Europe has an edge over the US in the tightly-fought contest to sell India a next-generation engine for the homegrown Tejas light combat aircraft (LCA).
A debate rages between the submarine arm and the surface navy particularly the dominant aviation wing on whether the future lies in submarines or aircraft carriers. The navy's submariners, meanwhile, debate the merits of conventional versus nuclear-powered submarines.
India is deploying cutting-edge technology to defeat a simple insurgent weapon that J&K militants and Naxals are using to lethal effect: the Improvised Explosive Device, or IED. Swedish company Saab has offered to partner India's Defence Research and Development Organisation in fitting Saab's CARABAS radar on India's Dhruv Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH), which would allow the scanning of wide swathes of territory to detect IEDs well before they can be exploded.
The Light Utility Helicopter, which Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd is designing for the Indian military, has encountered turbulence even before leaving the drawing board. French engine-maker Turbomeca, whose vaunted Shakti engine was to power the LuH, is demanding what Ministry of Defence sources term 'extortionist prices' for integrating the Shakti with the LuH.
IAF feels DRDO fronting for French engine, citing 'joint development'.
New Delhi's moral and ethical protestations that India's space programme is entirely peaceful are facing embarrassing questioning after the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) apparently oblivious of the policy implications of its statements publicly announced a roadmap for its ambitious military space programme.
Indian visitors focused on another small aircraft that could soon fly the skies of India: The Grob-120TP, which has been offered as a basic trainer aircraft for the Indian Air Force. Its German manufacturer, Grob Aircraft, submitted a tender in April.
As pilot Klaus Plasa lifts his 70-year-old, grey-green Messerschmitt Me-109 fighter off the runway, clapping breaks out among the aficionados of historic aircraft that crowd Berlin's ILA 2010, the world's oldest air show. The Me-109, which delights the crowd with its aerobatics, is the legendary Luftwaffe (German Air Force) fighter that memorably clashed with Royal Air Force Spitfires in the skies of England during the Battle of Britain in 1940.
After six decades of floundering through dozens of uprisings, India's govt is facing the Naxal challenge as incoherently as ever, writes Ajai Shukla
Plummeting European currencies, battered by the euro zone financial crisis, are providing European aerospace corporations an opportunity to undercut their American rivals, Boeing and Lockheed Martin, in the contest to sell India 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) for a price that has been estimated at $11 billion, or about Rs 44,000 crore.
Over the next three months, key American military platforms -- including the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter, the C-17 Globemaster transport aircraft and the M777 ultralight howitzer -- come to India for user trials.
At 2.20 pm on Friday, exactly as planned, space shuttle Atlantis thundered off its launch pad at the Kennedy Space Centre and set off on its 32nd -- and, perhaps, its last -- flight, carrying several tonnes of equipment to the International Space Centre. The space shuttle programme shuts down later this year.After 12 days in space, the Atlantis will return to the Kennedy Space Centre and be readied as a backup ship in case there is an emergency.
The US is eyeing a closer linkage with the Indian space programme, something that New Delhi has already suggested to Washington. In February, Indian Space Research Organisation chief K Radhakrishnan and K R Sridhara Murthi, MD of Isro's marketing arm, Antrix, met senior Boeing executives and suggested closer ties.
Move over artillery gun deals stamp paper fodder and other scams! India's pinnacle of subterfuge will soon belong to a new hustle called offsets on which pliant Indian defence manufacturers are set to ride to riches. Setting the stage for this shakedown is a disinterested Ministry of Defence (MoD), which has artlessly authored a scamster's delight called the Defence Offset Procedure.
The stop-start-stop process of buying 1,580 towed guns for the Indian Army will effectively restart on Monday when a C-130 Hercules aircraft lands in New Delhi, carrying a 155-millimetre artillery gun for trials this summer.
New Arjuns will fire anti-tank missiles; have extra armour protection
The new Consolidated Foreign Direct Investment Policy, effective from April 1, limits FDI in defence units to 26 per cent. But the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion of the commerce ministry is in favour of raising this limit.
Figuring out the state of an army's morale is easy. All it takes is a couple of drinks with two groups of people: the officers and the enlisted men. If the chatter is mainly about sports and professional competitions, ongoing training and about how much tougher and smarter they are than their rival units, morale is high. If talk centres on pay and allowances, promotions and postings and on the world outside the army, you can bet money that morale is low.
The four pillars on which the relationship rests strategic congruence; defence and space partnership; nuclear power generation; and hydrocarbons remain biased in favour of Russia. Putin's visit gave little hope that this was about to change.
The deeply traditional Indian Army, which prides itself on training outdoors with real equipment, could soon start training on simulators like other high-tech armies.
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