Here's the full text of the maiden address to the nation by President Droupadi Murmu on the eve of Independence Day 2022.
'My relationship with the Pataudi family was to help me to survive in 1971.'
First reactions from Indian politicians and public figures over release of Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman.
Air Commodore Jawahar Lal Bhargava recalls how he ejected from his failing aircraft in Pakistan during the 1971 War.
Since 1910, when a barnstorming aviator first took off from a warship deck, naval fighter pilots have considered themselves a special breed.
The incident was reported when Pakistan airspace was not closed for India.
For former President A P J Abdul Kalam, becoming a fighter pilot was a "dearest dream" but he failed to realise it by a whisker as he bagged the ninth position when only eight slots were available in the Indian Air Force.
He was the lone survivor of the crash in which Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat, his wife Madhulika and 11 armed forces personnel were killed.
Squadron Leader Samir Abrol's brother Sushant, who brought back his older sibling's coffin draped in the Tricolour, tells Archana Masih why life will never be the same again.
Kargil conflict was a "poor test" of India's air warfare capability, a prominent US think-tank has said, warning that with threats of future wars with Pakistan and China persisting, Indian defence establishment has to prepare accordingly.
Along with IAF officials, the AAIB will also reach out to experienced private sector executives, meteorologists, and aviation psychologists to be part of the probe.
The aircraft had got airborne from Kalaikunda airbase in West Midnapore district for a routine training mission at 1030 hours.
It said Pakistan does not have any other fighters capable of firing an AMRAAM missile.
Sometimes it is the man behind the machine who makes mistakes, sometimes it is the machine which does so, and sometimes it is a combination of both and some other factors that leads to an accident, notes Helicopter pilot IAF Veteran Air Commodore Nitin Sathe.
"The Air Force and Navy have acted in a more liberal way. However, in the Army, you kept giving them a five-five year's job and never gave permanent commission till the verdict of the Supreme Court. If you are introducing women in the Army then why do you create a bar in NDA," the SC said.
The sources said the IAF has briefed the defence ministry about the incident and that the Indian mission in Paris has been in touch with French authorities.
In spite of being plagued by a variety of insurgencies over six decades, India has resolutely stuck to a counterinsurgency paradigm of proportionate force. We should stick with it, and not call in the heavy artillery or warplanes, says former IAF fighter pilot M P Anil Kumar.
IAF have held back the No Objection Certificate until the changes are made in the film.
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.
One can only hope that the defence minister will goad the lazybones and will infuse much-needed urgency, energy, purpose and direction to our military space programme.
The AWACS is set to redefine battlefield surveillance, and will totally revolutionise the way IAF operates.
Veteran fighter pilots lament the end of the dogfight, the evocative name for a twisty, sky-ripping, adrenaline-packed aerial duel, in which the winner gets behind his opponent and shoots him down with a burst of cannon fire.Today, it is less about flying skill, cold nerve and highly-responsive aircraft; the modern-day dogfighting ace is an airborne video-game expert who uses radar to detect his foe at long ranges, and launch a beyond visual range missile.
The government,on Monday, ruled out induction of women into combat duties in the defence forces as of now but said the streams for women officers are being expanded continuously.
The ties we fostered at NDA were borne out of enduring hardship together, ours are 24-carat bonds that would easily pass the test of time and trials. This camaraderie is the most perdurable gift of NDA.
Instead of summoning President Zardari to Washington to read the Riot Act, President Obama should have visited Pakistan, conversed directly with the people of Pakistan.
Pakistan pocketed a cool $953 million cheque while the American establishment still appears to be dim-witted about perceiving the Pakistan army's skullduggery.
In a four-part series, M P Anil Kumar, a former Indian Air Force fighter pilot, looks at the lawless Afghan-Pak region.
The first officer, not the captain, was flying AirAsia Flight 8501 when it crashed.
The landmark move comes days after the government approved women fighter pilots for the Indian Air Force.
"We have developed and successfully tested our guided weapon testing devices, which help improve the accuracy rate of guided weapons of IAF like Infra-Red Guided Missiles (IRGM) and Laser Guided Bombs (LGBs)," Director of DRDO's Laser Science and Technology Center (LASTEC), A K Maini told PTI in New Delhi.
That investment in the Tejas programme is rooted in the navy's plan to operate both light and medium fighters off its aircraft carriers. The Naval LCA will supplement the heavier Russian MiG-29K, which has already been ordered from Russia.
The winners for the year 2019 are from fields as diverse as agriculture, sports, handicrafts, afforestation and wildlife conservation, armed forces and education.
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Air Marshal N A K Browne, a veteran fighter pilot, took over the charge of Western Air Command, the sword arm of the Indian Air Force on Monday.
'Hoist now with its own petard, Pakistan has hopelessly snared itself in this vortex of jihad-inspired violence. You reap what you sow.'
The time is ripe for reduction of troops in a phased manner and moving the rest of the army units on internal security remit to the Line of Control.
A nation neglects its soldiers at its peril. Instead of structural tinkering through pay commissions, it makes sense to have a separate pay commission for the defence forces.
Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju on Wednesday flew in a Sukhoi-30MKI supersonic fighter jet of the Indian Air Force from the Halwara airbase in Punjab.
An Indian Air Force fighter pilot on a training sortie was killed when a Surya Kiran trainer aircraft crashed near Bidar in Karnataka on Wednesday morning. The pilot, who had joined the Surya Kiran Aerobatics team recently, was on the Kiran Mk II trainer aircraft, when the mishap occurred at 8.45 hours, IAF sources said.
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.
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