Defense

After suffering border casualties in Galwan, the retreat and dismantling of military infrastructure in Pangong Tso marks another first in recent history for the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) that has refused to vacate occupied territory like the artificial South China Sea islands that came up even in the face of a US Navy-led security architecture.

India is set to begin a formal roll-out of its long-awaited theaterisation plan to best utilise its military’s resources amid growing security threats, with the Air Defence Command and the Maritime Theatre Command set to be launched by May, people familiar with the developments said on Tuesday.

The Mazagaon Dock Limited (MDL) on Monday delivered the third Scorpene-class submarine to the navy after two years of sea trials. The submarine was launched in January 2018 for sea trials and will be commissioned as INS Karanj, said a naval officer.

Miss Jiya Rai, a 12 year old daughter of a Naval sailor Madan Rai, created history by swimming from Bandra-Worli Sea Link to Gateway of India, a distance of 36 Km in 08 hrs and 40 minutes on 17 Feb 21. She is a known case of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and dedicated the swimming feat to raise awareness about Autism.

The Indian Army has leased four Heron TP medium-altitude, long-endurance (MALE) unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) from Israel as a part of its emergency procurement programme. The development comes at a time when India and China have just begun disengagement from one of the most prolonged stand-off along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

Raksha Mantri Shri Rajnath Singh launched E-Chhawani portal and mobile app in New Delhi on February 16, 2021. The portal (https://echhawani.gov.in/) has been created to provide online civic services to over 20 lakh residents of 62 Cantonment Boards across the country.

The extended range Astra Mark 2 would give India an edge over its adversaries and would add more lethality to its fighter jets in aerial combat, like the one which happened a day after the Balakot airstrikes on February 26, 2019.

Rustom-2, India’s medium-altitude long-endurance drone being developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation, is targeted to achieve a huge milestone in April when it will take off from its test range in Karnataka’s Chitradurga to fly for more than 18 hours at a height of over 27,000 feet, people familiar with the development said.

The final production batch of Long Range Surface-to-Air Missile (LRSAM), designed and developed by DRDO in collaboration with various industry partners and integrated by BDL, was flagged off at DRDL, A P J Abdul Kalam Missile Complex here on Sunday.