In Our Defence

India appears to be in the middle of a naval shipbuilding boom. Destroyers, frigates, submarines, anti-submarine vessels and support ships are entering service with striking regularity.

But commissioning ceremonies tell us what India decided to build years ago. They do not necessarily tell us what is being ordered for the 2030s and 2040s.

In this season finale episode of In Our Defence, host Dev Goswami and national security expert Sandeep Unnithan examine how the Indian Navy became unusually capable of designing, integrating and supervising the construction of its own warships. The two decode the Navy's alphabet soup of Project 15B, Project 17A, Project 75I, Project 76 and the proposed next-generation programmes.

The two also ask whether India risks losing the continuous production rhythm required to build complex destroyers, frigates and submarines. Smaller vessels may keep shipyards occupied, but can they preserve the skills and supply chains needed for the next generation of frontline combatants?

And finally, the two get to the larger strategic argument: what kind of Navy does India actually want?

Should it focus on controlling the waters close to home, dominate key parts of the Indian Ocean, operate from Africa to Southeast Asia, or develop a more expeditionary force? Does India need a third aircraft carrier or would submarines, escorts, maritime aircraft and unmanned systems provide greater value?

Because before India decides which ships to build, it must decide what it expects its Navy to do.

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Produced by Taniya Dutta

Sound mixed by Aman Pal

Six years after the Galwan Valley clash, we revisit the night that fundamentally changed India's relationship with China.

What exactly happened on June 15, 2020? How did the Indian Army respond after losing soldiers, including a commanding officer? Why didn't the crisis spiral into a shooting war? And with the benefit of hindsight, what can we now infer about China's objectives and Xi Jinping's motivations?

In this episode, we explore:

* The events of the Galwan clash
* The command and emotional shock inside the Indian Army
* Whether Galwan permanently shifted India's military focus toward China
* China's long-term strategy along the Line of Actual Control
* Why trust between India and China remains difficult six years later

Galwan was more than a border clash. It was the moment India's China challenge stopped being theoretical.

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Produced by Taniya Dutta

Sound mixed by Rohan Bharti

India's Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft, or AMCA, is usually discussed as a fifth-generation stealth fighter: low observable design, internal weapons bays, sensor fusion, advanced engines, and all the cool stuff that makes defence nerds sit up straighter.

But this episode of In Our Defence asks a slightly different question: is AMCA really about building a plane or about building the factory, institutions, and accountability structure needed to make that plane real?

The Ministry of Defence's AMCA tender lays out an ambitious plan to rope in a private-sector industrial partner in order to create a fifth-generation aerospace manufacturing ecosystem.

But then comes the big gap: who is the real project manager?

ADA owns the design. The IAF owns the requirement. Private industry will build and integrate. Certification agencies will certify. GTRE-Safran's engine effort appears, for now, to be running on a separate track. So, if X owns A and Y owns B...Who owns the delay?

In this episode of In Our Defence, host Dev Goswami and defence expert Sandeep Unnithan unpack why AMCA needs more than a good airframe. It needs the kind of mission-mode structure India built for the ATV/Arihant submarine programme - one that brings the alphabet soup of agencies together under real authority.

We also get into the quirks of India's L1 bidding culture: sensible for many contracts, but possibly dangerous when applied to complex, high-risk, must-succeed strategic programmes like a fifth-generation fighter.

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Produced by Taniya Dutta

Pakistan did not just become America's ally after 1947 – it slowly became a state whose military and strategic establishment learned that survival depended on staying useful to Washington.

In this episode of In Our Defence, host Dev Goswami and national security expert Sandeep Unnithan trace how Pakistan evolved into a geopolitical rentier state: trading geography, military cooperation and strategic access for money, weapons, political backing, and regime stability.

We break down:

-Why the United States backed Pakistan after independence

-How Pakistan's military became deeply tied to Washington

-Why Pakistani generals realised pleasing the US was often the key to surviving domestically

-The Cold War origins of the US-Pakistan partnership

-How this relationship pushed India closer to the Soviet Union

-What the Imran Khan cipher controversy actually revealed

-Whether the US played a role in Khan's removal

-The rise of Asim Munir and Pakistan's military establishment

-Why Pakistan may still prioritise US ties even at the cost of China

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Produced by Taniya Dutta

Sound mixed by Aman Pal

India has had a very busy missile season. In this episode of In Our Defence, host Dev Goswami and defence expert Sandeep Unnithan unpack a cluster of recent developments: the reported long-range hypersonic anti-ship missile test, DRDO and IAF’s TARA glide weapon trial, the Advanced Agni MIRV test, the long-duration scramjet combustor test, and the chatter around possible K-series submarine-launched missile activity.

But this is not just spec-sheet episode.

The episode looks at the story of how India managed to develop a rocket and missile force that is abreast with the rest of the world.

We go back to PN Haksar’s 1968 strategic thinking, Project Valiant, the IGMDP era, the shadowy Project Surya, and the modern Agni-6 question to understand how India’s missile ambitions evolved.

We also ask whether the least glamorous weapon in the news cycle -- TARA -- might actually matter the most in an age of long wars and attrition.

Hypersonics are sexy, MIRVs are apocalyptic, scramjets are manic engineering, but cheap precision at scale may be the real battlefield superpower.

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Produced by Taniya Dutta

Sound mixed by Rohan Bharti