General Awareness

DEFENCE - November 2018

Nov 2018

Mar 20, 2020

Defence Ministry Signs Contract with Israeli Firm to Acquire Light Machine Guns

The Defence Ministry signed a capital acquisition contract with Israel Weapons Industries, IWI for procurement of 16,479 light machine guns, LMGs at a cost of 880 crore rupees. IWI, which is based out of Ramat HaSharon city in Israel, would be providing Negev 7.62X51 mm LMGs to the Indian armed forces under the contract.
The contracted Negev 7.62X51 mm LMG is a combat proven weapon and currently used by several countries around the globe. Defence Ministry said that the LMG will greatly enhance the lethality and range of a soldier vis-a-vis the presently used weapon.
The Ministry noted that the provisioning of the operationally urgent and very critically needed weapon will boost the confidence of the frontline troops and provide much needed combat power to the armed forces. With this, the Indian Armed Forces' long-standing requirement of a modern state-of-the-art LMG has finally fructified.

Mar 19, 2020

OFB, DRDO to Develop Fully Indigenous Futuristic Infantry Combat Vehicle

Make in India boost for Indian Army: A fully indigenous Futuristic Infantry Combat Vehicle (FICV) is being developed by Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) and Defence Research Development Oranisation (DRDO) for the use of the Indian Army. Tentatively named Mark I, the vehicle will help modernise Indian Army's infantry frontier which currently relies on BMP II, an infantry personnel carrier with a 30 mm gun. The joint collaboration between the Ordnance Factory Board and the DRDO will yield results in a period of three to five years.

Defence Acquisition Council Clears Acquisition of 83 Tejas Aircraft for IAF

The Defence Ministry's Defence Acquisition Council gave its green signal for the procurement of 83 indigenous Tejas fighter jets for Indian Air Force with more advanced configuration than the 40 currently on order.
The Light Combat Aircraft Tejas indigenously-designed by Aircraft Development Agency (ADA) under the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) is going to be the backbone of Indian Air Force in future.
While orders of 40 Tejas aircraft had been placed with HAL in initial configurations, the DAC paved the way for procurement of 83 of the more advanced Mk1A version of the aircraft from HAL by finalising the contractual and other issues.
The proposal will now be placed for consideration of Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS). This procurement will be a major boost to 'Make in India' as the aircraft is indigenously designed, developed and manufactured with participation of several local vendors apart from HAL.

Mar 18, 2020

Indian Army Now World's Largest Ground Force

With approximately 1.4 million personnel, the Indian Army has become the world's largest ground force, pulling ahead of China, which cut down its strength by half and is instead focusing on its navy, air force and technology. According to the Defence of Japan 2019 report, released in 2019, China has the third largest ground force in the world following India and North Korea, with approximately 9,80,000 personnel.
The Peoples' Liberation Army (PLA) was always regarded as the largest army in the world with an approximate strength of two million soldiers. India, which has been keenly watching the PLA's modernisation, is just in the initial stages of building a leaner and modern technology-enabled force as envisioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2015.

Advanced LCA Tejas Makes its Debut Flight

A more advanced version of the Tejas light combat aircraft made its debut flight from a Hindustan Aeronautics Limited facility in Bengaluru, bringing it closer to induction in the Indian Air Force.
The first LCA in final operational clearance (FOC) standard, piloted by Air Commodore KA Muthana (retd), took to the skies for its maiden flight and was airborne for 40 minutes.
The IAF has already inducted Tejas fighters in the initial operational clearance (IOC) standard and is now gearing up to operate fighters in the more advanced FOC configuration.
This (the maiden flight) would pave the way for production of remaining 15 fighters from the FOC block which are planned to be delivered (to the IAF) during the next financial year.

Mar 17, 2020

IAF Posts Open for All Officers Including Women

Minister of State for Defence Shripad Naik informed Rajya Sabha that all posts in the Indian Air Force (IAF) are open to all officers including women.
"All officers in the IAF including women are combatants by definition, who may also hold administrative positions at various stages in their career," he added. Naik further said that the posts which are not yet open to women in the Indian Army are in the Armoured Corps, Infantry Mechanised Infantry and Artillery.
On the issue of recruitment of women in the Indian Navy, Naik said: "Women in Indian Navy are not being inducted in the sea-going avenues Executive Branch (General Service, Submarines Hydro and Information Technology), Engineering Branch (General Service and Submarines) and Electrical Branch."

India, Japan Developing Hypersonic Missiles to Counter Looming Chinese Threats

After the US and Russia first began developing hypersonic missiles, China too jumped on the bandwagon and the latest to enter this race are Japan and India. Experts, however, suggest that hypersonic missiles can have a severe impact on the global security with India and Japan also looking to acquire the technology.
Hypersonic weapons refer to weapons that can travel at a speed faster than Mach 5 or in other words systems that can travel five times the speed of sound. The reasons why hypersonic weapons are considered deadly are because they comprise the capacities of both, the ballistic as well as cruise missile wherein they have the speed of a ballistic missile and the manoeuvrability of a cruise missile.

Mar 14, 2020

Tata's New Defence Subsidiary Opened in Hyderabad

Tata Sons' subsidiary Tata Advanced System Limited (TASL) opened it's defence subsidiary NOVA Integrated Systems Limited in Hyderabad.
NISL will be bringing five new defence projects to Hyderabad which include mobile command and controls for Indian Army, mobile VSAT communication shelter, radar and microwave component manufacturing, electro optics and electronics manufacturing and R&D and prototyping facilities. This will create direct employment to 600 people and help the local defence supply chain to grow.
Speaking at the ground breaking ceremony of NISL, IT and Industries Minister KT Rama Rao said, "I am glad to be here for the ground-breaking ceremony of NOVA Integrated Systems Limited (NISL), the Defence subsidiary of TASL. The growth of TATA group companies in Hyderabad during the past decade and in particular the past six years has been phenomenal. We are glad that you chose Hyderabad to host over 90 per cent of TASL Aerospace manufacturing and continue to further invest in our ecosystem."

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