'The range of purchases throw a light on India's threat perception as also its perceived role of being a stabilising influence in the region,' says Brigadier S K Chatterji (retd).
Among the handful of countries with large defence budgets and armed forces, India is matched only by Saudi Arabia in the level of its import dependence. For revenge to be served cold, go beyond import bans and correct these long-term failures -- if we're up to it, notes T N Ninan.
The Bay of Bengal base will house nuclear submarines and aircraft carrier
Mukherjee also pointed out that in some cases, penal action had already been taken against middlemen after their role was established in defence deals.
Indo-Russian joint venture firm BrahMos Aerospace on Monday said it is developing a smaller version of the 290-km supersonic cruise missile for enabling its deployment on submarines and smaller fighter aircraft such as MiG 29K.
Anil said the company is in the process of signing a contract with the Indian Coast Guard for the first defence order for 14 fast patrol vessels
The Navy chief also inaugurated the new Air Traffic Control building there.
'The air force continues to be short of planes.' 'So, more than a decade after the last selection round got under way, the same process is about to start again for the same kind of aircraft, naturally with the same likely bidders,' points out T N Ninan.
The International Fleet Review, conceived as a show of the country's naval might and readiness for battle, saw as many as 100 naval ships, including 70 from the Indian Navy, taking part in the second edition of the coveted event.
Gen Naravane's visit to Nepal from November 4-6 is largely aimed at resetting bilateral ties that came under severe strain following a bitter border row between the two countries.
"The ultimate aim should be to have at least four such submarines so that at least one, if not two, are on patrol duty at all times," said Padmanabhan.
Future, even present, wars -- at least those involving such tech giants as China -- include hi-tech battlefields, which a Pakistan-obsessed India has not sufficiently prioritised. Today's generals plan on how to disrupt an enemy city's power supplies, rail networks, airports, ports, and government departments, not just by bombing or torpedoing them; they also examine the option of tripping up the computer networks that run these, notes David Devadas.
Here's your weekly digest of photographs that prove that it's a mad, mad, mad world!
The navy said it has taken up the matter with the Directorate General of Armament of the French government expressing concern over the incident.
The cables dovetail into VSNL's plans to build a global submarine cable system connecting India. \n\n
BWith a distracted president brooding in the White House, Pompeo seems to think his day has come. He seems to be pushing a personal agenda before a target audience in America, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'India has seen that whenever dynastic politics has been powerful, institutions have taken a severe beating'
India must develop structured multilateralism to its defence buys
The Borisoglebsk also launched a successful ballistic missile test on Saturday, hitting a target on Kamchatka, the Defence Ministry said.
American help in defending our independence will send a strong signal to the Chinese, argues Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
In its annual report on telecom sector, the US Trade Representative also said there were barrier concerns regarding supplying satellite services in China and India.
Warship building projects worth at least Rs 630 billion have ground to a standstill. The defence ministry has halted tendering in wait for a government decision on whether to allow, or to exclude, Anil Ambani's shipbuilding firm from those contracts.
"The country has suffered a lot due to selfish interests earlier and now politics over Rafale," he said.
The 19th edition of the Malabar naval exercise saw the Indian, US and Japanese maritime forces participated jointly in the routine.
With tensions between China and Taiwan rapidly increasing, the tone of China's official media has also become progressively more strident, observes former senior RA&W officer and China expert Jayadeva Ranade.
Given the importance of equipment modernisation, the overall defence budget should rise at least at the same pace as salaries and pensions, so that equipment modernisation is not hit.
Rediff.com tells you all you need to know of some of the major ships from different countries that will participate in what is being described as 'Indian Navy's biggest event'.
He also asked the young people of the country to enter manufacturing sector by setting up small units.
In 2014, the prime minister criticised the communication gap between DRDO scientists, who remained ensconced in their laboratories, and the soldiers on the borders, says Ajai Shukla.
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).
The first priority for the new Tibetan administration in Dharamsala should be to look at Tibetan recruitment in the PLA, suggests Claude Arpi.
Displacing 1,700 tonnes, it is 219 feet long and has a speed of over 20 knots. It can remain at sea for about 50 days with a crew of 31, and can dive to a depth of more than a thousand feet.
An impressive array of warships, including nuclear capable submarines, and about 8000 men and officers of Indian Navy presented an exquisite display of operational capabilities in an exercise reviewed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi off the Kochi coast in Kerala on Tuesday.
Adm R K Dhowan is also likely to take a closer look at the submarine building assembly line at the Naval Dockyard co-located with the Eastern Naval Command, on his maiden visit to a field command since taking over, reports RS Chauhan.
'Despite frequent high-level interactions there has been little traction on substantive issues between India and France,' says Mohan Guruswamy.
For the first time, the US Navy will include long-range maritime and submarine hunter aircraft P3C Orions in the exercises.
India's only live volcano in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands which had started showing activity in the year 1991 after being dormant for over 150 years has once again started spewing ash, researchers at Goa-based National Institute of Oceanography said on Friday.