What Is Going On???

In a significant move aimed at reducing tensions, the Indian Army (IA) and Pakistan Army (PA) on February 25, 2021 announced that they would cease firing across the Line of Control (LoC) while recommitting themselves to a 2003 ceasefire agreement. According to India’s Union Ministry of Home Affairs, there were 2,140 ceasefire violations (CFV) by Pakistan in 2018, 3,479 in 2019, and 5,133 in 2020. In 2021, there were only 664 incidents as of June 30. Of those 664 violations, almost all occurred prior to February 25. In contrast, only six violations were reported from February 25 to June 30, 2021. 

July 17, 2019: Hafiz Saeed, chief of the banned Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD), gets arrested on July 17, 2019 in terror-financing cases. The Saeed-led JuD is the front organisation for the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), which was responsible for carrying out the 2008 Mumbai attack that killed 166 people, including six US citizens. The US Department of the Treasury has designated Saeed as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist. He was listed under UN Security Council Resolution 1267 on December 10, 2008.

February 2020: Hafiz Saeed is sentenced to 11 years in jail by an anti-terrorism court in two terror-financing cases.

December 24, 2020: Hafiz Saeed is sentenced to 15-and-a-half years in jail by an anti-terrorism court in Lahore for another terror-financing case.

Just six days after his re-arrest on January 2, 2021, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi was sentenced to three concurrent five-year sentences on terror financing charges on January 8, 2021. The speed with which the wheels of justice turned in Pakistan in the case of Lahkhvi’s terror-financing case are in sharp contrast to the years he remained charged in the 26/11 Mumbai attack case, in which he was eventually bailed out. Lakhvi had been listed as a global terrorist by the UN on December 10, 2008. Also designated as global terrorists were Haji Muhammad Ashraf, its chief of finance; and India-born Mahmoud Mohammad Ahmed Bahaziq, described as a financier for the group who served as its chief in Saudi Arabia. He was first arrested in Muzaffarabad on December 7, 2008 and jailed in 2009. Six years later he hit the headlines again when an anti-terrorism court in Pakistan trying him for the Mumbai killings ordered his release on bail. In April 2015 he walked free from prison.

February 2, 2021: At a hearing in the capital Islamabad, the court ordered that British citizen Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh be moved from death row to a government-run “rest house”, where he is to be kept under a form of house arrest. Sheikh, along with three others, was accused of kidnapping Daniel Pearl, who was reporting a story for the AWSJ newspaper on armed religious extremist groups in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi in January 2002, months after the 9/11 attacks and the US-led invasion of Pakistan’s northwestern neighbour, Afghanistan. Sheikh, who was arrested in 2002 and convicted later that year, had already served his seven-year sentence on the kidnapping charge.  Sheikh was indicted in the US in 2002 for hostage-taking and conspiracy to commit hostage-taking, which resulted in the murder of Pearl, as well as for the 1994 kidnapping of another US citizen in India. Following his acquittal, the US Justice Department said that it was ready to take custody of Sheikh and try him. But he remains inside Pakistan till this day.

June 23, 2021: An IED explodes outside Hafiz Saeed’s Lahore residence. In retaliation, the LeT conducts two drone-strikes on the high-security technical area of the Indian Air Force (IAF) Station Jammu on the intervening night of June 26-27, 2021.

April 8, 2022: Hafiz Saeed is given a 21-year jail sentence to be served at the Kot Lakhpat Jail, Lahore for his conviction in four terror-financing cases.

January 13, 2022: The Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) Lahore awards the death sentence to Eid Gul of the banned Tahreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Peter Paul David, Sajjad Shah and Ziaullah on nine counts. Another suspect Ayesha Bibi was handed down five years imprisonment. Eid Gul had installed explosives in the car used in the blast near Hfiz Saeed’s Lahore residence. The car belonged to Peter Paul David and other three--Sajjad Shah, Ziaullah and Ayesha--were facilitators.

