BY : IANS

French defence major Nexter hopes to interest the Indian Army in its Caesar truck-mounted howitzer that it is projecting as the "artillery gun of the 21st century".

The forward-facing 155mm/52 calibre gun is mounted on a 4x4 or 6x6 truck chassis depending on the terrain it has to be deployed in and is superior to the self-propelled or towed variety of the weapon for which the Indian Army has floated a global tender earlier this year, its manufacturer says.

"Its low weight of around 18 tonnes reduces both complexity and cost. Its strategic, operational and tactical mobility is superior to that of both the self-propelled guns and towed guns. It matches the reactivity of the self-propelled guns and the light weight of

BY : The Telegraph.

Indian space scientists are setting up an earth station to keep a lookout for missiles fired at Indian satellites and take them out of the line of fire, a senior Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) officer said here today.

The disclosure effectively meaning that India is evolving its version of a star wars programme came alongside a call by the army chief, General Deepak Kapur, to set up a joint military space command.

General Kapur prefaced his call with remarks on the expansion of China’s military-space projects.

BY : AJAY SHUKLA FOR Business-standard

India's Arjun tank is fighting its first battle even before it enters service with the army. The Defence R&D Organisation (DRDO) and key Ministry of Defence (MoD) officials, confident that the Arjun is superior to the army's Russian T-72 and T-90 tanks, are demanding "comparative trials", where the Arjun, the T-72 and the T-90 are put through endurance and firing trials in identical conditions.

But the army — particularly the nodal Directorate General of Mechanised Forces (DGMF) — is shying away. Earlier, the DGMF declared that the T-72 and T-90 were proven tanks, which needed no further trials.

BY : WEBINDIA

The much-awaited maiden flight of LSP-2 (Limited Series Production) of the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft 'Tejas' was successfully carried out at the HAL airport here.

The state-of-the-art aircraft, which was flown by National Flight Test Centre (NFTC) test pilot Wg Cdr N Tiwari, took off majestically and flew for 30 minutes at 1.1 Mach crossing 1,200 kmph. As had been the practice, the maiden flight of this aircraft was chased by another Tejas aircraft PV3, piloted by Wg Cdr RR Tyagi.

Speaking to UNI here, Mr L S Subramanium, Chief of LCA Division of HAL, the public sector aircraft manufacturer, said it was a key phase of the jet fighter. So far, the prototypes had completed 900 flights.

BY : PTI

Setting a new national record of an unique nature, Indian Navy's skydiving team completed a successful 45-second free fall over a populated island off Kochi in Kerala.

In a first, Southern Naval Command Chief of Staff Rear Admiral Sunil Lanba participated in a Tandem Assisted Free Fall (TAFF) jump over the Wellington Island last week.

The Indian Navy Skydiving Traning Team's (INSDTT) training officer Lieutenant Commander M V Birajdar became the first Indian birdman.

"Birajdar flew the entire length of the Mattan Cherry Channel before landing hi

BY : PTI

India is in the process of scouting for a partner to develop higher thrust engine for its ambitious Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) and the present version will take to the skies in 2010, Defence Minister A K Antony said on Saturday.

"LCA will be a reality. For higher thrust engine, we must have a new engine. We are looking for a partner to develop this," he told reporters after inaugurating the new campus of Defence Avionics Research and Establishment (DARE), a premium research unit for avionics at DRDO complex.

IAF and DRDO are working jointly towards this, he said.

IAF has already placed orders for 20 LCA and orders for another 20 was in the pipeline, Antony said, and denied that IAF was not interested in these aircraft.

BY : The Sydney Morning Herald

The Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, yesterday threatened to attack Taliban insurgents on Pakistani soil, saying his war-torn country had a right to do so out of "self-defence".

The warning came just days after US-led forces carried out an air strike in Pakistan's lawless tribal belt bordering Afghanistan. Washington said it was targeting militants, but Pakistan said 11 of its soldiers were killed.

It also came two days after more than 1100 prisoners, including hundreds of militants escaped from the Sarposa jail in restive southern Kandahar - the birthplace of the Taliban movement - in a daring attack staged by the insurgents.

BY : ZEE NEWS


Set to make forays in use of space applications, the Indian Army will take a leaf out of US forces' experience to train its officers in optimising the effective use of space-based resources to meet its operational requirements.

A week after India announced setting up of an integrated cell to co-ordinate all military operations based on space assets, the Army's Directorate of Perspective Planning (DoPP) will organise a training programme on Monday for officers to make them understand the tricks of the trade, Army sources said today.

To be inaugurated by Chief of Army Staff (CoAS) General Deepak Kapoor, the

BY : ZEE NEWS

The country's 'ambitious' fifth generation fighter aircraft will fly during March next, the information to this effect was given by M Natarajan, Scientific Advisor to Defence Minister on Saturday.

Efforts were on to identify a Russian company to provide weapons and electronic warfare systems, Natarajan, who is also the secretary, Defence Research and Development Organisation, said while participating in the inauguration of the Defence avionics research establishment's new campus here.

BY : financialexpress

The long-range surface to air missile (LRSAM), which is jointly developed by Defence Research and Development Laboratory, Hyderabad with second biggest weapons supplier Israel, is ready to go for launch test to Tel Aviv.

The $350-million covered a joint Indian-Israeli development agreement in 2006 under the UPA government, to create a new medium shipborne air defense missile, based on the Barak system in service with both navies.

According to sources, under the contract Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and its Israeli partners have agreed to transfer all relevant technologies and manufacturing capabilities to India, and to start delivering in 65 months’ time.