News , articles and essays on Indian Defense
The government has now set its sights on the next milestone — ₹50,000 crore in annual defence exports by FY2028-29 — as India attempts to move beyond import substitution and establish itself as a competitive global producer of weapons, military platforms, components and defence technologies.
India’s northern frontiers present conditions in which the environment itself can become a serious operational threat. Soldiers deployed at extreme altitude must contend not only with sub-zero temperatures but also strong winds, snow, moisture, reduced oxygen and rapidly changing levels of physical activity.
The Defence Research and Development Organisation has developed an increasingly sophisticated family of indigenous radar-stealth materials that could form an important part of this low-observable ecosystem as the AMCA moves towards prototype development.
Fresh details emerging indicate that the British proposal envisages full transfer of technology for the new combat engine being offered to India. The arrangement would be substantially different from conventional licensed production, under which an Indian manufacturer assembles an overseas-designed engine without gaining complete access to the technology required to independently modify or evolve it.
Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Dr Mohan Yadav performed the Bhoomi Pujan for the project on 27 August 2026 at Vehicle Factory Jabalpur, a unit of the Mini Ratna Defence Public Sector Undertaking Armoured Vehicles Nigam Limited (AVNL).
The visit is particularly significant as it is Vice Admiral Fernando’s first official visit to India after assuming command of the Sri Lanka Navy. It comes at a time when both countries are placing greater emphasis on maritime security in the Indian Ocean, where the safety of sea lanes, illegal maritime activity, humanitarian contingencies and emerging security challenges increasingly require close coordination between neighbouring naval forces.
Samarthak has been conceived as far more than a conventional support vessel. The ship has primarily been designed to function as a versatile trial and evaluation platform, allowing the Indian Navy to support the testing, assessment and validation of naval systems and technologies at sea. At the same time, its design enables the vessel to undertake a much broader range of operational and support missions whenever required.
The Indian Navy’s requirement itself has now moved forward significantly. Government procurement records published in February 2026 explicitly refer to the Acceptance of Necessity for procurement of four Landing Platform Docks, confirming that the programme covers four major amphibious vessels to be acquired through Indian shipbuilding capability.
At the heart of the technology is a sapphire optical panel carrying a thin coating engineered to improve the transmission of infrared radiation while retaining the durability required for demanding aeronautical applications.
The facility, inaugurated on August 24, 2026, represents Dhaksha’s next stage of expansion as it scales its presence across agriculture, defence and enterprise unmanned systems. The company intends to use the new site for larger and increasingly complex UAV programmes while bringing research, manufacturing, integration and operational capabilities into a more closely connected industrial environment.