May 2022: 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks planner Sajid Mir is sentenced by a Pakistani anti-terrorism court in Lahore on terror-financing charges in a speedy 20-minute trial completed just three weeks after he was arrested, three days before a US-Pakistan ministerial meeting and a month before the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Plenary session that gave Pakistan a reprieve by removing it from the FATF’s grey-listing. Mir was sentenced to eight years in prison on charges of terror-financing and a fine of Rs.4.2 lakh was also been imposed on him. In September 2022, Beijing had put a hold on a proposal moved at the UN by the US and co-supported by India to designate Sajid Mir as a global terrorist.

March 1, 2022: Mistry Zahoor Ibrahim (alias Zahid Akhund) of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), considered the deadliest of the five hijackers of Kathmandu to Delhi Flight IC-814 (1999), is killed in Karachi.

February 20, 2023: Bashir Ahmed Peer (alias Imtiaz Alam), a Hizbul Mujahideen commander, is shot dead by unidentified gunmen in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad.

February 26, 2023: Syed Khalid Raza of al-Badr Mujahideen is killed in Karachi.

March 4, 2023: Syed Noor Shalobar of ISIS-Khorasan is assassinated on by unknown gunmen in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa area of Pakistan. Shalobar was responsible for recruitment and spreading terror in the Kashmir Valley.

May 6, 2023: Paramjit Singh Panjwar, Pakistan-based chief of Khalistan Commando Force’s (KCF), accompanied by two armed guards, Panjwar was taking a walk in the early hours in a park inside Sun Flower Housing Society in Lahore’s Johar Town when the two assailants struck. One of them shot him in the head, fled towards the complex’s entrance gate, and then drove off on a motorcycle along with his accomplice.

July 15, 2023: Mullah Sardar Hussain Arain, a leading figure of Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), the frontal organisation of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), came under an attack allegedly by the Sindhudesh Revolutionary Army (SRA) in Qazi Ahmed town of Shaheed Benazirabad District (formerly known as Nawabshah District) in Sindh. He died on August 5.

September 8, 2023: Riaz Ahmad (alias Abu Qasim), among the masterminds of the Dhangri terror attack, was shot at point-blank range and killed in a mosque in PoJK’s Rawalkot district.

September 13, 2023: Maulana Zia ur Rehman of LeT is killed at a park in in Karachi’s Gulistan-e-Jauhar neighbourhood.

September 19, 2023: Laal Mohammad alias Mohammad Darji, reportedly an ISI agent and supplier of fake notes, is killed in Kathmandu. He reportedly used to get fake Indian currency notes from Pakistan and Bangladesh and bring them into India. Mohammad was also involved in providing logistical support for the ISI, and facilitated asylum for other agents.

September 29, 2023: 30-year-old Mufti Qaiser Farooq, a former member of LeT and a close associate of Hafiz Saeed, is killed near a religious institution in Karachi’s Samanabad area. Farooq suffered bullet wounds in the back and was shifted to a hospital where he died during treatment. A 10-year-old boy was also wounded in the attack.

October 11, 2023: Shahid Latif, a former JeM operative and allegedly the mastermind of the 2016 Pathankot Air Force Station attack, is shot dead by three unknown men riding a motorcycle in Sialkot’s Pasrur area. An associate of Latif is also killed and another associate injured in that attack.A resident of Gujranwala in Pakistan, Latif had built an extensive network while he was in prison in Jammu from 1994 to 2010, and that helped him run his network and operations across the border. He was known as a “master infiltrator”. 

October 20, 2023: Dawood Malik is shot dead by unknown assailants in Mir Ali Pakistan's North Waziristan. The attack occurred at a private clinic. Malik was the founder of Lashkar-e-Jabbar and a close aide of one of India's most wanted terrorists, Masood Azhar. 

On November 5, 2023 Khwaja Shahid, also known as Mian Mujahid, is purportedly kidnapped and later discovered beheaded near the Line of Control in PoJK. Shahid was a prominent LeT figure and one of the masterminds of the 2018 terrorist attack on an Indian Army Cantonment in Sunjuwan that had claimed seven lives.

