Future, even present, wars -- at least those involving such tech giants as China -- include hi-tech battlefields, which a Pakistan-obsessed India has not sufficiently prioritised. Today's generals plan on how to disrupt an enemy city's power supplies, rail networks, airports, ports, and government departments, not just by bombing or torpedoing them; they also examine the option of tripping up the computer networks that run these, notes David Devadas.
At present, Pakistan has some edge with its fleet of F-16 jets with AMRAAM missile fitted with them, said an official.
Here's your guide to know about India's much-awaited aircraft.
Sources said a high-level team of the Indian Air Force is already in Paris to coordinate with the French officials on the handing over ceremony.
With cruise missile and air strikes being India's most likely response to a hypothetical Pakistani terrorist outrage in the future, retaliation from the Pakistan air force is inevitable. That is where the S-400 will come into play, says Ajai Shukla.
The missile will allow combat pilots to engage ground targets from a standoff range of up to 60 km.
'At this point, neither the army or the IAF has that immediate, punitive deterrent power against Pakistan.' 'Forget a three-week war; on the LoC, where the action is, Pakistan has until now fielded better infantry weapons, body armour, sniper rifles, and matching artillery' points out Shekhar Gupta.
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.
For Lucknow native Abdul Rehman, 35, his Ramzan fasts in Gaza were not broken by the call of the muezzin but with the deafening noise of bomb explosions.
India has shortlisted five of the 17 hi-tech items of military hardware offered by the US for co-production and co-development under a one-of-its kind American offer to boost bilateral defence cooperation.
>What happens when two teenagers -- one Israeli and one Palestinian -- discover that they were accidentally switched at birth? The Other Son is a wonderful vision of Israel and Palestine. There is no positive future for the region and its people without this vision, feels Aseem Chhabra.
The successful test firing of medium range surface-to-air missiles is welcome news for the IAF.
Military officials, on the condition of anonymity, said the arrival of the Rafale jets will significantly enhance the IAF's overall combat capability and will send a clear message to India's 'adversaries'.
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, hailed as a military hero at home and loathed in the Arab world as a war criminal, was on Monday laid to rest at his family ranch in southern Israel after a state funeral.
UAVs are an intrinsic part of today's technology driven battlefield. Indians don't seem to be taking the challenge with the degree of urgency that is required, says Brigadier S K Chatterji (retd).
El-Sisi welcomed Modi, who is on a two-day state visit to Egypt, at the Presidential Palace where the two leaders were closeted for one-on-one meeting after which the two sides signed a memorandum of understandng.
Israel on Tuesday resumed air strikes on Gaza after an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire failed to stop the escalating violence that has killed 192 Palestinians in nine days of fighting as Hamas continued to fire rockets at the Jewish state.
An uneasy 72-hour ceasefire brokered by Egypt between Israel and the Palestinian militant groups began on Tuesday morning after a month of fighting, with Hamas firing a salvo of long-range rockets minutes before the truce, calling them revenge for Israel's "massacres".
Emphasising its right to act independently to safeguard security interests, Israel has expressed hopes that it may not have to unilaterally carry out an attack against Iran to foil its nuclear ambitions due to an unprecedented concentration of United States forces in the Persian Gulf.
"The US will not be told by any country where we can put our embassy... Today, for the simple act of deciding where to put our embassy, the United States was forced to defend its sovereignty. The record will reflect that we did so proudly," said the US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley.
The Indian Army, placing traditional weapons above high-technology, says that equipping the army's 800-plus combat units with a Battlefield Management System would cost an unaffordable Rs 500 billion to Rs 600 billion, reveals Ajai Shukla.
The PM said his visit -- the first ever by an Indian premier -- was "based on the deep centuries-old connection between our two peoples."
Israel has slammed the rescue efforts being undertaken by Indian security forces, to combat terrorists in Mumbai, terming them 'premature and badly planned'. Israel had offered to help India to resolve the hostage situation in two luxury hotels and a building inhabited by Israelis, but their offer had been turned down. Israel defence official believe that the security forces had failed to gather sufficient information about the situation before storming the three places.
The coming together of the Quad and the Australia-UK-US grouping would be a formidable adversary, moving toward the creation of a 'thousand ship navy' that reins in the PLA navy in the Indo-Pacific.
Israel on Saturday carried out fresh attacks on southern Gaza Strip amid a hunt for one of its missing soldiers believed to be captured by Hamas, as the new wave of violence has raised the Palestinians toll to 1,650.
Prime Minister Modi needs to call Biden next month and clearly say: 'Mr President, the threat from China is clear and present. We, in New Delhi, have determined it to be an urgent national priority to outfit our submarines and aircraft carriers with nuclear propulsion and we want to cooperate with America on this programme",' advises Ajai Shukla.
In a big boost to India's surveillance capability, the Air Force is likely to receive the first of the three Israeli Phalcon Airborne Warning and Control Systems in the second half of May this year, almost a year and a half behind schedule."Indian Air Force officials have been regularly checking the system. The final details are being worked out which will enable the delivery of the system by the second half of May," defence sources said.
Bloodbath in Gaza continued unabated on Sunday with Israeli jets pounding the coastal strip, even as the fragile peace process got a new lease of life with Palestinian negotiators saying they have accepted an Egyptian proposal for a new 72-hour truce with Israel.
"The air strikes were a sequel to the constant mortar attacks by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam against the forward defence line of the Army," a statement from the ministry said.
The Phalcon radars, developed by Israel, would be fitted in Russian-built planes.
Israel said it had conducted a joint missile test with the United States over the Mediterranean Sea on Tuesday, hours after Russia's announcement of its detection of missile launches added to jitters about possible military action against the Syrian regime.
'Previous governments in India had reservations about working with Israel.' 'Modi has shed this tag.' 'Disengaging itself from its traditional and ideological foreign policy approach in the Middle East shall serve India's long-term interests.' Rajaram Panda explains why the significance of Modi's visit to the Jewish nation goes beyond markers like the first-ever visit to Israel by an Indian PM and 25 years of diplomatic ties.
The IAF has been maintaining that the Rafale jets would significantly enhance its combat capability.
The aircraft flew out from the airbase in the French port city of Bordeaux and will cover a distance of nearly 7,000 km with air-to-air refuelling and a single stop in the United Arab Emirates before arriving at Ambala airbase on Wednesday, officials said.
'The Modi regime, after experimenting with its own versions of neighbourhood policy for 18 months, has now reached the exact stage where the Manmohan Singh government had left it in so far as our Pakistan policy is concerned,' says former senior RA&W officer Vappala Balachandran.
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.
Israel bombed the Gaza Strip for the fourth day on Friday, killing eight Palestinians and tensions heightened after militants fired rockets towards the Jewish state from Lebanon for the first time since the beginning of a confrontation with Hamas.
Six Rafale trainer aircraft will carry RB series tail numbers which stand for Air Chief Marshal R K S Bhadauria, the current Chief of Air Staff who played a key role as lead negotiator for the mega deal.
'If UAV technology is used by the adversary to target VIPs or strategic targets it would be a different ball game altogether,' says Group Captain Murli Menon (retd).
In a break from protocol, Netanyahu received Modi at the Ben-Gurion International Airport.
