StratPost is an independent Indian defence and strategic affairs news service published from New Delhi at stratpost.com. Founded in 2008 by journalist Saurabh Joshi, it was launched as India's first dedicated defence news and analysis website, reporting on military modernisation, aerospace programmes, arms procurement, naval affairs and geopolitics. Working from a specialist beat that mainstream Indian news outlets cover only intermittently, StratPost has built its reputation on close, technical reporting of the Indian armed forces and the global defence industry's engagement with India.
Overview
StratPost operates as a specialist digital news outlet devoted to defence and strategic affairs. Unlike general news portals that treat defence as one desk among many, StratPost covers the beat full time: the Indian Army, Indian Navy and Indian Air Force, the Ministry of Defence, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), state-owned defence undertakings and the private and foreign vendors that compete for Indian contracts. Its reporting spans breaking news, analysis, official statements published in full, video reports and long-form explanatory pieces on military technology. The site's bylines are dominated by its founder, Saurabh Joshi, reflecting its character as an independent, journalist-led specialist service rather than a large newsroom operation.
As an independent Indian defence news service, StratPost has occupied a niche between the general press and official communication channels. Defence journalism in India is constrained by the secrecy of the armed forces and the technical complexity of military hardware; StratPost's long-running coverage has made it a reference for readers who follow Indian military affairs closely, including serving and retired personnel, policymakers, industry executives and international observers of the Indian defence market.
Founding and founder
StratPost was founded in 2008 by Saurabh Joshi. The site describes the founding as the launch of India's first defence news and analysis website, a claim that reflects how, at the time, no Indian online publication treated defence as a dedicated, full-time beat. Joshi is trained in journalism and has studied law. His professional profile describes him as a video journalist, analyst and reporter who pioneered the use of online video to tell stories about defence technologies — an early bet on video journalism in India at a time when few specialist outlets were producing video content.
Joshi's reporting style combines field-style coverage of equipment and exercises with close reading of official documents, parliamentary proceedings and industry statements. His author archive on the site runs to dozens of pages, reflecting nearly continuous output since the site's launch. The work covers everything from fleet movements and exercise coverage to personnel and policy stories, such as Armed Forces Tribunal disputes, military doctors' pay disputes and veterans' affairs — indicating that StratPost's remit extends beyond hardware to the human and institutional dimensions of the armed forces.
Coverage of the Indian Army
StratPost reports extensively on the Indian Army, including its operations, command appointments and personnel policies. Its army coverage has included the publication in full of official statements such as the Indian Army Director General of Military Operations' announcement of surgical strikes on terrorist launch-pads along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir, and the announcement naming Lieutenant General Ranbir Singh as the DGMO officer who delivered it. The site has also covered events such as helicopter crashes involving army personnel, attacks on Indian peacekeepers serving with United Nations missions in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the appointment of corps commanders.
Personnel and policy stories form a distinctive part of StratPost's army coverage. It has reported on army aviation commands, promotions to senior ranks, the blocking of pay hikes for military doctors that forced the Armed Forces Tribunal to summon the Defence Secretary over non-compliance with tribunal and Supreme Court rulings, and protests by the Indian Ex-Servicemen Movement over appointments in the Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare. This institutional reporting distinguishes StratPost from outlets that cover only exercises and equipment.
Procurement and acquisition reporting
One of StratPost's defining beats is defence procurement — the multi-billion-dollar acquisition programmes through which India buys and builds its military hardware. The site has covered India's Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) contest in detail, including the US Navy's pitch comparing the Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet to fifth-generation fighters during the 126-aircraft competition, and the Ministry of Defence's handling of expiring commercial bids from the contest's vendors. It has also reported on the tanker aircraft competition, including the Indian Air Force's cancellation of the tender for which the Airbus A330 MRTT had been selected and Boeing's subsequent briefing to New Delhi on the KC-46 tanker.
Naval procurement stories covered by StratPost include Japan's attempt to sell the ShinMaywa US-2i amphibious aircraft to the Indian Navy, with reporting on the bureaucratic handling of the commercial aspects of the order through the Defence Acquisitions Council, and the controversy over the Russian Igla-S air defence system's summer demonstration during Indian very short-range air defence (VSHORAD) trials. The site has also reported on the Navy's evaluation of fighter options, including the reckoning facing the naval Light Combat Aircraft as the service considered catapult-assisted (CATOBAR) fighter requirements.
Aerospace and aviation coverage
StratPost covers military aviation and aerospace extensively. Its aviation reporting has included the Indian Air Force's fighter strength shortfall — noting analyses that projected a shortfall of at least 14 squadrons by 2032 even under best-case assumptions after spending on the Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) and MMRCA programmes — and fraud affecting the Air Force's public fund account. It has covered indigenous programmes and their challenges, including the naval version of the Light Combat Aircraft and India's work on military satellites for the Air Force and Army.