November 9, 2023: Former LeT terrorist Akram Khan, alias Akram Ghazi, head of LeT’s recruitment cell, is shot dead in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Bajaur tribal district.

November 10, 2023: LeT cadre Mohammed Muzamil and his associate Naeemur Rahman were shot dead by unknown gunmen in Pakistan's Punjab province's Chowk Khokhran in Sialkot district. Police in Pakistan’s Punjab province has branded the incident as an aftermath of a fake land dispute case.

November 12, 2023: Maulana Raheem Ullah Tariq, a JeM leader and close associate of Maulana Masood Azhar, is shot dead by unknown men in Karachi.

December 3, 2023: LeT terrorist Hanzla Adnan, the mastermind of the deadly attack on a BSF convoy in Udhampur on August 5, 2015 and the attack on a CRPF camp at Pampore on June 25, 2016, gets shot by unknown gunmen outside his house in Karachi’s Nizamabad area. He succumbed to his injuries on December 5. Recently, Hanzla Adnan had shifted his operations base from Rawalpindi to Karachi and was a member of the Milli Muslim League, a front of the LeT.

From the above listings of select prosecutions and targetted killings, it becomes evident that both India and the US have adopted the FATF route to compel Pakistan to come down heavily upon the LeT/JuD, with limited success being achieved thus far. But much more needs to be done. For instance, China on October 19, 2022 put a hold on a proposal by India and the US at the UN to blacklist Pakistan-based Hafiz Talah Saeed, the son of Hafiz Saeed, in the second such move within two days to designate Pakistan-based terrorists as global terrorists under the 1267 Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee of the UNSC. China also put a hold on a joint India/US proposal at the UN to list LeT leader Shahid Mahmood as a global terrorist. Mahmood has been a longstanding senior LeT member based in Karachi and has been affiliated with the LeT since at least 2007. As early as June 2015 through at least June 2016, Mahmood served as the vice chairman of Falah-i-Insaniat Foundation (FIF), a humanitarian and fundraising arm of LeT. Earlier in June 2022, China had put a hold, at the last moment, on a joint proposal by India and the US to blacklist Pakistan-based terrorist Abdul Rehman Makki under the 1267 Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee of the UNSC. Makki is a US-designated terrorist and brother-in-law of Hafiz Saeed. Then in August 2022, China again put a hold on a proposal by the US and India to blacklist Abdul Rauf Azhar, the senior leader of Pakistan-based JeM. Azhar, born in 1974 in Pakistan, had been sanctioned by the US in December 2010. He has served as JeM’s acting leader in 2007, and as one the JeM’s intelligence coordinator. In 2008 Azhar was assigned to organise suicide attacks in India. He was also involved with JeM’s political wing and has served as a JeM official involved with terrorist training camps.

Then there is the case of Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar, whose existence inside Pakistan has never been acknowledged by Islamabad. Dawood was designated as a global terrorist by the UN under the UNSC Resolution 1267 and he is listed in al-Qaeda sanction list on November 3, 2003 and the UNSC had also issued a special notice in his name on April 6, 2006. Yet another high-profile terrorist whose existence inside Pakistan continues to be denied is Masood Azhar Alvi, who as the leader of JeM, was designated as a global terrorist by the UN under the UNSC Resolution 1267 on May 1, 2019. All in all, therefore, both the US and India have chosen to target the wanted terrorists through legal means, and not through extra-territorial assassinations.

Thus, the ‘crown jewels’ of Pakistan-based ‘Jihadi’ tanzeems continue to be treated as strategic assets and enjoy state patronage and sanctuary. Those terrorists that have been killed since March 2022 are primarily the ‘runners’ or ‘executors’ at the ground-level who are not responsible for command-n-control of terror-strikes. And the only conceivable reasons why the killings have taken place is that these entities have gone rogue and have challenged the Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) Directorate’s diktats to refrain from violating the ceasefire along the LoC and refrain from engaging in fund-raising activities aimed at financing cross-LoC terror-strikes.

