The agreement between the two has a long stop date clause, stipulating that all approvals be secured by then.
'In the present era of strategic uncertainty and rapidly changing threats, no military professional now disputes the unavoidable necessity of a joint planning staff for the planning and conduct of joint operations so that integrated operations can be planned 'top down',' says Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
Through the upgradation, the Indian Air Force is planning to increase the life of its Mirage fighters by 25 years. The upgradation will involve advanced radars, avionics and arming them with air-to-air missiles with longer reach beyond visual range.
In what would be a major boost for the submarine building capability within the country, the first three nuclear attack submarines to be built indigenously would be having 95 per cent 'Made in India' content in them and it would further go up in the next three.
Announcing the decision to go ahead with the exercises planned in Kalaikunda Air Base near Kolkata, Mukherjee told reporters on Friday, "Everything has been sorted out."
Till now, India has been importing Israeli-made 'Heron' medium and high altitude series of UAVs for the three services, which are using them extensively for surveillance operations in Jammu and Kashmir and certain other strategic areas.
'Ensuring through diplomatic means and in conjunction with strategic partners that India will not be required to fight a simultaneous two-front war with China and Pakistan.' Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd) lists what India must have in its national security strategy.
The MoU will be signed during Home Minister Shivraj Patil's 5-day visit to China.
The IAF fighter strength would plunge to an all-time low of 29 squadrons by 2007 as more and more of the ageing MiG-21, the IAF's mainstay, are phased out.
The new frigates will be fitted with BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles.
The Congress has pinned its hopes on many of the old-timers and also given representation to some new faces in its first list of candidates announced for the Chhattisgarh assembly polls scheduled next month.
The meeting is also understood to have taken stock of ceasefire violations and infiltration attempts.
The BJP on Sunday said its senior party leader L K Advani had never said that he was not aware of the decision to send former External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh along with terrorists in an aircraft to Kandahar for release of passengers of a hijacked Indian plane.
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.
At the meeting, it was felt that army operations should continue in the state in view of the recent success gained against insurgents.
The CCS also discussed the Nuclear Confidence Building Measures with Pakistan.
The Home Ministry has recommended against repealing the controversial AFSPA, dubbed by its critics as "draconian".
To be bought at a cost of over Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion), these jets will replace the two ageing Boeing 737-200 aircraft purchased in 1983 for VVIP travel, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee.
The meeting has been convened by Home Minister Rajnath Singh and invitations have been extended to all major political parties.
Russia will build three stealth warships for India under a Rs 5,514-contract signed in New Delhi on Tuesday.
The deal includes 700 million for the refit and modernisation of the ship and rest for a complement of 28 Mig-29K fighters and six Kamov-31 anti-submarine helicopters.
Antony has asked Defence Secretary Shekhar Dutt to furnish the report by Friday.
The announcement was a surprise as the new administration to be headed by the new Premier is scheduled to take over during the annual Parliament session slated to be held from March 5 next year.
The revival of the AWACS project comes after five years DRDO's HS-748 technology demonstrator aircraft crashed killing some DRDO scientists and technicians in Tamil Nadu in 1999.
The fresh negotiations with Israeli authorities concerned for procurement of the two Phalcon AWACS come in the midst of India's bitter border row with China in high-altitude eastern Ladakh.
The air defence command is proposed to be set up alongside the Central Command Headquarters of the IAF which controls important air bases including Agra, Gwalior and Bareilly.
The Cabinet Committee on Security, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, also cleared the induction of nine offshore patrol vessels for the navy and the purchase of one C-303 submarine-fired torpedo decoy system from Italy.
28 private sector companies are having FDI varying up to 26 per cent.
The government is unlikely to come up with the IPO of Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) in the current financial year ending March 2022, as the valuation of the state-owned behemoth is taking more than anticipated time, and the preparatory work is still far from complete. There are still some issues that need to be addressed with regard to the valuation of LIC, a senior official of one of the merchant bankers said. Even after the valuation, there are several regulatory processes that have concluded, the official said.
Finance Minister Jaswant Singh on Friday assured the nation that acquisition of Advance Jet Trainer aircraft would not be held up for lack of funds.\n\n\n\n
The Vajpayee government had avoided using the air force for 18 days.
Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie said Tuesday the SEBI has initiated an investigation into the fall of share prices of BPCL and HPCL.