Saw a video of Thermocline Mitra wondering why the army needs "three" different types of artillery (towed, truck-mounted, ultra-light, and tracked—clearly three) in one caliber (155 mm).
Next, he'll ask why we need trucks, jeeps, and ATVs, when they are all "4-wheeled vehicles".
Oh lordy, it doesn't end there. Here's some more pearls of wisdom.
"Why not buy towed, truck-mounted, and tracked howitzers from the same OEM? Do you even commonality bro?"
Wonder what commonality, aside from the barrel, there is to be had between three unique platforms🤷🏻♂️
"ZOMG did you know that German submarines in WW-II used 8,000 different types of screws? As opposed to four or five?"
Bruh, my *bicycle* uses more than five different types of fasteners. You want a submarine to have fewer?🤦🏻♂️
"There was nothing in the M777 that justified bypassing an Indian manufacturer, or breaking logistical economies of scale."
"The trunk of the tree is the product that you see, but the strength of the tree comes from those micro-roots and micro-fiber roots."
Even for an accidental haiku, it's lacking.
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Random thread on sea power, aircraft carriers, submarines, etc. Sorry if this comes across as a little jumbled—I’m trying to put some disjointed thoughts on paper.
1. Yes, I wrote an article arguing that a third aircraft carrier might be unnecessary. That does not mean that (a) carriers are useless, (b) submarines and shore-based missiles can make up for the absence of a carrier fleet. swarajyamag.com/defence/dont-k…
But before we get into that, let’s bust a common myth: That “sea denial” and “sea control” are two independent and mutually exclusive ends, and carried out by separate naval platforms. Sea control by carrier task forces, and sea denial by submarines.
I’ll throw a thought out there: ISPR didn’t “run circles around the Indian machinery”. It’s “info war” was incompetently run even by its own poor standards.
The narratives themselves were a mess of contradictions. “India missed. Only a tree and crow were felled, but we’re condoning off the site for 45 days anyway.” “We have three pilots in custody. No wait, two pilots, and one is undergoing treatment at CMH.” And so on...
Theirs was a level of incompetence not seen even during the Kargil War. And the Indian PR strategy was not too different from the one in 1999—with official to-the-point press briefings and steady releases of photos/footage. And at that time, it was lauded as quite effective.
India sticking to her guns. Interesting bit about the commitment not to bring more troops to the front. Is it possible that the Chinese got spooked by how quickly the IA brought in multiple divisions of infantry, and are looking for a face-saving exit?
Of course, "stop sending more troops" is just the kind of commitment that is easy to make but very difficult for the other side to verify. Note that at this point, no one really knows how many soldiers India has deployed in the theatre.😈
So what did China gain from this "adventure". Let's try to make a list shall we?
Very good thread. To me, the coddling of the Pakistani establishment and the abrupt pivot towards Iraq were the most baffling parts of the American response to 9/11.
Also, while everyone around me was gobsmacked by the loss of thousands of civilian lives, there was a noticeable undercurrent of "so-they-finally-realize-what-it-feels-like" to the effusive (and genuine) sympathy.
Because India had been bearing the brunt of terrorist/jihadist attacks for more than two decades before 9/11 happened. Thousands of innocent civilian lives were lost to these attacks. And every time, the reaction of 'the West' was, for want of a better expression, muted.
Krivak: Solid, reliable platform.
Tunguska: Mediocre. Only a handful bought.
T-90S: Underwhelming. And the Russians went back on important ToT commitments.
Tu-22M3: Expensive, single-purpose platform. There’s a good reason it wasn’t bought. P-8I > Tu-22M3.
Modi and his government did a bunch of things that don’t look sexy on paper, but are worth far more than some gee-whiz weaponry. Border infra development, shoring up of war wastage reserves, improving aircraft uptimes by procuring soared and streamlining further purchases...