It is also now evident that the PA wants to stay focussed primarily on its western borders along the 2,670km-long Durand Line, astride which the Pakistani provinces of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are now facing a steadily worsening internal security situation and which require an increased deployment footprint by the PA. Small wonder therefore that since taking over as the PA’s COAS on November 29, 2022, Gen Syed Asim Munir has visited troops deployed along the LoC only twice thus far: on December 3, 2022 and April 6, 2023. In contrast, his predecessor Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa visited forward areas along the LoC on January 22, 2018; June 16, 2018; October 25, 2018; November 21, 2018; December 28, 2018; February 22, 2019; June 5, 2019; August 12, 2019; September 6, 2019; April 29, 2020; May 24, 2020; August 1, 2020; October 21, 2020; December 22, 2020; June 2 and 12, 2021; and December 24, 2021. 

(to be concluded)

Hermes 900 MALE-UAVs, aka Drishti-10, Arriving Early Next Year for IA & IN

It was on March 2, 2021 that Israel’s ELBIT Systems had announced that it had received a US$300 million contract from an undisclosed Asian customer to supply and deliver Hermes 900 Starliner MALE-UAS. The contract also requires ELBIT Systems to provide MRO services for those MALE-UAVs. That customer has turned out to be India, with six each of the UAVs and one each of the ground-based control stations going to the Indian Army and Indian Navy.

All 12 Hermes 900s will be licence-assembled by Adani Defence & Aerospace, through its Adani-Elbit UAV Complex subsidiary, located at the Adani Aerospace Park in Hyderabad. Adani Defence & Aerospace had first exhibited the Hermes 900 during the Aero India 2017 expo in Bengaluru. Thereafter, the $15 million Adani-Elbit UAV Complex was inaugurated in December 2018, where most of the composites-based aerostructures for the Hermes 900 are fabricated.

The Hermes 900 has a payload capacity of 300kg, service ceiling of 9,100 metres (30,000 feet), a cruise speed of 112kph (60 Knots), and an endurance of 36 hours at cruise speed. The payload includes either a synthetic aperture radar for ground target-mapping, or a maritime surveillance radar as well as the standard optronic sensor, plus an electronic surveillance system and the automatic identification system (AIS) for maritime surveillance. Eyeing India’s long coastline, ELBIT notes that maritime patrol aircraft could not possibly cover the country’s 200-mile offshore economic exclusion zone (EEZ) without the benefit of cross-cueing from a wide-area surveillance system such as the Hermes 900.

Elbit claims that the Hermes 900 could fly as far as 1,000nm offshore thanks to SATCOM communications, and make frequent descents from higher altitude so that the optronic sensor could identify vessels. The command-and-control system is housed in a single shelter that can allow it to be carried by warships. ELBIT has teamed with another Israeli company, MARINT, to offer advanced maritime analytical software that can exploit data from multiple sources. Vessel behaviour is analysed to detect anomalous and suspicious behaviour that differs from routine maritime patterns.

It is believed that the IN’s and IA’s Hermes 900s will be equipped with the Leonardo Group’s Gabbiano X-band TS-80 PLUS multi-mode radars, weighing 44kg, which offers a set of surveillance capabilities such as high-resolution synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) for patrol and surveillance operations. The radar integrates improved solid-state technology that offers similar performance of the earlier Gabbiano T200 radar and reduces its weight by 25kg, while escalating its mean-time-between-failure (MTBF) rate to 2,500 hours. The radar integrates the 360° antenna group with wide-elevation scan (+20°/-55°); a one metre-wide flat antenna plate as well as 80W of power that enables it to offer effective long-range surveillance. Furthermore, the Gabbiano TS-80 PLUS comes with the Gabbiano family mode suite, including air-to-sea surveillance with track-while-scan (TWS); high-resolution ground mapping (Spot/Strip-SAR); ship target imaging and classification with ISAR mode, and navigation with ground mapping and weather avoidance.

