DeansMusings

I decided to write this, as the narrative in the Indian media gives the impression that the Iranian warship IRIS Dena (Islamic republic of Iran ship DENA) was invited to India for the international fleet review we hosted and on departing, ship was sunk by a US submarine. It has been alleged that the sinking of an unarmed ship, with mostly cadets under training, was a war crime and a snub to India, since the ship was `under our protection’. At the least it questions our credentials in being the guardian of the Indian ocean, or allowing our `guest’ to be killed in cold blood. I have a different view and one not speculated on by the media. I think it was an audacious and high risk gamble by the Iranian navy, to target US merchant shipping, in the event of war. That gamble failed. The gamble involved 3 Iranian warships (not just the IRIS Dena) that were deployed far from home waters, to carry out what might have been a surprise attack on US supply or merchant shipping, in an unexpected are...

I decided to write on the book controversary after actually reading the manuscript of the book, which is yet to be published and because I thought the row in Parliament and on social media lacked an understanding of the facts, or the background in which a sentence in a 400 page book was taken out of context. While I believe there was nothing wrong in how this particular incident was handled (and the outcome was in our favour) it was to me, as someone exposed to corporate decision making, and as an amateur enthusiast in military history, a case study on the interaction between the political and military leadership in a conflict. Having read several military biographies, I found this quite dry. Several issues that might be of interest to a non military reader, where the Chief was uniquely placed to comment - were mentioned in a perfunctory manner.   The controversary. A paragraph in the book suggested that when Chinese tanks approached an Indian position on 31st August 2020,...

In this post we cover:  1. Russia's order of battle.  2. Where their units are deployed.  3. What this deployment suggests for future operations. 4. The changing battlefield.  In my last post, I had discussed Ukrainian and Russian casualties. Ukraine war part 15 Since then, President Putin in his annual keynote speech and Q&A session at the Valdai economic summit, validated a key assumption I have been making – that the Ukrainian casualties reported by the Russian ministry of defence, are sanitary losses (all killed and wounded, including lightly wounded), of which half are irrecoverable losses. He also confirmed another key assumption I have been making, namely that irrecoverable losses are more than fresh recruits for Ukraine.   I have been getting feedback, that my posts seem to pro Russia and do not indicate problems with  their army. I therefore want to provide a more realistic view of the strength of the Russian army, with  a note at the en...