Lt. Gen. Rakesh Sharma, PVSM, UYSM, AVSM, VSM Adjutant General(Retd.) & GCTC Executive Board Member       The transformation of the Chinese Military from September 2015 greatly emphasised on new Strategic Support Force (SSF), bringing about significant changes in warfighting and organizational structure of Peoples Liberation Army (PLA). The PLA prophesized that cyber operations are independent means to subdue any adversary, by achieving information dominance. A key facet of this transformation is that space, cyberspace, and electromagnetic spectrum (EMS) are warfighting domains in their own right, rather than being supporting elements in traditional land, sea, and air domains. On 23 May 2017, a Sukhoi 30 aircraft crashed on India-China Border…

Co-authored By Lt. Gen. DS Hooda PVSM, UYSM, AVSM, VSM** and Lt. Gen. Rakesh Sharma PVSM,UYSM,AVSM,VSM (Retd.) Lt. Gen. Rakesh Sharma, PVSM, UYSM, AVSM, VSM Adjutant General(Retd.) & GCTC Executive Board Member       The Chinese have exhibited a coercive and intimidating approach in 2020, in South and East China Seas, the Taiwan Straits, Nepal (Mt Everest), Bhutan (Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary in Eastern Bhutan’s Trashigang district) and Eastern Ladakh.  Without a legal basis, the Chinese actions clearly demonstrate muscle flexing and hegemonic intentions.  These are a part of China’s larger geopolitical aspirations and also reveal a greater willingness to use military force, as was apparent in the induction of 6…

Lt. Gen. Rakesh Sharma, PVSM, UYSM, AVSM, VSM Adjutant General(Retd.) & GCTC Executive Board Member       O divine art of subtlety and secrecy! Through you we learn to be invisible, through you inaudible; and hence we can hold the enemy’s fate in our hands. — Sun Tzu  FlashBack! Post-Independence of India, the dizzy altitudes of Himalayas have witnessed substantial warfare, commencing with 1948 between India and Pakistan in Jammu and Kashmir. The surreptitious invasion of the Pakistani Army couched as tribal/ irregular invasion in 1948, was pushed back substantially due to resolute offensives. It included the capture of the lofty heights of Pir Kanthi and Ledi Gali on the…

Lt. Gen. Rakesh Sharma, PVSM, UYSM, AVSM, VSM Adjutant General(Retd.) & GCTC Executive Board Member       Trade caravans and explorers historically knew no political boundaries, except the mountain ranges. The ancient routes, with knowledge having been passed from generations to generations, moved through the western Himalayas, traversed the Pamirs, Hind Kush, Karakoram, the Greater Himalaya, and the Plateau of Tibet. There were exchanges in culture, ideas, thoughts and religious ideologies, and certainly, trade. Eastern Ladakh (Ladakh is the land of passes) along the Shyok River Valley formed the corridor for trade with Punjab and Kashmir. The names in Eastern Ladakh have an informative character and are of Yarkhandi (a Turkic dialect) Balti or Ladakhi…

Lt. Gen. Rakesh Sharma, PVSM, UYSM, AVSM, VSM Adjutant General(Retd.) & GCTC Executive Board Member       Officers Management in the Army is demanding recognition as a controversial issue that has reached cul de sac.  This clarion call comes with five rationales. One, say within the next two/three years, the armed forces will be prepared for Integrated Theatre Commands.  This will have deep repercussions on the Officer Cadre promotional structure, as the three services follow a dissimilar path in entirety, and inter-se seniority is a bugbear currently. Two, the Hon’ble Supreme Court decision on Women Officers has significantly opened the field for their taking over Command of units, which…

Lt. Gen. Rakesh Sharma, PVSM, UYSM, AVSM, VSM Adjutant General(Retd.) & GCTC Executive Board Member       The information of the martyrdom of the Commanding Officer, Major and two other ranks of 21 Rashtriya Rifles (RR), and an Inspector of JKP, at Handwara, North Kashmir on 03 May 2020, has been received with great anguish by the Army community at large.  Cumulated is the operation of 05 April 2020 at Keran Sector, in which five terrorists were killed, and five of the Special Forces (SF) personnel lost their lives. Both these were in North Kashmir and possibly linked.  While the former was a counter-terrorist operation, the latter was counter-infiltration.…

Lt. Gen. Rakesh Sharma, PVSM, UYSM, AVSM, VSM Adjutant General(Retd.) & GCTC Executive Board Member       The concept of wars is growing ever more complicated, including all-pervasive information warfare, to applying multi-functional and multi-domain military capabilities below the threshold of armed conflict or the coupling of economic power with militia and irregular forces.  Indeed, ‘…the very rules of war have changed.  The role of non-military means of achieving political and strategic goals has grown, and in many cases they have exceeded the power of force of weapons and their effectiveness.’[1] This implies that wars in future could well remain unannounced in non-kinetic format and may even be successful…

Lt. Gen. Rakesh Sharma, PVSM, UYSM, AVSM, VSM Adjutant General(Retd.) & GCTC Executive Board Member       Strategic communication became popular as a term, about three decades ago, from the times of the First Iraq War (1990-1991). Strategic communication is a vital activity that supports the military, in peace and in war. If planned well and intelligently executed it can affect attitudes and behaviour. It can be used as the most important tools to shape the environment. It is also indispensable for fighting adversaries who employ non-traditional and asymmetric means.  Strategic communication deals with the challenge of influencing and convincing others to think and act in ways compatible with…

Lt. Gen. Rakesh Sharma, PVSM, UYSM, AVSM, VSM Adjutant General(Retd.) & GCTC Executive Board Member       This article is not about Coronavirus – COVID-19 that has shattered the world and taken it by storm.  However, to be sure, there will be significant slowdown in the Indian economy, as and when the threat recedes, treatment and vaccine are found, costs are counted and as we limp back to some normalcy. The virus will also reshape how we see the world, our region, geopolitically, geoeconomically and geo-strategically. It will be well understandable that the national priorities will change significantly, to be prepared better for the next disaster or for socio-economic…

Lt. Gen. Rakesh Sharma, PVSM, UYSM, AVSM, VSM Adjutant General(Retd.) & GCTC Executive Board Member       The Hon’ble Supreme Court of India  on 17 Feb 2020, ruled for Government to grant permanent commission to women officers in the Army at par with their male counterparts, should they wish to continue with it, after completing their Short-Service Commission (SSC). The judgement has also stated that women officers be allowed career progression through availing command opportunities as their male counterparts.  Naturally the order has far-reaching implications for the Army, ones that mandate serious deliberations. At this juncture, it is inconsequential to debate on the progress of the women officers court…