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Few diplomatic overtures have generated loftier expectations in recent years than Washington’s rapprochement with New Delhi. Frequently at loggerheads during the Cold War, then kept apart by the U.S. commitment to counter-proliferation and India’s pursuit of a nuclear deterrent, the two sides have never had a warm relationship. That began to change during the George W. Bush administration, a transformation that was symbolized by a controversial agreement allowing the United States to sell civilian nuclear technology to India, despite its status as a nuclear-armed nation that is not recognized by the Non-Proliferation Treaty. The Obama administration has since picked up...

Russia will hand over the much-delayed INS Vikramaditya aircraft carrier to India in November, giving the country's navy a strategic advantage in the Indian Ocean region. The Vikramaditya aircraft carrier is to be handed over to the Indian Navy in November, 2013, head of the Russian Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, Alexander Fomin, said yesterday. "The ship is to be put in a dock in April, go on sea trials in June and July and be officially handed over some time in November," he said. The Vikramaditya was originally built as the Soviet Project 1143.4 class aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov....

India is getting ready to create another flutter in the arms bazaar — 10 months after it selected French firm Dassault Aviation for a $18-billion ( Rs. 99,000 crore) deal to equip the air force with Rafale fighters. This time, India will spend more than $10 billion ( Rs. 55,000 crore) to scale up the navy’s undersea combat capabilities — inducting next generation submarines — to deter China, which has more than 50 conventional submarines in its fleet, but nearly two-thirds of those are outdated. The Indian Navy’s existing submarine fleet is rather humble, consisting of just 10 Russian Kilo-class,...

India Friday added more teeth to its navy when it inducted a new Russian-built multi-role stealth frigate, carrying the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile, into its fleet, adding to its recently growing blue water capabilities. The warship will join the Western Fleet of the Indian Navy by the end of December and its first commander is Captain Antony George, an anti-submarine warfare specialist. The new guided missile frigate, christened INS Tarkash, was handed over to the Indian Navy by Russia's United Shipping Corporation at Kaliningrad in western Russia, the seat of its Yantar Shipyard in the Baltic. India's Mumbai-based Western Naval...

India's air force has agreed to purchase 22 Apache AH-64D multirole combat helicopters from Boeing in a deal worth an estimated $1.4 billion. "The financial bid for attack helos was opened some time last week, and since Russia had withdrawn its Mi-28N Night Hunter, Boeing emerged as the sole bidder," a senior defense ministry official says. The Apache deal includes both direct commercial sale (DCS) and foreign military sales (FMS) components. The agreement also includes offset elements and firm, fixed-cost pricing. The FMS contract includes munitions, training, aircraft certification and components including engines, electro-optical sensors and the fire control radar,...

With an aim of checking its preparedness, the army recently conducted wargames along the Chinese border and is preparing for similar exercises along the Pakistan frontier soon. The exercises in the North East were conducted by 33 Corps under the Eastern Army Command earlier this month, army sources said. Army Chief Gen Bikram Singh oversaw these exercises which were intended to check the battle preparedness vis-a-vis the Chinese army, the sources said. Similar exercises will be conducted along the Pakistan border soon, the sources said. The Army Chief will visit Pune this week in connection with the exercises. India has...

Against the backdrop of Chinese military build-up along its boundary with India, the Army is planning to deploy artillery and tank brigades along the borders in northern and northeastern regions. In recent times, the force has also proposed to increase its strength by one lakh (100,000) soldiers along with the raising of a Mountain Strike Corps. To upgrade the fighting capabilities in the region, the plan is to set up armoured brigades with Russian-origin tanks and Infantry Combat Vehicles in the Ladakh and northeastern region, Army sources said. The Army is also planning to deploy two independent armoured brigades in...

INS Arihant, planned to be the first of five submarines of its class, will be ready to begin sea trials, said Admiral Nirmal Verma, the navy commander. When the vessel eventually becomes operational, India will be able to launch nuclear missiles from the sea, land and air, joining a handful of countries possessing the "nuclear triad". The strategic aim is to deter China and Pakistan and establish India as the leading power in the Indian Ocean. "INS Arihant is steadily progressing towards becoming operational," said Adml Verma. "We are pretty close to putting it to sea." The navy was poised...

The indigenously built stealth warship `INS Sahyadri' was commissioned on Saturday into the Indian Navy, adding to its anti-submarine warfare capability. The frigate, last in the series of stealth warships after `INS Shivalik' and `INS Satpura', was commissioned by Defence Minister A. K. Antony at the Naval dockyard in Mumbai in the presence of Navy chief Admiral Nirmal Verma and senior naval officials. INS Sahyadri is the last warship of`Project-17' undertaken by the Navy. The first two in the class -- INS Shivalik and INS Satpura - were commissioned in April 2010 and August 2011, respectively. These ships have been...

India’s military might is expected to take a big leap early next year when it test-fires the over 5,000-km-range nuclear-capable Agni-V missile. Agni-V is the country’s most ambitious strategic missile project, and a successful culmination of the test stage will propel the country into an elite club of ICBM-capable nations. ``Work is progressing satisfactorily on the development of Agni-V, which is expected to become a reality next year. With this, the DRDO would have given India a comprehensive indigenous strategic capability, available with only a few nations of the world,’’ DRDO chief V K Saraswat remarked while speaking at the...

