American help in defending our independence will send a strong signal to the Chinese, argues Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
The 13 IAF personnel have been identified as Wing Commander G M Charles, Squadron Leader H Vinod, Flight Lieutenants L R Thapa, M K Garg, Ashish Tanwar and Sumit Mohanty, Warrant officer K K Mishra, Sergeant Anoop Kumar, Corporal Sherin, LAC (leading aircraft man) S K Singh, LAC Pankaj, and non-combatants Rajesh Kumar and Putali.
A fleet of fixed wing aircraft and choppers have been deployed to locate the missing Antonov AN-32 aircraft, officials said.
India has in the past relied heavily on Russia for arms and transport aircraft, and the US, bearing in mind China's military prowess, aims to improve strategic ties with India following this landmark deal.
"It is a very good plane and is very widely used. It is a workhorse and it has been used for 40 years...it can really take off on a much shorter runway and India basically lacks this kind of an airplane," James Clad, the deputy assistant secretary of defence, said. India and the US will soon sign a major arms deal, with the government finally giving the nod for the purchase of the six C-130J aircraft at an estimated cost of Rs 4,000 crore.
The government has given the nod for the purchase of six C-130J Super Hercules transport aircraft at an estimated cost of Rs 4,000 crore from the US.
Sources say the sale is expected to be finalised in the next few months.
The Indian Air Force's on Friday conducted day-night demonstration of its combat and fire power in Pokhran, which was witnessed by President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Russian-origin An-32 aircraft lost contact on the afternoon of June 3.
The Indian Air Force on Thursday put up a scintillating display as part of its 83rd anniversary celebrations.
The ISNA students' news agency reported the plane smashed into a 10-story building and burst into flames.
Pakistan's Secretary Defence Production, General (retd) Ali Muhammad Jan Aurakzai, briefed a five-member visiting US defence delegation about the arms deal on Thursday.
At an elevation of 6,200 ft with a landing surface only 4,200 ft long, the plane landed, validating its short field landing performance at high altitude.
A model of Rafale jet will be showcased as part of the IAF's tableau. Models of LCA Tejas, Light Combat Helicopter (LCH), surface-to-air guided weapon Aakash missile and Astra missiles will also be part of the tableau.
The new 17 Strike Corps with 80,000 troops and a budget of Rs 64,000 crore will provided the much-needed offensive capacity against China. R S Chauhan reports.
United States President Barack Obama has authorised "targeted air strikes" against Islamic militants to protect American military personnel and airdrops of meals and water to thousands of religious minorities trapped on a mountaintop in northwest Iraq.
India has put on hold its search operations for the missing Malaysian airliner as it is awaiting fresh instructions from Malaysian authorities who are likely to look into new areas for locating the plane.
An Algerian military transport plane has crashed in mountains in the north-east of the country with 103 passengers and crew on board.
Singapore's search operation to locate the debris of the crashed AirAsia plane came to end on Sunday with its ship that found the jet's fuselage in the Java Sea returning back after days of rigorous scouring.
As per plans, the Indian Air Force may use its planes to fly out Indian nationals stranded in Iraq to safer places nearby such as Kuwait or the United Arab Emirates from where commercial airliners would ferry them back to India.
'It would be a travesty if the Malaysian air force likes the Tejas, but decides against it because it sees the IAF reluctance to back the fighter.'
'China was a relationship from which Mr Modi had expected the most it seems.' 'It showed in a string of summits, and somewhat breathless celebration of Xi Jinping.' 'It was hasty and simplistic,' observes Shekhar Gupta.
Airbus has said it expects higher revenue and a slight increase in core operating profit before mergers and acquisitions.
"We are making serious attempts to rescue people marooned in flood waters based on inputs we get from various sources, including people," asserted a top Indian Air Force official overseeing the marathon operations by his force amidst allegations by some people that forces had not reached all the affected people.
The Theatre-level Readiness and Operational Exercise was conducted to test combat readiness of the combined fleets of the Navy, the Air Force, the Army and the Coast Guard.
"For several months, we've been working with President (Donald) Trump's transition and governance teams and leaders in Congress providing information on our many programmes and potential business opportunities-including the proposed sale of F-16 fighter aircraft to India," a Lockheed official said.
The sortie had to be executed in good weather and in sub-zero temperatures, which meant it was to be accomplished by mid or third week in May before the earth heated up and the monsoon clouds made things difficult.
'I have only one life and that is enough.'
With the Indian Air Force now able to operate C-130 Hercules transport aircraft at high-altitude Daulat Beg Oldie sector in Ladakh, China is reported to have built a radar station on its side of the border ostensibly to monitor movement of Indian planes over the area.
'India-US defence pacts are seen by many analysts as a subtle move to jointly contain China's growing militarism, especially in the strategic Indian Ocean Region.'
An IAF microlite aircraft with two persons on board made an emergency precautionary landing on Sunday in a park near a metro station in east Delhi after the pilot suspected a problem in the plane.
US defence giant Boeing warned of a price hike in USD 2.5 billion deal if India does not finalise the contract soon.
This means that the search and rescue team has no exact idea about where the plane could have gone down on July 22.
Rediff.com takes a look at the major aviation disasters of the year.
India and US on Wednesday night signed a new strategically important 10-year defence framework agreement setting the stage for co-development and manufacture of defence equipment.
The bodies of the victims of helicopter crash, including ambassadors of Norway and the Philippines and wives of Indonesian and Malaysian envoys to Pakistan, were brought to Islamabad on Saturday from the site of accident.
General Mattis has been the most steadfast champion in Trump's cabinet of the US-India defence relationship. If Trump chooses a more pliable successor, the Pentagon's attention could go off India.
When China protested strongly over the August decision on J&K -- not once but twice -- we ignored it. And to compound matters, we simply turned our back and walked over to the 'Quad' alliance with the US, upgrading it to ministerial level, and thereafter began following the American footfalls on Taiwan and COVID-19 to taunt and humiliate Beijing, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The government cleared a multi-billion dollar deal for attack helicopters and heavy-lift choppers with American aviation giant Boeing.
It was indeed a poignant moment to see an uniformed Arjan Singh rising out of his wheelchair and using a walking stick to march up to President APJ Abdul Kalam's coffin
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