The IAF chief, ACM NAK Browne placed on record his ‘appreciation to the US government, the US Air Force and the Boeing team for the timely delivery of the aircraft that makes the IAF the world’s second-largest operator of the C-17 after the US’.
The aircraft took off from the company’s manufacturing plant at Long Beach, California on June 11 and made several stops, including one at Barcelona, before it arrived in India.
This first aircraft is expected to be handed over to the IAF this summer and Boeing says it’s ‘on track to deliver four more C-17s to the IAF this year and five in 2014’.
MKU came into DefExpo on a high. They’ve just completed deliveries of 59,000 light weight bullet proof jackets to the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) under a Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) order worth INR 100 Crore. And now they plan to make Night Vision Devices.
In line with the contract worth over $900 million, the Project 971 Shchuka-B (NATO: Akula II) class sub has been leased to India’s Navy for ten years. It will be renamed the INS Chakra. The ceremony took place in the Far Eastern Primorye Territory.
Russia will not agree to US military presence in Afghanistan after the expiry of a UN Security Council mandate, Russian envoy to NATO Dmitry Rogozin said Friday.
Pakistan has been an unreliable ally of the US in the war against terror and failed “on occasion” when forced to choose between Washington and the Al Qaeda, says US Vice President Joe Biden.
Stepping up its efforts to woo India as a partner nation in a post-Cold War world, NATO says its fledgling relations with New Delhi are “important” to ensure global safety and security.
Boeing is working on a program to integrate Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) with manned aircraft, to enable the latter to control and direct them in the air and increase the scope of ISR (Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance) sensory inputs.
While so far, Boeing’s Apache combat helicopters have displayed the ability to control a single UAV, the company has multiplied the scope of the same system to enable larger aircraft like the family of 737 AEW&C Wedgetail and P8 to control multiple UAVs.
Does President Barack Obama’s ‘finishing the job’ mean the same thing as staying the course in Afghanistan, as urged by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh?
The commander of US and ISAF forces in Afghanistan has, in his assessment to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, said that ‘increasing Indian influence in Afghanistan is likely to exacerbate regional tensions’. General Stanley McChrystal, while promising a new ISAF strategy, also points out the need for additional forces, calling the next year critical.
The Indian Army has catered for the contingency by earmarking the 18 Infantry Division (RAPID) of the X Corps for deployment if the need arises. But there are problems with geopolitics, logistics, finance and Indian Army strength levels.
The US is being perceived as hurrying to create the minimum required circumstances for its departure from the region.
