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 sky is the limit for what all could be done at an air base to neutralise terrorists. Good proactive local leadership and delegated operational effort would be key to ensuring that a handful of terrorists cannot hold a whole air base, and by extension, the whole nation to ransom,' says Group Captain P I Muralidharan (retd).
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Wednesday indicated that the post of Chief of Defence Staff could be a reality soon, a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi marked defence reforms as a priority and stressed that "jointness at the top" was a need long overdue.
This is the first deal for artillery guns since the Bofors scandal in 1980s.
India is committed to further developing friendly and cooperative relations with China, says Parrikar in Beijing.
Most of these new recruits came from Pulwama, Shopian and Kulgam districts in South Kashmir, which had become the hub of tech-savvy, young militants.
Sri Lankan troops on Friday captured the strategic town of Ampalavanpokkanai in south of Mullaittivu, after a fierce battle with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, in which two senior LTTE commanders were killed. Advancing rapidly, the Lankan forces have now virtually encircled Puthukudirippu, the last town held by the Tigers, where LTTE supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran is reportedly leading the rebels.
General Raheel Sharif on Friday assumed charge as Pakistan's new army chief at a ceremony in Rawalpindi, where outgoing army chief general Ashfaq Parvez Kayani passed on the command stick to him.
'India is not the India of 1962. We are not carrying that baggage of history anymore.'
Army chief General M M Naravane on Tuesday hoped for an amicable resolution of the military standoff with China in Ladakh through talks based on 'mutual and equal security' even as he said India will have to be prepared to deal with a 'two-front' threat scenario due to the potent and collusive threat from China and Pakistan.
India has experienced hands and will emerge with flying colours, declares Inspector General Gurdip Singh Uban (retd).
The US said it has strong evidence that China has deployed anti-ship missiles, surface-to-air missile systems and electronic jammers to contested features in the Spratly Islands region of the South China Sea.
United States President Barack Obama has chosen retired Marine Corps General John Allen, who earlier served as the commander of the US and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation forces in Afghanistan, to head the America-led global coalition against the dreaded terror group Islamic State, earlier know as ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria).
Relatives of the three youths, belonging to Dhar Sakri village in Kotranka of Rajouri area in Poonch, had lodged a written missing persons report in the local police station after they lost contact with them on July 17. The three were working as labourers in apple and walnut orchards in Amshipura.
India's national security strategy needs to be revised periodically since the global and regional geopolitical situation is dynamic, points out Commodore Venugopal Menon (retd).
The militants hurled a hand grenade at the CRPF troopers, who were part of a road opening party, in Pampore town on the strategic Jammu-Srinagar national highway.
Dhanteras, the prime minister said, has become even more special.
With over 550 islands dotting the strategically located spot in the Bay of Bengal with near 500 of them still uninhabited, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands provide the Indian armed forces the ideal landscape to train its troops on amphibious warfare, which entails landing on the beaches of the enemy territory and taking the gun fight right into the mainland.
China has relaxed its one-child policy and further freed up markets in order to put the world's second-largest economy on a more stable footing.
The officer claimed 88 Kashmiri youths joined militancy in 2016.
Official sources said withdrawal of tanks and other armoured elements from certain friction points is nearing completion while pulling back of troops from the North bank areas is being undertaken.
The nation celebrated the 71st Republic Day on Sunday with a grand military parade and exhibition of its history, cultural diversity and strategic weaponry at the Rajpath.
Following an attempt to overthrow his government, Turkish President Recep Erdogan has ordered the arrest of over 2,000 people.
'When India's adversaries are going all out in information warfare, the Indian Army will have to think out of the box to effectively counter them,' says Colonel S Dinny (retd).
With tensions between China and Taiwan rapidly increasing, the tone of China's official media has also become progressively more strident, observes former senior RA&W officer and China expert Jayadeva Ranade.
When China protested strongly over the August decision on J&K -- not once but twice -- we ignored it. And to compound matters, we simply turned our back and walked over to the 'Quad' alliance with the US, upgrading it to ministerial level, and thereafter began following the American footfalls on Taiwan and COVID-19 to taunt and humiliate Beijing, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Through the past 18-month period, peace has prevailed in the disputed border regions, which was immensely helpful in the difficult situation that the country was passing through, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'I want to assure this House that in these talks we have not conceded anything.' Full text of what Defence Minister Rajnath Singh told Parliament on the Chinese pullback in eastern Ladakh.
As India's international role expands, so must our capabilities, says Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
'The government will ensure that India's pride is not affected as far as the situation along Indo-China border is concerned'
A nine day Indo-Russian joint air force exercise concluded at the Halwara Air Force Station in Punjab that saw fighter, helicopter and missile crew of the two countries operating together.
Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Sunday visited the Friday attack site in Kokrajhar and said strong action would be taken against the banned National Democratic Front of Bodoland-Sonbijit outfit and "none would be spared" for the killing of 14 people.
MH-60 Romeo Seahawks would add lethal capabilities of the Indian Navy, which experts say is the need of the hour given the aggressive behaviour of China in the Indian Ocean region.
The use of firearms along the LAC marks a serious escalation in border tensions as the previous instance of shots being fired at the de-facto border was in 1975.
A militant commander said five people were killed in the firefight and several were injured "including Mullah Mansoor."
'For Pakistan, the comfortable old calculations and certainties are no longer valid.' 'Strikes on Indian targets now carry a high risk of retaliation and escalation,' notes Ajai Shukla.
Third time lucky is an apt phrase to describe the remarkable rise of Joe Biden, a veteran in US politics for around five decades, from being one of the youngest senators in history to the oldest American president-to-be.
The award has earlier been bestowed on several world leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and her American counterpart James Mattis reviewed ongoing initiatives to further strengthen bilateral defence cooperation.
In fact, given the current tensions and massed troops on both sides, there is a danger that the LAC will become more like the Line of Control with Pakistan, a heavily fortified and strongly defended border where weapon fire exchanges regularly occur. Indeed, Stratfor Worldview research has listed a sharp increase in new Chinese facilities along the LAC in 2019-20.
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