With Pakyong now usable by AN-32s, the Indian Army can quickly move soldiers, weapons and supplies to this highly sensitive sector, which includes flashpoints like Doklam, Nathu La and the Siliguri Corridor.
The Rafales could begin combat operations by September-October, reports Ajai Shukla.
Jammu and Kashmir is most impacted by terrorism in 2018, with 321 attacks, resulting in 123 deaths while Chhattisgarh suffered 138 attacks in 2018, resulting in 123 deaths, reports Ajai Shukla.
Will the low cost Israeli Athos gun scuttle India's ATAGS gun?
Given the urgency, the Indian Navy is buying 24 MH-60R Seahawks in flyaway condition, and plans to build another 99 in India through the strategic partnership route.
The AFT was intended to reduce military related cases in civil courts. Instead, the backlog in defence-related cases has increased from 9,000 to 16,000 after the AFT's creation.
The full grant of OROP would raise annual military pensions to Rs 75,000 crore, only slightly less than the salary bill of Rs 93,216 crore.
The BrahMos systems for the two ships are estimated to cost Rs 25 billion, making it the world's most expensive anti-ship missile.
The army has long been deficient in artillery, the modern battlefield's most lethal killer, says Ajai Shukla.
Senior officers recounted extreme Chinese brutality to the Indian prisoners, with some of them being pushed over cliffs and soldiers' bodies being recovered from the Galwan River.
The Indian Army has been slow to react. Indian troops have deployed in the vicinity of PLA incursions, but there are no attempts to outflank Chinese positions.
The IAF has paid French aerospace firms Dassault and Thales about Euro 350 million for 'performance-based logistics'. This requires the vendors to ensure that 75 per cent of the Rafale fleet is combat-ready at all times, notes Ajai Shukla.
The gun is unique in its ability to fire a five-round burst, while no other contemporary The gun is unique in its ability to fire a five-round burst, while no other contemporary gun exceeds three-round bursts. This brings down a greater quantity of explosive onto the target before enemy soldiers can take cover
A salvo from a Pinaka battery brings down on the enemy more than seven tonnes of high explosive in just 44 seconds.
Boeing also won a $4.5-billion contract for 10 C-17 Globemaster III transport aircraft, and will soon start delivery of $3 billion contracts to supply 22 AH-64E Apache attack helicopters and 15 CH-47F Chinook heavy lift helicopters., reports Ajai Shukla.
French sources say Hollande was motivated to speak out after an Indian media report revealed that the Reliance Group had part-funded a film venture by his domestic partner, French actress Julie Gayet.
In 2014, the prime minister criticised the communication gap between DRDO scientists, who remained ensconced in their laboratories, and the soldiers on the borders, says Ajai Shukla.
India to go ahead with S-400 missile deal with Russia, but declines project to develop a fifth-generation fighter aircraft.
For the navy, which is making do with just 14 conventional submarines against a requirement of 24, the INS Khanderi delay extends a dangerous operational void.
Possible US envoy says India must get assurance against China.
If New Delhi finds itself out in the cold in Afghanistan, both the Congress-led UPA and BJP-led NDA have only themselves to blame. Each has been in power for a full decade from 2001, without reaching out to the Taliban, points out Ajai Shukla.
American armaments dominated the defence services's show of weaponry.
HAL will build each Su-30 at just Rs 4.25 billion. The IAF is paying Rs 11.25 billion per Rafale, excluding the price of weapons and logistics.
Another crucial power group, the US legislative Congress, is increasing pressure for closer ties between Washington and New Delhi.
Russian Helicopters has scored another billion dollar home run by winning the Indian Navy's tender for 111 'naval utility helicopters'.
Indian Army planners find themselves contemplating the possibility of more Chinese intrusions along the contested 3,488-km border. That could lead to the army having to man a 'hardened LAC' round the year, like the LoC with Pakistan, reports Ajai Shukla.
The light utility helicopter will replace the military's obsolescent fleet of Chetak and Cheetah helicopters that have flown for over three decades.
The IAF has insisted it hit its targets. If that is indeed true, then the lack of obvious damage could mean it has used a different bomb -- possibly procured secretly from Israel.
This is perhaps the most authoritative portrayal so far of Indian air power as a threat to China.
The Global Hawk can carry out surveillance of a stretch of land or ocean for over 30 hours continuously, physically scanning up to 100,000 sq km each day.
With the two armies again in a face-off at multiple points, there is apprehension of renewed clashes.
'We cannot understand why the government is facilitating the import of artillery when our indigenous guns are doing so well.'
In rebranding the F-16 into the F-21, Lockheed Martin appears to have accepted what many have warned it for years: That the IAF would never buy a fighter whose very name is associated across India with the Pakistan Air Force which has operated the F-16 since the 1980s.
Defence experts want defence expenditure to be at 3% of GDP, which they consider minimum to counter the two-front threat from China and Pakistan, internal insurgencies, and dominating a 7,500 km coastline and the Indian Ocean beyond. What Arun Jaitley has given India this Budget is 2.16% of GDP, observes Ajai Shukla.
But private Indian defence firms prefer to do business with the West. Indian CEOs say they encounter difficulties in obtaining full and timely payment from Russian partners.
The defence ministry is shooting to achieve an annual export target of $5 billion by 2025.
Even as Chinese troops continue squatting on territory that we claim as our own -- this was the lowest allocation for defence in percentage terms since the 1950s, reveals Ajai Shukla.
China remains in firm control of an estimated 600-800 square kilometres of Indian territory.
The unstated aim of a well-publicised airlift operation of this kind is to demonstrate India's ability to rapidly move troops and equipment over long distances.
'These combat engineer units are used in war for building bridges for advancing troops.' 'Instead of training by building bridges over the Mula and Mutha rivers in Pune, they will practice by building bridges in Mumbai,' Indian Army chief General Bipin Rawat tells Ajai Shukla.
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