Defense

Sources said Lt-Commander (equivalent to an Army Major) Karabi Gogoi, a naval engineer currently posted at the Karwar base in coastal Karnataka, has been selected for the post of the assistant naval attaché also at the Indian embassy in Russia. “Lt-Commander Gogoi will finish her Russian language course this month. She is likely to take over the new post in Moscow in December after requisite approvals,” said a source.

“Cost negotiations for the C-295 deal have been completed. It is now being processed to put it up for clearance from the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS). It is expected to be signed in the next few months,” a senior Defence official said. As part of the deal, 16 aircraft will be built by Airbus at its manufacturing facility and delivered in fly away condition and the remaining will be built locally by the Tata-Airbus joint venture under transfer of technology.

Code-named AK-203, the gun has been designed by the Kalashnikov Concern and is thus one of the new generations of the AK family, the descendants of the famed AK-47. Press reports declare that as many as 750,000 rifles are to be produced this way, a vast majority of which are to be provided to the Indian Armed Forces. If these numbers are correct, the AK-203 is poised to become one of the main weapons of the Indian Army.

India will fund at least 250 defence startups over the next five years as it seeks new give a cutting edge to the armed forces. The plan is to achieve at least 50 ‘tangible innovations’ by the startups that can be inducted over the coming years.

The landing at 1845 hours was to demonstrate the ease of handling and confidence achieved in arrested landing technologies of the indigenous aircraft being made at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). The LCA which is made in India and designed and developed by Indians has been showing success at critical tests which are being carried out for the Indian navy.

India ordered 145 howitzers from the US for $750 million in November 2016. As part of the deal, M777 manufacturer BAE Systems will supply 25 ready-built howitzers and the remaining 120 guns are being built locally in collaboration with Mahindra Defence Systems Limited under the Modi government’s Make in India initiative.

Under the first project of the strategic partnership policy of the Narendra Modi government to develop indigenous industry’s defence manufacturing capacity, 111 light helicopters have to be built indigenously through joint ventures between Indian and foreign firms.

The Tri-service drill has been organised under the aegis of the headquarters of the Integrated Defence Staff. “From the Indian Navy ships including INS Jalashwa, Airavat and Sandhayak has been despatched. Also, Indian Navy’s P8i long-range maritime reconnaissance is participating in the drill,” said the official spokesperson of the Indian Navy.

Top sources in New Delhi tell OneIndia that the new CDS would be appointed by the end of this year. Currently the process to fix the tenure, rules, regulations among other formalities are underway. The source also added that the high powered committee headed by National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval is framing the terms of reference. The officer added that the government would be looking for field commanders too. This way we can have a larger pool of human resources to chose from.

A new policy formulated by the DRDO recently states that no licence fee or royalty will be applicable on the use of Indian patents held by the research agency. There are hundreds of such patents covering missile technology, aeronautics, naval systems, life sciences, armaments, combat engineering, electronics and communication material.