All three armed services of India have a combined MALE-UAV requirement for 155 MALE-UAVs.

It may be recalled that Adani Enterprises Ltd had in December 2018 announced the acquisition of Alpha Design Technologies Pvt Ltd for Rs.400 crore in an all-cash deal. Alpha Design in turn has had a joint venture (JV) involving ELBIT Security Systems (ELSEC). And it was this JV that in September 2021 received a contract for supplying the IA with 100 SkyStriker loitering attack drones worth around Rs.100 crore.

The SkyStriker, which is launched through an automatic pneumatic launch platform, can reach a distance of 20km in less than 10 minutes. The total range of this attack drone is around 100km. According to ELBIT, it can loiter and pursue a target for up to 2 hours with a 5kg warhead or up to 1 hour with a 10kg warhead. At maximum speed (100 Knots), the SkyStriker can reach a distance of 20km within 6.5 minutes, reducing the loitering time by 15 minutes.

When preparing to strike, it navigates based on its optronic “lock” on the target. During the strike phase, SkyStriker can dive at extremely high speeds of up to 300 Knots and can withstand winds of up to 20 Knots.

Adani Defence & Arospace is also in the process of bagging two more orders: one for additional HAROP attack drones (to add to the 12 that were procured early in the previous decade) to be procured by the Indian Air Force (IAF), and another for upgrading the IAF’s existing stockpile of 40 HARPY anti-radar attack drones.

Required: ATGM-Armed UGVs & UAS, Not Light Tanks

It is now fairly established that the actions of China’s PLA Ground Forces (PLAGF) in eastern Ladakh in mid-2020 were part of its evolution of an “Active Defence” posture, defined as a focus on “rapid mobility and concentrating offensive capability to destroy an adversary’s retaliatory capacity”. And with the current infrastructure improvements in the region, China has ensured that it can move forces quickly to respond to any perceived threat posed by India. Added to this are the PLAGF’s ongoing efforts to deploy of family of wheeled armoured vehicles and unmanned ground vehicles (UGV) armed with a variety of anti-tank guided-missiles (ATGM) that are now undergoing field-trials along eastern Ladakh. 

It may be recalled that with the completion of development of the Type 96 main battle tank (armed with 125mm smoothbore cannon) by 1998, the mechanised infantry regiments of the PLAGF’s Xinjiang Military Region (XMR) finally began replacing the older one Regiment of Type-59 MBTs and two Regiments of Type-88A MBTs (200 of them, equipped with L7 rifled-bore cannons). Together, they equipped the XMR’s four Divisions, which included the 4 Mechanised Infantry Division (located at Aksu), 6 Mechanised Infantry Division (at Hotan), 8 Mechanised Infantry Division (at Tacheng), the 11 Mechanised Infantry Division (at Urumqi), a Special Operations Brigade (at Kashgar), 2 Artillery Brigade (at Urumqi) and an Air-Defence Brigade (at Urumqi). Till mid-2020, the total mechanised force of the XMR against the Indian Army (IA) was about four armoured Regiments and two Light infantry regiments. The first-line force was about 372 MBTs and 248 infantry combat vehicles (ICV). In addition, reinforcements were available from the Western Theatre Command’s 76 Group Army (at Xining City, Qinghai Province), which included the 17 Heavy Combined-Arms Brigade (using ZTZ-99A MBTs); 56 Light Combined-Arms Brigade; 62 Heavy Combined-Arms Brigade (using ZTZ-99A MBTs); 149 Medium Combined-Arms Brigade (using ZTZ-96A MBTs); 182 Light Combined-Arms Brigade; 76 Special Operations Brigade; 76 Army Air Force Brigade; 76 Artillery Brigade; 76 Air-Defence Brigade; 76 Brigade of Engineering & Chemical Warfare; and the 76 Service Support Brigade. By late 2020, the XMR had established a three-tier MBT system: 39.5-tonne ZTQ-105 MBTs have since equipped two Aksu-based new light high-mobility infantry Brigades (acting as a fast reaction force), while the Hotan-based armoured Brigades have both 44.5-tonne ZTZ-96A and ZTZ-96B MBTs, and the 76 Group Army at the rear has been equipped with 58-tonne ZTZ-99As (see FORCE July 2021, pages 38-39)

