Defense

He said the total weight of the payload that will be carried by the SSLV on its maiden flight will be about 500 kg. While the two satellites would weight about 120 kg each, there will be adaptors and others that would weigh about 300 kg.

The company, while claiming that the new plane will be specifically configured for the Indian Air Force (IAF), said that it will have Make in India opportunities that no other firm had offered earlier.

The first squadron of the ALH Dhruv had been commission in 2013 primarily for SAR role. However, with the folding blades issues resolved, the ALH looks set for an expanded role within the navy.

The weapon, which will be made at the Gun Carriage Factory (GCF) in Jabalpur, is the first long range artillery towed gun to be made in India. It will replace the Swedish Bofors purchased in the 1980s.

Called the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), the lab will have equipment’s to deal with memory forensics, image enhancement, network forensics, malware forensics, crypto-currency forensics, recovery of damaged hard drives and advanced mobile forensics.

All the CRPF soldiers were customers of the bank under Defence Salary Package where the bank provides insurance of Rs 30 lakh to each of the defence personnel. Bank is taking steps to expedite release of insurance money to the next of kin of the martyred soldiers, SBI said.

The production of the new version, dubbed as Arjun ‘Mark 1-A’, is likely to commence within this year at the existing facility at Avadi in Tamil Nadu. It has a total of 14 upgrades over the existing version. These include an auto-target tracker, automatic gear system and improvement in suspension.

According to the company, all front-line Indian defence and security forces are currently using the product, as well as forces of five other countries, mostly in the Middle East as its customers while trials are under underway for use by the military in three European countries.

A top Jaish-e-Mohammed commander linked to the Pulwama attack is believed to be among three militants trapped in encounter.

Top IAF sources said though the Vayu Shakti was planned in advance, the drill was a demonstration of the force’s capability to hit targets with “pinpoint accuracy” and carry out missions at short notice.