US sends Aircraft Carriers in South China Sea after China's ‘campaign of bullying’
US aircraft carriers have sailed through the South China Sea as Washington accused Beijing of a "campaign of bullying" in the disputed region. USS Nimitz and USS Ronald Reagan sailed along with their strike groups into the sea in a major show of strength to China. Pictures show the steel armada sailing through the region that has been the source of years of tensions between the US and China. The nuclear-powered aircraft carriers launched F/A 18E Super Hornet fighter jets, and were joined by guided missile destroyers and cruisers in…
UK signs £65m contract for first three Protectors
The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has ordered its first three of a planned 16 Protector RG1 unmanned air vehicles from General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, with the £65 million ($82 million) contract announced on 15 July. Also including three ground control stations and support equipment, the launch production order follows what the MoD describes as a “successful development phase” activity performed by General Atomics in the USA. With its first production order now in place, the MoD says operations with the Protector fleet will start by mid-2…
New defensive aids for MBT Arjun proven in trials
An advanced laser warning countermeasure system and a mobile camouflage system have recently been tested and proven on the Arjun MBT Mk.II in the Mahajan Field Firing Range in Rajasthan. Both capabilities will be strong survivability factors on the new improved tanks as it heads into a crucial phase of user trials. The new camouflage system has been developed to provide multi-spectral signature management for Arjun Mk.II, in order to protect the vehicle against all enemy sensors and smart munitions. According to the CVRDE, “the perf…
MODI Effect : Indian Co's bet on Defence sector; pour in billions to manufacture Guns, Ships & Tanks
NEW DELHI: Some of India's biggest companies are pouring billions of dollars into manufacturing guns, ships and tanks for the country's military, buoyed by the new government's commitment to upgrade its armed forces using domestic factories. India, the world's largest arms importer, will spend $250 billion in the next decade on kit, analysts estimate, to upgrade its Soviet-era military and narrow the gap with China, which spends $120 billion a year on defence. Unde…
India lost 340 defence personnel in 3 years: Govt
India, without going to war, has lost over 340 military personnel in the last three years. Counter-insurgency operations and cross-border firings, road accidents and warship mishaps, have all contributed to the numbers. Defence minister Arun Jaitley, in a written reply to Rajya Sabha on Tuesday said the Army had lost 217 soldiers inside the country and 14 outside (in UN peace-keeping operations) from 2011 to 2013. The Navy suffered 90 casualties and IAF 19 in the same time period. In a separate answer, Jaitley said 27 soldiers had bee…
India: Diversifying Arms Purchases
India needs to diversify its arms imports. Although it is one of the world’s largest arms importers, most of India’s weapons come from Russia. Over the last five years, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Russia accounted for about $15 billion of the $20 billion in arms that India imported, or about three-quarters. That level of dependence is unhealthy: One of the reasons why India bought the Jaguar Bomber from a European consortium in the 1970s was the concern that India was becoming dependent o…
Another ASW Aircraft Tupolev TU-142ME Handed Over to Indian Navy
On August 06, 2014 another India Navy’s long-range ASW aircraft TU-142ME (IN 317) was handed over to the Customer after an overhaul at Beriev premises. The aircraft successfully passed all tests and was finally handed over to the Indian navy. Eight Taganrog-built Tupolev TU-142MEs were handed over to Indian Navy in the late 1980s. In total, the Tupolev TU-142MEs flew 28 thousand hours in over 25 years without any incidents or accidents, and thus gained a good reputation with Indian crews. Indian pilots call this aircraft ‘Albatross’ f…
US Army's JMR Program Kicks Off; Two Contracts Awarded
WASHINGTON — Less than two weeks after announcing that it was pushing back the initial selection of the technology demonstrator phase of the Joint Multi-Role (JMR) helicopter program and working to forge a closer relationship with industry, the US Army awarded two development contracts for the effort on Tuesday. The winning bidders were the team of Sikorsky and Boeing with their SB>1 Defiant medium-lift helicopter, and Textron’s Bell Helicopter, which submitted its V-280 Valor tiltrotor design to the Army. In October, the Army prov…
BrahMos: The Brahmastra of India
It has been my good fortune to have been associated with the Ministry of Defence in the early eighties as spokesperson for the Ministry, the Armed Forces and the Defence Research and Development Organisation. The Defence Research and Development Organisation was then headed by Dr. Raja Ramanna, He was followed by Dr Arunachalam and Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam. Those were the days when leading arms manufacturing countries in the West were reluctant to sell defence equipment to India, which was a non-aligned country. The Government of India w…
US overtakes all to become India's largest defence supplier
Stunning new figures on Indian defence imports by Defence Minister Arun Jaitley in Parliament on Tuesday have revealed that for the first time, the United States has overtaken all competitors to become India's largest defence supplier in the past three financial years. The statistics revealed by Jaitley, who holds dual charge of defence and finance ministries, show that almost 40 per cent of the money spent by India on defence imports in the past three years have gone to the Americans, followed by the Russians (30 per cent) and th…
