The key platforms that India has been exporting are Dornier-228 aircraft, 155 mm Advanced Towed Artillery Guns (ATAGs), Brahmos missiles, Akash missile system, radars, mine protected vehicles, armoured vehicles, Pinaka rockets and launchers, ammunition, thermal imagers and various components of avionics and small arms.
The Indian Air Force will soon place orders for the first batch of 20 Light Combat Aircraft with the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee said on Thursday. \n\n
China has announced a 7.2 percent increase in its national defence budget, bringing the total to USD 249 billion for the year. This rise comes amidst China's ongoing efforts to modernize its armed forces, including the development of new warships and fighter jets. The budget increase, exceeding last year's 7.2 percent rise, reflects China's commitment to bolstering its military capabilities. Chinese Premier Li Qiang emphasized the importance of the Communist Party's leadership in guiding the military, with President Xi Jinping at the helm of the Central Military Commission. China's defence spending is now three times that of India's and is viewed by critics as a sign of the country's growing military ambitions.
Ajai Shukla spends a day with Tejas test pilots to find out what drives them.
While the Army will be getting around 100 light utility helicopters, it is also looking at the option of taking choppers on lease to meet its requirement.
The development contract calls for GE Aircraft Engines to provide 17 F40 4-GE-IN20 engines, as well as logistics support, the company announced from Lynn, Massachusetts.
Europe has an edge over the US in the tightly-fought contest to sell India a next-generation engine for the homegrown Tejas light combat aircraft (LCA).
Here are some of the glimpses from the celebration.
Defence Minister A K Antony on Tuesday said that cross-border terrorism continues unabated and Pakistan has not done much to stop it. He was speaking to media personnel in Bengaluru where the first Naval prototype of the Light Combat Aircraft was rolled out today.Antony stated that while the situation in Kashmir was improving, terror camps continued to operate from across the border. But he added that bilateral dialogue between India and Pakistan was imperative.
In a key step towards attaining final operational clearance from the Indian Air Force, the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas is undergoing weapons trials, including firing air-to-air missiles to test its capability to bring down enemy planes.
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.
The navy expects the MiG-29s and the naval variant of Light Combat Aircraft to be operational by then.
Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha on Wednesday expressed concerns over the delays in delivery schedules of 'Tejas' Light Combat Aircraft and intermediate jet trainer 'Sitara', both being developed indigenously, and their impact on operational capability.
India is also likely to sign a deal to buy MQ-9B Predator armed drones from US manufacturer General Atomics.
The DRDO has clearly decided that developing technologies is at least as important as developing weapons systems. V K Aatre, DRDO chief from 2000-04, had said, "Weapons programmes and technologies have to maintain equal pace." Only now is the DRDO heeding his advice.
Tactical systems such as main battle tank Arjun, light combat aircraft Tejas, a family of radars, electronic warfare systems, sonars, torpedoes, armaments and missiles have been successfully developed in the country and many of them are being delivered to the armed forces. The recent success of the DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation) in the launch of interceptor missile and Agni-III has taken our country into the elite club of a few developed nations.
Why this indifference towards the Tejas, the alert citizen would ask?
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.
Regarding cross-border terrorism, Mukherjee agreed that in spite of the fencing, infiltration of terrorists from across the border had shown a sharp upswing in the last two months. \n
The triennial exercise will take place for two hours and fifteen minutes during the day, dusk and night, he said.
The first launch of the missile last year was a failure.
The test flight lasted 24 minutes.
It is the first mega exercise involving the two aircraft carriers after induction of the indigenously-built INS Vikrant in September.
The chief of air staff said Chinese actions along the frontier including in the Ladakh sector are being monitored constantly and the IAF's overall preparations are part of continuing efforts irrespective of challenges from China.
The comments came a day after Indian Air Force Chief Arup Raha said the air force has moved a proposal for inducting women as fighter aircraft pilots.
Research and development (R&D) spending by BSE 100 companies has grown steadily, rising from 0.89 per cent of revenue in FY20 to 1.32 per cent in FY24, averaging around 1 per cent over the period in-between, according to data compiled from Bloomberg and company annual reports. Also, these companies more than doubled their R&D spending in absolute terms over these five years: From Rs 25,041 crore to Rs 63,072 crore. While this reflects a prioritisation of innovation, corporate R&D investment remains relatively conservative.
SAAB's Sea Gripen constitutes a new option as the INS Vikrant's light fighter
In its report tabled in Parliament, the national auditor said the Dassault Aviation and the MBDA proposed in September 2015 to discharge 30 per cent of their offset obligations by offering high technology to the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), but the two firms are yet to do it.
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.
The defence budget was on Thursday increased to Rs 6.21 lakh crore for 2024-25 in a modest hike of 4.72 per cent from last year's allocation of Rs 5.25 lakh crore amid India's continuing border row with China in eastern Ladakh as well as concerns over evolving security situation in the strategic waterways.
The success of the flight has sent the aspirations of the defence establishment soaring with plans being made to design a Medium Combat Aircraft.
The air-to-air missile is to form the main interception armour of the indigenously developed Light Combat Aircraft.
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