Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha on Wednesday expressed concerns over the delays in delivery schedules of 'Tejas' Light Combat Aircraft and intermediate jet trainer 'Sitara', both being developed indigenously, and their impact on operational capability.
Sisi will be the first Egyptian President and the fifth leader from the Middle-East to grace the Republic Day celebrations as the chief guest. He is scheduled to arrive in India on January 24.
Around four lakh people who attended the event were treated to a spectacular flying display of fighter, civilian aircraft and helicopters.
Here are glimpses of what to expect at this R-Day parade.
Here are some of the other events -- in pictures -- that made news last week.
Tactical systems such as main battle tank Arjun, light combat aircraft Tejas, a family of radars, electronic warfare systems, sonars, torpedoes, armaments and missiles have been successfully developed in the country and many of them are being delivered to the armed forces. The recent success of the DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation) in the launch of interceptor missile and Agni-III has taken our country into the elite club of a few developed nations.
The massive exercise code-named Iron First 2016 would involve the participation of 181 aircraft departing from multiple bases, and demonstrate a synchronized aerial ballet that would showcase its deadly combat capability over the entire spectrum of aerial operations.
The IAF faces a 'fighter gap' of 13 squadrons. The IAF would be caught seriously short in a two-front war -- the worst-case planning contingency in which China and Pakistan attack India simultaneously, points out Ajai Shukla.
In rebranding the F-16 into the F-21, Lockheed Martin appears to have accepted what many have warned it for years: That the IAF would never buy a fighter whose very name is associated across India with the Pakistan Air Force which has operated the F-16 since the 1980s.
The latest avatar of the F-15 is designed to deal with the world's most potent air threats that are emerging from China.
Last month, Bhatt said Kalashnikov AK-203 rifles for Indian armed forces were under manufacturing and testing stage at an Indo-Russian joint venture at Korwa in Uttar Pradesh.
Despite a huge fire in the parking lot of the Aero India show at the Yelahanka Air Force station, huge crowds gathered to see mean machines take to the skies. Here are the best moments from the day.
The key platforms that India has been exporting are Dornier-228 aircraft, 155 mm Advanced Towed Artillery Guns (ATAGs), Brahmos missiles, Akash missile system, radars, mine protected vehicles, armoured vehicles, Pinaka rockets and launchers, ammunition, thermal imagers and various components of avionics and small arms.
The triennial exercise will take place for two hours and fifteen minutes during the day, dusk and night, he said.
The success of the flight has sent the aspirations of the defence establishment soaring with plans being made to design a Medium Combat Aircraft.
At present, the IAF has three MiG-21 squadrons with a total of around 50 aircraft, according to officials.
In its report tabled in Parliament, the national auditor said the Dassault Aviation and the MBDA proposed in September 2015 to discharge 30 per cent of their offset obligations by offering high technology to the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), but the two firms are yet to do it.
In the light of India's increasingly 'darkening' threat environment and the convergence of strategic interests between China and Pakistan, the IAF's declining combat capabilities are a cause for concern, says Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
NSA Doval, defence top brass brief Union ministers on the deal to help them counter Opposition charges.
Sukhoi-30MKI fighters will be based in Thanjavur. Tejas Mark 1 aircraft will be based in Sulur. The Rafale squadron will be based in Ambala.
He was conferred with the Shaurya Chakra in August for averting a possible mid-air accident after his Tejas light combat aircraft suffered a major technical glitch last year.
Here is a list of leaders who have flown IAF aircraft in the past:
"Rafale contract caters for delivery time between 36 months to about 66 months if I am not wrong. So within three years time we will have the first few aircraft delivered to us and within five and a half years we will have two full squadron of aircraft in operation," Raha said at a function in Kolkata.
While its operating radius remains secret, a back-of-the-envelope calculation indicates it can easily strike targets 1,000 kilometres away and return to base.
Swedish defence major Saab has unveiled its next generation fighter aircraft, Gripen E, which the company said is being offered to the country under the 'Make in India' initiative with transfer of technology.
It's a strategic approach in which the country's military and defence mechanisms evolve continuously in tandem with emerging threats. The new strategy anticipates events and prepares to counter those proactively.
'Whatever you work towards, be dedicated, do your best. Never go to bed thinking I could have put in more effort'
Prime Minister Modi's visit saw India and the US signing several major deals to boost cooperation in key areas such as defence, space and trade.
The two-day State Visit to Egypt at the invitation of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi is also the first bilateral visit by an Indian prime minister since 1997.
Burned by the shooting down of a MiG-21 aircraft and the capture of its pilot after a dogfight over the India-Pakistan border in February 2019, CATS eliminates the need to send pilots into enemy air space.
Here are list of some of the big ticket announcements.
In a candid admission, the Indian Air Force on Thursday said that given its depleting strength, it does not have the adequate numbers to "fully execute" an air campaign in case of a two-front war involving Pakistan and China simultaneously.
The situation that developed in eastern Ladakh last year required acclimatisation of a large number of IAF personnel and stretching of equipment to limits, but the force is "much better prepared" now in case there is a "long haul", Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal V R Chaudhari said on Thursday.
The Indian Air Force's on Friday conducted day-night demonstration of its combat and fire power in Pokhran, which was witnessed by President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The 13th edition of the Aero India Show kicked off at the Yelahanka Air Force station on the outskirts of Bengaluru on February 3. This is the first hybrid show, wherein 600 exhibitors are participating, 78 of whom are foreign companies.
'While fighter pilots must not be sent into combat in inferior aircraft, an obsessive quest for outright combat superiority will leave an air force short of numbers,' says Ajai Shukla.
The cancellation of the project has far-reaching implications for the IAF, for which this was once its high-tech future fighter.
The Defence Reasearch and Development Organsiation has, in an attempt to give India's lawmakers 'a first-hand account of huge work undertaken by the agency', begun rolling in weapon systems manufactured by it outside the Parliament.
The defence minister sat in the rear cockpit of the customised Rafale fighter jet with tail number RB-001 and was flown by Philippe Duchateau, head test pilot of Dassault Aviation.
Last week, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said buying 90 less Rafale fighter jets than the 126 planned earlier would save him money to buy more Tejas Light Combat Aircraft for the India Air Force.
