To strengthen its capabilities in Ladakh along the borders with China and Pakistan, Indian Air Force is going to upgrade its airfields at Kargil and Nyoma for fighter and heavy transport aircraft operations. "Defence ministry has given its clearance for expanding Nyoma airbase, the proposal is awaiting clearance from Cabinet Committee on Security," IAF Chief Air Chief Marshal N A K Browne said in New Delhi on Monday.
'I have only one life and that is enough.'
Faced with intelligence inputs of a possible threat from the skies on the pattern of 9/11, the Indian Air Force has decided to install a highly sophisticated radar in Delhi to detect low-flying aircraft. The decision to install 'Aerostat' radar in Delhi comes close on the heels of Defence Minister A K Antony saying that the country needs to guard against aerial threats.
India has evacuated 170 people of 15 countries including the US, the UK, Russia and Germany, External Affairs Ministry said on Tuesday.
President Droupadi Murmu on Saturday took her maiden sortie in a fighter aircraft at Tezpur air base in Assam.
"We have developed and successfully tested our guided weapon testing devices, which help improve the accuracy rate of guided weapons of IAF like Infra-Red Guided Missiles (IRGM) and Laser Guided Bombs (LGBs)," Director of DRDO's Laser Science and Technology Center (LASTEC), A K Maini told PTI in New Delhi.
This is perhaps the first categorical statement by the government on the fate of the 29 people on board the IAF workhorse.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday handed over to the Army a raft of home-grown military hardware including unmanned aerial systems, quick reaction fighting vehicles, patrol boats and surveillance equipment for boosting its overall combat capability in eastern Ladakh.
F-16 will be there, (Swedish) Grippen, Mirage 2000 and MiG 29 will be there.
On Feb 7, 1968, the IAF's AN-12 aircraft had gone missing.
Coming to the rescue of stranded passengers in Jammu and Ladakh regions, India Air Force on Tuesday airlifted 203 stranded people from Leh town to Jammu.
Slogans for his long afterlife rented the air, as coffin of Flight Lieutenant Advitiya Bal arrived at his home in Jinder Mehlu hamlet of border belt of R S Pura, where thousands of people gathered to pay their last respects to the fighter pilot.
Here is a timeline of what happened to the Indian Air Force helicopter carrying Chief of Defence Staff Bipin Rawat and others that crashed near Coonoor in Tamil Nadu on Wednesday:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday accused the previous governments in Uttar Pradesh of letting poverty and the mafia take over the state's eastern part, saying that the Bharatiya Janata Party government is now writing a new chapter of development there.
Residents of this hamlet have been thronging the house of 24-year-old Airman Pritam Chand since the day the IAF aircraft went missing.
The national flag will fly half-mast on the day of the funeral in Delhi.
The Indian Air Force has alleged that the Russians reluctant to share critical design information, besides technical and cost issues. Ajai Shukla reports
It is learnt that the Chinese JF-17 was cheaper but could not match the technical parameters of the Tejas Mk-IA variant and the offer of maintenance of the Su-30 fleet as proposed by India.
Defence Research and Development Organisation's claim about being in a position to export Light Combat Aircraft Tejas has been dismissed as premature and unrealistic by former top Indian Air Force officers who want it to focus on getting the indigenous fighter plane inducted into own air force first.
Inspector General of Police (Law and Order) Nabin Payeng said the debris of the chopper was sighted from a hill top at Chopo Yoha in the district by a police team at the confluence of a water fall and the Nyorch river.
Flight Lieutenant Tejaswi Ranga Rao -- the Indian Air Force's first woman Sukhoi Su-30 Weapon System Operator -- has been posted at the IAF's Tezpur airbase in Sonitpur, Assam.
The long-delayed Hawk trainers, which began arriving in India in 2007, have improved advanced training for IAF flyers. But the crucial introduction to flying, conducted in antiquated HPT-32 Deepak and HJT-16 Kiran aircraft, is taking a growing toll on pilots' lives.
The synergised demonstration of indigenous defence capabilities during 'Bharat Shakti' is a "testimony to its commitment towards modernisation through indigenisation," the sources said.
The CBI also carried out searches at the residence and office of controversial arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari in connection with the deal
The flight was diverted to the Jamnagar airport following a bomb threat and made a safe emergency landing there at 9.49 pm on Monday, officials had said.
Seven years ago, an IAF chief had ordered the HTT-40 to be removed from the Yelahanka air base. The IAF now wants HAL to build 108 HTT-40 aircraft.
The IAF is taking these emergency measures in the wake of reports that its fighting squadron strength has plunged to a low of 39 squadrons and reports that Pakistan is on the threshold of buying more F-16 fighters from United States.
The Indian Air Force prides itself as being the fourth largest in the world. As IAF gets set to enter an era of modernisation, rediff.com gives you a peek inside its hangars.
The real value of the Tejas Mark 1 is the role it will now play in the development of India's next generation of fighter aircraft that will be more technologically advanced and lethal.
A bomb from an Indian Air Force fighter aircraft fell on a vacant land 15 km off the Pokhran firing ranges near Jaisalmer and exploded, leaving behind a huge crater and causing panic among residents of the area.
They said officials responsible for the crash will face severe punishment as per provisions of the military law.
Prior to the start of the World Cup final, Indian Air Force's aerobatic team Surya Kirans put up a grand show at the Narendra Modi Stadium.
Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said all Indian nationals left Kyiv on Tuesday after the Indian embassy issued an advisory, asking them to get out of the Ukrainian capital urgently.
The capability of operating fighter aircraft from this area would strengthen the air force's ability to tackle any misadventures by the adversary in a faster way.
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.
Cautioning that modernisation of the force cannot be done in "fits and starts", government on Tuesday said it will provide all assistance to the Indian Air Force to meet its growth plans and decrease its dependence on foreign companies for major aircraft and equipment.
Meanwhile, the Israel Defence Forces said they have killed some 1,500 terrorists in Israeli territory after Hamas launched an attack on Israeli border communities, The Times of Israel reported.
In a boost to the Aatmanirbhar Bharat campaign, the Indian Navy on Sunday successfully test-fired the ship-launched version of the BrahMos supersonic missile in the Arabian Sea.
The exercise, codenamed Vayu Shakti, will see all the fighter aircraft in the inventory of the IAF, including the just inducted Su-30MKI
'It's like your own private Boeing 747 which you can fly yourself. This concept brings the aeroplane closer to passengers and opens the cockpit to everyone.'
