Cavalier India Defence Training Academy

It is a terrible habit we have of finding slight where no slight might exists. There is almost a devilish delight in moaning about US president Donald Trump not accepting the invitation to be the chief guest at the Republic Day function. The media has gone into negative nomenclature. He turned it down. He spurned us. Egg on the face. What a snub. Is our face red? Injured our national pride. How could he do that? Why couldn’t the Government of India have got a confirmation first off the record and then sent the invitation, now we look stupid by this deliberate insult? It is all connected to the Rafale deal with France and the 2+2 dialogue (meet with the defence and foreign ministers of the two countries) and now see, he has thumbed his nose at us. We will make that link, too. Woe is us. No, he hasn’t done any of this. It is not a big deal. Ever since his name was the first choice in April to be the chief guest there has never been a yes from Washington and it seems a very superfluous an...

Russia has inked a $950 -million deal to supply two new warships to India that will be equipped with Brahmos missiles to add to the firepower of the Navy. The two frigates of the Project 11356 class will be bought directly from Russia and a contract to build two more at an Indian yard is likely to be signed at a later stage.  Sources told ET that while final clearances for the long-pending project came before the summit earlier this month between President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the deal was signed last week after price negotiations.  Given that the US has implemented sanctions on weapons purchases from Moscow, India could make payments for the ships using the rupee-rouble route. The deal — under a ‘2+2’ scheme where technology will be transferred to an Indian shipyard to construct two of the frigates from scratch — has been in the works since 2015.  The two ships to be brought from Russia are expected to be delivered by 2022, given that the hull...

Vladimir Putin knows how to pack a punch. The combatant Russian president, an avid judoka, applies the martial art’s two principles to diplomacy. One: move rapidly. Two: use the weight and strength of the opponent to your advantage rather than combating them directly. In a deft move, Putin closed a $5.4 billion arms deal with India, selling the Russian S-400 Triumf surface-to-air missile defense systems at the beginning of October.India, bordered by Pakistan’s 20 fighter squadrons, and China’s 1,700 fighter planes, must “match the force level of our adversaries,” the head of India’s Air Force has declared. With this huge deal, Russia has emerged as the winner with the “largest contract” in the history of India-Russia defense ties. It’s also the “speediest” arrangement to be signed between the two countries unencumbered by “any protracted negotiations.” It’s news that Donald Trump would wish is fake. But it isn’t, and he knows it. Russia, now, commands a competitive edge over its arch w...

India may increase financial assistance to Bhutan under the neighbouring country’s next five-year plan beginning 2019 as it reaches out to the Himalayan kingdom’s Prime Minister-elect Lotay Tshering.  The outlay could be increased as Bhutan embarks on gradual modernisation and holistic development, said people aware of the matter. During Bhutan’s 11th Five-Year Plan (2013-18), whose key objectives included self-reliance and inclusive green socio-economic development, India’s contribution of Rs 4,500 crore represented 68% of the total external assistance received by the country. In addition, India committed assistance of Rs 500 crore under an economic stimulus plan.  India is exploring possibility of enhancing support for Bhutan’s development projects, said the people cited earlier. Health sector is a priority for the new government. Improving Bhutan’s health sector is said to be one of the tasks close to the new PM’s heart. A Dhaka University educated MBBS, Tshering is expecte...

·          The aircraft division in Bengaluru, with around 3,000 employees, has no orders ·          Thousands of employees are worried at the prospect of sitting idle for months ·          The DAC has cleared procurement of 15 LCHs, but no orders have been placed Defence public sector unit Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) is staring at a depleting order book and thousands of employees are worried at the prospect of sitting idle for months. HAL has 29,035 employees, including 9,000 engineers, spread across nine locations — Bengaluru (Karnataka), Nashik (Maharashtra), Lucknow, Kanpur and Korwa (UP), Barrackpore (West Bengal), Hyderabad (Telangana), Kasargod (Kerala) and Koraput (Odisha). A new helicopter complex in Tumakuru (Karnataka) is under development and, upon its inauguration, some employees will be transferred there. The aircraft division in Bengaluru, with aroun...

