News , articles and essays on Indian Defense
A major propulsion milestone came on 8 April 2026, when the Norwegian Technolgy Enterprise Kongsberg Maritime announced that it had signed a contract to supply 18 large Kamewa waterjets for the Indian Navy’s NGMV programme
The agreement, signed on April 15, 2026, establishes a 10-year exclusive framework for supplying, integrating, and sustaining air-to-air refuelling equipment for the Indian Armed Forces.
The three-member Indian delegation was led by Additional Director General Anand Prakash Badola. At the conference, India shared its best practices in handling complex maritime security challenges, including surveillance, inter-agency coordination, and the use of technology to secure long coastlines and maritime zones.
According to the official report, this year’s exercise is focused on joint special operations designed around the neutralisation of unlawful armed groups. The drill is intended to improve tactical synergy, sharpen mission planning, and build mutual familiarity in handling shared security challenges in complex operational environments.
Propulsion is the second great question, and it is where Vishal moves from impressive to transformational. Officially, TPCR 2025 keeps the door open to nuclear propulsion for future aircraft carriers and other surface combatants, while Reuters reported that the proposed third carrier under the roadmap is expected to be nuclear-powered, a first for India.
Doval framed warfare as a contest that goes far beyond battlefield hardware. He said the core objective of war is to break the enemy’s morale and compel acceptance of terms, arguing that even militarily superior powers can fail when they misread the determination of local populations.
Air Force is seeking a mobile, vehicle-mounted, 4D electronically scanning phased-array radar based on gallium nitride, or GaN, technology, with 360-degree coverage and the ability to operate in harsh conditions from minus 40 to 50 degrees Celsius and at altitudes up to 16,000 feet.
India and Germany are also marking 75 years of diplomatic relations in 2026, after completing 25 years of their Strategic Partnership in 2025. During Merz’s visit, both governments said bilateral trade in goods and services had already crossed US$50 billion in 2024, with the upward trend continuing through 2025, underlining that the relationship is now moving beyond diplomacy into a broader strategic-economic partnership.
The F414 programme has been a strategic priority for both sides since June 2023, when GE Aerospace signed an MoU with HAL during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit to the US. At the time, both governments described the initiative as a landmark step that would enable unprecedented transfer of US jet-engine technology to India. The project was later reaffirmed in the India-US joint statement and again during the fifth India-US 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue, where both sides welcomed progress toward manufacturing the engines in India.
Technically, Prachand is built for a very specific kind of war. HAL’s own description places the aircraft in the 5.8-ton class, powered by two Shakti engines, with a maximum speed of 268 kmph, a range of 550 km, a service ceiling of 6.5 km, and an oblique climb rate of 12 m/s.
