Defense

Hindustan Shipyard Limited (HSL) achieved another major milestone after completing the third successive refit on time, an offshore patrol vessel (OPV) of Indian Navy, after undertaking major repair works, giving a new lease of life for the 27-year-old ship.

Indian Navy’s INS Shardul and Malagasy Naval Ship Trozona undertook Joint Patrol of Madagascar’s Exclusive Economic Zone and participated in PASSEX. This outreach is part of India’s efforts to establish stability in the Indo-Pacific region. China has been eyeing to widen its presence in the Western Indian Ocean.

ndia will, for the first time, participate in the France-led naval war game ‘La Perouse’ in the Bay of Bengal next month, top government sources said. After La Perouse, another important naval exercise, the India-French Varuna exercise, will also take place. This time, it will also include the United Arab Emirates.

Raksha Mantri Shri Rajnath Singh and Minister of Defence of Republic of Korea (RoK) Mr Suh Wook successfully concluded their bilateral talks on defence cooperation in New Delhi on March 26, 2021. The defence and security engagements between India and RoK have grown exponentially over the last few years. Latest talks explored new domains of bilateral defence cooperation and avenues to strengthen the long-standing bilateral defence partnership.

The Milan-2T ATGM, produced under licence from MBDA Missile Systems, France, by BDL is a man-portable (Infantry) second-generation ATGM, which boasts the ability to destroy battle tanks fitted with explosive reactive armour, and moving and stationary targets. It is a tandem warhead ATGM that has a range of around 1,850 metres. The missiles can be fired from the ground and from vehicle-based launchers. The Milan system was developed for the French and German armies, and over 360,000 missiles and 10,000 launch units have been produced since 1972. The ATGM is in service in 41 countries.

India is going ahead with an indigenous light utility helicopter (LUH) after it proved it worth during high altitude operations, including at the Daulat Beg Oldie (DBO) airstrip on the China border. The defence ministry has given the go ahead for placing an order for 12 of the choppers, with developer and manufacturer Hindustan Aeronautics NSE -1.37 % Limited (HAL) expected to deliver the first by August next year.

During the past 3 years, 79 projects amounting to Rs.8201 Crores directly pertaining to development of new defence equipments i.e. Cruise Missile, Anti-Ship Missile, Surface-to-Air Missile, Air-to-Air Missile, Extended Range Anti-Submarine Rocket, Mounted Gun System, Ammunitions, Electronic Warfare System, Radars, Torpedoes, High Endurance Autonomous Underwater Vehicle etc. have been undertaken.

Providing further boost to ‘Make in India’, Ministry of Defence (MoD) signed a contract with Mahindra Defence Systems Ltd (MDSL) for supply of 1,300 Light Specialist Vehicles to the Indian Army, at a cost of Rs 1,056 crore, in New Delhi on March 22, 2021. The induction of vehicles is planned to be completed in four years.