f the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre is the heart of India’s nuclear deterrent, the Advanced Systems Laboratory (ASL) in Hyderabad is its limbs and sinews.
The ASL Director, Avinash Chander, takes us through a spotless assembly room, where technicians are bolting sensitive instruments into the nose of a giant Agni-3 missile. It is eerie; before long, this very missile will roar off a launch pad on Wheeler’s Island in Orissa.
It will travel 350 km above the earth, re-enter the atmosphere at a speed of 5
Close on the heels of joint military exercise by India and China in Kunming, defence forces of the two countries have held a border meeting at a forward post in Ladakh, which saw exchange of pleasantries and gifts, cultural programmes, feast amid bonhomie.
In the meeting, held on Saturday at Chushul at an altitude of 13,000 feet, both the Indian Army and PLA have agreed to promote peace, stability and development in the region in consonance with border peace and tranquillity agreements between the two countries.
As President Nicolas Sarkozy began talks with Indian leaders to boost Indo-French ties, a French company Friday offered to sell 40 of its new generation Rafale fighters to New Delhi on a fast track basis to help IAF maintain its combat edge.
The offer was made by Charles Edelstennie, scion of the Dassult family, the makers of the Rafale and Mirage fighters. "We know the Indian Air Force, with which we have a decade-long close association, is facing force depletion. So we are ready to supply
The combined fleet of 135 in-service Eurofighter Typhoons and seven Flight Test aircraft has accumulated over 35,000 flying hours by the end of December 2007. Since introduction into service in Spring 2004, the five customer Air Forces, including, since Summer 2007, Austria have achieved 30,650 flying hours. An amazing 50 % of this amount were flown in 2007, demonstrating the tremendous growth of the in-service fleet.
The build up of flying hours in the Nations’ Air Forces reflects the success of
The government today gave the go-ahead for the biggest defence deal with the US so far, clearing the purchase of six C-130J Super Hercules military transport aircraft for Special Forces operations at a cost of about Rs 4000 crore. It’s learnt that the Cabinet Committee on Security approved the deal which will now be signed by officials soon.
The clearance comes a month ahead of the visit of US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates, who will make his first trip to India on February 25-26. US points person on the nuclear deal, outgoing Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns is also looking to visit India next month.
While India recently bought naval vessel USS Trenton, now rechristened as INS Jalashva, for about $50 million, there has been no military aircraft deal with the US in
The flight test of the air version of BrahMos Supersonic Cruise Missile will be conducted in 2009,Chief Controller (Research and Development), Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and BrahMos Aerospace Chief Executive and Managing Director A Sivathanu Pillai said.
Talking to the press here, Mr Pillai said the induction of BrahMos Missile into the Army and Navy was under progress and the production capability would be enhanced to beyond 100 units a year if the need arose owing to the interest evinced by about ten countries, including developed nations.
Leading up to Nicolas Sarkozy's arrival in New Delhi on Friday morning, the spotlight has not played kindly over the Indo-French relationship. Popular interest has focused more keenly on the presidential girlfriend, Carla Bruni, than on Sarkozy himself or what he stands for.
Then there was the collapse last month of a prospective $550 million helicopter purchase from Eurocopter, a deal which Sarkozy hoped to initial during his visit. Just days later, an Indian court ordered the CBI to get on with probing alleged corruption in India's $3-billion purchase of six Franco-Spanish Scorpene submarines.
With hours to go before the grand Republic Day parade in New Delhi, security agencies have turned the venue into a veritable fortress with hundreds of barricades and commandos in place and sharpshooters on rooftops to thwart any possible terror attack.
Every inch of Vijay Chowk, from where the parade begins, and Rajpath, where the dignitaries, including President Pratibha Patil and special guest French President Nicolas Sarkozy, will be seated, has been thoroughly checked by police sniffer dogs and commandos and sanitised.
Special Indian Air Force helicopters will be keeping vigil over the parade venue on
Smarting over the cancellation of its proposed deal for selling 197 helicopters to the Indian Army, European aerospace major Eurocopter says it will 'carefully' look at any fresh global tender that might be floated for the choppers.
'Eurocopter will carefully evaluate any new RFP (request for proposal) before taking a decision on whether to reply or not,' a company official said. 'We have to verify and see if it makes sense to answer the (fresh) RFP,' Christopher Bach, Eurocopter's Paris-based spokesman, told IANS during a visit here.
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