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Blueprint Defence Magazine | Strategic Insights on India’s Defence and Geopolitics

India needs a military-industrial complex because it might run out of options, experts say

Lockheed Martin employees work on the F-35 Lightning II production line at the company’s Texas facility in the United States in 2012

The road to somewhere

Youth protests in South Asia and elsewhere signal change in future diplomacy, experts say

A protestor kicks a tear gas canister during a protest over exam paper leaks in New Delhi in July 2026 (PHOTO: REUTERS)

The Gen Z shake-up

Some non-state groups reportedly work as proxies. To what degree is unclear

A member of Houthi security forces mans a machine gun mounted on the back of a patrol vehicle at the site of an anti-Saudi rally amid an escalation with the kingdom, in Sanaa, Yemen on July 31, 2026.

Non-state groups get new arms from states

Trillions in planned spending marks the sharpest rearmament shift in a decade

The Shaheen missile, part of Iran's medium range anti-aircraft air defence system Mersad (Ambush), is seen on its launcher during its unveiling ceremony in Tehran

The P5 lead the race

An opportunistic exception to government rules heralded this liberalisation in 2001

A naval officer walks past the army's BrahMos weapon systems during a rehearsal for the Republic Day Parade in New Delhi in January 2025. (Photo: REUTERS)

Ghosts of the past haunt defence FDI

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India's aeroengine ambitions are at an inflexion point

A model of Pratt & Whitney’s F135 Engine, more than 1,300 of which currently power all three variants of the global F-35 Lightning II fighter aircraft fleet. (Photo: Pratt & Whitney)

An unfinished mission

Integrated battle groups will change the army's land warfare tactics, experts say

Formation of Indian Army’s IBGs featured during Exercise Amogh Jwala in March 2026. (Photo: MOD)

The long overhaul

While India jostles China for influence, some see the bloc as relevant in the Trump era

What is the point of Brics?

India's relations with key Brics members have grown despite its Western alliances

Brazil’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Mauro Vieira, Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and South Africa Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Ronald Lamola during the Brics foreign minis

Evolving strategic bilateral ties

BrahMos is only the opening salvo in Asean's defence market battle

India's strategic liftoff

An in-depth report on the industry in India that has evolved 
from amateur designs to export items

A file photo of an engineer at SSS Defence in Bengaluru working on the computer-aided design of a rifle frame. Photo: SSS Defence

A big moment for small arms

The Amca programme could deliver the defence sector's own Maruti moment

A prototype of the advanced medium combat aircraft at the Aero India air show at Yelahanka air base, Bengaluru, in 2025. Photo: Reuters

More than a stealth fighter

For India, it is about maintaining a balance and staying relevant while also calibrating on how far it can go while maintaining a good relationship with China

A Philippine boat near a Chinese Coast Guard ship in the South China Sea in 2023.  Photo: Reuters

Quad: The strategic reality check

The Quad can help secure resources, but India must convert them into strategic strength

A smelting plant that processes extracted copper ore, a critical mineral for India, into pure metal in Dahej, Gujarat. Photo: Hindalco

Mineral dilemma

India's new border grid promises a high-tech shield, but complex borders remain the real test

Infiltrators arrested along the Indian borders in 2025

Fixing blind spots

Sanctions and blockades are used as nonconventional tools to apply force

A satellite image showing smoke billowing at Aramco oil facility in Saudi Arabia after a reported attack, following the announcement of a two-week ceasefire in the Iran war on April 8, 2026 (Photo: Reuters)

The geoeconomic battlefield

The integrated theatre command plan looks at India's strategic challenges and opportunities on land and in water:  General Anil Chauhan

Theatre command, Operation Sindoor, CDS, India Pakistan relations

'This is the need of the hour'

Missiles once reserved for nuclear war are increasingly shaping conventional conflict, and India must keep up

The Ukrainian military shoots down a missile during a Russian strike in Kyiv, Ukraine, in January 2026 (Photo: Reuters)

Sustaining the costly offensive

The United Arab Emirates' Opec exit could open doors for India

A silver lining

The US-Iran 'virtual' conflict spotlights the growing impact of cognitive warfare

Memes at war

The military lessons for India from West Asia include preparing for protracted wars, interviewees say

Munitions placed near a B‑1B Lancer military aircraft at RAF Fairford airbase in Gloucestershire, United Kingdom, on April 7, 2026

Conflict call

Precision-guided missiles matter more than ever

The BrahMos supersonic cruise missile, jointly developed by the DRDO and Russia’s NPOM, is the world’s fastest precision-guided weapon

