Archives

The demand for military cargo aircraft in the US is on the decline threatening closure of production lines if no new orders are received. The US aerospace major Boeing Company is in search of new...

Chinese defence minister’s visit to Sri Lanka: an Indian perspective

By: Col R Hariharan |Issue: Net Edition | Date: 12 September 2012

China’s Defence Minister General Liang Guanglie’s visited Sri Lanka for five days from August 29, 2012. The first-ever visit by a Chinese defence minister to Sri Lanka with an entourage of 23...

F-35 Bombing Tests

By: IDR News Network |Issue: Vol 27.3 Jul-Sep 2012 | Date: 12 September 2012

The Marine F-35B variant of the Joint Strike Fighter is inching closer to in-flight releases of weapons following a recent run of tests that involved dropping inert munitions into a pit. The F-35...

New Weapon Testing Facilities

By: Harish Kapur |Issue: Vol 27.3 Jul-Sep 2012 | Date: 12 September 2012

Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), the country’s premier research organisation for the defence services, will invest around Rs1,000 crore to create new testing and validation...

North Korean Rocket Fails

By: IDR News Network |Issue: Vol 27.3 Jul-Sep 2012 | Date: 12 September 2012

North Korea’s much hyped long-range rocket apparently crashed into the sea a few minutes after launch in the second week of April 2012. Pyongyang had defied international pressure from the...

Lifetime Cost of F-35 Fighter

By: IDR News Network |Issue: Vol 27.3 Jul-Sep 2012 | Date: 11 September 2012

According to the Pentagon, the total cost to develop, procure and operate the Lockheed Martin Corporation F-35 Joint Strike Fighter has been estimated to be $1.51 trillion over the next 50 years....

Dilemma of Rise in Populations of Drones

By: IDR News Network |Issue: Vol 27.3 Jul-Sep 2012 | Date: 11 September 2012

Drones armed with cameras and increasingly, with bombs and missiles are fast becoming a key weapon of modern warfare. The US regards the pilotless aircraft as vital in operations in Afghanistan,...

Navy Grounds Fire Scout Drone Copters

By: IDR News Network |Issue: Vol 27.3 Jul-Sep 2012 | Date: 11 September 2012

Just weeks after the Navy grounded its fleet of MQ-8B Fire Scout unmanned spy copters as a precautionary step, it announced proposed expenditure of $250 million to purchase even more drone...

Improved Brahmos Missile Tested

By: IDR News Network |Issue: Vol 27.3 Jul-Sep 2012 | Date: 11 September 2012

End March 2012, the Defence Research and Development Organisation test-fired an improved version of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur, off...

NASA & ATK Complete First Test for SLS Booster

By: IDR News Network |Issue: Vol 27.3 Jul-Sep 2012 | Date: 11 September 2012

According to company program managers, NASA and ATK successfully completed the first test for the space agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) booster program. The demonstration held on March 28 at...

India incapable of conducting Op Geronimo

By: Lt Gen Harwant Singh |Issue: Net Edition | Date: 11 September 2012

Consequent to American operation ‘Geronimo,’ at Abbottabad in Pakistan to eliminate Osama bin Laden, many in civil society have been asking whether India can go ahead with a similar...

Operation Geronimo: A Critical Analysis

By: B Raman |Issue: Net Edition | Date: 11 September 2012

This article sums up my observations based on a study of a detailed article titled “Getting Bin Laden:What happened that night in Abbottabad” written by Nicholas Schmidle and published by...

Osama killing: Lessons for India

By: Tejas Patel |Issue: Net Edition | Date: 11 September 2012

“Man is immortal, his salvation is thereafter, the State has no immortality; its salvation is now or never. States do not receive credit for doing what is right; they are only rewarded for being...

Drones in Pentagon’s 30-Year Plan

By: IDR News Network |Issue: Vol 27.3 Jul-Sep 2012 | Date: 10 September 2012

The Pentagon plans to increase its fleet of armed and long endurance surveillance drones by 45 per cent over the next decade. As per the Department of Defense, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in the US...

General Dynamics Awarded ATC Radar Contract

By: IDR News Network |Issue: Vol 27.3 Jul-Sep 2012 | Date: 10 September 2012

General Dynamics C4 Systems bagged a ten-year $363 million contract from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for radios that allow air traffic control personnel to communicate with...

Maiden Flight by Carrier Version of LCA, Tejas

By: IDR News Network |Issue: Vol 27.3 Jul-Sep 2012 | Date: 10 September 2012

Nearly two years since its roll out during which there were a number of postponements, on April 27, 2012, India’s Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Naval Prototype 1 finally took off from the airport...

Second BrahMos Regiment Operational

By: IDR News Network |Issue: Vol 27.3 Jul-Sep 2012 | Date: 10 September 2012

Early March 2012, the Indian Army successfully test-fired the BrahMos stealth supersonic cruise missile at Pokhran in the Western sector, providing itself with much-needed swift strike capability...

End of Space Shuttle Era

By: IDR News Network |Issue: Vol 27.3 Jul-Sep 2012 | Date: 10 September 2012

Riding on the back of a modified 747, Discovery NASA’s veteran space shuttle Discovery did a final lap of honour before becoming a museum piece. It flew low over the monuments of the nation’s...

Boeing celebrates delivery of Air India's first 787 Dreamliner

By: IDR News Network |Issue: Net Edition | Date: 10 September 2012

First Indian airline to fly the 787 The Dreamliner’s range, capability allows for routes to Middle East, Europe, Asia, and Australia Boeing and Air India celebrated the delivery of the...

Democracy and Security

By: Bharat Verma |Issue: Vol 22.4 Oct-Dec 2007 | Date: 10 September 2012

We are constantly led to believe that since elections are held regularly, India is therefore one of the most successful democracies in the world. The truth unfortunately is different. The number...