Defense

Apart from these, Expression of Interest (EOI) has been floated for another 110 aircraft, based on which Request for Proposal (RFP) will be floated, Kumar said.”Roughly (for) 200 aircrafts, the acquisition is in process,” he said.

Army Chief General MM Narawane said on Saturday that the “hotline is on the cards” finally between the Directorate of General of Military Operations and China’s Western Theatre Command that is responsible for the Indian front.

The director general of ordnance factory board (OFB), Hari Mohan, said this will be for the first time that the factories will be attempting to make guided ammunition. The factories make ammunition of calibres like 81mm, 51mm, 120mm, 130mm and even more for which a guided version may be out.

Security sources said that 50 heavily armed cadres of the group led by its chairman B Saoraigwra have surrendered a large cache of weapons and have been brought to Guwahati. The return of the last group of Bodo militants is a result of an initiative by chief administrator of Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC), Hagrama Mahilary and joint efforts of Indian and Myanmar authorities.

“The naval version of Tejas achieved another important milestone today by successfully undertaking the maiden ski-jump take-off from INS Vikramaditya,” a Navy spokesperson said. On Saturday, the aircraft made its first landing on the deck of INS Vikramaditya which was also a major milestone.

Both ships are 48.9 metres long and 7.5 metres wide, with a displacement of 308 tonnes. The ships are capable of achieving a maximum speed of 34 knots, powered with MTU 4000 series engines and propelled by three 71S type III Kamewa water jets by Rolls Royce. The ships are also capable of undertaking multi-faceted tasks such as surveillance, interdiction, search and rescue, and medical evacuation.

Army chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane on Saturday announced that six Army Apache attack helicopters would be deployed on the Pakistan borders to help the Indian security forces personnel stationed there. The Army chief further said that the choppers would be deployed at locations where there is a threat of armoured columns.

This is the first step towards inducting women in the Army’s rank and file. A total of 1,700 women military police will be inducted over a period of 17 years, the Ministry of Defence said here on Friday. All military police are trained at the Bengaluru CMP school.

The government is in the process of replacing the old fence in the India-Bangladesh border areas. According to sources, the new fencing is advanced and hard to cut which will make it hard for infiltrators to cross the border.

The naval utility helicopter project, being processed under the strategic partnership model, is now set to go to the next stage, with the navy shortlisting four domestic companies that would be eligible to tie up with three shortlisted foreign vendors for a competition to manufacture 111 choppers in India.