Indian Military

Commander Sanjay Chauhan, Commanding Officer of INAS 310 Cobras.

The Cobras have over 80,000 hours of flight on the Alize and then the Dornier aircraft, since 1961. To put things into perspective, squadrons flying the more glamorous fighters of the Indian Navy, like the now-retired Sea Hawks, the Harriers and more recently, the MiG-29K/KUB would have accumulated flight time of around a quarter of that of the Cobras.

In the past half-century, the squadron has been tasked with Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW), striking enemy targets in Goa and East Pakistan, flying the Breguet Alize aircraft, a carrier-borne fighter carrying a crew of three.

New Delhi — The Indian private sector giant Tata Group’s latest achievement in the Indian defence business has been the acquisition of a 74 per cent stake in Hyderabad-based HBL Elta Avionics Systems Limited (HELA). This is the first acquisition that Tata Group has made in defence business and the venture has been finalised between its subsidiary Tata Advanced Systems (TAS) and HBL Elta Avionics, a provider of radar, communications, electronic warfare, homeland and surveillance systems solutions to Indian defence forces.

In the venture whose amount is yet undisclosed, TAS will hold 74 per cent in HBL Elta Avionics and the remaining 26 per cent continues to be held by its foreign partner ELTA Systems, a unit of Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI). This will be the group’s second JV with IAI and it already has a 74:26 partnership to manufacture unmanned aerial vehicles, electronic warfare systems, missiles, radars and homeland security systems.

Tata Group has been focusing on the lucrative defence sector as it was opened for the private sector and has been making its presence felt in the defence business via its subsidiary firms and foreign collaborations.