However, the PLAGF, since February 2021, concluded that MBTs were not ideal solutions to its “Active Defence” posture, especially in the forbidding heights above 15,000 feet above sea-level, and consequently a considerable effort has been made in the development of high-mobility 4 x 4 armoured vehicles like the DongFeng Mengshi CTL-181A that can be armed with up to four 10km-range AFT-10 Red Arrow-10B ATGM, and 4 x 4 UGVs carrying up to four TL-4 ATGMs. This, in turn, has made the IA examine similar options, some of which are explained below.

In addition, the PLAGF has also deployed in estern Ladakh a family of fire-support weapons all mounted on the  6 x 6 DongFeng Mengshi CTL-181A LAMV chassis, with all these being employed for rapid deployment/quick reaction kinetic actions.

Back in December 2022 the IA had procured a limited number of Estonia-based Milrem Robotics’ Tracked Hybrid Modular Infantry System (THeMIS) tracked UGVs for logistics support missions. THeMIS can be configured to be used for logistics, combat, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) or explosive ordnance disposal (EOD). The UGV has a payload capacity of 750kg with an open architecture. THeMIS is a small, tracked unmanned vehicle that is 7.8 feet long and 3.75 feet high. Hence, it can be fitted with a variety of payloads depending upon the demands of operations. It may be used for normal cargo, mortar or CASEVAC, a platform for rapid evacuation and in a combat role; the payload offerings include cannons, ATGMs, counter-unmanned aerial system (UAS) systems and even loitering munitions. It has a maximum speed of 20kph and a maximum payload capacity of 1,250kg, and is equipped with advanced sensors that allow it to perform tasks with a high degree of autonomy and navigate challenging terrain. It is powered by a hybrid-electric drive system that combines an internal combustion engine with an electric motor, providing a range of up to 15 hours on a single tank of fuel. THeMIS is also designed to be highly rugged and durable, with a reinforced steel and aluminium body that can withstand rough terrain and extreme weather conditions. The latest variant of this UGV comes armed with up to six MBDA-built SL-Brimstone ATGMs.

Germany’s Rheinmetall has developed the Mission Master XT (Extreme Terrain) 4 × 4 UGV that demonstrated its sub-zero capabilities during Arctic mobility trials in Finland last March, navigating icy rivers and climbing slippery banks in -30° Celsius temperatures. Weighing in at 2,217kg, this powerful A-UGV can carry a 1,000kg payload, allowing troops to transport special equipment to hard-to-reach locations. The diesel-powered engine allows it to travel 750km without refuelling, while internal batteries enable up to 6 hours of silent watch operations. The Mission Master XT can be armed wit up to four SL-Brimstone ATGMs.

General Dynamics Land Systems–UK (GDLS–UK) has developed a TRX heavy tracked UGV with SL-Brimstone ATGM launchers, which was unveilled at the DSEI 2023 exhibition held in London between September 12 and 15. This UGV has two pods with four SL-Brimstone ATGMs each and two remotely-operated weapon stations, one with a MAG 7.62mm machine gun and the other with an M2 12.7mm machine gun. A GDLS–UK representative explained that his company is proposing a concept of operations to deploy a scout/recce tracked vehicle with one or more TRX wingmen with ATGMs on its flanks that could target threats identified by the former. GDLS-UK developed the TRX for the US Robotic Combat Vehicle-Medium competition, but GDLS–UK sees the integration of mission fits as dictated by any end-user. This includes intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance (ISTAR), lethality, battlefield engineering, direct-fire and loitering munition mission packages, as well as autonomy, communications systems, and human-machine teaming applications to make an integrated system.

