Defense

This year, the naval component of the exercise would be held in two phases and the arrival of Russian Navy ships here marks the commencement of Harbour Phase, which will be held between December 10 and December 15.
This will be followed by the ‘sea phase’ conducted in the Arabian Sea from December 16 – 19.

These howitzer guns will be inducted in the Army by the end of this year.
The guns have been bought from US and are being tested for long-distance firing capacity. The trials are going on under the supervision of foreign experts.
In October, the Indian Army had inducted the US Excalibur artillery ammunition in its inventory.

“The first lot of 10,000 SiG 716 assault rifles has arrived in India and has been sent to the Northern Command,” top Indian Army sources told ANI.
The Northern Command looks after the counter-terrorist operations in Jammu and Kashmir including the stopping the influx of terrorists from Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) who are trained there.

India and France are to sign a pact on securing communication links between their top military officials, a sign of their deepening defence partnership especially in the Indian Ocean region that comes against the backdrop of an increased Chinese footprint and the persistence of threats like the Islamic State.

Metal cutting, the first step in the start of commercial production, of the of indigenously made single-engine fighter plane Tejas (Mk-II) is scheduled for February 2020, according to Dr Girsh S Deodhare, director of the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) and head of the Tejas programme.

Army chief General Bipin Rawat on Monday met top defence officials from Vietnam and Bangladesh and an Australian diplomat and held talks on issues of mutual interest. The Army chief met Admiral Aurangzeb Chowdhury, chief of Naval Staff of Bangladesh Navy, and Lieutenant General Ngo Minh Tien, deputy chief of the General Staff, Vietnam People’s Army.

The ammunition can be busted in the air as well as after its penetration into bunker-type structures by using its different fuses.
The Excalibur ammunition was developed in the US for improving the accuracy of the artillery shells in the war in Afghanistan which the Americans have been fighting for almost two decades now.

“The visit aims to consolidate bilateral relations between India and Bangladesh, as also to explore new avenues for naval cooperation,” the defence ministry said. Sources said Admiral Singh and Admiral Chowdhury discussed ways to bolster maritime security cooperation between the two countries.

Minister of State for Defence Shripad Yesso Naik said during Question Hour that the government has approved admission of girls in five Sainik Schools ⁠— Kalikiri (Andhra Pradesh), Kodagu (Karnataka), Ghorakhal (Uttarakhand), Chandrapur (Maharashtra) and Bijapur (Karnataka) for the academic session 2020-21.