Indian Defence Forces

“The latest sniper rifles have been inducted into the army. They are using it now. These are Sako .338 TRG 42 sniper rifles,” a senior official told news agency PTI. These rifles have an improved range, firepower as well as telescopic sights than those rifles possessed by the enemy combatant, the official further said.  In 2018-2019, the incidents of sniping suddenly increased along both the International Border as well as Line of Control (LoC).

Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh spoke to his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Gantz on Tuesday and expressed condolences on the loss of lives of innocent civilians due to recent terror attacks in Israel. In the call initiated from Tel Aviv, he also said terrorism is a threat to the whole world and it does not have any place in the civilised world.

The joint exercise provided an opportunity for both the contingents to train in counter-terrorism operations in an semi-urban environment. The training focused primarily on sharing tactical level drills and learning of best practices from each other, it said. The conduct of this exercise, which covered a vast spectrum from cross-training and combat conditioning in field conditions to sports and cultural exchanges, has been a grand success, the Army said.

India is the 'preferred security partner' in the Indian Ocean region, which reflects India's ability to play an effective strategic role in the region and need to expand its operational reach, Chief of Naval Staff Admiral R. Hari Kumar said on Tuesday.

The ceremony took place at INS Hansa, Goa with Navy chief, Admiral R. Hari Kumar, as the chief guest for the event. Addressing the gathering, he said that India is the 'Preferred Security Partner' in the Indian Ocean region which reflects the country's ability to play an effective strategic role in the region, and need to expand its operational reach.

The defence officials informed that the extended range missile hit the target accurately. “India today successfully test fired surface to surface BrahMos supersonic cruise missile in Andaman & Nicobar. Extended range missiles hit its target with pinpoint accuracy,” ANI quoted the defence officials as saying. Air chief Marshal VR Chaudhari congratulated on the successful test-firing of Brahmos, the defence officials further said.

“For people, who are worried about the basic essentials for Defence, for soldiers, for their guns, for their bulletproof jackets, for the bullets, for the carbines and even for fighter aircraft, I want to tell that 10 years of Indian Defence history recorded nil purchases. Sir, 10 years were lost. After 2014, rapidly, we had to buy from pin to aircraft, everything,” Minister Sitharaman said during a debate on supplementary spending for the current fiscal in the Rajya Sabha.

They have called for fresh and time-bound procurement of new fighter aircrafts, in a report which was tabled in the Parliament on Wednesday. “During evidence, the representatives of the Air Force submitted that the present authorized strength of the squadron is 42. It was further stated that the total technical life of most of the existing squadron is expiring and consequently, the squadron strength is progressively depleting,” the report said.

The standing committee report on demands for grants for DRDO presented in the Parliament on Wednesday expressed concern that the percentage of expenditure for defence research and development in the overall GDP during the past years has seen no growth. "In fact, the percentage was 0.088 per cent in 2016-17, which came down to 0.083 per cent in 2020-21," the report stated.

"The Defence Ministry has taken the issue seriously and the exact reasons behind it would be known once the high-level probe team submits its report," Singh said. Referring to the incident, he said that during routine maintenance and inspection, a missile was accidentally released at around 7 p.m. It was later learnt that the missile had landed inside the territory of Pakistan. While this incident is regretted, we are relieved that nobody was hurt in the accident," Singh further said.