The site's aviation coverage also reaches into aviation diplomacy and exercises, such as the Indo-French Garuda air exercise held at Istres Air Base in southern France, and visits by figures such as DRDO chief V.K. Saraswat, who took a backseat ride in a Saab Gripen C/D during an aerospace forum at Linköping, Sweden. By combining programme reporting with exercise coverage and industry news, StratPost gives its readers a continuous picture of Indian military aviation.
Naval affairs coverage
StratPost's naval coverage spans warships, submarines, anti-piracy operations and maritime diplomacy. It reported the commissioning of the Talwar-class stealth frigate Teg at the Yantar Shipyard in Kaliningrad, noting that it was the first of its class to carry the sea-launched BrahMos cruise missile, and covered the induction of INS Shivalik, described at the time as India's stealthiest warship. The site has reported on the Indian Navy's evaluation of the Royal Malaysian Navy's Scorpene submarine during its port call at Kochi, and on joint anti-piracy operations, including the rescue of an Indian dhow hijacked by pirates off Somalia by the Indian warship INS Godavari and the French vessel Aconit.
Anti-piracy coverage has been a recurring thread: StratPost has covered the rescue of hijacked Indian dhows in the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Aden, the training of Mauritius coast guard personnel by Indian naval commandos, and international coordination such as South Korea's interest in joining the escort convoy coordination exercise run by the navies of India, China and Japan. This sustained attention to maritime security reflects the Indian Navy's expanding operational footprint.
Geopolitics and strategic affairs
Beyond the services, StratPost covers geopolitics and strategic affairs as they relate to India's security. Its reporting has included stories on India-Pakistan relations, such as the confusion among Indian security officials over the Balochistan reference in bilateral discussions, and on the geopolitics of arms dealing — including a reported account of how an ex-Nazi arms dealer sold fighter aircraft to both India and Pakistan during the post-1965 war arms embargo. The site has also covered the India-France strategic partnership, exemplified by reporting on the DCNS-Pipavav partnership bidding to supply landing platform dock vessels to the Indian Navy, and on India-US military cooperation, including prospective agreements such as the Logistics Support Agreement and the Communications Interoperability and Security Agreement.
StratPost's daily briefings and news wraps have covered a wide sweep of international security news, from the trial of the arms dealer known as the "Lord of War" to North Korean affairs, WikiLeaks developments and piracy rulings in foreign courts. This international framing places Indian defence developments within a global context, a hallmark of strategic-affairs journalism.
Formats: news, briefs, blogs and video
StratPost publishes in several formats. Its core output is reported news stories, but the site also runs daily briefing formats — the "Daily Brief" and "News Wrap" — that summarise the day's defence and security news in compact form. It publishes official material in full, such as complete military statements, allowing readers to consult primary sources directly. Its blogs offer more interpretive takes, and the site carries video content, including video versions of official statements and event coverage. Joshi's background as a video journalist is reflected in the site's early investment in video storytelling about defence technologies, a format that few Indian defence outlets were producing when StratPost began.
The site also uses image-led storytelling for events such as warship commissionings and naval exercises, publishing photo galleries alongside its reports. This mix of text, images and video has helped StratPost serve both professional readers seeking detail and general readers looking for accessible coverage of military affairs.
Notable reporting and scoops
StratPost's most cited scoop was its early reporting on structural defects in the Indian Air Force's MiG-29 fleet. The site reported the MiG-29 tail defect in February after confirming the grounding of the aircraft by the Russian Air Force; the story was later confirmed by Defence Minister A.K. Antony in a statement to the Rajya Sabha, India's upper house of parliament. The episode demonstrated the value of specialist defence reporting: a technical story about an airframe defect, first reported by a niche outlet, was ultimately acknowledged at the highest level of government.
The site has also broken news on procurement decisions, force planning and industry moves — from the Defence Ministry's handling of vendor bids to Japan's institutional moves to manage defence trade in support of its aircraft sale to India. Its reporting on the IAF's tanker tender and on US defence companies' engagement with the Indian defence ministry has tracked the commercial side of military modernisation, an area where official communication is often sparse.
Position in India's defence media landscape
StratPost sits within a small but influential ecosystem of Indian defence and strategic-affairs media, alongside specialist magazines, think-tank publications and the defence beats of general newspapers. What sets it apart is its independence and its digital-first character: founded as an online outlet rather than as a print magazine's website, it built its audience through continuous specialist coverage rather than through a legacy brand. Its longevity — in continuous publication since 2008 — and its record of being confirmed by official sources have given it credibility within the defence community it covers.
For worldnm.com's directory of news agencies, StratPost represents the specialist-agency model: a focused news service that produces original reporting on a single domain — defence and strategic affairs — and distributes it directly to a national and international readership. Based in New Delhi, the seat of India's defence establishment, it continues to cover the armed forces, the defence industry and the geopolitics that shape them.
