November 2019

Mi-171A2 helicopter was certified in India and Colombia. It allows Russian Helicopters (part of Rostec State Corporation) to start exporting the latest modification of the multirole civilian helicopter.

Indian Naval Air Squadron 314, the sixth Dornier aircraft squadron was commissioned on 29 Nov 19 at an impressive ceremony held at Naval Air Enclave, Porbandar. Vice Admiral MS Pawar, AVSM, VSM, Deputy Chief of Naval Staff was the Chief Guest on the occasion.

The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), chaired by Raksha Mantri Shri Rajnath Singh, met today and accorded approval for Capital Procurement for the Services amounting to over Rs 22,800 crore. To boost the 'Make in India' initiative, the DAC accorded approval for indigenous design, development and manufacturing of 'Thermal Imaging Night Sights' for Assault Rifles.

Pakistan and China all-weather friendship have sprung a surprise for India. In what could be a serious dent to India’s offensive air capability, Pakistan, reportedly, has installed Chinese made anti-stealth radar at one of its airbases.

DEFCOM, India’s International Conference & Exposition on Military Communication, has evolved over the years to become a landmark platform for collaboration between the Indian Armed Forces, Academia, Research and Development Organizations and the Industry on all aspects pertaining to Information and Communications Technology applications in the defence forces. 

As part of the golden jubilee celebrations of HAL Management Academy (HMA), HAL signed an MoU with Rajiv Gandhi National Aviation University (RGNAU), a Central University under Ministry of Civil Aviation to promote cooperation between RGNAU and HAL to grow the pool of human resources in the aviation and aerospace industry of the country.  The MoU will identify the type of academic and training programs that could be offered jointly.

Israel, the foremost military and technology power of West Asia, is just one year younger to the Republic of India. Both India and Israel were created in 1947 and 1948 respectively. The two friendly nations share very similar hostile neighbourhood and security challenges and are fighting religiously motivated militant neighbours since their birth.

In spite of sharing strategic relationship and multiple multi-billion dollar defence purchase deals, India and the United States have failed to come up with any co-production or co-development programme in the defence sector. Considered as one of the major failures of Indian defence diplomacy, the two governments, till date, have failed to explain this.

But, finally, the answer is out. And the culprit is the Indo-Russian defence cooperation.

About a year ago, there were press reports of China building “underground bomb-proof shelters” to park fighter aircraft at Lhasa’s Gonggar/ Kongka Dzong airfield. While this small news item did not receive the attention it deserved in the Indian media, it is a signal to India that China is preparing for a conflict. There are also reports that China is building new airfields in Tibet. Since the 1990s China has been rapidly modernising its military with advanced weaponry.