Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is on a visit to Ladakh a day after India’s foreign ministry categorically said no territory had been ceded in the region. The fire onboard the U.S. Navy’s amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard at San Diego Naval Base has finally been put out, Japan has inducted it’s first Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft and Saudi Arabia has announced a new defence exhibition.
Indian armed forces personnel with less than the qualifying 10 years of service are now eligible for invalid pension, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has delegated powers for urgent purchases of upto INR 300 crore or USD 40 million to the armed forces to meet their emergent operational requirements, U.S. Navy continued firefighting efforts onboard the USS Bonhomme Richard light aircraft carrier for the fourth day, Japan has announced it will operate the Short Take-Off and Vertical Landing F-35B from the helicopter destroyer JS Izumo and former Afghan vice president and ethnic Uzbek warlord General Abdul Rashid Dostum has been promoted to the highest military rank of marshal by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.
Even after two decades since the acquisition case, the Very Short Range Air Defence (VSHORAD) search has seen a system absent from trials and failing trials, being passed as technically compliant and ending up as, apparently, the cheapest. Also problematic is the difficulty its purchase could pose by provoking U.S. sanctions under their CAATSA.
Taken literally, the defence minister’s words could have signified a change in India’s nuclear deterrence policy, which is structured around No First Use followed by ‘massive retaliation’.
An LCA ride might have turned into something else entirely, had the original request for a demonstration flight been acceded by the Indian Air Force.
Former naval aviator Captain K.P. Sanjeev Kumar examines the San Juan tragedy, pointing out that after half a century of operating submarines, India still does not have organic submarine rescue capability and asks why navies such as ours invest in submarines without closing the loop on submarine rescue.
India’s defence procurement continues to raise more questions than answers, points out Hemant Shivakumar, with the uncertainty over the order of Spike Anti Tank Guided Missiles (ATGMs) appearing to be the latest casualty to the ‘Make in India’ initiative.
Our columnist Mark narrates what transpired at Make In India Week and explains why Make In India cannot work in the defence sector under the existing dispensation.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar has completed one year in office but defence preparedness and military modernisation continue to require his urgent attention, says Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd) in an annual report card.
