Home Lt Gen (Dr) V K Saxena (Retd), PVSM, AVSM, VSM
Lt Gen (Dr) V K Saxena (Retd), PVSM, AVSM, VSM
(Former DG, Air Defence, Indian Army) (Higher Defence Analyst)

(Former DG, Air Defence, Indian Army) (Higher Defence Analyst)

Contributions 
Op Sindoor: Some Thoughts on Ground Based Air Defence
June 19, 2025 Lt Gen (Dr) V K Saxena (Retd), PVSM, AVSM, VSM
Air and air defence warfare played up prominently during Op Sindoor. Stories about hordes of drones being unleashed by the adversary and their downing by our air defence warriors hogged most of the headlines. In this context, this work attempts to fi...

Tags: National Security and Strategic Studies, Defence, Article, Ground Based Air Defence, OP Sindoor, Drone and drone warfare
Coming of Age - ‘Instruments of Air Denial’
April 30, 2025 Lt Gen (Dr) V K Saxena (Retd), PVSM, AVSM, VSM
On the night of 23/24 Feb 2022 when the Russians fired the first salvo of the current round in Russo-Ukraine war in the form of a strong pre-emptive air strike complete with strike aircrafts, cruise missiles, multi-barrel rocket launchers and more, i...

Tags: National Security and Strategic Studies, International Relations and Diplomacy, Defence, Russia, Article, Air defence, Drones, GBAD, Swarms
The Oreshnik Hypersonic Missile and What it Means in Our Scenario
January 28, 2025 Lt Gen (Dr) V K Saxena (Retd), PVSM, AVSM, VSM
This article analyses how the use of Oreshnik missile by Russia is an event significant enough for us to take note and relate the same in our scenario. Oreshnik Makes a Debut On 21 Nov 2024, the news breaking headlines all over was the...

Tags: National Security and Strategic Studies, Article, hypersonic missile, Oreshnik missile, Russian attack on Dnipro
An Analytical Review of India’s Defence Exports
November 12, 2024 Lt Gen (Dr) V K Saxena (Retd), PVSM, AVSM, VSM
This work analyses the recent statement of the Defence Minister wherein, on 04 Oct 2024, while speaking at the 7th Annual General Meeting of the Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers (SIDM), the Minister stated the Govt is committed to make defence...

Tags: National Security and Strategic Studies, Defence, Article, Indian defence industry, Defence Exports, RM at 7th AGM of SIDM
The Kursk Incursion – An Analysis
October 04, 2024 Lt Gen (Dr) V K Saxena (Retd), PVSM, AVSM, VSM
Scope This work attempts to analyse the issues related to the recent incursion of Ukrainian forces in the Kursk region of Russia. In that, it examines the so-called 'gains' from such an incursion in the light of existing realities. ...

Tags: International Relations and Diplomacy, Article, Russia, Nuclear, Putin, Ukraine, Kursk, Zelenskyy
more
VIF Papers 
DPP 2016: An enabler, not a show-stopper
August 18, 2016 Lt Gen (Dr) V K Saxena (Retd), PVSM, AVSM, VSM
DPP or no DPP the onus of success or failure lies in the hands of those who operate the DPP. Like they say, the law is only as good as the enforcer of the law. DPP 2016 or DPP 2056, it will be only as good as the persons who operate it, who interpret...

Tags: National Security and Strategic Studies, Defence, Indian military, DPP 2016, Defence industry. DRDO, Defence Acquisition Council
Anti Satellite Weapons: A Likely Future Trajectory
May 30, 2016 Lt Gen (Dr) V K Saxena (Retd), PVSM, AVSM, VSM
The concept of ASAT weapons has evolved over time as a logical progression from the mother concept of Anti Ballistic Missiles (ABM) or its more recent coinage,the Ballistic Missile defence (BMD)-- a Missile-based defence against the adversary's threa...

Tags: National Security and Strategic Studies, Defence, Ballistic Missile, ASAT, Anti Satellite Weapons
Growing Muscle of PLAAF
March 11, 2016 Lt Gen (Dr) V K Saxena (Retd), PVSM, AVSM, VSM
Steady Growth. Although some signs of a somewhat waning economy are now visible in China (economic growth rate sliding down from 10.5% in 2010 to 7.4% in 2014) she has experienced a steady growth cycle for the past two decades, catapulting the...

Tags: International Relations and Diplomacy, China, PLA, Chinese Military, PLAAF, People’s Liberation Army, PLAN
VIF Briefs 
CAATSA and S-400: The American Dilemma - An Analysis
March 09, 2021 Lt Gen (Dr) V K Saxena (Retd), PVSM, AVSM, VSM
After flashing in fury about an year back and eventually loosing much of its sheen and venom thereafter, the threat of CAATSA is alive, dangling yet again like the proverbial ‘Sword of Damocles’ over the fate of India’s purchase of S-400 syste...

Tags: National Security and Strategic Studies, Defence, S-400, Air Threat, US Sanctions, CAATSA, Air Defence Matrix
Power behind Arrogance: Assessment of China’s Air and Missile Arsenal
June 23, 2020 Lt Gen (Dr) V K Saxena (Retd), PVSM, AVSM, VSM
Going backwards from recent acts of Chinese belligerence and barbaric conduct in Galwan (sic) totally divorced from all ethos of soldiering, into events of the recent past, a pattern emerges. A pattern of Chinese aggressiveness, arrogance and more; u...

Tags: International Relations and Diplomacy, China, South China Sea, Chinese Air Power, Chinese Missile Power, Air and missile threat from China, Line of Actual Control
Swarm Drones: Attacker’s Delight, Defender’s Nightmare
May 28, 2020 Lt Gen (Dr) V K Saxena (Retd), PVSM, AVSM, VSM
Ever since the emergence of the unmanned phenomenon, the warfare has never been the same. Starting from their very humble beginnings of giving the war-fighter the marginally incremental capability to ‘look around the corner and over the hill’ the...

Tags: National Security and Strategic Studies, Warfare, Swarm Drones, UAS, Growing Lethality, SWARM Task Sheet, SWARM
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