Pin-point power

India needs low-cost interceptors to confront the new dynamics of drone warfare

A Sting interceptor drone flies during a training in Ukraine in April 2026

Attrition's new rule

The West Asia conflict has presented a paradox for the future of the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor

A CCTV footage of smoke rising from the Haifa oil refinery in Israel after a reported Iranian attack on March 19, 2026

The promised gateway

India is developing a new generation of autonomous systems to tackle mines

New man-portable autonomous underwater vehicles developed by the Naval Science and Technological Laboratory, Visakhapatnam, in November 2025

Undersea drones

How predictive AI is changing outcomes in conflict

The hyperwar is here

Private players call for the government to identify 'national champions' in defence buying

Private defence firms have made gains in producing armoured vehicles and light tanks, exemplified by the K9 Vajra-T self-propelled tracked artillery gun (centre), developed through collaboration with foreign partners in India

Slender hopes of mindset shift

A summit finds that countries are being pragmatic in the pursuit of national interests

Raisina Dialogue, Diplomacy, Defence and geopolitical news

Pallbearers of the 'liberal order'

Gaps in India's surveillance fleet highlight serious vulnerability in a conflict situation

Netra airborne electronic warfare and control, a specially modified ERJ-145 aircraft fitted with indigenous sensors (PHOTO: IAF)

India's missing eyes in the sky

India's defence modernisation hinges on an ecosystem of military-grade semiconductors

Some materials and modules of the gallium nitride chips (Photo: AGNIT Semiconductors)

A silicon gap

satellites, operational satellites, orbit, India

A Dark Matter

The strategic side of India-US ties is largely unaffected. So far

Personnel from the Indian and the US armies interact during Exercise Yudhabhyas held in the United States in 2025

On the mend or not

India needs many more warships, but must first choose between consolidation and competition in shipbuilders

An Indian Navy ship at the Mazagon Dock in Mumbai

A fork in the road for defence shipyards

The US pressure has cast a shadow on India's strategic bet on the Chabahar Port

Chabahar is an important component of the INSTC (PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK)

The Iran quagmire

As Xi ousts his top military general and controls both the party and the gun, Taiwan's anxiety escalates unprecedentedly high levels

Internally in China, as mentioned, the purging of General Zhang Youxia will send shockwaves through the PLA and the Communist Party itself. (Photo: reuters)

Inside China's military upheaval: Power struggle or consolidation?

India's armed forces are adopting artificial intelligence. Analysts urge advancing it

A device for underwater domain awareness that uses AI or machine learning and goes through voluminous data (Photo: Ministry of Defence)

The future in the present: AI in the armed forces

With Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's capture, the United States reasserts its pre-eminence in Latin America

Captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is escorted for a courthouse appearance to face multiple charges,including narco-terrorism, in New York City on January 5, 2026 (Photo: Reuters)

A return to spheres of influence in Venezuela

The army has found an answer to China's rapid build-up of infrastructure and military installations on the border

Indian Army personnel assembling the 3D-printed structure (Photo: Indian Army)

3D-printed military structures dot the Himalayas

India's Global South ambition runs up against China's power - making coalition-building, not solo leadership, the more realistic path

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa during the BRICS Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on July 7, 2025 (Photo: Reuters)

How India can lead the Global South

From power grids to payments, India's digital backbone is increasingly under strain

Cyber suraksha exercise in June 2025 (Photo: PIB)

Cyber war without a strategy

Industry insiders expect the government to push military modernisation much further - and faster

The Indian Air Force light combat helicopter Prachand performs during the Aero India airshow in Bengaluru on February 13, 2023 (Photo: Reuters)

Inside the next Defence budget

Why winter gear is central to building  the country's Himalayan deterrence

Breakdown of the Himkavach (Photo: DRDO; Graphics: Blueprint design desk)

Holding the frigid ground

From Chola naval power to Curzon's imperial spectacle and today's Indo-Pacific contest, the Indian Ocean has long shaped Asia's politics, trade, and ideas

Subhas Chandra Bose transfers in a rubber raft from a German to a Japanese submarine in the Indian Ocean in April 1943 (Photo: Netaji Research Bureau, Kolkata)

A geopolitical history of the Indian Ocean arena

Naval mines have re-emerged as potent instruments of modern conflict but India is not immune to their destructive power

INS Kozhikode (M-71), a Karwar-class minesweeper commissioned in 1988, carrying out mine-laying and clearing operations before it was decommissioned in 2019 (Photo: Indian Navy)

Exploding sleeper cells of the sea

Building a pipeline of world-class defence technologies needs greater coherence among the military, academia and industry

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Sep 2026 Issue