UK-based Hydra Drones Ltd has developed the Hydra-400 new generation of high-altitude heavy-lift drone using hybrid propulsion technology. Compact and portable, the drone can be transported in the back of a Toyota Hilux or similar and assembled ready for flight in six minutes. The drone is powered by single-spool jet turbines, producing 50kg thrust and providing a maximum lift of 400kg. A single-spool core means that all rotating components in the compressor and the gas generator are on one shaft and rotate at the same speed. In contrast, a dual-spool core splits the compressor into two independently spinning rotors that are each powered by a separate gas generator turbine on concentric shafts.

There are also ICV-based solutions available, from which inspiration can be drawn by the IA for developing similar innovative solutions by private industry.

For instance, the Kestrel 8 x 8 APC can be modified to carry packs of HELINA (anti-armour variant with tandem shaped-charge warhead) or Dhruvastra (IAF variant of HELINA but with thermobaric and PCB warheads) or the SANT millimetre-wave guided anti-armour missile. For target acquisition, an electro-hydraulic raisable mast containing the TATA-developed LORROS sensor and the active phased-array antenna now used by the DRDO-developed and BEL-built Counter-UAS system can well be used for target acquisition/engagement.

Such a solution will be far better than the sub-optimally engineered NAMSIS system.

Taiwan's Hai Kun (SS-711) SSK Explained

The Republic of China (Taiwan) attained a significant national security milestone o September 28 when its first of eight domestically built diesel-electric submarines, the Hai Kun (SS-711), was rolled out at the Chia Shipbuilding Corp’s (CSBC) shipyard in the southern port-city of Kaohsiung. Costing US$1.54 billion, the SSK was built under the Indigenous Defence Submarine (IDS) programme, codenamed Project 1168. Taiwan launched its IDS programme in 2014. Following which the RoC Navy (RoCN) and CSBC signed a construction contract in May 2016. Keel-laying took place on November 24, 2020. Admiral Huang Shu-kuang, Taiwan’s Chief of the General Staff and convener of the IDS programme, revealed that the harbour acceptance tests of this SSK will start on October 1 and should end on April 1, 2024. The next stage will be sea-acceptance trials, but said there is no fixed timeline for this phase as it is Taiwan's first locally-produced SSK. Present plans call for the SSK to be delivered to the RoCN in 2025.

Hai Kun SS-711 has a domestic material content of 40%. 25 technologies involved in manufacturing the SSK are divided into three categories: red zone, yellow zone, and green zone. Taiwan has only mastered 10 of them (the green area is equipment that can be produced by itself), 9 items have difficulties (yellow area, the technology is difficult to obtain, but there are parts with self-made potential), and the remaining 6 items are core technologies In the red zone, there is no self-research ability, and it was necessary to seek external assistance technology). The hull-design comes from The Netherlands’ DAMEN Shipyards.

The SSK is about 70 metres long, 8 metres wide, and has an underwater displacement of 2,500 tons. It uses a single-hull design that features an X-shaped tail rudder. The hull is made of HSLA-80 CRHS56 steel supplied by ArcelorMittal. The SSK is powered by MTU Series 12V 4000 diesel engines that drives a 7-blade propeller. MTU also supplied the electric generators. The lead-acid batteries were supplied by a Taiwanese company. The submarine can dive to a depth of 420 metres. The SSK has six Germany-supplied 533mm torpedo tubes that can launch Honeywell Mk.48 Mod 6AT heavyweight torpedoes, as well as UGM-84L Harpoon anti-ship cruise missiles.