For a nation that is increasingly outsourcing its defense needs to the United States, India is warning of the serious pitfalls in such a relations. Local media report that Indian army chief Gen. V.K. Singh has written to Defense Minister A.K. Antony cautioning the government about foreign military sales purchases from the United States. The Indian government has been sourcing all its defense deals with Washington through foreign military sales programs, carrying out major defense acquisitions. According to these non-tender purchases, the U.S. government procures the equipment on behalf of the Indian government from its military companies, making a commission...

India and the United States, both have volunteer armed forces of about the same size. But India, with more than three times the population, has a hard time attracting sufficient new recruits. The U.S. has more recruits than it needs, while India has shortages. The reasons are partly economic, and partly due to a high number of illiterates (about 39 percent of the population) in India. In the United States, the military pay is competitive with the civilian economy. In India it is not, at least for the kind of people (literate and healthy) the military is looking for. In...

a hat-trick for missile technologists and the armed forces in the last two days, Agni-I, which can carry nuclear weapons and has range of 700 km, was flight-tested successfully from the Wheeler's Island, off the Orissa coast, on Sunday. The ship-based Dhanush and Prithvi-II were test-fired in a salvo mode on Saturday. The medium range surface-to-surface Agni-I, fired at 1.07 hours from a mobile launcher, homed in on the target within a few metres of accuracy as it splashed down in the Bay of Bengal. The launch was carried out by Army personnel as part of a training exercise. Best-ever...

): With an eye to develop a full fledged multi-layer Ballistic Missile Defence system, India is likely to test-fire its indigenously designed and developed Advanced Air Defence (AAD) missile from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) off Orissa coast today. The AAD missile is capable of destroying any hostile ballistic missile at low altitude situation, defence sources said on Saturday. Range integration work at the ITR for the proposed trial is complete and the test is likely to be conducted today, they said. The target missile, a modified indigenously built 'Prithvi' posing as an enemy missile, would first be lifted off...

India and US will hold another joint military exercise called “Shatrujeet” focusing on counter-terrorism, in California next month, a media report said. Indian soldiers numbering around 150-200 will soon be leaving for US to take part in the exercise from April 1 to 19; the Times of India quoted defence ministry sources as saying on Thursday. India had hosted the largest-ever ground combat exercise with US, called `Yudh Abhyas', at Babina last October, where US had showcased its Stryker infantry armoured vehicles and Javelin anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs) during the combat manoeuvres. The deployment of the Stryker armoured fighting alongside...

The Defence Minister Shri AK Antony today said the private sector will be allowed to play an increasingly greater role in the modernisation of the Armed Forces. Speaking at a meeting of the Consultative Committee attached to his Ministry on the subject ‘Ordnance Factories’, Shri Antony said Defence Public Sector Undertakings alone will not be able to meet all the requirements of the Armed Forces at the pace and time – frame envisaged by the Government. He however, ruled out corporatisation of the Defence arms industry saying “minus corporatisation, we will give more room to the private sector”. The Defence...

When I heard the India Air Force Chief Air Chief Marshal P V Naik admitting last year that India lacks the air power to meet the myriad terror threats facing the country, I didn't blame him. He was and is still right. When you have identified adversaries in all geographical directions and just 29 operational squadrons in your air force, how can you claim to be a strong and sovereign nation? Can you protect all of your borders let alone airspace, cities and strategic installations? Can you even contemplate using the air force to launch a counter strike and a...

With Sukhoi-30 MKI fighters generating sonic booms over the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago on Sunday, even as the 3,500-km Agni-III missile created fireworks off the Orissa coast, India sent a strong strategic message across Bay of Bengal that it is ready to play the role of a security facilitator in the larger Indian Ocean Region (IOR). India might not want to be seen as a regional supercop in the IOR, nor as the prime mover of a naval military bloc in the Asia-Pacific region . But yes, it has legitimate security concerns in the IOR, which falls in its strategic...

NEW DELHI: India on Sunday successfully test-fired its indigenous Agni-III ballistic missile, which has a range of over 3,500 km and can even strike targets deep inside China. This paves the way for induction of the nuclear-capable missile into the armed forces and consolidates India’s position among a select group of nations having intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) capability. The missile, developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), is capable of carrying warheads weighing up to 1.5 tonne, is 17 metres tall and has a launch weight of 50 tonne with a two-metre diameter. It was tested on Sunday...

Taking note of India's 'growing influence' in global affairs, the United States has said the country will be a net provider of security in the Indian Ocean and beyond with the growth of its military capabilities. "The distribution of global political, economic and military power is shifting and becoming more diffuse. The rise of China, the world's most populous country, and India, the world's largest democracy, will continue to reshape the international system," said the Quadrennial Defence Review report released by US Defence Secretary Robert Gates. The once-in-a-four year report, which shapes the policy of the Pentagon for the next...