Indian power projection : ambition, arms and influence / Shashank Joshi.

Includes bibliographical references.

India's defence posture -- Air-power projection -- Land-power projection -- Enablers : the sinews of power projection -- The future of Indian power projection.

Indian Power Projection assesses the strength, reach and purposes of India's maturing military capabilities. It offers a systematic assessment of India's ability to conduct long-range air strikes from land and sea, transport and convey airborne and amphibious forces, and develop the institutional and material enablers that turn platforms into capabilities. It draws extensively on the lessons of modern expeditionary operations, and considers how India's growing interests might shape where and how it uses these evolving capabilities in the future. This study finds that Indian power projection is in a nascent stage: limited in number, primarily of use against much-weaker adversaries, and deficient in some key supporting capabilities. India's defence posture will continue to be shaped by local threats, rather than distant interests. Indian leaders remain uncomfortable with talk of military intervention and expeditionary warfare, associating these with colonial and superpower excess. But as the country's power, interests and capabilities all grow, it is likely that India will once more find itself using military force beyond its land borders.