Publication

What Would Make the Multi-National Anti-Piracy Efforts Off Somalia More Effective?

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) voted unanimously on 30 November 2009 to extend for another 12 months a mandate for member countries to conduct anti-piracy operations off the coast of Somalia, to include “entering the territorial waters and undertake all necessary measures that are appropriate in Somalia”. Earlier the same month during a session on “Piracy and the situation in Somalia”, the UNSC members criticised the practice of paying ransom and stated that the coordinated fight by navies from several countries had failed to deter the pirates.

Arms Acquisition Competitiveness: Relevant International Experiences

Even though the Indian government has begun to encourage participation of private sector in defence systems production, it is not technologically competitive in the global market. The Chinese are giving importance to two factors: first, the civilian high technology market should increase sophisticated dual-use products that are readily available to the military. Developments of new C4ISR capabilities in the military have been a consequent result of improvements in the telecommunications sector.

Vote of Thanks at the National Seminar on Defence Acquisition

Today, we are facing a serious challenge in trying to cope up with a rising China and in that effort we have very many disadvantages. The Chinese have a developed infrastructure on their side which we have failed to develop on our side. The Chinese have a much higher GDP, have a better developed, modernized military, and perhaps higher level of technology. Under these circumstances we have got to look for factors in our favour in the international situation which we could exploit in order to cope up with the Chinese challenge. Yes, there are.

Challenges of Capability definition and Cost Efficient QR Formulation

Services need to be very clear about their future requirements for the next 10 to 15 years based on an in depth analysis of the emerging threats and evolving technologies. While it is always desirable to seek extra capability that developed nations may be planning to acquire, but it must be kept in mind that finally the resources are limited and an increase in SQR from 90% to 95% would result in cost of equipment increasing two to three times. The cost of the technology exponentially rises with the increase in level of QRs.