'Amid the frequent cries that the defence budget falls short of what is needed, we tend to ignore the reality that any enhancement in the allocation is just not possible, and the armed forces have no option but to operate within this constraint.' 'So, unless deadwood -- especially manpower -- is identified and eliminated, we simply cannot have a modern military of the type that India needs,' says Vice Admiral Premvir Das (retd).
Gen Singh, who is right now the general officer commanding-in-chief, Western Command, will become the first Sikh officer to head the army.
Gen Naravane also said the Army will enhance combat capabilities along the border with China so that it is fully prepared to deal with any security challenge.
It's been a year since a helicopter crash in the Nilgiris tragically took away India's first Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat, his wife Madhulika Rawat and 10 other military officers and personnel.
'General Naravane was a soldier's soldier,' the defence ministry said.
The death toll in the overnight stampede at the New Delhi Railway Station climbed to 18 on Sunday, with a senior railway official saying the incident occurred after some passengers slipped and fell on others while coming down from a footover bridge.
Lt Gen K Surendranath took over as chief of staff of Southern Army Command on Monday. He was commissioned into 71 Armoured Regiment in 1975 and later went on to command the same regiment, a defence ministry release said.
General Bipin Rawat, his wife and 11 others were killed in a helicopter crash near Coonoor in Tamil Nadu on Wednesday, the Indian Air Force said.
'The accident was a result of entry into clouds due to unexpected change in weather conditions in the valley. This led to spatial disorientation of the pilot resulting in Controlled Flight into Terrain (CFIT),' it stated.
'Defence does not new 'planning commissions'; it needs an implementation commission.'
"The DAC accorded approval for procurement of equipment worth over Rs 5,100 crore from indigenous sources. These include sophisticated Electronic Warfare Systems for the Army designed by DRDO and manufactured locally by the Indian industry," the defence ministry said.
Sri Lankan Army General Sarath Fonseka, who presided over the military offensive on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, has been asked by the United States authorities to testify before them against Lankan Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse over allegations of widespread human rights abuse during the war.
"We continue to be operationally deployed and ever vigilant," he said, adding the IAF continues to monitor all Chinese activities along the LAC.
Malayalam film director and Sangh Parivar fellow traveller Ali Akbar has announced that he and his wife were giving up Islam in protest against a section of social media users allegedly indulging in jubilation over the tragic death of Chief Defence Staff Bipin Rawat and his wife in a helicopter crash.
Disclaiming there was any political resistance to the creation of the country's first ever post of Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Army Chief Deepak Kapoor on Monday expressed optimism that the appointment would come through soon and the candidate could be anyone from any of the three services.
That would result in the military under-spending about Rs 80,000 crore over the financial year.
In a bid to promote Make In India defence systems, the Indian Navy will hold its senior commanders' conference on board the aircraft carrier INS Vikrant in the Arabian Sea, off the coast of Goa.
General Pande said the northern border region has been peaceful and steps have been taken to maintain peace through established protocol and existing mechanism.
Canada's newly-appointed Sikh Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan has allegedly faced racist remarks by a soldier on social media, prompting the Canadian Armed Forces to launch a probe.
Sri Lankan Chief of Defence Staff General Sarath Fonseka's resignation has been accepted by the president with immediate effect, rejecting his request to serve for two more weeks, officials said on Friday.
The ministry's year-end review is silent on the continued occupation by Chinese troops of territory that India has always claimed and patrolled.
The prime minister is presently at one of the forward locations in Nimu and is interacting with personnel of the Army, Air Force and Indo-Tibetan Border Police, official sources said.
Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat on Saturday said that China's ambitions and aspirations to global power presented an 'omnipresent danger' to stability in South Asia.
Bar, in his first comments following the surprise attack that has left everybody shell-shocked in Israel, said the ISA 'failed to generate' a warning.
Even as Chinese troops continue squatting on territory that we claim as our own -- this was the lowest allocation for defence in percentage terms since the 1950s, reveals Ajai Shukla.
Chief of the General Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, Mohammad Bagheri, told Press TV that the Nevatim air base, the Netzarim military facility and the Tel Nof intelligence unit, were hit in the Tuesday night attack dubbed 'Operation True Promise II'.
The commanders present in Delhi gathered at the South Block in Raisina Hills area, while many others joined the deliberations virtually.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday informed the Lok Sabha that IAF Group Captain Varun Singh, the lone survivor in the military chopper crash in Tamil Nadu, is on life support in the Military Hospital at Wellington, Tamil Nadu.
The CDS will have his office in South Block in New Delhi and shall have the parent service uniform, officials said on Tuesday.
Here is a timeline of what happened to the Indian Air Force helicopter carrying Chief of Defence Staff Bipin Rawat and others that crashed near Coonoor in Tamil Nadu on Wednesday:
The situation now in Manipur is "not related to insurgency". It is a clash between two ethnicities and a situation of law and order, CDS Anil Chauhan said.
The CDS will have a significant role in higher defence planning and operational aspects of India's nuclear arsenal.
The Indian Air Force's move comes over a year after the Navy made changes in its ensign shedding its colonial past.
Thousands of irate anti-government protesters in Sri Lanka on Saturday stormed into embattled President Rajapaksa's official residence in central Colombo's high-security Fort area after breaking the barricades, as they demanded his resignation over the island nation's worst economic crisis in recent memory.
Armed forces veterans have expressed mixed reaction to the Agnipath scheme under which soldiers will be recruited in the Army, the Navy and the Air Force, largely on a short-term contractual basis, with an aim to cut the ballooning salary and pensions bill.
No casualties were reported in the incident which occurred on Sunday evening.
Discussions were held on India's response to the Uri attack, in which New Delhi has held Islamabad responsible.
The new minister must commit himself to supporting long-term defence plans or else defence modernisation will continue to lag and the growing military capabilities gap with China will assume ominous proportions, warns Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
In a projection of India's growing maritime prowess, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday addressed the top naval commanders onboard the country's first indigenous aircraft carrier INS Vikrant in the Arabian Sea and witnessed a mega wargame, amid China's increasing military posturing in the Indian Ocean region.
Every part of the equipment salvaged from the remanants of the Mi-17V5 helicopter will be carefully examined to find out what went wrong in the final moments of the flight from the Sulur air base in Coimbatore to the Defence Services Staff College in Wellington near Coonoor where General Rawat was headed.