All the US-sourced hardware was ordered through TECRO, the “Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States”. Lockheed Martin Naval Electronics & Surveillance Systems–Undersea Systems is the prime systems integrator, while Northrop Grumman has supplied the bow-mounted active and passive cylindrical sonar array, wide-aperture passive arrays on the flanks, and high-frequency active arrays on the keel and fins. Raytheon has supplied a derivative of the CCS Mk.2 combat management system and a derivative of the AN/BYG-1 combat control system. L-3 MAPPS has supplied the integrated platform management system (IPMS), communications system and battle damage control system, while L-3 KEO has supplied all the masts and periscopes. A Sperry Marine AN/BPS-16(V)4 navigation radar, operating at I-band, is fitted as well. Taiwan’s National Chung-Shan Institute of Science & Technology developed a Torpedo Countermeasure System and integrating it into the SSK with two 6-shot cannisters mounted on each side of the submarine, enabling the SSK to counter active and passive homing torpedoes with soft kill capability.

Yes To Temporary Disengagement & De-Escalation, But Permanent De-Induction Ruled Out

Analysis of satellite imagery around the Indian Union Territory of Ladakh reveals that while the disengagement and de-escalation by the opposing military ground forces of China and India remains a possibility in future, de-induction of such forces will remain impossible, thanks to the PLA Ground Forces’ (PLAGF) unabated construction of permanent habitats and related ammunition storage facilities in areas close to southern, central/eastern and northern Ladakh.

To the south (see above slides), the PLAGF has erected permanent habitats and related ammunition storage facilities at Zhaxigangxiang (32.526563 N, 79.633600 E).

In the central/eastern areas (see above slides), permanent habitats and related ammunition storage facilities now exist at Rutog (33.396564 N, 79.786035), with a new heliport now coming up at 33.654 N, 80.449 E. In addition, a PLAGF synthetic combined-arms brigade is now located at Khurnak (33 45 25 N, 78 59 50 E).

To the north, in an area spread over 250 hectares and located 65km to the east of Burtse/Daulat Beg Oldie (35.275994 N, 78.760580 E), permanent habitats and related ammunition storage facilities are being at a hectic pace, along with a PLAGF heliport at Tianwendian (35.246275 N, 79.542584 E).

There at least 11 portals or shafts bored into the rockface on both banks of the river-valley. The images show massive construction activity over the last few months and are a likely attempt to protect heavy weaponry and soldiers from Indian air-strikes and extended-range artillery. By establishing underground facilities and developing subterranean infrastructure in such proximity to the border, PLAGF strategists seem to be aiming to counter-balance the current advantage held by the Indian Air Force in Aksai Chin. In the years since the Galwan clash of June 2020, the Indian Army has effectively scaled up its offensive fire vectors, especially long-range tube and rocket artillery. The PLAGF decision to carve into hillsides is directly linked to greater Indian offensive capability. The massive construction activity, including hardened shelters, bunkers, tunnels, and the widening of roads is being done to mitigate this clear and present danger which the Indian Army & Indian Air Force have imposed on the PLAGF deployment doctrine in Tibet. It is clear that China is hardening its military presence in Ladakh against possible artillery and air-strikes in the event of a full-scale military escalation. We can see what are likely reinforced command positions and underground equipment storage facilities. Such facilities greatly enhance the PLAGF’s ability to continue operations and limit attrition if an armed conflict were to break out in Ladakh. Multiple berms and revetments of the site in December 2021 indicate that the location had been identified as a key staging point during the height of the India-China faceoff in Ladakh when PLAGF forces had made multiple incursions into the Indian territory along the LAC. This same area has now been completely transformed with massive, ongoing construction activity. The new images, from August 18, indicate the presence of four reinforced personnel bunkers constructed along the valley face, along with three tunnel areas, with two and five portals or tunnels at each site, carved onto the hillside. Heavy earth-moving machinery can be seen in multiple locations. A primary road, which cuts across the valley, has been substantially widened. The images also show that the earth has been raised around the personnel bunkers to provide additional protection from direct attacks. Entry and exit areas have a distinctive fork design meant to dissipate the impact of pressure from bombardment and feature raised earth berms.