The Bengaluru skies dazzled with somersaults and stunts by metal birds.
India's ODI cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Congratulated the induction of first squadron of the indigenously made Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas into the Indian Air Force, on Friday.
The Congress has accused the BJP of hatching a conspiracy to topple the party's coalition government with the Janata Dal-Secular in Karnataka.
The Indian Air Force will induct the indigenous HTT 40 basic trainers in "large numbers", which will boost the domestic capability although it was earlier keen for a Swiss aircraft.
In a feat that came a decade after the multi-role LCA took to the skies, Defence Minister A K Antony handed over the IOC certificate to Air Force chief Air Chief Marshal P V Naik at the HAL Airport in Bengaluru.
Starting Tuesday, the four-day Aero India 2017 event will kick off which will feature several state-of-the-art aircraft. Here's a tiny preview of what's to come.
A MiG-21 Bison of the IAF, piloted by Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman was downed during a dogfight between India and Pakistan sides on February 27 after the Balakot airstrike
'Washington senses that the anchor sheet of India's strategic autonomy lies in its longstanding partnership with Russia, which remains firm and immutable despite the changes in world politics in the post-Cold War era,' notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.<
Pointing out at the 'cooperation' and 'trust' shared between both India and France, Ambassador of France to India Alexandre Ziegler asked people to look at the facts.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar has voiced his concern at Dassault's reported reluctance to meet the terms of the IAF tender, which required the French company to guarantee the 108 fighters that HAL would build in India, after the first 18 were supplied fully-built in France.
Over 18 crore workers are expected to participate making this a much bigger strike than last year.
Around four lakh people who attended the event were treated to a spectacular flying display of fighter, civilian aircraft and helicopters.
With both aircraft likely to meet the IAF's performance requirements, the winning bid could be the one that offers the lowest cost and the best industrial proposal.
Asserting he will abide by rules, the speaker said he will take a "just decision which may be of convenience to some and inconvenience to some."
On the 20th anniversary of the first flight of the Tejas, we must congratulate the entire team who made sure that the LCA flew and returned safely on January 4, 2001, sowing the seed for development of a state-of-the-art fighter airplane that our country so badly needed, says IAF veteran Air Commodore Nitin Sathe.
Confident of signing the much delayed USD 10 billion (Rs 62,120 cr) contract for Rafale fighter jets with India "soon", French Defence major Dassault on Thursday said its pricing remains the same from day one and it has not wavered from the request for proposal.
Rather than going through the tedious, hit-or-miss process of physically designing hull forms and superstructures for warships and then determining how visible they are to radar, the company will simulate this process on supercomputers.
A breathtaking display cast a spell at the 12th edition of Aero India.
The IAF is down to 34 squadrons. This will dip to 30 squadrons by the end of this decade, as nine squadrons of MiG-21 and MiG-27s retire.
The crisis staring at the 13-month old government after over a dozen MLAs of the ruling combine quit on Saturday deepened with two Ministers and Independent MLAs -- H Nagesh and R Shankar -- resigning from the ministry and withdrawing their support to the coalition.
'There is no secrecy clause to the price (of the aircraft).' 'There can be secrecy on the capability of the nuclear payload of aircraft and things like that, but the price is hardly a secret.'
The Rafale will surely be flying in Indian skies next year. But the way the BJP government has botched this will cast a shadow on defence acquisitions in the years to come.
'Under the present Defence Procurement Procedure, it would have been a nightmare, and a long, long one at that, to build 108 Rafales in India. Modi realised this and took the wise decision, though it is a definitive setback for his Make in India scheme.'
'It is not clear how the NDA government -- including Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, backed by senior IAF officials -- claimed that the 36 Rafale contract with Dassault in 2016 cost the IAF 20% less than Dassault's 126 Rafale offer,' notes Ajai Shukla in the first of a three-part series.
'Let us remember that Make in India for defence must not be our goal.' 'The goal is to have a strong military to help the nation protect its identity and assert its will.'
'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.'
Gandhi said that he had already told the chief ministers of Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh that these states should take the lead in ushering in the second Green Revolution.
'It appears that Prime Minister Modi has to undo 50 years of State monopoly in the defence sector during which public undertakings like HAL or DRDO monopolised defence production and development with disastrous consequences.'
State-run HAL will hand over the first two Tejas aircraft to the IAF on July 1 which will make up the 'Flying Daggers' 45, the name of the first squadron of the LCA which will be based in Bengaluru for the first two years before being moved to Sulur in Tamil Nadu.
Singh received the aircraft at the Rafale fighter jet handing-over ceremony at Merignac in the presence of French Minister of Armed Forces Florence Parly. Members of the top military brass of France as well as senior officials of Dassault Aviation, the makers of Rafale, were also present at the ceremony.
Even as three Rafale fighters line up in Bengaluru for eye-popping aerobatics displays at the Aero India 2015 exhibition this week, senior ministry of defence sources say the proposal to buy the French fighter is "effectively dead".
The Sindhis are a lesson in perseverance. Once uprooted, they've started all over, often reinventing themselves
'IAF is expanding at a rapid pace'
Aerial acrobats, or wingwalkers, follow a stringent fitness regime to be able to perform at air flow speeds of 150 mphA
We sorted through countless photographs taken around the world to come up with the top photos of 2019. Together these images tell the story of the year -- capturing moments of hope and heartbreak, triumph and tragedy.
'We are looking at a joint venture between ISRO and a few companies to assemble the PSLV and launch it from Sriharikota.' 'In a month or two, the vehicle assembly building will be ready.' 'After that, we could see 13, 14 launches a year.'
The IAF faces a 'fighter gap' of 13 squadrons. The IAF would be caught seriously short in a two-front war -- the worst-case planning contingency in which China and Pakistan attack India simultaneously, points out Ajai Shukla.
The French have been rewarded for their obstinacy with exactly what they wanted -- an order for fully built Rafales without technology transfer.
Thirty-four years after he traveled to space, Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma tells Rediff.com's Archana Masih that he looks forward to Gaganyan, India's first manned space mission in 2022.
Starting as a maker of hydraulic pumps, the Bengaluru-based company graduated to components for automakers like BMW and Audi, and then Airbus and Boeing
