Defense

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.

The vessels launched are two mini general cargo ships, each with a dead weight tonnage of 8000 tonnes, for JSW Shipping and Logistics Pvt Ltd, and three Floating Border Outpost Vessels (FBOP) for the Border Security Force (BSF). Meanwhile, keel laying was carried out for two more mini general cargo ships for JSW Shipping and Logistics.

The ship, with enhanced indigenization of critical machinery, has bettered various contractual parameters like speed, fuel efficiency, low turning circle etc. during sea trials.

The new Maritime Theatre Command, with assets from the Indian Air Force and the Army, is expected to reduce the mobilisation time between services during operational events.