.jpg)
The eternal question remains unanswered, what price security and what cost liberty, says Vikram Sood.
"INS Kiltan strengthens our defence system and will be a shining armour in our 'Make in India' programme," Sitharaman said.
There is concern about the poor state of readiness of the navy's 140 warships which face severe shortages in sonar equipment, helicopters and torpedoes.
Abusers on social media will be rewarded if you just got intimidated or even minimally distracted. If you don't let the noise make you do either, you are winning, without even fighting the battle, says Shekhar Gupta.
It came under severe criticism from the CAG on Friday as it pointed out that its Mark-I version has 53 'significant shortfalls'.
'We should have seen these signals and reacted earlier.' 'We miss out on a certain strategic advantage by arriving late on the scene.'
President Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday called for constant defence technology upgrades for India to maintain an edge in military capability over its adversaries.
The government has already withdrawn the RFP for heavy weight torpedoes for Socrpene submarines which was won by WASS, a Finmeccanica subsidiary, during the United Progressive Alliance regime. The government is now working out the alternatives.
Azad asked why none of the ministers have issued a single statement of apology or the protest?
'I am sure our DRDO will surely be on the job towards building similar capability to counter the threat posed by this Chinese helicopter,' observes Air Commodore Nitin Sathe (retd).
'If the almost literally heart-stopping Suez block has any positive outcome, it is to be hoped that it will accelerate the setting up of a fab (perhaps Taiwanese) in India,' asserts Rajeev Srinivasan.
The Pakistan army, which is alleged to have huge business interests, "must acquire" a television channel for dissemination of propaganda to counter the growing penetration of Indian TV and news channels in the country, a senior army officer has suggested.
'Make in India' will be central to Mr Modi's visit to Europe and Canada. It is difficult to predict what will happen with the Rafale deal, but if it goes through, it will undoubtedly become the 'Mother' of all 'Make in India' projects,' says Claude Arpi.
Without advanced towed array sonar systems, all warships the navy has built and bought since the 1990s would be sitting ducks in war.
'An ASW corvette without towed array sonar and an ASW helicopter is nothing more than a feeble joke,' says a retired navy commodore.
'Landmark developments herald the end of two decades of stagnation in the army's modernisation plans,' notes Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
'The Senators were playing safe, not angering either the pro-India lobby or the pro-Pakistan lobby, but perhaps more importantly, the military-industrial complex -- the most powerful lobby of all -- which the majority of Senators are beholden to in terms of largesse to their campaign coffers.'
'... it must network its battlefield units quickly, securely, robustly,' notes Ajai Shukla.
The India card is now almost obsolete. There are more pressing challenges. People of Pakistan are fed up with years of bad governance, corruption and broken promises of successive governments. However, the politicians and former generals are still provoking sentiments on what is happening on the Line of Control for petty political gains, says Shahzad Raza.
Like China, India needs to encourage 'hacker clubs' in view of the challenges of virtual terrorism, says Lieutenant General Prakash Katoch (retd)
The Indian Army and more recently the Indian Navy have already set up dedicated intelligence branches. It is surprising indeed that the IAF, where real time and timely intelligence is most vital for effective and safe prosecution of the air war, has still not done so itself, says Group Capt (retd) P I Muralidharan.
