A war film that keeps you riveted to your seat, says Prasanna D Zore.
The sale of 10 AGM-84L Harpoon Block II air-launched missiles is estimated to cost $92 million (Rs 699 crore), while 16 MK 54 All Up Round Lightweight Torpedoes and three MK 54 Exercise Torpedoes are estimated to cost $63 million (Rs 478.8 crore), the Defence Security Cooperation Agency said on Monday in two separate notifications to the Congress.
Nearly four months after submarine INS Sindhurakshak sank following a huge explosion and fire in Mumbai, navy divers are still looking for bodies of missing sailors in the wreckage of the warship.
The armed forces will completely ban the import of clothing, required to sustain its soldiers at extreme temperatures across the country, if the Indian textile industry is able to innovate and manufacture them, said Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat.
The exercise is taking place at a time India and China are locked in a nearly six-month-long bitter border standoff in eastern Ladakh that has significantly strained their ties.
The US has deployed its naval carrier strike group, led by the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan, as well as a fleet of F-18 fighter jets and E-2C Hawkeye all-weather aircraft for the exercise, officials said. The Indian assets at the exercise included Jaguar and Sukhoi-30MKI fighter jets, IL-78 air-to-air refuelling tanker aircraft, Airborne Warning and Control System aircraft and warships Kochi and Teg. The Indian Navy has also deployed a fleet of P8I maritime surveillance aircraft and MiG 29K jets, apart from other platforms.
The UK said the deployment of the carrier strike group marks the start of "a new era of defence cooperation with allies in India and the Indo-Pacific."
'Notwithstanding the realisation among the Indian leadership to build up its navy for the force's expanding role, the Indian Navy was allocated only 15% of the interim defence budget presented in Parliament in February 2019.' 'The outlay for the navy's capital acquisition is not even adequate to meet its committed liabilities,' points out Brigadier S K Chatterji (retd).
Karim Benzema's hat-trick earned Real Madrid a 3-1 win at reigning European champions Chelsea in their Champions League quarter-final first leg on Wednesday. In another quarter-final match, Villarreal stunned six times European Cup winners Bayern Munich 1-0.
A debate rages between the submarine arm and the surface navy particularly the dominant aviation wing on whether the future lies in submarines or aircraft carriers. The navy's submariners, meanwhile, debate the merits of conventional versus nuclear-powered submarines.
Two officers, who went missing on Wednesday on the accident-hit INS Sindhuratna submarine, are confirmed dead.
The Indian Navy on Wednesday ordered a board of inquiry to probe the explosion and subsequent fire onboard its submarine INS Sindurakshak which has sunk
Without advanced towed array sonar systems, all warships the navy has built and bought since the 1990s would be sitting ducks in war.
Parrikar was originally scheduled to travel to Bangladesh much earlier this month but the visit was delayed.
In a major step towards completing its nuclear triad, India has activated the atomic reactor on-board the indigenous nuclear submarine INS Arihant, paving the way for its operational deployment by the Indian Navy.
The biggest procurement green-lighted was the Rs 217 billion purchase of 111 naval utility helicopters.
The utility helicopters will be used in attack missions as well as for search and rescue and surveillance operations.
The Indian Navy has a big role to play in support of our strategic objectives in the Indian Ocean. The increasing Chinese presence in the Indian Ocean is a matter of concern and need to be factored. Hence, the requirement of an Aircraft Carrier is a foregone conclusion, asserts Commodore Venugopal Menon (retd).
The sources said the military brass is considering deploying Indian Navy's MiG-29K fighter jets in a couple of air bases in the northern sector as part of efforts to bring in tri-services synergy in dealing with national security challenges.
As a debate raged over sensitivity of leaked Scorpene data, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Friday played down the leak, saying it is "not a big worry" as weapon system details were not included, a remark challenged by the publisher who asserted these will be made public on Monday.
The air defence command is to be rolled out by the beginning of next year and the Peninsula command by the end of 2021, Gen Rawat told a select group of journalists. The Indian Air Force will helm the air defence command and all-long range missiles as well as air defence assets will come under it, he said.
President Biden underscored that the United States will 'continue to stand up for its interests and values and, together with our allies and partners, ensure the rules of the road for the 21st century advance an international system that is free, open, and fair', the White House said in a readout of the meeting.
India lost its frontline submarine on Wednesday in a blaze. Rediff.com presents some magnificent archival images of the vessel.
The missile was fired by frontline corvette INS Prabal as part of a mega naval drill involving aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya and a number of warships, attack helicopters, aircraft and other assets of the navy.
Five months after salvors were appointed, the ill-fated Russian-made Kilo-class Indian Navy Submarine Sindhurakshak has been raised out of the water.
The India-Japan joint naval exercises are a strategic signal for China, observes Dr Rajaram Panda.
The cost of the project will be Rs 21,738 crore, the sources said.
The Indian Navy has deployed a range of its frontline warships and submarines in the Indian Ocean region to send a clear message to China following the escalation of the border dispute in eastern Ladakh.
With the induction of these four systems, the underwater surveillance capability of the Indian Navy will get a boost, besides providing a fillip to the quest for self-reliance in this critical area of technology.
When the news of INS Sindhurakshak mishap broke out, a mother was hopeful that her son, on board the ill fated submarine, would survive. But as time passes, she is losing all hope, reports Prasanna D Zore.
The autopsy conducted on five navy men, whose bodies were extricated from submarine INS Sindhurakshak, has found that they died due to severe burns and drowning, even as divers on Saturday continued search operations for other personnel who were on board.
The Indian Navy has just one aircraft carrier. The INS Vikramaditya carries just 26 unreliable MiG-29 fighters and 10 helicopters -- an insufficient capability to battle a serious foe.
China for the first time has divulged the deployment of a nuclear submarine for anti-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden, a move defence experts say could cause unease among neighbours, including India.
The Akash missile systems have over 96 percent indigenous components and the weapon can hit targets at a range of 25 km.
In democratic India, a citizen can be a patriot and at the same time be critical of the government, unlike China which promulgated a national security law in Hong Kong prescribing patriotism to contest elections, observes Rup Narayan Das.
Women as officers in combat and other support roles are a reality. We better accept this and prepare ourselves to employ women in deserved roles across the organisation, says Air Marshal P V Athawale, PVSM, AVSM, VSM (retd).
The government has adopted a multi-pronged approach involving the Army, the Indian Air Force and the Navy as well as diplomacy and economic measures to send out a firm and clear message to China that its misadventure in eastern Ladakh was not acceptable at all.
"There is a high-level committee which is inquiring into the Scorpene leak on our side," Admiral Lanba said.
Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Mittal has expressed hope that the government and regulators will step in to ensure the sector remains a viable place for continued investments and asserted that the industry requires "long overdue" support to maintain its current 3+1 structure. In the latest annual report of Airtel, Mittal said as the sector's role in the economy becomes more pervasive, its challenges loom larger. Issues such as unsustainable pricing and low returns in a highly capital-intensive environment, coupled with legacy legal issues, "have extracted their toll", Mittal observed.
Building relations in the Indian Ocean, New Delhi has gifted naval vessels to Mauritius, the Maldives and Sri Lanka, even as China eyes the same locales.
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