Indian Army unearths massive arms dump in Poonch district of Jammu & Kashmir

The Army unearthed an arms dump in a forest area in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir and recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition including 11 IEDs, an Army officer said today. 

The recovery was made yesterday night. 

Besides the Improvised Explosive devices (IED), the seizure included some Pakistani currency, two AK assault rifles, three pistols, three rounds of rocket propelled grenades (RPG) and four Chinese hand grenades, the officer said. 

The recovery was made from a forest area near the Line of Control (LoC) in Mendhar sector during a search operation which was launched on specific information. 

The arms were smuggled from across the border and dumped in the forest area for subsequent use by terrorists, the officer said and added that the recovery was a major success for security forces. 

Two AK 56 rifles with 26 magazines and 1153 rounds, three pistols with two magazines and 63 rounds, one Pika magazine with 46 rounds, 11 IEDs fitted in tiffin boxes and 20 detonators were part of the arms dump.

Pakistani currency valuing Rs 16,500, a compass, two map sheets, a bayonet, seven communication sets, a code sign and some other items were recovered during the operation, he said.

These are the 6 Fighter Jets in the race for an IAF contract. Again

Tragedy and farce hang like spectres over the Indian Air Force’s efforts to procure fighter jets.

The first ended in tragedy, and a deadline of sorts for a second, or third, attempt ends Friday, with six foreign vendors’ responses to a 73-page Request for Information (RFI).

In the re-run of the scrapped MMRCA (Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft) race, the same six companies with the same six aircraft would be intending to compete for the same order from the same customer. Only, this time the customer, Indian Air Force, has pared down the numbers from 126 to 110.

“…Doing the same thing over again and expecting different results used to be a definition of lunacy,” former navy chief and aviator, Admiral Arun Prakash (retired) tweeted recently in response to a discussion on the RFI. “It would be a great shame if logic, economics and jointness do not persuade IAF and IN (Indian Air Force and Indian Navy) to select the same aircraft. MoD (Ministry of Defence) should consider issuing a fiat.”

Admiral Prakash was highlighting the fact that the navy was also looking to procure 57 deck-based fighter jets. Though the requirement of carrier-borne jets is demanding of a maritime capability, he has argued in favour of looking at synergies among the platforms of the different services.


Competing jets ::

Boeing’s F/A-18E/F Super Hornet Block III, Lockheed Martin’s F-16 Fighting Falcon Block 70, Dassault Aviation’s Rafale F3R, Eurofighter Typhoon, Saab’s Gripen E and Russian United Aircraft Corporation’s MiG-35 will be vying for a IAF contract conservatively estimated at $18 billion over 12 years. Four of these six companies are also in contention for the navy order.

In the time that the last tender was scrapped (2015) and now, the aircraft have been made more modern in a military aviation equivalent of software upgrades on smartphones. In that time, the Modi administration contracted 36 Rafales from France in a befuddling government-to-government order.

Befuddling because the IAF had projected a requirement for 126 (six squadrons) of the aircraft. Its projection was based on the government’s operational directive to be prepared for a two-front war. The directive has remained unchanged since 2009.

Between 2015 and now, the IAF was also asked to consider buying 114 single-engine fighters through a competitive process. That was scrapped, again, in April and the current RFI was issued. This one, like the MMRCA contest initiated in 2007, does not specify the number of engines that the winning aircraft should have.

Consequently, among the six competitors are two single-engine fighters (the F-16 and the Gripen) and four twin-engined ones.

There is one big difference, though, with the scrapped 2007 tender: the foreign vendors are now required to tie-up with an Indian ‘strategic partner’ that may be a private sector entity. The last MMRCA race had specified the defence public sector Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd as the ‘lead integrator’.

After extensive flight evaluation trials, the IAF down-selected the Euro fighter Typhoon and the Rafale. The Rafale was announced as the winner because it was relatively cheaper. But the two aircraft were the most expensive to begin with.

Multiple types of BrahMos Missile Under Development, LnT opens new production line

Different kind of BrahMos missile is under development, said MD and CEO of BrahMos Aerospace, Sudhir Mishra in Vadodara on Saturday. The missile with vertical trajectory to be used in mountains and also for anti-aircraft carrier roles will soon be ready. A lighter version of air-launched BrahMos is at a drawing board stage, he said.

The BrahMos missile system is continuously being reinvented to be used across multiple platforms, different trajectory and different targets as guided by India's 'Missile Man' and former President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, Mishra said during the inauguration of second manufacturing line of L&T Defence at Ranoli near Vadodara. The unit manufactures canisters and airframes for BrahMos missile, being launched from land and sea. 