India is all set to get access to the vital Djibouti military airbase, thanks to the proposed defence pact with Japan. Indian PM Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe will hold the 13th India-Japan summit in Tokyo on October 28 and 29. As per media reports, they will sign an agreement to boost defence relations which includes sharing military assets and capabilities and provide logistical support to each other’s defence forces.  Delhi has since long been keen to get a foothold in Djibouti — in view of the geo-strategic importance of the country and China’s bid to turn it into yet another ‘pearl’ in its “String of Pearls” policy to encircle India. The proposed defence between India and Japan is seen as another move to boost regional step up security cooperation in Indo-Pacific to counter Chinese aggression. The agreement will set a framework between the armies, air forces and navies of India and Japan to provide supplies and services on the principle of reciprocity. ...

As the investigations into the BrahMos spy cases continues, the police are ascertaining if the main accused, Nishant Agrawal had leaked sensitive data relating to the supersonic missile. Under the scanner is his computer which is suspected to have sensitive data relating to the missile. Investigators suspect that he may have downloaded the data from a senior's computer when he was training at the organisation. Agrawal, an engineer was arrested on charges of spying for ISI. He is believed to have been in touch with two persons Neha Sharma and Pooja Aggarwal through Facebook. The police say that these were two profiles created by the ISI, through which the trap was set. A police officer associated with the probed told OneIndia that they are also finding out if information was leaked to the US spy agency. It may not have been just the ISI that the information was shared with. The US is also keen on data relating to the BrahMos considering it is an Indo-Russia joint venture, the office...

The first Indo-US tri-services exercise is likely to take place next year and talks are on to include the Special Forces of two countries in the drill, a senior US defence official has said. The three forces of India and the US already take part in bilateral exercises separately -- their armies participate in an annual drill called Yudh Abyaas, whose latest edition took place last month, the air forces take part in a bilateral drill called Cope India and the navies participate in an exercise in Malabar, involving Japan. But this will be the first time the three services of the India and the US will participate in a drill together. "The first one will be in India, and it will take place in 2019. It would include all our services, plus we are kind of scoping the exercise right now to include each of the services' special operations forces. That's very exciting. This is under discussion right now...essentially all our services, plus potentially the special operations forces,...

Amid the political allegations levelled against the Modi government by the Congress party in the Rafale deal, one state-owned company is expected to gain big from one of the two major proposals which are part of the offset of the Rafale deal, Livefist has reported. The major proposals include moving the final assembly of major missile systems to India and manufacturing of substantial parts. The offset clause in the Rafale deal mandates manufacturers of the jet and other stakeholders to source parts of the aircraft and weaponry from India which means that the manufacturers have to establish joint ventures with Indian companies and invest close to half of the Euro 7.87 billion deal in them. Apart from Dassault, Thales and Safran, European missile maker MBDA, the fourth firm in the deal, also has major offset commitments to fulfil. The company intends to transfer a significant part of missile parts manufacturing and entire final assembly lines of certain missile systems to India. Accordin...

India has “taken note” of US President Donald Trump’s overnight statement that India would soon know if it would be hit by punitive sanctions stemming from a US domestic law aimed at curtailing arms purchases from Russia, two people familiar with the development said on Thursday. Trump’s comment followed the signing of a pact last week between India and Russia to buy the S-400 air defence missile system during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s two-day visit to New Delhi. India’s foreign ministry did not comment on Trump’s remark, made while interacting with reporters in the White House on Wednesday when asked about the $4.5 billion India-Russia deal, when he said: “India is going to find out, aren’t they?” “You’ll see,” Trump said in response to another question about the timing of his decision. “Sooner than you think,” he added without any mention on whether he would waive the sanctions as has been requested by India. The Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act or CAAT...