Indian missiles languish in South Korea due to Gaza conflict
The eponymously named Long Range Surface to Air Missile (LR-SAM), being co-developed by the Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), is already two years late. Now, because of Israel's invasion of Gaza, the delay will get longer. Business Standard has learnt that four LR-SAM rocket motors, built in India and despatched to Tel Aviv for trials, have been lying in Seoul, South Korea, for close to a month. The DRDO confirms that the rockets, filled with highly combustible propellant…
Why is India offering to buy more US helicopters
(Reuters) - India has offered to significantly increase an order for U.S. attack helicopters, Indian officials said, as U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel began a visit to New Delhi on Thursday aimed at boosting defence and strategic ties. The Apache gunships and a deal for Chinook helicopters, both built by Boeing, will top the agenda in Hagel's talks on Friday with the new administration led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. India has offered a follow-on order of 39 AH-64D Apache helicopters in addition to the 22 now being negot…
Govt doubles NSG commando strength in each of four hubs
National Security Guard crack commando strength has been almost doubled to 460 personnel each stationed at select hubs in Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Hyderabad to undertake quick and swift counter-terror or counter-hijack operations. The hubs in these cities, covering key areas, were set up in the aftermath of the November 2008 Mumbai terror attacks during which the elite force came under criticism for slow response time. "It has been decided to reinforce the strength of each of the four regional hubs from 241 to…
ISRO: India working on manned flight mission
India’s scientists are on course to sending the country’s first manned flight to space, Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) K. Radhakrishnan said here on Sunday. “A number of critical technologies are being developed for a possible human space flight in the future. A full-scale, unmanned crew module is getting ready to be flown onboard the experimental flight of GSLV Mk-III, to understand its ballistic re-entry characteristics,” Dr. Radhakrishnan told graduat…
Indian Stealth Frigate visits Vietnam for joint rescue exercises
India's INS Shivalik frigate arrived in Haiphong in northern Vietnam for a three-day visit on Tuesday. Chinese scholars have said that Vietnam is attempting to ally with other countries over the South China Sea dispute, a goal which suits India, which is aiming to increase its military presence in the region, according to the website of China's nationalistic tabloid Global Times. The visit of the frigate, which has a 6,200-tonne displacement, was praised by Indian media as…
Russia Wins second heat of 2014 Tank Biathlon, India 3rd, China 8th
Russia claimed victory at the second heat of the 2014 Tank Biathlon world championship, the Russian Defense Ministry’s press service said Wednesday. “On the current stage [of the competition] Russian Federation came first [with the result of] 26 minutes 27 seconds, the Republic of Kazakhstan came second [with the result of] 30 minutes 14 seconds and the Republic of India was t he third [with the result of] 31 minutes 26 seconds,“ said the chief judge of the competition, Lt. Gen. Yury Petrov was quoted by the press service as saying…
The Indian Military looks East
Earlier this year, President Pranab Mukherjee laid the foundation stone of an Indian Army (IA) 'air defence' (AD) station at Nabagram in Murshidabad district, West Bengal that is expected to be complete by 2018. This new military installation is purportedly part of the infrastructure build-up under way in the Eastern part of India to support the IA's new mountain strike corps (MSC) which was green lighted last year and is designed to launch offensive operations into Tibet. While the immediate raison behind some of this sup…
Army officer lured into honey trap confesses to passing secrets
The junior Army officer arrested in Hyderabad on Wednesday for espionage has confessed to having passed on critical information about 96 field regiments and ten medium regiments Subedar Naik Patan Kumar, the Junior Commissioned Officer in the artillery regiment who was arrested on Wednesday in Hyderabad for alleged espionage, has reportedly confessed to his crime. Poddar, who was arrested following an alert by the intelligence agencies, has admitted that he was passing crucial information to a girl named Anushka Agarwal since…
2014 Tank Biathlon World Championship
Indian tank crew on Wednesday secured a respectable third spot in the second stage of the 2014 Tank Biathlon World Championship, a mechanised military sport invented in Russia. Being held at a firing range in Albino, outside Moscow, teams from 12 countries, including from Angola, Armenia, Belarus, Venezuela, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Kuwait, Mongolia, Russia and Serbia, are participating in the competition. Delegations from more than 20 countries are taking part as observers. Teams have to race through up to 20km obstacle…
Hypersonic missiles are the future for India and Russia
In his first interview after being appointed chief executive of BrahMos Aerospace, Sudhir Kumar Mishra talks to RIR about the joint development of hypersonic missiles and export potential of BrahMos systems. BrahMos Aerospace has already signed an MoU with the Moscow Aviation Institute on the development of hypersonic missiles There is need to sign some more agreements between India and Russia, isn't it? Can you elaborate on this? Both India and Russia have successfully demonstrated that if they work together they can create…
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