"Recently, we had demonstrated the vertical dive capability for BrahMos missile. This can be used against enemies hidden in mountains particularly in bunkers and also against aircraft carriers. While China has nuclear DF 21 missiles to be used against aircraft carriers, ours will be conventional missiles. BrahMos missile is offering tremendous capabilities," said Mishra.

Another major area where capabilities are being increased is the accuracy of missiles. It has improved from 30 metre to 10 metre and now the target is one metre, he said. He also said a new lighter version of air-launched BrahMos is at a drawing board stage. The current air-launched missile is launched from specialized Su 30 MKI fighter aircrafts. The newer one is designed for lighter platforms like Mig 29 or even India's indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) - Tejas. Efforts are being made to increase the range of missile from 290 kilometre to 415 km and even beyond, he said.

BrahMos is one of its kind of cruise missile anywhere in the world, which can fly at a speed three times that of sound (Mach 3), can be launched from land, air and sea. The naval version can be launched from both ships and submarine. It can be used against targets on land and in the sea. A combination of the trajectory of the missile and speed gives it stealth-like capability making it difficult being detected by a RADAR and therefore being intercepted by anti-missile systems. 

Mishra said that orders are pouring in from Indian armed forces and Indian companies like L&T should grab the opportunity to cater to increasing orders. Inquiries are also coming from foreign buyers but it is up to the central government to decide whom we should sell this unique weapon. As of now Indian armed forces are the only ones to use this missile.

Israeli military-grade radio used in Thai rescue is part of Indian special forces gear

Seventeen radios shipped from Israel are at the core of the cave rescue saga in Thailand’s Chiang Rai province. For close to 10 days now, an international rescue team has been racing against time—and, literally, tide—to extract 12 boys and their teacher from a flooded cave network. The Tham Luang Nang Non (Great Cave of the Sleeping Lady) cave network is reportedly 10km long, with tight, winding and submerged passages connecting spacious chambers. The chamber in which the children have taken refuge is reportedly 4km from the cave mouth, and at least a kilometre under the surface.

The cave network is out of range of commerical cellular networks and has a wet, humid environment that is not exactly a blessing for sensitive electronics. The rescue team has been trying to connect the cave mouth and the chamber with a fibre-optic link. But, divers have not been able to draw the cable through the tight passages, as they themselves are weighed down with oxygen tanks.

Enter, the MaxMesh Tactical radios provided by Maxtech Networks, Israel. Interestingly, the company has been a constant presence at India’s DefExpos for more than a decade. Currently, Maxtech is represented in India by Bengaluru-based Mistral Solutions. The MaxMesh system looks quite a bit like the traditional VHF hand-helds used by your neighbourhood traffic policeman. But, the similarity ends there. While traditional radios form a star pattern, where lines of communication radiate from a base station, MaxMesh forms a mesh pattern, where each radio is connected to multiple neighbours.

Anees Ahmed, chairman and MD, Mistral Solutions, told THE WEEK that the radios can be used for voice, data, texting and video transfer. “Typical army or police radios require base stations, large antennas [and repeaters],” he said. “The Mistral-Maxtech radios don’t need anything. They can be used where you don’t have a network. They are ideally suited for jungles, border areas, tunnels and underground spaces.”

Hello friends pani pilo cute girl expressions.

Hello friends pani pilo cute girl expressions. 

The new coin of Rs 125 and Rs 5 continues

 The new coin of Rs 125 and Rs 5 continues, know what is special in this coin

India's Vice President Venkaiah Naidu today issued a new coin of Rs. 125 and Rs. 5 on June 29. This coin has been released in honor of the 125th birth anniversary of PC Mahalanobis.

Mahalanobis Jayanti is celebrated as Statistics Day. This coin will be launched soon. This will be the first time that a coin of 125 rupees in India will be available in the market.

 Go to this link https://youtu.be/dES7S4_rjhs

Something things you all don't know about our Army Chief General Bipin Rawat.

Something things you all don't know about our Army Chief General Bipin Rawat.

Indian Army chief General Bipin Rawat on Tuesday told school students from Chhattisgarh that he had not seen a single movie in the past 30 years.

Asked by Shriom Kashyap, a class 8 student from the Delhi Public School, Raipur, about his views on patriotic Hindi films, General Bipin Rawat said: "I, in the past 30 years, never got time to watch a movie and to sit at a place for three hours."