Defense

As the border standoff with China in eastern Ladakh shows no signs of immediate resolution, the Indian Army has created modern habitats with all required facilities for thousands of troops deployed in the high-altitude region which is under the grip of harsh winter, government sources said on Wednesday.

Indian Army celebrated the 240th Corps of Engineers Day on 18 Nov 2020. In a solemn ceremony organized at ‘National War Memorial’, Lt Gen SK Shrivastava, Engineer-in-Chief along with other serving officers, JCOs and other ranks laid wreaths and paid homage to the brave soldiers who sacrificed their lives for the country.

In yet another flight test, the Quick Reaction Surface to Air Missile (QRSAM) System tracked the target accurately and successfully neutralised the airborne target. The flight test, second in the series was conducted today at around 1542 hrs from the Integrated Test Range, Chandipur, off the coast of Odisha. The test was carried out once again, against the high performance Jet Unmanned Aerial Target called Banshee, which simulates an aircraft.

India now has a dedicated Drones Directorate that will solely focus on managing the drones ecosystem in the country. The civil aviation regulator, DGCA, obtained the permission to set up the Directorate from the Finance Ministry, and the department — to begin with — will have eight officials from the DGCA, but will be expanded over time, Amber Dubey, joint secretary at the Civil Aviation Ministry said on Monday.

The configuration of the aircraft expected to arrive soon will be of the same configuration as the previous eight that are in service in the Indian Navy. Also, as reported by Financial Express Online earlier, there are plans of installing encrypted communications systems which have been delivered earlier.

The second phase of Exercise Malabar 2020 will be conducted in the Northern Arabian Sea from 17 to 20 November 2020. Taking forward the synergy achieved in the recently concluded Phase 1 of Exercise Malabar 2020, which was conducted in the Bay of Bengal from 03 to 06 November 2020, this phase will involve coordinated operations of increasing complexity between the navies of Australia, India, Japan and the United States.

In 2016, India and the U.S. began a joint annual initiative “UN Peacekeeping Course for African Partners” to build and enhance the capacity of African troop and police-contributing countries to participate in the U.N. and regional peacekeeping operations. While this is going on, the U.S. is keen on a similar initiative for South East Asian nations like Vietnam and others, the source said.

The BrahMos supersonic cruise missile is the world’s fastest operational system in its class and recently DRDO has extended the range of the missile system from the existing 298 km to around 450 km.

He took over from Major General JS Mangat—who has been the officiating commandant since his predecessor— Lt Gen JS Negi superannuated on September 30, 2020. An alumnus of the National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla, Lt Gen Harinder Singh was commissioned into 9 Maratha Light infantry, one of the oldest regiments of the Indian Army.

The missile launch took place from ITR Chandipur on 13th Nov 2020 at 1550 hrs off the Odisha Coast. The missile is propelled by a single stage solid propellant rocket motor and uses all indigenous subsystems. The Missile is canisterised for transportation and launch using a mobile launcher capable of carrying 6 canisterised missiles.