ARE MACHINES QUIET: Governments Secretly Building Autonomous AI
DefenseNews: Governments are secretly developing autonomous AI systems that learn, hide, mimic humans, and act with intent. The future may already be watching us. Before you read further, ask yourself this: When you scroll through social media, review comments on major geopolitical events, or debate in forums, how certain are you that every voice responding is human? When the governments of the United States, China, or Russia publicly assure the world that artificial intelligence is being developed ethically and under human control, do you bel…
US Army Labs Test DARPA's Load-Lightening Exosuits
The futuristic exosuits being tested by US Army researchers won't help soldiers outrun locomotives, and it'll still take more than a single bound to clear a tall building. But a final prototype of the device, which could cut a wearer's exertion level by 25 percent when carrying a 100-pound load and might let an unburdened soldier run a four-minute mile, could be tested in a realistic setting in less than two years, according to Maj. Christopher Orlowski, who runs the program under the Defense Advanced Research Projects Age…
DARPA defence science organisation wants ideas on how to build a flying drone carrier
A FLYING aircraft carrier? DARPA – the US military’s think-tank for all things weird and wonderful – wants you to help it with its latest scheme. The call for ideas, issued earlier this week, has some specific requirements. First, they don’t want the enormous – and impossible – flying ships as seen in Dr Who and The Avengers. Though that would be cool. Instead, they want wacky ideas that may just work when it comes to attaching a fleet of drones to a large manned aircraft such as the C-130 Hercules, C-17 Globemaster or…
India spikes US' Javelin missiles for Israel's 'Spike'
NEW DELHI: India today decided to buy 8,356 Spike anti-tank guided missile and 321 launchers from Israel for Rs 3,200 crore, rejecting US offer of Javelin missiles that Washington was lobbying hard for. The decision was taken following a meeting of the Defence Acquisition Council, chaired by Defence Minister Arun Jaitley, that lasted for over two hours with Defence Secretary, the Chiefs of all three services, DRDO Chief and other senior officials attending it. India will outright buy 8,356 missiles and 321 launchers from the Israeli firm Ra…
Computers of defence establishment hacked
In a major security breach, around 50 computers belonging to the armed forces and the DRDO were hacked sometime back and classified files could have been compromised. Apparently in view of the development, an advisory has been issued to the Services that computers having internet facility should be kept at a distance from those on which classified work is conducted. The security breach took place in December and was detected by the intelligence agencies after which a high-level probe was ordered, government sources said. The c…
Desi Tyres on Sukhoi Fighters a Runway Hit
The Indian fighter jets have begun the process of changing over to desi tyres, probably signalling an end to escalating cost and non-availability concerns. The Indian Air Force sources confirmed to Express that the ‘India shining’ story is being scripted by the MRF, which has got the clearance from the military airworthiness officials to produce the main wheel tyres of frontline fighters Sukhoi (Su-30 MKI). The indigenous tyres named Aeromuscle are 30 per cent cheaper than the imported ones. The IAF started looking within the countr…
World's biggest arms importer, India wants to buy local
Of the 30 countries that attended a defense exposition last month to sell weapons to India, the world's largest arms importer, only the Russians had the chutzpah to dress up their tanks and guns with women in tightfitting camouflage. The confident and sexy display reflected Russia's longtime position as India's dominant military provider, but decades of effort by India to make its own hardware may finally be bearing fruit. India recently rolled out its own fighter jet, a tank, a mobile howitzer and a host of locally made…
IAF critically dependent on maintenance command
The operational capability of Indian Air Force is critically dependent on the efficiency of maintenance command, the Chief of Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha told his commanders here today. "The maintenance command is the largest command in terms of number of units, manpower and geographical area of responsibility. "The need of the hour is to enhance the lateral communication of depots with the field units by regular interaction as service providers to the user statio .. "The need of the hour is to enhance the late…
System to keep eye on activities in Indian Ocean Region
Seeking to enhance its influence in the Indian Ocean Region, India today said it has put in place a system along with Sri Lanka and Maldives to keep an eye on the activities there and work together for enhancing maritime security. "We have a platform in place which will enhance concrete response to situation whether it is piracy, counter terrorism, drug trafficking or human trafficking... We will pool our capability. This is useful and wanted to join forward," National Security Advisor Shiv Shankar Menon told reporters. &q…
Come clean on ties with Agusta: India to Dassault
With the defence ministry all set to blacklist Agusta-Westland-Finmeccanica for the VVIP helicopter bribery scandal, it has asked French aircraft manufacturer Dassault to clarify whether the Anglo-Italian chopper company was supplying parts for its Rafale medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) slated to be acquired by India at the cost of $20 billion. South Block sources said the ministry wanted to seek prior clarification from Dassault during the negotiation stage as it did not want to face legal or operational hurdles for spare …
