Rediff.com takes a look at the major aviation disasters of the year.
'Our future is in limbo. The government saved us with Operation Ganga; now, they must save our careers.'
'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.
The government has cleared the lone bid of Airbus-TATA consortium for replacing Indian Air Force's fleet of ageing Avro transport aircraft for Rs 11,930 crore besides approving Russia's offer to build Kamov Ka-226T helicopters under 'Make in India' initiative.
In a candid admission, the Indian Air Force on Thursday said that given its depleting strength, it does not have the adequate numbers to "fully execute" an air campaign in case of a two-front war involving Pakistan and China simultaneously.
RInstead of disengagement, the Indian and Chinese armies have deployed an estimated 35,000 to 40,000 soldiers each along the LAC. The PLA has deployed S-400 air defence missiles to neutralise the IAF's advantage in air power
Boeing is likely to vie for the deal to supply 110 fighter jets to the IAF in one of the biggest such procurement in recent years globally which could be worth over USD 15 billion.
"We have also assisted nationals from other countries, who approached us, in their return to their respective countries. And we will remain open to doing so in the coming days."
The Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer or Ladee spacecraft, which is charged with studying the lunar atmosphere and dust, soared aboard an unmanned Minotaur rocket a little before midnight from from Wallops Island.
The IAF can fire Brahmos missiles from several hundred kilometres away. The BrahMos flies supersonic, at speeds up to Mach 2.5, giving the enemy little time to react
The dreary, cold months from December to February may prove to be the undoing of many a nation as they grapple with sky-high fuel prices - a result of the Ukraine conflict and the pandemic. Many - Europe, South Korea, Japan, and China - will still pull through on the strength of their wealth or because of strong storage infrastructure. But India will have its back to the wall. Signs of liquefied natural gas (LNG) rates hitting new records this winter are already evident.
The LUH will be one of the two helicopters that will meet the army's urgent need for 394 light helicopters.
'Washington must retain control over any peace process until the Taliban gets worn out,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
If the initial analysis of this YJ-21 is correct, then China becomes the first country in the world to operationally field such a missile from a naval vessel.
Stanislavskyi holds the Guinness World Record as the world's oldest tennis player
India is apprehensive about the Taliban's return as it would mean loss of access to Baluch rebels and help to the restive tribals of Waziristan. This would be a setback to the Indian strategy of returning the compliments of death by a thousand cuts to Pakistan, notes Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
The bench said denying permanent commission to women officers who have served the nation would result in serious miscarriage of justice.
'For a show that has been going on since 1948 one expected a certain standard of showcasing and showmanship, besides variety and a show of skill.' 'At the same time one felt pretty good about the standards of our own efforts -- Aero India -- at Bangalore once every four years and in business only since 1996,' says Group Captain Murli Menon (retd) after a visit to the Farnborough Airshow.
Over 1,200 Indian students stranded at Zaporizhzhia in Ukraine make a desperate call for help.
India is worried about Pakistan getting the Taliban to ignite trouble in Kashmir, observes Ramesh Menon.
The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan will inspire terrorists and trigger an "explosion" of extremism and security challenges for the world, UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace warned on Thursday.
Michel may prove to be the missing link in the money trail in the alleged multi-crore scam being probed by the CBI.
The US president's four-day tour will feature talks with British PM Theresa May, tea with the Queen, and mass protests including a giant Trump baby blimp being flown over Westminster.
Praising the 'frank and business-like atmosphere' of the summit, the Russian leader said he considered the talks 'very successful and useful'.
"The equivalent of BrahMos is yet to built. And, in the next 20 years, it cannot be intercepted by an enemy," says A Sivathanu Pillai, scientist, and CEO and MD of BrahMos Aerospace sharing the vision for the future trajectory of growth for the iconic missile technology developed jointly by India and Russia.
Once the tanks roll back, a zero-based assessment of future equations with China is necessary. Given the conflict situations that China is imposing on India time and again, the red, amber and green lines of interactions with China need to be laid down and communicated in no uncertain terms, asserts Srikanth Kondapalli, the leading China expert.
'Indian diplomacy in West Asia under the present government has been a success story -- and with Saudi Arabia in particular,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
A fighter aircraft's lethality in air-to-air combat is governed by the air-to-air missile that it carries. Since the Independence, the Indian Air Force has mounted French, Russian and British missiles on its fighters. On Sunday, an IAF Sukhoi-30MKI fighter conducted the first test launch of the indigenous Astra air-to-air missile, which the Defence R&D Organisation is developing at its missile cluster in Hyderabad.
India-China relations have always attracted Parliament's attention and there have always been useful and productive and constructive discussions how to engage with China, notes Rup Narayan Das.
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.
On December 10, Kissinger began to encourage the Chinese to take action against India: 'If the People's Republic were to consider the situation on the Indian subcontinent a threat to security, and if it took measures to protect its security, the US would oppose efforts of others to interfere with the People's Republic.' On the 50th anniversary of India's greatest military victory, Claude Arpi recalls how the US suggested that China intervene militarily on Pakistan's side.
Indian football hero of '80s, Chibuzor dies
In 2013, India had displayed the Inter Continental Ballistic Missile Agni V during the Republic Day Parade. The chief guest at that time was Bhutanese King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck.
Pakistan plans to buy the fourth generation stealth fighter aircraft from China to boost its defence capability, according to a media report on Saturday.
The top court had on March 17, maintaining that women and men officers should be treated equally, cleared PC for women in the Navy and asked the Centre to complete the modalities within three months.
Top 20 images of all the events of the week that was.
The J-20 fighter is called Beijing's answer to the US F-22 stealth fighter and the F-35 that will be soon deployed in the Pacific by the United States and Japan.
India abstained from a procedural vote taken in the United Nations Security Council to call for a rare special emergency session of the UN General Assembly on Russia's aggression against Ukraine, even as New Delhi welcomed Moscow and Kyiv's decision to hold talks at the Belarus border.
Building 6 conventional submarines is one of the Indian Navy's most important weapon construction programmes.
'I want to show that we are also part of this society and want to participate just as much, whether it is for security or whatever community work there.'
