Defense

The Lok Sabha on Friday passed the Jammu & Kashmir (Reservation) Bill and a statutory resolution to extend President’s rule in Jammu & Kashmir by another six months. The extension will start from 3 July.

“Dhruv has a huge potential in domestic and global civil market, and with HAL as the original equipment manufacturer and licencor, the deal will benefit the Indian partners immensely and help develop the aerospace ecosystem in India,” HAL Chief Managing Director R Madhavan said.

The team comprised eight personnel from the IAF, four from the army and three civilians, including Taka Tamut, who had summited Mount Everest. They were airlifted in the indigenously made advanced light helicopter (ALH) and the Russian-made Mi-17V5 helicopter.

The Army usually tracks infiltrations through the number of face-offs at the LoC and this year, there has been none. The J&K Police, on the other hand, uses ground intelligence to find out new faces from across the border. Police say there has been a “significant drop” in infiltrations.

The recent reports on the second Scorpene submarine for Indian Navy do not reflect facts. It appears these reports are based on wrong inputs received in bits and pieces from unreliable sources. There has been some delays in completing trials of the second submarine due to setting to work related issues and minor dent to the propeller which occurred during trials. The propeller was replaced and all noise trials have been completed successfully with results well above past specified performances.

The three-member team had left for Paris soon after the reports about a break-in on a weekend were received by the IAF. The team was sent to France to probe if any documents were stolen or copied during the break-in into its Rafale Project management team office. The Defence Ministry has also been informed that there was no data theft from the IAF office during the break in.

India and Russia had inked the $ 5 billion deal for the S-400 Triumf deal believed to be the best in the world, at the end of the annual summit between the two countries in New Delhi in 2018. The delivery of the missile systems is expected to start from October 2020 and will be completed by April 2023.

“IAF contingent landed at Air Force Base, Mont-de-Marsan, France, today. The IAF contingent was given a warm welcome by the French Air Force. The Air warriors of IAF are ready for flying operations,” IAF said in a tweet. “A contingent of 4x Su-30 MKI, 2x C-17 and 1x 1L-78 tanker of the Indian Air Force arrived at France.

According to the police, the reason for the terrorists hiding in the area was that it was just three kilometres away from the Srinagar bypass road, on which convoys of defence and security personnel ply throughout the day. In an encounter in Kanipora area of Budgam district of Jammu and Kashmir, the security forces killed a terrorist on Friday morning.

While HAL has been making the aircraft for decades, hiccups occurred for the upgraded version that was to be equipped with a digital cockpit and new avionics. Outsourcing of work orders to the private sector has been identified as a priority achievement for defence PSUs such as HAL by the government.