WAR Cannot be Fought with Obsolete Hardware
The resignation of the Navy chief over the series of accidents culminating in the explosion in the submarine, INS Sindhuratna, should not lead to side-stepping of the real issues facing our armed forces. The latest accident underscores, among others, the Navy’s poor submarine rescue capabilities. It is the result of neglect of safety in its operations. At the root of the problem is the government’s failure to understand the needs of the forces and provide them the required support in terms of equipment and facilities for training. The…
ISRO plans over a dozen missions including Sun mission before 2020
Indian Space Research Organisation has lined up over a dozen missions, including its first probe on the Sun, ISRO chairman K Radhakrishnan said today. Though, the mission to probe the Sun was already on the cards, the agency now has a clear picture of its plan and had put a timeframe within which it hoped to undertake it, Radhakrishnan said, while addressing students at a private University here. He said the "Aditya" mission to the Sun had been planned between 2017 and 2020. "The mission would be around the Earth. A few …
India-China navies to hold joint training: Chinese military
China and India will organise a joint training for their navies, besides holding the fourth edition of joint military exercise this year, a top Chinese defence official said here today. China and India have agreed to hold a joint army training exercise named "Hand-in-Hand 2014," and to organise joint navy training in due time, Chinese Defence Ministry spokesman Yang Yujun said commenting for the first time on the just concluded the sixth Defence Dialogue in New Delhi. The agreement was reached during a meeting between the tw…
India’s ageing war machine could grind to a halt, govt. warned
Frustrated by long delays in replacing their growing stockpile of obsolescent equipment, India’s three armed service chiefs have been warning the government that procurement delays are compromising the country’s war preparedness, military sources have told The Hindu. The government, the sources said, was told the Air Force’s combat jet fleet would soon begin shrinking dangerously, even as the Army was short of tanks and artillery. The warnings come as Admiral D.K. Joshi, who resigned as Navy chief in the wake of an explosion on the IN…
U.S. overtakes Russia as India's biggest arms supplier
For nearly four decades, Russia has been traditionally India's largest arms supplier by a comfortable margin. Last year, the US overtook Russia to grab that spot. India alone buys 10% of the arms produced around the world. According to the defence and security analysis group, IHS Jane's, India has also supplanted Saudi Arabia as the world's biggest buyer of American weaponry. In 2013, India imported $1.9 billion worth of US equipment, including the C-17 Globemaster III and the P-8I multi-mission aircraft. Defence equipment…
NASA to launch satellite in collaboration with ISRO
US space agency NASA today said it would launch a water-related satellite in collaboration with India's ISRO. The NASA-Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Synthetic Aperture Radar mission is a part of its plan to launch in the next seven years a series of satellite related to water and drought, the agency said. Among others include the Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2); Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) Follow-on and Surface Water Ocean Topography mission. "These satellite missions join…
India hopes to put 272 Su-30MKI fighters into service by 2018
The Indian Air Force’s backlog of orders for Russia’s Su-30MKI fighters, makes up 272. The fighters are assembled by India’s Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) that has received a license from Russia’s Sukhoi aircraft maker. “Since India received 50 assembled planes from Russia, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited had assembled another 134 fighters in India,” a source close to the Indian company told Itar-Tass on Monday. “We hope to form 14 squadrons of Su-30MKI fighters by 2018. By this time we will have 272 such planes in service.” After…
Fire on INS Sindhuratna off Mumbai coast, sailors injured
At least five personnel of the Indian Navy were injured in a mishap involving kilo-class submarine INS Sindhuratna off the coast of Mumbai, reports said on Wednesday. "The mishap occurred on the submarine during a routine training exercise," navy PRO Rahul Sinha told CNN-IBN. Sinha added the fire on vessel was immediately brought under control and said there has been no grave damage to the submarine. "An inquiry has been ordered into the submarine mishap," he said. Sinha said the cause of the fire can be ascertained onl…
India's higher defence outlay no match to China's spending
The 10% hike in military spending announced in Monday’s interim Budget will not bridge the fast-widening gap in defence capabilities across the Himalayas, with China in two weeks’ time set to unveil a record hike in defence spending even as India’s military modernisation remains constrained by the fiscal deficit and a weakening rupee. Defence spending was increased to Rs. 2.24 lakh crore ($36.2 billion), a 10 per cent rise from last year. With a weakening rupee, however, the defence budget has actually fallen from last year’s spending…
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