The Indian Air Force carried out intensive night operations involving its fighter aircraft including the MiG-29 and Sukhoi-30MKI along with its Apache attack helicopters and the Chinook heavy-lift helicopters.
The entire base is seeing a flurry of activity and is playing a crucial role in enhancing the combat preparedness of the country along the China border.
Sources said that even though India and China have been talking at the diplomatic and the military level for over six weeks now, there has been no thinning down in troop numbers or equipment by the Chinese side on this front.
The air force has moved its critical frontline assets including the Sukhoi-30MKI, Mirage 2000 and Jaguar fighter aircraft fleet to advanced positions where they can fly in at a very short notice to carry out operations.
"The Chinese military has done military build-up not only just in Ladakh but also in other sectors including Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh wherever it shares borders with us. The build-up includes troops and heavy weaponry which are deployed in rear positions," government sources told ANI.
The list of aircraft planned to be inducted by the Air Force include 36 Rafales, 114 Multirole Fighter Aircraft, 100 Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) and over 200 variants of the Light Combat Aircraft. "In the next 15 years, 83 LCAs are our primary focus, after that LCA Mark 2 will come in we are looking at close to 100 of those, that makes it near 200 of LCA class," Air Chief Marshal Bhadauria told ANI in an interview.
The deployment seems to be more than what is needed.
As per earlier plans, Balakot operations in-charge and current Air Force Chief Air Chief Marshal B S Dhanoa was to travel to receive the plane on September 19-20 from France.
The ministry sources said some of the projects were initiated before the 2019 elections have been concluded after the government was formed.
The Excalibur ammunition was developed in the US for improving the accuracy of the artillery shells in the war in Afghanistan which the Americans have been fighting for almost two decades now.
"These observations from three members were given to me as the INT chairman. This was not a dissent note," he said.
Engaged in a territorial dispute with China, Japan on Thursday sought to rope in India's support over "the recent Chinese provocative actions" saying a message needs to be sent to it collectively that status quo cannot be changed by force.
Hassan Rouhani, a moderate cleric who was a surprise winner in the recent elections, took oath on Sunday as Iran's seventh president at a ceremony attended by a galaxy of world leaders, including Vice President Hamid Ansari, with which he has pledged to expand ties.
Facing shortage of critical weapon systems and ammunition, Army Chief Gen Bikram Singh will brief Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the "hollowness" faced by the 1.3 million-strong force in its defence preparedness.
The Army is planning to acquire 300 light tanks for deployment in the mountainous regions of the border with China and Pakistan, a move seen as part of efforts to beef up capabilities on the frontiers. The army wants the tanks to be able to penetrate highly protected armoured vehicles and Main Battle Tanks of the enemy from a distance of more than two kilometres and also be able to fire high explosive anti-tank shells and guided missiles.
The Bofors gun continues to give India 'an edge' over its adversary on the Line of Control and has helped the country win 'artillery duels', till the time the ceasefire came into effect in 2003, Indian Army officers say. "With a range of over 35 kms in the high-altitude terrain, the gun helped us win artillery duels with Pakistani Army on the LoC till the 2003 ceasefire between the two countries," said a senior officer.
India has awarded a contract to US defence manufacturer Raytheon to integrate the Munitions Control Unit on the Jaguar fighters, to enable the aircraft to fire even the latest US-made missiles.
Faced with intelligence inputs of a possible threat from the skies on the pattern of 9/11, the Indian Air Force has decided to install a highly sophisticated radar in Delhi to detect low-flying aircraft. The decision to install 'Aerostat' radar in Delhi comes close on the heels of Defence Minister A K Antony saying that the country needs to guard against aerial threats.
The blame game among security and intelligence agencies over "actionable inputs" on the Mumbai terror strike continued with the Coast Guard on Thursday saying the "spies" had fallen for deliberately leaked "false inputs" by terrorists to hoodwink them.
After the three armed forces, it is now the turn of the central police organisations (CPOs) and paramilitary forces (CPMFs) to raise a pitch for 'parity' in pay scales with their military counterparts.
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