DRDO Nishant

The DRDO Nishant is an Unmanned Aerial VehicleIndia's ADE (Aeronautical Development Establishment) a branch of DRDO for the Indian Armed Forces. (UAV) developed by The Nishant UAV is primarily tasked with intelligence gathering over enemy territory and also for recon, surveillance, target designation, artillery fire correction, damage assessment, ELINT and SIGINT. The UAV has an endurance of 4 h 30 min. Nishant has completed development phase and user trials.

India wary of China’s increasing role in Lanka

The growing influence of China in Sri Lanka, which may upset New Delhi’s geo-political interests in South Asia, appears to have compelled the South Block weigh the pros and cons of removing restrictions on arms sales to the island nation. Official sources said the enhancement of defence ties between India and Sri Lanka figured in talks between the two sides during the recent visit of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa to New Delhi. “Both leaders agreed to promote dialogue on security and defence issues of relevance to their bilateral relationship, and enhance high-level military exchanges and training of military personnel as well as impart additional training in Indian institutions for the newly recruited police personnel.

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India Worried Over Myanmar’s Nuclear Ambition

Reports of Myanmar’s nuclear ambition have raised concerns of international community regarding nuclear proliferation regime. A former major, Sai Thein Win, has publicised photographs of Myanmar’s nuclear programme. He was among one of the army officers who was sent to Russia for training in missile technology. He showed photographs of secret nuclear facility, 11 km from Thabeikkyan. He described it as the army’s nuclear battalion and mentioned that Burma is also trying to build nuclear reactor for uranium enrichment.

More Indian Army Oficers Suspected to be in Espionage Racket

NIA is now probing the possible involvement of other Army officers in “supplying” the highly classified data to the Major.The scope of the NIA probe is being widened for two reasons. First, most of the 2,500 files recovered from Major’s personal computer related to commands other than his own, such as Western and Northern Commands, and put out strategic details such as deployment patterns and operational contingency plans. There is no way a Major, that too posted with the Andamans and Nicobar tri-service command, would have access to such information. Though the CFSL did recover the nearly 2,500 files deleted by the Major before the hard disk was seized, it has been unable to trace back the nearly 600 files that were deleted “in a far more professional manner” while the Major was still being questioned by the Army.

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Indian Govt to oppose permanent commission women

For those pushing for gender parity in the forces, there is a mixed bag of news. Women Indian Air Force (IAF) officers can now serve their full term, made possible by a Delhi High Court order in March that directed the armed forces to give permanent commission (PC) to women in the army and IAF, which they were not doing until then. .....................Source

Defence key Focus of India-US Strategic Dialogue

India and the United States begin their first strategic dialogue on Wednesday with both sides keen to move beyond symbolism to concretise cooperation in areas ranging from energy, agriculture, science and technology and education to defence and counter-terrorism.

External Affairs Minister SM Krishna, who would lead the inaugural ministerial level dialogue with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, would outline his vision of India-US relationship transformed by the landmark India-US civil nuclear deal in an address at the India Business Council (USIBC). Krishna's address at the 35th anniversary meeting of the USIBC, representing some 300 US companies investing in India, will focus on the theme of emerging opportunities in India-US cooperation in the field of innovation and knowledge industries, which is one of the sunrise areas of engagement between the two countries.

Admiral Gorshkov to be Handed Over to India by December 2012

After closely examining the ongoing refit work on Admiral Gorshkov in Russia, the Navy is now confident the aircraft carrier will be ready for harbour trials by early-2011 to ensure it can be handed over to India by December 2012 or so. India earlier this year agreeing to the revised refit cost of $2.33 billion for Gorshkov.

 

"There has been substantial progress since the last examination in September 2009. Around 99% of the structural work and almost 50% of the cabling work has been completed on the carrier. Almost all large-size equipment, like engines, diesel generators and the like, has been installed,'' said an officer. The Navy plans to deploy two carrier-battle groups (CBGs) by 2014-2015, as reported by TOI earlier. 

 

The first CBG will be centred around Gorshkov, rechristened INS Vikramaditya, while the second will be on the 40,000-tonne indigenous aircraft carrier (IAC) being constructed at the Cochin Shipyard, which Navy hopes to get by 2014.