News , articles and essays on Indian Defense
Delhi-based defence technology company VEDA Aeronautics is developing an underwater decoy for the Indian Navy, with plans to subsequently evolve the platform into a miniature underwater attack drone, opening a potentially important new front in India’s development of autonomous naval warfare systems.
What follows is more than a duel between two powerful beings. It is a rescue mission, an underwater battle, a test of strength, a contest of arrogance and restraint, and ultimately a struggle over whether cosmic order will be restored.
The Ministry of Defence has informed the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence that it has initiated “concerted” efforts to co-join the sixth-generation fighter development programme. The latest disclosure marks a progression from India’s earlier consideration of both Europe’s FCAS and the UK-Italy-Japan Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP).
More recently, AjnaLens devices were also reported among the surveillance technologies deployed by police personnel around Jantar Mantar in New Delhi in July 2026, bringing the technology back into public attention — this time accompaginning to move out of police control rooms and CCTV monitoring centres and directly onto the faces of officers in the field.
TACDE is frequently described as the Indian Air Force’s equivalent of the US Navy’s famous “Top Gun” school, although “Top Gun” is not its official designation. The establishment is one of the IAF’s premier institutions for advanced operational and tactical training.
A compact device is released from a pod and towed hundreds of metres behind the fighter through a strong cable. Connected to the aircraft’s electronic-warfare system, the device transmits a carefully controlled radar response designed to appear more attractive to the missile than the aircraft towing it.
The Ministry of Defence said the missile was launched on August 6, 2026, under the aegis of the Strategic Forces Command. The flight validated all designated operational and technical parameters, indicating that the missile, its mobile launching system, command procedures and supporting tracking infrastructure performed according to mission requirements.
Media reports citing Indian defence sources said the Indian Air Force deployed these “dummy aircraft” ahead of its strikes during the night of May 9–10, 2025. Their purpose was to convince Pakistani air-defence operators that Indian fighters were approaching, forcing surveillance radars and surface-to-air missile systems to switch into active combat modes.
The Tejas Mk2 builds on this technological foundation but moves into the medium-weight fighter category. It is being developed with a more powerful engine, a larger mission-system architecture, advanced sensors and greater capacity for fuel and weapons.
Structural assembly of India’s next indigenous fighter is under way, marking a decisive transition from design work to hardware. The real test, however, will be converting the prototype into a certified, combat-ready aircraft without allowing another prolonged development cycle.
