plagues Europe as it does the Americas.
China has tried to insert its spies in Britain’s secret services
MPs report that successive governments failed to address Beijing’s threat because economic interests took precedence
China has tried to infiltrate British intelligence agencies with its spies as part of a “prolific and aggressive” espionage campaign, a report revealed.
Beijing’s activities are so extensive that it has penetrated every sector of the economy, an influential group of MPs said. The damning assessment by the intelligence and security committee (ISC) concluded that successive governments had failed to address the threat because economic interests took precedence.
It said Chinese investment in the nuclear sector meant Britain’s electricity could one day be held to ransom if relations between the countries deteriorated. It warned of a “nightmare scenario” where China had technological supremacy and could exert political and economic influence at all levels.
A Chinese company has access to fast-track visas despite its surveillance equipment being deemed a security risk, The Times can reveal.
In November the UK government banned Hikvision, the security camera manufacturer, from providing equipment on official sites in Britain.
Oliver Dowden, then the Cabinet Office minister, told the House of Commons that the ban was because of “current and future possible security risks associated with the installation of visual surveillance systems on the government estate”.
He advised departments to stop using equipment produced by companies subject to China’s national intelligence law, under which “any organisation or citizen shall support, assist and co-operate with the state intelligence .
The report by the UK's Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) is a smear campaign against China filled with Cold War mentality, Chinese experts said on Friday, following the release of a China-related report that continues to hype up "China threat" at a time when bilateral ties are at a low due to the UK's provocation.
UK universities are ditching freedoms for Chinese cash
In what has become a fixture in the Westminster calendar, parliament’s intelligence and security committee has flagged threats from China. The seductive power of the yen has proved irresistible to those in charge of Britain’s infrastructure and institutions, with universities especially having fallen for its charms.
Thirty British universities host Confucius Institutes. These offshoots of the Chinese state, supervised by Beijing’s ministry of education, ostensibly co-ordinate the teaching of Mandarin and the promotion of Chinese culture. But MPs noted that, once established, they allow Beijing to exert “influence over institutions, UK academics and Chinese students” as well as granting easy access to scientific and technological knowledge. The attraction of China to the UK’s cash-strapped universities is clear.
U.S. Navy Needs More Attack Submarines
To supply our allies, and counter the threat from China, the time to double sub production is now.
The United States, Australia and the United Kingdom formed a pact in 2021 to boost the three nations’ collective deterrence in the Indo-Pacific. That Aukus agreement is vital but there is more work to do: The U.S. should double its submarine production.
ASML Faces Tighter Dutch Restrictions on Servicing Chip Equipment in China
ASML Holding NV, the leading provider of chipmaking equipment, is facing tighter restrictions on its ability to work with Chinese customers, a further escalation in the technology clash between Washington and Beijing.
Dutch export control rules will forbid ASML from maintaining, repairing and providing spare parts for controlled equipment without government approval, people familiar with the matter said. Those restrictions are related to new regulations the government published in June that prohibit ASML from shipping some so-called immersion deep ultraviolet lithography machines, its second-most capable machinery, to China without a license beginning in September.
The US’ two-pronged strategy involves on shoring or friend shoring chip production, and cutting off China’s access to essential tech at vulnerable choke points
While the US and its allies currently have the upper hand, especially when it comes to advanced chips, China still manufactures workhorse chips and has market scale.
Berlin aims to have "best equipped" NATO army division in Europe in 2025
Germany is confident it will have the best equipped army division amongst European NATO allies in 2025, Army Chief Alfons Mais told Reuters, as countries are scrambling to gear up their troops in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
At the moment, Berlin does not have a single combat-ready division, a military unit comprising more than 20,000 troops. It aims to have the first of three divisions operational by 2025, with the second to follow in 2027.
Germany urges companies to ‘de-risk’ from China, emphasizes it is not seeking a decoupling
Germany on Thursday said that de-risking from China is “urgently needed” but emphasized it is “not pursuing a decoupling.”
“China’s economic strategy aims to make it less dependent on other countries, while making international production chains more dependent on China,” the foreign ministry said in a 64-page report.“This is having an impact on European and global security,” the report warned.
US, Japan and Australia Can Aid Taiwan
A public pact to guarantee peace across the Western Pacific could deter Beijing without violating the “one China” policy.
The greatest weakness of America’s position in the Indo-Pacific is the lack of a multilateral alliance for deterring aggression. One of the key opportunities for the US in the coming year is to start piecing such a framework together.
To be clear, the only country that can force the creation of an “Asian NATO” is China — if it engages in expansion so outrageous as to thrust the countries of the region together under US leadership. What Washington can do is exploit the blowback Chinese coercion is already causing to secure an explicit agreement that three crucial regional powers — Australia, Japan and the US — will all be in it together if war comes.
Thousands of Russian officials to give up iPhones over US spying fears
FSB enforces crackdown on use by state officials after claiming it uncovered an espionage operation using Apple devices.
China youth unemployment hits high as recovery falters
Youth unemployment in China has hit a new record high as the country's post-pandemic recovery falters. The jobless rate of 16 to 24 year old in urban areas rose to 21.3% last month, official figures show.
