Defense

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.

Over 40,000 army jawans will participate in this exercise to develop combat skills and deep strike capacity. General officer commanding of 21st Core, Lieutenant Yogendra Dimri, on November 15 will review the exercise. The culmination of this exercise will be at Pokhran Field Firing Range, Jaisalmer between November 29 and December 4. It will be attended by defence minister Rajnath Singh, army chief and other senior officers of the Indian Army and IAF.

According to the official cited in the first instance, the government’s plan is to rearrange and reorganize over a dozen agencies engaged in the protecting India’s cyber infrastructure. Currently, these agencies have their individual control and reporting systems. The idea is to restructure these to ensure better coordination and functioning, the official added.

The programme — ”Operation Maa” — was launched by Chinar Corps (15 Corps) of the Indian Army in Jammu and Kashmir in February this year, soon after Lieutenant General K.J.S. Dhillon was appointed its commander. Explaining the modus operandi of the programme, the Army officer told IANS that local youth recruited by terror groups were contacted through their ”mothers”.

India had signed an inter-governmental agreement with France in September 2016 for procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets at a cost of around Rs 58,000 crore. The aircraft is capable of carrying a range of potent weapons and missiles and the first squadron of the aircraft will be deployed at Ambala air force station, considered one of the most strategically located bases of the IAF. The Indo-Pak border is around 220 km from there. The second squadron of Rafale will be stationed at Hasimara base in West Bengal.

The visit is a part of the Eastern Fleet’s goodwill deployment to the ASEAN and Indo-Pacific. The visit coincides with the commemoration of 70 years of diplomatic relations between India and Indonesia.
During the visit, personnel of both the navies would interact, and aim at sharing best practices and experiences.