Raha said the force has the power to punish its enemy, but a decision on using it in an offensive role will have to be taken by the government.
December 3, 2021 marks 50 years since the beginning of the 1971 War which ended in a decisive military victory for India and the liberation of Bangladesh. Most analysts of the 1971 War agree that the IV Corps dash across the mighty Meghna river led by the brilliant General Sagat Singh was the turning point in the war, recalls military historian Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
The IAF's mainstream fighter aircraft, the Sukhoi-30MKI and Jaguar, are set to square off with their American counterparts to execute some of the most realistic manoeuvres of its kind during Exercise Red Flag over Alaska starting April 28. Here's what you need to know.
Ajai Shukla spends a day with Tejas test pilots to find out what drives them.
Has the army confronted China, equipping itself with emergency purchases that have been largely paid for by pensioners, asks Ajai Shukla.
The thanks-giving activities will start with laying of wreaths at the police memorial in Delhi and in several other cities on Sunday morning to honour the police personnel deployed in enforcement of the nationwide lockdown, officials said. It will be followed by fly-pasts by fighter and transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force, covering a sizeable number of cities and towns across the country between 10 am and 11 am, officials said.
The decision to disengage the forces, locked in a bitter standoff for the last six weeks in eastern Ladakh, was taken at a nearly 11-hour-long meeting between senior Indian and Chinese commanders in Moldo on the Chinese side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) on Monday.
Air Marshal N A K Browne, an ace MiG-21 and Sukhoi-30 MKI fighter pilot, will be the next chief of Indian Air Force.
On the shopping list: Light tanks, anti-tank guided missiles, UAVs, assault rifles, fighter aircraft.
India will upgrade Indian Air Force's Nyoma advanced landing ground in Ladakh into a full-fledged air base closer to the borders with China to deploy its top-notch fighter jets, including the Sukhois there.
The Indian Air Force is gearing up for a day-and-night fire power blitzkrieg using its potent fighter jets including Sukhois for two days from February 24 in Pokhran after a gap of four years.
Rediff.com goes back in time and lists some public figures who met with a tragic end.
With a Sukhoi fighter aircraft, a special air craft from Indian Space Research Organization and another low flying aircraft of the state government completing a comprehensive aerial survey of Nallamalla forest area to find missing Andhra Pradesh CM Y S Rajashekhara Reddy's helicopter on Wednesday night and gathering crucial data including the photographs, focus of the search operation on Thursday will move to the ground.
A Russian fund submitted its interest to the resolution professional on February 14 and also hired a consultancy firm to help them with the bidding process.
Ahead of the 70th Republic Day celebrations, here's a quick glimpse at what's in store for January 26.
Saurav Chordia's morale patches celebrate bravery and glorify events that are significant for different IAF units or squadrons.
'While fighter pilots must not be sent into combat in inferior aircraft, an obsessive quest for outright combat superiority will leave an air force short of numbers,' says Ajai Shukla.
"By triangulation, we have located the area which is about 5-km radius circle and it has been identified based on the last contact with the air traffic control," Chavan, Union minister of state in the Prime Minister's Office, told reporters
Patil, the supreme commander of the country's armed forces, will get on board the ship at around 11 am on Wednesday, a spokesman of the Indian Navy said in Mumbai.
American armaments dominated the defence services's show of weaponry.
The Russian defense ministry confirmed that one of its jets, a Sukhoi SU-24, had crashed in Syria but said it had been downed "presumably as a result of shelling from the ground."
Sukhois alongside Chenchus. Sheela Bhatt argues that the search for YSR brought India face to face with Bharat.
In a tweet, the IAF welcomed the "new bird" into its arsenal.
President Pratibha Patil is not scared of undertaking a sortie in a two-seater Sukhoi-30 frontline fighter jet plane of the IAF next week at Pune.
What the new defence minister does with the Rafale fighter jet deal will decide if India wants to build genuine, long-term defence capability through an indigenous product that slashes life-cycle costs, or opt for glitzy signing ceremony with foreign vendors that would please the public, says Ajai Shukla.
'It is not clear how the NDA government -- including Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, backed by senior IAF officials -- claimed that the 36 Rafale contract with Dassault in 2016 cost the IAF 20% less than Dassault's 126 Rafale offer,' notes Ajai Shukla in the first of a three-part series.
So keen is Moscow that India buy its helicopter -- Kamov-226T -- that President Vladimir Putin personally took up the issue with PM Narendra Modi during their summit meeting last year
New airbases, troops, infrastructure, development initiatives are all part of a longer strategy
Russia has said the maiden flight of the fifth generation fighter aircraft (FGFA), being developed by its Sukhoi design bureau in tie-up with Indian aerospace and defence major Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), will be made by the end of the year.
A P J Abdul Kalam, 83, was a daring President who undertook a submarine sortie, flew Sukhoi jet, visited Siachen glacier.
Jet Airways Executive Director Saroj K Datta declined to comment, stating he has not got any circular from DIAL.
The Russian-origin An-32 aircraft lost contact on the afternoon of June 3.
A model of Rafale jet will be showcased as part of the IAF's tableau. Models of LCA Tejas, Light Combat Helicopter (LCH), surface-to-air guided weapon Aakash missile and Astra missiles will also be part of the tableau.
A batch of frontline IAF fighters and pilots will leave for the United States on Monday to prove their mettle during the multinational air exercise, "Ex-Red Flag 08", at the USAF's Nellis Air Force Base.
In a major technology leap, Indian defence scientists are ready to go ahead with the first full test flight of its indigenously developed air to air beyond visual range missile, ASTRA. The test-flight from an IAF Sukhoi fighter aircraft could be undertaken "anytime in the next 45 days", top DRDO officials said.
But private Indian defence firms prefer to do business with the West. Indian CEOs say they encounter difficulties in obtaining full and timely payment from Russian partners.
There is considerable discomfort within the defence ministry about the Rafale deal.
Under the deal signed in Moscow last month during Indian Defence Minister A K Antony's visit, HAL will supply large components to Russia's Irkut Corporation for assembling the airframes of Su-30MK fighters. The Russian firm is working on Indian, Malaysian and Algerian export orders.
India has refused to accept further deliveries of upgraded IL-38 anti-submarine aircraft complaning that the plane-detection equipment is not working to specifications.
He said the ministry was considering bidding out the airstrips in blocks for development as it might not be feasible to do it individually.
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