January 2022

National War Memorial was inaugurated and dedicated to the Nation by the Hon’ble Prime Minister on 25 Feb 2019. The Memorial stands testimony to the sacrifices made by our gallant soldiers since Independence. The Memorial houses the eternal flame which exemplifies the supreme sacrifice made by a soldier in the line of duty thus making him immortal. Since its inauguration, all homage ceremonies are being conducted only at the National War Memorial, including those on National Days.

BrahMos supersonic cruise missile, with increased indigenous content and improved performance, was successfully test-fired from Integrated Test Range, Chandipur off the coast of Odisha at 1030 hrs on January 20, 2022. The launch was conducted by Brahmos Aerospace in close coordination with the teams of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). In this text-book flight, the missile followed the predicted trajectory meeting all mission objectives.

On this Army Day, India needs to analyse why it has failed to deter its adversaries from executing plans to change the status quo on both working boundaries. Indian Army is forced to salvage the situation. As the saying goes ‘jo mare so meer’ - who hits first wins. Indian strategy of (not)managing its adversaries in the last 75 years is a testament to this. Only once, India proactively acts (1971) and reap benefits. Since India has gone back to being reactive.

Philippines is all set to become the first foreign operator of the Indo-Russian BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles. On the last day of the last year, Brahmos Aerospace received ‘Notice of Award’ from the Department of National Defence, Philippines. The order worth over USD 374 million is for the unspecified number of missiles and systems and support.

Army Chief General MM Naravane, on Wednesday, called the new Chinese border law as 'non-binding' to India. 

"Any law, which is not binding on other countries, is not legally tenable, and is not in keeping with the agreements that we have had in the past, obviously cannot be binding on us," he said while addressing the annual press conference before the Army Day on January 15.

The Central Asian republics have lately been in the news for the very wrong reasons. Five authoritarian dictators are ruling these republics. Three of them (Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan) are governed by leaders of the Soviet era who have retained the presidencies. All three are nominally democratic, but freedom has certainly been curtailed. 

BAE Systems has signed a new support, sustainment, and readiness agreement with the Norwegian Army for its fleet of 144 CV90 Infantry Fighting Vehicles, securing a new contract model to support the availability and continuous modernization of the fleet.

Rafael Advanced Defense Systems is proud to announce the appointment of Dr. Judith Hocherman-Frommer as its incoming Executive Vice President for Research and Development.