"We don't take chances with the medical fitness of a pilot," he said at a press conference.
'The greatest loss from replacing the 126 Rafale proposal with the 2016 contract for 36 Rafales might not be the extra money paid, but the opportunity that India's aerospace industry lost of obtaining access to critical aviation technologies and manufacturing skills.'
It was decided that the senior-most Army officer in a state would get in touch with the chief minister to understand the requirement and take forward the process, including offering to treat civilians wherever possible
Starting Tuesday, the four-day Aero India 2017 event will kick off which will feature several state-of-the-art aircraft. Here's a tiny preview of what's to come.
The IAF is down to 34 squadrons. This will dip to 30 squadrons by the end of this decade, as nine squadrons of MiG-21 and MiG-27s retire.
An ill-informed public narrative centres on expensive weapons platforms instead of the little things that would improve capability.
A fighter aircraft's lethality in air-to-air combat is governed by the air-to-air missile that it carries. Since the Independence, the Indian Air Force has mounted French, Russian and British missiles on its fighters. On Sunday, an IAF Sukhoi-30MKI fighter conducted the first test launch of the indigenous Astra air-to-air missile, which the Defence R&D Organisation is developing at its missile cluster in Hyderabad.
Banning the import of platforms that are already being built in India serves little purpose.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar has asked the Indian Air Force to focus on safety and conservation of available resources as he interacted with top commanders in New Delhi just days after India decided to buy 36 Rafale jets.
The defence ministry is shooting to achieve an annual export target of $5 billion by 2025.
With no payments coming in, HAL for the first time ever taken a bank loan of Rs 7.81 billion.
There is considerable discomfort within the defence ministry about the Rafale deal.
'The Indian Navy has sufficient combat power in areas of interest to India that can quickly scale up operations if the need arises.' 'This includes all the choke points leading into the Indian Ocean as also areas within.'
'It is hard to justify $225 million a plane for an increasingly obsolete mission.' The purchase of the 36 Rafales has changed little for the IAF.
A galaxy of dignitaries including Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, his French counterpart Florence Parly, Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat, Air Chief Marshal R K S Bhadauria and Defence Secretary Ajay Kumar will attend the ceremony.
The transmogrification of Prime Minister Modi to Saint Modi began with the ground-breaking ceremony of the Ram temple in Ayodhya. By identifying himself with Lord Ram, Modi raised himself in popular imagination to a saintly person.
The constitution of both countries begins with the "three words -- We the People -- as President Biden just mentioned", said Modi, who is on his first state visit to the US.
The disengagement process between India and China in eastern Ladakh is in final stages and on the brink of completion, top officials of the country's defence establishment on Thursday told a parliamentary panel during a meeting, which sources said turned 'stormy' amid several questions asked by opposition members including Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
The National Democratic Alliance government has adopted half measures instead of moving decisively on defence.
'It appears that Prime Minister Modi has to undo 50 years of State monopoly in the defence sector during which public undertakings like HAL or DRDO monopolised defence production and development with disastrous consequences.'
He said it is the duty of the Air Force personnel to remain combat worthy and maintain combat systems operational for any contingency at a short notice.
The retirement of the Jaguar would create a six squadron gap in the IAF's combat fleet which would cost $20 billion-$30 billion to fill.
Ajai Shukla presents an action plan for Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to fix the systemic weaknesses in defence.
'Over the last two decades, the India-French relationship has grown steadily, no major political difference having darkened the sky between Paris and Delhi,' says Claude Arpi.
Defence minister claims MoD 'alive and kicking' after 'getting the weeds out'.
Asked whether the IAF can play a role in smashing terrorist training camps across the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir, he did not rule out such a possibility.
Dassault Aviation chief Eric Trappier has made it clear it would take at least three years to deliver 36 Rafales to the Indian Air Force.
'The enemy knows he cannot defeat us in a conventional conflict. So today we showcase our ability to punish, our ability to insert and extricate our troops from hostile territories.'
The Karnataka BJP core committee had proposed only Tejaswini's name for the Lok Sabha seat, but Tejaswi Surya emerged the dark horse.
"When you tell one lie, you need to keep spinning out more lies, to cover up the first one. In her eagerness to defend the PM's Rafale lie, the RM lied to Parliament," Gandhi tweeted.
'Nowhere amidst the efflorescence of 13 military bands, 16 marching contingents and 22 tableaux was there any hint that far from being a rich country of poor people, the closely guarded secret is that India is a poor country of extremely rich people,' notes Sunanda K Datta-Ray.
It is baffling how the PM chose the LCH as an indigenous product to celebrate on Rashtriya Raksha Samarpan Parv, even while his Cabinet holds up manufacturing clearance for 15 LCHs on the grounds that they are not Indian enough.
Our large military requirements make for an enormous buyer's leverage, which the defence ministry fritters away in piecemeal purchases
Out of the total 22 tableaux, 16 were of various states and UTs and six of ministries, departments and the National Disaster Response Force.
Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat, his wife Madhulika Rawat and 11 others were killed when an Indian Air Force helicopter carrying them crashed on Wednesday near Coonoor in Tamil Nadu in apparently foggy conditions, killing 13 people on board, the IAF and other officials said.
'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).
The company wants to make F 16-Block 70 "for India, from India and export to the world".
As the curtains fall on another year, Rediff.com brings you all the action from the sports field that defined 2019.
'We found the MiG-29s to be in excellent condition. They could make an excellent addition to our fleet,' a senior air marshal tells Ajai Shukla.
The majestic Rajpath saw a scintillating display of India's military might as the country celebrated its 69th Republic Day on Friday, with the leaders of all the 10 countries of the ASEAN attending the parade. Take a look here.
