A P J Abdul Kalam, 83, was a daring President who undertook a submarine sortie, flew Sukhoi jet, visited Siachen glacier.
Five sailors fell ill due to smoke inhalation and had to be hospitalised after smoke was detected on the INS Sindhuratna docked off the Mumbai coast on Wednesday morning.
Western Navy Commander Vice Admiral Shekhar Sinha, who was superseded by Admiral Robin Dhowan in the appointment of Navy chief on Thursday, is understood to be unhappy and is contemplating putting in his papers.
The Indian Navy has constituted a high-level inquiry headed by an officer of the rank of Rear Admiral to look into the recent cases of submarine mishaps.
Theories of sabotage may be tempting to lap up but let's wait for the Board of Inquiry to submit its report on INS Sindhurakshak, say officers like Vice Admiral (retd) K N Sushil. Vicky Nanjappa reports
In a freak mishap, a 30 mm gun on board a Coast Guard ship went off accidentally when it was being repaired, damaging a portion of the Western Naval Command headquarters building in Mumbai.
Violation of safety regulations could be the most likely cause of the explosions on submarine Sindhurakshak because of which it sank, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin has said.
Many countries including the United States and France have offered help to India in its ongoing operations to bring out bodies in the sunken submarine INS Sindhurakshak.
Two officers, who went missing on Wednesday on the accident-hit INS Sindhuratna submarine, are confirmed dead.
The Indian navy suffered yet another mishap on Friday with gas leakage in an under-construction warship in the Mazagaon Docks here, claiming the life of a Commander and hospitalisation of two dockyard employees.
Bodies of the two naval officers from Assam who were in the Indian Navy's kilo-class submarine INS Sindhurakshak which sank at the naval dockyard in Mumbai after explosion were brought to their home state in Guwahati on Wednesday.
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Navy Chief Admiral D K Joshi, while speaking about the explosion on board the Indian Navy's submarine INS Sindhurakshak, said there was "nothing to be hidden if there were any errors" behind the incident.
Referring to Narendra Modi's speech targeting the prime minister on the Independence Day, Shiv Sena on Saturday said it hoped that the Bharatiya Janata Party leader, when he takes the top post, would "drag" fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim to India and hang him.
Efforts by divers on Thursday to ascertain the fate of 18 trapped Naval officers and men in submarine INS Sindhurakshak that exploded after a fire were hampered by poor visibility inside the submerged warship as heat generated by the blasts had melted parts of the internal hull preventing access to compartments.
Robin K Dhowan on Thursday took over as chief of the Indian Navy nearly two months after D K Joshi quit the post in the wake of a series of mishaps.
The year threw up quite a few shockers, some rather rude one. Below are Rediff.com's 12 picks that made us sit back and think, 'Did that really happen?'
INS Sindhukirti's refit took so long that many defence experts believed the vessel would never return to operational service.
Maintaining that maritime security was the new government's top priority, Defence Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday stressed the need for hastening delivery of ships to step up surveillance and secure the vast coastline.
In wake of the blasts on the INS Sindhurakshak, the Navy has ordered extensive checks on weapon-related safety systems on all its submarines, Defence Minister A K Antony told Lok Sabha.
With the indigenous nuclear submarine INS Arihant set to be launched for sea trials in few weeks, India will soon complete its nuclear triad giving it the capability to respond to nuclear strikes from sea, land and air-based systems.
Admiral D K Joshi was to have served as naval chief till July 2015. Had he completed his full tenure, then Vice Admiral Satish Soni, currently Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Navy's smallest command, the Southern Naval Command, would have taken over as the next naval chief.
The defence ministry on Friday scrapped a scam-tainted tender worth over Rs 6,000 crore to procure 197 light helicopters from foreign vendors and decided to allow indigenous players to manufacture these choppers for the armed forces.
Defence Minister A K Antony on Sunday said there was no question of any compromise with regard to the case relating to the two Italian marines who had allegedly shot dead two Indian fishermen off Kerala coast in February 2012.
'It was almost as though there was widespread relief that the defence bureaucracy, and the minister, could find someone willing to shoulder the blame for everything that had gone wrong with the services under Antony's charge -- the poor preparedness of the forces, slow acquisitions caused by indecision, cancellation of contracts and whimsical blacklisting of defence contractors over the tiniest suspicion that they may have paid speed money or kickbacks.'
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will meet with United States President Barack Obama at the White House next month, where the two leaders will chart a course seeking enhanced bilateral ties and defence cooperation between the two countries, US officials have said. Dr Singh will visit the White House on September 27.
How will the navy's six Scorpenes fight, when their primary weapon -- the Black Shark torpedo -- is blocked by a ministry of defence ban on the company chosen to supply these? This gloomy scenario provides a heaven-sent opportunity to revisit the navy's torpedo purchase plan, handled without strategic vision and economic foresight.
'Pakistan thinks it is winning this low intensity conflict.' 'It is a serious observation. Half the battle is convincing your adversary that he cannot make headway.' 'A lot depends on how the internal professional management of the army and the handling of situations that are bound to rise sooner than later in his command, are done.'
The conservative bureaucracy that influences the political masters is clearly not concerned with the vision documents prepared by defence chiefs to bring India's military into a state of preparedness, says Seema Mustafa
Tragic as it is, the submarine accident is more tactical in nature and it is the deeper strategic malaise across the board -- political, economic, security, judiciary, bureaucracy and even the media -- that has led to this dark mood of gloom and despondency, says Commodore (retd) C Uday Bhaskar.
'Admiral D K Joshi's resignation is certainly an example worthy of emulation by anybody who is in a leadership role. Unfortunately, over the last 30, 40 years, I can think of very few politicians or bureaucrats who could be termed real "Leaders". Without leaders, where will there be leadership?' asks Vice Admiral P J Jacob (retd), former Vice Chief of the Naval Staff.
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