It comes as the world's second largest economy grew just 0.8% in the three months to the end of June.Analysts say the weak pace of growth has raised expectations that authorities may soon announce new measures to boost the economy.
Race towards 'autonomous' AI agents grips Silicon Valley
Around a decade after virtual assistants like Siri and Alexa burst onto the scene, a new wave of AI helpers with greater autonomy is raising the stakes, powered by the latest version of the technology behind ChatGPT and its rivals.
Experimental systems that run on GPT-4 or similar models are attracting billions of dollars of investment as Silicon Valley competes to capitalize on the advances in AI. The new assistants - often called "agents" or "copilots" - promise to perform more complex personal and work tasks when commanded to by a human, without needing close supervision.
Xi Jinping’s foreign minister vanishes amid rumours of TV presenter affair
Part of China’s breed of ‘Wolf Warrior’ diplomats, Qin Gang has disappeared, as has the Hong Kong presenter alleged to be his mistress
Fu Xiaotian, a television presenter who was educated at Cambridge University, is rumoured to have had a relationship with Qin Gang, China’s foreign minister
Qin Gang, China’s aggressive new foreign minister, has disappeared from public view, fuelling speculation that he has fallen foul of the leadership and even rumours of an affair with a well-known television presenter.
Qin became foreign minister in December after a seamless rise through the ranks, including terms as ambassador to Britain and the United States. He was among the most prominent of a new breed of “Wolf Warrior” diplomats, who engage fiercely with China’s western critics. But he has not been seen in public since he met his Sri Lankan counterpart on June 25, an unusually long absence for a foreign minister.
Europeans Are Becoming Poorer. ‘Yes, We’re All Worse Off’
An aging population that values its free time set the stage for economic stagnation. Then came Covid-19 and Russia’s war in Ukraine. Europeans are facing a new economic reality, one they haven’t experienced in decades. They are becoming poorer.
Mineral Strategy for American Security
The U.S. can counter China’s mineral dominance, but only if we get moving
China hasn’t been shy about its ambition to become the world’s superpower. But before Beijing can achieve that goal, it first needs to monopolize the world’s supply of critical minerals. The U.S. has been asleep at the wheel on this growing threat to America’s economic and national security.
North Korea fires two ballistic missiles into sea
The launch was reported by South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), according to Yonhap, who said they were fired early Wednesday from the Sunan area in Pyongyang, and flew some 550 kilometres (340 miles) before splashing into the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan.
Ukraine War
Information War-
NAFO, not NATO, take the fight to Russia’s internet trolls
A pro-Ukraine social media group is smothering the Kremlin’s disinformation campaign with memes
The Star of Lithuanian Diplomacy, one of the highest honours the Baltic state can confer on a foreign citizen, is usually reserved for luminaries such as the historian Timothy Snyder and Christo Grozev, director of the Bellingcat investigations website. Now it has been bestowed on a group of self-professed “brain-dead dogs”.
The North Atlantic Fella Organization, an anarchic and pro-Ukrainian social media movement known by its acronym Nafo, has emerged as the West’s leading scourge of Russian propaganda. Its members, often displaying customised pictures of smug-looking shiba inu dogs, act as a collective anti-troll farm, drowning out disinformation with scorn and memes.
Ukraine says troops retake nearly 18 sq km of territory in east, south
The advances brought the total territory recaptured so far during the counteroffensive to more than 210 sq km, Ukraine's Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar said in updates on the Telegram messaging app.
''Russia has 'sufficient stockpile' of cluster bombs; will use them if necessary'.Ukraine has received cluster bombs from the United States, munitions banned in more than 100 countries. Kyiv has pledged to only use them to dislodge concentrations of enemy soldiers.
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BRIG Hemant Mahajan
Passionate writer on National Security related issues, Brig Hemant Mahajan YSM (Retd) is M Sc, M Phil in Defence Studies. He joined IMA Dehradun in July 1973 and passed out as a Commissioned Officer on 15 June 1975. He was commissioned into 7 MARATHA LIGHT INFANTRY. He has served extensively in Counter Insurgency Operations in Insurgency and Terrorist prone areas of Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab and North East and has taken part in all important operations undertaken by the Army since 1975.
Brig Hemant Mahajan served in Jammu & Kashmir, in the deserts of Rajasthan, in Super High Altitude areas of Kargil and Leh, forward areas of Arunachal Pradesh. He was deployed in Punjab in ‘Operation Avert’. He was also involved in maintaining peace post ‘Operation Bluestar’ days in Punjab in the worst affected district of Gurdaspur, Taran Taran and Amritsar.He served in the areas of Darjeeling, Kurseong, Siliguri and Sikkim. He commanded his battalion 7 MARATHA LIGHT INFANTRY in Operation Rakshak in the most difficult areas of Poonch and Rajouri during the times of highest militancy. His unit was responsible for stopping terrorists from Pakistan into Jammu and Kashmir. His unit was awarded Unit Citation, 18 gallantry awards including YSM (gallantry) for the officer.